The Polite Society Podcast

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Cracks In The Appearance Of Unanimity

April 30, 2019 by 2 Comments

Lt. Col. Allen West, USA (Ret), former Congressman from Florida and a NRA Board Member, put out this tweet a little over an hour ago. Mind you that the release put out by the American Rifleman and elsewhere was that the Board unanimously elected the new officers, reelected Wayne LaPierre as EVP, and re-appointed the rest of the Executive Team.

Hmmm. Unanimous you say?

 We recorded a special episode of The Polite Society Podcast tonight to discuss the NRA Annual Meeting, the Board Meeting, and the Meeting of the Members on Saturday. Our guest was Jeff Knox of The Firearm Coalition. One thing that Jeff brought up was that he wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the celebs on the board bailing upon the advice of their attorneys. Given the strictness of NY law and the mandate that directors actually direct, I’m just glad to be a peon and not a board member.

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Polite Society Podcast Patches

April 24, 2017 by

Many of you remember the legal travails that Paul Lathrop of the Polite Society Podcast went through last year. To refresh your memories, a hothead at a truck stop falsely accused Paul of waving a gun in his face and threatening to shoot him. This led to his arrest for “terroristic threats” and “possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony”. The good news is all charges were dropped as surveillance video confirmed Paul’s account of the incident. The bad news is that he still has some debts left over from the incident.

To help retire these debts, I have had Polite Society Podcast patches made. These patches are 100% silk thread embroidered with a Velcro backing. It measures 2.5″ square. As you can see below, the patch company did a great job with our logo.

The price for these patches is $10 for one or $18 for two including postage. I have set up a special PayPal account to handle the sales of these patches. Payments can be sent via PayPal to john@politicsandguns.com. I’m not going to ask you to send the money as a “gift” but I won’t stop you if you do as PayPal charges a transaction fee for payment for “goods”.

If you don’t wish to use PayPal, just pop me an email there and I’ll send you an address to mail a check.

I will have some of these patches with me at the NRA Annual Meeting if you happen to run into me there.

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The Most Wonderful News

August 23, 2016 by 5 Comments

I got the most wonderful news yesterday. Paul Lathrop, host and producer of The Polite Society Podcast, called to tell me that the Sarpy County (Nebraska) prosecutors were dropping all charges against him.

Paul and his wife Susan have their lives back again!

Paul had been charged with making “terroristic threats” and with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. These charges stemmed from an accusation by another driver at a truck stop in Sarpy County. That truck driver took exception to how close Paul’s student came to his truck at the diesel pumps. He then tried to enter the cab to assault Paul and the student and was told to back off by both the student and Paul. Later, this hothead called the sheriff’s department and accused Paul of threatening to shoot him which led to Paul being stopped on the highway and arrested.

You can read more about the incident here.

Paul will now be free to tell about his whole ordeal. The next episode of the Polite Society Podcast will feature it.

I’m just glad to get my friend back from under that dark cloud that had been hanging over him.

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2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference

September 19, 2015 by 2 Comments

The 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference opens next weekend, September 25-27, in Phoenx. The free event is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and has been for the past 30 years. You can still register to attend and I believe that they do allow in person registrations on Friday night and Saturday morning. The event is being held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel.

My colleagues and I on the Polite Society Podcast will be livestreaming the event. We will also feature interviews with some of the presenters during conference breaks. You can watch the livestream either on our webpage or on our YouTube channel.

C-Span will be broadcasting the Sunday portion of the conference. I’m not sure which C-Span channel it will be on but I’m sure you can find it if you check their website later in the coming week.

The final agenda has been published and I have uploaded it to Google. A number of state level organizations will be participating including Grass Roots North Carolina, Georgia Carry, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the Illinois State Rifle Association, Florida Carry, and many more. Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed will be speaking on Saturday about the impact of 3-D printing on the future of gun control. This is just a taste of what is being presented at GRPC.

If you check the agenda for Sunday morning, there is a panel on Using Media to Advance Gun Rights. It will feature people like Dave Workman of Gun Week, Charles Heller of Liberty Watch Radio, and someone else whose work you may have read a time or two.

If you can’t be there in person, I would encourage you to partake of our livestreaming of the event. It was a grassroots effort to put it together. I would thank the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, Ammoland.com, and those who contributed to our GoFundMe campaign for their monetary support in making this a reality.

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A Little Help, Please

August 10, 2015 by

As many of you know, I’m also a co-host of The Polite Society Podcast. We have a project that needs your help. We, in conjunction with the New Jersey Second Amendment Society and Ammoland.com, are going to live stream the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference.

This is the annual event held by the Second Amendment Foundation which brings together speakers from around the country to discuss all aspects related to the advancement of Second Amendment rights. The event is free to attend.

However, you still have to get there. Last year, many people who would have attended couldn’t get there because a suicidal FAA employee disrupted air traffic around the country by cutting cables in a major radar facility outside Chicago. I know I got caught in that mess and couldn’t get to Chicago even after I drove to another airport.

Then there is the cost of getting to the conference. If you live in Phoenix, then you don’t have worry about it. In my case, I’m having to fly so have airfare and hotel expenses.

By live streaming the conference, we are bringing the conference to you in the comfort of your home. For free. No suicidal FAA employees disrupting your travel plans. No TSA “pat-downs” to raise your blood pressure.

As I said above, we need your help to bring it off. We have a budget of $1,250 to purchase the requisite equipment and cables. We have a GoFundMe page set up for donations. As of today, we have raised $975 of that total. That leaves another $275 that we need before the mid part of September.

If 55 people were to donate $5 each or about half the cost of a movie ticket, we’d hit our goal. If 35 people were to donate $8 each or about the cost of a six-pack of craft beer, we’d beat our goal by $5. You get the idea.

Again, the link to the GoFundMe page is here. Please donate what you can. Frankly, I’d rather see a lot of smaller donations than one or two big donations because that would more accurately reflect the grassroots that make up the gun rights movement.