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“Adam Winkler Asks If ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ Killed Gun Control”

And the answer to Winkler’s question — a question I assume is being offered as misdirection — is, of course not:

Feinstein’s S.150 is not dead. Lacking votes to ram it through Congress, Harry “the gun owners friend” Reid has placed it on the fast track for passage by placing it on list of bills to be enacted by attaching it to a “must pass” bill. This is precisely the same path that Feinstein’s 1994 bill took. And Feinstein’s feigned upset not withstanding, this appears to have been the intent of Reid, Schumer, and the Senate Democrats.

In the meantime, Leahy’s “Universal Background Check” bill is not only alive, the chances of this abomination’s passage grow every day. Remember, “universal background checks” were the path to total control used by the Fascists, the Bolsheviks, and in fact most dictatorships since the 1870?s. Banned guns can be hidden to be recovered in case of need, as the millions of hidden guns in France demonstrate, but registered guns cannot.

Of the other two bills purportedly still alive, Boxers bill would appropriate $100 million to make a show of making schools safer. It is grossly inadequate to provide armed guards for schools, and it does not arm teachers. So Boxers bill is a sham.

As is Leahy’s bill “cracking down on gun traffickers.” That might work if it stood some of the prosecutors who refuse to prosecute gun thieves and street corner underworld armorers in front of a firing squad. But piling Pelion upon Ossa at the Federal level is another show. A show that essentially protects the status quo.

Something in this case we do not want to do. Not with the memory of the 60 day jail terms for the two Cartel mules who were caught hauling 137 fully automatic AK-47?s to Chicago so fresh. Can you imagine what would happen to an otherwise law-abiding citizen found with an unregistered AK? They would dig a new sub-basement at SuperMax for him.

So the Reid-Leahy drive is to pass “universal background checks.” Something that, if enacted, would only affect a fraction of a percent of potential crime guns. But something, if enacted, would set the stage for universal gun confiscation.

It’s time to start calling our Senators and Representatives again. Universal background checks must not pass. And DiFi’s gun ban must not be added as an amendment. Not now, not ever, to keep our country free.

This is the end game.  And the GOP “moderates” or “pragmatists” who continue to sneer at your paranoia — and who are willing to set the stage for the deconstruction of your 2nd Amendment rights by allowing for holes to bored in its foundation by a ruling class that gains power as its subjects are disarmed, all so they can position themselves politically as “against the slaughter of grade school children” — are your literal enemies.

They presume to surrender your natural rights on the flimsy grounds that you elected them, and that they need to make concessions on policy in order to be re-elected.   So that they can represent you in ways that you don’t wish to be represented in order to get re-elected as your representatives.

And if you don’t support them, they’ll tell you, you may as well be voting for their Democrat opponent.

Sorry, but no.  Time to tell them to do as you desire or fuck right off.  Any Republican who votes for “common-sense” gun control needs to be replaced by conservatives or classical liberals or libertarians who not only won’t vote to weaken your rights, but who will articulate why and how these “common-sense” proposals are really far more pernicious than they appear on the surface, setting the stage for tighter government monitoring of private citizens and an erosion of both individual autonomy and natural rights.

We should not be afraid of expressing our principles forcefully and without embarrassment or apology.  In fact, we should be selling those principles as the bulwark against tyranny, and using history — including the history of our own founding — as experiential lessons for the American people.

Compromising to show that you’re willing to compromise is placing form over substance.  This may make people like Rick Moran or Colin Powell feel shiny and professional and self-satisfied, but as a rule, it’s utterly moronic — and it is the reason why the country itself, having been run pragmatically by those whose fidelity is to politics, not policy, has been so weakened by a corrupted language and the media propagandists who exploit it:  everything in national politics has become about positioning and posturing and  optics — about perception — and this postmodernist turn naturally favors those most willing to manufacture consent or map false narratives atop reality, those who reject the world as it is and counsel us to create the world as it should be, with “should” tied directly to their own ideological ends.

It is a cynical rejection of the Enlightenment designed entirely to give back to men the power taken from them by the concept of natural rights.  And moderate GOP pragmatists angling for temporary political points are complicit in the destruction of this country’s very foundation.

Think I’m overstating things?  Fine.  But you’re wrong.  And though you’ll sneer and wave your hands dismissively, it really is that simple.

