September 2013 – Page 4 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Starbucks No Longer Wants Our Business

I was willing to go out of my way to throw Starbucks business they would not have ordinarily gotten because they were not giving in to the bullying by anti-gun extremists. Following state law on the matter of guns was fine by me.Â But Starbucks has decided they no longer want my business, and I will take it back to Dunkin Donuts gladly. Their coffee is better anyway.

I would ask everyone to let Starbucks Corporate know that they are taking their business to competitors. I completely understand that Starbucks wants out of this debate, and that’s fine, but if they think they can extricate themselves from the debate by appeasing a small minority of insufferable extremists, and telling the rest of the 6 million (and growing) people in the United States who are licensed to carry firearms they don’t want their business, I can still vote with my wallet.

Also, understand this: it won’t stop with Starbucks. The gun ban extremists will go company by company, bullying each of them into ensuring those who exercise their Second Amendment rights are relegated to the status of second class citizens. We have to be prepared to take our money elsewhere, and mean it. If Starbucks does not quickly reverse this policy, I’m done with them. I won’t spend another dime there. I encourage everyone else to do the same, and don’t be quiet about it. We have to make this epic.

Meme Wars

I’ve seen this going around Facebook pretty virtually. This is a pretty good metaphor for how we argue politically these days: take the worst straits of jerks on the Internet and apply it to your political opponents as a whole.

Miss America Racism Meme

Maybe I just don’t run with any real “right-wingers” but I don’t know anyone who a) give a shit about the Miss America contest or b) gives a shit that it was won by a woman of Indian descent. The great thing about the Internet is that there are plenty of ignorant jerks on it, and the left have become expert at taking jerks and making those of us right-of-center own them. It’s an odious tactic, but it works. I think when new media first came out, the right owned it. I think the left owns social media. They are so much better at this stuff than the right, it’s not even funny.

My big fear with the direction of political discourse in this country is that we’re all increasingly viewing other people who don’t agree with us, that nebulous “other,” as a hapless caricature. It you really look at how this works, such that it takes off as a meme, it feeds on every caricature people on the left think about people on the right. Politics is increasingly becoming people shouting at each other in a cartoon world.

Adjust Your Tinfoil Hats: Source of AR-15 Narrative

CNN is finally releasing the story about how there was no AR-15 involved in the Navy Yard Shooting. Note this:

A U.S. law enforcement official said Monday that gunman Aaron Alexis unleashed a barrage of bullets using an AR-15, a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. Authorities believed the AR-15 was used for most of the shooting, the official said. The news prompted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one of the strongest proponents of a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15, to issue a statement the same day asking, “When will enough be enough?”

So who were these US Law enforcement officials? This is rank speculation on my part, I want to be clear: but the Administration has a certain amount invested in seeing his gun control agenda through. While it easily could have been a mistake, I do have to note:

A lie will get halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.
The media can be expected to parrot anything they can get their hands on in a mass shooting, and the shooter having an AR-15 comports with their agendas and biases.
Regardless of the truth coming out now, people will continue to believe an AR-15 was involved, because they barely pay attention.

Which makes me wonder if those leaks about the AR-15 weren’t intentional, and meant to drive the narrative. It’s tin foil hat territory, but this Administration has set new standards for tin foil hat whackery.

The Narrative on the Navy Yard Shooting

So it looks like the shooter may have followed Joe Biden’s advice and got himself a shotgun, then proceeded to use the cop killer loophole to get a pistol and magazines. It’s not clear yet that is the case with the AR, but the narrative isn’t looking too good for our opponents.

You almost have to wonder if they feel pangs of disappointment when it’s discovered they didn’t get their guns from Ahmed the terrorist at a gun show in Virginia. So when can we have a discussion about mental illness? It looks like this was another case of the authorities dropping the ball when it comes to protecting society from unbalanced people like this. We have laws on the books that strip people criminal or mentally ill of their gun rights, but none of those laws do a damned bit a good if there’s no follow through.

