If you don't at least get a lump in your throat at the raw pain and grief of these parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, you don't have a heart.

But good for CBS News and 60 Minutes for putting their unflinching faces on air to confront those who will ignore the horror of Sandy Hook and still argue against any kind of sensible gun safety legislation.

David Wheeler: I would like every parent in this country -- that's 150 million people. I would like them to look in the mirror. And that's not a figure of speech, Scott. I mean, literally find a mirror in your house and look in it and look in your eyes and say, "This will never happen to me. This will never happen in my school. This will never happen in my community." And see if you actually believe that. And if there is a shadow, the slightest shadow of doubt about what you've said, think about what you can do to change that in your house, in your community, in your school, in your country, because we have an obligation to our children to do this for them. It's gonna happen again. It is going to happen again. And every time, you know, it's somebody else's school, it's somebody else's town. It's somebody else's community until one day you wake up and it's not.

As a parent, I know it will kill me to go through the unimaginable horror of what these parents have gone through. Their bravery, their unity and their commitment to make sure that their loss means something will change is simply amazing. Imagine yourself as Dylan Hochley's or Ana Greene's parents:

Do it for those 26 Newtown residents and their grieving families.

A former colleague who works as a lobbyist urged me to cash in and join a lobbying firm after I worked on the Philly mayoral campaign. But, as I told her at the time, no matter how much I was hurting for money, I just don't have the stomach for it. How soul-sucking would it be to work on a bottom-feeding PR campaign like this? (Also, check out the heartrending front page of the Huffington Post today.)

WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association came under fire late Thursday from members of a gun-control advocacy group in Newtown, Conn., after reports surfaced of Newtown residents receiving robocalls and pro-gun postcards from the NRA.

The advocacy group, the Newtown Action Alliance, posted a Facebook messageThursday about the calls, prompting responses from people who said they'd received communications from the NRA and were upset by them."I received one of these," Newtown resident Christopher Wenis wrote on Facebook Thursday afternoon. "I was insulted and offended." Wenis told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday night that in the 36 hours since he first posted his response, he received two more robocalls from the NRA, one later on Thursday night and one Friday evening.

"I've got a 5-year-old son who went to preschool on the Sandy Hook Elementary School campus," Wenis explained. "And this was a really hard week for me on a lot of levels. These calls were the very last thing I needed."

Wenis said that he called the NRA twice to request that his name be placed on a "Do Not Call List" -- first on Tuesday and again Thursday. He said an NRA phone operator assured him he would be removed from NRA call lists. But the calls kept coming. By Friday night, Wenis said, he was desperate to be left in peace.

Another woman, Lisa Abrams, wrote on Facebook that she had "received a call and a postcard asking me to call my congressmen and tell them 'NO ASSUALT WEAPONS BAN' [sic] ... I was not happy and needless to say did just the opposite!"

Tom Maurath, a 40-year resident of Newtown, said he was having dinner with his family on Tuesday when the phone rang at 6:37 p.m. "Our caller ID announces who is calling, and when I heard 'National Rifle Association,' I jumped to answer the phone so my 6-year-old son wouldn't get there first," he told The Huffington Post in an interview. "Our son loves to answer the phone because it might be Grandma."

Maurath said he listened to a prerecorded message about Connecticut state gun legislation for about 30 seconds -- a call that he was stunned to realize took no account of who might pick up the phone."The idea that this message could have been delivered to a sibling of one of the families who lost children at [Sandy Hook Elementary School] is just appalling," he said.

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Nugent, the laughable lizard buffoon of gun country nation who thinks he's Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor rolled into one, has been pulled off the Discovery Network.

While Discovery has described Ted Nugent's Gun Country as a "one-hour special," Nugent claimed that Discovery "want[s] to do it as a regular feature." Nugent has also said the show would help him advance his view in the "culture war."

The episode of Ted Nugent's Gun Country that aired in October showed Nugent shooting a scimitar-horned oryx, an animal extinct in the wild, and using a .50-caliber Browning armor-piercing machine gun to blow holes in a steel door used by a team of "preppers" to protect their armory.

From FoxNews.com:

Discovery Channel's popular reality show about a family of gun makers, "American Guns," came under intense scrutiny in the wake of Friday's mass shooting at a Connecticut grade school, with people flooding the show's Facebook page calling for its cancelation.

