Bitter – Page 20 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Redefining Freedom & Ignoring History

This is where I come to post the things that will get me in trouble on Facebook. :) Today’s topic: redefining freedom & ignoring history.

Someone mentioned a lineage group that I might be interested in for women with ancestors in New England, and I probably should not have laughed at the description to “perpetuate the ideals and spirit of the indomitable men and women of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts who laid the foundations of our nationâ€™s civil and religious freedom.” Ahem.

Let’s talk about that “foundation of…religious freedom” from the New England colonies because I’m pretty sure that the foundation isn’t anything like what we consider freedom today. I’m not a historian, but as I recall, those early settlers largely came here for their religious freedom, but not to celebrate or recognize anyone else’s religious freedom. In fact, the New England states were some of the most fierce in trying to force people to a particular religion or into funding religion with taxes whether you wanted to or not. From the Library of Congress:

Religious taxes were laid on all citizens, each of whom was given the option of designating his share to the church of his choice. Such laws took effect in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire…

In other words, it reminds me of many New England states now – you’re free to live in the way they tell you to live. The New England states, with the exception of Rhode Island, even had official religions into the 19th century. The Congregational Church was the established religion by the government of Massachusetts until 1833, New Hampshire until 1819, and Connecticut until 1818.

Not even Vermont, rated as the least religious state in the union now, had any sort of foundation of what we would call freedom of religion since only men who would “profess the protestant religion” could serve office. In fact, that was pretty much a given across New England even though other states were already cutting back, like Pennsylvania which only asked that you believe in some form of God. From what I’ve read, it’s actually the Southern states that pushed for the separation of church and state that would actually give us something closer to the foundation of the freedom to worship or not worship that we know today.

So, while I have no issue with the particular lineage society, I really, really hope that they aren’t making any significant effort to truly “perpetuate” religious freedom as our New England ancestors of colonial/early statehood days knew it. I, personally, would just like to leave that view of “freedom” behind.

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Drugs & Guns

John Richardson encountered a dealer blatantly advertising a place to buy guns and drugs. What’s more shocking? They even have a slogan for this joint: “Refills or reloads, we have you covered.”
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Pennsylvania Gets a Gun

Or, rather, we’ll get our official state firearm soon according to pro-gun attorney Josh Prince who reports that the Governor is expected to sign the bill designating the Pennsylvania Long Rifle as the state gun. We previously covered the bill here, including the fact that it’s pissing off the anti-gunners.

No Second Amendment Protection for Hunting

A group of hunters tried suing Pennsylvania over the Sunday hunting ban and one of their claims was a Second Amendment protection. Yesterday, a U.S. District judge tossed the lawsuit.

Kane said she could find no proof that courts have extended Second Amendment protections to include recreational hunting.

The hunters raised several other arguments, including religious discrimination, but the judge said the hunters could not prove the Sunday ban violated their religious freedom.

I kind of figured the case would end up dismissed. This has to be handled legislatively, and Virginia is the model for chipping away at it until it the ban finally falls.

School Bias – Getting Grades for No Dissent

A Connecticut school filters out all Republican and issue group websites that are commonly associated with GOP supporters, including pro-Second Amendment websites while gun control websites were all approved.

Even more interesting is that the student was attempting to look up the material while conducting the research for an assigned classroom debate. It’s awfully interesting that the school, which made it partisan when it opted to ban the official GOP website while allowing the Democratic website, is grading students for their participation in “debates,” but refuses to allow them to see any alternate viewpoints to present to their peers.

It’s even more interesting that the student only reported the incident to the media after notifying school authorities and he noticed that they refused to fix the blatant bias. Even now that the media is on the story, they only say that they “appreciated hearing the comments” and he raised an accusation that might warrant an investigation. But, hey, it’s just the tax dollars of Connecticut voters shutting down access to information from different political views – no big deal and nothing to see here…

Getting the Message Out

Robb Allen highlights a pro-gun article written on the dime of the Joyce Foundation’s media payment program in Minnesota. If that doesn’t make you laugh out loud at least once today, I don’t know what will.

Gun Possession in Iraq

Clayton Cramer notes that reports out of Iraq show that the ISIS leaders have declared new rules for those in area they control that include a gun ban for anyone not in their ranks. It’s interesting how that also comes along with a ban on any public gathering not organized by ISIS as well.

It’s almost like those people who use the bumper sticker phrase that their Second Amendment right protects the First Amendment rights of others might possibly be on to something about the importance of both rights.

Legal Hunting Targeted by Facebook

Facebook locked the admins of a hunting-related page out of putting up new content after they pulled down a perfectly normal hunting photo that didn’t violate any laws or guidelines and claimed that it does not meet community standards.

One of the biggest hurdles Facebook has is not only growing their audience, but keeping the audience it has. Banning perfectly legal photos & pages just because their California staffers don’t like an outdoor tradition seems like it could easily send users running for other social media outlets.

Creative Counting & Expanding Agendas

Miguel and Thirdpower look at various photos and reports from the gun control march in New York where Moms Demand Action claimed over 1,000 people participated in their walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. They both notice that the photos from various angles appear to come up far shorter than the numbers claimed.

And, just as a reminder that Bloomberg’s Every Mom and Town Mayor Demanding Action isn’t really just about “background checks” like they try to claim. They are reviving the demands for magazine bans, mandatory storage laws, and cutting concealed carry options.

Hickenlooper: Let Me Feed You Another Lie…

I really hope that Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper keeps on talking because he’s keeping himself in the press for all of the right reasons – at least from our perspective of wanting to see him lose his re-election bid.

First, he “apologizes” for not talking to local law enforcement before pushing gun control that they would end up suing that state over. However, in his apology, Hickenlooper lied to the sheriffs by claiming that he never spoke to Bloomberg during the gun control push. Except he did, and there are records to prove it.

It would seem that perhaps Hickenlooper’s version of “stick[ing] to the facts,” a phrase he used to open his lie to the sheriffs, is a bit more like “sticking to complete falsehoods and hoping that no one has yet obtained the phone records to prove it’s a total fabrication.” I have to say, I hope that he stays in the media for such gaffes.