The Philosophy CANNOT BE WRONG!

Do it again, only HARDER!

Do you remember that thing about how the banks wouldn’t lend to blacks and Hispanics because they were racists? And do you remember how they passed the Community Reinvestment Act so that banks were forced to reduce down payments practically to zero and lend to a lot of people they knew were bad credit risks? And do you remember how Wall Street bundled all these risky subprime mortgages and sold them to investors around the world so that when it became clear that those people weren’t going to be able to pay their mortgages banks everywhere were left holding the bag and all five of the Wall Street investment houses either went under or had to be bailed out by the federal government?

And do you remember how, when it was all over, liberals said it was actually the banks’ fault for “deceiving” all those people into thinking they could afford to buy homes and that the banks should be punished for it and some of those people be allowed to keep their homes anyway? And do you remember how all this cost the government close to a trillion dollars and put the whole economy in a hole that we really haven’t begun to dig ourselves out of yet?

Well, get ready because the whole thing is about to happen again.

h/t var/log/otto, who asks:

How can this be anything but deliberate sabotage of our economy?

I don’t doubt this is accurate. Tar and feathers are too good for them.

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Some assembly required.

Project Valour-IT (Bumped AGAIN)

Project Valour-IT is the charity that the Gun Blogger Rendezvous supports each year, and has since 2007.  It was established by Major (then Captain) Chuck Zeigenfuss and his Soldiers’ Angel after Chuck was severely wounded by an IED in Iraq.  While Chuck, a milblogger, was recovering in the hospital with about two functioning fingers on one hand, he asked his Angel to get him a laptop computer, and blegged for voice-recognition software so that he could get back online and communicate with the outside world.  As he put it,

It was the first time I felt whole since I’d woken up wounded in Landstuhl.

In fact, it made such a difference in his recovery, he thought about all of the other soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines like him and how much it could help them out, so with Soldiers’ Angels he established Project Valour-IT to provide as many as he could with the technology to help them reconnect.

He has spoken several times at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous since he first attended GBR-II in 2007, and he is always inspiring.

As I noted last month, Project Valour is low on money. They are currently conducting a donation drive running through September 3 (just before this year’s Rendezvous) and are trying to raise $100,000. I know times are tough and things are tight, but please pitch in if you can. You can donate to team Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines (the Marines are currently leading).

Since my father and my father-in-law are both Air Force veterans, I’m going to support the flyboys in this one:

Thanks.

BUMPED 7/25. This is just sad. C’mon Air Force, represent!

Junk-on-the-Bunk

From Maryland:

Authorities have arrested a Maryland man they say referred to himself as “a joker” and threatened to carry out a shooting at his workplace, Fox News has learned.

Police arrested 28-year-old Neil Prescott of Crofton, Md., after he allegedly called his employer and threatened to “shoot the place up,” a source close to the investigation told Fox News.

Yeah, copycat.

I liked this detail:

The suspect was also wearing a T-shirt that said, “Guns don’t kill people. I do,” when taken into custody, according to authorities.

I don’t have that one, but I do have one that says “When I SNAP, You’ll Be the First to Go.”

It was a gift. In poor taste.

I like tasteless gifts, though.  I used to have the smileyface with the bullet hole in the forehead.  Wore that one out.
(I have another that states, “Some days it’s just not worth chewing through the restraints.” The TSA bluehands enjoy that one when I’m flying somewhere.)

But this is the part that got my attention – the classic “junk-on-the-bunk” statement:

Police said that when they took the man into custody, they found an “arsenal” (love the scare quotes) of weapons inside his home. The Associated Press reports that a search of the suspect’s home turned up more than 20 guns, including assault rifles and handguns, and more than 400 rounds of ammunition.

Uh, I have more than 20 guns in my safe.

And I’ve got more than 400 rounds of .45 Long Colt alone.

Why do they continue to treat this like it’s unusual?

Oh, right – because FEAR!

Meanwhile in Sarah Brady Paradise

The Bobbys are finally carrying firearms.  Fully automatic firearms:


But what about the CHILDREN?!?!?!


They seem to think it’s pretty cool.

UPDATE:  In comments, “bogbeagle” notes “They’ve been carrying such weapons in England for a decade or more, esp. around major train stations and airports.”  He’s right.  Here’s the first picture I saved to Photobucket years ago:


That’s from 2003, I think.

This Makes (at least) Two

Gun carrying man ends stabbing spree

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith’s store.

Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith’s employee Dorothy Espinoza says, “He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people.”

Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. “There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms.”

Then, before the suspect could find another victim – a citizen with a gun stopped the madness. “A guy pulled gun on him and told him to drop his weapon or he would shoot him. So, he dropped his weapon and the people from Smith’s grabbed him.”

That’s from last April. This has happened before, though. In 2005 at a Tulsa, OK Albuquerque, NM Walmart, 71 year-old Due Moore shot Felix Vigil as he attacked his wife, a Walmart employee, with a knife.

I’m sure there have been many more, but defensive gun use never makes the national news like criminal misuse does.

Back-Door Gun Control

The Hill reports:

Democratic senators have offered an amendment to the cybersecurity bill that would limit the purchase of high capacity gun magazines for some consumers.
Shortly after the Cybersecurity Act gained Senate approval to proceed to filing proposed amendments and a vote next week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a sponsor of the gun control amendment, came to the floor to defend the idea of implementing some “reasonable” gun control measures.

The amendment was sponsored by Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Schumer and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.). S.A. 2575 would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes(sic) and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition.

The usual suspects. 

Call your congresscritters. Stomp on this one HARD.

The Five Stages of Bullshit

From a comment left at Rachel Lucas’ place, The Five Stages of Bullshit:

1. The crocodile tears. This includes the False Moment of National Unity, during which people proclaim that events like this bring us together, even as they sharpen their partisan knives for the next step.

2. The blood libel. With no data, motive is assigned to some conservative group or belief. This proves false 100% of the time, but like a tattoo, the accusation can never be entirely removed.

3. The Rorschach test. Every politician and pundit on earth pens an editorial explaining how this one isolated event has a much broader meaning that proves everything he’s been saying for the last 20 years.

4. Something Must Be Done. A national debate ensues on how to make sure that something like this never happens again. This event was a wake-up call and a game-changer. Everything must be on the table. We must not allow a 200-year-old piece of parchment to prevent us from Acting Right Away.

5. Suzy’s Law. Congress vomits forth a bipartisan bill that no member dare vote against. For precisely that reason, the bill includes a litany of unrelated pork and policy for both parties that could never otherwise pass. In exchange for a few billion dollars and a bit of your liberty, the president, surrounded by beaming legislators, offers a few cloying words about “what this town can do when people put their differences aside” and ostentatiously signs “Suzy’s Law”, a new set of rules that, had they been in place before the tragedy, would have made absolutely no difference.

Though it appears items 1 & 2 reversed this go-around, Jeff Bonwick, take a bow…

UPDATE:  Alternately, (5a): a bill that will probably get passed on its merits gets a gun control rider amendment.