Stuff to do today, stuff to do today. Whatever posting I do here will probably be this evening.
I awoke as you probably did to news of the shooting in Virginia at a baseball practice of congressional Republicans. Then I checked my e-mail and there was already a message from a right-wing reader of this site, calling me a hypocrite for not condemning the attack because (he said) I leap to condemn attacks when non-Republicans get shot at. I guess I'm supposed to post in my sleep.
Actually, I don't leap or even try to condemn most shootings because I figure anyone with a functioning heart and brain condemns murders and attempted murders and the condemnations accomplish nothing. Absolutely nothing. I know some very sane, responsible gun owners — some even with trophies for their marksmanship and skills — who can tell you any number of ways they think the availability of guns could be controlled better (not totally but better) without penalizing folks like them. Even when Democrats were in power in this country, no one who could implement their ideas was about to listen to them.
So I'm not even writing about the issue. Nothing's going to happen…not because of this shooting or the next one or the next one or the next one, no matter who gets shot or how many of them. People will just continue to try and make political capital off them, arguing that the latest shooting proves we need to abolish Obamacare or impose a high Carbon Tax or something. I think shootings prove we need to do a better job preventing shootings but since we're not going to do that, I really don't have anything valuable to offer on the topic.