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Florida high school raffles off rifles, handguns... "It's all about the kids."
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Published Thursday, June 02, 2022 @ 11:13 AM EDT
Jun 02 2022

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Florida high school raffles off rifles, handguns. "It's all about the kids."

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"We're playing with fire": US Covid cases may be 30 times higher than reported. About one in five - 22% - of adult New Yorkers likely had Covid between 23 April and 8 May, according to the preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed or published. That would mean 1.5 million adults in the city had Covid in a single two-week period - far higher than official counts during that time.

Also, Vaccines reduce risk of long Covid by just 15 percent, study finds. While existing vaccines are great for preventing serious cases, they aren't as good at preventing long Covid.

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It's so hard to find workers that employers have essentially stopped firing people.

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About 200 years ago, the world started getting rich. Why?

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US Senator Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" was delivered on this date in 1950. Senator Smith stood up against Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin and his supporters, who were running roughshod over American democracy. Too bad there are no Republicans like her today.

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To argue against gun control, Lauren Boebert Notes that "We didn't ban planes" after 9/11.

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Could quantum mechanics be responsible for the Mandela effect? While the conventional explanation is that humans are simply bad at (mis)remembering events, some argue that parallel universes could be at play.

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Scientists have established a key biological difference between psychopaths and normal people. A new study has shown that psychopathic people have a bigger striatum area in their brain.

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America's last Howard Johnson's restaurant has closed Open for most of the past 70 years, the restaurant was located in Lake George, New York, a popular summer vacation spot near the Adirondack Mountains.

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'Nose-bleed virus' spread by ticks kills 18 in Iraq and is spreading Formally known as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, it causes rapid and severe internal and external bleeding, including through the nose. It has been detected in 120 people in Iraq since January and at least 18 people have died so far.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

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On this date in:

Today is:

  • American Indian Citizenship Day
  • I Love My Dentist Day
  • National Bubba Day
  • National Leave the Office Early Day
  • National Moonshine Day
  • National Rocky Road Day
  • National Rotisserie Chicken Day

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Researchers accidentally discover why male mice are scared of the smell of bananas

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Comments and observations:

The top 396 stupidest quotes from NRA convention-goers after America's latest child massacre

Republicans think it's a good idea to give teachers less money, more students, fewer books, fewer resources, more parents in the classroom, more standardized tests, more scrutiny, more pressure, and a gun.
-Middle Age Riot

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A very powerful video:

Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.


Categories: Covid-19, Florida, Guns, History, Howard Johnson's, Lauren Boebert, Mandela Effect, Nose-bleed virus, Parallel Universes, Psychopaths, Quantum mechanics, Second Amendment, Unemployment, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Wealth


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Police departments don't actually have a constitutional obligation to protect people.
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Published Wednesday, June 01, 2022 @ 9:23 AM EDT
Jun 01 2022

Richard Scarry

(We pushed the button a bit early today; have some major items to complete around the house that are time critical.)

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The Supreme Court ruling that suggests police in Uvalde won't face major consequences. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that police departments don't actually have a constitutional obligation to protect people.

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After the Texas school shooting, my wife wondered aloud how an 18 year old could afford to buy two assault weapons. Why, with grabagun.com's Shoot Now Pay Later® program! "Now better than ever! Easier approval. $0 Down. Pay no interest for 90 days (on some offers)**. Easy installments up to 36 months. Approvals up to $5,000. No hard credit inquiries for Pre-Approval. Apply and Buy Today!"

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Add shortage of movie popcorn to nation's woes. And not just popcorn. Supply disruptions are also creating shortages of buckets and bags for popcorn, not to mention cups for drinks, trays for nachos and other necessities. This is a major concern for theaters who generate most of their profit from concession-stand sales.

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Supreme Court blocks Texas social media moderation ban. HB 20 - which forbids banning, demonetizing, or downranking Texas users' posts based on "viewpoint" - will be blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds. A lower court had already blocked the law in 2021 before the Fifth Circuit unblocked it this May.

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Florida man searching for frisbees in a gator-infested lake... well, you know.

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It's blue, fuzzy and lives in your belly button, and it actually has an important function... What is this mysterious substance, and why does it gather there?

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LONDON (AP) - In Britain, there are several traditional elements to a royal anniversary: pageants, street parties, the Sex Pistols.

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The doctor prescribed an obesity drug. her insurer called it 'vanity.' Many insurance companies refuse to cover new weight loss drugs that their doctors deem medically necessary. Doctors say obesity is a chronic disease that should be treated as intensively as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or any other chronic illness are. But, they say, that rarely happens.

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Want to raise successful kids? Science says this controversial habit makes them smarter. Researchers said they found that kids who spent more time playing video games than their peers over a two-year period wound up with higher IQs as a result.

