Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Look Ma, a Metaphor

Look Ma, a Metaphor

by | 121 Comments

This post is in: 

America, fuck yeah:

Video footage shows the moment two women buying a rifle failed to notice a baby falling off the shop counter.

The customers can be seen admiring the gun inside a pawn shop while the infant sits on top of the glass counter beside them.

But while they are busy talking to each other, the shop assistant behind the counter leaps forward and tries to grab the baby as it slowly topples head-first towards the ground.

Luckily store manager Bill Reel noticed the child seemed “unsteady” and raced forward to catch it just before it hit the concrete floor.

The younger woman can be seen clutching her hand to her chest in shock as the father-of-four hands the baby to the other woman, believed to be the grandmother.

A little heavy-handed as far as metaphors go, but I’ll allow it.

This kid has no fucking chance they should just allow the clerk to keep it.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  2. 2.

    pinacacci

    OT but can haz livestream judiciary committee articles of impeachment comment thread?  Gohmert is nuts.

  3. 3.

    schrodingers_cat

    OT: I am feeling so very despondent about what is happening in India and knowing the Sangh ideology that the government at the Centre is wedded to, things are going to get worse. My folks are making lame excuses for the BJP while some of husband kitteh’s relatives are actively spreading BJP propaganda.

    *Sangh = Short for RSS, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) BJP’s parent organization which was inspired by Fascists and Nazis and founded in the 1920s.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    Heard about a couple living in the USA
    Said they traded in their baby for a Chevroletgun.
    Seems right.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    They weren’t paying any attention to that baby. What kind of idiot sits a baby up on the counter like that to begin with?  And is not standing right there, in front of baby?

    So lucky the employee was paying more attention. That was going to be a terrible injury.

    And then they wrap the baby in a camo blanket. Utah. Ugh.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Apparently Gym Jordan just went off on a “they don’t like us” rant, impeaching trump is just more of your liberal elitist ways to look down on “us”.

    That’s not what impeachment is about, but…

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    I thought this was important.  Maria Hinojosa twitter feed.  (I don’t know how to better embed.)  Cuz NPR and MSNBC seem to do this constantly.   The repetition of the propaganda — hey, folks, look at this!  But it is amplification.

    Basics of journalism in an authoritarian regime. Do not repeat propaganda. Do not give lies a platform. Do not give “both” sides as a legitimate argument that is then used against real journalism. We are better than this, my fellow journalists.

  16. 16.

    beth

    And they probably sold them the rifle which they will leave unattended in their home with their unattended child – we’ll be reading about that poor kid after he shoots himself or one of his siblings in a  few years.

  21. 21.

    Kent

    I come from a rural family and have been around guns (and some gun nuts) my whole life.

    What seems new-ish to me is how many women I see diving into gun culture.  I don’t remember it used to be like that back in the day.  But then no one carried military weapons either.  It was all about bolt-action hunting rifles with polished walnut stocks, and expensive shotguns of various gauges for each type of bird hunting.  I had a uncle who was a total gun nut but he mostly spent his time hand loading, target shooting, and collecting/restoring old vintage guns.  Nothing remotely military-ish.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    GOHMERT just named the person alleged to be the whistleblower as someone Republicans think should testify.No other lawmakers have done this.— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 12, 2019

    He’s not just a clown.  He’s a danger.

    We need to do what we can to vote all the Teabaggers out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    pinacacci

    Ya know, even though the Democratic Convention in 2016 was really scripted and calculated, it still rang true, there was passion in defense of beliefs, I found Rev. Barber amazing…I think these hearings make me so uncomfortable because of all the hollow men speaking on the Republican side…they believe nothing.  Their passion is false.  Yet it will sound ok to many people who can’t hear the echoing from the hollow men.  So anyway that’s why it weirds me out.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    Washington (CNN)Senate Republicans are starting to coalesce around the idea of a shorter Senate impeachment trial — one that, contrary to President Donald Trump’s stated desire, wouldn’t include witnesses.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I’m back in touch with my old friend from high school who is originally from somewhere in Maharashtra and she’s pretty depressed right now, too. ?

     

    (I realize that saying “somewhere in Maharashtra” is like saying “somewhere in California,” but it’s the most I can get my brain to give me right now. I used to know the city but can’t remember.)

  29. 29.

