WND Founder and CEO, Joseph Farah, Mistakenly Brings Loaded Handgun through Airport Security

“Oops.”

I’m going to take his word for what happened — I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, unlike many people on some of the websites I read. The story was apparently first reported on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) “Hatewatch” blog: “Birther Leader Joseph Farah Caught with Loaded Gun at Dulles TSA Checkpoint, Faces Weapon Charge.”

Several hours later in the day, today (June 24), Farah himself wrote a piece for his WND website entitled, “A Column I Never Wanted to Write.”

And I believe him. However, being in the position he is in, as a very public person, a person who has scorned TSA, and a person who knows that something like this would be immense fodder for his enemies (proposed headlines by commenters on some blogs I read included, “BREAKING: TSA Stops Right-Wing Extremist from Bringing Gun Onto Plane”), he should be extra-extra-extra-careful.

And in his blog, he admits he royally effed up:

I did something stupid Sunday morning, resulting in being charged with a crime for the first time in my adult life.

There is no excuse for my mistake. …

What I did was dumber than dumb.

And if he had stopped there, I would have been happy. Unfortunately, those first two paragraphs represent the start of the column, and the last one is taken from the middle of the last paragraph of his column. The entire rest of the column is dedicated to him looking for sympathy by playing the conspiracy-to-kill him angle. And I don’t not think he’s received death threats. Just like any other high-profile political writer. And I acknowledge his second Amendment right to have a gun, and abide by the laws of the states where he has permits to carry it.

But he had a loaded handgun in a bag, forgot about it, and put it through airport security.

And the highest-ranked comments on his column – right now there are 165 comments – blames other people and not him. The highest-rated is by “John Cherish” saying that the SPLC is a “carpetbagger institution.”

The second-highest is by “Incredulous_one” who wrote, “Is breaking an unconstitutional law really a crime?” Apparently thinking that restrictions on guns – like none in airports – is unconstitutional and therefore no one has to follow it. I’d like to see what “Incredulous_one” would write if it was a random person of Islamic faith who accidentally brought a loaded handgun through airport security.

The fifth-highest is by “smoki67” who points out that a handgun in a bag is useless because you can’t find it in time to do anything. Gotta have it on your person!

Sigh. Anyway, Farah was briefly detained, photographed, and issued a summons to appear. I doubt this story will get much play beyond this, but I’ll update if it does.

In Defense of George Zimmerman

World Net Daily has been an ardent supporter of George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted of murdering (though he did kill) Trayvon Martin in 2012. WND’s defense of Zimmerman has been absolute, even to the extent of calling him a civil rights hero, that the case was a conspiracy, that it involved race-bating, that the Zimmermans (husband and now estranged wife) thought that “Obama [was] tapping their phones,” etc. The latest WND article is by Scott Greer, and I have mixed feelings about it: “Zimmerman ‘Has PTSD, Millions in Debt.’”

Just from the headline, the irrational, emotional part of me screams “Good!” The objective facts are he did kill a young man. The less objective facts – and what the jury did not agree with – are whether it was self-defense or not. The more objective part of me, however, is more the “live and let live” type. After all, his life has pretty much been ruined by what happened. He will forever be tied to this case and racial violence (deserved or not). His prospects of employment, of not receiving hate mail/calls, etc. are severely diminished for many years if not the rest of his life. And, a jury of his peers found him not guilty. Should he also be subjected to $2.5M of debt? Is it “good” that he now may have post-traumatic stress disorder as his penance? I see an objective argument for “no,” I see an emotional argument for “yes” as well as “no.”

He is definitely having mental health issues. He has gained 120 lbs. The author, Jack Cashill, of the book that this particular WND article is an ad for (“If I had a Son: Race, Guns, and the Railroading of George Zimmerman”) says that he “exhibited the thousand-yard stare, the limp, unfocused glaze of a battle-weary soldier that is often a symptom of PTSD.” There was an earlier domestic issue with his now estranged wife, who claims (as broadcast in another WND story) that he “has unraveled” and “he does seem like a ticking time-bomb.” The cause celeb this week was that he was arrested for trying to strangle his now girlfriend (then girlfriend?) and released on a large $9,000 bond and required to not have access to guns as a condition of his release (I seem to also remember mention of a restraining order, but I can’t find that so maybe I just made it up).

