RedWizard

(WGHP) — Recovery efforts in western North Carolina are being disrupted by safety concerns following threats against federal responders, including FEMA workers. While local officials confirm that no threats originated in some counties, FEMA has made operational changes across the region out of caution.

FEMA teams continue to help residents register for disaster assistance, but some personnel have been moved to secure locations rather than conducting door-to-door outreach. This change follows the recent arrest of William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, who was charged with making threats against FEMA employees in the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock areas. Deputies found Parsons armed with a handgun and a rifle.

The threats came after Parsons posted a message on Facebook calling for people to “overtake” the FEMA site in Lake Lure based on what he says were social media reports that FEMA was withholding supplies from hurricane survivors.

“We the people are sick and tired of the BS. We the people are seeking volunteers to join us and overtake the FEMA site in Lake Lure and send the products up the mountains this Saturday. We the people are done playing games. It’s time to show who we are and what we believe. They want to screw our citizens. Now, we return the favor,” Parsons said.

When asked about his post, Parsons explained that he believed FEMA was failing to help residents in need.

“I viewed it as if our people are sitting here on American soil, and they’re refusing to aid our people,” he said. “So we were going to go up there and forcefully remove that fence.”

Upon arriving at Lake Lure, however, Parsons said he realized the situation was different than he had imagined.

“I went up and saw that there was absolutely nothing there, so I stayed, and I volunteered all day,” he said.

Law enforcement officials, already alerted to the threat, arrested Parsons at the scene. He insists he was simply exercising his Second Amendment rights.

“They want to sit here and lie and say I was carrying guns around. I had one gun on me, which was legally owned and sitting on the side of my hip, and I had a rifle and another pistol that were in my vehicle that were both lawful and legal to own,” Parsons said.

Parsons was charged with going armed to the terror of the public and released later that day on a $10,000 secured bond.

In response to the incident, FEMA has adjusted its operations across the region to protect both workers and residents. The agency emphasized that these changes are temporary and stressed that they continue to provide much-needed assistance to communities affected by recent storms.

Misinformation has been a major factor in heightening tensions across western North Carolina. Some residents, swayed by false reports online, have refused aid from FEMA and expressed distrust in government relief efforts.

Local authorities have addressed these concerns, urging the public to remain calm and focus on recovery efforts. The Ashe County Sheriff’s Office released a statement clarifying the situation.

“We wanted to address the current issues being spread about FEMA in Ashe County. As a response, they have been here to help and assist those in need. Recently in the mountain region, there have been threats made against them. This has not happened in Ashe County or the surrounding counties. Out of an abundance of caution, they have paused their process as they are assessing the threats. Stay calm and steady during our recovery, help folks and please don’t stir the pot,” Sheriff Phil Howell said.

The Avery County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed that FEMA operations had been affected by the incident.

“We have had no credible threats or received any information pertaining to threats toward FEMA in Avery County. We are aware of the threat that was made in Polk County and that the individual was arrested in Rutherford County. It did affect FEMA operations here as it did in several counties,” a spokesperson said.

Governor Roy Cooper’s office addressed both the threats and the widespread misinformation fueling them.

“We are aware of significant misinformation online and reports of threats to response workers on the ground, and the safety of responders must be taken seriously. The governor has directed the Department of Public Safety to identify with local law enforcement the specific threats and rumors and coordinate with FEMA and other partners to ensure safety and security as this recovery effort continues,” Cooper’s office said in a statement.

Despite these challenges, FEMA has approved disaster assistance for more than 75,000 households. Four disaster recovery centers are currently open in Buncombe, McDowell, Caldwell and Jackson Counties with more centers expected to open in the coming days.

(I have amended the title of this post based on feedback and critique, to more acutely reflect the target of my grievance)

This could be a bad take, but, hear me out.

I was once a subscriber to r/atheism a long time ago. I was absolutely a smug ass fucking atheist. I'm not sure what it was that caused this world view I held to change, but as time marched on I've grown incredibly suspect of anyone who willingly identifies themselves as an "atheist".

