Friday, March 16, 2007

We're the Only Ones with Editorial Discretion Enough

Under the law, only journalists -- not the general public -- can obtain the information but they cannot copy it. The requests highlight the increasingly murky definition of journalists in the age of the Internet...

Ohio law says a journalist is a person who works for a newspaper, magazine, radio or television station "or a similar medium."
So basically, under Ohio law, a free citizen who carries on the tradition of the early pamphleteers of the Republic is not an "authorized journalist," but a propagandist for, say Al-Jazeera or People's Weekly World (or something really subversive, like The Los Angeles Times) is...

Isn't it great, that "The Only Ones" get to decide who the government watchdogs are? And we've seen how responsible and devoted to liberty their "appointees" have turned out to be...

I could help out, but have mixed feelings--yes, I am one of those dreaded "AJs" I'm constantly railing against--I fit the definition of Ohio's law, right alongside my Pravda colleagues: I work for a magazine and have a press card (which I've never used), so technically, I could requisition the names on their behalf. But I'm so dead set against the idea of lists that--even if the Ohio gun activists intend to use the information to promote a greater good, I'd struggle with the ends justifying the means. It boils down to it's really none of my damn business if you or anyone else carries concealed, and just because I could get access doesn't mean I should--not that anybody has asked me to stick my big, fat nose in this, mind you.

I'd be interested in feedback on this. If you had "press credentials," would you volunteer to help get this information? Why or why not?

[Via Buckeye Firearms Association]

We're the Only Ones Filching and Firing Enough

A policeman who said he was shot by an unknown assailant actually shot himself with a gun he stole from the police department's property room, Dayton police Chief Julian Davis said Wednesday.

So the Fink is now on paid sick leave. And Awwwww..."he didn't reach out to anybody to tell us what was going on."

How very "Oprah" of you, Chief. Do you invest yourself emotionally with all common thieves, or just the lying, authority-abusing ones who need a throwaway piece for use on citizens?

But there I go being cynical. I'm sure the same treatment and concern would be extended to the rest of us non-"Only Ones" as well.

What? We'd be cuffed to the bed railing in the jail infirmary? No way...

The New Mantra

If the Supreme Court gets this case and clearly upholds gun ownership as a right, it should at least deflate the political battle by ruling that courts should use only the most limited scrutiny in challenging gun laws. Firearms ownership must be treated as much as a privilege as a right.

This is the same bulls*** argument our buddy Erwin tried to pull the other day, so it appears the talking points have been distributed. "Limited scrutiny," or a variant thereof, is the new mantra we can expect to see more of.

And no, you arrogant fools at The Monitor--my rights are not privileges dependent on your or anyone's approval, and to imply there is any Constitutional basis to make this so is quite simply a damnable lie.

The outrageous travesty that property rights have been eroded through treasonous precedents is more a benchmark for how far we have allowed the ideals of liberty to be degraded by collectivism; it's certainly no justification for spreading the cancerous erosion to other foundational supports of the Republic.

Wayne Fincher Update: March 16

Per Paul W. Davis, the docket has been updated.

[More about Wayne Fincher via WarOnGuns]

This Day in History: March 16

On this day in 1751, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the “Federalist Papers” and fourth president of the United States, is born on a plantation in Virginia.