When was the last time a Philosopher went viral?

Open Carry Texas Activists

Below is an excerpt of A Rational Response to Open Carry Activists written by Philosopher Jack Russell Weinstein that went viral.

You want to read this essay in full and the resulting comments at the source. 

"As most people know, there are activists in Texas who are making a point of going to public places with visible firearms. They have gotten a lot of attention because some chain restaurants and stores have prohibited them from openly carrying their weapons, mostly because it frightens other patrons.

This fear is legitimate. As many have pointed out, there is no way for bystanders to know whether the people with guns are “good guys” or “bad guys.” It is rational to be afraid of someone with a weapon, especially if you know nothing about them.

Furthermore, as Jon Stewart has pointed out better than anyone else, since people are often legally permitted to use guns to protect themselves when they are legitimately afraid for their lives, there is no predicting when someone is going to see the activists and shoot before they ask questions. This will happen. It is just a matter of time. And, in many cases, it will be a legal and rational act. None of us want to be victims of the crossfire.

My proposal is as follows: we should all leave. Immediately. Leave the food on the table in the restaurant. Leave the groceries in the cart, in the aisle. Stop talking or engaging in the exchange. Just leave, unceremoniously, and fast.

But here is the key part: don’t pay. Stopping to pay in the presence of a person with a gun means risking your and your loved ones’ lives; money shouldn’t trump this. It doesn’t matter if you ate the meal. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just received food from the deli counter that can’t be resold. It doesn’t matter if you just got a haircut. Leave. If the business loses money, so be it. They can make the activists pay."

Sign of the Month - July 2014

Grayson and Tina Haver Currin just doing their Saturday Chores. And then they got famous.

Smile when you say "Open Carry," Partner.

Open Carry Guitar Rally
July 4th in Texas

They came early. 
They brought their axes. 




Nobody got hurt. Nobody was scared. Even though there were some weapons of mass production and aural dissemination. 

When it was over, everybody went home tired, happy and humming. Barry Kooda and friends made it happen. And they swear they are going to do it again. 

I am Speechless. SCOTUS picked my pocket because Jesus. - UPDATE

I will believe that a corporation is a person, and its money is speech, and a corporation has spiritual life when a corporation goes to jail for depraved indifference. A big corporation has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and its entire food chain. Who is going to jail for that? Anybody? Hello?

A big Corporation, Religious Authoritarians and the Supreme Court are practicing medicine and making social policy. They just picked my pocket. A meat person who picks pockets goes to jail. And they did it to me because ... wait for it ... they did it because I am a woman and they can. They did it to me for Jesus.

I am so angry and stunned it has taken me days to write or do a thing but garden. I am getting upset just writing about this right now. Do not expect this rant to be coherent.

Brendan Boyle

I was pulling weeds and muttering "I do not know what to do." And then the light dawned. The Democratic Party 170th district candidate for PA State Senator is a "staunchly pro life" forced birth cultist. I am going to do a Mississippi-McDaniel on Brendan Boyle.

I swear that I will never vote for an anti choice Democrat. Never. I am going to vote for his Republican opponent. I am going to ask every pro choice woman I know to do the same.

Except he has no Republican opponent it seems. I googled. Okay. I am going to write Margaret Sanger's name on the ballot.

I know Boyle is popular. I also know I am not alone. Women talk and we do not have to whisper about abortion and contraception in the kitchen anymore.

If I cannot control my own body and sexual and family life, what difference does it make who holds the whip? Maybe the Democrats will get the message. Do not mess with the Roe v. Wade the Republicans gave us. Oh the irony.

Our State of PA, which cannot find money for schools to educate children, has found more tax money to fund "crisis pregnancy centers" like Real Alternatives in order to manage PA women's reproductive decisions. I think PA women can manage their own sexual and family lives and should be left alone to do so.

It is state politics that we must concentrate on now, Folks. Bigtime.

Just this summer, the Pennsylvania legislature doled out $5.8 million to Real Alternatives, which is not a penny less than last year, giving the organization a special distinction indeed. In a year that saw huge slashes to the state budget — including cuts in AIDS pharmaceutical services, an 18 percent loss in the operating budget of the Department of Environmental Protection, and $1 billion eliminated from schools, among many other cuts — Real Alternatives' budget was left untouched. - Holly Otterbein, City Paper

I am going out into the garden and pull some more weeds. And continue to ask myself "What can I do about this?" Can you impeach a Supreme Court Justice?