 

 

 

 

134 Replies to ““Adam Winkler Asks If ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ Killed Gun Control””

  1. geoffb says:

    Another piece along a similar line.

    The goals of the left have always been shrouded in deception and misrepresentation. Hide your true agenda behind a deceitful argument and then, after grabbing power, do what you really meant to do all along. … By controlling the terms of the discussion, the left controls the argument. Actual Assault Rifles are not sold to the general public. The left invented the term “assault-style rifles” and the next thing you know assault-style rifles become assault rifles.
    […]

    [O]ne of the left’s favorite misnomers is the term “gun-show loophole.” Loopholes, of course, are a way of skirting the law. They must be bad. Any chance to demonize firearms, like connecting the term “gun shows” with questionably legal practices like loopholes, is a win/win for the liberal media. The real goal behind closing the gun show loophole is actually to confiscate your personal property.
    […]
    The worst part of UBC will be the check on the seller (that’s you and me). In the interest of getting illegal guns off the street, the left will want to throw in this little addition to the universal background check scheme: the seller must prove that they legally own the gun they are seeking to sell. … All the government needs to do is write the law so the seller must provide proof of ownership (original bill of sale, in your name) and we are all in trouble. By this UBC law, the .22 my parents gave me 32 years ago is now an ILLEGAL GUN. What about the Mauser your grandfather brought back from Germany after WWII? Without a bill of sale, in YOUR name, that is an illegal gun.

  2. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I expect the Progressives’ war on guns to be as successful as their war on alcohol.

  3. cranky-d says:

    The war on alcohol resulted in a lot of deaths. I expect the same here.

  4. It’s been pretty successful in California. We’ve found ways around some things always careful to stay within the letter of the law but it’s tiresome. Another thing that is tiresome is constantly writing emails to my representatives begging them to “protect” my rights.

  5. Ernst Schreiber says:

    If it’s been so successful, Reno, why does Joe Biden say the cops are tired of being outgunned?

    He asked caustically.

  6. geoffb says:

    “This is the third day I’ve taken off of work to come here to, like so many of the rest of us, to plead with you for us to keep our guns because of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut,” he said. “If that isn’t inherently wrong, I don’t know what is. That these bills are even in proposed form is scary enough. That any of you could possibly be undecided is scary enough. What are you looking at?”

  7. Ernst Schreiber says:

    “This is the third day I’ve taken off of work to come here to, like so many of the rest of us, to plead with you for us to keep our guns because of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut,”

    Part of the problem is that the statists are so accustomed to us asking politely that they really can’t fathom the notion that a point may come when we’ll demand rudely.

    That we’re so accustomed to being polite that we’re reluctant to act rude is another part of the problem.

  8. “If it’s been so successful, Reno, why does Joe Biden say the cops are tired of being outgunned?”

    Oh you were talking successful in terms of actual public safety right?. Well then yes, gun control in California has been an utter failure here in California too.

  9. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Let’s just say that it’s a textbook example of the inability to make immoral persons moral by legislative fiat.

  10. geoffb says:

    Let’s get the full Biden. From his NPR interview.

    Melissa Block: ” Gun owners will say that all of these lines are arbitrary? Why 10 rounds? Why not seven?” . . .

    Biden: Sure they are arbitrary. Why age 18 to vote? Because society has concluded that the capacity to keep yourself from doing damage and or allowing other to do damage – you don’t let 9 year old drive – well that is arbitrary. There’s some 9 year olds might be able to drive better then some 16 year olds. Limiting it to 10 rounds makes a difference in how many shots you can let off before someone can intervene.

    Block: If you look at the numbers the vast majority of deaths in this country are not from assault weapons, they are from handguns. Are you really fixing the main problem?

    Biden: No, you are not fixing the problem. That is like saying, does it make any sense to ban cigarette smoking while you still have global warming going on? C’mon. Does that fix the environmental problem? No. But it saves some people’s lives. Do you say the fact that we took lead out of gasoline? Does that solve the problem? No. It doesn’t. We still have too many emissions going into the air. But it helps. I find that a bizarre argument; if it doesn’t solve the whole problem but, guess what? The fact is that it does impact. The people I go to, to look to, when we talk about assault weapons and magazines; talk to the police officers. They are tired of being outgunned. They are tired of being outgunned.

