Obama’s playbook of deception

John Sigler, NRA President, has an article on Barack Obama’s playbook of deception on guns. In it he articulates the carefully crafted words and phrases used by Obama and friends in their attempt to deceive Americans about guns and where they came from. Examples:



The bait-and-switch gimmick of employing rhetorical tricks to hide very real gun control agendas, and to create a fraudulent history to assure that “your gun record does not define your candidacy” are the central lessons offered in a political/propaganda playbook or script proffered by something called the Third Way.



The problem that progressives have on the gun issue has far less to do with the typical policies they espouse than the rhetoric they employ.” – The Third Way


“It’s critical that progressives recognize that only an aggressive outreach strategy to gun owners will ensure that your opponent’s message about your gun record does not define your candidacy.” – The Third Way


He doesn’t mention it but there is another source for Barack Obama’s rhetoric. I have an Americans for Gun Safety document from 2003 which provides the details of the research done which contributed to the “Third Way” plans published in 2006 and earlier this year.


From the 2003 document comes this advice (next to the last page):



Our gun rights come with the responsibility to keep them out of the hands of criminals terrorists and children.


I support gun safety measures like criminal background checks on all sales at gun shows and tough enforcement of existing gun laws.


I agree with President Bush that we need to renew the ban on assault weapons.


I take a back seat to no one in support of second amendment rights but I also support requiring criminal background checks at gun shows and continuing the ban on assault weapons.


From 2006 (read the document for the details of what these steps mean):



Step 1: Reject the Conventional Wisdom on Guns


Step 2: Own the Second Amendment

Step 3: Redefine the Issue from Gun Control to Gun Safety


Step 4: Criticize Conservatives for Failing to Enforce Existing Gun Laws


Step 5: Promote Centrist Gun Policies with Centrist Language

Step 6: Take Your Message Directly to Gun Owners – Don’t Let Your Opponent Define You


Step 7: Implement Your Gun Plan and Watch the Gun Votes Roll In 


Here is what they say about guns in September 2008:



One of the greatest predictors of voting behavior is gun ownership, and roughly 45% of the nation has a gun in the home. For most of the past eight years, John McCain has been enemy number one among NRA enthusiasts (based on his authorship of the gun show loophole bill and campaign finance reform). He has now made amends with NRA leadership and the choice of Palin makes this a NRA dream ticket. (See the cover of this week’s Newsweek.)


Be aware that while Americans generally hate special interest groups, they have a modestly positive view toward the NRA. At the same time, they are tired of the fight on this issue like on other culture issues. We suggest the following message:


I take a back seat to no one in support of Second Amendment rights, but those rights don’t extend to terrorists and criminals. That is why I support the John McCain bill to close the gun show loophole.


Conservatives are up to their old tricks. There is no argument over the Second Amendment; they just want to pick a fight and divide this nation for short term political gain.


Progressives should make clear that they support both an individual’s Second Amendment right to own firearms for protection, collection, and sport, and also reasonable restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists. There is no contradiction in this message, and it’s also popular. A poll we conducted on guns revealed that 89% of voters believe the Second Amendment confers an individual right to own firearms; however, 73% believe that the right allows for reasonable restrictions.


Nowhere do they say “progressives” need to change their objectives. They only need to change their language.


Barack Obama is reading his lines from anti-gun people who have been carefully researching for years what words work best so the target audience hears what they want to hear while still leaving him open to ban certain guns and destroy gun shows.


Paul Simon could have been singing about what Barack Obama is hoping will happen with gun owners:



All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.


Paul Simon
Recorded 1968
The Boxer

If you can’t win fairly

I call myself a loser if I lose when everyone plays by the rules. Obama supporters lie and cheat. It’s what socialists do. It’s in their rule book (written by Marx).


Update: The link above is broken. Here is the original content I was linking to:



NRA-ILA Alert Members of Deceptive Tactics By Obama Supporters


Friday, October 31, 2008
Fairfax, VA–The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today sent the following email alert to members following reports of deceptive phone calls in support of Barack Obama. The callers falsely claim to be from NRA and attribute Senator John McCain’s pro-gun voting record to that of Obama.


