Ichiro Suzuki is Brain Dead
According to The New York Daily News, Ichiro is choosing a 2 year/12 million dollar deal over two other offers, one of those from the Giants at 2 years/15mil (the other offer being the Phillies at 2 years/14 mil).
So let’s look at I-Suz’s mlb career: He toiled away in Seattle for a decade and played in exactly two post season series, both back in 20o1. Otherwise, he’s on a .420ish team for 10 years. Then he gets traded to the Yankees, gets to taste the playoffs again, but whoops, his team gets bounced in what might be one of the most embarrassing playoff losses ever, losing 4-0 to the Tigers and scoring a grand total of 6 runs in 4 straight losses—and 5 of those 6 runs were scored in the 9th inning of Games 1 and 3. That means that in non-9th inning games, the Yankees scored exactly 1 lone run (in the 6th inning of Game 4) over the course of 4 games. THAT is freaking pathetic. I was told you could buy a Game 4 ticket at Yankee Stadium for $12 online. TWELVE DOLLARS…..
So I think it’s clear that that Ichiro isn’t exactly motivated by the elusive high of the post season. Because no one with a brain thinks the Yankees will make the playoffs in 2013. Who are they going to beat to get in? They aren’t winning the AL East, I will book that bet right now. KC is probably going to do enough to win 88-90 games in 2013, likely losing the AL Central to the Tigers. And the wild card that looks to be a lock is going to come from the AL West. So how do the Yankees snatch a WC bid away from KC, possibly Oakland or the Angles OR the Rangers AND the three other contenders in the Al East?—-Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto and I’m not even counting Boston who might actually be better than them. The Yankees could conceivably finish last in the AL east next year. It would be unlikely, but it’s possible. You know what’s not possible? The Giants finishing last in the NL West…..
This is very similar to what I wrote about the Lakers before this season started— the Yanks are a bunch of old, past their prime players trying to win games off the glory of their season’s past. It’s not happening in 2013 for the Yankees and it’s going to be a spectacular demise. I’m beyond excited to watch it all unfold…..
Ichiro and his dopey handlers have chosen to go back to New York, voluntarily and for less money, instead of joining the Giants, a team that’s about 50 times more likely to make the world series next year than the team he just signed with. For less money. Ha!
Since he’s already gone, I won’t waste time on detailing why ATT Park would be a dream stadium for him to hit in. And only a clueless fool could ignore the success of the Giants, the good vibes of where they play, the team chemistry, along with momentum and a world series ring, going into 2013…..
But Ichiro still chose less money and more drama and more losses to go back to New York. Apparently, he enjoys the comfy comforts of an easy-breezy pacific northwest losing season except that it’s in New York in 2013. He’s a combination of stupid and egotistical and he’d rather be bedazzled by the sparkly lights of Manhattan and the false hope of a championship from the ghosts of season’s past than actually have a chance to win a world series next year with the likely winners coming from the NL West. The Yankees have less of a chance than the Royals and will finish with a worse record. Book it…..
Fuck him, he’s probably done anyway. lqtm……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Let him roam the OF at the New Yankee ballpark. I didn’t want him, and I’m a little surprised the Giants offered him a deal. I totally agree he’d be a real player here within the confines of ATT, that is, IF he were here 5 years ago. I saw him play some on highlights from time to time. He can still play some, but not near what he was. He’s got a year left, the two tops, but at rapidly declining skills from his prime, IMO. He should have come to SF, there might have been some revitalization possible, but I won’t fret he’s not coming. Maybe he figured he toiled in obscurity for so long, he likes and deserves another 2 years in the lights of the big city, New York, Tokyo, whatever…
Ichiro’s stupidity is a blessing unto us.
I will be very surprised if it was the G’s who were offering 15m. They have said all along they had little budget room and were looking to add a cheap RH platoon for 1 yr. Torres fits that criteria.
and he wanted to be a full time player? 2/$15M seems a lot for a contact hitting bench guy.
has everyone read the current “Team Report”?
http://goo.gl/M1ypb
Thanks for the link Ed . . . I was especially interested in one of the blurbs there – “CF Angel Pagan plans to play in the World Baseball Classic for his native Puerto Rico. 3B Pablo Sandoval will play in the WBC for Venezuela. C Buster Posey hasn’t committed either way, at least publicly, though it’s known that the Giants would just as soon he not participate in the WBC, so they could better monitor him in spring training.”
