Oh Please God Let Tonight Be The End Of BitterGate
April 16, 2008 at 1:10 pm | In Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, WH '08 | 3 CommentsTags: elitists, gays, God, guns
I was tuning out campaign news this week until yesterday, when my friend Irene, aka GyroBear, pointed out how insanely stupid the “bitter” flap is. She is right. It is so stupid I might not come back from The Europes, which is where I’ll be starting next week.
First of all, Barack Obama was right about a lot of economically disadvantaged Americans being bitter. Recessions make people hella bitter, even if they are gainfully employed. Polls show that Americans have been giving the U.S. economy a big thumbs-down since well before the downturn, when things were still rah-rah-rah on Wall Street. How come? Because they haven’t been feeling it. Incomes haven’t kept pace with inflation, so lots of middle-class Americans feel more fiscally trapped than ever. This country’s credit addiction, which I increasingly view as a social/cultural phenomenon, only makes matters worse.
Secondly, for Hillary Clinton to pounce on the “bitter” comment with such aplomb was almost laughable. Her campaign has often been the very definition of bitter. Geraldine Ferraro much? Continue reading Oh Please God Let Tonight Be The End Of BitterGate…
I Went To The D.C. Gun Show!
April 15, 2008 at 6:01 pm | In Main Blog | 4 CommentsTags: George Allen, guns, Virginia
Like most effete Northeasterners, guns scare the crap out of me. I have always wanted to go to a shooting range, though, and the prospect of going to the National Gun Show on Saturday was too good to pass up.
Virginia, as we all know from former Sen. George Allen, is the real world. Indeedy it is. I should preface all this by saying I’m pretty neutral on Second Amendment issues, though I do believe the Supreme Court’s expected decision overturning D.C.’s outdated possession laws is constitutionally the right one. And while I am sympathetic with big-city mayors like Adrien Fenty and Michael Bloomberg in their fight for stricter gun controls, I am more sympathetic toward the gun lobby’s argument that the problem isn’t weapons, it’s the people who use them. That sounds simplistic to the point of childish, but unless government figures out a way to disarm the gangs of, say, Columbia Heights, I don’t see why nonviolent citizens shouldn’t be allowed to own guns for their protection.
Of course, there should be limits there, too. Like, someone please explain to me why any civilian needs a weapon like this:
Seriously, what is that? And why does anyone who isn’t in the military need it???
Lots more pictures after the jump. Continue reading I Went To The D.C. Gun Show!…
Get Your Guns Ready, D.C.
March 17, 2008 at 5:02 pm | In SCOTUS | Leave a CommentTags: D.C. vs. Heller, guns, Linda Greenhouse, Supreme Court
The D.C. government, Supreme Court scholars, the gang bangers of Columbia Heights and I are counting down the hours until tomorrow’s oral arguments in D.C. vs. Heller, the Second Amendment case that we all hope settles some long-outstanding issues.
In a neat coincidence, HBO’s “John Adams” miniseries launched last night. It features those Founding Fathers of ours, the ones who gave us this confusing language:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
If all goes well, the Supremes will get that individual vs. collective rights confusion sorted out. The District and its fellow gun control advocates may be worrying that their case, which involves probably the strictest regulation on handguns in the land, may be a risky one to put before the court. D.C.’s law includes regulations on how guns are stored in private homes. That’s not likely to sit well with the majority conservative-moderate bloc on the court, and could open the door to establishing an individual right to ammo up. Continue reading Get Your Guns Ready, D.C….
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