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You are here: Home / And he said “The boys just call me Camouflage”

And he said “The boys just call me Camouflage”

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We’re simply doomed as a nation:

Alexios Marakis, a Greek Orthodox priest visiting the U.S., got lost in Tampa and tried to stop and ask directions from Marine reservist Jasen D. Bruce. But instead of offering help, “Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron.” The reservist believed Marakis, who spoke limited English, was an Arab terrorist. Bruce chased the priest for three blocks, “and even called 911 to say that an Arabic man tried to rob him.”

Did you all see David Horowitz calling for General Casey’s head the other day for not attacking Muslim soldiers after the Ft. Hood shootings?

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim

    Did you all see David Horowitz calling for General Casey’s head the other day for not attacking Muslim soldiers after the Ft. Hood shootings?

    I didn’t, but I did see that Joe Lieberman wants to conduct hearings about whether or not Muslims can really be patriotic Americans. A difference of degree, not of kind.

  3. 3.

    Short Bus Bully

    The Turner Diaries folks have to be clapping and dancing in circles after hearing this kind of crap.

  8. 8.

    dfd

    The reservist believed Marakis, who spoke limited English, was an Arab terrorist. Bruce chased the priest for three blocks, “and even called 911 to say that an Arabic man tried to rob him.”

    Was he a thief, a terrorist, or both? Dude needs to get his story straight.

  9. 9.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I really really hate this shit when it happens. And the wankers on RW radio and blogs throw fuel on the fire for dumbasses like this to act out their stupidity. Makes me want to climb in a big rubber ducky and start paddling to parts unknown.

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    Somewhat O/T: Applebee’s is offering free meals to active duty military and veterans tomorrow. I’ll be heading straight for the salad bar to load up!

  11. 11.

    zoe kentucky in pittsburgh

    I listened to Michael Savage yesterday and the jackass who is sitting in for Glenn Beck– both said the same thing, that Casey should be fired, this was a terrorist attack. Savage was especially over-the-top (shocking, I know) and said this is just like another 9/11 attack. Srsly. You could practically feel the spittle coming through the radio he was so enraged.

    Why was I listening to Savage and (wannabe) Beck? I wanted to see what kind of batshittery they were spewing after Saturday’s HCR vote. But neither talked about that much, they were obsessed with the Ft. Hood shootings. Apparently this is what we can look forward to if we have another terrorist attack when Obama is president– both basically said that this was all Obama’s fault.

  12. 12.

    Comrade Mary

    Christ almighty. “Whoa Camouflage, things are never quite the way they seem … YOU FUCKING MORON!”

    Via TPM, it appears that this guy had done his share of modelling. This site (has partial nudity) shares the beefcake. It’s especially interesting to see now that this asshole is claiming that the priest tried to grab his package. Hint: if you’re going to make a gay panic defense, don’t have pictures of yourself on a pinup site.

    This site just has a damn good song.

  13. 13.

    slag

    Although, looking through some of the Think Progress comments, I get the distinct impression that Republicans haven’t exactly cornered the market on unadulterated stupid jerk-ism. Pains me to say it.

  15. 15.

    calipygian

    Sadly, no one has seen Yugoslavia, Death of a Nation.

    It all started when a right wing Serb nationalist whipped up public sentiment by falsely claiming a Kosovar Albanian farmer shoved a broken bottle up the ass of his Serb neighbor in 1987.

    I think we all know how that turned out.

  16. 16.

    JD Rhoades

    I listened to Michael Savage yesterday and the jackass who is sitting in for Glenn Beck—both said the same thing, that Casey should be fired, this was a terrorist attack.

    Fine. If this was a terrorist attack, then so was the Beltway sniper, another crazy Muslim guy spouting jihad.

    So much for “no terrorist attacks under Bush”.

  17. 17.

    ellaesther

    This is, I guess, OT, but it comes from the same well of what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-us:

    I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve visited the Daily Beast, and I’ve never read this Lee Siegal person in my life, but he raises the question of: Why the hell do Americans kill entire groups of each other so frequently?

    America’s Mass Murder Addiction

    Some of his conclusions are specious (For instance: “We have to start examining whether the general free-for-all of our economic system, and the pleasure-seeking ethos of our commercialism, and the ideology of immediate gratification that is corroding any type of respect for authority—we have to determine whether these “freedoms” are actually a tightening dog collar turning us all into rabid animals” – uh, what’s that again, Lee?), so, I am by no means saying “Hey this guy found the truth!”

