Daily Mail – by DAVID MARTOSKO
President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as the U.S. surgeon general, a 36-year-old physician who has attracted criticism for his anti-gun advocacy, complained to a newspaper in 1994 that ‘society’s preoccupation with firearms’ comes from ‘fiery gun battles’ on Saturday morning cartoons.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, who founded Doctors for Obama in 2008 – a group that later changed its name to ‘Doctors for America – was a graduating high school senior at the time, one of several valedictorians the Miami Herald interviewed.
‘Vivek Murthy, 16, of Palmetto High, takes television cartoons to task’ for ‘the growing problem of kids and violence,’ according to the Herald.
‘Today, a typical elementary student wakes up on Saturday mornings to fiery gun battles, explosive scenes of terror and the violent decimation of the “bad guy” – all this in a children’s cartoon,’ Murthy said then.
‘With such destructive influence, society’s preoccupation with firearms and brutal methods of conflict resolution is no surprise.’
Harvard Medical School physician Vivek Hallegere Murthy is President Barack Obama’s surgeon general nominee, but his age, connections and anti-gun advocacy are raising the hackles of Second Amendment supporters
Is Yosemite Sam a menace to society? Murthy’s experiences watching Saturday morning cartoons made him an anti-gun advocate at age 16
It was always ‘wabbit season’ for Elmer Fudd, but his shotgun never seemed to find its mark
Murthy’s nomination has created a firestorm of objections on Capitol Hill among Republicans who believe the president is using the surgeon general post to general public support for gun-control measures that House Republicans won’t entertain.
‘This nominee seems much more devoted to politics than to patients,’ Sen. John Barrasso said Monday night on the Fox News Channel.
‘I know there are a number of senators who are up for re-election who are probably not going to want to vote for somebody who is this committed to taking away our Second Amendment rights,’ said Barrasso, a medical doctor himself.
He noted that Dr. Richard Carmona, a Democrat who served an attorney general under President George W. Bush, has written to President Obama to say that Murthy is unqualified.
Critics of Murthy have pointed to his Twitter feed as evidence that he would be more political activist than doctor-in-chief if he were confirmed.
Following the December 2012 massacre of 26 students and teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, he tweeted: ‘NRA press conference disappointing but predictable – blame everything in the world except guns for the Newtown tragedy. #wakeup.’
Two months earlier he had tweeted that he was ‘[t]ired of politicians playing politics w/ guns, putting lives at risk b/c [because] they’re scared of NRA. Guns are a health care issue. #debatehealth.’
Murthy has never called for knife-control, despite the frequency of slicings and stabbings on the Simpsons’ ‘Itchy and Scatchy Show’ episodes
President Obama nominated Murthy in February, shortly before another nominee — tapped to lead the civil rights division of the DOJ — crashed and burned
Tom & Jerry settled dozens of disputes with guns — the pretend kind — over a 17-year period
NRA press conference disappointing but predictable – blame everything in the world except guns for the Newtown tragedy. #wakeup
— Vivek Murthy (@vivek_murthy) December 21, 2012
Tired of politicians playing politics w/ guns, putting lives at risk b/c they're scared of NRA. Guns are a health care issue. #debatehealth
— Vivek Murthy (@vivek_murthy) October 17, 2012
That insistence that firearms belong in willy-nilly national discussions about public health, and not in the relatively more steady world of Constitutional law, is making gun rights advocates see red.
‘Historically, the Surgeon General of the United States has been a position with the purpose of educating Americans so that they may lead healthier lives, rather than advancing a political agenda,’ Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul wrote in a February letter to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
‘Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to use that position to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.’
Murthy couldn’t be reached for comment. The National Rifle Association did not respond to a request.
Criticism directed at Murthy comes at a particularly bad time for the Obama White House. Last week in a Senate vote, Debo P. Adegbile failed to advance as the nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Adegbile came under intense criticism for leading the NAACP legal team that successfully overturned the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2578449/Anti-gun-nominee-surgeon-general-adopted-Second-Amendment-position-watching-violent-CARTOONS.html#ixzz2vkYFf1L2
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good post Digger. if that’s his reason for being the way he is, then he shouldn’t have become a surgeon (if he is one) because knives kill people. ya know it is obvious as to what his approximate nationality is. Reminds me of a doctor i once refused to see. I don’t trust those suckers,
yeah doctors kill way more than guns do.. proven fact