The Threat Mitt Romney Posed

Does anyone in that insane Republican Party realize the poisonous words that came out of the Romnebot's mouth in Israel did more to undue DECADES of hard work by Democrats AND Republicans (before they turned extreme) administrations alike? Romney was egregiously wrong to say what he did.  He in essence told the Israeli opposition that they were inferior and that Jews made it economically because of culture implying that Palestinian culture was less good.  Romney forgot the world was listening.

 

Romney did more to HURT Israel than 10 presidents did to HELP it.  He hurt the Israeli cause by failing to take account of the opposition's argument and its feelings. Any good mediator NEVER insults one of the parties but tries to work with ALL parties to gain a result.  This guy is either insane or he is kissing Sheldon Buyout Adelson's rings and on bended knee wanting and accepting Sheldon Adelson's MILLIONS won through Nevada casino gambling enterprises.  By the way Sheldon Adelson is being federally investigated under The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which bars American companies from paying foreign officials (in this case people in Macau, China) to "affect or influence any act or decision" for business gain.

 

I am Jewish and I support Israel.  I love that country and I do NOT want to, by my words, help destroy it.  The Arab world is in tumult.  Anger is a razor edge sharp.  How many numbers of people compose the Arab world AND the Palestinian people?  MANY MORE THAN ISRAEL. Israel MUST negotiate not only because of the Jewish people's small numbers but because it is guess what -- THE RIGHT THING TO DO.  Perhaps the Palestinians are not doing well because they are suffering from crippling sanctions and relegated in essence to ghettos.

 

That empty suit Romney has to SHUT UP!  He does more to hurt the cause of the Jewish people than he could ever do to help.  The orthodox Jewish cause is NOT the cause of Israel.  My Israeli brethren better get smart.  It takes two to tango and one does NOT make peace by insulting one's opposition.  One ONLY makes war. Are Romney's sons going to fight the next Middle East war?  Is America going to join the US in how many wars 1, 5, 10 if Romney is elected?  Who will pay for it in blood and money?  You can bet it will not be Romney's sons.  It WILL be the sons and daughters of those who are NOT part of the 1% wealthiest in this nation.

 

Middle East negotiations take CAREFUL, well planned, well thought out prescient, soft statements that do not inflame but cause all sides to realize each has some points.  People want to be understood and acknowledged.  Romney served ONLY to anger Israel’s enemies and put Israel at great risk.  Moreover, Obama has been supportive and good to Israel while not ignoring in negotiation the plight of the Palestinians.

 

If you want your children and grandchildren to live with economic stability and foreign policy prudence our president can give us both if the mean, ruinous, destructive and even treasonous Republican Party would truly think of country first instead of last.

 

We MUST put country first and Re-elect the president and elect Elizabeth Warren the great to the US Senate!

 

 

 

Israel, Romney, Life and Death

Many possibly have heard Willard Mitt Romney's pandering speech in Israel. Among many insults to Israel's enemies Romney thought it would be such a good idea to declare Jerusalem as Israel's capital. They must have simply loved hearing that in Gaza and around the Arab world.

Romney also indicated that he surely would support a military strike on Iran if Israel deems it necessary. Now that surely WILL stop the Iranians in their tracks in pursuit of a nuclear weapon -- NOT. The world knows that Israel already possesses nuclear weaponry why did the idiot of prescient foreign policy ever think he could threaten his way into perfecting a Middle East peace through violent means? With how many wars in the Middle East would Americans love to be associated -- one, two, three, four or MORE -- paid for on the credit card? Could the US destabilize the Middle East any more than it already has? Could the US kill and displace hundreds of thousands of humanity yet again? Could the US throw itself into yet another war as if the ones George Bush loved killed 4000 of our best and lifetime wounded thousands of others were not enough!

Some neoCONS cannot wait to use a nuclear device on Iran to beat Iran to the punch (so to speak.) I hope there is no wind or rain on the day they use one as radiation just may blow back on the entire Middle East itself including my beloved Israel where relatives about whom I happen to care, live.