    But the question he raises and the numbers he brings to support the question are fairly disturbing, and the general notion that the whole Americans-as-mass-murderers meme deserves more attention is a damn good one.

    And General Winfield Stuck? Is there room on the duck for one more?

  19. 19.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    As an extremely lapsed Eastern Orthodox Christian myself, I find myself amused that someone who, dollars to doughnuts, almost certainly identifies himself as a conservative Protestant of sorts, attacked a clergyman of one of the oldest and most traditional sorts for being a Muslim; and if you know anything about the history of Greece and the Ottoman Empire, its doubly ironic.

    Bring on President Palin and Rich Lowry porn!

  21. 21.

    SFAW

    Apparently this is what we can look forward to if we have another terrorist attack when Obama is president—both basically said that this was all Obama’s fault.

    Well, duh – he black, therefore QED and res ipsa loquitur and LS/MFT and stuff.

    You Lieberals will excuse anything Teh One does.

    Even if he doesn’t do it.

    Also.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    That’ll teach those goddamned foreigners to come over to this nation and spend their filthy foreign lucre here.

  25. 25.

    Max

    RedState has gone on a muslims shouldn’t be allowed to serve thread.

    “Real” America is one fucked up place. I’m glad I don’t live there.

  27. 27.

    AnotherBruce

    My god. I hope that Bruce is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

    But…..I didn’t do anything!

  29. 29.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    @ Mike in NC:

    I’m almost tempted to show up to Applebees with copies of my DD214 showing I have an honorable discharge from the USAR. I think it’d go well with my purple and pink dyed hair.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    But…..I didn’t do anything!

    1) That’s what they all say
    2) Quick! Change your name to Michael Baldwin before it’s too late!

  35. 35.

    Incertus

    @Nick: To be fair, it could have happened in any of a couple dozen states and I wouldn’t have been surprised, but yeah, no shock it happened in Florida. Though if I’d been asked to predict where in Florida, I’d probably have gone for more in the Pensacola direction. Maybe Ocala.

  36. 36.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @JD Rhoades:

    These are lone wolf attacks that may have political or religious motives intermingled with personal ones. I remember a muslim man shooting up an El Al ticket counter at LA airport during Bush’s term, I think it was, killing one. If this was a terrorist attack then so have been the lone wolfer wingnuts who have been going on rampages on a regular basis the past year, killing alleged liberals and others.

  37. 37.

    Betsy

    @burnspbesq:

    Does being dead from the neck up count?

    Nope. Brain dead or not, he can (presumably) still reproduce, and has thus not done us the favor of removing himself from the gene pool.

  38. 38.

    Mark S.

    Then officers went to Bruce’s apartment to speak to the reservist again. But he already had an attorney with him and refused to speak, police said.

    Why did he need an attorney if he thought he just thwarted 9/11 Part II?

  39. 39.

    Osceola

    Yes, John, we are doomed. But I do hope the young jarhead spends about 10 years in Leavenworth contemplating his stupidity while doing hard labor. And that his mother learns to spell.

  40. 40.

    Jay B.

    Jasen D. Bruce

    Jasen?

    This is my favorite story of all time. Today. And not because a poor guy got a fucking tire iron to the head for asking directions – that sucks, although I’m sure the monetary settlement will help take the sting out – but because it’s a perfect object lesson to combat the pant-wetting hysteria these assholes puke out every day. I mean, really, Greek Orthodox? How in fuck do you make the leap from that to Muslim other than they have a funny accent?

    John takes it that we’re doomed. I have a different take — this incident proves that the heedless rush into total xenophobia has a few downsides to it and that, inevitably, it leads to outcomes like this — where a butch military guy assaults a dusky looking man of God.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Fucking jackasses.

  42. 42.

    Zifnab

    This is a massive clusterfuck. I can’t wait for the next wave of blithering racism to back another bunch of Muslim Americans into a corner and trigger another mass shooting and rile up another bunch of red necks to piss off another group of brown people.

    Hurray! Cycles!

    Also, why didn’t anyone on the military base have any guns? If the soldiers at Ft. Hood had been armed, none of this would have ever happened. Second Amendment. Also.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    If this was a terrorist attack then so have been the lone wolfer wingnuts who have been going on rampages on a regular basis the past year, killing alleged liberals and others.

    That ain’t terrism, that’s standin’ up for ‘Murica. It’s not as if real people was killed.

    Wolverines!