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Five warnings to shoppers from ex-Walmart employees

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

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On this date in:

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June is:

Adopt-A-Cat Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, Cataract Awareness Month, Children's Awareness Month, Country Cooking Month, Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month, Fight the Filthy Fly Month, Fireworks Eye Safety Month, Great Outdoors Month, International Men's Month, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month, Men's Health Month, Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month, National Accordion Awareness Month, National Aphasia Awareness Month, National Burglary Prevention Month, National Candy Month, National Congenital Cytomegalovirus Awareness Month, National DJ Month, National Dairy Month, National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, National Frozen Yogurt Month, National Homeownership Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Microchipping Month, National Rivers Month, National Rose Month, National Safety Month, National Scleroderma Awareness Month, National Soul Food Month, National Zoo and Aquarium Month, Turkey Lovers' Month, and Vision Research Month.

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Today is:

Dare Day, Dinosaur Day, Don't Give Up The Ship Day, Flip a Coin Day, Global Day of Parents, Global Running Day, Heimlich Maneuver Day, International Children's Day, National Go Barefoot Day, National Hazelnut Cake Day, National Nail Polish Day, National Olive Day, National Pen Pal Day, National Tailors' Day, New Year's Resolution Recommitment Day, Oscar The Grouch Day, Say Something Nice Day, Stand For Children Day, Wear a Dress Day, and World Milk Day.

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Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.


Categories: Belly Button Lint, Florida, Florida Man, Guns, Medicare, Medicine, Queen Elizabeth, Second Amendment, Sex Pistols, Shortages, Supreme Court, Walmart


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Second amendment, coffee, autopay, Covid, Smallpox, Monkeypox, DNA, DuPont
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Published Tuesday, May 31, 2022 @ 2:50 PM EDT
May 31 2022

Second Amendment
(Steve Cousineau)

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Canada moves to freeze handgun sales, buy back assault-style weapons. "We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action, firmly and rapidly, it gets worse and worse," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Republicans Blast Canada for insanely responding to gun violence by banning guns. (Andy Borowitz)

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We clerked for Justices Scalia and Stevens. America is getting Heller wrong. In the summer of 2008, the Supreme Court decided District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to gun ownership. Scalia's majority opinion expressly recognized "presumptively lawful" regulations such as "laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms," as well as bans on carrying weapons in "sensitive places," like schools, and it noted with approval the "historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 'dangerous and unusual weapons.'" Heller also recognized the immense public interest in "prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill." (free New York Times article)

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The good for you/bad for you coin toss for this week involves coffee. Chinese researchers say a seven-year study suggests coffee drinkers are less likely to die of cancer and heart disease. As John Collins observes, "By substituting your morning coffee with green tea, you can reduce up to 88% of what little joy you had left."

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Nine bills you should never put on autopay. TL;DR: You really don't have much of a choice for some of them; part of the customer agreement requires automatic payment.

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You are going to get COVID again... and again... and again. ..."best guess for the future has the virus infiltrating each of us, on average, every three years or so." Also, the air at the gym may be more likely to spread COVID. Honestly, me catching COVID at a gym is something I never worry about. It's about as likely as me catching an STD from (insert name of currently reigning sex goddess).

Also, "That's just part of aging": Long COVID symptoms are often overlooked in seniors. Though it affects them at higher rates, older adults with long COVID have received little attention.

Some good(?) news:

The vaccine used to protect against monkeypox is the same used against smallpox, which was eradicated from the planet (except in government biowarfare labs) in 1980. Will the vaccine I received 60-some years ago protect me? Eh, maybe... Also, Britain urges people with monkeypox to abstain from sex as cases rise.

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Changing our DNA: 'The age of human therapeutic gene editing is here'

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DuPont: The most evil business in the world. Better living through chemistry? Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)) is poisonous. (video) More info on PFOA, which persists indefinitely in the environment. Also, a report by John Oliver.

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Miscellany:

Random automotive trivia:

  • Only 18% of Americans can drive a stick shift, and just 5% of new cars have manual transmissions
  • Only 4% of a car's lifetime is spent driving
  • Whale oil was used in some car transmissions until 1973
  • A $1 million speeding fine was issued to a Mercedes SLS driver in Switzerland for doing 180 in a 70 zone. (Fines are proportional to the driver's income)
  • There are 1.446 billion cars on the planet, roughly 1 for every 5.5 people
  • A modern car contains about 30,000 parts
  • 75% of all Rolls Royces ever made are still on the road
  • A car is stolen in the U.S. every 45 seconds
  • The best selling car of all time is the Toyota Corolla. 44 million have been sold, and a new one is sold every 40 seconds
  • In 1900, 38% of cars were electric, 40% were steam, and 22% were gasoline powered

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Birthdays: Clint Eastwood is 92; Brooke Shields is 57; Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul, and Mary) is 84; Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey) is 79; Joe Namath is 79; and Leah Thompson (Back to the Future) is 61.