Romney is DISGUSTING in every single unethical way known to man. I am Jewish and I love Israel. I SURELY do hope American Jews continue as they always have to support the Democrat Barack Obama. I believe sincerely that they will. Jews as a group supported the president in numbers second only to African Americans. Barack Obama without the bluster of heated rhetoric continues to show his unequivocal support of the Jewish state.

Romney's speech was as usual pandering to the lowest sort of common denominator to get the votes of the Evangelicals and one-issue Jews GUARANTEED NOT to promote peace but to ensure war if GOD FORBID A TRILLION TIMES that jerk Romney is elected. I loathe the man Romney more than I even did George Bush. Now that is going some. I hope and trust my Jewish brethren feel as I do IF they want the Israel to continue to exist!

Romney is a shameless bastard who knows no ethics but his own which is whatever it takes to get the POTUS seal behind the podium from which he would love to speak.

Yet another reason, as if we needed any more, to re-elect the president and Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate. It is a matter, literally, of the life and death of you and your children that we do!

Unafraid to Fillet a Chicken

Chick-Fil-A has the right as a corporation to say whatever it wants with respect to any issue. Recently its CEO has come out strongly against gay marriage and, of course, hypocritically, pro God. We who value civil liberties know its right to say that is what free speech is all about. One may not like the content of speech but one, in a democratic society, must, as the French philosopher Voltaire said, “… defend to the death your right to say it.”

Having said that, I did dash a note to Mayor Menino containing high praise for what he said. He said “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it. I urge you to back out of your plans to locate in Boston.”

I also blogged on Facebook to boycott Chick-Fil-A. I did so because espousing those beliefs not only is noxious but also creates a threatening atmosphere for those minorities against whom the hateful speech is directed. As long as Chick-Fil-A does not discriminate in hiring or create a hostile atmosphere for those who are “perceived” to be gay, it stands within its legally correct boundaries. Want to bet that Chick-Fil-A has rejected employment to someone whom they thought or knew was gay? If someone said they were against equal rights for African Americans and thought the 1965 Civil Rights Act was wrong how likely would it be that they would refuse to hire an African American? I aver it would be very likely.

Being gay is much harder to discern but one can at times discern it. I would NOT bet the house on the fact that Chick-Fil-A with its backward views would not discriminate in hiring a homosexual, would you?

I suppose the mayor had no right to say Chick-Fil-A cannot set up a business in their city but we are within our rights to boycott a business that espouses malodorous prejudicial views. Yes, Nazis can march in Skokie and I do NOT have to like it BUT I do not have to remain silent against it either. I applaud Mayor Menino’s statement. Those who have felt the sting of anti-gay sentiment know that it is one short step from advocating anti gay views to acting on anti gay views.

In this instance, I thank the few mayors that do support the civil rights of everyone and who are particularly sensitive to a group that has suffered the slings and arrows of Biblical nonsense for millennia. I am Jewish and a part of the people who WROTE the Biblical text of Leviticus. Anti-gay groups use its terrorizing words as justification to assault this minority and deprive it of its Constitutional rights. Moreover, the Biblical statement against homosexuality has served to do nothing but make a huge number of people feel terrible about themselves and even suicidal because of it. It is one reason, among many, I have turned my back on the ritual of the faith into which I was born. Shame on that man-made anti-science Biblical text which creates a Chick-Fil-A in the first place. Am I angry? YOU BET I AM and I am not ashamed to say it.

Yet another Fact Sheet: Advancing Israel's Security and Supporting

Feel free to forward!

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 27, 2012

 

Fact Sheet: Advancing Israel's Security and Supporting Peace

“Our commitment to the security of Israel is rock solid.  And as I've said to the Prime Minister in every single one of our meetings, the United States will always have Israel's back when it comes to Israel's security.  This is a bond that is based not only on our mutual security interests and economic interests, but is also based on common values and the incredible people-to-people contacts that we have between our two countries.”

