Grand Opening/Grand Closing

This definition for "open-minded" is the Picture of the Week, over at a site called Islam: Religion of Peace, and I have to say, this is actually a spiritual two-fer, because the gunman also exemplifies that other popular NewAge notion of the Left:

You can believe what you want to believe.

But the idea that, if believers stopped believing in nonsense, fewer of these horrible things would be happening - like the gunman, above, wouldn't have a reason to be shooting that other guy - seems to escape most people. As former-radical David Horowitz has said:

“Here, in a nutshell, is why conservatives are conservative and why radicals are dangerous. Because conservatives pay attention to the consequences of actions, including their own, and radicals don’t.”

Now, of course, I know that bad things would still happen if people stopped believing in weird things - take away all the guns and, I'm sure, people would resort to stabbing one another to death (which, like all murders, bites a big-assed hole in another NewAge classic: "We're All One") - but don't you think stabbings would be less lethal for, let's say, innocent bystanders if that were the case?

I've always said NewAge is more of a threat to those around the NewAger than to the NewAger themselves. Just compare the difference in fallout between a NewAger like Rielle Hunter and John Edwards: she's on a relative upswing, since her plan was implemented, while his is finished. The same thing goes for any other solipsistic feel-good ideas that - until you consider the real world downsides - seem to make sense on the surface.

"You can believe what you want to believe"? Fine. Whatever:

That guy's dead.