Month: April 2008

Intent to Harm

Gunpundit notes that there are a lot of options for those intent to cause harm on a large scale, many of which are far more deadly than guns.  Joe Huffman has had issues recently with this, and one from today is right around the corner from me here.

Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but I have no plans to contact authorities, because I don’t trust them to deal with the matter with any discretion.  Could be, and likely is, a curious kid.  I could see myself googling similarly with no ill intent when I was in high school.  But in our zero tolerance world, I don’t trust the authorities and school officials to rationally investigate the matter.  I do not wish to be responsible for some family’s broken door, and ransacked house, and, quite likely an expulsion from school.

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Where’s the ACLU?

Via Glenn, I noticed this article talking about the entire Texas polygamy fiasco, and asking where the ACLU is in all of this.  The answer to me, is pretty clear.  It’s not George W. Bush perpetrating this outrage against people’s civil rights, so who’s to care?  If it can’t used it to beat those warmongering Republicans over the head, why does it matter?

The progressives’ defense of civil rights has become an utter joke, and it’s not just their willingness to throw the second amendment under the bus.  I’m not happy with Bush’s record on civil liberties at all, and for letting a weasel like Gonzalez run around for as long as he did.  But civil liberties violations don’t start and end with the Bush administration.

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ABC Lying About Guns

Go check out Confederate Yankee.  We really need to start educating reporters that there is basically no way that people are buying machine guns on the US market and shipping them south of the border.  As Confederate Yankee says:

The focus of the story, according to ABC News, is that U.S. dealers of civilian firearms are to blame for Mexico’s drug cartels and their violence problems… so why do they highlight an M60 general purpose machine gun, a weapons still in use in Mexico’s military, but impossible to find in the open U.S. civilian market?

Could it be, and maybe I’m crazy here, that the Mexican government finds it more convenient to blame the US, rather than admit there’s massive corruption within its own military that allowing smugglers to pilfer weapons out of government armories?  Of course, there are people on our side of the border willing to play along with this charade for their own purposes, including, apparently, ABC.

UPDATE: SayUncle has more.

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How to Affect Change

Peter offers a good guide on how to get involved to get more pro-liberty candidates in the political mix:

We need to get more active, and at all levels of government. We look at the state and local races as closely as we look at the national races. We need to start reform at the ground level. The person that is running for dog catcher may become the Mayor. The Mayor’s office to the Governor’s office isn’t too far. And a lot of Governors have run for and become president. We need to take a long view, and work on our local officials, letting them know how we feel, and helping the good ones to make the leap to the next level. While not many of them will make this type of leap, we will benefit from elected officials that better represent us at all levels. Also consider how much easier it is to deal with someone at a lower level in the political process, and how much harder it gets as they rise through the ranks. Who would be in this race was largely determined years ago.

Read the whole thing.  The big problem most of us pro-liberty types have is that we’re too busy enjoying it.  We have wives, kids, jobs, baseball games, and beer, which leaves little time for activism.  But there are many things that those who are short on time can do.  Put out a sign, donate money, beat up a hippy, conqueror Berkeley, or whatever you can find the resources to accomplish.

Another thing to consider, if you have maybe a little extra time, is look at whether your local congressional district has an EVC.  Some areas are seriously deficient of volunteers, and many are deficient of EVCs, including my district, and I’ve been thinking about stepping up.

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Congrats to Tam

Congratulations to Tam for getting a cool writing gig!  She’s writing for Low End Mac.  My first Mac was a IIsi in 1992.  I soon realized “This is a lot better than Windows 3.1″ and used it pretty exclusively, even though I wonder how I ever lived with a 12″ display.  Later upgraded to a IIci with a larger 14” display.  Briefly used a NeXT cube, until the novelty wore off and I realized it was nice to have software.  I actually skipped the whole PowerPC generation, using Linux pretty exlusively during that time, until I bought my MacBook a year and a half ago and thought “This is a lot better than Linux.”  Granted, I still use Linux for serving the blog and for a DVR, but not for desktop work.  There will be no going back to the world of Windows for me.

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Hillary By Ten

It’s important to remember that Barack Obama was closing the gap on Hillary rather aggressively when he stepped on a land mind in the culture war and blew up his campaign.  While “Bittergate” may have cost Obama the Pennsylvania primary, I think the cost to the Democrats in general is probably greater.  The Democrats can’t be the party of large urban centers and still win national elections, and their attitudes toward, not just rural, but ordinary people and their lifestyles have been a big part of what’s holding them back.

Bittergate wasn’t broken by conservative digging.  It wasn’t some intrepid reporter who uncovered it.  It was a lefty blogger, who had little idea of the significance of what she was revealing.  But how could she have?  She was part of the same intelligentsia that Obama was trying to appeal to in the first place.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the urban left, it’s that many are very insulated from lifestyles and opinions of those outside their parochial social circles.  This is a trait most commonly attached to rural people, but mass media and the internet have largely ended that.  Rural people are learning what life long urban dwellers like Barack Obama think of them, and they don’t like it.

I believe Wretchard of The Belmont Club summed up the issue best:

Americans in contrast, opted to leave that responsibility with individuals. The phrase “In God We Trust” is often attached by wags to the words, “all others must pay cash”. It’s a restatement of the belief that there are no special people, no natural overlords, no entitled class upon the earth. Bureaucrats are just people doing a job in uniform clothes. At the end of the day the world consisted of you and your Maker.

God and guns are a talismanic connection to the idea that the individual is supreme.

And that is what Democrats have been failing to understand for quite some time now.  Democrats of the past often had lofty goals in terms of progressive reform, but respect for the people they thought they were helping was generally there.  The more the Democrats look like they are a bunch of wealthy, educated, city dwellers trying to feel better about themselves by helping those poor ignorant indigents run their sad, pathetic lives, the more they are going to lose.  Barack Obama just learned that lesson the hard way.

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Overheard at Obama Headquarters

*ring* *ring* *ring*

Bob: Hello, this is Bob Ricker of American Hunters and Shooters.

Obama: Hey man, you told me if you guys endorsed me, all those crackers outside of Philadelphia would cast their vote for me.  What the hell?

Bob: Look Barry, we’ll help you out in Indiana, for sure.  My buddy Paul tells me we’re sure to deliver Fort Wayne.  And there’s Gary Barry, don’t forget about Gary!

Obama: Indiana?  Are you crazy?  Those guys are even more bitter than Pennsylvanians.

Bob: We’re confident we can deliver the rich Perazzi shotgun vote.  Those guys love us.

Obama: How many of those guys are in Indiana?  Can you really deliver?

Bob: Can we deliver?  Can we deliver?  Is your name Barack Hussein Obama?

Obama: YOU SAID THE MIDDLE NAME!  NEVER SAY THE MIDDLE NAME!

Bob: Sorry Barry.  Look, it’s not our fault that Pennsylvania has so many whacko gun owners.  We think we can get you to within at least 5 points of Hillary in Indiana.  At least.  Trust us on this.

Obama: I’m starting to think you guys are full of crap Bob.

Bob: A group called Hunters and Shooters endorsing you?  What gave it away?

Obama: You just better help me out in Indiana!

*click*

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