AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Wow has anyone else heard about the Garland Texas shooting? It showed up on the side of my FB news feed, and I glanced at it thinking "Oh no, it's a horrible shooting at a Muhammad Art Show' " But apparently, the art show was run by an anti-Islam hate group where they have an art contest to draw the Prophet Muhammad which is an offensive act towards Muslims.

Jesus. That really is a no win situation.

Yeah, I live in Dallas, surprisingly haven't heard too much detail on the story yet.

I hadn't heard the group that put on the show called a "hate group" per se, as they claimed they were standing up for free speech. I'm certain there were some Islamophobia involved, though. Even still, they were well within their rights and the show certainly did not justify any act of violence.

I have to wonder why the two suspects resorted to shooting rather than organizing some sort of peaceful protest or public complaint.

Why would anyone create a group with the purpose of offending a religious group?

*Remembers that I'm mormon*

Oh yeah...
People do a lot of ridiculous things to offend/get rid of a religion.

Probably because the suspects were exactly the kind of people the organizers were looking to incite to violence. This had nothing to do with MY GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO SAY WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT AND DISREGARD ALL CONSEQUENCES TO WHAT I SAY, this was just the group trying to get someone to attack them for PR purposes.

Yeah, a lot of times bigots will do whatever they can to goad those they hate into attacking them so that they can claim legitimacy for their own beliefs. Problem is, there aren't that many people in the world who don't have a tipping point.

Why are you guys talking like the people who got shot are at fault here, and not the radical lunatics that kill someone for expressing an opinion, no matter how shitty.

The only people who died were the two attackers, by the way. They opened fire with assault rifles, but were swiftly shot, not by the SWAT team, but by a traffic police officer. 'merica i think another officer got shot in the leg but is expected to fully recover.

But yeah, the conference itself was arguably stupid, but it certainly didn't deserve an act of violence. Public outcry and controversy? Sure. But they don't deserve to be attacked by savages that could harm or kill members of the public.

You can criticize a shitty opinion all you want, but you can't shoot someone for it.

BOTH sides are at fault here. Obviously the gunmen more so, but this was a direct attempt at getting someone to shoot at them.

I highly doubt the intent of the organizers was to actually get shot. They obviously intended to provoke though, but that doesn't really excuse violence. If anything, they just got their point proven.

That fundamentalist muslims will respond with violence if you offend them? I think that point has been made already. By people who werent going out of their way for it to happen

That doesn't make it acceptable or something we should just forget about/ignore.

Well, it should be considered a given these days that if you say or do anything that muslim extremists won't like, they're likely to respond with violence. Apparently, that's daisies near anything.

Second, from what that article said, it sounds almost like they are trying to get Islam totally banned in the U.S., though I only read it once, and didn't feel like reading up on another narrow minded group based in the south. Not saying all southerners are like that, though. This particular group seems to be saying all Muslims are horrible and violent, so let's be as offensive to them as possible. Kind of a childish way to act, really.

Honestly that article seemed a bit biased to me. The group's goal with the conference was to support MY GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO SAY WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT AND DISREGARD ALL CONSEQUENCES TO WHAT I SAY by having an Muhammed art exhibition. Yes, the group is controversial and probably very bigoted. The people who put on the conference might have had their own problems with Islam but I highly doubt they WANTED to get shot up for publicity. They were lucky they weren't hurt, and will probably use this event to support their opinions of extremist Muslims, but to say they were actually TRYING or EXPECTING to get shot is downright ridiculous.


Also, apparently IS wants to claim responsibility for the attack, but it's unclear whether or not they had a direct connection.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32589546

The Alabama Senate has passed a bill circumventing probate judges from the marriage license process.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but Alabama effectively legalized same-sex marriage back in February when the district court ruled the state's ban on such unconstitutional. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Judge Roy Moore pretty much immediately said that didn't mean dick and that the state wouldn't start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, and 47 of 67 counties ignored him and started doing exactly that. Other counties refused to issue licenses to same-sex couples (some stopped issuing licenses at all in the confusion) until March, when the AL Supreme Court ordered all of the state's probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Bill 377 would amend Alabama's Constitution to remove probate judges from the issuance process, instead relegating them to simply recording, and issuing fees for recording, marriage contracts. The contracts themselves can be signed by any notary, clergy, or attorney. This effectively removes the government from a person's decision to marry another person.