Month: December 2010

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How Pathetic

December 8, 2010 by

Josh Horwitz has just one-upped Paul Helmke on the pathetic scale.

Horwitz is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. In a post today at the Huffington Post entitled NRA’s Latest Poster Boy Sounds Like School Shooter, he insinuates that James D’Cruz is another Columbine killer in waiting. He compares quotes on James’ Facebook page to the stuff said by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris as well as the Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho and the Pearl, Mississippi school shooter. He then concludes:

The best case scenario here is that D’Cruz is strikingly immature and incapable of handling the serious responsibilities that come with gun ownership. The worst case scenario is that he’s a ticking time bomb in need of psychiatric care. In either case, he’s a poster boy for why we should prevent handgun sales to those under 21 years of age.

Of course it is utter bullshit and could well be considered an actionable case of defamation.

One could very well rewrite Horwitz’s quote to read:

The best case scenario here is that Horwitiz is strikingly immature and incapable of the rational thought needed for serious policy discussion. The worst case is that he’s a ticking time bomb in need of psychiatric care. In either case, he and Paul Helmke are the poster children for the flailing gun control movement which can be seen in their compulsion to demonize an 18 year-old college freshman.

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A Day That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 2010 by

On the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, let us remember those that died in the sneak attack.

We should also remember those veterans that survived the attack on it as well as those who enlisted in response to the attack. My Uncle John Sheridan was a freshman in college. He and a bunch of his friends skipped class on December 8, 1941 and joined the Navy. While most of his war was spent stateside, he finished WWII aboard the USS Bennington CV-20 as an ETM 3rd Class.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe has an excellent series of pictures from that day.

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Best Headline Award

December 7, 2010 by

The best headline award for a review of AR-15 magazines goes to Rob Curtis and the GearScout blog at MilitaryTimes.com.

In a review of the new Surefire ultra-high capacity magazines, the blog post was titled Surefire Introduces the John Holmes of rifle magazines.

The new magazines are 60 and 100 round magazines and look huge…kinda like the, ah, equipment of the late porn star John Holmes.

 
And the review isn’t bad, either.

 

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The Newest Righthaven Clients

December 6, 2010 by

Clayton Cramer reports that MediaNews Group is the newest client for the copyright trolls at Righthaven LLC. I guess if the holding company that owns you is in bankruptcy you’ll do darn near anything to make money. However, I wonder how their on-line ad revenues will be after this.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven filed its first suit outside of Nevada. They filed in Charleston, SC for an alleged copyright violation from the Denver Post. This brings to 180 the number of lawsuits that Righthaven has filed claiming copyright infringement.

I had thought that like good little trolls, Righthaven might have stayed under the bridge with the shakeup at the Las Vegas Review-Journal but no such luck. The only think I am sad about in the list of papers below is that I’ll have to miss Don Surber’s column in the Charleston, WV Daily Mail. I have listed all the MediaNews Group papers below with their links in case you want to add them to your blocked list.

According to the Las Vegas Sun story:

In California, Media News is part of a partnership called the Bay Area News Group that includes Stephens Media. An affiliate of Stephens Media has invested in Righthaven and, until now, all of Righthaven’s lawsuits involved the Stephens Media-owned Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The MediaNews Group papers by state and city.

