A short version of The Planet is all I have time for this week. I also included much more in the way of quotes than normal; wanted to make sure the context was correct. Short and late, my apologies. 

American Angst

Happy days are here again. Controversial Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona, the guy who dehumanizes prisoners, is on thebirther bandwagon. This is the gentleman who built a tent city jail where temperatures reach 135 degrees. Then he banned cigarettes, hot lunches, coffee, salt and pepper. He makes the male inmates wear pink underwear and socks, sometimes parading them around. He has claimed numerous times that Obama's birth certificate is a forgery. He bases this conclusion on the thought that it must be a forgery, since their is no other documents saying it isn't a forgery. That is critical thinking for the tea party gentleman.

Romney has a new campaign strategy, he totally agrees with Obama, yet manages to make it sound like he doesn't. Romney's attack ads center around the President's thought that businesses need help to succeed, that they "didn't build it themselves." Romney says that shows how out of touch with the business community Obama is. Gates built his business, Jobs his and mentions other names. Obama's taken out of context quote related to how businesses use the infrastructure that the government and the people built. Business owners went to schools that the public pays for. What really makes his argument look bad is that Romney took one billion dollars from the federal government while working on the Olympics; taxpayer money. 

Mitt has also decided not to release any more of his tax documents. Ann backs him up stating, "There are so many things that will be open again for more attack, and you just give more material for more attack, and that's the answer. We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life."

Take that you people.

Gun Goons

The NRA's tweet for Saturday morning from their @NRA_RIFLEMAN account was possibly not in the best of taste. The tweet in question said, "Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" The tweet was possibly done in advance, but pretty much sucked. That account is now gone.

This after the mass shooting in Aurora Colorado. Ten years ago, the assault weapon ban was still in effect so this type of damage cold be lessened, but Americans need their assault rifles; for hunting I'm sure.

The NRA said in a statement: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the community. NRA will not have any further comment until all the facts are known." They continued with the thought that if someone in the theater was armed they could have stopped the shooter. Well, hopefully they would have been great shots, since the shooter was wearing body armor. And of course, just what we need, vigilantes dispensing justice.

Right Wing Rants

Keeping are eyes on Aurora, here comes the crazy. American Family Association's Bryan Fischer had the answer to problems with America's youth:

"With regard to students, SAT scores began to plummet almost immediately, starting in 1963, and have never recovered. The rate of premarital sex began to climb, as did the rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Teenage pregnancies and teen births began to skyrocket, again starting in 1963. The rate at which teens were arrested for rape, aggravated assault, and murder shot through the roof ... The consequences for “parents” and families have been equally severe. Since 1963, the rates of adultery, divorce, cohabitation and domestic abuse have risen dramatically, and the intact nuclear family is being ravaged perhaps beyond repair.

With regard to “teachers” and our educational system, SAT scores have fallen into the basement while rates of school violence are shooting through the ceiling and our armed forces are hampered by functionally illiterate recruits.

The consequences for “our Country” are equally catastrophic. Homicide rates are up; more Americans are being gunned down in cold blood this year in Chicago than in Afghanistan. The nuclear family is breaking apart at culture-destroying rates. One of out every five adults in America has a lifelong, incurable sexually transmitted disease.The sexual and physical abuse of children is out of control.

The Supreme Court compounded its godless and criminal misconduct by banning the Ten Commandments and its moral precepts from classrooms in 1980. Their reasoning was fantastically absurd when looked at in the light of last night’s massacre.

“[I]f the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” which, the Court said, is “not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”

So these black-robed miscreants said we cannot permit potential mass murderers like James Holmes to read or meditate on God’s prohibition “Thou shall not murder” as a part of their education, because someone like him just might be inclined to “venerate and obey” it and not go on a midnight shooting rampage leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. No, we can’t be having that, now, can we?

...

It’s time for us to say to the left we’ve tried it your way for the past 60 years and our country is being destroyed before our very eyes. It’s time to try it our way for next 60 years. If we don’t like what we see in 2072, we can always drink again from the poisoned well of secular fundamentalism. Something tells me we won’t want to."

Jesus Juice

Not to be outdone by AFA's crazy Bryan Fischer, who has a "degree" in theology, Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries weighed in on the shootings as well; and in a predictably asinine fashion.

"I can't help but feel that to some extent, we're reaping what we've been sowing as a society. We said to God, "Get out of the public arena." Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided "civil libertarians," have chased away any fear of God in the land -- at least in the hearts of millions.

...

Recently, I wrote on the subject of Hell and how our society has generally lost its cognizance of it.

We've lost this cognizance to the point that a recent bestseller was a book by an "evangelical pastor," who for all practical purposes denied Hell (or the import of it). (It exists, but don't worry -- supposedly nobody's going there.) When the book was first published 16 months ago, it made the cover of TIME magazine. This month it was republished as a paperback.

This makes me think. "Wow, what the heck happened to Hell?" What -- was there some new revelation that changed what the Lord warned about? To me, what He said 2,000 years ago is still worth heeding: What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?

Tens of millions of young people in this culture seem to have no fear of God. It's becoming too commonplace that some frustrated person will go on a killing spree of random people. If they kill themselves, they think it's all over. But that's like going from the frying pan into the fire. Where's the fear of God in our society? I don't think people would do those sorts of things if they truly understood the reality of Hell."

Murder Mania

On average, we get the great displeasure of hearing about another mass murder more than once a year during the last 30 years. Mass murders are defined as being four or more people killed in a single incident.