Dear NRA Member,
It has come to our attention that with Halloween upon us, the Barack Obama campaign and its allies are up to dirty political tricks.


NRA members in key presidential battleground states have informed us they have received deliberately misleading phone calls from someone professing to represent the NRA, asking voters to support Barack Obama. This is an absolute and intentional lie.


NRA has long been on record as opposing Barack Obama, as Barack Obama has long been on record as opposing the rights of law-abiding gun owners. For example, Barack Obama:




    • Voted to allow the prosecution of citizens who use a firearm for self-defense in the home (Illinois Senate, S.B. 2165. 3/25/04);

    • Voted to allow reckless lawsuits designed to put America’s firearms industry out of business (S.397, vote 219, 7/29/05);

    • Voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting (United States Senate, S. 397, vote 217, 7/29/05);

    • Supported a 500% increase in federal taxes on guns and ammunition (Chicago Defender, 12/13/99);

    • Voted to ban hundreds of rifles and shotguns commonly used for hunting, including single-shot, over-under and side-by-side shotguns (Illinois Senate SB 1195, 3/13/03); and,

    • Proposed restrictions that would close 90% or more of all gun stores in the U.S. (Chicago Defender, 12/13/99).

For more information on the TRUTH about Barack Obama’s hostility toward the Second Amendment, please visit http://www.gunbanobama.com/.


If you receive a call to this effect, please know that it is a deliberate attempt by Barack Obama supporters to mislead gun owners. Our opponents know that you can make the difference in this election, and they’ll stop at nothing to try and deceive you!


Thank you for your support, and remember to “Vote Freedom First”! on November 4th.
Sincerely,
Chris W. Cox
Executive Director, NRA-ILA

Clearly stated

It’s amazing to me. I’ve been reading more of the comments on mainstream news articles about Obama and guns. People say things like “Obama has clearly stated he supports the Second Amendment”.


Well, yes, he has said that. But he also says on his website:



  • Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

  • He clearly states he supports a gun ban. That is his way of supporting the Second Amendment?


    One commenter wrote:



    Also, Obama doesn’t want to take your gun away. He has stated that he does not see why citizens need semi and fully automatic weapons. That’s it.


    My response was:



    “That’s it.”?? That would eliminate about half the the firearms currently being sold and nearly all of my guns. Let’s translate that into 13th Amendment infringement language instead of Second Amendment infringement language: “Our candidate just wants to enslave Jews, Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, Muslims, Catholics, and homosexuals. That’s it.”


    It just doesn’t get any more clearly stated than that yet they can’t seem to get why we are upset with Obama’s position on guns.


    Here is a video with Chris Cox of the NRA on Fox News and Fox only quotes the part of Obama’s website where he says he supports the Second Amendment. Not the part I quoted above where he says he wants to ban guns.


    What media bias?


    Update: And via Sebastian I find we now have audio of him saying he supports a Federal ban on concealed carry laws. That is how he “supports” the Second Amendment.

    Quote of the day–Varifrank

    You understand when a politician says that he wants to ‘spread the wealth’ that what he is going to do is confiscate your wealth and give it to other people. You understand that, right? Confiscate…Your…Wealth! Your home, your property, your 401k, your bank accounts, your stocks and bonds, your health accounts – all are in the process of becoming the property of ‘the state’. All of it. Thats what “spread the wealth” actually means, it means CONFISCATE and then “distribute along party lines’. This is no longer about this tax rate or that tax rate or what party has a better plan to grow the economy, its about the Government of the United States – all three branches of it – that is now actively and aggressively pursuing and acting on a plan to confiscate private wealth (your wealth) and punish those who create it (you).


    Varifrank
    October 24, 2008
    Monster
    [H/T to Kevin. When the politician claims he is only going to take from other people I can see why some people might go for this. But how those people justify themselves is beyond me. That is the sort of thing you would expect from people put on masks and drag people into an alley to “spread the wealth”. It’s the same thing except in the case of the politicians case they have enough people with guns at their disposal they don’t need to wear a mask when they rob you.–Joe]

    Don’t panic

    If it ever seems all is lost keep those neurons firing, keep trying things, and don’t give up. Things you thought were insolvable problems might have a solution.





