Bitter – Page 100 – Shall Not Be Questioned

What Happens When You’re No Longer Needed by the 99%

The Occupy Charlotte statement from their consensus group kicking out a member is an eerie reminder of a classic Twilight Zone episode – “The Obsolete Man.”

Sister Toldjah has done a great job and covering her local Occupy group on Twitter, and the result is finding this gem – an illustration of what happens when the Consensus decides you are no longer tolerated.

We the people of Occupy Charlotte and the General Assembly thereof, wish it to be hereby known that Thomas C. Shope has been exiled from the Occupy Charlotte movement and is to no longer be used as a source for communication and/or donations. He has been separated from this organization due to his consistent and willful actions against the will of the people and the decisions of the General Assembly. Any and all communications to the media and any donations from the people that support us, are to be made and accepted by and from the members of the occupation at 600 E. Trade Street in Charlotte, NC.

At least one person came on to question this decision since it doesn’t seem very inclusive or 99%-ty. Their response came right out of the Twilight Zone. I’m not kidding. All I could hear is the opening from “The Obsolete Man” playing in my head as I read through their declaration. When people question the decision or the statement, the response from the organizers is that they need to move on, there’s nothing else to see here. There may be legitimate issues with the guy, but their manner of “kicking him off the island” is beyond creepy.

Click to read the full statement that seemingly came right out of the episode. Continue reading “What Happens When You’re No Longer Needed by the 99%”

Construction Job Lost? Build Yourself a Gun Range!

You have to love a story about a family that saw the bottom fall out of the construction industry and then used their skills to build themselves a commercial gun range.

Brad Paul recalled that while waiting for a lane at an indoor range, his father — a shooting enthusiast who had been on a shooting team in the Navy — looked at the crowd and said, “We need to build one.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision though,” Brad continued. “We went to 14 states over the course of a year and visited 50 indoor gun ranges. We asked every one of them questions like what they would have done different.”

They started building in December 2009 and opened the following July.

Because of their construction background, they built the building and everything in the showroom themselves — cabinets, floor displays, counters and display cases.

The full article is worth a read. They talk about having to run a retail operation. The reporter talks to customers about why they come out to shoot. It’s really quite amusing.

Plus, I love that the headline has to send CSGV & Brady folks into absolute fits: Family finds success with gun range

Senate Race Against Casey Suddenly Gets Interesting

I’m working on a review of all the races Pennsylvania gun owners have to worry about in 2012, even though we’re still weeks out from Election Day 2011. The Keystone State will be an interesting place to be. Even though it’s been solidly blue for presidential elections, Obama’s popularity is in the toilet here.

We have a Senate race where the incumbent’s staff can’t even confirm whether the Senator is actually alive. There’s even a Facebook group dedicated to figuring out if Sen. Bob Casey is breathing. And yet, just to keep things interesting, a possibly dead Senator with a reputation of not even showing up to do his elected job as part of an unpopular party still couldn’t attract any top-tier challengers. D’oh.

The last couple of weeks have seen that change, and now we have two who I would classify as top-tier for fresh blood. They haven’t held office before, but they have solid networks in place to put together real campaigns. One ran in a heavily Democratic district for Congress and lost by pretty narrow margins in 2010, and the other didn’t have a chance to shine given that the GOP incumbent in his district suddenly “un-retired” from the race and pushed him out. Specifically, they are Tim Burns and Steven Welch.

Burns had an A rating from NRA in his campaign against John Murtha’s former chief of staff. While Welch never had the opportunity to be graded, he does have a “2nd Amendment” section on his issues webpage. (Bob Casey previously had an A rating, but that could change based on his behavior in office.)

I still can’t say much about Congressional races since we’re losing a House seat, and no one knows where the district lines will be drawn. The likely result will be two A-rated Democrats pitted against one another in a primary. Boo – at least based on the gun issue. The state races will also be big. We have at least one gun-unfriendly candidate for Attorney General – a race that will impact Pennsylvania’s ~600,000 concealed carry license holders. So, yeah, 2012 will be an interesting year for gun folks.

We are the Mainstream

When I see CSGV crying in their cornflakes about Living Social shooting coupons, it catches my attention. I assumed they just swiped a link from one of the many I highlighted last week that revealed more than 11,100 people may have hit up the range due to Living Social bargains.

Instead, they are complaining about a current Chicago deal that treats folks to a wine tasting after they are done shooting. For only $65 bucks, you also get a meal in the deal. The best part is the purchase count. The total as I’m typing? 2,027. And the number keeps rising as I refresh.

UPDATE: As a commenter points out, the deal has sold out since this posted with 2,110 sold. When I initially looked at the deal, it was less than 2,000 sold.

Quote of the Night – GOP Debate

The quote of the night didn’t come from any of the candidates. Nor is the quote of the night CNN’s false promise of a right to keep and bear arms question (and subsequent failure to deliver). It came from Wyatt on Twitter:

Why am I picturing Rick Perry riding the A-bomb to campaign destruction a la Slim Pickens?

Small Business Owners as Extortionists?

The Occupy Wall Street supporters in the media are starting to become as unhinged as some of the stranger folks up in New York. Our local suburban paper features a columnist calling small business owners who are concerned that it’s simply too expensive to hire new workers due to increasing federal requirements and tax increases proposed by the President extortionists who are unpatriotic.