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On this date in:

  • 1911, the RMS Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
  • 1971, in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occured on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.
  • 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was completed and everything's been hunky dory since then.
  • 1985, 41 tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead. It remains largest and most intense tornado outbreak ever to hit this region, and the worst tornado outbreak in Pennsylvania history in terms of deaths and destruction.
  • 2013, a record breaking 2.6 mile wide tornado with winds of 296 mph (476 km/h) struck El Reno, Oklahoma, causing eight fatalities and over 150 injuries.

Today is:

National Autonomous Vehicle Day, National Macaroon Day, National Meditation Day, National Smile Day, Necrotizing Fasciitis Awareness Day, Save Your Hearing Day, Speak in Complete Sentences Day, What You Think Upon Grows Day, World No Tobacco Day, and World Parrot Day.

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Comments and observations:

"Do you wonder about the people who think COVID vaccines are useless but that single-door schools are effective?"
-Preet Bharara

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Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.


Categories: Andy Borowitz, Canada, Coffee, Covid-19, DNA, DuPont, Gene Editing, Justin Trudeau, Monkeypox, SCOTUS, Second Amendment, Smallpox, Supreme Court, Teflon


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Sgt. Pepper; Fails: news, pay, pharmacists, PA House, memory, dinos, burgers, viruses, Abbott, Trump
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Published Thursday, May 26, 2022 @ 7:54 PM EDT
May 26 2022

Take us to your lobbyists

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We're off on Monday, Memorial Day. Have a great weekend! See you Tuesday.

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It was 55 years ago today.... (May 26, 1967)

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Baseless anti-trans theory about Uvalde shooting spreads online, touted by U.S. congressman. The photos that social media users are claiming show the shooter are actually of three different transgender women wearing skirts. Somehow related: 329 years later, last Salem 'witch' who wasn't is pardoned.

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CEO pay rose 17% in 2021 as profits soared. How else can they pay for their gasoline? (Average workers gained 4.4%; inflation is 7%.)

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Your pharmacist might be permanently out to lunch. Pharmacists in America are struggling, and many are leaving the profession. Over the next ten years, it is estimated that America will see a nationwide decline of at least two percent of its pharmacists, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

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Pennsylvania House votes against taking up gun bill after Texas killings. "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between."-James Carville

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FDA-approved drug could combat middle-aged memory loss. GoodRx says the current formulation, currently approved for treating HIV, costs a little under $500/mo on average.

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Most dinosaurs were warm-blooded after all. So you can cross that one off your list.

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The photographic evidence presented in a lawsuit over fast-food burger sizes. I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked. If I ever received a burger that actually looked like on in the ads, I'd be suspicious.

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Viruses that were on hiatus during Covid are back- and behaving in unexpected ways. The pandemic-induced disruption of normal mixing patterns means we have far less recently acquired immunity... we haven't been generating the levels of antibodies that would normally be acquired through regular exposure.

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Trump must answer questions under oath in New York AG probe into business practices, appeals court says. The ruling noted that the Trumps at their depositions could invoke their constitutional right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions.

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Does the second amendment actually give you the right to own a gun?

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Like many Republicans, Governor Greg Abbott calls Texas school shooting a mental health issue, yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs. Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.

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Why humans get less sleep than other primates. No cable tv. Also, we're measuring captive primates, not wild animals. How well could you sleep in a zoo? Related: Insomnia sufferers in England now have a prescription alternative to pills. Drilling down: An app that promotes sleep hygiene.

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The mystery of why so many lifelong smokers never get lung cancer may be solved. It's all in the genes.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

Stevie Nicks is 74 today and Pam Grier is 73.

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Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.


Categories: Cancer, Covid-19, Dinosaurs, Donald Trump, FDA, Greg Abbott, Income inequality, McDonald's, Memory Loss, PA House, Pharmacists, Primates, Salem Witch Trials, Second Amendment, Sgt. Pepper, Sleep, Smoking, Uvalde school shooting, Viruses, Wendy's


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All guns, all the time
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Published Wednesday, May 25, 2022 @ 7:08 PM EDT
May 25 2022

School

update
(The New Yorker)

The Onion: 'No way to prevent this,' says only nation where this regularly happens.

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Firearms are now the leading cause of death for U.S. children.

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Senator Chris Murphy's desperate plea for gun action: "Spare me the bullshit about mental illness," Murphy said. "We don't have any more mental illness than any other country in the world. You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness because we're not an outlier on mental illness... We're an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. That's what makes America different."

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Noted American historian Heather Cox Richardson makes it clear: The idea that massacres are "the price of freedom," as right-wing personality Bill O'Reilly said in 2017 after the Mandalay Bay massacre in Las Vegas, in which a gunman killed 60 people and wounded 411 others, is new, and it is about politics, not our history. (Thanks to friend and reader Paul Stockhausen for reminding me to check my newsletter emails.)