Not only do I wish that Posey sat out of the WBC, but I wish Pagan and Sandoval also pass on this extracurricular activity. In fact, I hope Sandoval is being monitored at the Bally or 24 hour fitness fat farm or wherever the Giants send their overweight players. We really need Pablo this year and I hope his “lights out” World Series performance doesn’t go to his head, where he disregards off-season training and diet.
Talk about extracurricular activity, it looks like the Panda will be a judge in the Miss Universe Pageant this month.
Way to go Pablo.
Probably because he’s from Venezuela (their women are hot and seem to always be in the running for that title). Anywho, another vice he gets to “feed” (excuse the pun) . . . I just hope he behaves better than Mike Tyson or he’ll be joining Loo in Riker’s Island.
I would not be surprised if Panda is not with the Giants in 5 years. Maybe in 3. He’s got great skills, but looks to me his great persona it’s accompanied by lack of personal discipline for someone with those gifts. I hope Scutaro gets to him and helps him grow up…
See from that the G’s may have found a replacement for Mota in Chad Gaudin. Who knows, maybe Rags can work some magic. If nothing else, he’ll be good insurance at Fresno.
His numbers were not terrible.
46 games, 69.1 IP. 4.54 ERA, 72 H, 35 ER, 6 HR, 26 BB, 57 K, WHIP 1.413. Get the ERA below 4 and WHIP down in the 1.2 range and I think he could be quite serviceable.
Mota’s numbers (who Gaudin will potentially replace):
26 games, 20.2 IP. 5.23 ERA, 24 H, 12 ER, 3 HR, 8 BB, 24 K, WHIP 1.548.
The stat that jumps out at me for both was the SO/IP. Pretty good.
I think Gaudin has a good chance to make the club. Will be interesting to see how he does in ST (63 days until my first ST game for 2013…not that I am counting, or anything).
Thanks, Ed. Good read…and I agree with Steve…I would prefer all to skip the WBC series, but especially Pablo. I agree that he needs to get in shape, and I have heard some pretty strong words from Bochy in that regards. Will be interesting to see how that all “shapes up” (pun intended) in the off-season.
It’s been clear for nearly a week now that Ichiro was signing with the Yankees. The Giants didn’t turn to Torres till yesterday. I do think that Ichiro would have been a good fit for a year with us but prefer the deal that Torres got. Plus, it’s just great to have him back on the team……
I agree with ed’s 12:32 post on this one. With the Yanks, Ichiro was probably told he could pick his position. You want to play third today Ich? No problem.
Or he didn’t want to play in the NL because he feels the 9th slot is where he will be hitting from soon.
Saw the Royals signed Nady today and it kinda surprised at how quickly we abandoned him as an option. It’s like he disappeared or something.
Saw that and was equally surprised, John. I actually thought they would bring him back on the cheap to platoon in LF, but I think for the money, Vungo is a better option (can play all 3 OF positions, good wheels – when healthy), etc. And like Flav said…just glad to have him back.
Google Ichiro pics and see that dude really likes his dog.
First of the player prognostications, from Bill James. I’d say the bench looks to have splintered, expected a higher figure for Crawford. Gotta love 1-6 if he’s close on those. Vogey still has few believers. And maybe James and Flavor can share the brilliance he has Wilson with 37 saves, Romo with 16..