    I have no category for this. This is in a category all it’s own for which I do not have the words. Maybe Tam does. Planes are within her area of expertise and her skill with words exceeds mine by an order of magnitude or more.


    H/T to Joe D. from an email list.

    New shooter report

    A few weeks ago a new co-worker noticed the newspaper clipping (actually it’s two full pages) on my door about Boomershoot and started asking questions about guns. He wanted to buy a rifle, handgun, and shotgun. Which would I recommend?



    I asked, What is your intended purpose? He was hesitant but it finally came out that it was for “home defense”. For the rifle he expressed an interest in an AR-15 type gun. And probably a 9mm or similar in the handgun. “Not something with as much recoil as a .45.” But he hadn’t ever fired anything but a .22 rifle which was “years and years ago”.


    This evening we went to the range after work. This was the first time I have ever seen the parking lot at Wades completely full. I had to find parking on the street nearby. I wonder why that is…


    I went over the safety rules, taught him how to grip the gun, and did a bunch of dry firing and then he put about 50 rounds through a Ruger MK III from about 15 feet away into an IPSC target. He did very well. When I had him doing slow fire he was putting about half of his shots into one ragged hole and the other half within an inch or so. This was more accurate than he thought possible with a pistol. He took his target home with him. I’m wondering if it will show up on his office door at work tomorrow…


    Next week we’ll visit the range with larger pistol calibers, revolvers, and an AR-15.


    And his politics? He’s a self described liberal. Before Tuesday I’m going to let him know what Obama thinks of the guns he likes and wants to buy.

    What they think of us

    There is a huge gap between the world viewpoints of the reality that I live in and that of some other people:



    While most nations recognize that absolutely no good can come of exposing children to guns at a young age, we live in a gun culture that promotes romantic notions of generations of families hunting and shooting together.



    Sadly, it took us no longer than 5 minutes to find a broad range of videos, showing what could be considered in some cases to be blatant child endangerment.


    There is no telling how many more of these videos exist on the Internet or how many other children have participated in or been exposed to these kinds of events– but no doubt it’s expansive if you have the time to do the research.


    There is no mistaking it, as these images show, this is an outrageous problem unique to American culture that is perhaps more common than many of us even realize.


    No so called “enlightened” country could possible delude themselves into thinking this is normal behavior that should be protected even under the loosest interpretation of the Second Amendment.

    The gun pushers in the gun lobby have gone too far as have the sponsors and supporters of these events. This kind of activity needs to be exposed and outlawed immediately. Children’s lives are at risk and as adults, we need to demand that our lawmakers do more to protect them from dangerous activities like these.


    Think about it. While you are taking your kids to swimming or soccer, these kids–encouraged by their parents and other trusted adults–are blasting away at their target.


    This issue of children firing machine guns, encouraged and emboldened by parents, demonstrates to us the need to change our perspective and the way we think about gun culture in the United States.


    We are in a culture war. Their objective is to extinguish the last great hope for freedom on this planet. Our objective can be no less than to completely and totally defeat them.

    One of my better rants

    Via Sebastian, who is called a wacko, I found the USA Today article about Cooper getting fired. It says “he [Obama] has said he respects the Second Amendment.”. Numerous commenters say similar things. I left a couple comments:

    Obama says he supports the Second Amendment. He also says he wants to ban guns.

    He can’t have it both ways. His record of the past is clear. His words of the future are clear and consistent with his record. The only reasonable conclusion is that he is attempting to deceive voters here and now by saying “he supports the Second Amendment”.