Alameda Times-Star    California – Alameda

Enterprise-Record    California – Chico

Times-Standard   California – Eureka

Argus   California – Fremont

The Daily Review   California – Hayward

Lake County Record-Bee  California – Lakeport

Press-Telegram   California –  Long Beach

The Monterey County Herald   California – Monterey

Marin Independent Journal  California – Novato

Oakland Tribune   California  – Oakland

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin   California  – Ontario

Oroville Mercury-Register   California  – Oroville

Pasadena Star-News   California – Pasadena

Tri-Valley Herald   California – Pleasanton

Red Bluff Daily News   California – Red Bluff

Redlands Daily Facts   California – Redlands

The Sun  California – San Bernardino

San Jose Mercury NewsCaliforniaSan Jose

San Mateo County TimesCaliforniaSan Mateo

Santa Cruz Sentinel  California – Santa Cruz

Daily Breeze   California – Torrance

The Ukiah Daily Journal   California – Ukiah

The Reporter   California – Vacaville

Times-Herald   California – Vallejo

Contra Costa Times   California – Walnut Creek

San Gabriel Valley Tribune   California – West Covina

Whittier Daily News   California – Whittier

Daily Democrat   California – Woodland

Daily News   California – Woodland Hills

Daily Camera   Colorado – Boulder

The Denver Post   Colorado – Denver

Fort Morgan Times   Colorado – Fort Morgan

Journal-Advocate   Colorado – Sterling

Sentinel & Enterprise   Massachusetts – Fitchburg

The Sun   Massachusetts – Lowell

North Adams Transcript   Massachusetts – North Adams

The Berkshire Eagle   Massachusetts – Pittsfield

The Detroit News   Michigan – Detroit

St. Paul Pioneer Press   Minnesota – St. Paul

Alamogordo Daily News   New Mexico – Alamogordo

Carlsbad Current-Argus   New Mexico – Carlsbad

The Deming Headlight   New Mexico – Deming

The Daily Times   New Mexico – Farmington

Las Cruces Sun-News   New Mexico – Las Cruces

Public Opinion   Pennsylvania – Chambersburg

The Evening Sun   Pennsylvania – Hanover

Lebanon Daily News   Pennsylvania – Lebanon

The York Dispatch   Pennsylvania – York

York Daily Record – York Sunday News   Pennsylvania – York

El Paso Times   Texas – El Paso

The Salt Lake Tribune   Utah – Salt Lake City

Bennington Banner   Vermont – Bennington

Brattleboro Reformer   Vermont – Brattleboro

Charleston Daily Mail   West Virginia – Charleston

H/T Sebastian and Clayton Cramer

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Ramping Up The Pressure To Free Brian Aitken (Rally Postponed)

December 6, 2010 by

From the Second Amendment Foundation on the Free Brian Aitken Rally:

GOTTLIEB TO SPEAK AT ‘FREE BRIAN
AITKEN’ RALLY DEC. 12 IN NEW JERSEY

BELLEVUE, WA – Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation will travel to New Jersey Dec. 12 to join speakers at a rally in Toms River in support of Brian Aitken.

The New Jersey man has been imprisoned for essentially having two legally-owned handguns in his car, parked at his parents’ home, along with other belongings he was moving to a new residence in another city.

Gottlieb will join Scott Bach, president of the Association of New Jersey Association Rifle & Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) at the microphone, along with radio personality Dennis Malloy, attorney and author Evan Nappen, and members of the New Jersey Legislature, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Assemblywoman Allison Little McHose. Also scheduled to speak are firearms training expert Anthony Colandro and Gene Hoyas of ConservativeNewJersey.com.

“Brian Aitken’s case is a clear demonstration of how easily New Jersey’s restrictive gun laws can be abused,” Gottlieb stated. “SAF and ANJRPC recently filed a federal lawsuit aimed at how the state’s Draconian gun law is administered. How could I not be there on Dec. 12 to support a man whose case amounts to a civil rights outrage?”

The rally is sponsored by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, which is raising public awareness about Aitken’s plight. Their goal is to petition Gov. Chris Christie to grant clemency and release Aitken from prison before Christmas.

The rally begins at 2 p.m. at the American Legion Post 129 at 2025 Church Road in Tom’s River.

As I said this past weekend, if Chris Christie wants to have a political career outside of the Garden State, he needs to step up and pardon Brian Aitken.

UPDATE: It appears from a notice on the Free Brian Aitken Facebook page that the rally has been called off – or at least postponed.

And there is this letter from Mr. Aitken posted in a column in the Star-Ledger at nj.com. I don’t have a clue as to what is going on or why. If and when I hear more I’ll post it.

