Category Archives: Current News

This is about stuff in the mass media that generally has a short interest life span. Speculation about an election outcome a few days before the election is an example.

The Brady Campaign and media bias

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Can you name one time where the press has published a NRA letter or media release as if it were there own? I can’t think of one. In fact it’s hard to find instances where the media has published more than a few sentences of what NRA has to say on a topic.


Yet here is what appears to be a complete story written by the Brady Campaign and published if it were a story from the newspaper. Notice that the bottom line of the story says:



# # #


SENT AS A COURTESY OF THE BRADY CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE


What media bias?

It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you

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Senator Crapo via Joe Durnbaugh on the Lewiston Pistol Club email list. Emphasis in the letter body is mine:



From: senator_crapo@crapo.senate.gov
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 2:37 PM
Subject: Correspondence from Senator Crapo


April 27, 2009



Mr. Joe Durnbaugh
Lewiston, Idaho 83501


Dear Joe:


Thank you for contacting me regarding your opposition to the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (referred to by its Spanish acronym CIFTA). I agree with you and welcome the opportunity to respond.


On November 14, 1997, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the CIFTA treaty, which among other things, aimed to curtail the small arms trading of deadly weapons often used during the traffic of illegal drugs. Although President Clinton signed the CIFTA treaty, it received less than the requisite two-thirds majority vote in the U.S. Senate. As a result, it was never ratified.


As you may know, President Barack Obama is now urging its ratification in order to combat the Mexican drug cartel. The CIFTA treaty would ban any firearm that falls under a misleading classification of “illicit” manufacturing. For example, the treaty would make illegal the assimilation of a lawful firearm from a kit. Further, it would criminalize any modifications made to a firearm. Additionally, this treaty would prohibit pro-gun organizations. Most alarming is that a broad interpretation of this treaty would call for the extradition of U.S. gun dealers.


The Second Amendment reads: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” I firmly believe this provision prohibits the federal government from denying citizens this right.
Let me reassure you that I do not support gun control. We must protect and preserve our constitutional right to bear arms. I will not support any legislation that requires a waiting period for the purchase of a firearm, bans the ownership of firearms, promotes or requires the rationing or taxation of firearms, or the taxation of ammunition.


As you may know, gun control advocates continue to seek creative methods of advancing their agenda, both through legislation and litigation. You may be assured that I will continue to oppose all efforts to weaken Second Amendment rights.


Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on this or other matters of interest to you. For more information about the issues before the U.S. Senate as well as news releases, photos, and other items of interest, please visit my Senate website, http://crapo.senate.gov.


Sincerely,     
   
Mike Crapo
United States Senator


MDC:js


If U.S. Senators are saying this does that mean I’m not really paranoid after all?

Primers

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Just a hint of the current situation on primers from Powder Valley, Inc.:

At this time we are not taking any new backorders for primers that are not listed here. We currently have over 50 million primers on backorder. If you currently have a backorder in place your order will be processed as primers become available. Once we begin receiving more primers from the manufacturers and are able to begin filling current backorders we will update the website.

Via Kevin on the Lewiston Pistol Club email list.

We Get it, Already

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This is an open letter to all the talk show hosts, pundits, party hacks, cheaters, scumbags, sick twisted freaks (you know who you are) and pro-freedom bloggers.  We could spend the rest of our lives cataloging the outrageous behavior of nasty, America-hating, ignorant, self-loathing, cultist, freedom-hating, anti-human, leftist politicians including Progressive Republicans.  We know they’re bad, OK?  If there are three or four people who still don’t get it, that’s all right.


I’d rather try to figure out how we’re going to get some principled Americans nominated so we’re not always forced to choose between bad and worse– between more socialism slower, and more socialism faster.  This last national election was a real puker.  The Republican Party is, at the moment, just as lost, dumbfounded, selfish and clueless as ever.  They’re a herd of does, staring blankly into the headlights of an on-coming truck, and the worst part of it is; they don’t even suspect that they’re clueless.  They in the Republican leadership think they have some really clever answers, which amount to more of what got us into this mess.  I recently heard it described as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  That fits very well.  The Republicans have some really super great, super ultra smart ideas for rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  No really, listen…  (all the while we have this simple, proven model for success, and it’s being ignored.)


