2012 – Page 93 – Shall Not Be Questioned

And Where Did He Get That Idea From?

A Texas man ends up rightfully convicted of murder by a jury of his peers after asserting self-defense. Apparently the man in the case had some wild-eyed misconceptions about self-defense:

One neighbor testified that Rodriguez, who had a concealed handgun license, bragged about his guns and that he told her a person could avoid prosecution in a shooting by telling authorities you were in fear of your life and were standing your ground and defending yourself.

And where would he have gotten that idea? It certainly wasn’t in his CHL training. It certainly wasn’t from any of us, who are up front and honest about what self-defense actually is, and make an attempt at educating the public about it. No, he got that idea from the media, who got that idea from our opponents.

I’m not kidding here. Their misleading and deceptive characterization of self-defense laws, and the media’s willingness to help spread their dangerous meme throughout the land, and their own attempts to spread it, is at least partly responsible for this horrible incident. This guy believed their bull, and now one person is dead, and he’s rightfully in prison for the murder. When you lie about self-defense laws, when you mischaracterize them, suggesting that all anyone has to do is claim they were scared, you run the risk that some morons out there might actually believe it. We told you this was dangerous. We told you this would happen, and you did not believe us. Well, here it is. No doubt they will find it easy to wash the blood off their hands, cup them back over their mouths, and continue trying to convince the public the NRA has made it possible to shoot someone if you’re scared, no questions asked. At least until the next moron actually believes them.

A Brilliant Maneuver on Microstamping

The CalGuns guys have prevented microstamping from taking effect in California, by renewing the patent on it. The California law requires that the technology be unencumbered by patent before it goes into effect, and the patent was about to lapse. From the Paper of Making Up the Record:

â€œIt was a lot cheaper to keep the patent in force than to litigate over the issues,â€ said Gene Hoffman, the chairman of the foundation, adding that he believed the law amounted to a gun ban in California.

It even made Slashdot. Hats off to the brains behind the CalGuns Foundation for this. Gene is likely correct it would have amounted to a gun ban in California, since it’s unlikely most smaller gun makers would pay for the technology and assembly line changes just to make a gun for the California market. This would have a chilling effect on Second Amendment rights for Californians.

Why I Only Tepidly Support PA Republicans

Booze privatization is an measure an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians support, and Republicans are supposed to be all about free markets and free enterprise, if you believe that kind of thing. So you think there’d be no way in hell, with the House, Senate and Governor’s mansion in GOP hands, the GOP could possibly foul up the privatization of the state liquor system, but you’d be wrong.

Bloomberg’s Nanny State Continues

They want to go after more than just soda, including milk shakes, movie theater popcorn, and other milk beverages. This is why Tam’s latest effort is more important than ever.

Cutting The Cord

Les Jones is becoming a cord cutter. We did it about two and a half years ago, and haven’t looked back. I don’t miss flushing more than 100 dollars a month away on 557 channels and nothing’s on. I don’t even use rabbit ears. Our TV is idle most of the time. I think TV reached its zenith (no pun intended) with the baby boomer generation, and it’s going to be downhill from here for any industry that makes its livelihood of selling people traditional television programming.

Fast and Furious About to Blow Wide Open?

Apparently there’s a new whistleblower from DOJ. John Richardson speculates this could mean Holder is gone sooner rather than later.

Fantastic Activism: MAIG E-Mails FOIA’d

Sean Caranna over at the All Nine Yards blog has obtained copies of Linda S. Vaughn’s e-mails, showing MAIG is definitely pulling the strings, and possibly endangering their related foundation’s tax status. This should be a template for all other MAIG funded public employees.

More on the Shellie Zimmerman Perjury Charges

Looks like more nonsense from Angela “Nifong” Corey.

The Descent Into Madness

Josh Horwitz has plenty of reasons to be a sad panda these days, but his latest tirade about how the NRA is just another part of the vast right-wing conspiracy takes the cake. I’ve been a pretty outspoken about NRA not inbreeding with the D.C. right-wing establishment, and staying true to it’s mission. NRA should be as welcoming to liberal gun owners as it is to conservative ones, and indeed, I believe many of the advances we’ve seen on the social front lately is because lefty gun owners are willing to come out of the closet in greater numbers. David Keene comes from the conservative D.C. establishment, and presents opportunity to our opponents to smear NRA as part of the VRWC because of his former role with ACU, which puts on CPAC. The take they are trying to weave, is pretty thin, however.

Horwitz’s rant is ludicrous, even given Keene’s background. Among the accessions are that Keene moderated a CPAC panel, which had an author on it, who wrote a book which wasn’t completely about the Second Amendment. He then proceeds to go after Keene for being “giddy” about the Wisconsin recall election results. Considering Walker was carrying an NRA endorsement, and signed Concealed Carry and Castle Doctrine in Wisconsin, I’d hardly call that surprising or stepping outside of his role as NRA President. It’s funny how they didn’t mention that Keene, in his former role as ACU President, was advocating for inclusion of gay conservative groups into CPAC, standing against the family groups who spoke against it, and who eventually won out once his presidency was over. Keene is someone I’m happy to have on my side in an issue, and I’m happy he’s NRA President. He doesn’t fit a lot of the stereotypical molds of people in the right-of-center establishment in D.C.

There is a more general risk, however, with this kind of mixing of issues, and dilution of NRA’s core mission with other right-wing causes. I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with NRA’s participation in CPAC for that reason. But there’s a good argument to be made that such participation, if it is the evil I think it, is a necessary one. In order for any organization to be successful, it has to attract a following, which means marketing itself, and marketing is pretty much what CPAC is about. More importantly, for NRA, it’s marketing to young people, which NRA desperately needs outlets for. The question is whether NRA can long mingle with the right-of-center DC establishment without being wholly consumed by it.

Scott Walker’s New Political Opponents

Sure, he survived a tough recall election with better numbers than 2010, but Scott Walker has a new political opponent that’s so tough and determined, they once got a federal Constitutional amendment passed. They are now speaking out against his actions, and I’m sure he’s cowering in fear. It’s the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. No, I’m not kidding.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which successfully lobbied for Prohibition in the 1920s and whose 5,000 members continue to spread its antidrinking message nationwide, criticized the serving of alcohol at the event.

“I don’t think it’s cool at all,” said Rita Wert, president of the group. “It sets a very poor example.”

Actually, the really sad news isn’t the fact that there are still a group of 5,000 women pushing for prohibition again. It’s the fact that Gov. Walker hosted a bi-partisan beer and brats event to promote the idea that lawmakers can, in fact, have a civil discussion about issues, even if they disagree. The event drew protesters who won’t settle for anything less than having their political opponents (Walker & the GOP) indicted.