June 2011 – Page 5 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Crazy Continues

I must have really struck a nerve with our opponents in a recent post, because the CSGV, which has been pretty good about ignoring bloggers, apparently couldn’t ignore my latest post. I’m happy that has brought out the crazy:

Yeah, that was totally speaking fearfully, rather than someone who quite well understands exactly what dustbin of history your kind is destined for. To be sure, I don’t think opposition to campus carry is in any way on par with segregation or slavery, but I do think CSGV’s fundamental mission is a lost cause at this point, and will likely end up in the same place as those long discarded ideas.

I also like the fact that now we’re gun violence proponents, and advocating for gun ownership with no limits. Handing guns out to school kids and the mentally ill. Yeah, we’re all totally for that! Yippee! I’ve long argued that there are many limits on the criminal and mentally ill that are likely constitutional. It’s long established constitutional rights can be limited through due process of law. Our opponents, on the other hand, have not at all accepted that owning a firearm is now a constitutional right, just like free speech and religion.

These people are completely delusional. If you were to put this in the social conservative context, they are the same kinds of people who would argue a gay elementary school teacher is surely going to indoctrinate the kids with their “gay agenda,” and induce the children into homosexual relations. Because you know those kinds of people can’t help themselves.

They really are bigots, when you boil it down.

Last Official Act

Our building is now back in possession of the landlords, the last payroll is scheduled to go at the end of the month, and today I went to visit our closet of a temp office to do the paperwork to lay myself off. I will be officially out of a job at the end of this month, when I receive the last paycheck along with the severance.

I had mentioned I was trying something entrepreneurial. A major wrench has just been thrown in that works. It’s not necessarily a fatal blow yet, but it may take time to sort out. My plan is to take a few days to decompress, then decide what to do. I know blogging has been very erratic, largely because I have been unable to keep a schedule. Right now I feel like I need a few days to get used to the fact that things are indeed over. My CEO will not be calling on me for major tasks, and after next Thursday, when my employment officially ends, we’re talking contract arrangements regardless.

Joyce Brady Mayors and Moms Against Illegal Gun Coalitions on Violence Policy Campaign

Did I leave anyone out?

It seems like Max Nacheman is out to rebrand the anti-gun movement into one big happy family – or at least laugh all the way to the bank on every group’s dime. First, he was on the payroll of MAIG while also speaking to policymakers as a representative of the Brady Campaign. Now, Max has taken over the head of CeaseFirePA since its leader decided to throw in the towel and make a run for local office.

His group is now merged with Moms Against Guns which scammed Clear Channel’s outdoor advertising department by misrepresenting their tax status to get free billboard space that they used for political advocacy when it was slotted for charitable organizations. Only he found their name to be a liability. On their site, the text references to Moms Against Guns have been changed to Moms Against (Illegal) Guns. Not that a name change should matter since Moms Against Guns was never legally registered as a charitable organization. I also find it funny that in taking over the Moms Against Guns website, they Photoshopped the word “illegal” onto the logo and, I guess, hope that no one notices that they never made the distinction between illegal and legal guns before.

CeaseFirePA has also recently donated some of their front page space to promote the MAIG petition for ~~growing their email list~~ restricting gun shows. The same front page also touts the group’s recent Joyce grant to ~~pay Max’s salary~~ grow their “grassroots.”

I guess when the folks in charge of the finances finally find someone who is willing to throw their entire career to a cause that continues to lose at nearly every turn, all the groups will jump up to pay him to keep on trying for something.

(Photo courtesy of reader Adam Z.)

Apologist Media Still in the Tank for the O Man

The Washington Post, represented in this case by one of our favorite anti-gun reporters, Sari Horwitz, smears Congressman Issa and continues to attempt to deflect blame away from the Administration and ATF when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. This is in sharp contrast to the New York Post, which is commending Issa for the investigation and egging it further on.

The Post has a source that claims that Issa was briefed on the operation last year, and raised no objections. I’m going to bet that actively encouraging straw purchasing was not on the list of things the DOJ would have included in their briefing to Congress. It’s one thing to report “how many guns had been bought by ‘straw purchasers,’ the types of guns and how much money had been spent,” it’s quite another to understand that these were straw purchases, which otherwise would not have been made, that were actively encouraged by the agency. It’s also even quite yet another thing to report that ATF did not even bother to track the vast majority of those firearms.

The Washington Post doesn’t seem to make any pretense of objective reporting anymore. They ought to be viewed as the shills for the Administration that they indeed are.

Perry Signs Parking Lot Law in Texas

With my usual caveat that I do not agree with NRA on these parking lot laws, It’s worth noting that while our opponents were busy fighting hysterically to prevent the campus carry bill, our side managed to slip this in.

