Quote of the Day

""Seth, congratulations. This is actually a great night for you. You haven't gotten this much attention since you shot all those people in Aurora. I'm kidding. You are not like James Holmes. At least he did something in a movie theater that people remember."

-- Jeff Ross to Seth Green at this past weekend's taping of Comedy Central's roast of Roseanne

Comedy Central has made the decision to edit this joke out of the roast when it airs this coming Sunday. I can certainly understand that, although I don't think Ross's comment is offensive at all given that it wasn't directed at the victims of the Aurora shooting.

Another thing to bear in mind, though, is that, thanks to the speed at which new media keeps the news and pop culture cycle turning over these days, there really isn't such a thing as "too soon" anymore. Yes, for the citizens of Aurora, time stopped a couple of weeks ago and it's very likely moved along at a snail's pace since, but for everyone else, it's business as usual. And business as usual in our modern media climate means that we moved on to the next thing in a matter of hours and days. I'm not saying that this is a good thing -- only that it's how things are now. By the time you finish reading 140 characters, there's something entirely new for you to fixate on for the briefest of moments. Such is our ADHD media culture.

Listening Post

For those who haven't yet heard this, Hans Zimmer composed and recorded what's essentially an updated version of The End from the soundtrack to The Dark Knight and released it as a tribute to those who died in the Aurora, Colorado shooting.

The source material was excellent to begin with -- it's one of the most powerful compositions Zimmer has put together in years -- but this is simply an extraordinary piece of music.

Here's Aurora.

Post Mortem

A little housekeeping item: Starting this week, I'll be writing four pieces a week for the Daily Banter. It'll mean that I'm busy as hell, but at least there'll be plenty of material to keep everybody satisfied. My stuff will appear Tuesday through Friday most weeks, with the usual mail bag also popping up on Friday. Some of the material will continue to be cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

Today's column deals with the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado and the inevitable reaction to it.

Here's the opening shot:

"The most important thing to keep in mind is that nothing’s going to change. You may as well accept that right now.

Since last week’s midnight movie shooting spree in Aurora, Colorado — the one that cost a dozen people their lives and left more than 70 others hurt — everything has moved along according to a well-established routine. We know how this works because we’ve seen it unfold far too many times before — and it now seems to do so with almost surreal and disconcerting precision. The press descends, the details trickle out, the obvious yet nearly unanswerable questions are asked, the politicization begins, the gun control debate reignites, the usual suspects step up to offer the insane fantasy of a roomful of guns somehow allowing a bold hero or two to stop the violent actions of one gunman, the lack of faith in Jesus is offered as an authentic rationale for why there was ever a gunman in the first place, pop culture is blamed — all of this is part of the machinery that ramps up every time something like this happens. And it happens far too often..."

Read the Rest Here

Quote of the Day

"You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place. People say ... where was God in all of this? We've threatened high school graduation participations, if they use God's name, they're going to be jailed ... I mean that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don't want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present."

-- Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, responding to last night's shooting in Aurora, CO

I swear I didn't want to even bring politics into it this early, but the way things are these days -- with assholes like Gohmert immediately putting the blame for senseless, inexcusable violence on our lack of faith in Jesus -- there's just no way around it. I guess this was something I forgot to mention in my previous post on this subject, because this kind of blame-the-victim thing goes way beyond simple politicization. It borders on sociopathy.

Speaking of blaming the victim, Gohmert goes on to make an argument you just knew would be coming in short order:

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?"

Because if Louie Gohmert had been there with his trusty pistol at his side, he would've dropped that killer in his tracks, I'll tell you what. Bullshit. Gohmert's another pretend tough guy from Texas who, armed or not, would've pissed his pants and climbed over small children to get out of that theater once the shooting started. He's a pussy -- and nothing more.

Dark Days

I'll make this quick.

In the first movie in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series, Batman Begins, a determined Bruce Wayne finds that there are those who take a much more scorched earth approach when it comes to their desire to fight crime. He comes up against R'as Al Ghul, who believes that Gotham has become so irredeemably corrupt that it must be completely destroyed, that the slate must be wiped clean and the clock reset. This, he says, is the natural order of things. Wayne, however, feels differently; he believes that one man, living by the courage of his convictions, can turn things around and show the good people still left out there that justice can triumph. He believes he can act as an example to inspire the noble and a symbol to terrify the evil.

Batman's very reason for existence, his statement of purpose, is the first layer of sickening irony to last night's shooting in Aurora, Colorado at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. But I can't help thinking that it's not the only one.

We know now what will follow. We know the politicization of this tragedy that's to come and the ghoulishly vulturine media feeding frenzy. We know the bitter debate over guns in our society that will infuriate and sadden anyone with a conscience but will ultimately be futile thanks to a select group of very powerful zealots for whom guns are nothing short of a necessary extension of their own flaccid masculinity. We know the almost certain picketing of the funerals of the victims by a handful of monsters for whom any violent death, even that of a kid who simply wanted to see a movie he or she was looking forward to, represents God's entirely deserved wrath upon our society. We know all of this -- and more.

And as we watch, I won't be able to stop thinking about my very first reaction to this heartbreaking atrocity: What the hell is wrong with us?

I want to believe in what the fictional Dark Knight stands for. But I see something like this and I can't help but feel that maybe R'as Al Ghul was the one who was right.