    Do you see the little trick? First it’s autos and guns are not the same thing because gun ownership and bearing is a constitutionally protected right. Then the switch. Pollution, guns, bad things we must do something about.

  11. sdferr says:

    Isn’t it kind of mean to call a careless, almost helpless incoherence a little trick though geoffb? That is, sure Biden has a short-term electoral political object in mind, but expecting him to be capable of actually thinking his way through a sensible political hierarchy of needs is stretching his faculties far beyond their reach, and hence, as I suggest, a bit unfair. It would be similar to expecting a child of 7, say, or 10, beginning study of the violin with the Suzuki method to be capable, after a couple of weeks of study, to play with the facility of a Pinchas Zuckerman or the like.

  12. geoffb says:

    My belief is that all the Biden incoherence is scripted out for him. He is the guy who initially floats the coming new position to see how it fairs and what arguments will be marshaled against the coming policy. His blatteringness is a feature that allows them to back away from things he says that get blasted in order to prepare better.

    Biden is the recon probe here just as he was on gay marriage. Nothing gun control is off the table, just somethings will be back burnered till the time is ripe to force them through. Some may have to await a new horrific shooting so they can have some fresh blood to put on the bloody flag. For now they will trot out the old blood while waiting for the fresh spurts.

  13. daveinsocal says:

    Just as with the erroneous and misleading label “assault weapons”, we need to stop letting them use the term “universal background checks” by reiterating that we already have background checks in place and that what is actually being proposed is “universal gun registration and oversight”. Which is neither “common-sense” nor “reasonable”, and will do nothing to reduce “gun violence”.

  14. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I was thinking something similiar geoff. Nobody’s quite that stupid.

    Stupid small minded and vicious as he is, nonetheless.

  15. geoffb says:

    DHS Fast and Furious OIG report fed to Los Angeles Times, not to public.

    There is nothing about this report on the DHS “Press releases” page; nor on the DHS blog; nor does anything appear in the DHS/OIG press release page; there is nothing about it on their Border Security page; and importantly, it is not yet linked to on the OIG Reports: Fiscal Year 2013 page. Of equal concern is the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “Releases” page, which shows no awareness of the DHS OIG report, let alone any responsive activity scheduled to question it.

  16. DarthLevin says:

    Waay OT: Just something to remind us of our former troll Bill Yelverton, the cat serenader

  17. leigh says:

    Geoff, I’ve noticed art of the rhetoric seems to be along the lines of the War on Drugs: Smoking marijuana is equivalent to mainlining heroin. Similarly, having a shotgun/rifle/BB pistol will eventually lead to one going loco and blasting up a Kindergarten class with an AK-47.

    It’s crazy talk. Both ’em.

  18. leigh says:

    art = part

  19. So…

    Gun control = Jason Voorhees

    Or, more accurately…

    Leftism or Progresivism = Jason Voorhees

    Blast it with a bazooka, put a stake in its heart, dismember it and send the body parts to the four corners of the globe, burn it, encase the ashes in concrete and drom the works into the Challenger Deep. And it will still come back.

  20. “drom” = “drop”

  21. leigh says:

    Glad I’m not the only one with fumble fingers today.

  22. Silver Whistle says:

    The guns targeted by Feinstein’s proposal were mainly semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines and one or more military-style characteristics, like a pistol grip or a folding butt stock.

    What is this obsession with folding stocks? 99% of AR15s do not have folding stocks, nor do the real assault rifle M4s. One day, a ‘journalist’ will write a piece on firearms that displays a knowledge of the subject.

  23. Ernst Schreiber says:

    What is this obsession with folding stocks?

    Don’t you know? It was the folding stocks on their Mini-14s that enabled the A-Team to flip and roll all those fireball enveloped cars and trucks without killing anybody. Imagine what might had happened had they not been trained professionals.

    Clearly such deadly smart-weapons cannot be left unregulated.

  24. Silver Whistle says:

    I keep checking Brownells, Ernst, but they never have select fire switches for Mini 14s in stock.

  25. Ernst Schreiber says:

    They A-Team made theirs from paper clips and rubber bands, I think.

  26. SBP says:

    “What is this obsession with folding stocks?”

    I guess you could argue that it makes the weapon more concealable.

    The one that always gets me is the bayonet lug.