The message to our opponents is that you can’t win. Even when you think you do, you really don’t. At best, their greatly touted victory in Texas was a delaying action. How many other states can this be done in? How many other states can we distract them with Campus Carry bill, then slip in substantive reforms under the radar while our opponents are pouring resources into defeated the diversionary action?

They will not win. Their only fate is the dustbin of history, along with ideas like monarchy, slavery, segregation, and temperance.

Really Glad the Feds are on the Case

I for one feel a lot safer that our wonderful federal overseers have seen to rid the county (my the county) of the scourge of fake cosmetics at local flea markets.

I’ve been having a hard time sleeping because of all the hope and change, but now I will sleep like a baby knowing our federal friends are on the case. Obviously preventing petty fraud is well beyond the capabilities of state government, surely requiring strict federal intervention.

To be sure, I think the government has a role in preventing fraud. My main beef here is priorities, and which particular sovereign is doing this. I’m going to bet not expending federal monies sending guns to Mexican drug cartels is probably a better life saving proposition than raiding flea markets in Solebury Township, PA.

I guess I should just be happy they didn’t send in the SWAT team with helicopters.

RTC in Wisconsin

Right to carry is on the way to the Governor’s in Wisconsin. Signature is expected. Sadly his is without Constitutional Carry, which got removed in the Senate, but it’s a good bill with not much in the way of off limits places. There is a provision for reciprocity, but it’s not universal. It suggests the AG may enter into agreements, but in no way suggests he or she must. In that way it is weaker than Pennsylvania.

For Constitutional Carry, unfortunately Wisconsin is much like PA in that for gun rights, it has a much softer body in the Senate. I am not really going to complain much. Going from one of the two remaining states without any CC provision straight to constitutional carry would have been miraculous. As it is, it’s pretty good.

Making Progress in Maine

I’m still waiting for substantive reciprocity reform, but this looks like great progress, especially when our opponents arrogantly believed they could exploit the Gabby Gifford’s shooting to shoe horn a magazine ban through in the Pine Tree State.

I would also note that Maine is one of John Hohenwarter’s states, for those folks who think’s he’s been a plague of locusts on the gun rights movement. He delivered on on a clean bill for Castle Doctrine, so I’m inclined to believe he’s not working against our interests, despite what many claim.

I am still trying to work up a post on what happened in New Hampshire, but my current work situation has been sapping my time, and making my schedule completely erratic. I have not had much time, but I hope to deliver at some point.

UPDATE: I should point out that I’m don’t agree with NRA on the parking lot law, but my greater point was that Hohenwarter isn’t as inept as many think. I’m open to the argument that John could stand to have a few less states, but of the ones I know about, MA, PA, ME, OH, NH, serious pro-gun legislation has passed in three, and anti-gun legislation that received major news coverage was defeated in at least one (not even mentioning, so far, FL loophole in PA). NH, to date, has been the only notable exception, and I’m still trying to figure out that cluster.

Now I Won’t Feel Bad For Long Showers

Thanks to Les Jones, I now realize that people in Oregon have completely lost their minds. How many public pools are there in Oregon? Because I can promise you this has happened in just about every one of them:

And not necessarily with a candy bar. There’s a reason this is funny.

Ask and Tell

Apparently our opponents think some forms of asking and telling are just fine. Actually, I have no real problems with Ask Day. I’m not against our opponents using social pressure to achieve their policy goals. In a free society, shame is really what should keep people in line, rather than governmental fiats. The real reason the gay rights movement has won is because they removed the shame in it, no matter how badly social conservatives might try to reassert it.

I view this similarly to conservative efforts to shame homosexuality. I am not supportive of such efforts, but I still believe they have a right to do it. Strangely enough, despite my opinions favoring gay marriage and favoring non-discrimination in sexual orientation — when it comes to the military, I’m not quite as much of a cheerleader. The military currently segregates men and women because there’s an understanding that sexual issues can be problematic in a military environment, where intimate living arrangements can be the rule rather than the exception.

That said, I’m not in favor of DADT because the military has demonstrated they can’t help but abuse the policy. I can understand how sexual issues could come into play where intimate living conditions are the norm, but there have been enough cases of the military drumming gays out of the service just for the sake of doing so that I can no longer support this policy.

Apparently our opponents do not wish to take this kind of approach, because when it comes to supporting enumerated constitutional freedoms, they let their own ignorance rule. I have no problems with parents asking other parents about guns in the house, but if in that same sentence they aren’t also asking about swimming pools and dangerous household chemicals, they are being naive in their duties. Statistically all those things kill more kids by accident than firearms do.