    Kent

    @Another Scott: Back when we lived in Texas we would sometimes drive out to Caddo Lake in East Texas for camping and boating.  Kind of a cool area.  But it takes you right through the heart of Gohmert’s district in Marshall TX.  That place is the most insular inbred place you have ever seen.  Makes the rest of Texas seem downright progressive and intellectual.  That man suits his district, honest to God.  It’s a scary place.  If you have ever seen the movie Bernie, that is set in Gohmert’s district and based on a real crime story.

  30. 30.

    Amir Khalid

    @Elizabelle:

    What kind of idiot sits a baby up on the counter like that to begin with?

    It’s of a piece with their attitude towards the basics of gun safety, isn’t it?

  34. 34.

    pinacacci

    @Baud: It was.

    Ugh Rep. Roby is being calm and measured, still ending up at the nonsense place though.  They believe nothing.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato
    At a reasonable distance, certainly. New high for the date of just about 90 yesterday, which was also the day of my monthly errand sojourn into town, where it felt more like 110 in the shade.

  41. 41.

    Citizen Alan

    @pinacacci:

    Ya know, even though the Democratic Convention in 2016 was really scripted and calculated,

    Oh yeah, totally scripted and calculated … except for the fact that all the Bernie delegates booed every time Hillary’s name got mentioned.

  42. 42.

    hitchhiker

    Because I am sometimes in need of a reality dose, I read a long thread today over at reddit’s askreddit sub, in which people with direct experience of mass shootings were invited to describe what happened.

    It did the job, meaning, it reminded me that trauma is real and ongoing, and that in spite of what are now thousands and thousands of damaged people with stories to tell about the day someone showed up with weapons, we still can’t quite change the channel.

    We let people who don’t have enough sense to keep a baby from falling off a countertop buy guns and take them home. With the baby.

  43. 43.

    pinacacci

    @Citizen Alan: No, not what I meant.  Was talking about the stagecraft, the white suit, the hug from Obama, the great music selections.  Not in any way saying the whole thing was a play, but the stuff on stage was definitely well-planned. And I’m glad most people in the arts are leftish

    ETA and that we can boo each other sometimes

  45. 45.

    Shana

    @beth: There was a story in the WaPo Sunday about a child who died.  I don’t remember how, but the story mentioned that the grandmother was 42 and the mother was 17. Didn’t look like those two were much different.

    As a 60 year old whose kids aren’t even married yet, I find those kinds of ages stunning.

  52. 52.

    Kent

    @Shana: Science teacher who I currently co-teach with started her teaching career as a young 24 year old science teacher in South San Antonio.  She said that in her first remedial science class, as the teacher she was the only female in the class who had never been pregnant.

    We really live in two different countries.

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @Kent:

    I used to go duck and goose hunting, 17-19 yrs old. Hand loaded our own shells. 3 close calls and I had enough. And none of us drank or used any other mind/mood altering substance. One more close call 2 yrs later when someone was actually shooting at me for walking down the street – which caused me to set a new 1000 meter world record. Not timed of course but I’m still here so I’m claiming the record. And that ended any concept I had that guns were in any way a reasonable thing to have. So about 50 yrs of wanting guns to go the fuck away. Given where we are, I’ve stopped wishing for anything more than the sun to come up in the morning. And me to be able to see it.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    Utah, eh?  I wondered where and thought of more than one that was likely.  I was wrong though.  My bad.

  55. 55.

    BRyan

    Completely OT, but can I ask anyway? Anybody have any experience with the “be good to people” clothing line and the organization behind it? Their shirts are becoming ubiquitous enough, at least around here, that I’m beginning to find their schtick annoying — perfect strangers, no matter how well intentioned, do not get to randomly tell me to mind my manners, thank you … OTOH, better that than a gun in my face, I know.

  58. 58.

    Shakti

    @schrodingers_cat: 

    My relatives belong to a sect which debates whether it’s Hindu or not. They don’t seem concerned in the slightest that these BJP people will one day decide they’re not Hindu.

    I can’t talk to anyone — my father just goes into rages [he wrote an angrygram about an India Abroad article] and the hometown community paper just is in full Modi defense.

  60. 60.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Lock Trump Up:

    fuck that scumbag Gerrit Cole for signing with those goddamn motherfucking NY Yankees.

    Um, Gerrit Cole is a fellow Bruin and made the FTNYY’s pay him major bucks until he’s 41.  The Dodgers(and Angels) dodged a bullet here.

  61. 61.

    Ohio Mom

    It’s not the main thing about the video, it’s more like icing on a cake, but most moms/grandmas with an upset, crying baby would attend to him/her — look him in the eye, kiss him, say reassuring things in a soft voice, rock him, that sort of thing.

