Louie Gohmert, Judeo-Christian from Texas
After an undiagnosed loony raided a Colorado movie theater for the purpose of mass murder last week, killing twelve and injuring seventy-one during a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie, two things were bound to happen.
One of them hasn't happened yet, but it is inevitable: the NRA will remind us that when our founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment, they envisioned a future in which this nation would be crushed by tyranny if its citizens were not able to freely purchase 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the Internet any time they felt they needed a few bullets.
The other is that some politician would say something stupid about the tragedy. We have a winner here. Louie Gohmert, a Republican congressman from Texas, told a news outlet that the killing spree, instead of being a random act by a deranged individual, was a result of "ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs."
It is apparent that Mr. Gohmert has not been following the Batman saga, either in the cinema or in print. Neither the Caped Crusader or any of his foes has ever used the phrase "Judeo-Christian." Batman typically uses much shorter words. In the comic books, which in my youth I followed much more closely than I've kept up with the movie series as an adult, there are a few longer words, such as "Aieeeeeee!" This word was used, usually encased in a dramatically jagged, vividly colored dialogue block, when one of Batman's enemies fell off a high place. Despite the large number of letters in the word, it is pronounced in just one syllable. Those are the kinds of words Batman uses. Two syllables sometimes, sure. Three, tops.
Congressman Gohmert feels the tragedy would not have occurred if Americans had "placed a higher value on God." If the victims had been good Judeo-Christians, apparently, God would not have allowed them to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or He would have crushed the gunman with his "protective hands," another phrase employed by the Congressman, notwithstanding the fact that God does not usually work this way. One of the tenets that Judeo-Christians hold dear is that God must be thanked prodigiously for every fortunate occurrence, and held blameless for all tragedies.
I wish my job worked that way.
Not content with merely blaming the victims' being shot on their lack of faith, Gohmert also rebukes the dead and injured for not being armed. "Was there nobody (in the theater) carrying a gun who could have stopped this guy more quickly?" he asked.
Apparently not, one of the reasons being that the theater didn't allow its patrons to carry guns. A lot of public places are like that, because the people who run them think that someone who carries a gun into a public venue is a lot more likely to be a random killer himself than to be thinking about protecting the public from one. Even if we could pass laws forbidding people from forbidding us to carry our guns, and every restaurant, theater, bar and airplane was full of men and women armed to the teeth and ready to bullet each other at the first glimmering of crisis, many people wouldn't carry guns. Many people can't even lift guns. They're a lot heavier in real life than actors make them appear in movies. Also, people look at you funny when you're packing, especially at weddings or the beach.
This self-consciousness may in fact be the reason we can't have a fully-armed citizenry, as much as Congressman Gohmert regards that as a necessity for a Christian nation. The only person I know personally who carries a gun at all times, even though he has no more reason to do so than anybody else, is an ex in-law who lives in Arizona, where that is legal. Even his family regards him as a fat little wackjob, an incipient George Zimmerman who will hopefully never meet his personal Trayvon Martin. I spent about fifteen minutes in his company last year, watching him play video games with his cousins with his .357 strapped to his waist, presumably just in case predators starting breaking down the house door or smashing in the windows of the living room.
Didn't make me feel any safer, but I noticed his cousins let him win all the time.
One of them hasn't happened yet, but it is inevitable: the NRA will remind us that when our founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment, they envisioned a future in which this nation would be crushed by tyranny if its citizens were not able to freely purchase 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the Internet any time they felt they needed a few bullets.
The other is that some politician would say something stupid about the tragedy. We have a winner here. Louie Gohmert, a Republican congressman from Texas, told a news outlet that the killing spree, instead of being a random act by a deranged individual, was a result of "ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs."
It is apparent that Mr. Gohmert has not been following the Batman saga, either in the cinema or in print. Neither the Caped Crusader or any of his foes has ever used the phrase "Judeo-Christian." Batman typically uses much shorter words. In the comic books, which in my youth I followed much more closely than I've kept up with the movie series as an adult, there are a few longer words, such as "Aieeeeeee!" This word was used, usually encased in a dramatically jagged, vividly colored dialogue block, when one of Batman's enemies fell off a high place. Despite the large number of letters in the word, it is pronounced in just one syllable. Those are the kinds of words Batman uses. Two syllables sometimes, sure. Three, tops.
Congressman Gohmert feels the tragedy would not have occurred if Americans had "placed a higher value on God." If the victims had been good Judeo-Christians, apparently, God would not have allowed them to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or He would have crushed the gunman with his "protective hands," another phrase employed by the Congressman, notwithstanding the fact that God does not usually work this way. One of the tenets that Judeo-Christians hold dear is that God must be thanked prodigiously for every fortunate occurrence, and held blameless for all tragedies.
I wish my job worked that way.
Not content with merely blaming the victims' being shot on their lack of faith, Gohmert also rebukes the dead and injured for not being armed. "Was there nobody (in the theater) carrying a gun who could have stopped this guy more quickly?" he asked.
Apparently not, one of the reasons being that the theater didn't allow its patrons to carry guns. A lot of public places are like that, because the people who run them think that someone who carries a gun into a public venue is a lot more likely to be a random killer himself than to be thinking about protecting the public from one. Even if we could pass laws forbidding people from forbidding us to carry our guns, and every restaurant, theater, bar and airplane was full of men and women armed to the teeth and ready to bullet each other at the first glimmering of crisis, many people wouldn't carry guns. Many people can't even lift guns. They're a lot heavier in real life than actors make them appear in movies. Also, people look at you funny when you're packing, especially at weddings or the beach.
This self-consciousness may in fact be the reason we can't have a fully-armed citizenry, as much as Congressman Gohmert regards that as a necessity for a Christian nation. The only person I know personally who carries a gun at all times, even though he has no more reason to do so than anybody else, is an ex in-law who lives in Arizona, where that is legal. Even his family regards him as a fat little wackjob, an incipient George Zimmerman who will hopefully never meet his personal Trayvon Martin. I spent about fifteen minutes in his company last year, watching him play video games with his cousins with his .357 strapped to his waist, presumably just in case predators starting breaking down the house door or smashing in the windows of the living room.
Didn't make me feel any safer, but I noticed his cousins let him win all the time.
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