The Truth About Obama’s Banned Gun List

“You heard him! He said ‘fewer muskets!’ Obama’s gonna take our muskets!”

A Facebook friend of mine recently “liked” an article entitled “Obama’s Gun Ban List is Out!” The specific location of the article he linked to is on the blog American National Militia, but the article’s text is all over the Internet, posted on various pro-gun, conservative sites.   I’m not going to reprint the entire thing, but here is the first paragraph.

“Here it is, folks, and it is bad news. The framework for legislation is always laid, and the Democrats have the votes to pass anything they want to impose upon us. They really do not believe you need anything more than a brick to defend your home and family. Look at the list and see how many you own. Remember, it is registration, then confiscation. It has happened in the UK, in Australia, in Europe, in China, and what they have found is that for some reason the criminals do not turn in their weapons, but will know that you did.”

Before I even began to read the rest or do any research, I knew the article was, if not totally bogus, at least a bit less reputable than it would at first seem.  The last sentence is almost nonsensical and the piece is supposed to have been written by a published author, Alan Korwin.

It’s not just that, though.  The line about the democrats having enough votes is wrong.  Since Republican representatives have been voting almost strict party lines the last four years, any bill proposed would die in the Republican controlled house before it ever gets to the Democrat controlled Senate.

Should We Be Worried About Mitt?

Mitt looking a little bit worse for the wear, getting gas at a Chevron station in Cali.

Who’d have thunk it?  The closest Mitt Romney would get to relating to the poor would be looking like a homeless guy after getting gassed up (his car, I mean.)

Full story here.

Three Observations About the Secessionist “Movement”

I got your new flag right here!

In the phrase, “Secessionist ‘Movement’,” the latter word gets put into its own quotations because the online secessionists of 2012 are about as much a true movement as “Bieber Fever” is a true religion.  The hoard of troglodytes who have queued up (metaphorically) to sign (virtually) petitions on the White House website are frighteningly like young Justin’s tweener minions.  Both have latched onto the schtick-du jour and both are motivated by juvenile emotion more so than anything that resembles intellect.

As usually is the case,  you can glean much from their lemming like, fractionally serious online antics.  Much, that is, if you are capable of a little logic and have some brains with which to employ in the endeavor.

They Don’t Really Mean It…

Signing up on-line to secede from the United States has all the real power of posting a comment on YouTube (not to mention the two groups probably have a number of members in common.)  The White House (under Obama) has a policy that, if a petition on its site gets more than 25,000 “signatures”, the White House itself will respond.  The key there being “respond”.  The response will be “uh, no.” What’s more, the signers know this.  It makes it much easier to sign.

Some of the signers have stated that they did so merely because they were unhappy about the election and not that they really want to secede. Many signed up multiple times for petitions from multiple states.  Sound like a college prank? Little bit.

Pat Robertson Excuses General Petraeus

Matthew 15:7-9 “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

This is absolutely precious.

Pat Robertson. Host of the 700 Club, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, founder of the Christian Coalition, the man who once accused Planned Parenthood of:

“…teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism – everything that the Bible condemns.”

Pat Robertson also once said this:

“How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?”

Well, now he says this of General Petraeus’s affair with Paula Broadwell:

Did Missing Some Usual Conservative Planks Cost Romney the Election?

Since the election, much has been offered to explain why Barack Obama won a second term and Mitt Romney was not elected.  There have been a lot of theories ranging from Paul Ryan’s contention that the urban vote did in his ticket to the pundits that put forth the counter intuitive premise that Mitt Romney wasn’t conservative enough, which I suppose they must believe explains why centrists and some republicans voted for “socialist” Obama.  I don’t understand that reasoning, but that’s OK.

I have my own theory as to why the President won re-election.  It has to do with the very powerful talking points that conservatives usually rely on, many of which were mysteriously all but left out or glossed over weakly by the Romney campaign.

Gay Marriage

Most of the hot-button Republican issues are brilliant because they are non-issues.  No better example exists for this than the issue of gay marriage.  According to the right, the idea that when two people of the same sex are coupled it leads to the disintegration of marriage itself is obvious.  There is precious little in the way of substantive evidence for this -that is to say there is no substantive evidence for such a claim.  Marriage has been taking a beating for deacades with increasing divorce rates and couples opting to not marry at all. Same sex marriage had nothing to do with that.

The right’s theory is based purely on the Christian/Judeo ideal of marriage – one that I happen to ascribe to but that I feel is affected in no way by anyone else’s marriage.  There doesn’t seem to be an issue where “partner rights” – insurance coverage, death benefits, etc.  – are concerned because civil unions are OK with most conservatives.  It’s the use of the word “marriage” that is the upsetting facet.  