            President Barack Obama
March 5, 2012

The President has strengthened Israel’s security in tangible and concrete ways.

·         On July 27, 2012 the President signed the “United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012”, which strengthens Israel’s qualitative military edge.  The bill expressed bipartisan Congressional support for Administration initiatives that deepen U.S. defense and security cooperation with Israel, to include providing Israel with financial and technological assistance to produce defensive systems to counter the threat of rockets and missiles; access to U.S. manufactured defense equipment and excess defense articles; and increased opportunities to train with U.S. military forces.

·         Despite tough fiscal times, the President fought for and secured full funding for Israel in FY 2012, including $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing – the largest amount of funding for Israel in U.S. history. 

·         The President secured an additional $205 million in FY 2011 to help produce an Israeli-developed short-range rocket defense system called Iron Dome, which has helped defend Israeli communities against rocket attacks by successfully striking rockets as they are fired at Israeli civilians. 

 

·         In July 2012, President Obama provided an additional $70 million to Israel to ensure that Israel could maximize its production of the Iron Dome system for 2012.  Over the next three years, the Administration intends to request additional funding for Iron Dome, based on an annual assessment of Israeli security requirements against an evolving threat.

·         Israeli forces now benefit from regular joint exercises and training opportunities, access to advanced U.S. military hardware, emergency stockpiles, and favorable terms for the acquisition of equipment. 

 

·         Prime Minister Netanyahu told the AIPAC conference on May 23, 2012, that “Yesterday President Obama spoke about his ironclad commitment to Israel's security.  He rightly said that our security cooperation is unprecedented… And he has backed those words with deeds.”  

 

·         In a July 25, 2012, speech to the Israeli National Security College, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “The security ties between us and the current administration are at the highest level they have ever been.  The administration is consistently strengthening the depths of Israel’s security abilities.  The decision to expand the Iron Dome system with U.S. financial backing is yet another expression of this deep connection and commitment.” 

 

The President has galvanized the international community to put more pressure on the Iranian regime than ever before.

·         President Obama has been clear that the United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.  He has backed up this commitment with tangible steps to increase pressure substantially on the Iranian regime and raise the costs of its defiance of the international community. 

·         With President Obama’s leadership, the United States gained the support of Russia, China, and other nations to pass United Nations Security Council resolution 1929, creating the most comprehensive and biting international sanctions regime the Iranian government has ever faced.  This resolution imposes restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, ballistic missile program, conventional military exports to Iran, Iranian banks and financial transactions, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

·         The Obama Administration also worked with allies such as the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Canada, and others to adopt additional national measures to increase pressure on the Iranian regime, including in the financial, banking, insurance, transportation, and energy sectors.  Iran is now virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system and we are working aggressively to isolate Iran even further. 

·         In addition to multilateral sanctions, President Obama worked with Congress to pass in 2010 the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act, which strengthens existing U.S. sanctions, and makes it harder for the Iranian government to buy refined petroleum and the goods it needs to modernize its oil and gas sector.  Already, close to $60 billion in energy-related projects in Iran have been put on hold or discontinued. 

·         More recently, the Administration worked with Congress to develop Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which makes sanctionable a host of transactions involving the Central Bank of Iran. 

·         The United States has worked closely with partners during the first half of 2012 to secure their cooperation with these sanctions, resulting in the significant reduction of purchases of oil from all of Iran’s major oil trading partners.  For instance, the European Union has put in place a full embargo on Iranian oil.  The impact on Iran has been severe, with perhaps as much as 1 million barrels per day in sales revenue taken away from Iran, at the cost of billions per month. 

·         International companies are increasingly recognizing the risks of doing business with Iran and are abandoning existing business opportunities, declining to take advantage of new ones, and scaling back any existing relationships.  This trend has been replicated across a broad range of industries.  Examples of companies withdrawing from business with Iran include:  Shell, Total, ENI, Statoil, Repsol, Lukoil, Kia, Toyota, Siemens, and foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms such as GE, Honeywell, and Caterpillar.