  44. 44.

    slag

    @Comrade Mary: Wow. Now we have quite another stereotype we can throw in the mix. Let’s count ’em up, shall we?
    1. Foreign people = Terrorists
    2. Southern people = Xenophobes
    3. Marines = Closet Homosexuals
    4. Homosexuals = Priest-haters
    Although, not knowing whether the closet homosexual knew the terrorist was a priest or not certainly complicates that last one.

  45. 45.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @cleek: No, that would be the asshole who beat up that officer outside the cracker barrel in Ga. because she was a black woman. Although this guy is definitely in the top 3.

  50. 50.

    Demo Woman

    A few of the comments were interesting. One person wrote that we should only allow people into our country who speak English. Because the Priest only spoke limited English, it was his fault. Florida’s economy depends on tourism and I’m not sure that is the message that the state wants to send.

  51. 51.

    slag

    @SFAW: Hey-I’m not endorsing the stereotypes. I’m just listing them. In all fairness, I don’t think foreign people are terrorists either.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @Jay B.:

    I mean, really, Greek Orthodox? How in fuck do you make the leap from that to Muslim other than they have a funny accent?

    The beards. SATSQ.

  55. 55.

    Xenos

    @Incertus: Exactly. There are many Greeks in the Tampa area, including a sponge-diving community from the Dodecanese Islands.

    The Pappas’ usually wear big wooden crosses, too. You would think that would be a bit of a tip-off.

  57. 57.

    El Cid

    Why do all you libruls hate it when one honest Marine tries to save us from the Muslim terrorists? Who cares if he happened to pick somebody who wasn’t a Muslim terrorist? Obviously you people want 9/11 to happen all over again.

    The rational response to the Fort Hood tragedy was, obviously, to have the heads of all the uniformed services appear on national TV simultaneously screaming “KILL KILL MUSLIMS MUSLIMS KILL KILL KILL.”

    Any other response would endanger our fine Western tradition of respect for logic, self-preservation, and republican democracy.

  58. 58.

    Demo Woman

    This incident received publicity because of TPM and Think Progress. How many incidents like this happen across America that we don’t know about.

  60. 60.

    slag

    @ellaesther: Well. We kinda founded this country on genocide. It is sometimes hard to see much progress between then and now. But at least now we call it illegal. When we do it here, anyway.

  61. 61.

    Tom Betz

    @slag — on yesterday’s WTF podcast, Zach Galifinakis told Marc Maron his dark-skinned Greek uncle’s favorite story about being told to go to the back of the bus in NC in the 50’s, when the bus driver mistook him for a Negro. When the uncle told the bus driver he was not a Negro, but Greek, the bus driver told him, “Then you can’t ride this bus at all!”

    Sounds like racists ain’t changed all that much in the interim.

  62. 62.

    calling all toasters

    This is what you get in Obama’s America: white people beating up anyone who isn’t white. Next time we need to elect an all-black President! [/reverse bizarro Limbaugh]

  63. 63.

    Jay B.

    Jeff Brown said Lance Cpl. Jasen Bruce, 28, had been followed into the parking garage of his Tampa apartment building about 6:30 p.m. Monday by the Rev. Alexios Marakis, who then made sexual comments and grabbed the reservist’s genitals. Brown denounced the Tampa Police Department’s account of the incident as “one-sided” and “tainted.”

    Uh…Yeah. Thankfully, he wasn’t a Catholic priest, otherwise, well, you know…

    “We are confident that the surveillance videos, the long 911 call, the eyewitnesses will all conclusively show that Lance Cpl.Bruce was attacked and was the victim in this case,” Brown said.

    I call Semper Fudge.

    And I’m willing to bet the under on “conclusively”, if anyone wants in. This lawyer reminds me of Kenny’s lawyer/employer from the great SEIU non-beat down in St. Louis. How’s that lawsuit going, anyway?

    But the Tampa Police report offered a far different account, saying Marakis was lost when he followed Bruce into the garage and asked for help, then was struck with the tire iron and chased several blocks. When officers arrived, Bruce called Marakis a terrorist and said the priest had shouted “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great.”

    Ah-HA! Because surely that’s what a Christian would say. Maybe he was trying to say “Ohmygod are you an asshole” but his English is poor. Glenn Beck poisoned your mind, son. You beat up a priest because you were afraid of him.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    … who then made sexual comments and grabbed the reservist’s genitals.

    Because everyone knows that the first English that Greeks learn is “sexual comments”. And right after that is “Allahu akbar!”, because of the high proportion of Moooslims in the Greek Liberation Front. (Not to be confused with the Judean People’s Front.)