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Governor: Texas gunman said he was going to shoot up school. The murderer sent private, one-to-one text messages on Facebook that were "discovered after the terrible tragedy," company spokesman Andy Stone said. He said Facebook is cooperating with investigators.

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From Columbine to Robb, 169 dead in US mass school shootings. Here's a complete chronological list.

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AP full coverage: Uvalde school shooting

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Mass shootings: the Supreme Court may be about to make the problem worse.

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Guns are just dandy, but Texas bans the possession of or promoting the use of more than six dildos.

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Texas Republican leaders promised action on gun safety after the El Paso shooting. Instead, they passed permitless carry.

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Why the Senate protects Supreme Court justices from protesters but won't protect kids from mass shootings

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Guns are banned during Trump's upcoming speech at the NRA conference. Of course they are.

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Beto O'Rourke interrupts Texas governor's press conference on shooting

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Donald Trump's plot for revenge against state politicians who didn't overturn the 2020 presidential election results failed. Badly.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

Mass killers are frequently too insane to stand trial but rarely too insane to buy AR-15s.
-John Fugelsang

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I bet the folks who wrote the Second Amendment never thought a well-regulated militia would spend so much time killing children.
-Mrs. Betty Bowers

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If you think gun violence is strictly a mental health issue, you're crazy.
-Middle Age Riot

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Daring someone to come and try to take your AR-15 away from you is a pretty good reason to have your AR-15 taken away from you.
-Jeff Tiedrich

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Don't even suggest arming teachers. Some of y'all don't even trust us to select library books.
-Amanda Lee

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Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.


Categories: Beto O'Rourke, Chris Murphy, Donald Trump, Georgia, Greg Abbott, Gun laws, Heather Cox Richardson, Mass shootings, NSA, Paul Stockhausen, Second Amendment, Sex Toys, Supreme Court, Texas, Uvalde school shooting


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Self-evident
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Published Sunday, July 10, 2016 @ 12:13 PM EDT
Jul 10 2016

Not to mention the fact all the police officers were armed; yet the attack still happened.


Categories: Second Amendment


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Hmmm....
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Published Saturday, June 18, 2016 @ 11:08 AM EDT
Jun 18 2016


Categories: Second Amendment


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In lieu of Jon Stewart...
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Published Tuesday, June 14, 2016 @ 8:28 PM EDT
Jun 14 2016

Some NSFW (but appropriate) language.


Categories: Full Frontal, Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, Second Amendment, Video, YouTube


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Satire as truth
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Published Thursday, October 01, 2015 @ 11:35 PM EDT
Oct 01 2015


(Click for full article).

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(October 2 is the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, Groucho Marx, and Graham Greene.)


Categories: Second Amendment, The Onion


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Riiight...
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Published Monday, May 06, 2013 @ 11:55 AM EDT
May 06 2013


Categories: Barack Obama, Cartoons, Second Amendment


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Good grief
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Published Saturday, April 20, 2013 @ 6:26 AM EDT
Apr 20 2013


Categories: Cartoons, Second Amendment


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Gun control insanity
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Published Friday, January 18, 2013 @ 3:44 AM EST
Jan 18 2013

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart hits another one out of the park.


Categories: Barack Obama, Daily Show, Founding Fathers, Fox News, Jon Stewart, Second Amendment


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May as well give it a shot...
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Published Wednesday, January 16, 2013 @ 6:42 AM EST
Jan 16 2013


Categories: Observations, Science, Second Amendment


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Ouch.
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Published Tuesday, January 15, 2013 @ 6:24 AM EST
Jan 15 2013


Categories: Meme of the day, Observations, Religion, Second Amendment


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Meet the New Year, same as the old year...
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Published Tuesday, January 01, 2013 @ 3:01 AM EST
Jan 01 2013

KGB Report welcomes you to 2013: May this arbitrary, transient point in your solipsistic sense of the space-time continuum delineate the initiation of a series of random events which trend in a manner which you perceive to be favorable.


Categories: Barack Obama, Cartoons, Elections, History, Holidays, Mass shootings, New Years, Photo of the day, Politics, Second Amendment, The Big Bang Theory, U.S. Constitution, WTF?


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Amen.
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Published Sunday, December 23, 2012 @ 8:05 AM EST
Dec 23 2012


Categories: Religion, Second Amendment


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Tea Party Nation Knows What Causes Shootings: Unions, Loud Stereos and Sluts
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Published Wednesday, December 19, 2012 @ 1:59 AM EST
Dec 19 2012

by RICH ABDILL
(from Wonkette.)