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Ted Nugent on Feral Cats

December 6, 2010 by 2 Comments

Despite his hit, Cat Scratch Fever, the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent is no lover of feral cats. Indeed, he kills them on sight.

In his column for the Washington Time, Nugent discussed a report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln which concluded that the way to control the feral cat population was to kill them. Or as Ted would say, whack them.

With regard to the feral cat population and their impact on wildlife, Ted says:

The reality of the situation is that the feral cat population has exploded across the United States (except on my property) and in other countries as well, in large part because of irresponsible cat owners who dump their unwanted pets out in the country when Precious wears out his welcome in short order by killing every songbird and assorted wildlife by the millions. Estimates of the number of feral cats in the United States are well over 100 million. Strange, but not one of these destructive fur balls lives on my ranch.

The destruction feral cats have wrought on songbirds, other mammals and critters is catastrophic, no pun intended. Feral cats prey not only on songbirds but also on game birds, rabbits, squirrels, gophers, mice, shrews, voles and other critters that are food sources for wild predators such as foxes, birds of prey, coyotes and bobcats.

It isn’t often that you find the American Bird Conservancy, the Audubon Society, and Ted Nugent on the same page on anything. However, they all agree that trapping, neutering, and releasing feral cats does not solve the environmental impact of feral cats – the cat will just return to the wild and continue wreaking havoc on wildlife.

It is estimated that feral cats kill over 500 million songbirds annually and in Australia studies have shown that they have caused the extinction of 33 different bird species on some islands. The Nebraska study mentioned above put the cost of the environmental impact of feral cats at $17 billion.

Feral cats lead a Hobbesian life – nasty, short, and brutish. Studies indicate the life expectancy of a feral cat due to disease, malnutrition, severe weather, and other predators is 2-5 years. By contrast, a house cat raised indoors will live 15-22 years by some reports. Releasing a neutered feral cat back into the wild is doing it no favor.

When it comes to feral cats, Ted is right.

PS: While I am a dog lover and a cat tolerator, it is important to remember that wild dogs are also a conservation problem that needs to be dealt with.

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FoxNews Covers D’Cruz Case

December 6, 2010 by 2 Comments

Larry Thompson, attorney for James D’Cruz and the NRA, and Paul Helmke, head of the Brady Center, appeared on Fox and Friends on Saturday morning to debate whether 18-20 year olds should be allowed to legally purchase handguns as well as carry concealed in Texas.

In the short time period, I would say that Thompson got most of his points made while Helmke said that except for voting 18 year olds aren’t mentioned in the Constitution. So, if one is to listen to Paul Helmke, your only right as an 18 year old is to vote for Obama in big numbers and then shut up. I wish Fox had given them more time to discuss this case.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

H/T James D’Cruz

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1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act and the Hughes Amendment

December 5, 2010 by 2 Comments

Andrew at the Vuurwapen Blog has a very, very interesting post on this bill and the Hughes Amendment. The Hughes Amendment is the part of the bill that froze the number of machine guns available to be licensed under the National Firearms Act to what existed before this bill was passed.

There’s always been a rumor about it being a late night voice vote that really didn’t have the requisite number of votes to pass, but was ordered to be added anyway.

Now, however, thanks to the detective work of a man who goes by the name AJAX22, we’re finding out that a recorded vote was taken, and the amendment was defeated – but again, it was ordered to be added anyway.

Who was instrumental in this action? None other than Charlie Rangel, then acting as Speaker of the House – the disgraced, corrupt New York congressman who was recently censured on the floor of the House. Are we really surprised that a person of such low “moral caliber” would falsify records to ensure that a law he favored would pass, directly subverting the democratic process? I’m not.

There is some controversy about the vote, the full transcript of which can be found here.

 Go to Andrew’s blog and read the whole thing. Even more importantly, follow his links.

Update: There was some confusion about the second vote and I’ve updated the quote from Vuurwapen Blog to reflect that. Also see the second comment below for more of an explanation.