A very, very polite society

Babes, bikes, beer -- entrepreneurialism at its best

Of all the idiotic things you hear rightwingers say, the most idiotic concern guns:

-- An armed society is a polite society

-- Mass killers choose gun-free zones

-- Criminals will not make trouble if they know armed citizens are in the vicinity

-- I need to go armed in order to protect myself and those around me

Exhibit A

This episode ought to shut up the gun nuts forever but of course it won't.

I love everything about this story, from the Times' prissy description of the Twin Peaks Girls:

Twin Peaks is a national restaurant chain with several Texas locations that, like the Hooters chain, emphasizes the physical attributes of its waitresses more than its food to attract a predominantly male clientele. The company’s Twin Peaks Girls are waitresses who are scantily clad in plaid tops and are advertised as having “signature ‘Girl Next Door’ charisma and playful personalities.”

 to the ringing endorsement of the First Amendment by the local Keystone Kops:

“Apparently, the management wanted them here,” he said, “so we didn’t have any say-so on whether they could be here or not.”

to the mealy-mouthed statement from the local capitalists (who apparently consider a customer a non-person once he's paid his bill):

spokesman, Rick Van Warner, said. “We are thankful no employees, guests or police were injured in this senseless violence outside the restaurant, and our sympathies are with the families of those killed.”

But what I love the mostest of all is this:

 The police detained numerous people involved in the fight, Sergeant Swanton said, and arrested three bikers who were carrying weapons and who were caught trying to reach the scene after the fighting had quieted down.

UPDATE Wednesday May 20

The gunfight at the Waco corral is the story that just keeps on giving. Shorty before it happened, a FB friend and gun nut had posted -- apropos of I don't know what -- that we skeptics should really believe that CCW (concealed carry weapons) permitees are too protecting us and have demonstrated that they are trained to pull out the roscoe and blast the dirty rat in 2 (count 'em, two) seconds.

He assured us (though I was not reassured) that he could do this himself.

Do I have to point that a 2-sec reaction time is the definition of shoot-first-ask-questions-later, which in turn is exactly what we gun skeptics are skeptical about?

However, in Waco, where seconds counted but police were not minutes away but on the spot, primed and nervous, they took (according to the police themselves) 30 to 40 seconds to respond. By which time it was just about over, probably. Gun battles are momentary, usually.

So another gun nut meme bites the dust.

Meanwhile, over a Wonkette there is a useful roundup of antiracists like Charles Blow and Ta-Nehisi Coates satirizing the racist gun nut commentaries we were treated to after the Baltimore riots, etc. RtO was sticking to the general gun nuttery, but it's well to remember that a high proportion of gun nuts are flaming bigots.