Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, billionaire, desiring to rewrite the constitution, and countrywide buttinski suffered a major “gun control” loss on Thursday in Nevada. He and his pet group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars” to buy passage of the Nevada state legislature’s bill SB 221, another dangerous piece of gun control legislation dressed up to look palatable by applying the innocuous-sounding “background check” label to it. Bloomberg lost, and lost big-time, not because of a paid opposition wading in money, but because of a viral grass-roots effort organized by average Americans provided with information by several pro-Second Amendment advocacy groups. Bloom-baby: Money can’t buy you love.
New York City’s mayor plays machine politics, thinking that his billions can be used to buy the hearts and minds of American citizens. Bloomberg is thinking top-down. He is “a founding member of the group” MAIG, so how could this group be a spontaneous offspring of concerned citizens? He’s paying mercenaries to pursue his own agenda, and the ethics of his money-pump are being investigated by Judicial Watch. He and his allies immediately concluded that the ricin-tainted letters sent to him were an effort to stop his anti-gun crusade, but the truth behind the story was that some pathetic has-been actress decided to throw a tantrum and frame her soon-to-be ex-husband. Bloomberg’s efforts are not grassroots, while the opposition to his recent Nevada campaign was grassroots.
Disunity is making it difficult to impossible to deal with the terrorism we see happening all around us. My late father used to caution us that everything should be done in moderation. We were told to approach important decisions with care by weighing every action, looking at all the evidence, and considering all the options. He could not countenance reckless abandon. The fight against terrorism is being hampered severely by a reckless disregard for the truth, an inability to face the facts, a naiveté about the source of terrorism and a lot of propaganda that has politicized terrorism in ways inimical to finding viable solutions. The situation is being made worse by those whose inability to comprehend the dangers have them splitting hairs with their own and thus preventing any joint decisions that need to be reached. During past threats to our way of life in previous generations individuals, leaders and countries came together to confront the enemy but now we come together to comfort the enemy.
David Wheaton: Perhaps you watched the Boston Marathon bombings that killed four people and injured more than 200 others and wondered, “Why would two young Muslim men, who were granted political asylum in America years ago, educated in our schools, and received financial aid from U.S. taxpayers, set off two bombs in order to murder and maim as many Americans as possible?”
It’s a very good question. It has been said that, “All Muslims are not terrorists … but almost all terrorist attacks against America are committed by Muslims.”
Why is this? What is it about Islam — or perhaps about America? — that leads two young Muslims to murder the people that have actually taken them in?
We’ve gathered some poll numbers that anti-Second Amendment politicians should take into account before national elections in 2014, so tell your reps. Of Americans surveyed: 1) “58 percent of people worry that stricter gun legislation would make it more difficult for people to protect their families;” 2) only 4% consider gun control the “most important problem facing this country today;” and, 3) only 47% “say they are ‘angry’ or ‘disappointed’ that gun legislation failed to pass.” Regarding a very important subset of U.S. citizenry, “15,000 verified law enforcement professionals” taking part in a recent gun control survey “oppose the theories brought forth by gun-control advocates” and “feel that those [gun] controls will negatively affect their ability to fight violent criminals.”
… 48 percent of gun owners purchased firearms for protection — an increase of 22 percent from the survey conducted in August of 1999. 65 percent of women listed protection as their top priority, compared to 43 percent in 1999, while 42 percent of men said protection was their main concern, up 21 points from 1999. …
58 percent of people worry that stricter gun legislation would make it more difficult for people to protect their families and homes …
Only 4 percent of Americans think guns and gun control are an important problem facing the country, according to Gallup, and far more Americans are concerned about the economy, unemployment and the federal debt. …
Why exactly is President Obama going to Israel? A variety of theories have been advanced as to why he is making the trip now and what might be accomplished.
Some have suggested that Obama needs to reassure Israel, to hold their hands and tell them that the US-Israeli relationship is special. This suggests that Obama cares about Israeli feelings, at least in the sense that positive sentiments advance policy goals, and that Israelis might be thus comforted by his presence. But the record of bad relations between Obama and Netanyahu is too long, and the fact that Obama is on record saying that Israelis don’t know what is best for them, whereas he does, has mitigated whatever good vibrations he might spread now.
… It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
At the time, President Lincoln was speaking in the context of the horrors of the American Civil War. But his words are most appropriate at a time when Americans face great societal, economic, and political problems, be it health care, the national debt, and/or “gun control.” In some ways, our country is divided. It doesn’t have to be so. If people get involved with the democratic process, they can surely bring about astonishing changes for the betterment of our great nation. With a little effort, Americans can have “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” We just proved it New Mexico.
A new poll using neutral language — and avoiding the false choice of conditional legalization vs. mass deportations — finds that most Americans want illegal immigrants to return to their home counties, rather than be given legal status. The findings also show a very large gap in intensity, with those who want illegal immigrants to head home feeling much stronger about that option than those who would like to see illegal immigrants receive legal status.
Apparently, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is rolling in dough. It’s giving $800,000 more to propaganda efforts “aimed at mobilizing regular Catholics to push for the bishops’ immigration platforms”, i.e., mass legalization and open borders.