    And:

    If this were about someone donating money to the KKK, the company then found it was facing a boycott, and the company fired the idiot that donated money to the KKK then almost everyone would agree it was the right thing to do.
    Well guess what–gun ownership is a specific, enumerated right, in the Bill of Rights (read the D.C. v. Heller decision).
    Who would vote for someone that said, “I support the 13th Amendment but I also believe we can have reasonable regulation of blacks to keep them in their proper place.”?
    Senators Obama and Biden and the people that vote for them are to the gun owners what the KKK was to blacks.

    Maybe I’m competing for a more extreme title than the “wacko” title given to Sebastian but these guys really got me annoyed.

    Update: It’s time to put them on the defensive. I left another comment:

    Melo_D wrote: Are you comparing Obama to the KKK?

    The nonviolent aspects of the KKK–yes. He has publicly stated on his website he wants regulated and ban guns. This is infringing on a specific enumerated right just as if someone wanted to regulated and ban blacks (or other oppressed minority) from certain aspects of society.

    Melo_D wrote: Less guns= less violence.

    I have Just One Question (http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/14/just-one-question/) for you:

    Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?

    Homework assignment

    Via Ry. Post Zumbo, post Cooper. How many more are there out there than need to get their asses kicked for supporting Obama in this election? Gentlemen, we can out them. We have the technology. We have the capability to spend our dollars only with those gun companies that support our specific, enumerated, individual right to keep and bear arms.


    So, lets do it.

    A letter to Obama

    Via an email from Ry a letter posted on ARFCOM:



    Mr. Obama,

    Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me “Cory the well driller”. I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn’t go to college like you, I was too ready to go “conquer the world” when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80’s oil boom. I didn’t get any help from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn’t afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).

    A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on my income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time… $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now to memorialize it all.

    I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn’t work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.

    2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.

    A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd business going.

    Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers’ pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers’ product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that’s ok, I didn’t expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.

    Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months. This should work out, but if it doesn’t it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys’ (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn’t get a business loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for more East Texans. It’s funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.

    You see, Mr. Obama, I’m the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I’m the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I’m the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn’t want to take a risk, and wouldn’t demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I’m the guy you characterize as “the Americans who can afford it the most” that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution “to spread the wealth” to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What’s worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

    What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach on every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn’t it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What’s remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn’t need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

    You see, I know because I’ve had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

    Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I’ve seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office – can you pronounce “politically motivated”), you averaged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else’s money you are giving to them. I won’t say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe Biden (don’t you just hate goggle?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.

    In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.

    God help us…

    Cory Miller, just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.

    P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American… http://www.cmillerdrilling.com/


    Follow up comment from Lyle in the email thread:



    “Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort…”


    Uh, try “more than 70 years” and you’ll be closer to the mark.


    What Cory doesn’t seem to understand is that the Socialists don’t care if he’s right.  If they cared, they wouldn’t be socialists.  That makes his very well-reasoned and well-written message into that “rattling noise” you’ve mentioned before.


    In essence they’re jihadists.  They want to bring the Corys of the world down.  It’s a purely emotional/visceral motivation and any such arguments as Cory’s will be rationalized away as “Rush Rhetoric” or as “Right Wing propaganda”, and ignored completely.


    Things could go either way, but McCain won’t have had much to do with it.  What we need is someone who’ll run on the “I’m going to kick the socialist’s asses out of government altogether and then put them in cages for public entertainment” platform, but as usual we’re faced with a decision of more socialism, slower, verses more socialism, faster.


    Have you seen Thomas Sowell’s latest bit?  He sees this problem as about as serious as it gets:
    http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1029b08.php3


    As I say; jihadists.

    Quote of the day–Thomas Sowell

    Policies that he proposes under the banner of “change” are almost all policies that have been tried repeatedly in other countries— and failed repeatedly in other countries.


    Politicians telling businesses how to operate? That’s been tried in countries around the world, especially during the second half of the 20th century. It has failed so often and so badly that even socialist and communist governments were freeing up their markets by the end of the century.


    The economies of China and India began their take-off into high rates of growth when they got rid of precisely the kinds of policies that Obama is advocating for the United States under the magic mantra of “change.”

    Putting restrictions on international trade in order to save jobs at home? That was tried here with the Hawley-Smoot tariff during the Great Depression.