"I know you all have to make money but would Discovery Channel PLEASE consider ceasing to broadcast the show in the U.K.? Sadly your program makes buying/owning guns seem fun, glamorous, even normal," wrote one. Another tweeted, "Dear Discovery Channel: it's not appropriate showing the program American Guns now!" Another weighed in: "With Discovery shows like 'Sons of Guns', 'American Guns', 'Ted Nugent's Gun Country' etc it's not surprising how guns r seen as acceptable."

It seems the critics may have been heard.

A Discovery rep told FOX411 that "American Guns" - which is out of production and not currently broadcasting new episodes - has been canceled and will not return for a third season. This comes as something of a surprise given its growing popularity. The show had a 50 percent ratings increase for its second season premiere, and one of its stars, Renee Wyatt, recently said she would "definitely" be interested in returning for season three. The rep, however, would not link the show's cancelation to the Connecticut school massacre.

According to the Discovery website, another of the network's gun-oriented programs, Sons of Guns, has no scheduled upcoming episodes.

UPDATE: After this post was published, Raw Story reported that Ted Nugent won't return to Discovery "in any form or fashion." A Discovery spokesperson told the outlet that while Ted Nugent's Gun Country didn't draw high ratings when it aired in October, the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, also played a role. The spokesperson also denied Nugent's claim that Discovery had been working on a Nugent series consisting of at least a dozen shows a year.

It's illuminating to see a draft dodging miscreant like Nugent actually compared lefties to 'varmints.'

Suck on this, Ted.

We've all seen George Bush's Seven Minutes of Silence in Michael Moore's blistering documentary Farenheit 911, and we've heard Bill Maher discuss it at length. Well, now we have a new political embarrassment to add to the lexicon of shame. This one is a shout-out to Mitch McConnell, who refused to answer a simple question about gun control after the massacre at Sandy Hook.

Dan Amira:

So, NRA-endorsed Joe Manchin is ready to talk about gun control. How about some actual Republicans? Are they ready to have that conversation? Apparently not, according to an encounter that CNN Radio reporter Lisa Desjardins had with Senate Minority Turtle Leader Mitch McConnell in the Senate hallway:

Desjardins: Is now a time to debate our gun laws in this country?

McConnell: [Makes a noise like a turtle clearing its throat, continues walking.]

Desjardins: No comment either way?

McConnell: [Walks in silence.]

Desjardins: A lot of our viewers say they'd like that debate. No comment?

McConnell: [Walks in silence.]

The end.

Yeah, I know. Cowardly.

But what can you expect? He wants his NRA money to keep pouring in.

The End.

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C&Lers know how I feel about Eric 'The Pompous' Bolling. He's the supposed FOX News business reporter who, if he took his own economic advice he peddles on TV, he'd be broke and living off the very food stamps he despises. The mere mention of gun control sent his lizard brain reeling.

Beckel: Frankly I’m getting a little bit saddened by people who say that those of us who believe in gun control, that now is not the time to talk about it. That’s generally a way for gun advocates to put off the subject until things cool down. Now is exactly the time to talk about it. There is now a question, should you have allowed a guy with an equivalent of an M-16, because that’s an assault weapon.

Diane Feinstein says Democrats are willing to do something on the first day of the new Congress. A ban on assault weapons. At a bare minimum we’ve got talk assault weapons and make them illegal in every possible way because those guns do not hunt animals, they hunt people.

Bolling: First of all, an assault weapon…le-le-le---let me do this. From the very early morning we had a meeting and I said I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this gun control discussion right now, there’s a day, place and a time for all that. We can do it. Ummm, let’s not be like Bloomberg, Piers Morgan, Bill Maher, Michael Moore and now Bob Beckel, and jump out while we’re burying our kids Jack Pinto…[garbled]..are being buried as we speak.

We’re talking about guns. This is ridiculous, we’re using politics, we’re using deaths of children to push our political agenda, we’re wrong, you’re wrong…You’re my good friend and you’re absolutely wrong.

Beckel: It’s, it’s…

Bolling: You’re my good friend and you’re absolutely wrong in this case.

Beckel: And you’re absolutely wrong…

Bolling: There is a time and a place and we will have that discussion. I refuse to participate TODAY.

Beckel: When will that time and place be, when the NRA thinks it’s a good idea to do it?

