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A: I saw American Sniper last night. More like American’t Sniper.

Me: I thought American Sniper was really good. I loved it. I polished my nails today. My toenails look ok but my fingernails look like crap. We also saw Silver Linings Playbook and loved that. Interstellar? Not. So. Much.

A: That’s an old movie, but ya it was good. Interstellar was fine and American Sniper is a glorification of war and murder. I’m reading the book right now.

Me: I didn’t think American Sniper glorified war. Why do you say that?

A: Because Chris Kyle is portrayed as a hero. I understand that he saved Americans but he also stated he didn’t regret killing any Iraqis who were commonly referred to in the move as “f*&%ing savages.” Enjoying killing people who do not agree with you is an act of terrorism.

Me: I see what you’re saying. On the other hand, there seems to be an effort on the part of Michael Moore types to portray Al Qaida as being on the same moral footing as the US. ?Killing a kid with a drill, burning a pilot alive, beheading people. That is f*&%ing savage. Killing is bad. Killing to exact maximum suffering is worse. Making women and children act as meat shields…all these are acts of f*&%ing savages, and the American military does not occupy that same moral plane.

A: Invading a country because of reasons that were false? I would want an insurgence too. America does a pretty decent amount of torturing, themselves. How about the man that was covered in water and left on a concrete slab to die? That was a case of mistaken identity. Sure, Iraqis have done terrible things but so have Americans. That doesn’t mean that the generally peaceful population of the Middle East should be considered savage terrorists. I would hope my family, my teachers and I aren’t being portrayed as merciless snipers.

Me: I never agreed with the Iraq war. You can be sure that you, your family and teachers are being portrayed as infidels who deserve death. You’d have probs been married off years ago and would not likely be allowed in school. They make movies out of their atrocities. They sell them and post them online and play them on TV. I travelled in Turkey for a month. I loved it and I loved Turks. It’s not ignorance from me. The important thing is to see evil for what it is, and if you don’t, you empower evil. Evil can’t be turned back with rainbows and Care Bears.

A: American Sniper is making money off of American propaganda. Kyle is not a hero. He is a good shot. The bottom line is he said he enjoyed killing people that had no bad intentions towards him (as well as people that did). Where you get the idea of rainbows and Care Bears is unknown to me. Iraq is protecting itself just like America. I didn’t say I wanted to live there but America is plenty f*&%ed up. I still have things to be afraid of that I shouldn’t have to be. Marriage is also a massively different cultural phenomenon that’s hard to compare with the west. Moore is a great director who argues his points with valid intellectual evidence. It seems Eastwood’s goal was making a fortune off of portraying war as a cultural triumph.

Me: I didn’t read Kyle’s book. So you know more about him than I do. America has problems, the American military has problems, but comparing them to the barbarism that happens over there is totally wrong. Michael Moore is a propagandist. If you think America is on the same moral footing with Islamic terrorists, then he has successfully propagandized you. Yet you wouldn’t want to live there… Because it’s run by ?bunch of woman-hating pedophile murderers perhaps? This is the problem with moral relativism: suddenly that’s an ok society. Their values are ‘just a little different.’ You have to be a LOT different to create a market for viewing videos of burning someone alive or having sex with 9 year-old girls.

A: I understand things are going wrong there. But America is not helping. Thinking it’s ok to want to kill people–any people–is sympathizing with acts of terror and in this case is extremely islamaphobic. Kyle was doing a job directed by the US Army and he happened to be very good at it. This does not make him a hero. It is not a good thing to be “the most lethal sniper in US history.” We should not be led to believe in military ‘glory.’

Me: I think he saved a lot of lives. Understand, my quarrel is not with you. Moral relativism is my target. It is evil, but believes in no evil. You can read about the context of the USA’s involvement with terrorists, but I remember it. I remember it back into the 1980s. I was very aware of what was going on and like most people I didn’t think it mattered. But they declared war on us and brought their violence to our shores. The US moved the war back out of our country and in to someone else’s. You can believe that’s wrong if you want, but they declared war on us. And with their torture, beheadings, mayhem, and movie-making thereof, you think Clint Eastwood is glorifying violence and murder? The US does everything it can to avoid hurting civilians, but the terrorists’ main target IS civilians. They have no reverence for human life at all and it is absolutely preposterous for anyone to be apologists for them. Whoever taught you to do so is badly misled. Why defend the indefensible?

A: I’m not defending terrorists. The majority of the Middle East is peaceful. The majority of the United States is peaceful and that does not include Kyle. You can’t “think” he saved a lot of lives. I am aware he was an asset to the American military. If he enjoyed killing people based on culture he is at the very least an ethnocentric asshole. The Middle East is generally full of terrible people but the USA can be forgiven for torturing innocent civilians. It’s ok because it’s the greatest country in the world!

Me: I see. They declared war on us and attacked us, but we’re the ethnocentric ones. Their main purpose is to torture and kill civilians, but because the US sometimes accidentally kills or negligently tortures a civilian, that makes us the same as them? No we are not the same. Our values are totally different. Our values are superior. You call that ethnocentric; I call that knowing right from wrong.

A: Um ok but the terrorist attack came from Al Qaida which was based in Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq under the false idea they were harboring weapons of mass distraction (which America does all the time). There are plenty of people here with the immoral goal of torturing and killing which by no means describes the majority of the Middle East.

