April 2009 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Did You Receive Your NRA Ballot?

In my previous post about NRA’s Board Elections, at least two comments indicated that people who knew themselves to be verified voting members did not receive ballots at all this year. Now, two wouldn’t be a big deal. But this whole thing started when a friend of Sebastian’s didn’t get his ballot either. It’s completely anecdotal, but that does seem like an awful large percentage of confirmed voting members I know.

But then I started thinking back, and I never received my first ballot, either. I received credentials to vote on the floor at the Annual Meeting, but when I looked in the magazine back at home, I had no ballot. (I didn’t look for it before because I didn’t think I had been a member for 5 years yet.) My mother didn’t get her first ballot, either. We knew she had been a member longer than I had, yet they still weren’t sending her anything.Â This leads me to wonder about the scale of this problem.

If you absolutely know you were a fully paid life member before March 27, 2009 or had completed 5 years of membership with no lapses of more than 30 days by that date, could you please leave a comment in this post if you did not get your ballot either in the NRA magazine, or by first class mail if you joined after the magazine went out, but before the March deadline? If you know someone, send them this way to comment.Â I realize this isn’t a scientific survey, but I’m trying to get an idea of how large the problem.

The Board of Directors helps guide the overall priorities of the organization, so it is important. Not to mention, a good director can help NRA accomplish goals without the investment of staff time, freeing them up to work on other things. A quality director will ask tough questions when needed and voice concern or offier praise when appropriate. When you consider how few people vote in these elections, and the tight races at the bottom of the ballot, 5,000 ballots mishandled could result in a radically different tally. If it really is a problem, it should be solved.

Quote of the Day

Kevin Baker, responding to someone questioning the seemingly spontaneous nature of the Tea Party Movment, in the comments over at Uncle’s:

Thatâ€™s easy: Bushâ€™s â€œBailoutâ€ of $700 billion in TARP funds, followed by Obamaâ€™s â€œBailout Expansionâ€ of something on the order of an addition a trillion, with more to come. The demands that come along with this money, whether it goes to banks, auto manufacturers or state treasuries, looks like the Federal government essentially seizing control of anything and everything.

All this happened FAST.

And our normally somnolent population finally woke the hell up.

I sure hope he’s right, but suspect he is.Â For those of us who believed in smaller and less intrusive government, we suffered through an abusive relationship with the Bush Administration for eight years.Â Obama was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.Â This is not the change we were looking for.

Hello, My Name is Tom, and I’m Packing

A New Jersey man learns the hard way that robberies in South Carolina don’t go down the same way they do in New Jersey.Â This guy certainly isn’t the first.

Philadelphia Politicians At It Again

The state representatives that represent the City of Philadelphia are introducing three bills in Harrisburg:

The first bill would make it illegal for anyone charged with a felony, but not yet convicted, to buy, transfer, sell, or possess a firearm.

The second would prohibit anyone convicted of a felony drug offense as a juvenile from buying or owning a gun as an adult.

The third bill would require a mandatory one-year sentence for carrying a gun without a license. It was first introduced in 2007, but failed to move out of committee.

The first one is a non-starter.Â We don’t limit constitutional rights based on mere accusation of a crime.Â There is not enough due process here.

The second I’d be more amiable to, if I thought it would actually do anything to reduce crime for those intent on committing them.Â Just because a gun control law might be constitutional doesn’t mean it will work. And just because we pass something, doesn’t mean it will be enforced, which brings me to three.

Three is a no go because the city refuses to use the laws it already has.Â We’ve clearly documented on this blog the City’s utter failure to prosecute criminals who carry firearms illegally.

Enforce the laws you already have before you ask for more.Â I am not in favor of giving Philadelphia more laws it won’t use against criminals.Â If the problem is judges, city politicians need to campaign to get new ones.Â The answer is not to continually blame Harrisburg.Â Pennsylvania has expanded its gun control laws significantly in the past several decades, and the city has refused to use any of them to actually go after criminals.Â I think that’s a big deal, and it’s not being talked about, but it’s the the first conversation that should be had before new laws are discussed.Â Philly politicians keep saying the Commonwealth’s gun control laws are inadqueate.Â How would they know if they won’t use them?

UN Calling for Further Restrictions

From Antonio Maria Costa, Undersecretary of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime:

I know that the last thing many Americans want to hear is a senior U.N. official telling law-abiding citizens to curtail their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Iâ€™m not doing that. At the U.N. we fully understand the fundamental importance of constitutional rights and respect for the rule of law.

Emphasis mine.

We especially encourage the debate on the issue of reinstating the 1994 U.S. ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004. And we support further debate within the United States on whether to close the gun show and private sale loopholes in existing U.S. laws, which create boundless opportunities for criminals to acquire illicit weapons. These legislative changes do not affect law-abiding hunters and sport shooters in any way.