Pagan .277 9 HR 56 RBI 80 R .332 OBP .735 OPS 27-37 SB
Scutaro .281 8 HR 63 RBI 82 R .344 OBP .722 OPS
Sandoval .298 22 HR 88 RBI 77 R .356 OBP .654 OPS
Posey .324 24 HR 98 RBI 79 R .400 OBP .934 OPS
Pence .277 23 HR 88 RBI 80 R .338 OBP .802 OPS
Belt .282 16 HR 74 RBI 64 R .374 OBP .837 OPS 14-20 SB
Blanco (PT, 183 AB) .246 2 HR 14 RBI .346 OPB .674 OPS 11-15 SB
Crawford .245 6 HR 43 RBI 50 R .306 OBP .657 OPS
Arias (PT, 154 AB) .257 2 HR 14 RBI 17 R .295 OPB .646 OPS
Sanchez (PT 143 AB) .261 2 HR 20 RBI .291 OPS .657 OBP
Theriot (397 AB ???) .270 1 HR 31 RBI 49 R .330 OBP .652 OPS
Torres (398 AB, Mets) .240 6 HR 31 RBI 50 R .328 OPB .698 OPS
Pitchers:
Cain 17-8 2.95
Bumgarner 13-9 3.37
Vogelsong 11-10 .3.75
Lincecum 13-9 3.47
Zito 11-11 3.94
Suzuki .294 7 HR 47 RBI 81 R .331 OBP .701 OPS 28-36 SB
Personally, I think Ichiro will have many more than 7 bombs if he’s healthy all year and hitting towards that joke porch in right field 81 games out of the year……..
I was surprised it was that low, as well. Of our guys, I hope Pagan is a little low, if I could dance I’d do a jig if he’s right about Scooter, 3-6 lookls right, Blanco/Torres? Well, they’re swell guys. Also hope he’s low on Crawford.
you can’t be ok with the .645 OPS for Sandoval, can you?
My error-it’s .854
Sick to my stomach about what is going on in Connecticut. I wish we could find a way to have some sort of sensible gun control.
*
It is difficult to tell if there is more media coverage or more occurences but there seems to be a copycat like affect happening. Maybe it is the media saturation. I don’t know but you would think all of these events would cause solutions to be brought forth but that would require something sadly missing in our current political environment; real leadership.
There’s a weirdness to the gun-fetish in our country. At my local grocery store, there are about 10 different monthly gun periodicals in the magazine section. 10!! It’s gun-porn.
To be honest I am pro gun ownership but I don’t understand people who extend gun ownership beyond a pistol for home defense and rifles for hunting and skeet shooting. The notion that you will stockpile enough firepower and stand up to the most sophisticated war maching the world has ever seen is delusional at best.
Really? Gun control? We need a system that maximizes the chances that guns do not end up in the hands of idiots like the fuck who did the shooting today. But if you mean to limit law-abiding citizens access to guns, I cannot agree.
Bottom line, the bad guys (assholes like the one who did the shooting, criminals, etc.) will ALWAYS be able to get a gun. Limiting law-abiding citizens access to firearms is NOT the answer…IMNSHO.
OK…sorry…but that subject is a sensitive one for me.
Meanwhile…how ’bout them Mets!
unfortunately the gun genie is out of the bottle and won’t ever be put back in. My wife wanted to go the boys out of school just to give them a hug. i wasn’t far behind but we didn’t. It would be nice if the NRA and pro guns folks brought a little common sense to the argument. but even if we outlawed the sale of guns (never happen), there are far too many already out in the system to make a difference. I would like to see some sort of registration process where if your gun is used to commit a crime, you get to go to jail too. if you had it nice and locked up and someone broke into your safe to get it, you get a day or two. leave 20 guns laying around the house and you get a year or two.
Outlaw guns? Really? That will NEVER happen. No way in hell that law-abiding gun-owning citizens are going to give up their firearms. Want my guns? You can pry it out of my cold dead fingers.
When guns are outlawed – Only outlaws will have guns.
Eric – what the fuck good is my gun, locked in a safe when some asshole breaks into my house? Fuck that. My kids both own guns, and were taught at a very young age how to handle a gun safely…how to respect it. My 27 year old daughter sleeps with her 9mm (Stella) under her pillow. Bless her heart.
Okay…I’m off my soapbox and done on this topic.
Want my guns? You can pry it out it out of my cold dead fingers….
Damm right Chi!!!!
I own a 12ga Winchester Pump Shotgun and a Smith&Wesson handgun.Keep em empty but ammo is close by and ready to lock& load.We live in a fucked up world and your weapons for home protection is the last line of defense.We have the rights to bear arms,and.used the right way with common sense,should not be an issue with responsible gun owners.
