Trying to unpack the Orlando shootings

The shooting in Orlando is a complicated matter, and getting more complicated as we find out more.

People trying to make sense of the shooting (and to assign blame) are pointing fingers in many directions.

All of those pointed fingers are justified to some degree.

Omar Mateen, the shooter, was a Muslim.

Islam preaches against homosexuality.

Omar Mateen, it now appears, was also gay.

Omar Mateen has been married twice, both times to women.

Omar Mateen's family are very strict, and he led a double life.

Omar Mateen was abusive to his first wife, and she left him.

Omar Mateen was on the FBI's radar in connection with possible terrorist plans, but was released for lack of solid evidence.

Yet he had no trouble obtaining guns legally.

People are saying that we need to take off our blinkers and recognize that we have a problem with Islam. Perhaps that is so.

Some right wing Christian leaders have celebrated the massacre.

Religious life affects different people in different ways; some become murderous, others saintly.

We know that human beings are very complex, and that part of our makeup is extreme violence.

Terrorists and other violent people form clusters around some religious organizations.

Our modern Western religious doctrines contain very high levels of error.

People who base their actions on the assumption that the holy books are God's Word are making a mistake.

All of the contributing factors to the Orlando massacre, aside from Omar Mateen's easy access to guns, are nearly intractable problems that will likely not be solved soon.

The Bill of Rights spells out our rights, but the law recognizes NO right that is unlimited.

The freedom of speech guaranteed by First Amendment does not allow you to commit libel, incite a riot, or yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

The Second Amendment should not be interpreted as giving every Tom, Dick, or Harry the right to any kind of firearm he chooses.

Lawmakers should be smart enough to decide who should and shouldn't have guns, as well as what kind of guns are legal, and not be hogtied by absolutist allegiance to the Second Amendment.

Decisions on gun control are really much easier to sort out than flaws in human nature.

Gun control should be implemented while we try to work out those other problems.

No matter what the root causes of acts of violence are, the use of firearms multiplies the damage manyfold.

I wish the President would take their guns away.

It's a complicated world, of course, and everybody seems to have their favorite villains in the Orlando massacre. It's a twisted confluence of many problems we have in America.

The shooter had been on the FBI radar for a few years. They had to let him go for lack of evidence, but I really believe that dangerous people need to be denied gun permits, even without having been convicted of anything. I'm not asking for their freedoms to be taken away, saving the freedom to murder someone.

The right wing will blame Islam; the left wing will defend its peaceful adherents and point to our own right wing Christian leaders for whipping up anti-gay hatred. I will say, as an atheist, that people basing their behavior on beliefs that are false can be a danger to all. And all religions are based on false beliefs.

The thing that really enrages me is that, for whatever reason, there are people in this world who assume for themselves judge, jury, and executioner rights over their fellow humans. For that reason alone, we need stronger gun restrictions.

At this point, I would be happy to see some governmental overreach.

They got nothin'!

Some Republican Party notable, I can't remember who, recently complained that the Trump version of the party is "morally and intellectually bankrupt." You may find that very phrase in one or another of my blog posts from several years ago, since anybody who has paid attention has noticed that there has been no there there for a long, long time.

Markos Moulitsas over at Daily Kos was marveling today that, apparently, not a single high-ranking Republican has responded to Hillary Clinton's devastating speech on Donald Trump's deficiencies as a candidate and possible president. Nobody came to Trump's defense.

It has finally happened: the Republicans have reached such levels of nothingness that there is no argument they can make in their own candidate's defense.

It became apparent during Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Committee appearance that her Republican tormentors had also achieved tremendously high levels of incompetence and unpreparedness. Even had there been a Benghazi, or even an email, smoking gun, I don't think that bunch could have smelled it.

Intellectual bankruptcy.

Moral bankruptcy.

Incompetence.

Lack of preparedness.

That's today's Republican Party.