We need to change that.  You need to change it.  I need to change it.  There isn’t anyone else.  I suppose, since it’s up to us, it will have to be on the local level for most of us, being as we’re not billionaires.  That’s OK.  We can still do what we can do.  A lot of people are jazzed up right now.  They just need somewhere to start.  Well, pick a place, a local issue or a local politician that needs a hand (or a very public spanking) and get to it!


That there are clueless people is not the issue.  There will always be the clueless.  They’ll sit on the sidelines, worrying about who likes them and who doesn’t, trying to figure out where the “center” is so they can position themselves in it and claim superiority for having done so, while someone else does the lifting.  Are you a sitter or a lifter?


I have a bad feeling that things could come to blows before this government is brought under control, and I really don’t want that to happen.  Do you?  This country is far too important in the grand scheme of things.


And with that; I don’t have much more to say on here, other than to repeat myself or talk about the weather and what I did last weekend, unless it’s to tell you what I’m doing on the local level to influence politics.  Now I think I have some calls to make.


(Note that I placed this in nearly every one of Joe’s categories. It’s relevant to everything we do and every opportunity we want for our kids in the future)

It wasn’t me

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Yes, this is within my range of operations but I didn’t make the device:



An Army Ordnance disposal team destroyed a homemade explosive device Friday morning along a busy on-ramp to U.S. Highway 12 just north of Yakima.

The device was described as a plastic beverage bottle with shotgun-shell powder inside. The bottle was wrapped with electrical tape and a metal chain.


While I’m sure with enough shotgun shell powder such a device would be “interesting” Boomerite is much cheaper per unit of fun.


And if you are going to play with things that go boom don’t put metal near the explosives. The rule we use is that we don’t put anything between the explosives and your body that a surgeon or the medical examiner might have to remove from your body.

Political Profiling

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The story from Missouri has been out for some time.  I want to say I’m glad the report was distributed, because it shows us the bigoted, upside-down views a lot of people have, and that they’re eager to act on them.  We knew it already, but we now have a better idea of what to expect.


The people you need to look out for are the several Left-wing groups.  It’s been a long-standing MO of theirs to accuse their opposition of doing what they themselves are already doing, or what they’re planning.

Doing fine

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“Fine” can be a relative word. A prime example is this case:



“For being hit in the face with a shotgun, he’s doing fine,” said Tennant.


I reported on this incident yesterday but the latest news report has a lot more details.


I”m glad the injuries aren’t serious and that the perps were arrested quickly and without incident.

Quote of the day–Chris Cox

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Yesterday afternoon, DoD additionally confirmed the lifting of the suspension to pro-Second Amendment United States Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who sent the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) a joint letter vigorously opposing the suspension, on the grounds that it had “an impact on small businesses who sell reloaded ammunition utilizing these fired casings, and upon individual gun owners who purchase spent military brass at considerable cost savings for their personal use.”


…


DLA also put to rest various theories and rumors that were circulated on the internet, concerning the reason for the suspension. As DLA explained to Senators Baucus and Tester, and to NRA-ILA, DoD officials responsible for the demilitarization of military property temporarily halted the release of the cartridge cases last week, pending review of a policy change issued last year by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which, in the interest of national security, halted the sale of items within a broad category of government property including, but not limited to, surplus small arms cartridge cases.


Chris Cox
March 18, 2009
Military Surplus Cartridge Case Issue Resolved
[I was working on a post comparing the destruction of the brass to destroying used books that were being sold to underfunded schools in black neighborhoods. But I procrastinated long enough to avoid the appearance of jumping on the Obama conspiracy train.


Appearances are not always what they seem.–Joe]

Arrested at my gas station

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When in Moscow I buy my gas there:



Pullman police arrested a 20-year-old man overnight for allegedly shooting another man in the face.


…


Pullman Police and the Moscow Police Department worked together to find Lawrence, who was arrested at a Tesoro gas station in Moscow a half hour after the shooting.