That comes on top of the $3.5 million the group has already spent to promote mass amnesty. For some wacky reason, this political money gets labeled “antipoverty” activity. That’s really bizarre. And it flies in the face of the facts.
I sometimes think about the problem of anti-Semitism and why this irrational prejudice preoccupies so many people these days — from elites in Europe, to bureaucrats and Islamists in the UN, to churches, unions and Left-leaning academics and politicians.
I believe that in the minds of people like Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, both of whom are children of Holocaust victims, they blame the ravages of the Holocaust on the group affiliation of the victims rather than on the perpetrators. They use the Holocaust nightmare to apply retroactive retribution to Jews for the existence of the State of Israel via the murderous hands of the Nazis. They apply a similar retribution to Jews in the present using Islamic terrorism as the battering ram of choice. During speaking engagements by these individuals, they reveal a loathing and disdain for Jews/Israel and perhaps they believe that the brutality of the Nazis was somehow a justifiable component and end result of the anger towards Jews by Europeans against the Jewish religion or against other characteristics of their Jewish victims. Do the “intellectuals” of today think that Jews did something wrong or that their beliefs got them into the mess known as the Holocaust and the wars carried out against Israel by its neighbors since the Holocaust? Do they think that Israel is receiving its just deserts today in terms of terror heaped on the country for being a Jewish state?
Polls show that 1) most Americans prefer making it harder for illegal aliens to enter the U.S., 2) most Americans oppose granting millions of illegals amnesty, and 3) most Americans believe that illegals place a great strain on the U.S. economy — especially during a time of tepid economic growth. Just look at a summary of 12 public opinion polls on immigration here and here. If readers want to wade through pages of polling information about Americans’ general opposition to opening the flood-gates to illegal immigration, click here. Given that public opinion is against illegal immigration, why have 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans — the so-called “Gang of 8″ — chosen to ignore the peoples’ will? Note that the Gang of 8 is a group of compromise-at-all-cost weasels, namely Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). If you oppose their disastrous proposed legislation for “immigration reform,” click on this link, fill in your email address, name, street address, zip code, and phone number, and the letter shown below will be faxed for free to President Obama and your two federal senators. You can select from a bunch of differently worded letters, too, making this tool all the more effective. This one-step marvel of activism is courtesy of NumbersUSA Action. Here’s one of the choices of faxes that can be sent:
I’ve just put the full text of 13 books which I’ve written onto the Internet. You can access them all for free with a single click. This project has prompted me to think a lot about what I’ve been trying to do these last forty years.
The main goal has been trying to explain the Middle East as it actually exists, how its politics work, and how its history can be understood. My basic overview is contained in my The Tragedy of the Middle East. In structural terms, the Middle East can be seen as paralleling the history and politics of other regions in the world. But along with that is the all-important factor of its specific development.
While the Obama administration calls for a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to acquire 7,000 “personal defense weapons” — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians. …
Critics, such as Republican New York state Sen. Greg Ball, are already blasting the DHS request, arguing that the government deems these firearms as suitable for self-defense but want to ban civilians from owning them.
“Now the Department of Homeland Security even agrees that these modern sporting firearms, made illegal by Governor Cuomo, are suitable for self-defense,” Mr Ball said.
What a surprise. It seems that the hypocrites who govern us want to protect themselves with weapons that they would deny their own constituents. But defenders of the right to bear arms as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment aren’t being complacent. They’re fighting back against anti-gun shills like President Obama (D) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Not so fast there Diane and Barack. The Associated Press just released an article entitled “Democrats [Ds] may stand in Obama’s way on gun measures.”
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre speaks the truth about why President Obama’s proposed “gun control” measures are hypocritical and will take away Americans’ Second Amendment rights to protect themselves. Here’s a snippet, but read LaPierre’s whole speech here and/or watch it here (below):
We’re told that to stop insane killers, we must accept less freedom — less than the criminal class and political class keep for themselves.
We’re told that limits on magazine capacity or bans on 100-year-old firearms technology — bans that only affect lawful people — will somehow make us safer.
We’re told that wanting the same technology that the criminals and our leaders keep for themselves is a form of “absolutism” and that accepting less freedom and protection for ourselves is the only “principled” way to live.
Think about what that means. Barack Obama is saying that the only “principled” way to make children safe is to make lawful citizens less safe and violent criminals more safe.
Criminals couldn’t care less about Barack Obama’s so-called “principles”! They don’t have principles — that’s why they’re criminals. …
As expected, Israel has once again made Benjamin Netanyahu its prime minister. The results were not as positive for him as they might have been but are good enough to reelect him.
While some might find this paradoxical, the results show that Israelis have a basic consensus and yet have very different ways of expressing their political positions. This isn’t surprising given the fact that 32 parties were on the ballot.
The Wall Street Journal article on Senator Marco Rubio’s amnesty plan makes me want to take piano lessons or learn ice sculpture — because it’s Groundhog Day for immigration policy, and it’s like yesterday never happened.
I don’t mean that politicians should necessarily be chastened by past defeats. There are no lost causes and no gained causes in a democracy (or not many, anyway), and if the side that was defeated by the bipartisan surge of public anger in 2007 wants to try a comeback, that’s the way the game is played.
Articles/Entries