I want to say that he’s suffered enough — or, that he’s going to continue to suffer just from what’s happened so far and that I kinda wish the media would leave him alone. With that in mind, I think that Cashill’s attempt to make him into a folk legend is fairly silly:

“If I Had A Son” tells how for the first time in the history of American jurisprudence, a state government, the U.S. Department of Justice, the White House, the major media, the entertainment industry and the vestiges of the civil rights movement conspired to put an innocent man in prison for the rest of his life.

All that stood between Zimmerman and lifetime internment were two folksy local lawyers, their aides and some very dedicated citizen journalists, most notably an unpaid handful of truth seekers at the blogging collective known as the Conservative Treehouse. “If I Had a Son” takes an inside look at this unprecedented battle formation.

It also tells the story of the six stalwart female jurors who ignored the enormous pressure mounting around them and preserved America’s belief in its judicial system.

The WND “article” (really, an ad) has 10 ratings with 2.90/5 average. It has garnered a large number of comments – 84 – relative to the number of ratings. The comments are fully in defense of Zimmerman and against the government, so I see no point in quoting them. There was one comment that was removed, and that was in response to “John”‘s (2 up, 1 down vote) “Trayvon is right where he belongs.”

God Saved 15 People at McDonalds, Ignored Thousands Others Currently Dying in Agony

It’s a headline you might expect from The Onion, but it’s how I feel these days after reading a headline like this one from World Net Daily: Did Divine Intervention Prevent McDonald’s Massacre? The story was originally a link to another news source and under the headline, “Did Mother’s Prayer Stop McDonald’s Massacre?”

I hate to say in a situation like this that the story itself is again, somewhat unimportant and not unusual for America: Guy walks into a place (McDonalds in this case), waves a gun, asks for valuables. And in this case, he fired at people. Except that his gun wouldn’t fire. He ran outside, fixed, it (why did he have to go outside to do that? why didn’t someone lock the doors when he left?), came back, and it wouldn’t fire again. Ran outside, fixed it (again, why did no one lock the doors?), came back in, and again it wouldn’t fire.

The shooter apparently has a mental illness. From the few psych classes I took, based on what his mother is saying, he sounds like he has paranoid schizophrenia (and he’s 24, around the age when schizotypal disorders manifest): ““He said, ‘They’re trying to kill me, Mama! I’m going to die tonight! I’m going to die tonight!’” the mother, who didn’t want to be identified, told the newspaper. … [Her son] said he was hearing voices.”

And, after he told his mother that the previous night, she prayed: “Last night, I told God to keep Jestin, and that’s what I do believe happened.”

Okay, let’s not minimize that it’s a good thing the gun didn’t work, and it’s a good thing no one was injured nor killed, and that the gunman is now in custody and hopefully being mentally evaluated.

With that out of the way, let’s look at this again from a perhaps more cynical vantage point, and let’s say the mother is 100% correct and there is an omnipotent deity who does answer prayers and answered hers. So, this god decided to answer one prayer to keep safe a guy and saved 15 would-be victims by making a gun misfire. Meanwhile, this omnipotent god – all-powerful, -knowing, -capable, -etc. – didn’t have the guy to go a hospital. Turn himself in. Or let’s go further: This creator of everything and able-to-intervener in everything is allowing untold tens of thousands of people to be slaughtered daily across the world in civil wars, dictatorships, other gun-related crimes, malnutrition, no medical care situations, etc.

It decided to save 15 people instead of thousands.

Lady, your god sucks.

Not that I expect you to agree with me. Nor do I expect WND commenters to agree with me. Let’s take a sampling of the top-rated comments out of the 218 on this 13-hour-old article, shall we:

• kingdad – “Thank You Good Lord for Favors received and Prayers Answered!”
• LindaRivera – “Amen! What a Wonderful, WONDERFUL, Most PRECIOUS God! May God’s Name be praised for all eternity! “
• gardeninggal1 – “After reading the story there is nothing to say, but, Praise the Lord.”
• AnitaHaircut – “Divine intervention indeed…there have been other accounts of such incidences. God is great and merciful.”