UPDATE: So much for the AR-15:

FBI Washington field office just confirmed gunman was NOT armed with AR15. Spokesperson says 1 shotgun and 2 pistols recovered

— Pamela Brown (@PamelaBrownCNN) September 17, 2013

Celebrating Constitution Day

Happy Constitution Day!

Today, we’re celebrating with our Friends of NRA banquet. We get to send some lucky winner home tonight knowing that he/she can go pick up their KelTec KSG shotgun tomorrow morning. Or maybe the person who throws one of their stretch raffle tickets into the bucket for the Taurus handgun will be just as excited to go pick it up tomorrow.

Someone else might be going home with a week in Aruba timeshare scheduled next year knowing that the money donated will be used to help run new shooters through safety courses while they enjoy drinks by the pool and beach.

Yeah, it’s not a bad way to celebrate the Constitution if I do say so myself.

Is Anyone Really Surprised?

The media proceeded, per usual, to get nearly everything wrong. First there was a shooter, then two shooters, then three, then maybe just two. There was an AR, then a double barreled shotgun. Then maybe a double barreled AR? (OK, I didn’t see that one to be fair). But in the end, it seems like it’s just one crazy dude. What’s interesting about this case is that it looks like he was charged with malicious mischief, which if of the second or third degree (which I think would qualify here) is a felony and would amount of a disabling offense for the purposes of firearms ownership. So did Seattle authorities follow through with charges? Or did they plea him down to third degree malicious mischief, which would not be disabling?

Quote of the Day

From Charles W. Cooke of National Review, in response to faux conservative David Frum being the first out of the gate with politicizing the Navy Yard shooting:

I understand that David Frum considers this to be amusing. But I do not. In fact, his suggestion should be taken literally. Treating â€œall gun owners . . .Â as responsible and law-abiding until they personally have hurt themselves or somebody elseâ€Â is precisely how one should treat free people in a free country.

News Links

This week we have house guests, and our Friends of the NRA dinner is tomorrow, so we’re a bit pre-occupied. Blogging will continue, but not quite at normal place, and I have some catching up to do since I didn’t have any time this weekend to devote to the activity:

Joe has a random thought taxing things in order to discourage their use.

Being afraid the government will show up at your door because, well, they’ve already done that.

California’s ban on virtually all semi-automatic rifles is now on Governor Brown’s desk. I think this is one of those cases where “They have us surrounded! The poor bastards.” In that I feel a lot better going to court with a ban like this than something that’s useless and cosmetic.

Obama still does not understand that polls on the gun issue are relatively meaningless.

The Daily Show wins an Emmy promoting gun control. I stopped watching a long time ago, because I don’t like my satire to have a political agenda. If I wanted to watch propaganda disguised as comedy, there’s MSNBC. Or perhaps that’s comedy disguised as propaganda?

Chief Kessler announces his candidacy for Sheriff of SchuylkillÂ County.

When the little guy wins.

Mass Shooter on the Loose in DC

Breaking story. Expect the media to get nearly everything wrong.

Bloomberg Eyes the West

Attention gun owners in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, and Minnesota: You’re likely the next targets for Bloomberg’s cash.

In Oregon, they want to target Sen. Betsy Johnson & will be trying to find Senate Republicans to break from the pack. If you live there, you need to get involved with these targets now. Don’t wait. Give them the incentive to hang up the phone when Bloomberg calls by being visible and involved right now.

For Minnesota, it sounds like they plan to hire more lobbyists to try and drown out constituents.

Nevada gun owners should make sure to step up for any lawmakers who stood against gun control, but might have had some tight races in recent years. Bloomberg is apparently going to fund some challengers. They also said they will get involved to try and keep Sen. Justin Jones if he faces recall.

In Washington, it looks like he’s going to focus on dropping money to turn out the vote on the ballot initiatives.

Their plans in New Mexico are even more vague, but it looks like they want to take aim at anyone who got in the way of gun control this session.