The sad case of Esteban Santiago-Ruiz

The gunman at Fort Lauderdale’s airport had psychiatric problems, and the symptoms seem to have started after he was deployed to Iraq. Some researchers point to a link between combat stress and violence at home. But other research says there isn’t such a direct link between the two. Santiago-Ruiz killed five people in Florida, and now faces the …

On this, the anniversary of the horrible Newtown shooting

I love you.  

In case you haven’t seen it, the tribute video for Orlando

You can read more here.

Oh, Lord. Just read this poem.

By Loma: ALL THE DEAD BOYS LOOK LIKE ME for Orlando   Last time, I saw myself die is when police killed Jessie Hernandez A 17 year old brown queer, who was sleeping in their car Yesterday, I saw myself die again. Fifty times I died in Orlando. And I remember reading, Dr. José Esteban Muñoz …

How do you grieve when you’re surrounded by hate?

The family that lost two daughters in a Chapel Hill shooting last year want to know. This breaks my heart. Breaks it.

A personal abortion story

Jac sent this, an essay by someone who had an abortion. The essay is published anonymously. It includes this: It doesn’t matter to me what your religion is or what your personal values are. If you do not believe in abortion, don’t get one. Make sure your sex life reflects your values, too. But your …

If you’re a politician who takes NRA money, I’m not voting for you

Since Thursday’s theater shooting at Lafayette, Louisiana, which killed two and wounded nine, there’s been a petition started that asks Republican presidential candidates to refuse or return campaign contributions from the blood-gargling National Rife Association. That includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a big gun supporter who suspended his campaign for a while and said discussing …

The tragically short lifespan of outrage

I was thinking about those children from our south, the ones fleeing gangs and drugs and horrible conditions who last year were being held on our borders in holding pens, the ones our state of Connecticut officially refused to make room for. Where are they, I wonder? I certainly haven’t followed up. Have you? And …

In light of the Charleston church shooting:

  As we grieve the loss at Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel AME Church,  a new report out from Violence Policy Center retires the Blood-Gargling NRA’s® canard that the only thing to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Instead, the report says guns are rarely used for self …

Prayers to UNC

While the motive for their murders is being parsed, three Muslim students at University of North Carolina are being mourned by their family, including a friend of mine, nearby Duke University director of Muslim affairs Imam Abdullah Antepli. He posted this on Facebook, from the brother of one of the slained students: As Abdullah says: …