  27. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Wait ’til they discover Picatinney and Weaver rails, and decide to limit you to one rail, no more than five inches in length, that may only be mounted above the reciever.

  28. cranky-d says:

    Quit giving them ideas.

  29. beemoe says:

    Does anybody have any idea what exactly any of these proposed background check bills actually say? I can find a lot of info on the partisan jockeying going on trying to pass them, but not a damn thing on the actual contents.

    It would be so nice to have a real news media.

  30. sdferr says:

    Or prior to a real new media, a representative government.

  31. newrouter says:

    “we have to pass the bill in order to read it” still rules ax orangeman

  32. newrouter says:

    levin – “obamacare left wing coup they’ve always wanted”

  33. geoffb says:

    beemoe, pdf of the bill on background checks is here. Two places posting on the bill, here, here.

  34. sdferr says:

    . . . a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them . . .

    The Progressives don’t even have this much respect toward their subjects, that they would come forward to honestly proclaim (to declare) what it is they are up to as they usurp the foundation of this nation. It’s a reasonably simple proposition, really: you people don’t count in their designs, save as a piggy-bank from which to steal, and as a collective body of chumps to be manipulated.

  35. beemoe says:

    The only bill I can find Leahy backing is one making straw purchases illegal, in other words, it is illegal to sell a gun to someone you know isn’t allowed to own one, which seems fairly obvious.

    The Schumer abortion is so fucking absurd it is depressing to even think this is where we are right now.

  36. palaeomerus says:

    NR Reince thinks that he is sucking our cocks with that line.

    The GOP used to sneer at Huckabee as a fat dishonest Christer and cursed his daring to stand in Romney and later McCain’s way to the Inevitability throne back in 2008 and giving those icky so-cons a voice.

    He thinks this is patting the angry krazy jesus-buddy stupid wing of the party on their pin heads.

  37. beemoe says:

    I listen to Huckabee’s radio show every now and again and he really isn’t that bad of a dude. Wouldn’t vote for him for President, but he is interesting to listen to.

  38. newrouter says:

    more “coup” talk from levin

  39. newrouter says:

    hucksters a good talk show peep but as a politician he’s up there with tomridge and arlenspecter and other statist rinos

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The latter day William Jennings Bryan is a model Republican? Great.

  41. geoffb says:

    Reid will use the background check bill produced by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a starter. That bill, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), includes a provision that requires records to be kept of all gun sales in the nation.

  42. geoffb says:

    Schumer’s bill was originally just a shell. He then had what was in the pdf done as an amendment which replaced everything and renamed the bill. It got voted out of the Judiciary committee on a 10-8 Party line vote.

  43. beemoe says:

    Schumers bill is insane. What else is new, huh?

  44. geoffb says:

    Harry Reid: “I Will Ensure That A Ban On Assault Weapons, High Capacity Magazines, And Mental Health Provisions Recieve Votes”

  45. newrouter says:

    rand filibuster time?

  46. sdferr says:

    John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government: Chapter XVII, Of Usurpation; Chapter XVIII, Of Tyranny; Chapter XIX, Of the Dissolution of Government

  47. sdferr says:

    FGCU is our local NCAA franchise, and lookie there what they do to those poor D.C. kids. That’s not right. But it’s fun.

  48. steph says:

    shall not be abriged

    apple blossom time has naught to do with this right

  49. geoffb says:

    The basis for limiting magazines to 10 rounds is said that during the reload you could either rush the shooter or run away. Well can you?

  50. geoffb says:

    Cuomo, I am above the law and the constitution of New York.

  51. serr8d says:

    It’s that ‘our’ ‘duly elected’ Government is now Skynet. It exists in spite of, not because of, our desires, our founding documents.

    And it has acquired millions of bullets.

  52. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Priebus: Huckabee a ‘Model’ for GOP

    Honestly, I think I’m more annoyed with Bryan Preston than I am with Reince Priebus.

  53. beemoe says:

    The basis for limiting magazines to 10 rounds is said that during the reload you could either rush the shooter or run away. Well can you?

    The problem with those arguments is that it also supports the “why do you need high capacity magazines?” position also. Which, honestly, given the apparent increased likelihood of a problem I personally agree with, I just don’t want the fucking government telling me I can’t.