Just because they are across the state line from each other doesn’t mean they don’t have excellent cooperation. My understanding is the Washington State University Police (in Pullman), Whitman County (Washington), and Latah County (Idaho) police also work closely with the Pullman and Moscow city police. I’ve met a few of them, shoot with some of them and occasionally some of the sniper teams attend Boomershoot. All of seem to be good guys. Perhaps a little grumpy when one of their fellow officers gets shot (pictures here) however.

Quote of the day–Erwin Knoll

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Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge.


Erwin Knoll
[Although I have observed this for myself on many occasions it was Kevin’s post from yesterday which most recently reminded me of this.–Joe]

Arsenal of stolen arms gets six years in club Fed

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I posted about this guy once before. This probably will be the last time. This is just down the road from where I work. I have driven by there many times. Apparently a lot of the items were stolen:



A 65-year-old Spokane man pleaded guilty Thursday to having an arsenal of illegal military weapons and explosives in a Bellevue storage unit.


Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Ronald Struve in January after his cache of weapons — which included dozens of machine guns and blocks of C-4 plastic explosives — was discovered by a man who bought at auction the contents of the storage unit at 12863 Northup Way after the unit’s rent went unpaid, according to a criminal complaint.


…


Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Woods declined to say what motive Struve had for collecting the weapons other than to note that Struve had said “he might have to use it some day.”


Under terms of a plea agreement, Struve faces a sentence of 63 to 78 months in a federal prison.

Quote of the day–Richard K. Willard

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The District and its supporters also err in extolling the supposed virtues of a world without guns, and condemning the vices of a world without gun regulations. In doing so, they set up a false set of choices. A world without guns is not an option, because hundreds of millions of guns are already in private hands and readily available across either the Virginia or Maryland borders; and even if all handguns in America magically vanished, criminals could still illegally saw off shotguns and rifles to produce concealable weapons that would be more lethal than most handguns. Thus, the District can only hope to dry up the supply of handguns for the law abiding, while criminal access to handguns remains virtually unlimited. It is against this real-world backdrop, and not against that of a utopian gun-free world, that the District’s position must be assessed.


Richard K. Willard
D.C. versus Heller
Brief Amicus Curiae Of The Heartland Institute in support of respondent
[In light of the renewed calls for more gun control after the shootings in Alabama and Germany I thought this was appropriate.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ed Pilkington

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Maritime experts were given a rare glimpse of the underlying capabilities of the Chinese navy on Sunday, when crewmen involved in a stand-off with a US surveillance ship in the South China Sea revealed the fleet’s previously hidden firepower.


The exposure came as the American vessel USNS Impeccable was attempting to defend itself against what the Pentagon claimed was co-ordinated harassment and aggression from five Chinese ships. Being unarmed, the Impeccable turned its fire water hoses against two of the Chinese vessels that had come within 50 feet in a threatening posture.


Then, the Pentagon records in the admirably restrained language of international diplomacy, “the Chinese crew members disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25 feet.”


In the annals of great naval battles, the contretemps may not rank alongside Trafalgar or Jutland. But it must be a contender for this year’s award for naked aggression.


Ed Pilkington
March 10, 2009
In New York, The Guardian
Stand-off shows Chinese navy’s secret tactics
[I just hope the sailors on the Impeccable got lots of pictures of all that “previously hidden firepower”. I’m sure there is a market for that somewhere outside of the Pentagon. Maybe some magazines would be interested.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Tracy Ambeau Hanson

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Do we really need a gun-fashion police? I just want to be able to exercise my Second Amendment rights without interference from the District government.


Tracy Ambeau Hanson
March 9, 2009
SAF CHALLENGES D.C. HANDGUN BAN SCHEME



[The above picture is from David. See also more on the lawsuit story from David. I find it incredible amusing SAF found a woman of color as the plaintiff in a case about discrimination against a gun that is the wrong color. How much more blatant can the discrimination be before people start realizing the people attempting to infringe our right to keep and bear arms are bigots?


Thank you Ms. Hanson, SAF, and Calguns Foundation.


SAF is getting monthly, tax deductible, donations from my paycheck with matching donations from Microsoft. What are you doing to help?-Joe]

We didn’t do it! No one can prove a thing!