·         The Obama Administration is working to develop more sanctions to further isolate and increase the pressure on the Iranian regime.  The President signed two new Executive Orders in April 2012 that addressed human rights violations and sanctions evasion, and we continue to look for new ways to expand our authorities and strengthen our implementation of existing ones to ensure that Iran understands that its failure to comply with its international obligations will have ever intensifying consequences.

 

The President has stood with Israel in times of crisis.

·         The President personally intervened to help avert catastrophe when a violent mob stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.  Afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said of the President: “I requested his assistance at a decisive—I would even say fateful—moment.  He said he would do everything possible, and this is what he did. He activated all of the United States’ means and influence — which are certainly considerable.  I believe we owe him a special debt of gratitude.”

 

The President has made clear that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with Hamas, a terrorist group sworn to its destruction.

·         In his speech in Cairo and elsewhere, the President has consistently demanded that Hamas accept Israel’s right to exist, reject violence, and adhere to all existing agreements before it can play a role in achieving Middle East peace.

·         The President has spoken out forcefully to condemn Hamas attacks against Israelis.  He has made clear that “it is a sign neither of courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus.  That’s not how moral authority is claimed; that’s how it is surrendered.”  At the United Nations, he emphasized that “the slaughter of innocent Israelis is not resistance – it’s injustice.”

 

The President has forcefully opposed unbalanced and biased actions against Israel in the Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and across the UN system.

·         The President has consistently opposed attempts to shortcut the peace process through resolutions at the United Nations.  When an effort was made to insert the Security Council into matters that should be resolved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, we vetoed it.  In his September 21, 2011 address to the United Nations General Assembly, the President said “I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades.  Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations -- if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.  Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side.  Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians -- not us –- who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and on security, on refugees and Jerusalem.”

 

·         When the UN General Assembly voted for a commemoration in September 2011 of the original 2001 Durban conference, we voted against it and announced we would not participate.  When the Goldstone Report was released, we stood up strongly for Israel’s right to defend itself.

 

The President has called on all sides – Arabs, Palestinians, and Israelis alike – to do their part to help achieve Middle East peace.

·         In Cairo, the President said that Arab states must recognize that they too have responsibilities to move towards peace, including by fostering a culture of peace.  He said clearly that “threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong,” and that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant, and hateful.”
 

·         In his May 19, 2011 speech, President Obama emphasized that a peace agreement must meet the needs of both sides, including by:  ending the conflict and resolving all claims, achieving the goal of two states for two peoples with Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people, achieving secure and recognized borders for both sides, and devising robust security arrangements that will not leave Israel vulnerable.

 

Mayor Menino's Courageous Stand

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your courageous stand for equality against the noxious views of  Chik-Fill-A with respect to equal rights for gay people.  I know many many others who want to thank you too and give their support.

I and many others I know would NEVER step one foot into that revolting business and now even think twice about the Bruins's player who voiced his support for it.  That is dismaying.  When people who depend upon the public for their livelihood spew statements of hate and inequality they not only hurt themselves but they hurt the enterprises with which they are associated.

We stand by you 100%.  You are in good company; the company of patriots who take seriously the watchwords of our nation:  Liberty and justice for all.  There should be NO exceptions to this rule and you have done many who have come before you, who have shed blood for that liberty, proud.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

To My Jewish Brethern Especially

The Republican Party has been trying to spew lies against the president to Jews hoping they will turn around the Jewish vote, always Democratic, and vote Republican.  God forbid perish the thought.  That will NEVER happen. Jews have always voted Democratic and this November will be NO exception.  Right wing extremists have traditionally been most anti-Semitic until recently when they have twisted their own anti-Jewish rhetoric to fit into SOME religious fanatical fundamentalist thought; wolves in sheep's clothing perhaps?

 

When other Jewish compatriots fear that Obama is a secretly plotting against Israel put on your rational hat and think again.  I ask you to read the following if you want to see the truth about Obama's EXCELLENT relationship with Israel and how other presidents whom one would think would work for Israel, in reality, worked against Israeli interests. I offer the following reasons that were sent to me by a Jewish friend why anyone -- especially Jews -- should not even consider voting Republican.