  67. 67.

    Fair Economist

    When officers arrived, Bruce called Marakis a terrorist and said the priest had shouted “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great.”

    The terrorists hate us for our closeted military male models.

  68. 68.

    Annie

    Greek Orthodox priest. Definately a terrorist attack on a patriotic American. We should remove all Christians from the military, no longer let Christians in the country, and place all Christians living in the US in internment camps…

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    Want to go back to my place, bouncy, bouncy?

    I was going to tell you about my hovercraft, but I see you already provided the punchline to your own joke. Which is “poor form”.

    And that was Hungarian, not Greek.

  76. 76.

    TheHatOnMyCat

    No offense, but we are not doomed as a nation.

    We are doomed as a nation when no outrage is expressed over things like this. When nobody cares.

    We will succeed as a nation because those of us who are outraged outnumber the idiots who are not outraged. Eyes on the prize, as they say, okay?

  77. 77.

    MBSS

    holy crap! right now an Orbitz commercial just came on and it had a hovercraft in it.

    synchronicity.

  78. 78.

    Svensker

    @Max:

    RedState has gone on a muslims shouldn’t be allowed to serve thread.

    Maybe we should make sure we know which ones are the Muslims. I know — how bout they wear armbands? Yellow maybe? Nah, already been done. Green! That’s good!

  79. 79.

    MBSS

    sorry. when i wrote that post i had to transition from the present to the past tense mid-sentence because the commercial ended, and i didn’t know what to do.

  80. 80.

    Svensker

    Actually, my hub is Greek. After 9/11 I was very nervous when he went into the City cuz the cops were very itchy and a lot of Greeks — my hub included — have that dusky Mediterranean look.

    The country has gone nuts. That is all. Don’t know if it’s salvageable.

  81. 81.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    The priest ought to be grateful that the stupid fucker assaulting him didn’t have a gun as I have no doubt that this fool would have used it.

    If this guy did what the priest said he did then he should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict bodily harm (or the Floriduh equivalent). He is a fool and a danger to anyone who isn’t white, they need to lock his ass up for a good long stretch.

    As kids we joked that Floriduh was the dong of the country (and an awful small one at that) and that Texass was the scrotum.

    If the foo shits, wear it.

  83. 83.

    El Cid

    Who cares if he hit some old Greek guy on the head with a tire iron? What in the hell have the Greeks done to ever advance Western society and culture?

  87. 87.

    Bob In Pacifica

    AnotherBruce at #14,

    That was a great bizarre little album. Stan Ridgeway had some great songs on it, like the one that goes “Pick it up and put it in your pocket, or somebody else will.”

  88. 88.

    MBSS

    without the feta salad where would we be?

    as john lennon once said: “give greeks a chance.”

    and all swarthy people while we’re at it.

  89. 89.

    Mike in NC

    If the soldiers at Ft. Hood had been armed, none of this would have ever happened. Second Amendment. Also.

    Because when M1A1 Abrams tanks are outlawed, only outlaws will have access to M1A1 tanks!

  91. 91.

    calling all toasters

    @MBSS:

    baklava

    Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? If he’d been wearing one of those baklava helmets he’d be fine.

  95. 95.

    Jay C

    A better idea:

    In the interest of balance, give Reservist Bruce his tire iron back, and turn him loose on David Horowitz. And do us all a favor.

  97. 97.

    soonergrunt

    I’d like to point out that unless this idiot was actually on drill status at the time he had his little fit of racist paranoia, it is irelevant that he’s a reservist.
    On the other hand, if he was on drill status, then he’s looking at probably a special court-martial with a bad-conduct discharge, a fine and a couple of months of jail time.

  98. 98.

    GregB

    Have the wingnuts been calling all of the dead and wounded at Ft. Hood a bunch of pussy, panty-waists who were unwilling to defend themselves the way they tarred all of the dead and wounded students at V-Tech?

    Just looking for some wingnut consistency.

    -G

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @Demo Woman:

    A few of the comments were interesting. One person wrote that we should only allow people into our country who speak English. Because the Priest only spoke limited English, it was his fault. Florida’s economy depends on tourism and I’m not sure that is the message that the state wants to send.

    Quite a number of Florida tourists come from Britain. The Brits don’t believe that the Floridians speak English, and the Floridians often can’t understand the accents of the Brits.

  101. 101.