Me: That’s a really good point. I felt even at the time that it seemed fake, and I was against it. The fact that the US was either dishonest or incorrect seems to have hampered our efforts ever since. Still, in hindsight, the USA is on the right side of history in this struggle.

You know how in the movie Chris Kyle’s dad tells him there are sheep, there are wolves, and there are sheep dogs? Well, I think you’re a sheep dog.

by Devin

Salutations, my dear readers. All twelve and half million of you!

So here I am at my computer and I’ve finally gotten our blog site up and running. It took a little more than the touted “famous 5-minute setup,” but then again, it seems that I never do anything the easy way! In any case, it’s up and I’m ready to post my first blog, so here goes. I figured that I might as well make my first post something daring, like a prediction, since at this point no one is reading our blog, yet, and hopefully, if I’m wrong (and I hope I am!) it will be buried underneath a mountain of more recent posts and no one will ever be the wiser…

The 2016 Presidential race is going to be between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.

There it is. My First Official Prediction on The Gatherer! Mark it down folks, because?I’m not in the habit of making them!

“So,” you say, “I get the Hillary part, but what makes you so sure it’s going to be Jeb?” Well, let me try to answer that question for you. First, we all know the established Republican party leadership is in love with the Bush family. If you don’t know that by now, read no further. This blog isn’t going to help you.

Second, Romney’s biggest donors, the ones he cited when he announced?that he would not be running, have all committed to Jeb (which should tell you something about him as a prospective candidate, but I’ll save that conversation for another post!) Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, is practically a?Bush family member, at least adopted. Basically, everything on the Republican side is in favor of the anointment of?Jeb Bush as the presumptive Republican nominee. But there’s more. Oh, yes.

Point #3: Those in the media with a liberal political view understand that if their candidate should happen to lose, the next best thing is to have them lose to a liberal, big government Republican (and let’s face it, Jeb Bush is a liberal and favors big government). That way, they can expect the least amount of damage to their political agenda for the next four years. How, you may ask, does the liberal media act upon its desire to see someone like Jeb become the Republican nominee? It’s a very reasonable question and one that I shall humbly attempt?to answer.

Here’s how they will do it. Whenever they get the chance, they will talk about how well he’s doing, how he’s now the favorite, the frontrunner, has all the momentum. They will do this as though they are just reporting the facts. It doesn’t matter. The point is to create the impression that he is a juggernaut. They know very well that many, many voters out there prefer to cast their votes for the person they have the greatest confidence can win. In the case of the Republican presidential nominee, they know that Republicans are desperate to coalesce around one candidate as soon as possible, so they can mitigate the assured?bloodshed of an extended?primary battle. The same day?Mitt Romney made the announcement that he was not going to throw his hat back into the ring,?The New York Times?published a story that, while not out-and-out stating it, makes it clear that Jeb Bush is now the Republican frontrunner by a large margin. Surprise, surprise!

And finally, the left-wing media, along with negative advertising by other Republicans seeking the nomination, will try to make all of the candidates look as stupid and incoherent as possible.

To sum it up, Jeb Bush has the political backing of the leadership of his party. He has the financial backing of heavy hitters. Ultimately, he will have sufficient support from the left-wing media to get the nomination. It’s a done deal.

Now for why, if and when this happens, TEA Partiers might?be voting for Hillary. Hillary doesn’t go around claiming she’s a moderate or “just left of center” politician. Everyone knows where that crow?is perched?on the political wire. It would never work. My hat is off to her for not being afraid to stand up for what she believes. If?she is elected, she will push hard to the left to counter a Congress that is led by moderate, establishment?Republicans. She will lead this country even farther over the cliff than it already is and have the support of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell most of the time (all the while complaining publicly that there is nothing they can do about it, wah, wah, waaah).

It has been painfully obvious to the Republican Establishment in the last two Presidential elections that large swaths of their base have stayed home on election day. Those very same people show up for mid-term elections. What is going on here? Simple. The conservative base will not vote for the likes of John McCain or Mitt Romney. Rest assured they most certainly will not hold their noses and vote for Jeb Bush. They have been abandoned by the Republican leadership and they are out to make them pay!

After two Presidential elections where the Republican leadership has crammed a moderate (Mitt Romney) and a liberal (John McCain) down its voters throats, the TEA Partiers are going to be so disgusted that they are going to be ready to do more than just stay home if Jeb Bush is the nominee. Many of them are going to go to the ballot box and cast their vote for Hillary. Why on earth would they do that, you ask? Because what they hope would come from such a situation is the continued and accelerated awakening of America to the damage being caused by liberal policies and the laws and regulations based on them. They will?want that damage to be as visible as possible and to sit squarely on the shoulders of the people responsible for it. They will be wanting to spank the Republican Establishment as hard as they can!

The down side, of course, is that the Republican leadership (both elected public officials and party leaders), is highly unlikely to?learn a thing from a Jeb Bush loss to Hillary, because they are fine with Hillary, she being their second choice for the Executive Office. Not only does it give them four more years of a Democrat to point the finger at while they advance her policies, it also puts them in a better position to raise money. It’s just like when gun-control bills are on the verge?of passing into law, the NRA cleans up on donations. Maybe, just maybe, if Hillary wins, the?mega-donors and moderate voters?will finally get the message and stop wasting their time and money on liberal Republicans and start backing real conservatives. The?hope is that these people will finally learn that you cannot fight radical ideology with no ideology.

If that ever happens, America?might just have a chance.