Brethren, relations between Israel and the United States are warmer under President Obama than under previous administrations, yet we hear that the President has a "Jewish problem." The problem is not Obama, but us: In only three years, we've lost historic perspective. We're criticizing Obama for what would have gone unnoticed in other administrations.

Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger threatened to "reassess" America 's relationship with Israel . Obama has declared that America 's bond with Israel is "unbreakable," and Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak credited Obama for the strongest relationship between the two countries ever.

Ronald Reagan suspended arms shipments to Israel and supported a UN resolution criticizing Israel for bombing Iraq 's nuclear reactor. Obama secretly sold Israel the bunker busting bombs it requested during the Bush administration and cast the only UN veto of his administration against the one-sided anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution on settlements. (And I might add Ronald Reagan went to Bitburg, Germany to lay a wreath commemorating German solder dead!)

George W. Bush pressured Israel to allow Hamas to participate in Gaza elections and made little progress in stopping Iran 's march toward nuclear weapons. Obama has not negotiated with Hamas. He has mobilized the international community to impose the toughest sanctions ever against Iran and flat-out declared that that he will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, saying no options are off the table.

Obama's pro-Israel accomplishments compare favorably with any Republican president. Yet we keep complaining.

We say he hasn't visited Israel as president, forgetting that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents who visited Israel during their first terms in office. George W. Bush did not visit Israel until his seventh year as president. Ronald Reagan never visited in his entire life. Obama went to Israel as recently as 2006 and 2008.

We complain that the Obama administration criticizes Israel 's settlement policy, forgetting that every administration since 1967 has criticized Israel 's settlement policy. But unlike George H.W. Bush, Obama never threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Israel because of settlement activity; instead, Obama has taken U.S. financial assistance to Israel to record levels.

We complain about imagined slights to Prime Minister Netanyahu, forgetting that when the chips were down, Obama came through for Israel and Netanyahu. When Israel asked for help fighting the Carmel forest fires, President Obama's response was "get Israel whatever it needs. Now."

In September 2011, when the late-night call came from Israel to Obama asking for help in rescuing the Israelis trapped in the Egyptian embassy, Netanyahu himself called it a "decisive and fateful moment," recalling that Obama "said 'I will do everything I can.' And he did."

The list goes on and on. Obama opposed the Goldstone Report, stood with Israel against the Gaza flotilla, boycotted Durban II and Durban III, and successfully derailed Palestinian attempts to unilaterally declare statehood at the UN. He's done more than any president to thwart Iran 's nuclear ambitions.

Yet despite the facts, despite the historic perspective, it's almost as if some of us want Obama to be anti-Israel because that would validate our worst fears. Attacking Obama on Israel is like attacking John Kerry on his personal military record. The Swift Boat campaign worked because Kerry and his supporters were too slow to take it seriously and fight fiction with facts. The result was four more years of George W. Bush.

Maybe it's our nature to complain. But President Obama's words and deeds prove that he is not only a strong friend of Israel, but that he is willing to stand up for Israel publicly and behind the scenes. That's what matters, and that's why most Jews will again vote for Obama in 2012.

 

The Penultimate Case for Universal Health Care

An argument here for universal health care if I ever read one!


http://www.nationofchange.org/wounded-and-pregnant-aurora-family-without-health-coverage-1343313301#

Climate Catastrophe -- No Time to Waste

Climate catastrophe is what happens when religious extremists and right wing ideological fanatics drive policy. It is what happens when one denies science. Climate scientists in large numbers, except those paid by the oil companies, have been screaming climate change for decades. The best scientists this country has to offer have been warning that man was warming the planet through the burning of fossil fuels. It can be seen over centuries. This means NOT simply a few scorcher days but it means SIGNIFICANT weather events in every season creating unparalleled destruction with rippling effects. 