I’m with ya Kat…got a couple of pistols (1911 Colt .45 and Glock 9mm), and also a 12 guage shotgun.
look i said it would never happen, nor do i think it should. Heinlein said that a gun carrying society is a polite society and he had a point. you’re far less likely to be rude to someone who just might shoot you for the insult. I also taught my boys about guns at an early age. My nephews girlfriend in montana kept a sawed off shotgun by the door. got to love a woman like that.
so go easy.
As I showed in response to one of Nofear’s posts- you can build an assult rifle with a few parts and a 3D printer. I have hand guns but please, there are limits to what we law abiding citiens need. Assault rifles? They can be used in game hunting but it’s realy just macho bragging bullshit to use them. A standard 30.06 will kill anything up to a frigging elephant. No one has any need on any level for assault weapons..
Say “sensible gun control” and some people react with hysteria and venom. Hmm, interesting. Here are some myths about the NRA and 2nd Amendment. Oh, if you want a baseball tie in, read Myth 9:
http://pearlyabraham.tripod.com/htmls/myth-nra.html
I’ve seen that one before. The 2nd Amendment part is good. By follwing the strict nonsensical constructionist view of the Constitution it would follow that only white men are intitled to own guns.
Thanks for the link Blade.. Agreed.
By the by, I made a mistake by putting this under your post Twin, i.e., it was meant to be a new post, not a response to your post. Oh, and I agree with your reasonable 1:38pm post as well.
Lust like Ewisco, My wife also pulled our kids out of the co-op pre school just to be with them. She said by the time she got to the school, it was a ghost town. Lots of kids were pulled out.. I can’t imagine what the family and friends of the deceased are going through. Just horrible.
nobody lusts like i do.
Ha. I misread your post. My kids just started pre-school (part time) this week.. Mommy – child separation anxiety probably came into play with her decision.
I predict if nothing significant is done to restrict guns and ammo sales, licensing, do real background and mental checks on purchasers across the country with databases etc., and more mental health care, in 20 years, maybe less, we will have metal detectors at all public places — malls, theaters, ball games, restaurants, you name it. Nobody will go in unless those safeguards are there. What about our rights of freedom of daily living and free from fear of mass murder by gun? We’re already living in an armed camp, with whackos having easy access to guns. I can’t even send my kids to school now without thinking that yep, it’s possible, somebody could walk in there at lunch, regardless of the so-called security they have, and just mow down 100 kids, including mine, with an assault weapon. I’m not going to talk anymore here about this, I get too pissed off about this topic. I cannot imagine what these parents are going through. This is a fucked up country we live in…
Like many political issues, it’s largely a matter of statistics and how you define the greater good. What is it worth to us collectively to try to eliminate, say, 10% of the gun deaths annually and one or two of these massacres that occur by imposing far more restrictive gun controls than we have? Of course, because it is fundamentally an act of terrorism, the impact of a massacre can’t be measured strictly by the body count.
Gun ownership should be a much, much bigger hassle than it is.
It ain’t just America. Although this guy didn’t have a gun:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/14/china-school-stabbings/1770395/
Yet nobody died.
Excellent point.
I’m not as up as I used to be on these weapons, but even a legal rifle, an AR-15, can easily modified into an assault weapon capable of firing 600 rounds a minute.The shooter today used a .233 Bushmaster assault rifle capable of firing 6 rounds per second, I believe. This weapon has been used in other mass killings and lawsuits forced one of the Bushmaster facilities to close- but the owner just renameds the company and opened up again- not sure if it was on the same site. But it’s like anything else, you can’t go back.. We can pass all the laws we want- and we should make it as hard as possible to obtain the weapons and parts to make them. But premeditated slaughter is just not stoppable.
Flav, I apologize for veering off San Francisco Giants baseball . . . It was a spontaneous reaction to what I saw on the news today. Actually, I rarely watch these television news events that go on and on for days at a time. I stopped doing it after the first Iraq war. Even 9/11 . . . After the first day, I was done.