There was a pretty bad shooting on Friday, and the only thing anybody can talk about is Why It Happened. Logical folk (i.e. us) have been saying it probably had something to do with guns and mental health, but people who don't want that to be true have been saying there isn't any evidence for it, despite all the evidence for it.

In their stead, however, they have been providing all sorts of other factors that are much more obvious, and do not require evidence. This is lucky because they do not have any.

The gun-massacre by the guy with seriously questionable mental health was not exacerbated by guns or mental health care, see, it was abortion pills, obviously. Also to blame: children who do not bum-rush gunmen, because they're stupid. Also, courtesy of Mensa Brain-Astronaut Glenn Beck: Fisher-Price toys. DEFINITELY NOT GUNS.

But there is more. There is sooo much more, and it was decided by Tea Party Nation, so you know it's real, and not a petty, steaming pile of Puritanical extremist propaganda that travels so far afield from the issues at hand that one can't help but wonder what they think the issues actually are. Tell us, Tea Party Brain Timothy Birdnow, what are we to do, to stay not dead?

Homeschool. Take away the power of the radicals in the classrooms. Makes your kids safer, too.

Yes. Guns are not the problem, leaving the house is the problem. That's where they shoot people! And teach evolution!

Back Right to Work legislation for the public sector. Teacher’s unions have helped cement much of this in place. As long as we have group think in the classrooms we will never see the end of this.

There was a shooting! DESTROY UNIONS. This is a real thing. This is a serious thought. Why, Birdnow? What is the “this” we will “never see the end of”? Why are unions so bad?

There was a time when teachers actually spanked children; now a teacher is in peril if he verbally chastises a bad kid.

Ah, cool. Destroy the unions, they are preventing children from being beaten in public, and this is causing school shootings. Next tip:

Call evil out. We have to stop being sorry and start being angry. This is not a time for national grief so much as a time for national anger. We should stop tolerating this sort of thing. Indeed, stop tolerating any bad behavior.

Not guns, mind you. “Bad behavior.” Like what?

If you see kids jumping ahead in line, say, call them out. If you see punks bothering their neighbors call them out. Say something to the idiot blaring his car stereo. Say something to the foul-mouthed teens. Tell the brats to pull up their pants; nobody wants to see their filthy underwear and pimply behind.

Again, a polite reminder that this is a real thing that people believe with their brains. The way to prevent mass shootings is to tell people to pull up their pants, because if we stop putting up with bad behavior, people will magically stop using murder machines to murder.

(Also, about that car stereo thing: A man in Florida (of course) confronted some teens about their loud stereo. They started arguing with him, so he killed one of them with… wait for it… A GUN.)

Also, the problem is not that people with certain conditions lose the ability to reason between right and wrong, the problem is that weenie liberals WON'T TEACH ‘EM:

The idea of restoring standards of right and wrong never occur to anyone on the Left. Last night on television a reporter referred to the shooter’s “damaged mind and broken soul” as if he were somehow a VICTIM! In the old days we would not call this anything but a heinous crime, a horrible mass murder of innocent children.

Translation: “You know what I miss? The days where we didn't understand mental illness and just electrocuted people. We should do that still. Fuck ‘em. Let's get mad.”

The next one is a doozy:

Work to devolve power back to the parents, the local officials, and the communities. A society that is top-down will inevitably lead to alienation of the sort we have seen here… As an FBI profiler said on television last night, he undoubtedly felt powerless and sought to remedy that. Why does a twenty year old feel powerless? He could leave his mother’s home at any time at his age. He feels powerless because he has lived in an over-bureaucratized society, one run ultimately from a far-away central location.

(Just to make sure you're following: The implication here is that a man shot up a school because of a centralized government.)

He has been coddled all his life, given free rein to indulge his senses but not to face the responsibilities that freedom necessitates. He was an eternal juvenile, a child who was not allowed to grow up. He lived in a world of the Progressives making, not in reality.

Progressives made this young man feel helpless. It's only logical! If we were more focused on states' rights, he would have felt magnificent, and free, and would have been not as shooty. Again, IT WAS NOT GUNS OR MENTAL HEALTH. REALLY. IT WASN'T.

On to the most logical cause of shootings:

Restrict the sex in movies, television, on the internet.

There is it! There's the money quote. Obviously slutty thoughts cause shootings. NOT GUNS.

There is a reason why young people commit these sorts of crimes, and sex plays no small part. Their passions are eternally inflamed, and they wander the Earth with no outlet for their overstimulated glands.

Taking a quiet pause for “overstimulated glands” causing shootings.

[I]t has traditionally been understood that a sexually robust individual will fight harder and more aggressively… Even if they were to live promiscuously (a very bad thing for society) they still cannot find adequate outlets for their passions, which have grown to titanic volume.

Titanic volume! Look how slutty kids are these days. No wonder they're shooting people! They aren't having enough sex! (Also: If they do have enough sex, that is “a very bad thing for society.” In case you were thinking we could get through any argument without some slut-shaming.)