Those are the top-rated comments, all with more than 20 up-votes and no down-votes.

Sorry, I disagree. Your god is not worth worshiping if it is willing to prevent 15 people from dying in the US at a McDonalds and not willing to prevent the nearly 21,000 deaths every year from hunger. I’ve never read Hitchens, but I’ll quote his book at this point: god Is Not Great.

Georgia City Can No Longer REQUIRE Residents to Own Guns … WND Commenters Lament Fall of Constitution

Several months ago, Nelson, GA passed an ordinance that would REQUIRE all 1300 residents to own a gun. Clearly unconstitutional to any sane person, it was challenged and the latest is that they had to gut it. Seems open-and-closed, and even WND dispensed with the normal three-paragraph quote and link for a two-sentence quote from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “Georgia City Agrees to Gut Law Mandating Gun Ownership.”

But apparently, that means the Constitution is being trampled on. Somehow. In some way.

Top-rated comment right now is by “TexasVetgal” with 8 up and 0 down:

We need a resurgence in the teaching of Constitutional rights. A copy of the US Constitution should be given to every student in every state at graduation…. Of course the liberals wouldnt allow this in the ceremony because it mentions god, maybe vets should be outside handing them out, along with an ever growing list of OboZo’s tyrannical and unconstitutional acts.!

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie down the second with the chains of the Constitution so the second does not become a legalized version of the first. – Thomas Jefferson

Odd … I got a copy of the Constitution in 11th grade when I took AP American History. Also odd, the Constitution does not in any location mention any deity. Yet the claim it does is a frequent (very obvious falsehood) of right-wingers; and ironically, to anyone who has actually read the Constitution and knows that it doesn’t mention “God,” this shows that the very people here demanding that everyone reads it and honor it haven’t read it themselves.

Meanwhile, the second-highest ranked comment (again, somehow, based on Disqus’ algorithm) with 12 up-votes and 0 down-votes is by “Thomas Cruz”: “The Brady Center and other anti gun groups has unarmed more law abiding citizens and made them defenseless against the criminals who don’t obey any laws. They’re just as responsible for every gun related murder as the shooters. Way to go.”

So, if I’m anti-gun (I’m not saying I am or amn’t), a gun-related murder across the country is somehow on my head?

“hdbkrst” with 11 up and 3 down votes writes this confusing paragraph:

My, My….Gotta love how these Liberals get away with changing their words around in order to ‘Legally” bypass the Constitutional Laws and rights of the people in order for their agenda’s to fit into their 5 point communist plan…
They have already violated your rights to privacy and are slowly inching into “Legally” taking your 2nd Amendment right away people.
Next will be your Freedoms of Speech/Expression and by the time they get that, it’s shred the Constitution to bits and pizz on it…
Don’t have a Conceal Carry? Might want to…

God Bless America

Seriously, people. This is not infringing on rights. This is affirming that a city can’t MAKE SOMEONE BUY A GUN. Geesh.

Break the Rules? Shouldn’t Be a Problem if it’s ‘Cause of a Legal Gun!

I’m fascinated by stories that read as, “Rules shouldn’t have to apply to me even though they do to everyone else.” I don’t care if the rules are right or wrong in this case — it’s the sense of righteous indignation people have when rules are there that everyone else follows but they should get a free pass.

To me, that’s the theme of the WND story by Chelsea Schilling entitled, “Store Owner Pulls Gun on Thieves, May Lose Lease.”

The basic story as I’ve been able to reconstruct is that a guy who owns a cookie shop in a mall was robbed by three guys of $45 from his cash register. He then chased the guys – after they were fleeing – with his 9mm gun and fired three “warning shots.” Because the mall has a no guns policy, and because he clearly had the gun there and fired it on mall property, he may either be evicted or not have his lease removed. Makes sense to me. As the judges say on the afternoon TV shows I download, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Or maybe that was my parents.

However, the WND article has over 650 comments after being up for two days. You can probably guess what the popular comments are like. If you can’t, here’s the top one with 52 up-votes and 0 down, by “Larry Currid”: “What a country. Defend yourself and be prosecuted by the liberals and progressives.”