#Thoughtsandprayers, #guncontrolnow and the Church of Satan

This is a cold heat anger post evolved from a cold heat snarky-yet-serious tweet of yesterday, over the Palmland, Broward County, school shooting. And trust me, I'll get all three header pieces tied in.

The picture says enough. The idea is garbage designed to pretend to really care about kids being killed by gunz, while still supporting politicians and a culture driven by fears of crime, driven by fears of the "other," and more. The "driven" isn't accidental; it's a deliberate move by the NRA and the politicians it funds, but voters aren't passive automatons.

The initial tweet?

OK .@NRA, NRA lovers and fellators, .@MarcoRubio, the #ReligiousRight and other people uttering the normal #thoughtsandprayers bullshit over the latest school shooting?
What if I attend the Church of Satan? Is it OK to pray to the Prince of Darkness for gunshot fatality kids?

— @realDonaldTrump (@SocraticGadfly) February 14, 2018

I then tagged the Church of Satan in a second tweet as part of a mini-thread:

.@ChurchofSatan You down with this? Can people offer #thoughtsandprayers to "you know who" instead of rationally working for #GunControlNow?

— @realDonaldTrump (@SocraticGadfly) February 14, 2018

It then said: "Please leave us out of this."

That said, the Church of Satan isn't "Satanists." It claims to be atheist, which I already knew. But I digress, and I'll tackle that more below. 

The portion of the Religious Right that overlaps with gun nuts doesn't really want ANY thoughts and prayers beyond conservative Christian Religious Right ones. Not only would it not welcome actual Satanic ones, it would also not welcome Jewish ones, Hindu ones, Muslim ones, or Buddhist ones.

And, per the second tweet's big picture and the Church of Satan being atheist (which I already knew), the Religious Right certainly doesn't welcome liberal secular common sense. That said, I know atheist gun nutz exist too. And, given the Church of Satan's values, some of them are probably members there too, at the Church of Gun Nutz, if anything.

I digress a bit again on the Church of Satan Ayn Rand. But I'll tackle that below.

The real frauds in this issue, of course, are members of the Religious Right who offer "thoughts and prayers" while voting for gun nutz elected officials, who claim to be "pro life" while voting for gun nutz elected officials and supporting a gun nutz NRA and more.

Of course, Religious Right hypocrisy goes better when combined with priggery which has at least some connection to it:

extremely 2018 America moment is bleeping out the cursing in a school shooting video, but not the gunshots https://t.co/s5G1nRztVb

— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) February 14, 2018

Gee, shock me.

And, sadden me. Between the Religious Right pretending teenage kids don't have hormones, and more liberal minded helicopter parents wanting to keep their children forever pre-juvenile, even as the Religious Right gives Fox, the most anti-religious right of the TV networks on show morality, a pass just because it's kin to Fox News, this isn't surprising either.

As for the gun control issue? I've never understood why presidents who allegedly support better control don't use executive orders and other executive tools as part of actual actions. Say, refusing to let companies headquartered in states with weak gun control laws bid on executive agency contracts. Make that decision, take that action, then justify it on national security grounds. Which it would be. But, the likes of Dear Leader Obama never tried that.

But Dear Leader, after getting his hands slapped for his 2008 primary season guns and beer comment, got no more serious about gun control — even by backdoor methods like I propose — then he did about single-payer national health care.

Related?

Dems of the #Resistance faction who called out Bernie Sanders for not having a litmus test on abortion? Or Berniecrats defending him?

Let's remember his own poor relationship to gun control laws. Brains didn't like me saying he was halfway (or more) a gun nut himself. Sorry, but I stand by that. In the 2016 primaries, he engaged in a hair-splitting stubborn double-down on his previous votes, and more than once, just like Elizabeth Warren did recently with her American Indian heritage claims.

Let's also note that for all of its pious handwringing, the MSM also has complicity. Beyond not suggesting answers even more creative than mine, when the New York Times continues to run bullshit by John Lott, even as "just" an op-ed, it's complicit.

I pick up the digressions again.

The Church of Satan Ayn Rand also says on Twitter that it mutes trolls, and arguably, atheists calling themselves Satanists are themselves trolling. And I reject its claims that people who worship a believed-to-be-actual Satan are devil-worshipers, not Satanists. Anton La Vey himself was a charlatan, a huckster and a liar. And, while he may not have believed in a literal Satan, through things like paranormal research and original Church of Satan rituals, he left the door open for the likes of Michael Aquino to proclaim a more literal Satanism of sorts, and for others to go beyond that. And, per the first link and Wiki, what it actually does believe might be called "Randianism in pretentious drag," the Randianism referring to Ayn Rand, not James Randi.

And, on the second bird I've killed with this one stone .... as of two hours after my initial Tweet, there were 20 likes of the Church of Randian Pretentiousness's response.

But my callout to Lil Marco:

Did you pray 3,303,355 times for it to never come? That's how much the NRA gave you.

— @realDonaldTrump (@SocraticGadfly) February 15, 2018

Has gotten more likes than the Church of Ayn Rand's callout of me.

Finally, let's not