I'm tired of arguing with Republicans, I already know what they're gonna say

It's like all Republicans got together and decided to believe, at the same time, that guns do more good than harm, that capitalism doesn't need regulation, that the environment is "fine" and climate change is "cyclical", social programs are "wasteful", and conveniently, government should be small and let people be (except, of course, for closing Planned Parenthood). Seriously, every Republican I talk to believes ALL of these things like gospel. ALL of these things simultaneously. At least the smart ones have given up on opposing gay marriage, but that's kind of like complimenting someone for owning a cell phone when they've been around for two decades.

Not a Conspiracy, Just Code

That the phrase "latest shooting" exists should HORRIFY us. But we've become used to it. Which is...horrifying. #UCSB

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 25, 2014

In the wake of yet another mass shooting, it becomes clear how routine this has become. I'm numb and incapable of being shocked. The pro-gun and anti-gun folks have their talking points, they'll spew them, and nothing will change. Nothing new will be said, much less anything new be done.

The Onion recognizes this. Every time there's a shooting, they post the same article with the location and death count changed to reflect the "latest shooting".

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens https://t.co/UmEukJuv0E pic.twitter.com/zN0vDZdFf7

— The Onion (@TheOnion) December 3, 2015

I took to Googling this to see just how many times they've had to post it before. It was there that I noticed something weird...



Do you see what I see?

San Bernardino, the latest shooting, is listed is the location. The date is May 27, 2014, the date of the then "latest shooting" at UCSB Isla Vista.

Wait...multiple shootings already listed together? IS THIS PROOF OF A CONSPIRACY?

No, it's not. It's code. It's how Google indexes their pages.

A similar issue came up with the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories... "The date of pages is in the past for the news stories that just happened!" It's debunked here. Google's code can index filler pages where news stories will eventually go, and/or mix up dates. (Editor's note: Author is not a programmer)

The Onion also might be updating the same linked story with the new details - and Google generates the page preview (containing "San Bernardino") without updating the date. (Editor's note: Author is not a programmer. But I did learn to embed tweets just now.)

The old Onion article is also covered in the "news" (I call HuffPo "news" loosely) back when the UCSB shooting was the "latest shooting".

Just wanted to get this in here, if anyone is going to suggest a conspiracy to "take our guns away" ... make sure you do your research.

Like when I was Googling Sandy Hook, looking into the whole conspiracy piece, and I found the school's website archived. It had years of e-newsletters archived from the preschool for at least three years before the shooting. If Sandy Hook was a conspiracy, they had to be paying someone to make those newsletters look convincing for three years. Sure, it's possible, but Occam's Razor?

I'd also encourage people to do their research and see that Ronald Reagan, conservatives' God, supported the assault weapons ban, and see that half of gun owners support an assault weapons ban ... but that's for another day.