No matter where one lives one does not have to possess an MIT doctorate to see something out of the ordinary is happening. Whether it is the extreme heat of summer with its droughts, fires, destructive hurricanes and floods to the blizzards of winter we can see it with our own eyes.

We have a country that is saturated with truth deniers and myth believers. Nature will not care as it proceeds under its immutable laws. Mankind must heed the undeniable truths uncovered by science or he will perish. Either man’s superior intellect will ensure survival or his belief in superstitious myth will ensure his extinction. 

We face a Darwinian evolutionary existential moment. The choice is ours and it better be made fast. Either the darkness of ignorance will spawn man's demise or the light of knowledge will ensure new life. Either way science dictates man’s future or lack of it on earth.  Our survival on earth depends upon man working within its immutable laws. Clearly, change is happening fast there is no time to waste.

Why?

I received this analysis from the documentarian Michael Moore.  If you have not read or seen it I suggest you do.  It brings up many of the issues attendant to one of the most despicable crimes in US history that is and will forever be known as Aurora.  We incredulously try to answer why the unspeakable horror took place.

I cannot get out of my mind the six year old child, Veronica Moser-Sullivan who was killed in Aurora. Her mother now lies paralyzed neck down from the killer's rampage.  My own personal tragedy of Polio makes me keenly aware of spinal cord paralysis.  In reality that is what polio is, a viral random spinal cord destroyer and life-long altering malady.  To say it simply -- I can relate. 

There to me MUST be an answer WHY that woman went from 100% mobility to probably life-long paralysis and total immobility the instant the pathological sender pulled the triggers of his lethal weaponry.  Michael Moore revisits his masterpiece documentary of "Bowling for Columbine" that speaks so eloquently about gun violence in America and offers, too, some analysis below.  It is worth considering.  Various links are embedded within his opinion as well.

Michael Moore says:

Since Cain went nuts and whacked Abel, there have always been those humans who, for one reason or another, go temporarily or permanently insane and commit unspeakable acts of violence. There was the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who during the first century A.D. enjoyed throwing victims off a cliff on the Mediterranean island of Capri. Gilles de Rais, a French knight and ally of Joan of Arc during the middle ages, went cuckoo-for-Cocoa Puffs one day and ended up murdering hundreds of children. Just a few decades later Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula, was killing people in Transylvania in numberless horrifying ways. 

In modern times, nearly every nation has had a psychopath or two commit a mass murder, regardless of how strict their gun laws are – the crazed white supremacist in Norway one year ago Sunday, the schoolyard butcher in Dunblane, Scotland, the École Polytechnique killer in Montreal, the mass murderer in Erfurt, Germany … the list seems endless. 

And now the Aurora shooter last Friday. There have always been insane people, and there always will be. 

But here's the difference between the rest of the world and us: We have TWO Auroras that take place every single day of every single year! At least 24 Americans every day (8-9,000 a year) are killed by people with guns – and that doesn't count the ones accidentally killed by guns or who commit suicide with a gun. Count them and you can triple that number to over 25,000. 

That means the United States is responsible for over 80% of all the gun deaths in the 23 richest countriescombined. Considering that the people of those countries, as human beings, are no better or worse than any of us, well, then, why us? 

Both conservatives and liberals in America operate with firmly held beliefs as to "the why" of this problem. And the reason neither can find their way out of the box toward a real solution is because, in fact, they're both half right. 

The right believes that the Founding Fathers, through some sort of divine decree, have guaranteed them the absolute right to own as many guns as they desire. And they will ceaselessly remind you that a gun cannot fire itself – that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." 

Of course, they know they're being intellectually dishonest (if I can use that word) when they say that about the Second Amendment because they know the men who wrote the constitution just wanted to make sure a militia could be quickly called up from amongst the farmers and merchants should the Brits decide to return and wreak some havoc. 

But they are half right when they say "Guns don't kill people." I would just alter that slogan slightly to speak the real truth: "Guns don't kill people, Americans kill people." 

