Way to Go, Georgia

Just a few days after the Georgia governer signed the “guns everywhere” bill into law — basically, just about anybody will be able to carry a gun just about everywhere in Georgia, starting in July — parents pulled their children out of a Little League game because some gun nut was waving a gun around.

According to witnesses who spoke with WSB-TV, the man wandered around the Forsythe County park last Tuesday night showing his gun to strangers, telling them “there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Anyone who was just walking by — you had parents and children coming in for the game — and he’s just standing here, walking around [saying] — ‘You want to see my gun? Look, I got a gun and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ He knew he was frightening people. He knew exactly what he was doing,” said parent Karen Rabb.

Rabb said that the man’s intimidating behavior panicked parents causing them to hustle children who were there to play baseball to safety after the man refused to leave.

“It got to the point where we took the kids and brought them into the dugout and the parents lined up in front of the dugout,” Rabb said.

Police report they received 22 calls to 911 reporting the man.

It turns out the guy had a permit, so the cops couldn’t arrest him. He was right — there was nothing anybody could do about him.

Forsythe Sheriff Duane Piper said that he didn’t believe the parents and children were in any danger

He didn’t believe the children were in any danger. But how can you tell a whackjob who doesn’t intend to shoot from one who does? Whackjobs don’t come with warning lights. Legally, the cops can’t do anything until after the shooter starts shooting and kills a few people.

Parent Paris Horton, whose son was playing on the baseball diamond at the time of the incident, questioned the man’s motives.

“Why would anyone be walking around a public park, with a lot of children and parents and people here playing baseball, and he’s walking around with a gun?” said Horton. “I don’t think the parents would have been nervous had he just had the gun in his holster and was just watching the game.”

Why do jerks do anythng? Because they’re jerks, that’s why. He was enjoying the power. He was enjoying frightening people. This won’t be the last time this happens.

Get used to it, Georgia. Maybe you should keep your kids in bullet-proof vests, just in case the next whackjob takes it a bit further.

The NRA is setting us up for a reign of terror by armed assholes.

The Evil Rich

In some states, the poor have been avoiding “Obamacare” because of the political stigma:

Health professionals, state officials, social workers, insurance agents and others trying to make the law work for uninsured Americans say the partisan divisions and attack ads have depressed participation in some places. They say the law has been stigmatized for many who could benefit from it, especially in conservative states like West Virginia that have the poorest, most medically underserved populations but where President Obama and his signature initiative are hugely unpopular.

These are also states with the most competitive Senate and House midterm election campaigns, so the right-wing super PACs have poured millions into advertisements demonizing the ACA and the Democrats who support it. As a result, the poor have been convinced that Obamacare is evil on steroids.

Other problems stymied the introduction of the law, notably the initially dysfunctional federal website. But the political polarization “complicates our efforts to enroll people and to educate people about the Affordable Care Act, there’s no question,” said Perry Bryant, head of the advocacy group West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, based in Charleston, the capital.

“Literally, people thought there would be chips embedded in their bodies if they signed up for Obamacare,” Mr. Bryant said.

Far to the east, at a branch of the Shenandoah Valley Medical System in Martinsburg, Sara R. Koontz, a social worker, said she had heard people express fears about chip implants as well as “death panels” as she sought to enroll uninsured residents. Some told her that they would rather pay a penalty than sign up for insurance, she said, and even people who did enroll paused in their excitement to ask, “Wait — this isn’t that Obamacare, is it?”

The wealthy people spending money to discourage people from getting health insurance get great health care, I’m sure.