Just One Thing
We live in an ugly world right now. Of course, there’s nothing uglier than what happened at Club Q in Colorado Springs on Saturday night. And then in the aftermath we have folks on the left blaming every Republican, we have Republicans going back at them, all forgetting the actual victims of this terrible crime.
I was on the periphery of a stupid Twitter conversation yesterday with a relatively prominent liberal castigating a relatively prominent conservative for not tweeting about the horror in the Springs. Then, when the conservative did so, his replies were full of vitriol from the left blaming him for the death and destruction.
I had a lunatic listener say that my conversation about the events was bigoted even though no honest and sentient being could have taken it that way, but the dude was very very angry and I guess he decided to take it out on me. I don’t care except that it’s another sign that the divisions in this country run deeper than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime and too many people are obsessed with calling conservatives bigots or with owning the libs to think it’s getting better anytime soon.
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Today's Guests
Two unfortunately timely guests today, guests who I booked before knowing about the shooting at Club Q but who are particularly relevant right now.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert just barely won her re-election campaign that most folks (including I) thought she'd win easily. What message does she take from that? For example, does she plan on continuing to be as flamboyantly out-front on national issues even if it means her district's residents think she's not paying enough attention to local needs?
Also, Lauren is well-known as a Christian conservative who has said some rather aggressive things in the "culture wars" surrounding LGBT stuff, "drag shows" at schools (which I also oppose, though I don't think they represent the end of the world as we know it), etc. One article I saw said that she described some aspect of LGBT as "spitting in God's face." Ugh. She posted a tweet noting how "awful" the mass murder in Colorado Springs was and she got over 40,000 replies...almost all of them castigating her as being at least part of the problem if not assigning outright responsibility to her. I'll ask Lauren what she thinks of the responses and whether the public reaction will change how she talks about these issues even as I'm sure it won't change what she believes about them.
Tiffany Starrett's lovely 18-year-old daughter, Ally, was murdered by her (Ally's) boyfriend. It's such a terrible story that even typing these words brings me near to tears, especially thinking of what it did to my mother when my brother died (and he wasn't murdered.) Tiffany wrote about the events and her own personal, psychological, and family journey through the incredible trauma in her new book, "Through Her Mother's Eyes". We'll take listener questions in the hope that perhaps Tiffany's experience can help others.
https://smile.amazon.com/Through-Her-Mothers-Eyes-Surviving/dp/1950320456
Family of slain Eaglecrest graduate calls on suspect to surrender | FOX31 Denver (kdvr.com)
Check out her art at EverlastingEchoes.com.
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Other Stuff
TRUE HERO: Army veteran recounts subduing gunman at Colorado LGBTQ club
"It's a reflex": https://apnews.com/article/crime-shootings-colorado-veterans-springs-9e454614a9514a8e425eded9826a7def
The hero's wife is a brewmaster at a brewery in Colorado Springs...go buy some of their beer! https://www.atrevidabeerco.com/why-atrevida
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Two great pieces from Bari Weiss's Common Sense News:
How China Got Our Kids Hooked on ‘Digital Fentanyl’ (commonsense.news)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Kanye, Kyrie, and Antisemitism (commonsense.news)
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Great point in here about advertising costs, especially if my vague recollection is correct that Democratic donors tend to give more directly to candidates and Republican donors tend to give more to party organizations and political action committees:
GOP's lackluster fundraising spurs post-election infighting | AP News
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McCarthy's pressure, should he become Speaker of the House, will not only be from his right: GOP centrists prepare to ‘flex our muscles’ - POLITICO
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Great questions about the media's treatment of Ponzi-schemer Sam Bankman-Fried: https://reason.com/2022/11/21/sam-bankman-fried-journalism-funding-crypto-fraud-media
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Is a railroad strike coming? Biden’s Railroad Deal Falls Apart - WSJ
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Today's Image and Videos
Lightening it up a little: Dog physics
And this actually made me laugh yesterday on a day that was quite emotionally challenging
Early in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Iranian men's soccer team, in order to support the protesters at home, refused to sing their nation's national anthem
More protests against gov't of Iran
Stay home if you can't support the team
Finally, I'm not going to go around licking strangers, but there is a nice metaphor here about how we should be treating each other better than we seem to be lately