The only answer is to follow the other societal coping mechanism, which is to tone down the sexual stimulation, encourage chastity and modesty.

OK. OK this blog post has to stop. It's too much. It is too much stupid. The next item on the list is how Trayvon Martin probably got himself shot because of marijuana, and after that… oh. Oh man here comes another blockquote:

Support the creation of local organizations to act as "neighborhood watch" for schools. Had George Zimmerman been at the front door instead of some mechanical card reader those children would still be alive.

I can't feel my legs. It's too much. The room is spinning. School shootings happen because there are not random, armed civilians at the door. And the only people against this would be unions.

I have to stop. I can't write anymore. It hurts. My face hurts, what's wrong with my hands…

10.Go back to church. We need God more than ever, need prayer.

OH GOD. STOP WITH THE BLOCKQUOTES. It hurts, it hurts. We get it, it wasn't guns. It was anything but guns. Literally anything. Does anyone have an inhaler?

[Tea Party Nation via ThinkProgress]

(Read the original post here.)


Categories: Mass shootings, Rich Abdill, Second Amendment, Tea Party, Wonkette


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"Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears"
(permalink)

Published Tuesday, December 18, 2012 @ 5:58 AM EST
Dec 18 2012

Our Moloch

Garry Wills in The New York Review of Books

Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch (for which see Leviticus 18.21, 20.1-5). The sacrifice referred to was of living children consumed in the fires of offering to Moloch. Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture. Ancient Romans justified the destruction of Carthage by noting that children were sacrificed to Moloch there. Milton represented Moloch as the first pagan god who joined Satan’s war on humankind:

First Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears,
Though for the noise of Drums and Timbrels loud
Their children’s cries unheard, that pass’d through fire
To his grim idol. (Paradise Lost 1.392-96)

Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains—“besmeared with blood” and “parents’ tears.” They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was the sacrifice we as a culture made, and continually make, to our demonic god. We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?

Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god’s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence.

Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol’s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony. “It is not the time” to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch.

The fact that the gun is a reverenced god can be seen in its manifold and apparently resistless powers. How do we worship it? Let us count the ways:

1. It has the power to destroy the reasoning process. It forbids making logical connections. We are required to deny that there is any connection between the fact that we have the greatest number of guns in private hands and the greatest number of deaths from them. Denial on this scale always comes from or is protected by religious fundamentalism. Thus do we deny global warming, or evolution, or biblical errancy. Reason is helpless before such abject faith.

2. It has the power to turn all our politicians as a class into invertebrate and mute attendants at the shrine. None dare suggest that Moloch can in any way be reined in without being denounced by the pope of this religion, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, as trying to destroy Moloch, to take away all guns. They whimper and say they never entertained such heresy. Many flourish their guns while campaigning, or boast that they have themselves hunted “vermin.” Better that the children die or their lives be blasted than that a politician should risk an election against the dread sentence of NRA excommunication.

3. It has the power to distort our constitutional thinking. It says that the right to “bear arms,” a military term, gives anyone, anywhere in our country, the power to mow down civilians with military weapons. Even the Supreme Court has been cowed, reversing its own long history of recognizing that the Second Amendment applied to militias. Now the court feels bound to guarantee that any every madman can indulge his “religion” of slaughter. Moloch brooks no dissent, even from the highest court in the land.

Though LaPierre is the pope of this religion, its most successful Peter the Hermit, preaching the crusade for Moloch, was Charlton Heston, a symbol of the Americanism of loving guns. I have often thought that we should raise a statue of Heston at each of the many sites of multiple murders around our land. We would soon have armies of statues, whole droves of Heston acolytes standing sentry at the shrines of Moloch dotting the landscape. Molochism is the one religion that can never be separated from the state. The state itself bows down to Moloch, and protects the sacrifices made to him. So let us celebrate the falling bodies and rising statues as a demonstration of our fealty, our bondage, to the great god Gun.

December 15, 2012, 5:25 p.m.

Link to original article here.


Categories: Gary Wills, Mass shootings, Moloch, New York Review of Books, Second Amendment


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Sigh.
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Published Sunday, December 16, 2012 @ 12:10 AM EST
Dec 16 2012

Hey, t-shirt person.

If the "loving" god who demands your worship isn't bright enough to correctly interpret the establishment clause of the United States Constitution, and is so petty and vindictive as to turn his back and allow the slaughter of 20 innocent babies, then I have no use for either of you.

If you don't think teachers should be unionized but they should be armed, cancel basic cable.
-@LOLGOP

If more guns made things safer America would have the lowest murder rate on Earth.
 
The NRA reminds you their right to shoot more clay pigeons without reloading is just a bit more important than your life.
 