    This granmother takes the baby and holds him/her without a glance in his direction, just like he’s a sack of groceries. I have no idea what the cammo blankets suposed to accomplish.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @Ohio Mom:   I started to wonder if the women are an aunt and grandmother, or even a caretaker and her daughter or mother.

    Anyway, they’re negligent.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    @Jay: And the government wonders why tech companies are so determined to protect the integrity of device to device encryption.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    It’s been a week for misjudging danger, no?  Thinking of the eruption on White Island/Whakaari, New Zealand.  And the cruise ship excursioners there.   Although it sounds like even experienced locals and guides did not perceive visiting as a life-threatening risk.  Reading that New Zealand is one of the the capitols of daring feats, bungee jumping all over the place, and that it’s not a litigious society such as our own.  But:

    WaPost:
    New Zealand orders more than 1,290 square feet of human skin for badly burned volcano victims
    I guess med staff will learn a lot more about how to care for such gruesome injuries.  Science proceeds and innovates, especially from terrible incidents like this one.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin: 

    Yeah, I agree. Teach Gohmert and the goons in Congress a lesson. The law applies to them, too. Arrest him for endangering the whistleblower.

    ====
    Went to see an excellent movie last week — The Peanut Butter Falcon, about a young guy with Down syndrome pursuing his dream. Recommend it. Anyway, very uplifting but I recognized I was kind of gritting my teeth while watching and realized — it was the southern accents. Movie is set on the North Carolina coast, filmed in Georgia.

    And the white males with southern accents were just repelling me.

    It’s the exposure to all the Republican jackasses on the Intelligence and Judiciary committees. The Mueller hearing, the more recent one. It’s like Clockwork Orange territory.

    I was thinking “this can’t be! I live in the South. I have nephews with slight accents …”

    But there it was.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    Speaking of which.

    Police detectives in Titusville have released new details about what is described as an accidental shooting of a 9-year-old girl that happened on Saturday afternoon. The victim is still in critical condition but stable.

    Police confirm the child’s father, Dustin Adkins, 34, has been charged in the shooting incident. Investigators say Adkins is a convicted felon with a history including an accidental gun death.

    So, 2nd time he ‘accidentally’ shoots someone, is on probation, prohibited from owning firearms, and owns 4 firearms’.

    According to police, Adkins said he left the children unsupervised to go check on a hog trap. When he returned, police say his 9-year-old girl had been shot by one of the others. Police say what happened next was a bad call.

    Leaves four kids unsupervised with four guns (while trespassing) to check on a hog trap – which was almost certainly also illegal.

  80. 80.

    hilts

    In a video taken by CBS News’ Jason Silverstein at Trump’s Hershey, PA rally on Tuesday, one man in a gray Trump shirt and a red MAGA hat leans in towards the camera and ominously repeats “He’s not gonna be removed” three times before saying “my .357 Magnum is comfortable with that” when an unseen reporter asked if he was sure of Trump’s job security.

    The next Trump supporter, decked out in a white, Trump 2020 cowboy hat, said he would expect to see “physical violence” should the Senate remove the president. “I think it would become a second Civil War,” he warned.

    Then, a third man in a red MAGA hat, interviewed inside the Hershey arena, said “There would be a strong movement. It would be very negative, possible violence,” in response to the same question about Trump’s removal. “Not that I’m condoning violence,” the Trump fan added, “There’ll be a lot of mad Americans, possibly 70, 80,000 — 70, 80 million Americans on the loose, not very happy.”

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/cbs-airs-insane-video-of-trump-supporters-suggesting-violence-if-president-is-removed-my-357-magnum-says-he-wont-be/

  82. 82.

    Jay

    @Elizabelle:

    White Island/Whakaari tourism is highly regulated and the volcano is highly monitored. When it vents, its ususally steam/gas upwards from the crater ridges or outside the crater ring and out to sea.

    This one was superheated ash/steam/gas that came out sideways and filled the entire crater.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1100076

    Any active volcano is dangerous, Mount St. Helens for example, even hot springs are dangerous.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @Elizabelle: After I started sitting my cousin’s kids I found myself automatically checking the well-being of anyone shorter than knee high at all times. One shouldn’t really yell “Stop at all driveways!” after any random urchin barreling past.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:  Yeesh.  Previous vic was a child, too.  Florida man.  Titusville.

