Put a Fork in it Barr, it's Done

Ian Branson finally gets Bob Barr to address the question we've been asking, and the tap-dancing and obfuscation begins. Telling the audience how he improved a bad bill hardly addressed his assertion that Lautenberg "is strong protection for women and children," or his claim that his amending language kept it from being "declared unconstitutional." He then goes on to support the concept of "prohibited persons" (how libertarian!). Incidentally, Ian has the entire event recorded--it's a monster file, 56 minutes of 720p video with a total file size of 2.46 Gb, but if you have time to download it and want to see the whole thing, right-click here and save it to your computer.

So the answer is, no, he won't repudiate his past support and spearhead the effort to repeal. Instead, he'd prefer you be caught in the trap and then go through a Catch-22 appeals process that has no funding to change anything--and won't for the foreseeable future.

It's not just me who's had enough of this guy.

David Nolan has pronounced the Barr campaign dead. Other LP activists are trying to oust him as the nominee. Meanwhile, Barr is employing the authoritarian tactic of appealing to the state to knock out his competition in New Hampshire.

I also note the post about Barr inviting Ron Paul (or more specifically, Ron Paul's money) to join his ticket is no longer featured on the main page of the Barr Blog (although entries appearing before and after it was posted do). A little "Commissar Vanishes"?

That last move was bugging me. I was trying to figure out what simultaneous wooing and insulting reminded me of, and then it hit me.


I'm going to start calling Barr Otis B. Driftwood.

AARP: Still Anti After All These Years

Friday night when I was a guest on The Michael Dukes Show, a caller asked about AARP's stance on guns.

I had to admit I'd heard they'd adopted some anti-gun policies and that their executive leadership was trying to downplay that, but needed to do some checking around to be more specific. I promised Michael I'd get that info to him for next week's show.

Here it is:

Per AARP's THE PUBLIC POLICY AGENDA 2000, Chapter 12, "Personal and Legal Rights," pg. 12-21, "Federal Policy - Criminal Justice":

The federal government should continue to regulate the availability of handguns and semiautomatic and automatic weapons. Congress should eliminate the 1998 expiration date for the Brady bill's five-day waiting period and should leave in place the assault weapons ban.

OK, but that was eight years ago. What about now?

Apparently the heat induced them to tone down a tad, but not much.

From their 2008 POLICY AGENDA, pp. 12-33 to 12-34:

Congress should eliminate gaps in and strengthen enforcement of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and other federal gun laws.

...States should: ...enact legislation to eliminate gaps in and strengthen enforcement of federal and state gun laws, particularly with regard to possession by juveniles, convicted domestic abusers and those under domestic violence restraining orders;

If you're of the age where these subversive coots are soliciting you, I hope you tell them to go to hell and why.

We're the Fauxnly Ones...

When Gene Angelino pulled a motorist over for a parking violation Wednesday night, he broke the first rule of impersonating a police officer:

Don't pull over a real officer.

I never understood the compulsion some otherwise inconsequential men have for donning a uniform and presuming authority over others. Conversely, I think we all should wannabe "Only Ones," that is, sovereign individuals acting as preservers of peace and guardians against evil violence in our communities--just like the Founders intended.

When in Rome

"I have to admit, it's a major issue, women passing through here in that dress code," Simon Weisser, a member of Community Board 1 in Williamsburg-Greenpoint, told The Post.

"It bothers me, and it bothers a lot of people."

Yeah, well, too bad, Simon. I have about as much sympathy for you as I do the Somali meatpackers.

It All Depends

Microchips in tablets could monitor pills

That they could.

And depending on who's doing the monitoring, that could do a lot of good.

Depending on who's doing the monitoring...

We're the Only Ones Doggone Enough

"If he lunged at him, why was he shot in the back and the back of the head?"

And why did a neighbor report it was the "Only One" chasing the dog?

Looking for Cause in All the Wrong Places

PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal" will focus Friday night on media-driven hate speech and whether it had an influence on the recent shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

I dunno, Bill--lots of us have seen media-driven anti-gun hate speech from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/PBS Television, and we haven't come and shot up your offices and studios.

After the Flood

Sedonia Owen, 75, and her son, Lindy McKissick, defied evacuation orders in Galveston because they wanted to protect their neighborhood from possible looters. She was watching floodwaters recede from her front porch Saturday morning, armed with a shotgun.

"My neighbors told me, 'You've got my permission. Anybody who goes into my house, you can shoot them,'" said Owen.

We'll see how long that's allowed to last. With power out for millions, and restoration for many estimated to take weeks, things are going to get very disorderly.

Let's hope my fears are unfounded. And let's hope if they're not, that good people won't allow bad things to be done to them...by anyone.

Crazy 'bout a Sharpe Dressed Man

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James reports to prison on Monday

By-bye, gungrabber.

Don't let the bars slam you in the...

What with Kwame and Sharpe and...who else...? I know they're all crooks, I mean the ones who've been caught...?

Oh, look: I hadn't noticed Snappy Sammy Rivera, another Mayor Against Guns.

I wonder how the ratio of criminally convicted anti-gun mayors compares with, say, the membership of the NRA...?

They're So Light(worker) and Fluffy

Activists at a conservative political forum snapped up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.

The flap ought to be that anyone--including democrat "Authorized Journalists," are making a flap out of this.

If the caricature on the box is racist, then so is every political cartoon out there with The Lightworker's likeness. And so is every cartoon of anyone. If his devotees really want to play down any Islamophobia, they ought to stop acting like fatwah-issuing fanatics, and like his image is too sacred to graphically portray.

This Day in History: September 14

The unnatural Contest between the English Colonies and Great-Britain, has now risen to such a Heighth, that Arms alone must decide it. The Colonies, confiding in the Justice of their Cause, and the Purity of their Intentions, have reluctantly appealed to that Being, in whose Hands are all human Events. He has hitherto smiled upon their virtuous Efforts—The Hand of Tyranny has been arrested in its Ravages, and the British Arms which have shone with so much Splendor in every Part of the Globe, are now tarnished with Disgrace and Disappointment.