Welcome to America, where some of you will have an easier time buying an assault rifle than marrying who you love.
-John Fugelsang

Once, millions of Americans correctly argued the Constitution gave them the right to own other human beings, too. We changed.
-Jason Cochran

If the reason to have a thing is to protect yourself against people with the same thing, maybe that thing is a bad thing.
-@TheTweetofGod

It took two minutes, between 9:36am to 9:38am to kill 26 children and their teachers. How many hunters encounter 26 deer in two minutes?
-Roland Scahill

Too many conservatives refuse to regulate assault rifles, but they're fine with regulating the female reproductive organs. Because liberty.
-Bob Cesca

Sorry, but prayers and giving your kids hugs fix nothing; only having the balls to stand up to our insane selfish gun culture will.
-Bill Maher


Categories: First Amendment, Mass shootings, Religion, Second Amendment, WTF?


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Two out of ten isn't enough...
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Published Saturday, December 15, 2012 @ 7:00 AM EST
Dec 15 2012

Happy Bill of Rights Day, commemorating the ratification of the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution on this day in 1791. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first declared its annual observance on December 15, 1941.

Should unfortunate circumstances place you in the presence of someone pontificating on the manner in which the first and especially the second amendment really should be interpreted, do what I do. Ask the delusional pedant to recite all ten Amendments.

"You can't? Gee, a real Constitutional scholar, ain'tcha Skippy?"

"Now go away, before I taunt you a second time."


Categories: FDR, First Amendment, Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution


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Observations of the day
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Published Thursday, September 13, 2012 @ 7:13 AM EDT
Sep 13 2012

Andy Borowitz:

Romney is starting to make his trip to the London Olympics look like the pinnacle of modern diplomacy.

You would think Mitt Romney would be better at foreign policy given how much time his money has spent overseas.

When our embassy is attacked, we are attacked. Romney's Libya comments display the patriotism of someone who keeps his money in Switzerland.

As reprehensible as Romney's Libya comments are, it's comforting to know that he'll soon contradict them.

John Fugelsang:

The Aurora shooter was able to buy 6000 rounds of ammo on the internet and Tommy Chong went to prison for selling bongs.

I'll sign on for results-based pay for teachers the day Congress gets the same deal.

Mitt Romney has learned that "Entitlement Reform" sounds way better than "Have some more catfood, Nana."

I'd still like to know when "Wit" turned into "Snark."

Lynn Cullen:

What do you get when you take all of the vowels out of Reince Priebus' name? RNC PR BS!


Categories: Andy Borowitz, John Fugelsang, Lynn Cullen, Mitt Romney, Observations, Politics, Questions for the Ages, Second Amendment, Twitter


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Just sayin'...
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Published Sunday, July 22, 2012 @ 8:55 AM EDT
Jul 22 2012


Categories: Hypocrisy, Observations, Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution


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You know we're in trouble...
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Published Saturday, July 21, 2012 @ 2:06 PM EDT
Jul 21 2012

...when "satire" in The Onion is about the only honest, objective view you'll get of this abysmal situation.

Sadly, Nation Knows Exactly How Colorado
Shooting's Aftermath Will Play Out

(The Onion, July 20, 2012)

WASHINGTON-Americans across the nation confirmed today that, unfortunately, due to their extreme familiarity with the type of tragedy that occurred in a Colorado movie theater last night, they sadly know exactly how the events following the horrific shooting of 12 people will unfold.

While admitting they "absolutely hate" the fact they have this knowledge, the nation's 300 million citizens told reporters they can pinpoint down to the hour when the first candlelight vigil will be held, roughly how many people will attend, how many times the county sheriff will address the media in the coming weeks, and when the town-wide memorial service will be held.

Additionally, sources nationwide took no pleasure in confirming that some sort of video recording, written material, or disturbing photographs made by the shooter will be surfacing in about an hour or two.

"I hate to say it, but we as Americans are basically experts at this kind of thing by now,” said 45-year-old market analyst Jared Gerson, adding that the number of media images of Aurora, CO citizens crying and looking shocked is “pretty much right in line with where it usually is at this point." "The calls not to politicize the tragedy should be starting in an hour, but by 1:30 p.m. tomorrow the issue will have been politicized. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the shooter's high school classmate is interviewed within 45 minutes."

"It's like clockwork," said Gerson, who sighed, shook his head, and walked away.

According to the nation's citizenry, calls for a mature, thoughtful debate about the role of guns in American society started right on time, and should persist throughout the next week or so. However, the populace noted, the debate will soon spiral out of control and ultimately lead to nothing of any substance, a fact Americans everywhere acknowledged they felt "absolutely horrible" to be aware of.

With scalpel-like precision, the American populace then went on to predict, to the minute, how long it will take for the media to swarm Aurora, CO, how long it will take for them to leave, and exactly when questions will be raised as to whether or not violence in movies and video games had something to do with the act.