    This is the second time a child has been shot under Adkins’ watch, according to investigators.  Court documents tell the story of an incident in Cocoa in December 2011.  Adkins was charged and entered a plea for manslaughter.  In that case, police say he was showing off a handgun that accidentally discharged.  Officials say the bullet went through a wall and killed a 13-year-old girl in the next room.  Adkins is currently serving probation in that case and the terms forbid him to possess guns.

    Also, he transported this shot up 9 year old daughter himself, in his vehicle, to a hospital “on the other side of the city”, instead of calling 911.  She faces several surgeries.

    No bail for Mr. Adkins.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hilts:

    “There’ll be a lot of mad Americans, possibly 70, 80,000 — 70, 80 million Americans on the loose, not very happy.”

    Jethro got his cipherin’ right the first time

  90. 90.

    Jay

    The usual suspects are now using the identities of the Jersey City shooters to incite against Black people as a whole. Black Jews are already being harassed. I'm genuinely scared of what's to come for Black folks in and around Jewish communities in this moment. pic.twitter.com/XyIMFjpUbF— Rebecca Pierce #BlackShabbat (@aptly_engineerd) December 11, 2019

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize:  Vikings.  Right.

    Have become quite the fan of Taika Waititi.  Saw his What We Do in the Shadows (vampires in present day New Zealand; hanging around outside nightclubs cuz they have not been invited in);  Jojo Rabbit.  Go Kiwis!

  103. 103.

    Amir Khalid

    @John Revolta:

    People like this man and those women compartmentalise between their love of guns and the safety of children in their care. They cannot deal with both at the same time. That is sad and worrying.

  107. 107.

    Dan B

    @schrodingers_cat: The news out of India is depressing and yet the scale is so huge it’s nearly impossible to process.  It’s like Syria, the Rohingya, and the Uyghurs.  The horror us so immense that it keeps disappearing from my thoughts.  It certainly is not enough in the consciousness of most Americans.  Dozens of Indian cities are huge.  People live together in small spaces.  The Jama Masjid (sp) Mosque in Delhi divides the Muslim market and the Hindu markets.  Are there a million people in each within walking distance?  Much of America’s tech and medical sectors are closely tied to or run by Indians.  Violence in India could rapidly explode and would throw the US and much of the world into recession and worse.  Our incompetent regime would interfere with our IC and DOD, probably use the opportunity to weed out level headed and constitutional loving people.

    And there are friends in India who are in harms way.

  110. 110.

    Dan B

    @Jay: Seems like we’ve hit a tipping point for the northern hemisphere.  The Jet Stream has been out of whack at least once a month.  It’s been another weird weather year for Seattle.  Precip is below normal, snowpack is extremely low (electricity, water, and irrigation in eastern WA depend upon snowpack), and there were other odd changes that persisted for months.  And there were huge losses of potatoes in WA and Idaho from an early hard freeze.  The Jet Stream dipped wildly south along the east of the Cascades and Sierras.  It froze potatoes and caused hurricane force Santa Anas.  Fire and ice.

  111. 111.

    Feathers

    The only thing that could make this more ‘Murican is if the women then went after the manager for putting his hands on their child.

    @Elizabelle: One of the few bright spots around the Boston Marathon bombing was that because the victims went to teaching/research hospitals it has meant a leap forward in the understanding and treatment of traumatic hearing loss. Mainly because the doctors and researchers were able to follow and compare so many cases simultaneously. Also, most of the people treated for all the injuries have agreed to be a part of follow up studies.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    @Feathers:   Always look for the bright spots, even in terrible events.

     

    @Steeplejack:   Eagle vs. Shark it is.  And good on you for chauffeuring Laura Too and Merlin around.  And Merlin was out of his carrier while in the car?  Brave of both of you.

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    No, that was a joke about letting him drive!

    He stayed in his carrier the whole time. I didn’t even get a look at him, because it was a small soft-side draped with a towel. Looking forward to photos from TomatoQueen.

  115. 115.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dan B:

    The Jama Masjid (sp) Mosque

    Masjid (originally an Arabic word) already means mosque, so you would not need both words in the name of a particular mosque.

  116. 116.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack: Good to hear.  My cat got her head stuck in the steering wheel while my mom was driving us on I-95.  Traumatized us all.  That cat was not a fan of automobiles.

  118. 118.

    Dan B

    @Amir Khalid: I know but believe most BJ readers don’t.  Should have just said the largest mosque in India.

    My friend who was raised secular Hindu in New Delhi was terrified to visit the Jama Masjid.  She’d been raised to believe that all Muslims wanted to kill Hindus.

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