Bolling: When our children are buried, Bob...

It appears that during their pre-show meeting, the two of them had words over this. Bolling went over the top (as he usually does against all things left), but he was even nastier than usual. The Pompous One tries hard to be FOX's next Glenn Beck, but he just comes off nasty and reptilian. A slithering snake of vitriolic barbarism aimed at spreading more hate throughout the conservative universe against liberals.

Did Eric show the same wait-and-see character that he tried to exude over the Sandy Hook Shooting during the Benghazi consulate incident? Hmm, let's see.

Media Matters:

Fox News' Geraldo Rivera condemned his colleague Eric Bolling for pushing what Rivera called "an absolute misrepresentation" aimed at scoring "a political point" over the tragic September 11 attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya.

Discussing what reports say were separate attacks on the compound in Benghazi, separated by hours, Bolling criticized the Obama administration for ignoring calls to send help after the initial attack, saying: "So Washington, the State Department, the CIA, does nothing, sends no help. "Rivera immediately took Bolling to task, calling him a "politician" who was "misleading the American people."

Outside of a handful of David Frum Republicans, I doubt you'd find any conservative pundit alive who is even-handed and mindful of his or her own actions.

(h/t Heather for the video)

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Oh Joe, just leave already. You've got less than a month left as a Senator, can't you just fade quietly away?

But no, it is a dangerous thing to get between a camera and the moralizing Three Amigos of the Senate. With John McCain furiously trying to figure out how to now trash John Kerry for Secretary of State and Lindsey Graham trying to get over the embarassment of propositioning his BFFs on air, it's left to Holy Joe to wax philosophical on the tragic massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Does Lieberman look inward and examine the failure of the Senate to renew the assault weapons ban? Does he reflect on the budgetary cuts that have necessitated the elimination of programs to assist those with mental and developmental issues? Does he bemoan the stranglehold the NRA has on politicians to keep them from enacting legislation that could have protected those poor kids and educators? How about even a little whining about the ridiculous meme from Republicans that now is not the time to discuss gun control?

No, no, no! That would be taking personal responsibility for his part in this culture of violence and we can't have any of that.

Instead, the man with just weeks left in his seat thinks that Congress should go after Hollywood and video games for their culture of violence:

“The violence in the entertainment culture – particularly, with the extraordinary realism to video games, movies now, et cetera – does cause vulnerable young men to be more violent,” Lieberman insisted. “Doesn’t make everybody more violent, but it’s a causative factor in some cases.”

“We ought to ask the entertainment community, what are you going to do to tone that down,” Lieberman said of policymakers in Washington.

Wallace asked if he was advocating for a voluntary push or a legislative solution to violence in entertainment. “In our society, you always try to do it voluntarily,” Lieberman replied. “But, I think we’ve come to a point where you’ve got to say, if not, maybe there’s some things we can do to tone it down.”

Oh yeah, that's doable.

Look, as a parent, I do have an issue with the desensitization towards violence in the media as much as I do the negative body images for girls. I'm careful about what I let my children watch and games they play; we have discussions about these issues frequently. But it's important to remember that millions and millions of Americans watch these same movies, television shows and play these video games without feeling compelled to pick up an assault rifle in real life and kill others.

But if you have a gun in your possession, you are 4.5 times more likely to be shot than someone without a gun. That's a much easier statistic to wrap your head around, rather than the likelihood that some random vulnerable male will commit an act of violence at some point after being exposed to x amount of violent media images. And that would be a statistic that would be readily available to Joe Lieberman if the NRA didn't seek to suppress gun safety studies.

There are things that Congress can do (and have done in the past) to put reasonable limitations on gun ownership in this country. Tangible, workable legislation that may not end all gun violence, but could help limit some of these senseless mass slaughters. Advocating for some amorphous restriction on media is not one of them.

But that would mean that Holy Joe Lieberman look at his own culpability.

So just leave now, Joe. And let us find real solutions without you.

This is also very sad. And infuriating. I used to work with a woman who had not one, but three kids like this. One was hospitalized after trying to kill her. He was 10.

Friday’s horrific national tragedy—the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Connecticut—has ignited a new discussion on violence in America. In kitchens and coffee shops across the country, we tearfully debate the many faces of violence in America: gun culture, media violence, lack of mental health services, overt and covert wars abroad, religion, politics and the way we raise our children. Liza Long, a writer based in Boise, says it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.

Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”

“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”

“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.

At the start of seventh grade, Michael was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he’s in a good mood, he will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who. He’s in a good mood most of the time. But when he’s not, watch out. And it’s impossible to predict what will set him off.

Several weeks into his new junior high school, Michael began exhibiting increasingly odd and threatening behaviors at school. We decided to transfer him to the district’s most restrictive behavioral program, a contained school environment where children who can’t function in normal classrooms can access their right to free public babysitting from 7:30-1:50 Monday through Friday until they turn 18.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos notes the passings of five service members in Afghanistan.

US Navy PO1 Nicolas D Checque, 28, Monroeville, PA
US Army SSG Wesley R Williams, 25, New Carlisle, OH
US Army SSG Nelson D Trent, 37, Austin, TX
US Marines Sgt Michael J Guillory, 28, Pearl River, LA
US Army SSG Nicholas J Reid, 26, Rochester, NY

According to iCasualties, the total number of allied service members killed in Afghanistan is now 3,240.

In addition the names of the children and educators who lost their lives this week in the Sandy Hook shooting were released:

Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Rachel Davino, 29; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay, 7; Ana M Marquez-Greene, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6; Dawn Hocksprung, 47; Madeline F. Hsu, 6; Catherine V. Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Anne Marie Murphy, 52; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Lauren Russeau, 30; Mary Sherlach, 56; Victoria Soto, 27; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison N Wyatt, 6.

And the following notable names lost their lives this week:

Creator of the bar code Norman Joseph Woodland, musician Ravi Shankar, Virginia State Senator William B Hopkins, former child actor Jack Hanlon, blues musician Eddie "Guitar" Burns and drummer Willie Ackerman.

That may not be how the artist meant it, but it's what I thought of immediately.

I mean, sometimes you really have to hit these shameless shills where it hurts when they keep telling us more guns are the answer.

Here's Larry Pratt, explaining how federal mandated health care is a major threat to the 2nd Amendment. Because to a wingnut hammer, everything looks like a nail!

I guess you can't blame Larry Pratt for trying. After all, twisting reality into a paranoid pretzel has worked so many, many times before for these shameless right-wing shills. But I doubt they'll get away with it this time, because people are not going to let go of this one quite so easily: Kindergartners, blown away in their classrooms.

Pratt, a former VA state legislator, is also an extreme-right agitator using fear. (Gun Owners of America has been praised as the "only no-compromise gun lobby in America" by Rep. Ron Paul. Unlike that spineless NRA!) And he's just doing his job, right? Well, no. He's not a public defender just trying to give an accused person a fair trial. He's a scum-sucking bottom-feeder who sees himself as a "patriot". Instilling fear in people is what feeds his ego.That's why, if there's really such a thing as hell, I'll bet that the allegedly Christian Larry Pratt's going there.

But you know what I'd really like? If the network and cable news shows would stop validating his insanity by inviting him on as a guest -- especially now:

While citizens and advocates of gun control are responding to Friday’s horrific school shooting in Connecticut by calling on Congress to enact sensible gun regulations, some gun advocacy groups are blaming supporters of the tighter restrictions for the tragedy.

Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, issued a statement this evening attributing the massacre to gun regulations, arguing that had weapons been permitted on school grounds, the murders could have been avoided:

“Gun control supporters have the blood of little children on their hands. Federal and state laws combined to insure that no teacher, no administrator, no adult had a gun at the Newtown school where the children were murdered. This tragedy underscores the urgency of getting rid of gun bans in school zones. The only thing accomplished by gun free zones is to insure that mass murderers can slay more before they are finally confronted by someone with a gun.”

[...] Preliminary reports indicate that the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was “heavily armed” with “multiple weapons when he entered the school.” He was also reported to be wearing camouflage and a bullet proof vest. At least three guns were used — two pistols and, according to the BBC and AP, a .223-caliber assault rifle.

I'm so very tired of these shoot 'em up fantasies that dominate the psyches of so many conservatives. Seriously? You would rather have inexperienced teachers shooting back instead of shepherding those kids to safety? And what would have happened if they hit one of the kids? Ask any experienced cop just how confusing is it when you're in the middle of a free-fire zone.