Charming Fellow

(Cloud over Flagstaff. Photo by George Breed)

My local Congressman, Paul Gosar, is a pretty typical wingnut repub. But he's usually just clueless and not particularly notable. However, one of his staffers has resigned after a series of violent tweets that sound very disturbing for anyone here locally:

A staffer in the Flagstaff office of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) who used his Twitter account to trumpet the downfall of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) resigned Friday after Roll Call discovered violent messages he tweeted.

Roll Call learned on Friday that Blake Schritter, a caseworker and office manager in one of Gosar’s district offices, had posted messages about drunken exploits and his desire to gun down professors and postal workers.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/rep_gosar_staffer_quits_after_violent_twitter_posts-207127-1.html?pos=htmbtxt

For example, he wants to shoot NAU professors:

"I can’t believe how unprofessional liberal professors can be. I’m sitting here, cleaning my gun, thinking...this is a classroom!!!” Schritter, a graduate student in Northern Arizona University’s criminology program who also graduated from the school's criminal justice program, posted on June 23.

And the local postal workers (many of whom are friends of mine):

On June 2 he tweeted: “The line at the post office is moving at a glacial pace. I’m ready to open fire with a handgun to get some damn service!”

Come election time, it might be a good idea to remember the kind of charming people Rep. Gosar chooses to employ to staff his local office.

Also, this being Arizona, this guy is free to carry his guns all around town, concealed if he so desires.

Truth

This one is for Fearguth at Bildungblog, who makes me jealous.

One Last Time

Atlantis had a successful liftoff this morning, the last space shuttle flight. The end of thirty years of service.

What makes this such a melancholy moment is that this is the effective death of America's manned space program. As someone who grew up with the glory of the race to the moon, space was always exciting. We believed that we could do anything; that science, technology, and invention were our future.

But America is now a dying empire, and this is our last big show of our prowess. We can't build anymore manned spacecraft programs. The simple fact that a thirty year old vehicle is the best we have (and are retiring) makes me sad. Thirty years without advancing any further, nor any plan to advance ahead.

Another dream from our childhood now dying, and it's all downhill from here.