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Although Boomershoot has an ATF approved explosive handler in Memphis she didn’t blow up this car with someone in it today.

Uplifting

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“That was uplifting.” That was what Barb said after I read this to her:



President Barack Obama has set his course for battle with America’s powerful interest groups over his ambitious, some say radical, spending blueprint that aims to remodel American society.


Even as he has rammed through emergency economic spending that easily could top $1 trillion, Obama has asked Congress to adopt a budget that is ripe with programs to improve the lot of lower- and middle-income Americans at the expense of the wealthy and the farming and industrial complexes under their control.


…


On the budget plan Obama presented on Thursday, the president said it would help millions of people but only if Congress overcomes stiff resistance from well-financed lobbies.


“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and video address. “My message to them is this: So am I.”


Under the president’s proposal, America’s wealthiest 5 percent would pay a whopping $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, while most others would get tax cuts. Industries would buy and trade permits to emit heat-trapping gases. Higher-income older people would pay more for government health insurance benefits. Drug companies would receive smaller profits from the government. Banks would play a much smaller role in student loans.


We are living in interesting times.


Sleep well and have a nice day.

Just backward

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How would you deal with someone that got everything exactly backward? When they want the car to stop they step on the accelerator and when they want to go they step on the brake. Instead of washing their hands before meals they soil them in the most foul manner possible. They put water on the campfire that is keeping them warm and they put gasoline on the Christmas tree fire in their living room.


I would have to conclude they are insane. And unless there are some sort of drugs or therapy available for their condition they should be locked up for the protection of themselves and others.


But that’s doesn’t appear to be an option in this case where the political leaders of D.C. are demanding Congress commit an unconstitutional law and object to the a law that brings them in line with the constitution on another matter:



D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council members disagree with that conclusion. They furiously protested the firearms amendment.


“The District of Columbia leadership is fully united in its opposition to unwarranted amendments that would dramatically damage the District’s carefully revised gun law and expose the District to great harm through the undoing of its laws,” D.C. Council President Vincent C. Gray and Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the council’s public-safety commission, said in a letter to Congress released yesterday.


In a statement after the Senate’s vote, Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote, a lobbying group, said the city has passed a “significant hurdle in our fight for full democracy for DC residents.”


But he added of the gun amendment: “If anything, this amendment has strengthened our resolve to continue to fight for the rights of Washingtonians. Congress repeatedly treats the District as a testing ground for flawed, dangerous legislation. This has to stop – and we’ll keep fighting to ensure that the bill signed into law is not tainted by this amendment.”

Quote of the day–Rupert Murdoch

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As you all know the downturn we are operating in is more severe and global than anything we have seen before.

We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered. Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded.


Rupert Murdoch
February 24, 2009
Peter Chernin’s little shocker
[Risk and opportunity abound. Keep your eyes open for both. I’m listening to The Black Swan which appears to be applicable to the times as well.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Robert Higgs

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For the economy in general, doing nothing is vastly preferable to doing the stimulus package, but doing nothing is not a political option; indeed, it would be political suicide. Given the dominant ideology and the political institutions that now exist, economically rational public policy is incompatible with political viability…. Having hit bottom, the politicians can only do one thing: keep digging. If Hell is down there, they’ll reach it, sooner or later.


Robert Higgs
Senior Fellow at Independent Institute
The Lighthouse Volume 11, Issue 7: February 16, 2009
[I was tempted to just use “rational public policy is incompatible with political viability” as the QOTD, but the mention of politicians attempting reach Hell was just too appealing.–Joe]

Our New Castro

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Via Limbaugh’s web site, we have a transcript of a PBS broadcast in which Obama is being compared to Fidel Castro.  It’s a favorable piece.  If you’re a 24/7 subscriber you can get the PBS audio.  I heard it this morning on the radio.



And that is, one, this notion of feeling that now we have a guy named Obama in the White House, we have President Obama now, there are many young people who are as ecstatic and as excited and as enthused about President Obama as you were about your new president, Fidel Castro.


They’re “ecstatic and excited”.  Now they have what they believe is the American version of the Cuban revolution, poised and ready to roll.  I would have thought they’d have been a little less overt about it, but I guess they think they can take off the masks now.