    El Cid

    Surely we can just tell all the tourists about the unique hospitality of Floridians and their propensity to express their excitement about meeting our international visitors with tire irons and occasionally guns and whatnot.

  103. 103.

    Morbo

    @Jay C:

    In the interest of balance, give Reservist Bruce his tire iron back, and turn him loose on David Horowitz. And do us all a favor.

    Anti-semite!

  104. 104.

    Donald G

    @AhabTRuler: @SFAW: Want to go back to my place, bouncy, bouncy?

    “I will feed your fingertips…to the Wolverines.”

    Yes, I know it’s SNL and not Monty Python, but…

    No matter what Jasen Bruce uses, the terrorism defense or the gay-panic defense, he still comes across looking like a hyperviolent douchebag.

  106. 106.

    jcricket

    @GregB: Local WA state blogger Goldy (http://www.horsesass.org/) made that point about a week ago. Presumably military bases are hot-beds of people carrying guns, and who know how to use them to inflict deadly force, protect themselves, etc. Not to mention the hand-to-hand combat training.

    Yet 12 people are dead and 30+ are wounded.

    What does this mean?

    Just that more guns is no guarantee of safety. Nor is disarmament a guarantee of safety either.

  107. 107.

    PaulW

    @Nick:

    Well, the Tampa area does have a decent Greek contingent (come visit Tarpon Springs FL! Eat our gyros! You like the sauce, eh?). So I’m a little upset this soldier didn’t recognize the Athenian accent… :(

  109. 109.

    Anne Laurie

    @zoe kentucky in pittsburgh:

    Why was I listening to Savage and (wannabe) Beck? I wanted to see what kind of batshittery they were spewing after Saturday’s HCR vote. But neither talked about that much, they were obsessed with the Ft. Hood shootings.

    Last Saturday, some of the Rightwing blogs were insisting that Pelosi scheduled the weekend HCR vote just to “take advantage” of the news media being too obsessed with Ft. Hood to pay attention to the Demon-crats’ nefarious plans. But only a few commentors, so far as I heard, went on to speculate that the Obama administration activated their Manchurian Candidate, Nidal Malik, deliberately…

  111. 111.

    The Populist

    Why was I listening to Savage and (wannabe) Beck? I wanted to see what kind of batshittery they were spewing after Saturday’s HCR vote. But neither talked about that much, they were obsessed with the Ft. Hood shootings.

    They are obsessed because these chickenhawks care very little for our troops. Deep down I believe many got sexually excited for the possibilities this maniac shooter gave them to make dumb points when the facts are simple.

    Hasan’s meeting with the Yemeni imam was known to Defense officials in the BUSH administration. To be fair, the Pentagon is the one that is supposed to be taking care of this, not the President. If the BoB’s of the world want to fight over this, then the facts are on our side. Bush let our troops down.

  113. 113.

    BruceK

    Crap, and I thought that *finally* I was free from having to apologize to Athenians for being an American. It got old really quickly, having to explain George W. Bush to the locals.

  116. 116.

    Seanly

    @dfd:

    The tire iron weilding reservist also accused the priest of grabbing his crotch and making sexual advances.

    I think he is missing out on the theory that the priest is the Zombie Rasputin come to corrupt his Purity of Essence. I recommend more pure grain alcohol and less rain water.

  117. 117.

    Ed Marshaall

    I’m not a death penalty advocate, but for John Allen Muhammad I think the better sentence would have been to just not tell him what the outcome was. Say “maybe we are going to shoot you, maybe not, just walk around the yard every day after lunch and if we decide to kill you one of the snipers up on the wall will get you with a head shot”. Asshole.

  118. 118.

    drkrick

    Ed, as one of the people who found himself bobbing and weaving while pumping gas during JAM’s little rampage, I like the way you think.

  119. 119.

    celticdragon

    @slag:

    I noticed that as well. The left has its’ fair share of unhinged idiots. The hatred for anyone in the military was disconcerting in some of the more rabid comments.

    That being said, this young marine is a disgrace to his uniform, and I hope he is quickly divested of it. Interesting that the first thing he went for was the “He grabbed my package” gay panic bullshit even before the “Allahu Ackbar we’re gonna die!” Arab panic bullshit.

  120. 120.

    twiffer

    @Demo Woman: so all tourists must speak english? hey, why don’t we make that a rule for every country? that way no other countries will have to worry about stupid americans wondering why all those italians (etc.) don’t speak english.

    of course the idiots who would suggest something like that probably don’t travel outside the states anyway. and wonder why brits don’t speak proper english.