  54. beemoe says:

    I also think I need more coffee also.

  55. newrouter says:

    good allan todd aiken looms large in the mind of the “purists”

  56. newrouter says:

    “why do you need high capacity magazines a late term abortion?”

  57. newrouter says:

    “why do you need high capacity magazines a dhs with a billion rounds of ammo?”

  58. SBP says:

    I like to say that it’s called the “Bill of Rights”, not the “Bill of Needs”. (not original with me, but can’t remember where I first heard it).

    I think they’re confusing the BoR with the Communist Manifesto. That talks about “needs”, as I recall.

  59. Blake says:

    Here is a test conducted by a Sheriff. The idea is to see if it is possible to successfully rush an attacker when the attacker stops to reload.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Upjn5DR0o

    Test was conducted by Ken Campbell, Sheriff, Boone County, IN.

    Shorter version here: http://youtu.be/b2Upjn5DR0o?t=9m34s

  60. […] “Adam Winkler Asks If ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ Killed Gun Control” | protein wisdom […]

  61. Silver Whistle says:

    Chicago thug still has hard on for tyranny.

  62. sdferr says:

    Indeed Silver Whistle, for “finishing the job” is nearly never-ending, since the Fox knows so very many things.

  63. Silver Whistle says:

    So much liberty, so little time to root it out.

  64. sdferr says:

    Seth Mandel: Why Biden Won’t Fold on the Gun Ban

    *** I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. ***

    Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, XI.

  65. Silver Whistle says:

    This is hilarious. It just asks you to believe Joe Biden is a Jedi master.

  66. cranky-d says:

    Universal background check is still alive. If passed, legislation for registration will follow.

  67. geoffb says:

    Two things about the “assault weapon” ban. What happens will depend on just what it is attached to as an amendment and if it can be attached to anything.

    It is the magicians waving hand which the red[ish] state Dems will likely vote against to show they are for the 2nd.

    The magicians hand that is going to be kept hidden by the media is the Universal Background Check aka Chucky Schumer’s wet dream act. Votes on that one will be portrayed very differently than on the Feinstein Folly.

  68. SGTTed says:

    You know, when you were first getting on the ruling class wing of the GOP, I thought that it was just a bit of paranoid Hickenlooper, but I’ve come around to your way of thinking. This is the Ruling Class showing their colors, and they are only concerned with aquiring and wielding power and using their positions to enrich themselves and their cronys.

    We are in some deep Hickenlooper.

  69. beemoe says:

    That Schumer background check bill is pure, unadulterated Hickenlooper.

    If that thing passes fly over country might just really revolt.

  70. sdferr says:

    revolt

    That’s a word which just might catch on.

  71. newrouter says:

    be prepared – hickenlooper happens

  72. geoffb says:

    Some good news.

    [T]he U.S. Senate voted on and passed an amendment to the budget bill that would keep the U.S. from signing onto the UN arms trade treaty.
    […]
    A Democrat also offered an amendment that clarifies that the U.S. constitution trumps all treaties, which was passed as well.

    And Bloomberg gets ready to drop 12 million to attempt to eliminate gun ownership by the little people.

  73. geoffb says:

    Bloomberg seems to be going for an early Dolly Parton but not quite getting the Joshua look down.

  74. smmtheory says:

    you know why the UN treaty didn’t fly don’t you? it’s because at least half the tyrants don’t want to share power with the outside world.

  75. epador says:

    Barak has not yet begun to strip your Right to Bear Arms.

    Check out the SPAM the White House just sent me.

    http://epador.me

    Our hard earned tax dollars continue to be used against us.

  76. geoffb says:

    Lies,

    Today there is still genuine disagreement among well-meaning people about what steps we should take to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in this country. But you — the American people — have spoken. You’ve made it clear that it’s time to do something. And over the last few weeks, Senators here in Washington have listened and taken some big steps forward.

    Damn lies,

    “When the universal background checks don’t work, then registration will be proposed to enforce them,” said Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, last week. “And when that doesn’t work, because criminals won’t register their guns, we may be looking at confiscation.”

    This dangerous fiction may appeal to the most extreme gun owners, but a large majority of the public has rejected it. The Senate should do the same.

    This is part of a continuing series on the epidemic of gun violence and possible solutions.

    Now if they could just get those damn statistics to play along nicely.

