Month: October 2017

 
From The Onion:

WASHINGTON—Deflecting questions in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 people and injured over 500 more, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that this is not the geologic era in which to debate gun control. “Out of respect for the families of the victims, we’re going to hold off on engaging in discourse over the regulation of firearms for a few eons,” said Sanders, adding that it would be premature to discuss enacting any sort of policies to prevent mass shootings until the next ice age has set in, likely long after the extinction of the human race.

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From Glenn R. Geist at MadMikesAmerica:

Whatever fears you have of violence in America, please let’s have an end to the wildly hyperbolic and licentious ad hominem about men with firearms, motorcycles, fast boats or any of your other bogeymen.

Keep in mind you don’t get to complain about other people or their likes and dislikes when you’re dishonest and a smug bigot.

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Raymond:
       Tommy Gunner as NRA spokesman should have given this away for me.
 
From Frederic Poag at The Daily Banter:

After days of silence following the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 59 people and wounded over 500 the National Rifle Association, NRA, has released a new self-defense program for school children titled “Close Quarter Kids”, or CQK.

“We understand Vegas (the last mass shooting at the time this quote was recorded) took place at a music festival, but given the rate of school shootings in the US another one is just around the corner,” said Thomas Gunner, NRA Public Relations.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

 
From Dave Dubya:

We have our First Amendment Right to free speech. But it is not an absolute right. We have the intended right to a free press, to peaceful assembly and to speak to power. We don’t have the right to shout “fire” in a theatre or to threaten, libel and slander.

Like the First Amendment, the Second Amendment is also not absolute.

Most of us support some gun control or limits on Second Amendment rights. At present it is an insignificant minority that wants a total ban, along with government confiscation. It is also an insignificant minority that wants no controls or restrictions whatsoever.

Let’s dispel the notion that the Second Amendment is for waging war against the government if our candidates lose, or we don’t like some laws or leaders. Only dangerous idiots speak of “Second Amendment remedies” in that context.

The Second Amendment’s purpose was for the people to have a militia to mobilize for protection and defense against armed threats. Militias are now antiquated and we have law enforcement and the National Guard for citizen protection. Since the Redcoats and Geronimo are no longer active threats, that leaves only the threat of violent criminals.

While we have the right of armed self-defense against violent criminals, we should understand the need for limits.

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From driftglass:

Cox: You’ve been moderating “Meet the Press” for just over three years. Do you think your job is the same today as it was, say, 10 months ago?

Todd: What the audience expects hasn’t changed. People come to us for the same reasons: to be educated and informed. My biggest change is that I feel the need to reinforce the wall between the news media and the politicians. The wall has always been there, but sometimes there have been too many holes in it. One legitimate criticism of the political press over the last two decades has been the appearance of coziness between people in the media and the political elite. It’s a lot easier for me, say, as a sports fan…

Ruh roh.

Cox: O.K., but you did vote for someone. You have opinions. Is that the same as being biased?

Todd: No. I don’t advocate — that’s the big difference. Now, that said, we’re all human beings…

Yes, we are indeed all human beings.

Except for Hugh Hewitt.

Who is, as has been long-established, a cyborg sent from the future to destroy America.

And who has also been (for reasons no one dares to explain to us rubes out here in flyover country) jumped up from Crackpot Wingnut Radio Drone to Chuck Todd’s BFF and a regular in the rotation on “Meet the Press”.

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From Cato’s Julian Sanchez:

While Pat focused primarily on the defects of the bill, I’d like to start by briefly surveying what I think it gets right, and then note a few other elements I was disappointed not to see included.

Probably the two most salient features of the “USA Liberty Act” for civil libertarians are that it partially closes the so-called “backdoor search loophole” in 702, and that it codifies the recent end of Upstream “about” collection. For those not steeped in electronic surveillance law, both of those will require a bit of explanation.

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From Michael Kinsley:

Foreigners are over-represented here too. There’s “Mel B,” whom Wikipedia reveals to be Melanie Janine Brown, formerly known as Scary Spice. There’s Heidi Klum, a supermodel from Germany. The inexplicable Howie was born in Toronto. And of course there’s Simon Cowell, who is British but really qualifies at this point as a man of the world, with America’s Got Talent having spread to 190 countries.

And so what? It’s only to say that, if America’s got talent, it’s because the possessors of this talent, or their parents, decided to come here—and America decided to let them in. (When I say “them” I really mean “us,” or a vast majority of us.) And it’s a small measure of what we might lose if we slam the door on them, as many Americans would like to do. You might think that a kid with a dancing dog is no big loss to the most powerful nation on earth. But you’d be wrong. Anti-immigrant politicians can often be heard on television saying, “Oh, I’m not against immigration. I’m for immigration—I’m against illegal immigration.” Obviously—so obviously that even the dimmest, least talented among them must know they’re talking crap—this is meaningless without a number attached. You have to decide how many immigrants to take in every year, and I suppose there is a limit. But we’re nowhere near it yet.

There is no immigration crisis in this country. Certainly nothing like the scale they have to deal with in Europe.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

• Seems almost quaint to revisit last week’s controversy. Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass considers NFL anthem kneeling and seems to suggest harsh reality is more important than traditional symbolism.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil finds, through twitter, a photograph of a man (possibly a veteran, judging by his VFW cap) kneeling with a regulation-folded flag as POTUS passes in motorcade.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, onetime pastor, current atheist, Bruce suggests that one small step in the gun violence debate might be to stop blaming evil. Well, yeah. “That’s evil for you” does seem a bit light.
   
• Hooray! The NRA has finally come around on one obvious gun safety measure! Frances Langum reads the NRA statement and discovers a lot of weasel room in the NRA Weasel Room.
   
• Dave Dubya examines the conversion of the NRA, in the eyes of enthused backers, from a lobbying group to a Holy House of Worship.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post has a straightforward reaction to the NRA, observing the group’s abuse of the 2nd Amendment.
   
• @bjork55 at Bjork Report finds a background check Congress won’t mind passing.
   
• Michael John Scott, at MadMikesAmerica, takes a look at the lawsuit against my President based on his unConstitutional acceptance of foreign gifts and his strange non-defense defense.
   
• Green Eagle narrates one incident to illustrate an uncomfortable truth: we are at the mercy of the biggest jackass on the planet.
   
• Jonathan Bernstein sees something unusual about the President repeatedly getting rolled by his own cabinet.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, considers the possibility that a segment of President Trump’s cabinet has become devoted to protecting America from its President.
   
• Nojo at Stinque reviews the President’s odd job performance in Puerto Rico, noting that the island territory is home to 1% of all Americans. Nojo speculates that, in Trumpland, it is the wrong one percent.
   
• Andy Borowitz reports as Puerto Rico issues a travel ban on malignant narcissists. Okay, okay. It’s satire.
   
• Tommy Christopher shares a sense of awe as the daughter of my President’s Ambassador to Russia presents a defense of a racist monument with unintentional hilarity.
   
• When Infidel753 says voters are restless, that means voters everywhere – – really. Everywhere.
   
• driftglass has very little use for David Brooks and his militant both-sides-are-equally-wrong view of, well, everything. What center-uber-alles centrists do not grasp is that their middle of the road approach encourages extremism. Reflexive commitment to the precise middle rewards the side that moves their goalpost way past the edge of rationality.
   
• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from Newsweek, as Jimmy Kimmel is featured reviewing the greatest source of Fake News.