The newest bugaboo of the gun totin' crowd is one Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan, nee Piers Stefan O'Meara. Morgan is a CNN talking head and British. That is a dangerous combination on just about any subject as far as the American right wing is concerned. However, now that Mr. Morgan has expressed his opinions in regard to current American gun laws and those among us who own a Bushmaster .223 the outrage has reached epic proportions.
In fact a petition was started on the White House web site, We the People by one Kurt N. who claims to be from Austin, Texas. It states, "British citizen and CNN TV host, Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. constitution by targeting the second amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his efforts to undermine the bill of rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of Americans." It is unknown who Kurt N. really is and if he is an actual resident of the United States. The personal history and background details of the contributors to chat sites, message boards and the like are always a tad hazy. In fact, for all we know Kurt N. may actually be a Kenyan posing as an American citizen. I might be too, but then I digress.
What started all this was an interview, or debate of sorts between Morgan and one Larry Pratt who is the Executive Director of something called The Gun Owners of America. Pratt apparently insisted that the only real answer to gun violence in the United States is to put more guns out there and into the hands of people like, say, Kurt N. Morgan reportedly responded this way, "You're an unbelievably stupid man aren't you?"
Now I'll tell you up front I didn't see that particular exchange. I did, however, catch Brother Pratt's act on "Hardball" when he tried to sell the same line to Chris Matthews. Kurt, I'm going to be honest with you, buddy, I'm going to have to go with Piers on this one. Pratt and the Wayne LaPierres of this country are not only stupid, but criminally stupid.
Be that as it may, according to Yahoo News, Kurt N.'s petition now has 81,000 signatures, although as far as anyone knows for sure, it could be Kurt, Pratt and LaPierre working as fast as ferrets with phony user id's. Hey, it is the web; everyone can be anyone they want as many times as they want.
On another front, Reuters is reporting that five other "We the People" petitions have been filed referencing the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. They call for the government to do things like formally declare the church to be a hate group and revoke its tax exempt status. 475,000 persons in total have signed on to one or more of them.
It is hard to argue with that sentiment. When your church website name is godhatesfags.com it pretty much says it all.
Spurring the anger was a threat made by the reverend Fred Phelps and his flock of 40 plus, mostly relatives, to picket the funerals of the murdered children in Newtown, Connecticut. They would, of course, have been celebrating their gruesome deaths, claiming God is punishing the United States for accepting homosexuals as fellow human beings.
Pastor Phelps actually has bigger problems than meaningless petitions at the moment. The happy hackers at Anonymous and UGNazi have crashed his site, infiltrated twitter accounts and posted church member personal information on the net. It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch.
Lord, it has been a long and foul, year. Frankly, it can't end quickly enough.
Next stop, the edge of the fiscal cliff.
12-27-12
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