The nation's citizens also confirmed that, any time now, some religious figure or cable news personality will say something unbelievably insensitive about the tragic shooting.

"Unfortunately, I've been through this a lot, and I pretty much have it down to a science when President Obama will visit Colorado, when he will meet with the families of those who lost loved ones, and when he will give his big speech that people will call 'unifying' and 'very presidential,'" Jacksonville resident Amy Brennen, 32, said, speaking for every other person in the country. "Nothing really surprises me when it comes to this kind of thing anymore. And that makes me feel terrible."

"Oh, and here's another thing I hate I know," Brennen continued, "In exactly two weeks this will all be over and it will be like it never happened."


Categories: Barack Obama, Hypocrisy, News Media, Observations, Politics, Questions for the Ages, Religion, Second Amendment, The Onion, TV, U.S. Constitution


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The Barack Obama Gun Control Conspiracy
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Published Thursday, March 29, 2012 @ 2:05 AM EDT
Mar 29 2012

The fear of not being able to buy guns during a second Obama term leads to Americans buying so many guns that now they can't buy any guns, just like they feared.

(Colbert Report video.)


Categories: Colbert Report, Politics, Second Amendment, Stephen Colbert


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I like Ron Paul. Really.
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Published Saturday, October 29, 2011 @ 12:05 AM EDT
Oct 29 2011

Don't get me wrong- I'm not supporting Ron Paul for President. His inflexible interpretation of the Constitution would make the nation ungovernable.

That said, there are provisions in our founding document that are inviolable. And on those points, there is no greater advocate than Dr. Paul.

His commentary below- taken from his website- is a prime example of what drives me nuts about him. The first portion eloquently deals with the continuing decay of our protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The last half veers off into the murky depths of Second Amendment selectivism, the folks who only read "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" but skip over the qualifying bit about "A well regulated militia." Here's his commentary:

-----

If you thought the "Transportation Security Administration" would limit itself to conducting unconstitutional searches at airports, think again. The agency intends to assert jurisdiction over our nation's highways, waterways, and railroads as well. TSA launched a new campaign of random checkpoints on Tennessee highways last week, complete with a sinister military-style acronym–VIP(E)R—as a name for the program.

As with TSA's random searches at airports, these roadside searches are not based on any actual suspicion of criminal activity or any factual evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever by those detained. They are, in effect, completely random. So first we are told by the U.S. Supreme Court that American citizens have no Fourth Amendment protections at border crossings, even when standing on U.S. soil. Now TSA takes the next logical step and simply detains and searches U.S. citizens at wholly internal checkpoints.

The slippery slope is here. When does it end? How many more infringements on our liberties, our property, and our basic human rights to travel freely will it take before people become fed up enough to demand respect from their government? When will we demand that the government heed obvious constitutional limitations, and stop treating ordinary Americans as criminal suspects in the absence of probable cause?

The real tragedy occurs when Americans incrementally become accustomed to this treatment on the roads just as they have become accustomed to it in the airports. We already accept arriving at the airport two or more hours before a flight to get through security; will we soon have to build in an extra two or three hours into our road trips to allow for checkpoint traffic?

Worse, some people are lulled into a false sense of security and are actually grateful for this added police presence! Should we really hail the expansion of the police state as an enhancement to safety? I submit that an attitude of acquiescence to TSA authority is thoroughly dangerous, un-American, and insulting to earlier freedom-loving generations who built this country.

I am certain people will complain about this, once they have to sit in stopped traffic for a few extra hours to allow for random searches of cars. However, I am also certain it merely will take another "foiled" plot to silence many people into gladly accepting more government mismanagement of safety.

Vigilant, observant, law-abiding, gun-owning citizens defend themselves and stop crimes every day before police can respond. That is the source of real security in America: the Second Amendment right to defend oneself. The answer is for people to be empowered to protect themselves. Yet how many weapons might these checkpoints confiscate? Even when individual go through all the legal hoops of licensing and permits, the chances of harassment or outright confiscation of weapons and detention of citizens when those weapons are found at a TSA checkpoint is extremely high.

Disarming the highways and filling them full of jack-booted thugs demanding to see our papers is no way to make them safer. Instead, it is a great way to expand government surveillance powers and tighten the noose around our liberties.

-Ron Paul

The thing I admire about Paul is that he speaks in complete sentences and delivers well-formed thoughts. I may not agree with all of them, and some I would oppose with every fiber of my being. But there's no question in my mind that Paul loves this country, and he's honest and sincer in his efforts to represent the people.

President Paul? I can't support that. But Congressman Paul, or Senator Paul? I have to admit that he'd probably get my vote.

But there's no way I'd live in Texas. I like the guy, but even patriotism has its limits.


Categories: Fourth Amendment, Second Amendment


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