I was once a McCain supporter. I even the poorly written semi-autohagiography Faith of My Fathers (poorly co-written by famed hack Mark Salter). Granted, at that time, his opponent was a malignant alcoholic 50-something fratboy with daddy issues and a knowledge of affairs foreign and domestic rivaled by a double-digit percentage of the population. Nevertheless, I found him tolerable.

Since that South Carolina primary told him that The Man had officially anointed Bush, Jr. as the mouthpiece of the party of drowning government in a bathtub, however, McCain has morphed from a somewhat likable and often reasonable-sounding person into an angry old jackass.

This week, he decided to do a live show for an angry old jackass convention in Arizona:

At Wednesday’s town hall, Teves told McCain that her son, Alex, was killed in the massacre, and she urged the senator to support a ban on assault weapons. McCain responded: “I can tell you right now you need some straight talk. That assault weapons ban will not pass the Congress of the United States.”

The crowd, many of whom appeared to be pro-gun, burst into cheers and applause at McCain’s comments. But Teves said she wasn’t fazed by that, and those cheers, as captured by a local TV news crew, were only part of the story.

I have known and do know a lot of people who could be characterized as gun nuts. Many of them simply like guns. A few of those, however, feel a need to have assault weapons. Of those I know in the latter category, approximately 100% white supremacists. Well, to be fair not all are white. I think black inferiorists might be a better term, if it were actually a term. Though I do wonder to what extent people actually consider themselves superior if they soil themselves in the presence of dark-skinned people. In any case, in my four decades, I have yet to meet a single person who needs assault weapons that was not a pathetic coward. Interestingly, a few have been quite physically intimidating. But that was exactly in character. These otherwise worthless people who are unwilling to put forth effort in anything useful would spend many hours at the gym and in various martial arts courses not for the obvious benefits, but in order to become stronger. Stronger, that is, relative to those they fear. I would like to believe that most of the people who go to the gym do so for personal betterment. Some, though, are certainly there as cowards attempting to make themselves more intimidating to others.

…but I digress…

Someday I may meet a normal, stable, reasonable person that needs assault weapons. But I won’t hold my breath.