On the Church Shooting

I've spent the past few days on a desert island (Catalina), willfully unaware of the evils of the world. I come back to discover that pure evil in the form of a young white man with an unnatural love of guns and an unholy hatred of black people had decided to express his politics by murdering innocent people in a South Carolina church.

I got back in time to read all the reactions of Conservatives pretending that deadly attacks on black churches are not a time honored tradition in the Old South.

• The worst comment was from Rick Perry who refused to describe the shooting as a shooting or an attack because that might demean the nobility of the gun used in the murders. Perry calls it an "accident," like the killer was blameless.
• Lindsey Graham ignores the racism motive that the killer claims and pretends the motive was an attack on Christianity. 
• For comic relief we have that clown Eric Erickson who puts the blame squarely on Caitlyn Jenner.
• Several people expressed the opinion that the victims were to blame because they were not carrying firearms to Bible study.
• The NRA singled out one victim, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, as deserving his fate because he had opposed legislation allowing guns in churches. 

As always after a mass shooting, many people worry that laws allowing any wackadoodle with a grievance to buy a gun might be changed. Others are concerned that the shooting is bringing condemnation down on the Confederate battle flag

"Stars and Bars"

that for a century and a half has been a symbol of rebellion, segregation, and hate.

All this is making me want to go back to some island, maybe this time even one without WiFi.