  77. geoffb says:

    More damn statistics.

  78. Silver Whistle says:

    From geoff’s Duranty Times link:

    Sales between private individuals, about 40 percent of all gun sales, are not subject to these rules.

    Again and again, the lying liars lie.

    Won’t you think of the children?

  79. sdferr says:

    It’s peculiar how saving children from guns is on the one hand an absolute priority, and on the other hand conceded (in their more honest moments) to be an impossibility, yet saving children from a teaching (by performance) recommending lies is no priority at all, yet a much simpler example to set — albeit possibly not accomplish — if only by refraining from public political lies.

  80. geoffb says:

    The same people, who will demand an anal exam rigorous background check to buy a firearm, demand that there be no ID checks on voting, same day, same minute really, registration and voting, no controls on who crosses the borders, no asking for proof of citizenship for anything except on form 4473 when buying a firearm. That is one place they approve of that question being asked.

  81. beemoe says:

    I have brought that same point up to several of my lefty friends. To a one they all respond with the same argument, that a vote has never killed or harmed anyone.

    I just shake my head and change the subject, you can’t fix stupid, after all.

  82. sdferr says:

    Be thee on notice, world (you too, infidels), Pervizzy is in the hizzy.

  83. SBP says:

    “that a vote has never killed or harmed anyone.”

    Ask ’em about HJR 114, “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002”, and point out that Clinton, Feinstein, Kerry, Reid, et al all voted Yea.

    That should be good for some sputtering.

  84. SBP says:

    It’s also fun to ask why, if “Bush liiiiiiiiiiiied”, that Clinton didn’t know that.

  85. Pablo says:

    Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell

    Huxley was more right. We’ve done ourselves in.

  86. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Huxley was more right. We’ve done ourselves in.

    Only because we’ve become a frivilous people living in frivilous times. Let’s wait until we run out of other people’s money to see what happens.

  87. Silver Whistle says:

    Anyone else a closet Marxist?

  88. sdferr says:

    Nope, but I could be charged with being a Bach-slider.

  89. Jeff G. says:

    Love me the Marx Bros. And the Stooges. And Our Gang. And the Bowery Boys.

  90. sdferr says:

    Interesting.

  91. sdferr says:

    John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chapter XIX, Sec. 220 supra

    *** Sec. 220. In these and the like cases, when the government is dissolved, the people are at liberty to provide for themselves, by erecting a new legislative, differing from the other, by the change of persons, or form, or both, as they shall find it most for their safety and good: for the society can never, by the fault of another, lose the native and original right it has to preserve itself, which can only be done by a settled legislative, and a fair and impartial execution of the laws made by it. But the state of mankind is not so miserable that they are not capable of using this remedy, till it be too late to look for any. To tell people they may provide for themselves, by erecting a new legislative, when by oppression, artifice, or being delivered over to a foreign power, their old one is gone, is only to tell them, they may expect relief when it is too late, and the evil is past cure. This is in effect no more than to bid them first be slaves, and then to take care of their liberty; and when their chains are on, tell them, they may act like freemen. This, if barely so, is rather mockery than relief; and men can never be secure from tyranny, if there be no means to escape it till they are perfectly under it: and therefore it is, that they have not only a right to get out of it, but to prevent it.

    Sec. 221. There is therefore, secondly, another way whereby governments are dissolved, and that is, when the legislative, or the prince, either of them, act contrary to their trust. First, The legislative acts against the trust reposed in them, when they endeavour to invade the property of the subject, and to make themselves, or any part of the community, masters, or arbitrary disposers of the lives, liberties, or fortunes of the people.***

    Please, do read on.

  92. sdferr says:

    Mike Bloomberg: “I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom”

    Well yes, you would, Mike.

    And likewise in response, you can surely understand that there are times, albeit very long in coming times, when we believe we should pound the likes of you into the ground as we would a tent peg.

  93. Silver Whistle says:

    Mr. Bloomberg said. “They all support the Second Amendment, as I do. There are an awful lot of people that think that this is one of the great issues of our times. We have to stop the carnage.’’

    Liar.

    And likewise in response, you can surely understand that there are times, albeit very long in coming times, when we believe we should pound the likes of you into the ground as we would a tent peg.

    Agreed, sdferr. Sometimes tar and feathers are a waste of good money.