    Unemployment was 9 percent when that tariff was passed to save jobs, but unemployment went up instead of down, and reached 25 percent before the decade was over.

    Higher taxes to “spread the well around,” as Obama puts it? The idea of redistributing wealth has turned into the reality of redistributing poverty, in countries where wealth has fled and the production of new wealth has been stifled by a lack of incentives.


    Thomas Sowell
    October 29, 2008
    A perfect storm
    [Via an email from Lyle. I had so many possibilities for quotes today that it was tough to choose. And all of them are time sensitive too. –Joe]

    It’s that time of year

    I’ve had two requests from people for help celebrating Halloween this year. Son-in-law Caleb and a friend from my work both want to blow up some pumpkins. That is planned for this Saturday.


    This morning I got a report from someone else on the same topic:



    As the crowd thinned, we started the good stuff. Saturday I had placed a baggie of amn mix in the seed cavity and shot it with the 300 weatherby loaded with 125 grain ballistic tips. I wanted to tell folks that I had acquired some new bullets and demo their performance. The pumpkin absolutely vaporized.


    Yeah. That’s what happens alright. I’ll try to have pictures and video next week sometime.


    Update: Video from November 2000 is here.

    Quote of the day–Glenn Reynolds

    Brian Doherty’s Gun Control on Trial is to the Heller case what Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice is to the Brown decision—an essential history made up of equal parts legal theory and personal struggle, presented in page-turning fashion.


    Glenn Reynolds
    Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
    Founder, Instapundit.com
    From What Others Have Said on the Cato website about the book.
    [You can preorder the book on Amazon for only $11.53. I was interviewed for this book. I don’t know if I actually made it into the book but I’m buying a copy to find out and get the rest of the story.–Joe]

    Root canal news

    I have been having pain in one of my teeth off and on for about three weeks now. Over the weekend it got bad enough and persistent enough that I decided it was time to seek medical attention.


    I called the dentist yesterday but they couldn’t get me in until this morning. I made it through the night without much difficulty. I woke up a couple times and had trouble getting back to sleep but not that big of a deal.


    Today was pretty much consumed with visiting the dentist, doing paperwork at the doc next door who would do the root canal, handling a few things at work, going back to the dentist office and getting the work done.


    Hunter006 has some more details from an email exchange and there are some more details on Twitter.


    All is better now but I need to catch up on some sleep.

    Keep the change

    A point I heard Glen Beck make this morning was that history shows us the more the difficult the economic situation is the more people support/demand socialism and communism. This was true in Russia, China, Nazi Germany, Western Europe and in the United States earlier this century. But in all cases it extended and worsened the economic situation.


    Via Robb Allen we have this ad. But what occurs to me is that this may actually make him more popular rather than less. But like sick children given a choice between bitter medicine that works and a candy placebo most will go for the candy.




    NRA checks FactCheckers

    Do you think Newsweek will pick this up?



    A new story by Brooks Jackson on the FactCheck.org website once again shows that FactCheck cherry-picks “facts” to suit its anti-NRA, anti-gun, anti-self-defense agenda—an agenda that the American people do not share.



    Obama has also supported a federal ban on carrying concealed handguns, even though 40 states now respect this right. Obama’s home state of Illinois is one of only two that provide no means whatsoever for people to carry guns outside the home for self-defense. In the Illinois state senate, Obama even sided against crime victims by opposing a bill that would have allowed people who receive protective orders—such as domestic violence victims—to carry firearms. Why? Because, in his words, “authorizing potential victims to carry firearms would potentially lead to a more dangerous rather than less dangerous situation.”


    With all this information from independent sources readily available, why did Jackson and FactCheck choose to highlight facts and details that bolster only one side of the story? Is it because the points they chose to highlight advances their preordained beliefs? Do Brooks Jackson and FactCheck have an intrinsic bias against gun owners?


    These are legitimate questions that we encourage everyone to ask before buying Brooks Jackson’s or FactCheck’s perspectives.


    Maybe after the election and hell freezes over.