No, Signore Costa, you don’t understand it.Â I think I speak for a lot of American gun owners when I tell you “vaffanculo! vai in culo!”Â You don’t get to tell us what is and isn’t in our constitutional tradition, and what will and won’t affect hunters and sport shooter.Â We know that better than you.Â And furthermore, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with either of those things.Â Both hunting and shooting are an incidental side effects to the enjoyment of a right which you claim to understand, but clearly understanding nothing about.

That’s the end of the discussion.Â If you don’t like it, you can go back to Italy, and take the rest of your internationalist unaccountable bureaucrats, who are currently wasting some of the most valuable real estate in my country, with you.

UPDATE: Perhaps I should not have been so harsh.Â Antonio Maria Costa is clearly just trying to do his alma mater proud.Â Though, he got his Ph.D from here.Â Not much if a difference, really :)

I Never Listened to Him Anyway

I’m not really a big fan of Rush Limbaugh.Â I respect him for the success he’s had as the undisputed King of his medium, and generally think he’s been a positive influence on the conservative movement.Â But personally, I never really dug conservative talk radio.

Now I’m glad I don’t listen to him, if he’s going to make allies with radical anti-hunting groups that disguise themselves.Â I sincerely hope that Rush Limbaugh fell for it too, rather than that he actually supports their anti-hunting, anti-farming animal rights agenda.

Toomey Announces

He has formally entered the race:

“We can stop the bailouts and the spending stampede; we can reduce the burdens on taxpayers; and we can unlock the ingenuity and job creation potential of our great nation once again,” Toomey said in his remarks. “I am running for the U.S. Senate because I believe the economic stakes for our country have never been higher. The people of Pennsylvania deserve the very best from their leaders in Washington â€“ but that’s not what they are receiving.”

It’s change I can believe in.Â I anxiously await Alren Specter’s next attack ad, which will no doubt inform Pennsylvania voters that Pat Toomey’s involvement with the Second Bank of the United States lead directly to the real estate bubble and, eventual panic of 1819.

Hat Tip Instapundit

Philadelphia Area Tea Parties

It’s Tax Day, which means it’s time to start thinking about attending your local tea party.Â Bruce is going to his, with a sign that’s made of WIN.Â The Philadelphia Tea Party is on Saturday April 18th, at Independence Mall, on Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, from Noon to 2PM.Â Speakers will be:

Dom Giordano – Talk Show Host, WPHT-AM
Don Adams – writer, teacher, public affairs consultant
Christine Flowers – Attorney and Columnist, Philadelphia Daily News
Scott Rutter – Decorated veteran and Townhall.com columnist
Scott Wheeler – Executive Director,The National Republican Trust PAC (GOPtrust.com), columnist at Newsmax.com.

If Philadelphia is too far for you, there will be a Bucks County Tea Party, at Washington Crossing, from 1 to 3 on Saturday.Â In addition to that, there are numerous Tax Day Tea Parties happening all over the country today.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has some interesting thoughts on the Tea Party Movement in today’s Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE: More from Glenn here.Â I think his reader Dusty really gets the significance.Â To me, what the Tea Party Movement represents is a “silent majority” deciding to no longer be silent.Â People like us, who have jobs, who have families, and generally haven’t had the time to be heavily involved in politics, are starting to realize that the problems of the country will not fix themselves; that ignoring government only makes it worse.Â What I suspect, or perhaps hope, is that people who want government to leave them the hell alone are finally waking up and making noise.Â That’s the first step.Â After this, we need to organize, and throw the bastards out.Â And keep throwing them out until we get the government we want.

UPDATE: 4000 in DC.Â Treasury yanked their permit to protest outside at the last minute.Â The atmosphere is described as “electric.”

Chinese AR-15 Knockoff

The Canadians are currently able to get their hands on these.Â It continues to amaze me that Canada has less stringent importation laws in regards to firearms than the United States.

Wither Newspapers

From Blackfork in Texas:

In the future, when I try and describe what a ridiculous thing newspapers were, I guess I’ll mostly say they were good for crossword puzzles and for puppies to pee on while you were housebreaking them.

Years ago, newspapers actually used to be outwardly partisan.Â You can still see this today in papers that have titles like “Daily Republican” or “Times-Democrat” in them.Â At some point, Newspapers decided to start selling nearly the same thing as objective news.Â Except it wasn’t.

I think the reason for the decline of newspapers is fundamental, and not necessarily the result of bias.Â But I suspect whatever replaces the newspaper will be biased, but will be up front with it.Â Personally, I think that’s a better way to do news anyway.Â It’s almost impossible to report news without the reporter’s own biases, experiences and ignorance coming through.Â Best to be up front about those, I think.Â It’s why blogs work.

We need someone to generate raw news, but what good is raw news if society can’t have a reasonable conversation about it?Â Whatever replaces the newspaper, it’ll certainly be better than having that conversation only happen between journalists in editorial board meetings.