  94. Ernst Schreiber says:

    This is why I’d rather talk about liberty than freedom. Is the man with a sugar addiction truly free?

    I dunno Mikey, but as long as he doesn’t have to start mugging old people to feed his addiction, or neglect or abuse his kids, what the hell business is it of yours?

  95. sdferr says:

    Sometimes tar and feathers are a waste of good money.

    Plus which, SW, the prominent conical pointy end Bloomberg displays is so suggestive.

  96. RI Red says:

    “sdferr says March 24, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    Interesting.”

    Sehr interessant, mein Freund.

  97. sdferr says:

    Yes, and I still think so, RI Red. Yet, while Mr. Garrison invites criticism (which is good), his article is greatly in need of it (which is bad). While he has got hold of something genuine (and that a recognition I believe we see in ourselves, a recognition which seems to me to be spontaneously springing up all around us), his reach exceeds his grasp.

    Futhermore, his felt urgency, expressed largely toward the end of his article in such terms as “this is a frightening place to be”, “apathetic no more” and “we must do something” should naturally lead him to think all the harder, to probe himself and his thesis — which I believe goes directly to the full meaning of political order, i.e. the proper ends of politics — all the more thoroughly, to widen his horizon, rather than to narrow it — yet narrow it he does, restricting his vision to the Constitution, which I believe to be insufficient to the times — as I believe the times point in the direction of the Declaration as distinct from the direction of the Constitution.

    My sense, however, is that while we realize we are in process of revolt (of mind and spirit thus far, if not yet of action in the halls of power), we also realize we are few, and somehow early on the scene, surrounded by others who may be brought to look upon the whole as we do, but who do not yet grasp this spirit of revolt. They want persuasion. And it is to the solution of this problem I believe we must begin to apply ourselves. There, of course, Garrison is on point, as he sees the need to articulate the depredations brought upon us by the usurpers, the tyrants who would bury our political order, and with that order, the nation as such.

  98. geoffb says:

    After July 1st, 2013 we will see the new Gun Control laws being abused by the powers that be. People that did not pay attention to the process before will be amazed that the simple fact of loaning a small metal box sent somebody to prison, a life destroyed and wonder how that happened and why weren’t them informed. They wonder why such unreasonable law was even considered in their legislature, much less approved. And they will also found out that an interloper from the East Coast was behind the whole thing buying their elected “legislators” with cold harsh cash for their re-election coffers carpetbagging the state with the influence of somebody who cannot control his own city.

    Colorado was just the 1st course for “The Interloper”. His main course and dessert are yet to be served up by him bought and paid for minions.

    “I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities, to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other,” Bloomberg (I) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If I can do that by spending some money and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices, so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money would be well spent and I think I have an obligation to do that.”

  99. geoffb says:

    “his” not “him”

  100. RI Red says:

    Well put, sdferr. I think what we see here is a growing undercurrent of “We have to do something!” And many of those feeling that want are not well-schooled in the minutiae (albeit critical components) of political philosophy (there’s that word again). I rather suspect that they use “The Constitution” as an amalgam or condensation of their thoughts on the reattainment of liberty. Not everyone needs to have an in-depth understanding of the Founding to agree with the sentiments of a Re-Founding.
    An “articulation of depredations” could indeed be another name for the Declaration. Or maybe the name of my next rock band. Either way, it should be a condition precedent, a gathering of encroachments and presentation thereof to the governing bodies, before the taking of action. It would also serve as a persuasive device for those who are not yet as advanced down the path of this thinking.
    The mere fact that an article like his is no longer relegated to the back allies of the Internet shows that many are at least thinking about the path. To what end? We shall see.

  101. sdferr says:

    To what end?

    Partly in jest, but equally seriously, to bring the likes of Roger Ailes to understand what we understand, and to cause him to yield his infinitely valuable air-time to the serious discussion of the nut of the problem. Which, at present, he never does.

  102. Ernst Schreiber says:

    “I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities, to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other,”

    The only people made safer by gun control are the predators and would-be predators hiding in our midst –less chance they’ll be victimized by their intended victims.

  103. Ernst Schreiber says:

    html is not my friend today

  104. palaeomerus says:

    “Pablo says March 24, 2013 at 1:32 pm
    Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell
    Huxley was more right. We’ve done ourselves in.”

