by 
Month: May 2010
Keyword: NRA
Lexicalist.com is a website that analyzes word usage on the Internet and then breaks it down by demographics. The three demographics analyzed are age, gender, and geography.
Even two weeks after the NRA Annual Meeting, North Carolina is still buzzing about the NRA coming to Charlotte as seen by this map from Lexicalist.com.
Demographics of “nra” on May 26, 2010 (from Lexicalist.com).
I used the keyword “NRA” to generate this map. As you can see, people are still buzzing more about the NRA today than they were a month ago. Lexicalist.com estimates that it is up 128%.
Go here for the full breakdown.
NRA convention underscores anti-gun camp’s irrelevancy
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Dave Workman, senior editor of Gun Week had this op-ed last week in the Charlotte Observer.
Adhering to a pattern of behavior that has developed over the years, a tiny contingent of gun prohibitionists paraded outside of the Charlotte Convention Center while the National Rifle Association was hosting its record-breaking members’ meeting, but they remained only long enough to get some camera time with local news crews.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, came to Charlotte to grab some face time and get his name in the local media. Where the NRA can pull more than 70,000 members, the Brady bunch could barely muster two dozen protesters to parade around for perhaps an hour, then leave satisfied that the 5 o’clock news would carry their images.
The Complementary Spouse, her brother, two of her nephews, and I all attended the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte. I didn’t even know there had been a protest until I saw pictures of it posted on The Breda Fallacy.
State-run Media
In another sign that the Obama Administration is all about controlling the message, Robert Gibbs privately lectures members of the press for asking too many questions regarding BP according to a post on theblogprof.
And to think the taxpayers of North Carolina spent thousands of dollars over the amount of tuition he paid to educate Robert Gibbs at NC State University. We need to ask for a refund.
A Cold Civil War?
Jennifer III at the I’ll Take Liberty blog has a very thought provoking post about what she calls the Cold Civil War. She says that we now live in a mass society where you may have more in common with someone a thousand miles away than with your next door neighbor. This has led to a breakdown in communications and it is especially evident in politics.
Without shared assumptions it’s completely impossible to communicate verbally. And without communication, politics can’t work peacefully. And when politics don’t work peacefully for this reason, each side wonders why the other doesn’t just get with the program. Where debate once aired, name-calling prevails. It’s the end of intelligent discourse.
It doesn’t go to violence immediately. Interaction must pass through every shade of gray until it reaches those shades of black. It starts with what happened in the 20th century. The progressives in both political parties neutered the Constitution because they assumed it had no meaning. They preferred the rule of men over the rule of law. Now people who want the rule of law are labeled as ‘extremists’.
Read the rest of her post.
Personal Security versus Personal Defense
Dave Spaulding is a well-known law enforcement and firearms trainer. Indeed, he was named the 2010 Law Officer Trainer of the Year. He was a police officer in Ohio for 30 years as well as a Federal Security contractor.
He gave a presentation on personal security and developing the combative mindset at the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte. Spaulding said he doesn’t call it personal defense because “defense is kind of like losing slowly.” Rather the aim of the combative mindset is to keep you from being the victim of criminals.
Watch these three part videos of Dave’s presentation and learn. Indeed, have your family watch the videos so they can learn how to protect themselves by avoiding trouble.
Alien and Sedition Acts – Act 3
While most of the original Alien and Sedition Acts passed into blessed oblivion in 1801 and the Sedition Acts of 1918 were repealed in 1920, this has not stopped Democrats of President Obama from proclaiming that opposition to his policies by Republicans and the Tea Party Movement is seditious.
Now we have Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts chiming in during a law school forum. Patrick now says it was merely a “rhetorical flourish.”
Frankly, with regard to aliens and sedition, we’d be a whole lot better off if we didn’t have the President of Mexico making insulting remarks before Congress about Arizona’s Illegal Aliens Law and our gun laws as well as not having the Governor of Massachusetts casting aspersions on the President’s political opponents.
Ford Fiesta – Beach Assault Vehicle?
Jeremy Clarkson, auto journalist and TV personality, reviews the British version of the Ford Fiesta for the BBC TV program Top Gear. And it seems he likes it.
The best comment? “The smoke grenades fit perfectly in the cup holders.”
The video is a bit long so skip to the fun parts – a car chase in a mall and the Royal Marines assaulting a beach along with the Fiesta.
Classy guy – not!
John Kass in his column about Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Jr.’s news conference accuses Hizzoner of embarrassing the City of Chicago. He’s right. Watch the video.
Kurt Hoffman, in the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, goes a bit further and wonders if Daley is making “terroristic threats” when hoping some of the more conservative Justices on the Supreme Court end up getting shot before they can rule on the Chicago gun case, McDonald v. Chicago.
If it had been me or you saying that, you can be sure we’d be getting a visit from the authorities. Bullies like Daley need to be taken down a peg or two.