I grew up going to church every week. That slowed as I got older. I remember my grandmother telling me I needed to cut my hair at church, and telling her "I have hair like Jesus, you think Jesus should cut his hair?" I learned later we stopped going to church because they started preaching about antiabortion and my mother wanted nothing to do with that.

So I was at least fairly indifferent about religion by the time I was in highschool. I remember Atheism giving me a sense of superiority that was deeply rooted in "facts and logic" despite being a severely under read dipshit in highschool. I'm sure I spent countless amounts of time debating people in comments, being a general idiot on the internet. Probably passively consumed a bunch of Hitchens work/ideas without having read any of his books.

At some point I stopped putting a lot of thought into it, and this smug sensibility was pushed into the back of my brain. Then in 2020, like a lot of people, I was swept up in this rise in socialist thinking, leading me to change my entire perspective on the world.

I think it wasn't until recently, when I was having a conversation with someone I knew and the topic of Islam came up that I realized how much I had distances myself from this smug atheist perspective. They said something about Islam being an "inherently violent religion", and my gut, instinctual reaction was to blurt out "What? What makes you think that's true?" They responded with something being in the Quran, and again, like water from a faucet the words "Listen, maybe that's true, maybe its not, but Islamic people are not a monolith." poured out of me and the conversation kind of died on the vine.

The reason I'm even thinking about this today is because, of all things, I watched the Asmongold "apology" video he published today. He attributes his shit ass takes about Palestinians being an inferior culture and thus worthy of genocide to his "hatred for religious extremism of all kinds". He goes on to say that he was or is a "r/atheist enjoyer" and a self professed "atheist". It really confirmed a lot of assumptions I have about atheism that I guess have been lingering in my skull.

Those assumptions being that Atheism is, on it's face, a religion in and of itself. It's belief is in that of non-belief. It has missionaries like most other religious belief systems, seeking to secularize communities and cultures. It believes it is the one true religion and that all other religions are false religions with false gods. It demonizes all other practitioners of these false religions indiscriminately, believing that they are either upholding their wicked systems of oppression, or are directly complicit in them. Countless books have been written about the its theology and the logic of its faith. It is a fully fledged faith, in that you have to believe in this non-belief, on faith that you will be proven correct when you die.

Not only all this but its clear to me now that Atheism is the western liberal religious belief system. Its fully compatible with western chauvinism, as it demonizes the wests enemies on the grounds of their systems of belief, which are regularly the reason for the wests interventions. Western wars are "secular" wars and as such they are atheist colonial projects as well. The idea that modernizing a backwards 3rd world country would bring about liberal democracy and with it liberal values. Atheism is liberal values.

Now this isn't to say that religious violence doesn't exist or that religious extremism is also a fable, but instead that Atheism and its ideas are a form of religious persecution, it breeds the same phobic believes that other religions develop about the ones they are attempting to conquer. The Atheist believes that through the abolition of religion, via changing hearts and minds, a entire form of violence will be removed as well. It completely denies the material realities and conditions that cause religious extremism to begin with. Because of this, it doesn't recognize that to achieve a secular world, it will only be done so through violence.

Somehow the atheist believes that religion and culture are all somehow disconnected and isolated phenomenon. That somehow you can remove religion from the equation without damaging or altering culture. That some how this secularization will happen quietly and without conflict.

When I'm asked if I'm religious I say no. if asked if I'm an atheist, I say no. The only thing I would identify as in this context is as a materialist. It matters not to me what lays beyond the vale of life, but what does matter to me is what is happening here and now. Pain and suffering exists here in this conscious reality. Happiness can be achieved here in this conscious reality. That happiness can include religious and spiritual belief.

I have no conclusions here. This is just the ramblings of an old wizard. If I'm off base here please tell me. Interested in your perspectives as always comrades.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/24534925

Doug Hamlin pleaded no contest to animal cruelty over 1979 incident in which fraternity cat was tortured and killed

For when the cashier forgets to remove it and you don't want to drive back.

archive: https://archive.ph/ZJdOS