last nite/this a.m. a dozen people were killed, and dozens injured at a cinema in-near Aurora, Colorado.

In Florida, President Obama cancels planned campaign activities; I haven't heard what WMR will do.

NYC mayor calls upon the candidates to engage with a discussion about gun control.

I was moved by emotion as I listened to the president, and I wonder how Romney will act/re-act; this may be another defining moment in the campaign.

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My dd is about 30 minutes from there, but has friends in Aurora. She is waiting to find out if they are all ok. I sure hope none of them went to the movie! This is such a tragedy!

In times like this, all you can do, as someone who is so far from the scene, is hope - hope that those who fell victim to the killer are resting in peace, and their families and friends will be comforted.

My DD lives up the street from the shooter and a couple of miles from the theatre. Her family is safe, but freaked out.

Here's a photo of the suspect, Mr. Holmes. Anyone else know him?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/gallery/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

A friend of mine goes to the same school in Colorado as the shooter, but thankfully nobody he knows is among the wounded or killed so far.

VERY upset that some douchebag Republican from Texas is blaming the shooting on "not enough belief in God in the US". Moron.

The douchebag of whom you speak is one Louie Gohmert. How will the families of victims feel when they hear blowhards claiming that "not enough belief in God" caused the deaths?

This is one tiny step away from blame-the-victims, and is very mormon-like, though I'm sure it is also very any-fundamentalist-like.

This type of comment denigrates the grief that overwhelms us after such a tragedy.

No. Just, no. You don't get to blame effing bugnuts gunmen on anyone's lack of belief in Louis Gohmert's vindictive god.


Here are some excerpts from coverage by Steve Benen:

...After the Columbine massacre, for example, then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) blamed science textbooks for the murders: "Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup."

In 2007, after the Virginia Tech massacre, Newt Gingrich blamed liberals for supporting "situation ethics," adding, "Yes, I think the fact is, if you look at the amount of violence we have in games that young people play at 7, 8, 10, 12, 15 years of age, if you look at the dehumanization, if you look at the fact that we refuse to say that we are, in fact, endowed by our creator, that our rights come from God, that if you kill somebody, you're committing an act of evil." Gingrich, explaining the VT tragedy, went on to condemn Halloween costumes and the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law.

And this morning, after the slayings in Aurora, Louie Gohmert weighed in with some stupidity of his own.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of "ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs" and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.

...

"Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important," he said. "Whether it's John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people ... Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country."

"You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place."

I see. So, in the mind of this strange Republican congressman, a madman killed 12 people because of ... the separation of church and State? The First Amendment is to blame for a shooting spree in a movie theater?

If decency had any place in American politics, this would be an immediate career-ender for the ridiculous congressman from Texas. Some political missteps are simply unforgivable....

Aurora is my husbands home town, although we are far away from CO now. Does anyone know the name of the movie theater?

It happened at the Century 16 next to the Aurora mall.

Century 16 at Town Center Mall on Sable and Alameda I think.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2012 02:13PM by rutabaga.