However, I digress. I also want to apologize to the rest of you mugs. I know on occasion we discuss politics and other subjects, but occasionally it gets heated. Like snarkk, my blood can boil over with regard to this subject. I will probably comment or bring up subjects unrelated to Giants baseball again . . . So, I will apologize in advance for those future mistakes too. 🙂
By the by, I know that you guys that do have guns, are responsible and my problem is with our inefficient laws that seemingly allow these whack jobs, with and without arrest records to roam our streets with guns they obtained legally.
Craig and everbody else have brought other topics here.How the heck can something like today’s horror not be discussed? I don’t think anybody has the franchise on being horrified by this, BTW..
This is something that transcends sports, of course it’s normal to discuss it here and in other random areas of your life. This is 9/11 shit, in some ways it’s worse. I’m devastated by today’s news. 20 *Katie’s* were murdered today, while they were in a fucking classroom. I can’t even begin to imagine how their parents are dealing with this. I’ve cried for them several times today.
My take on the Connecticut tragedy is that it is not so much the guns themselves, or the nuts who misuse them, but the culture of violence which permeates our society. Take the military. Not even barring North friggen Korea, the U.$. is the most militarized society on the face of the planet. Bases in over 130 countries. Picking on Syria at the behest of Islamic radicals, Israel and the WarDefense industry. Concerned about the deficit? 52% of the U.$. budget goes to the military in one form or another. But you don’t hear about Congresscritters calling for serious, across the board cuts into that sacred cow. Oh no, it’s cut “entitlements” to the elderly, the poor and the disabled. Three cheers for $200 wrenches and $500 toilet seats. The Airfarce alone has more generals than General Mills, General Motors and General Electric combined. Of course, the former generals do happen to do their business on behalf of the latter named.
Video, video games and the silver screen are chockablock with violent programming. This has to have an effect on both tender and weak minds and overmedicated and ill-nourished bodies. The producers of this filth holler about their 1st Amendment rights every bit as much as the NRA cites the 2nd. Its like our Extreme Courtesans and their finding in favor of corporate free speech. A corporation is NOT a person no matter how much 9 corrupt members of the Bar Association in their black dresses insist that is the case.
America has a bad case of the Dirty Harry’s and is looking for answers in all the wrong places. It’s all a matter of programming.
One of the best posts I’ve read today, anywhere. If you really get into it with someone against defense cuts, they’ll tell you that cutting the DOD will result in lost jobs (see Virginia during the election), and also a few articles about defense contractors in California if we go over the ‘fiscal cliff’ – so be it. A big part of our economy cannot rely on a sector that profits off of wars. I think it’s immoral, and economically speaking, it’s not sustainable. Some of the video games I see these days are brutally violent — when I was a kid, I played Atari (space invaders, asteroids, pac man, pitfall), etc.. Then came Nintendo and the infamous ‘bases loaded’ baseball game. The most violent game I even played on that system was Mike ‘Tyson’s punch out’ As for the 14th amendment, that’s the worst ruling of modern times. If SSM kets kicked to the curb by SCOTUS, our 14th will be irrelevant and obsolete which would be a travesty (doesn’t matter how feels about the issue either). Being in a perpetual state of war for over a god damn decade sure doesn’t help either. Our kids are taught that war is okay as long as our politicians tell us it is. If you really dig deep (and a lot of conservatives will agree), we’ve only had a few *just* wars in our nations past. Our mental health system has been gutted over the last 30-40 years (especially in California). Of course there are a lot of other factors that have damaged our society and culture but that rant would take until next Thursday to finish. As a country, we need to examine everything that we can to better our society and culture. Bombing less innocent children in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘jobs’ would be a great start.
Everyone’s trying to explain this with reasons for how this could have happened (and Stix I’m not talking about you specifically, CNN has had countless *experts* on today to air their opinions). It’s all bullshit. Twin is right, *premeditated slaughter is not stoppable*. If you take away his gun he could EASILY have strapped enough explosives to his body to walk in there and do way more damage than 20 kids. Shit, he could have stolen a 747 and flown the fucking thing into the entire school.