Not only are they unpatriotic criminals, but these little local business owners are all hatching a plot to kill the economy in order to elect a Republican.

The crazy is strong in this one. Her column actually includes long quotes from a business owner who outlined the risks in hiring new employees – the direct financial risk of how much they will cost, the risk of how much value they will add to the organization, and the increasing hassles and expenses of dealing with various government bureaucracies who control the many aspects of his business. Yet, she cannot accept this simple answer. It’s all a plot to derail Obama. She has no evidence, but that won’t stop the accusations from flying in her paper.

Since she tried to tie such political extortion to our Congressman, he decided to respond with a damning response to her claims:

As part of [one] employerâ€™s characterization of the obstacles facing his business, and in the story about [a local] manufacturer, neither made any mention of Republicans, Democrats, Obama or one of the GOP presidential hopefuls. It is not a case of pure politics, but of overbearing and ineffective government.

So it doesn’t matter to our local paper whether they business owners are actually supporting Republicans or they actually plan to vote for Obama. The fact that they won’t invest every dollar of their savings into taking massive risks in hiring is still a crime.

Fortunately, writer Katie Fratti & the other staff at the Courier Times don’t need to worry about whether money from extortionists is lining their wallets anymore. As investors in small businesses, we will not support their work as subscribers. If they come around selling subscriptions again, I’ll make sure they know exactly why we will not support them. We don’t believe they must agree with us, but actually publishing a conspiracy-laced rant against local businesses is not up to the basic journalistic standards we would expect from a professional outfit.

Removing the Politics from Business

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on how vegan bakeries that hide their status see their business increase.

Some vegan bakeries don’t flaunt their identity for fear of scaring off customers. That stirs up proud vegans who believe every delicious pastry should help promote a world in which no animal is used for the sake of a snickerdoodle. …

Covertly vegan bakeries are “counterproductive,” Ms. Konya says. “If you’re not making people aware of food choices, you’re not going to change the world around you.”

Sarah Kramer, co-author of a cookbook called “How it All Vegan,” says bakeries that play down their veganism are a “bummer.” She, like some other passionate vegans, was frustrated last year when former president Bill Clinton gave interviews about eschewing meat, milk and eggs as part of his recovery from heart disease, but calling his “a plant-based diet.”

I think it’s interesting that members of the vegan community are so hostile to those who don’t shove it in people’s faces. That’s a big reason why many average Americans who do enjoy a well-rounded diet won’t venture into declared vegan territory. (Also worth noting in regards to the woman pissed about Bill Clinton – he’s not a vegan. His spokesman explained that he doesn’t make sure his meals he eats out are vegan and he does eat fish. So, even if he did use the term vegan, they would crucify him for not being strict enough.)

I find this interesting enough to share because it makes me think of gun shops and how we expect at least some level of political-related material around. Of course, while there might be some level of pressure to join NRA, the intent behind it is so that we’ll be left alone – not to force people into a way of life that makes them uncomfortable and possibly miserable. I think that key difference is why gun shops get away with the entry into the political sphere.

Unlike the vegan community illustrated here, we can still celebrate someone who takes a newbie shooting without getting all up in their face about the politics of the issue. While we would like that person to become an advocate for our cause, we don’t berate an instructor for simply teaching someone how to shoot safely and enjoy the shooting sports. We recognize that even that subtle exposure can lead to more favorable actions or even outright political support among those new shooters. With the critics in the article, nothing good is coming of a meat eater who manages to enjoy a vegan cupcake if it doesn’t come with a side of lectures on how much they suck for eating meat. They cannot even concede that even if it’s just one snack that’s “cruelty-free,” it’s one tiny victory for the animals.

Patriotic Pumpkin Carving

I’ve never been terribly inclined to decorate for Halloween. And while we might have an inordinate amount of pumpkin in our pantry this year, I don’t really do the whole pumpkin decoration thing. This or this would be about the closest I would come to that tradition.

Until now.

Turns out that Colonial Williamsburg makes pumpkin carving patterns for patriots. My favorites? The quote & the cannon.

I’m seriously thinking about getting a pumpkin this year just to try these out. It’s a lot better than our neighbor with the inflatable Death carriage.

Another Illegal Mayor Supporting Mike Bloomberg

It’s not a criminal matter, but it’s still worth noting that Bethlehem, PA Mayor John Callahan illegally used money from his mayoral campaign coffers for his congressional campaign – to the tune of nearly $10,000.

He used money raised for his federal campaign to pay just half of the amount taken from his local campaign chest. Callahan settled with the FEC, paying back the rest of the money and an addition $1,200 fine.

Callahan is contemplating another run for Congress in 2012. Though he works against the rights of lawful gun owners, let’s hope he’ll learn to respect election laws next time around.

A Cynic on the Media

I assume the worst when I see a headline like this: Too much gun-related crime in Tennessee

So imagine my surprise when I see the editorial ends with this:

We want all of our law-abiding people to feel safe. But it is highly inadvisable to pursue that goal by abridging the gun rights of responsible citizens.

That makes it vitally important to impose firm, meaningful sentences on those who use guns while committing crimes.