Military Background and the Presidency

A conservative friend of mine posted something on Facebook recently about the military background of presidents. The point, though obviously tongue-in-cheek, is that Clinton and Obama have no military back ground.

Honestly, I don’t think it is a bad idea to have a president with a service record. But let’s be real honest on a couple of points.

First, lets note that Mitt Romney, as do many Mormons, chose not to serve in the military at all.

George W. Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard. I know a few Marines. They’ll tell you that the TANG is to military service what a three-legged race is to the Olympics.

Ronald Reagan’s military career consisted of all state side time with, among other units, the First Motion Picture Unit. They produced training and propaganda films.

Nine US presidents had no military service, including FDR and Abraham Lincoln*, the two presidents who lead the nation through two of its toughest wartime challenges, namely World War II and the Civil War.

Conversely, eight of the 11 worst Presidents were military men, many of them generals, including, U.S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, and William Henry Harrison.

While the background of service in the military is surely an asset to most persons in their careers, is is by no means a guaranty of success, nor is lack of it an assurance of failure.

*Technically, Lincoln was in the Illinois Militia but his stint was only several months and he saw no action in that brief time.

Gun Control Propaganda Deep in the Heart of Texas

Today in Texas, people bought more guns. In other news, the sun came up this morning.

First, let’s be real: President Obama did virtually nothing to limit guns in the US in his first term.  In fact, one could argue that by continuing the debacle dubbed “Fast and Furious” (I say “continuing” because the process was begun under G.W. Bush and referred to as “Wide Receiver” back in 2006,) he actually saw some regression in terms of the weapons on the streets.

With that truth in mind, read this moronic article from the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal (www.lubbockonline.com), specifically from Ariel Kirkland: CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE.

Sharp Shooters Knife & Gun owner Charles Blackwell said his gun sales started picking up right after the election, Saturday hitting a peak with over a 400 percent increase.

Ammunition accounted for about 20 percent of the sales. Blackwell said sales during the hunting season remained steady but the election is what made sales skyrocket.

“It was basically a normal, I would say flat year until the election,” he said. “Saturday was a record day for this store. For a normal Saturday, we were up over 400 percent.”

Where to begin?

First of all,

Tell Me Again How The Right Loves the Constitution

If you love it, don’t dump on it.

In a story posted yesterday on the Washington Post website:

From states across the country, Americans have filed petitions on the White House Web site seeking to secede from the union and form new state governments.

While most of the petitions come from states that supported Mitt Romney in last week’s election, a few swing states and even the deep blue Northeast are represented. 

Petitions have been filed for Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Where I’m usually able to deal with the extreme right’s nonsense with a shrug and a logical rebuttal, I gotta admit, this disgusts me.

All through this election cycle I have been listening to the clowns talk about loving the constitution and how they want to prevent the country being torn apart.  As it turns out, they only love the Constitution as long as they are getting their own way and the country can get torn apart as long as it is the extreme right that is doing it. This is the exact type of hypocritical garbage that makes reasonable, honest people balk at anything that comes from the Republican Party.

Far Right Eschews “Pandering” to Minorities

Where the GOP stance on minorities is concerned, there should be no Rush to judgement.

In the panic and vitriol that has been the hallmark of Republican reaction to President Obama’s having won a second term, there have been some inklings of moderation.  Even Sean Hannity, the Fox News talking head, has suddenly espoused a very relaxed position (compared to his previous one, that is) on immigration.

One right wing pundit who is holding his ground is none other than Rush Limbaugh.  Limbaugh insists that the GOP is diverse enough and that “pandering” toward minorities is a horrible course of action.

This Limbaugh quote sums it up. (from Electablog):

The usual suspects are out, and they’re saying, “Rush, we gotta reach out now to the Hispanics and reach out to the minorities, blacks.” Okay, let me remind you of something…Let me take you back to the Republican convention.

The President is a Terrible Socialist

One of my many pet peeves deals with the use of political labels because of their common connotations and despite the fact that the term is usually being used totally incorrectly.  Whenever you hear a mainstream Democrat or Republican called a Communist or a Nazi, you can be sure that it is a grand exaggeration. As a matter of fact, see my previous post about my thoughts on the elections, including  how Barack Obama has been called both a Nazi and a Communist and why this is impossible.

Anyway, I digress…

The prime example of this phenomenon where President Obama is concerned has to do with the widely repeated accusation that he is a socialist.

I could go on and on about this, but I would not get the point across (that he is anything but a socialist) any better than this video.