I got to the office early, got a bunch of little things done, and now I feel like I've done enough for the day, or at least it should be lunch time by now. Oops. I did decide I can have lunch early, because it's the bake-off/baby shower this afternoon, but not THIS early!

I have a sort of rant this morning, and it probably isn't going to sound like a rant, because I am not a generally vitriolic person, but this Orlando/gun control thing is driving me NUTS.

I wish to subscribe to your rant, Sophia. I have a friend from playing D&D in Philly who's a gun nut, and I just can't. Granted, his first post on the tragedy was urging people to give blood. But since then, his bonnet is wide open and the bees are swarming. (Including, aside from the usual, a bit about militarising the police force, and a declaration before any evidence was in that it was clearly Islamic extremist terrorism.)

And of course he thinks he's being rational, but he's pretty obviously starting from the conclusion and working back. ("Here's the evidence it's IS terrorism!" "Wait, that doesn't say what you claimed." "Lack of clear evidence is exactly what you'd expect from modern terrorism!")

The belittling of any other viewpoint is getting wearing. And in the wake of Orlando I just can't.

Getting caught up in what is or isn't "proper" terrorism really makes me nuts. Can we focus on the MASS MURDER of doubly-marginalized people, please??

Getting caught up in what is or isn't "proper" terrorism really makes me nuts. Can we focus on the MASS MURDER of doubly-marginalized people, please??

THIS. The fact that he is Muslim trumps everything else. ISIS. Radical Islam. Kill 'em all. The victims don't matter. And that is heinous.

If he were white, he'd be labelled "mentally ill," which is really no better. Why can't we stick with "angry homicidal bigot" and leave it at that?

The second level managers at my office are really pretty shitty on the people management front. Their people are slack on many things and they never hold them to better standards or even speak to them about these things until the boss tells them to. I have to remind myself to stay in my lane.

Today we had a job that was supposed to start at 7am and while we had people in site our material was not there. The customer calls us 2 hours after the job was supposed to start wondering what is the issue and no one in the office knows about it. Employees on site did call their manager and he is in the field and he either did nothing or he only called the supplier. The supplier is OUR COMPANY just another location, they are supposed to let us know if deliveries are late. Totally bad management.

Was it a terrorist attack, a hate crime, or an unhinged individual who went off? So far it's looking like yes.

I am really failing to be interested in this conference call. I blame it for not being interesting.

THIS. The fact that he is Muslim trumps everything else. ISIS. Radical Islam. Kill 'em all. The victims don't matter. And that is heinous.

Yeah. That's what particularly disturbs me about my friend's singular focus on that one angle. It doesn't feel like telling it like it is. It feels like he's erasing the fact that it was a homophobic hate crime, and that it's a mass shooting, one of the hundreds that have occurred since Sandy Hook (of which there are all of two that let one bring up Islamic State).

And I only know what's been reported, but to me the shooter's allegiance to IS (and apparently Hezbollah and al Nusra before that, never mind they're all at war with each other) seems very much like an afterthought to the self-loathing and toxic, violent masculinity. Fixating on Omar Mateen's religion might be the least relevant aspect.

Was it a terrorist attack, a hate crime, or an unhinged individual who went off? So far it's looking like yes.

Yeah, that.

And I only know what's been reported, but to me the shooter's allegiance to IS (and apparently Hezbollah and al Nusra before that, never mind they're all at war with each other) seems very much like an afterthought to the self-loathing and toxic, violent masculinity. Fixating on Omar Mateen's religion might be the least relevant aspect.

Also that.

Also what about all of the Christian mass murderers?

Argh.