Because we're the only ones in the first world who do this en masse. And you'll hear all stripes of Americans come up with a host of reasons so that they don't have to deal with what's really behind all this murder and mayhem. 

They'll say it's the violent movies and video games that are responsible. Last time I checked, the movies and video games in Japan are more violent than ours – and yet usually fewer than 20 people a year are killed there with guns – and in 2006 the number was two! 

Others will say it's the number of broken homes that lead to all this killing. I hate to break this to you, but there are almost as many single-parent homes in the U.K. as there are here – and yet, in Great Britain, there are usually fewer than 40 gun murders a year. 

People like me will say this is all the result of the U.S. having a history and a culture of men with guns, "cowboys and Indians," "shoot first and ask questions later." And while it is true that the mass genocide of the Native Americans set a pretty ugly model to found a country on, I think it's safe to say we're not the only ones with a violent past or a penchant for genocide. Hello, Germany! That's right I'm talking about you and your history, from the Huns to the Nazis, just loving a good slaughter (as did the Japanese, and the British who ruled the world for hundreds of years – and they didn't achieve that through planting daisies). And yet in Germany, a nation of 80 million people, there are only around 200 gun murders a year. 

So those countries (and many others) are just like us – except for the fact that more people here believe in God and go to church than any other Western nation. 

My liberal compatriots will tell you if we just had less guns, there would be less gun deaths. And, mathematically, that would be true. If you have less arsenic in the water supply, it will kill less people. Less of anything bad – calories, smoking, reality TV – will kill far fewer people. And if we had strong gun laws that prohibited automatic and semi-automatic weapons and banned the sale of large magazines that can hold a gazillion bullets, well, then shooters like the man in Aurora would not be able to shoot so many people in just a few minutes. 

But this, too, has a problem. There are plenty of guns in Canada (mostly hunting rifles) – and yet the annual gun murder count in Canada is around 200 deaths. In fact, because of its proximity, Canada's culture is very similar to ours – the kids play the same violent video games, watch the same movies and TV shows, and yet they don't grow up wanting to kill each other. Switzerland has the third-highest number of guns per capita on earth, but still a low murder rate. 

So – why us? 

I posed this question a decade ago in my film 'Bowling for Columbine,' and this week, I have had little to say because I feel I said what I had to say ten years ago – and it doesn't seem to have done a whole lot of good other than to now look like it was actually a crystal ball posing as a movie. 

This is what I said then, and it is what I will say again today: 

1. We Americans are incredibly good killers. We believe in killing as a way of accomplishing our goals. Three-quarters of our states execute criminals, even though the states with the lower murder rates are generally the states with no death penalty. 

Our killing is not just historical (the slaughter of Indians and slaves and each other in a "civil" war). It is our current way of resolving whatever it is we're afraid of. It's invasion as foreign policy. Sure there's Iraq and Afghanistan – but we've been invaders since we "conquered the wild west" and now we're hooked so bad we don't even know where to invade (bin Laden wasn't hiding in Afghanistan, he was in Pakistan) or what to invade for (Saddam had zero weapons of mass destruction and nothing to do with 9/11). We send our lower classes off to do the killing, and the rest of us who don't have a loved one over there don't spend a single minute of any given day thinking about the carnage. And now we send in remote pilotless planes to kill, planes that are being controlled by faceless men in a lush, air conditioned studio in suburban Las Vegas. It is madness. 

2. We are an easily frightened people and it is easy to manipulate us with fear. What are we so afraid of that we need to have 300 million guns in our homes? Who do we think is going to hurt us? Why are most of these guns in white suburban and rural homes? Maybe we should fix our race problem and our poverty problem (again, #1 in the industrialized world) and then maybe there would be fewer frustrated, frightened, angry people reaching for the gun in the drawer. Maybe we would take better care of each other (here's a good example of what I mean). 

Those are my thoughts about Aurora and the violent country I am a citizen of. Like I said, I spelled it all out here if you'd like to watch it or share it for free with others. All we're lacking here, my friends, is the courage and the resolve. I'm in if you are. 

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com