    Yeah but it’s expensive to keep Huxley right and unproductive people can’t afford it for long, and there have been plenty of ‘near Air Strip Ones ‘ in history. Some of them are still around in full form thanks to assholes who prop them up in the name of humanitarian compassion. Both Orwell and Huxley were both right. And neither dystopian model leads to a lasting society just a lot of misery and collapse. And then you have Mugabe’s model where instead of promoting a pathological culture you just pull drug addicted thugs in to loot your enemies and sit in the ruins, like fat demonic spider, while people leave, prey on one another, or starve and poverty becomes so widespread that money has no meaning. Just let in the pirates and watch it all burn because it feels fair.

  105. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Both Orwell and Huxley were both right. And neither dystopian model leads to a lasting society just a lot of misery and collapse.

    I see BNW as more of a utopian satire than straight-up dystopian fiction. I got thinking about the linked cartoon again while out and about earlier this evening, and it occured to me that McMillen and Postman overlooked (deliberately?) the key difference between BNW and 1984.

    Mustapha Mond, unlike O’Brien, has the luxury of not having to stomp the proles and the members of the outer party in their faces forever. And that would be because the proles have been reduced by genetic engineering to Epsilon semi-morons, and the outter party Gammas and Betas conditioned to defer to the Inner Party Alphas.

  106. bh says:

    I think I mentioned at some point that the very first version of BNW I owned as a teenager contained his “Revisited” essay wherein he himself mentions 1984.

    This thread me made me look to see if I could find it online and, yep, it’s available.

  107. SBP says:

    “Yeah but it’s expensive to keep Huxley right and unproductive people can’t afford it for long”

    Not to worry. You just put them on Obamacare and “give them the pills”. Dear Leader said so.

    If he gets his way, a lot of people are going to be very surprised at just little need the Worker’s Paradise has for them. They always are.

  108. bh says:

    Another novel, Anna Karenina, comes to mind here, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

    I tend to think the same of -topias. Things can and will go wrong in unique ways based on unique conditions. Huxley and Orwell each describe possibilities. There are an infinite number of others. Hence, the general wisdom of hewing to things that successfully exist as a default inclination.

  109. beemoe says:

    There are very few ways to hit a bullseye and infinite ways to miss it.

    I read that somewhere when I was a kid.

  110. bh says:

    I’ve never heard that one before but that’s a perfect analogy, beemoe.

  111. sdferr says:

    The old old tale (pre-Christian, I guess) regarding this balance problem — Scylla and Charybdis — entails a characteristic tragic view: even the happy family (or ships’ crew) suffers loss traversing the razor’s edge, whereas, goof up in either direction and much more, if not all simply, is lost. There are no unscathed passages to be had.

  112. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I’ve been meaning to read “Brave New World, revisted.” The link is much appreciated, bh.

    I could have done without the cheese curd all over it though.

  113. bh says:

    It was either that or molten, spurting bratwurst fat, Ernst. That shit’ll blind ya.

    Deliciously.

  114. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The hot grease is just an excuse to open another Leinie.

    Or a Schell’s. Depends on which side of the St. Croix you live on.

  115. palaeomerus says:

    “Mustapha Mond, unlike O’Brien, has the luxury of not having to stomp the proles and the members of the outer party in their faces forever. And that would be because the proles have been reduced by genetic engineering to Epsilon semi-morons, and the outter party Gammas and Betas conditioned to defer to the Inner Party Alphas.”

    Sadly the reality is that stupid masses of people are usually harder to control than smart ones. The smart ones will say no. The stupid ones will burn their own farms and blow up their own children and then leave when there is no more food.

    Some angels take a devilish glee in all our mortal misery while other angels softly weep above us as we fall asleep. In our haste to catch our breath we see them not and chase our death.

  116. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Sadly the reality is that stupid masses of people are usually harder to control than smart ones.

    hence, orgy-porgy

    or, the American version, the post-championship game celebratory riot.

    or, the British version, football.

  117. Danger says:

    “It’s also fun to ask why, if “Bush liiiiiiiiiiiied”, that Clinton didn’t know that.”

    Same reason that she didn’t know about the security cables from Benghazi or the location of the Rose law firm billing records.

    How big does the pile of bs have to get to sink this toad’s stool?

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