#1
Hani Shukrallah has been traveling in leftist circles for his entire journalist career. He occasionally has moments of islamorealist clarity but they are generally quickly replaced by a desire to see a western plot or a zionist plot or exploitation of the workers by capitalists. This editorial leans toward a bit toward realism but it will fade.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/31/2012 16:52 Comments ||
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The thing missing from the debate so far is anger -- anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA's sensibilities.
That's obscene. Here, then, is my "madder-than-hell-and-I'm-not-going-to-take-it-anymore" program for ending gun violence in America:
Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It's badly written, confusing and more trouble than it's worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a "well-regulated militia." We don't make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn't have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right. The men at Breed's Hill and at Valley Forge, the ones who fought against the Redcoats, were militiamen. The brought their own guns. There's nothing at all badly written in the second amendment. The Founders were thinking in terms of what happens if government starts imposing Stamp Acts or something.
Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization's headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that's optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that "prying the guns from their cold, dead hands" thing works for me. We never did declare the CPUSA a terrorist organization. As a matter of fact, it wasn't and isn't illegal to join the CPUSA. Both they and the NRA is a good example of the first amendment right to peacefully assemble and associate. But those of a dictatorial preference will be in favor of repealing the first amendment, too.
Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control. The writer documents himself as being a vicious brute who shouldn't be allowed close to any position of power or even influence. He should seek therapy. And the fifth amendment guarantees against anyone being tied to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and dragged, or in fact any other cruel and unusual punishment. But the writer probably wants to repeal that, too, it being so badly written and such.
And if that didn't work, I'd adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I'll bet gun sales will rise.
The writer's bitch is about the Sandy Hook school shootings. He's in favor of banning guns despite the empirical evidence that shows that crime rates go down in concealed carry states.
That massacre of babies was a horror. I still don't like to contemplate it and when I saw those little faces on the cover of a magazine I almost bawled. Despite the fact that that guy killed himself I consider it to be a strong argument in favor of the death penalty.
Even more, I'd call it a strong argument in favor of public mental health institutions -- what we used to call "crazy houses" back in the heady days of my youth. Those were emptied in response to another really neat liberal idea, that of "mainstreaming." I don't think they permanently institutionalize anyone but the catatonic and the guy who shot President Reagan, and every once in a while they talk about letting him out. Instead we have crazy old ladies walking the streets shouting at invisible beings, lots and lots of homeless people, and potential baby killers living their self-centered lives among us, just waiting.
#1
I posted a few retorts to the various commenters there via Facebook. I won't bore you with reproducing them, they are the sorts of things you've heard from me before.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2012 14:50 Comments ||
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#2
For those who haven't seen the Demand a Plan pushback.
#4
No, gun sales rise because of rhetoric this this, Kaul. This article of badly written, and Kaul's lack of understanding on the 2nd is a symptom of a lack of education, especially in History. Also there were some pretty nasty weapons around back in the day, and men hardened to the realities of life, without the option of picking up nicely pressed and packaged candied tofu from the Des Moines alternative grocery store.
If a heeler would get rid of the 2nd, getting rid of the 1st is easy and then you could start banning NRA, and Bingo Night (competes with the lotto doncyaknow), not the right kind of Unions, VA centers, you know whatever it is peeving you at the moment Kaul.
I guess after you get everyone disarmed and, just going to take a wild guess that you personally will not be able to apprehend either member you mentioned, mob tie them to a truck and drag them, you will miss the point that loose mobs and people will find a way to harm others they do not like, and will fail to denounce yourself and file papers to ban trucks.
We could as an exercise use the same language is different for the 3rd. Sure it says soldiers, but does that not also include other federal agents? It should, should it not Kaul? Perhaps next time the olde river floods and a cadre of federal agents and employees decend upon Iowa will they be billeted in private homes? Any children at home Kaus? Any interest in hosting a FEMA Youth fresh out of boot who has nothing but contempt for his post, for midwesterners, for people who do not think the Fed is the supreme. One agent per bedroom, you get the couch, make sure that frige is full, hope they don't notice the heirloom trinketbox. Or your green legislation error or dangerous weapons. Or your daughter.
Barack Obama is, of course, very far from a deft executive, and in the course of 2011 and 2012, especially on fiscal issues, we learned that it was the latter outcome that would come to pass. Our various budget showdowns have all begun with attempts at a House-White House deal and have all ended with a House-Senate process (or more precisely a Senate-House process, with apologies to the Constitution's origination clause). Obviously the fact that Obama is a Democrat and not a Republican has given these deals their general direction, but the details have been worked out in Congress. This has been in part because both Boehner and Obama seem to think a House-White House deal has to a big bargain, but it's also in part because a divided congress just naturally makes such deals difficult.
The election apparently hasn't changed that, and the fiscal cliff "process" now seems to be making its way toward roughly the same conclusion. This has to do with the president's ineptness at negotiation (and indeed at much of anything except self-congratulation and campaigning) but, again, it also has to do with the dynamics of a divided congress, which would take a truly exceptional chief executive to overcome. But you wouldn't have to be all that exceptional to accept this reality and make the most of it, rather than spend the days leading up to the conclusion of each of these fiscal showdowns desperately trying to draw attention to yourself and make your role look more central and significant than it is. The president's appearance on Meet the Press today was downright pathetic in this regard, as have been his various press statements in the past few days. This sort of preening and lecturing from a politician who has basically just failed to do his job is bizarre.
#1
I know several in the auto industry drooling over tax refund monies. They have invested allot in the used car sales. Hundreds of cars purchased at auctions. Many expensive repairs to pass state inspections(State Inspectors are aggressively looking over everything). People in distress are letting repairs go. Walking away from monthly payment so repossession process is big now. People are even walking away when repair bill can't be paid.
There are about 315 million in the population. It's just not a 47vs53 thingy.
Nothing better to motivate the American taxpayer to adjust his/her withholding so he/she only owes a couple hundred every year rather than let the Treasury sit on his/her money like a interest free loan.
#4
I have my payroll deductions set up so that the government didn't get much of anything until I wrote a check to go with my 1040 and State filings. Put the equivalent $$ for payroll tax withholdings into a separate banking account to earn interest (well, they used to anyway). That way I didn't have to 'wait' on IRS to issue refund, plus they don't get to use MY money until I say so.
Some folks may find this dangerous and, for a person who doesn't manage their money well, it can be.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/31/2012 9:50 Comments ||
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#5
Nothing better to motivate the American taxpayer to adjust his/her withholding so he/she only owes a couple hundred every year rather than let the Treasury sit on his/her money like a interest free loan.
Damn straight, the withholding angle was set up during WW Deuce (never let a crisis go to waste)to keep the boys from worrying. Send it in, then get it all back.... not many soldats had income tax due... but hey!
#6
not many soldats had income tax due... but hey! My dad told me he knew of some redneck GIs in WWII who were OK with serving, but would not tolerate having money sent to the revenooers.
#7
The IRS has yet to publish an instruction booklet for filling out the tax forms, leaving tax preparers in a holding pattern.
"How they are going to handle this?" said John Roth, senior federal tax analyst for CCH, a tax services company. "We are in virgin territory."
Somehow, the American Virgin Islands spring to my mind, you know one of the 57 States of the United States. The last tax haven of the banking and insurance industry, 87% Democrat, pay no taxes into the US System, a pure welfare state.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
12/31/2012 11:14 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.