We can’t stop this from happening. And while we are spending all this time spouting off our opinions about the root of the evil it’s time we are taking away from honoring all of the victims of this terrible day. And NO TIME should be taken away from honoring and remembering them and crying for them. Because I know one thing: though you can’t stop evil you can drown it out with good. The love you share with your family and your community is stronger and lasts longer than the hate and the evil brought on now and again by these dickless pussy fucks.
‘And NO TIME should be taken away from honoring and remembering them and crying for them. Because I know one thing: though you can’t stop evil you can drown it out with good. The love you share with your family and your community is stronger and lasts longer than the hate and the evil brought on now and again by these dickless pussy fucks.”
Good stuff, and an angle I haven’t thought about. People vent differently, obviously, but that made a lot of sense. I’ve only been a dad for a little over 3 years and man, how one’s perspective changes when we become parents. Bless you all.
Love is long and strong. It takes on many different looks across a community. I love you Chico and I hope you go home tonight and love your kid and your wife and your family and friends as hard as you can tonight. I only glanced at that article by The Dead in SI but I remember the ending about *love harder*. That’s what we should all do tonight and tomorrow and all the days after that. Love fucking harder. That will always beat those evil dickless pussy fucks………
All the posts are wonderful- and while it may sound cynical to say we can’t stop these horrors from occurring, we’ll never know how many *are* averted- not by our ineffectual gun laws, and not by politicians pounding the table- but by how all of us treat that young “weirdo”.I don’t for a minute think that a little down home luvin’ is going to deter all of these monstrous acts but you know what?Treating a lonely and angry young person with the care they imagine does not exist for them just *might” send a few into the arms of those who would help them and not into the schoolyard with grave malice aforethought.
Again,I’m not suggesting that a young man as deeply troubled as to commit the acts of today can be deterred with a hug and some kind words, but with our mental facilities failing us, with so many dyfunctional families, *we* really do have to be the keepers of our brothers and sisters. As such, we cannot in effect, walk around these disturbed young people.No one is undeserving of kindness…
well said, Twin
Thanks. Everyone has spoken well on this. When I first heard of this, I cried-as you did- imagining an entire classroom of murdered tots- the first account was even more ominous- :”an entire classroom unaccounted for”…I cry easily these days but these weren’t those normal tears of frustation or stress- just indescribably sad, I don’t know a better way to say it.
Night all.
I was going to try and avoid the Flap after I heard what happened. When something happens to children, I go from sad and then to anger and disgust. Which is usually not a good combination for me and communicating, as I tend to go through a gambit of raves and rants. Reading everyone’s thoughts has actually helped me calm down a bit.
Thanks all, please try and stay safe out there.
I will violate my statement before and speak one more time of this event. I don’t begrudge anyone the honoring and remembering of these victims. However, I want to say this and say it clearly. I am fucking sick and tired of honoring and remembering victims. Of seeing candlelight vigils for kids and moms and grandpas and all the innocents of all ages and colors and creeds senselessly gunned down by a mental case with access to guns and ammo. Of the community grieving and then next day supposedly in process of “healing”, as if this evil and repetitive mass murder is some sort of Groundhog day paper cut that can heal with a spot of Neosporin and a Bandaid. When I was in middle school, a good friend of mine, a goofy kind of kid with not a nasty bone in his body, was shot in the forehead and killed by another friend who was jacking around with the father’s rifle at home. I still remember this friend that was killed at 13, by accident, 40 years ago. He never had a life beyond 8th grade. I thought of him today. I suppose I “healed”, but I doubt his parents ever did, and I never forgot him. We need to STOP this bullshit mass murder, or at least stop some of them. So that we don’t have to weekly or monthly HONOR the memories of 5 year olds, and 13 year olds, and grandmas and regular folks that, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, had their heads blown off by a bullet. I want to HONOR the LIVES of kids and parents that keep on living their lives and making more of their own memories. I don’t want to honor and hold candles anymore for dead kids in body bags that could easily be my own. We need to get real and do something. The media talks about these events as “tragedies”. Like some