You know how sometimes you’ll overhear a snippet of conversation and you pause in whatever it is you’re doing, waiting to hear more? That happened to me this weekend. I was at the market, baked goods aisle, and I heard this:
“Well, I don’t agree with everything he says, but Ben Carson has a valid point…”
And I skidded to a stop (right in front of the fresh-baked pumpkin bars). Ben Carson has a point. A valid point. Okay. That’s possible. You know, if we’re talking about pediatric neurosurgery, then yeah, sure, he could have a valid point. Otherwise…
“…the Nazis did impose gun control on the Jews. Maybe if they’d had a chance to…”
Ah, okay, no. No, Ben Carson does not have a valid point. Ben Carson is nowhere near having a valid point. He’s not on the same map as a valid point. If Ben Carson was the head of NASA, a valid point would be Matt Damon abandoned on Mars — only without the potatoes. Ben Carson’s valid point is a parrot pining for the fjords.
Dr. Ben Carson believes he has a valid point. He is, sadly, wrong.
I wrote about this whole Nazi gun control bullshit a couple of years ago, and I won’t bother to repeat it now. But anybody willing spend a little time actually looking at history can put a stake through the heart of that lie.
“Maybe if they’d had a chance to defend themselves, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened.”
Sweet Jeebus Jack-o-lantern, how fucking stupid do you have to be to believe this? Look, Poland had an army. Maybe not the world’s best army, but an actual army. Soldiers who’d been trained. Professional soldiers. The German army kicked the shit out of them in five weeks. Belgium had an army; so did the Netherlands. The Nazis walked over them in short order. Norway and Denmark both had armies, and they fell in a month. The French had an army, and it was actually a fairly good one — more than a hundred divisions, including one of the best armored mobile forces in the world. They held out against the German army for two months before surrendering.
But hey, if only ordinary Jewish citizens — all those doctors, cobblers, merchants, teachers, musicians, butchers, scholars — if only they’d had guns. Sure, they weren’t trained in combat, and sure, they were scattered in hundreds of cities across half a dozen different nations — but if only they’d been able to own rifles and shotguns and pistols, then maybe the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened.
Except, of course, history shows that German citizens could possess guns (and so could Jews until 1938). And history also shows the armies of at least eight European nations were unable to stop the Nazis. So to believe Jews With Guns could have prevented the Holocaust you have to first ignore historical realty and…well, reality in general.
In other words, you have to be like Ben Carson.
gregfallis.com 
These candidates are going to put satirists out of business. I thought the last presidential election would have been a palate cleanser for the Republicans, but it looks like it’s going to be an all-you-can-obfuscate buffet through next election as well.
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It’s really embarrassing, isn’t it, that this is the best the GOP can do. After a couple of decades of encouraging extremism over governance, they’ve completely lost the notion that the reason for being in government is actually to govern.
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I think regardless of one’s political inclinations, I resent the Republicans for dragging the level of public rhetoric down to that of a reality show. It’s frustrating to hear people (and the media) being occupied by all the whackadoodle things being said, instead of what we really need to know to make good decisions as voters.
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With respect to the various discussions regarding who may or may not have fared well had they only been allowed to arm themselves, I feel safe in saying that I’d be willing to bet the NRA “owns” more state and federal politicians than darned near any other influential group.
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I suspect the NRA is actually less powerful these days than their reputation would have people (and politicians) believe. But so long as politicians are intimidated by that reputation, the NRA will have influence.
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Although the NRA may not be as strong as it once was, there is mounting evidence it contibues to wield enough power to be able to prevent funding for research projects designed to determine any corelation between guns and the crime rate. For as much as the organization fights any efforts to control guns, there is very little evidence to support that gun owners are all the responsible bunch the NRA claims them to be.
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amidst new levels of stupidity, only anticipated by Einstein in his famous quote, methinks that this “Ben Carson is onto something” would make excellent new cinema. and just like «24» validated the use of torture to “the same people” (or that ilk, or wattevs), there is nothing like having a new script of Anne Frank with a gun. heck, make that a machine gun in a Normandy fortification, by the Germans, to make a bit more Rambo-esque* or Die Hard*.
[http://wonkette.com/594771/why-did-anne-frank-hide-like-a-coward-instead-of-killing-nazis-dead-like-a-real-man]
*I have seen none of them, I am just amplifying l’internets lore.
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I’m just here because I am so excited to see a post from Fernando. (Also, Greg, your post was full of actual valid points.)
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I love to come here and comment on Greg’s blog. I always read all the entries — because I have him on RSS — but I refrain to comment on every single post! that would so facebook-like, no? :))
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That’s the thing about willful ignorance, isn’t it. It’s pretty much impervious to fact or reality.
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