  122. 122.

    Michael

    Hey, is LGen Boykin in a position to pardon him? From 2003 to 2008, there seemed to be a great climate of forbearance and forgiveness in the command structure for people whose stress got them into all manner of predicaments, usually involving the senseless, random, unjustifiable slaghter of innocents or unarmed detainees.

    We wouldn’t want all o’ them middle Murka Warriors for Freedom getting discouraged, so we had to give ’em a free pass and all.

  123. 123.

    Michael

    The hatred for anyone in the military was disconcerting in some of the more rabid comments.

    I’m getting there, and I used to be military. I’m finding a lot of craven cowardice, excuse-making and padded credentialing these days.

  124. 124.

    celticdragon

    @GregB:

    Have the wingnuts been calling all of the dead and wounded at Ft. Hood a bunch of pussy, panty-waists who were unwilling to defend themselves the way they tarred all of the dead and wounded students at V-Tech?
    Just looking for some wingnut consistency.

    Actually, there was no way in either circumstance. You cannot carry weapons on any military post unless you are actually issued the weapon for a specific duty. When I was in the Army, I had to keep all of my personal weapons locked in the unit arms room. I could only check them out with a letter from the commanding officer. In that sense, the soldiers at Ft Hood were just as effectively helpless as the students at Virginia Tech. I am proud of they way they reacted under fire, however. Wounded soldiers were trying to protect one another from the gunman and rendering first aid while the shooting was till going on.

    I do think that student who have completed gun safety courses should be allowed to have weapons at a state school (private schools have the right to set their own policy). It is worth noting that the guy two years ago the guy who shot up the YWAM campus in Colorado and then went to the mega church where Ted Haggard used to preach ran into trouble. He was badly wounded by a woman with a gun. She had heard the news about the murders at the YWAM facility and realized that her high profile church might be a target. She was right…and she saved lives.

    The Army simply isn’t going to allow unregulated weapons all over the post because of the potential for undermining discipline. Since the shooter was an officer, there really isn’t any way to have stopped him other then reading the signs beforehand…and there were signs apparently.

  127. 127.

    binzinerator

    @Svensker:

    I know—how bout they wear armbands?

    Naw. Those can be easily removed. Obviously part of the solution will involve tattoos.

    And no doubt their proven track record as a means of identifying undesirables will secretly appeal to the Wingnuttsche and Beckvolks.

  128. 128.

    binzinerator

    @GregB:

    Have the wingnuts been calling all of the dead and wounded at Ft. Hood a bunch of pussy, panty-waists who were unwilling to defend themselves the way they tarred all of the dead and wounded students at V-Tech?

    I was wondering that too, but I am certain they won’t. If their minds were capable of making that connection and recognizing the hypocrisy they wouldn’t be wingnuts.

  129. 129.

    binzinerator

    @celticdragon:

    I do think that student who have completed gun safety courses should be allowed to have weapons at a state school
    ___
    The Army simply isn’t going to allow unregulated weapons all over the post because of the potential for undermining discipline.

    Potential for undermining discipline, huh? As in, having lots of armed people running around, especially when they are young and still learning to discipline themselves and are prone to errors of judgment, can be detrimental to other people in the organization and to the organization itself.

    Why then should our society allow unregulated weapons all over our schools?

    If it’s obvious why it’s a bad idea at an Army post where they already train everyone in gun safety, it should be obvious why it’s a bad idea at a school.

  131. 131.

    Paul Taylor

    As a British guy who has followed this issue I must admit that many Americans seem incredibly dumb. Killing sikhs ( assuming they are Muslim) turbans are not just worn by Muslims but by Sikhs and some Hindus as well.

    Assuming wrongly that all Arabs are Muslim when in fact a substantial number are Christians ( and were in fact historically Christian centuries before Europeans)

    And I think the attack on a Greek Orthodox priest ( who as a beard) and wears black robes

    In this marines tiny mind he can assume that beard equals muslim equals terrorist

    Anthony Sowell is also an ex marine and in fact the US marines have a habit of committing crimes be it mass murder or attacking priests with crowbars

    I also recall an event when a rock drummer was accused of terrorism because he had a beard. Cant remember teh details it may have been Black sabbath or the like

    anyway its time for the military to get an education because I dont think the worlds Greek and Russian orthodox will be too happy with America today

    As if you need even more enemies

    From your transatlantic cousin and partner in various silly wars

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