earthquake, or a mudslide. My friend getting killed by accident was a “tragedy”. But, call this what it is. Mass murder. Shot in the head, shot in the heart, blown up. 27 people murdered by bullets ripping through their bodies, not “tragedied” in some sort of mysterious way. That is the reality. Columbine, Aurora, Portland, now Newton. Where is the next one? Your town? My town? You, me, your kids, my kids? In a theater, at the mall, at the Safeway, at fucking ATT? And, there surely will be more. Yet, all we get now is platitudes and grief counselors, while nothing fucking changes, except the increased budget of the NRA lobby, and decreased budgets for mental health programs. I’m seeing idiots in blogs arguing about the guns used today and the relative lethality of the calibers, and whether more might have lived if this and that. As if this is some fucking game. I’ve sent off this message to my politicians today. Minus the colorful language. Will it do any good? Probably not. But, I’m not going to sit back anymore. Too much is at stake. I don’t want my kids, or your kids, lying in a coroner’s cooler waiting for me or you to identify them, while their mother fights relatives outside in the hallway screaming and tearing her hair out wanting to go in and see her baby, but the coroner says don’t let her see her daughter with half her head gone. Because THAT is the reality of what is happening tonight in Newton, Connecticut. Not the candlelight vigil. Not the grief counselor saying don’t dwell on this. The reality is the bodies of 20 kids under 10 years of age are lying in a coroner’s cooler. It is nasty, it is vile, it is bloody, and it is permanent. Meanwhile, all the politicians can focus on is whether millionaires and billionaires will or will not get their income tax increased by 3 percentage points to generate (or not) a drop in the deficit bucket, whilst the DOD spends that much in one month on permanent war. 40 years from today, like they will have done every day for 40 years, the mothers of Newton will especially remember their murdered children. At 65 or 75 or 80, whatever age they will be, they will not be “healed”. And they will weep, and they will scream in the night. Again. Now, I’m done.
Lucid as always, my man. It is a violent, bloody, family destroying consequence that the public has become far too jaded, accustomed or hardened to. The age of the dead have really hurt the British public. The senselessness of a violent mass murder shocked them. And they wonder WHY, HOW does this continue to happen at all, much less with what seems like an inhuman regularity.
God Bless the men and women that can fight bravely to find a way to accomplish the changes that break this pattern of man’s inhumanity to man by these sick murdering madmen.
Well said snarkk.
Powerful stuff Snarkk. Well said.
We are not “idiots” for arguing about the relative lethality of these weapons. The fact that these weapons can fire hundreds of rounds per minute, giving the victims no time to escape, is part of what drives these rampages- and it absolutely does make a differeence whether 5 lay dead or 28. Or NONE, without the fact that an assault weapon can do it’s “work”: quickiy, maximizing the dead, many of these tragedies ( yes, they are murders, but tragic as well- ‘a shocking or sad event”) might never have occurred- we don’t know. But we do know that “whether more might have lived if this and that” is not a fucking “game” , it’s a reality that scores of people with wilted flowers on their graves would be alive today but for the “relative lethality” of assault weapons.
A great (and necessary) reframing, Snarkk.
Policies should be created to reduce the overall violence, not to maximize the number of “honest citizens” who fend off criminals with their guns. The latter kind of libertarian bullshit thinking *is* reflected in those who support lower taxes for the ultra wealthy. It doesn’t matter to them if more evenly distributed wealth creates more overall wealth — if undeserving “freeloaders” benefit, well screw that, it’s all about promoting “fairness” and “freedom” rooted in a social darwinist amorality.
As for the “we’d have just as many deaths because they’d turn to dynamite and axes” argument, well, that is ridiculous. The logistics, the psychology, the statistical evidence all say so.
I just woke up and I am covered with goosebumps. ESPN is showing the “Official 2012 World Series Film” in the style of the fantastic, classic NFL films with lots of slo-mo, different angles, announcers, interviews, fan reactions, etc..
my Saturday morning is shot for the first hour and a half in the most excellent way!
The Giants win the pennant, the big ring, the whole enchilada with extra sauce and several records, firsts, first time in a long times.
We use the symbol of the white dove. Have pins, stickers, flyers and a campaign produced.
We use Twin’s post and Snarrk’s letter as the mission statement.
A movement takes on a life of its own.
I know you guys have the ability to create a slogan and get this done. A small effort to change the future.