The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
These people aren’t stupid, this is pretty clearly media produced ignorance:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8[/youtube]
On topics the media actually covered, people have knowledge, but the media just ensured the people have no idea what they just voted for. We can’t have a functioning system with a media that doesn’t do its job.
Bruce Asks, “I’m still trying to figure out the how those who declared Sarah Palin unqualified to hold the office of Vice President can say, with a straight face, that it would be in the best interest of our country to put Al Franken in the United States Senate.” The recount happens today, I believe. Let us wish Mr. Coleman luck. With Stevens being defeated in Alaska, we don’t have much of a filibuster left.
Kurt Hoffman notes Obama’s pick for the Department of Justice. This is the position that will most affect gun owners, and his stance on gun rights doesn’t look good. I will say, however, that if Mr. Holder can prevent his department from burning down houses with children in it, murdering women and children with sniper fire, or pointing submachine guns at 6 year olds, his record will at least be better than his Democratic predecessor. I will hope that he adopts Obama’s “Yes we can!” attitude in terms of trying to achieve that particular goal. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t really be that hard to top the performance of the last Republican occupant of that office either. I would hope Mr. Holder can agree with us that these are realistic, and achievable goals.
UPDATE: Someone points out that Ruby Ridge was at the end of the Bush I presidency, and that would seem to be correct. But I would note that it doesn’t appear Janet Reno did much housecleaning to get rid of the people who concocted the unlawful rules of engagement.
Kurt Hoffman finds some ridiculous assertions about the New Jersey ban on .50 caliber firearms. The vote that was scheduled for last night has been postponed to December, according to ANJRPC:
In response to your calls, faxes, and emails, the New Jersey Assembly on November 17 delayed passage of A2116 (banning most firearms of .50 caliber or larger) and instead amended the legislation in an attempt to respond to gun owner concerns. The amended bill could be considered by the full Assembly as soon as December.
The amendments are currently under review and further alerts will be forthcoming. However, no amount of tinkering can “fix” a gun ban, and A2116 remains fundamentally flawed legislation because it bans handguns and long guns based on the size of the hole in the barrel instead of punishing criminal behavior.
Please continue to contact your Assembly members and oppose A2116. Their contact information is available here.
Hopefully they’ll find better things to do, like fixing the gaping holes in the state’s budget.
There are literally hundreds of bills that get introduced in Congress, or thousands if you count the legislatures of the several states, each legislative session. Most of them aren’t going anywhere. Every Congress since the Assault Weapons Ban expired have had a bill to renew, and an even worse bill. They are typically introduced by the usual suspects, and will languish in committee, never to see the light of day. The mere introduction of a bill means nothing.
When to start worrying is if you see a sudden surge in legislators co-sponsoring a bill. When you start approaching a majority, or large majority of the house co-sponsoring a bill, that increasing the likelihood that the bill will get a hearing in committee. The time to start worrying about a new assault weapons ban is if one of the introduced bills gets a committee hearing. If there was going to be a time I’d suggest buying, that would be the time.
Even if a bill gets a hearing, it doesn’t mean it will be passed out of the committee on to the floor. The committee chairs decide what gets a hearing, and what does not. The Chairman of the Committee that handles things like assault weapons bans is John Conyers, and probably will be in the 111th Congress as well. The composition of the committee makes it challenging for us, but we have yet to see a bill get a hearing in this Congress.
We do keep track of this stuff, and if it looks like things are going against us, you’ll hear it on the blogosphere first.
Philadelphia has the highest percentage of violence related workplace fatalities of any city. Detroit is right behind us. Anti-gun groups claiming the prevalence of guns being responsible in 3…2…1…
I wonder whether the Obama transition team would consider this a productive way to deal with urban violence. Or perhaps they would have preferred the Barber be the one to get shot for not having enough money in his till.
One thing is for sure, that guy won’t be robbing any more businesses. Mr. Cross did what he had to do.
Another one from Overcoming Bias, which I think I will have to add to the RSS feed:
“The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford, “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
Read the whole thing. If you’r a third party voter, it’s a great defense of voting third party. I think the two party dichotomy is entirely to ingrained in our system to go away any time soon. The time to vote your conscious is the primary, and in local elections, where you can help bring political talent into the public arena. I mean really help. One person can make a difference in local races. Of course, I also think political participation is about a lot more than voting.
From the blog Overcoming Bias:
We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL. Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind. Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin.
We have way too much of this in the pro-gun community. Way too much. I notice it particularly in those who would have us believe we’re, sure as sin, on the road to a marxist dictatorship with the election of Obama. That’s right along this line of thinking, if you ask me.
That also, if you ask me, describes much of the open carry movement as well.
This is bound to do wonders for the economy:
Mr. Baucus would create a nationwide marketplace, a “health insurance exchange,†where people could compare and buy insurance policies. The options would include private insurance policies and a new public plan similar to Medicare. Insurers could no longer deny coverage to people who had been sick. Congress would also limit insurers’ ability to charge higher premiums because of a person’s age or prior illness.
People would have a duty to obtain coverage when affordable options were available to all through employers or through the insurance exchange. This obligation “would be enforced, possibly through the tax system,†the plan says.
Enforced through the tax system, eh? Well, at least that’s probably constitutional. Either way, there’s no word on how they plan to pay for what is bound to be an enormously expensive program. To me this is the worst of both worlds. There will be no incentive to control health care costs with a system like this, and costs will spiral out of control.