Things this week...

I have been thinking about this shooting Tuesday night. After reading this guy Sodini’s web page I have some sort of sympathy/empathy for the guy. Except.

I had a period a fair number of years ago where I was living in a small studio, I had a low paying job and no girlfriend. I was not especially friends with co-workers, although I was friendly, and I belonged to a running group. But it seemed like an isolated time for me.

Never the less, I did not make a plan to shoot people, I did not write on paper that I knew I was crazy, etc etc. If you think that something you are planning is something that other people would consider wrong, that is the point where you are obliged to seek mental health assistance. And that is the point where my sympathy stops, that this guy Sodini knew something was wrong with himself and did not do anything about it.

Back on the birthers, Salon has a handy guide for refuting birther arguments that seems fairly complete. I am still hoping for more evidence against the Kenyan birth certificate, just because I want a stake through the heart of the thing, not a hundred pin pricks. For example, this Kenyan BC references a specific page in a book where the birth was supposed to be recorded. If this book can be located and no such birth be recorded on that specific page, or better yet, if it turns out this book never existed, that will satisfy me. Then Orly Taitz can reveal the source of the Kenyan BC, and anyway she will be entirely discredited.

Meanwhile, I also wonder about Obama’s original birth certificate (and I think Salon is unconvincing on that part too). Not that I doubt it exists, or that I think Hawaii should have released it or anything. But it is part of the distraction. Maybe Obama should have a collection of conservative commentators like David Brooks, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly be shown the thing in exchange for writing honestly about what they see. That would be giving legitimacy to the birther movement, but it is already legitimate in the minds of many idiots around the country, and maybe revealing the birth certificate to several conservative journalists would knock down the percentage of people who don’t believe Obama was born here by a few points. And we could get down to calling (if you will forgive the expression) a spade a spade and say the remaining birther’s are simply racist.