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Agenda? What Agenda?

CBS weighs in in the person of Dick Meyer with an op-ed (at least they identify it as such, rather than as a news story) entitled: Gunning Down The 2nd Amendment.

The attention-grabbing quote? “Objective truth about the meaning of the Second Amendment does not exist. Practical consensus about its meaning will not endure. The concept of a “well regulated militia” is an anachronism in the 21st century.”

Thank you Baghdad Bob Dick.

Perhaps the concept of the “well regulated militia” is an anachronism, but “the right to keep and bear arms” isn’t.

I’m not going to fisk the entire editorial. I’m a little burned out by the effort my debate response last night required. I’m just going to comment on one other line:

“It’s time to repeal the Second Amendment. Bag it.”

You’re welcome to try, Dick. But unless I’m mistaken not one gun control organization has even suggested attempting that. Now, setting aside the fact that the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in order to enshrine the critical individual rights as inviolable, there is a detailed set of instructions in the Constitution describing how to amend said document. Nobody’s started the process. I cannot help but wonder why? Hell, it would be refreshing if someone would actually try. Instead, they’ve worked for the last fifty-plus years to redefine the Second Amendment to render it meaningless. (It’s old! It’s out of date! It’s anachronistic! It can’t possibly mean today what it meant back then, and we don’t know what it meant back then anyway!)

Oops! Sorry! You’re wrong Dick!

“What the founders intended is unknowable”? Not if you actually study history, Dick. Those “very independent and liberal scholars” (like Laurence Tribe – you know, Al Gore’s lawyer?) who bothered to and who were honest in their evaluation of the evidence (even YOU admit) “came out on the individual rights side.” So even YOU recognize that the Second Amendment is the barrier that must be overcome if you want to pass the kind of gun confiscation control laws you want to implement. So, why are none of the gun control organizations trying to use the law to achieve their ends?

Alan Dershowitz (that well-known conservative gun nut) has said:

“Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it’s not an individual right or that it’s too much of a safety hazard don’t see the danger of the big picture. They’re courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don’t like.”

Thanks, Dick, for finally understanding admitting that you have to LEGALLY remove the Constitutional protection of the right to arms BEFORE you eliminate it.

Asshat.

KevinLeave a comment

The Lying News Media, Part VII

As an addendum to this whole CNN / assault weapon ban story, I found this ironic piece. It’s an excerpt from Wolf Blitzer’s commencement address for the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication on Monday, the day CNN aired their retraction-that-wasn’t.

In it are these pearls:

“Here’s what worries me so much. So many Americans already have a rather low regard for journalists; so many of our viewers, readers and listeners simply don’t trust us. Many of them, according to public opinion polls, believe we have political agendas and biases that taint our reporting. And many of our news consumers, no doubt, suspect we often make things up — whether to advance a political cause, or settle personal scores, or sell newspapers and increase ratings on television. What has now happened at The New York Times has simply fueled those suspicions.”

No, really?

“Journalism is not a perfect science. It is often referred to as a first draft of history. And as all of you know, a first draft can occasionally be sloppy. Yes, we will make mistakes. But those are unwitting mistakes. There must be zero tolerance for deliberate distortions, false reporting and fiction writing in the guise of journalism. They cannot be tolerated.”

Damn straight, Wolf! Tell it like it is!

“Healthy skepticism is critical in doing our job. In my experience, if a story sounds too good to be true, it almost always is. Check and re-check and triple-check those sources. There are people with agendas trying to use us for their own purposes.”

Say, like Sheriff Ken Jenne?

Um, didn’t CNN say, after LaPierre called them on the (at the absolute minimum) shoddy reporting of John Zarella: “And we all stick by John Zarrella and how credible of a reporter he is.”? What happened to “(c)heck and re-check and triple-check those sources.”?

Zero tolerance. Yup.

KevinLeave a comment

WOOHOO!

According to Sitemeter, the blog has had 100 hits (and they’re not all me!) I’ve checked, and I’ve got at least five readers!

Thanks, y’all! Address your hatemail to gunrightsATcomcastDOTnet.

KevinLeave a comment

The Highest Praise A Writer Can Receive

I like to write. I think I’m good at it. But my writing is of the essay / non-fiction genre. Still, I love the written word and am deeply appreciative of really good writers, both fiction and non-fiction. (I’d like to be able to write fiction, but as Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character said: “A man’s got to know his limitations.”)

Truly engrossing fiction, however, transports me to other places to the point that my wife essentially has to whack me with a stick to get my attention.

John Ross wrote a novel that is popular among the gun culture that I found informative, thought-provoking, and entertaining entitled Unintended Consequences. In an interview he was asked: “What has been your proudest moment as a writer?”. Go read it.

I cannot imagine greater praise.

(Warning: Author accepts no responsibility for keyboard damage should the reader be consuming food or beverage while reading.)

KevinLeave a comment

The Lying News Media, Part VI

Well! Instapundit is on top of the CNN story and has multiple interesting links such as this one that details the fully-automatic weapon bit that CNN didn’t bother to mention in its retraction-that-wasn’t.

And they have this bit of information on Sheriff Jenne:

“In 2000, Sheriff Jenne, a former Democratic state legislator, supported a bill in the Florida Legislature, HB-363, that would have banned several types of rifles under a broad definition of “assault weapons” and also would have prohibited many handguns. The bill died in committee.”

Whodathunkit?

KevinLeave a comment

The Lying News Media, Part V, or There Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day to Keep Up

Well, I saw (and have a copy of) CNN’s “retraction” that wasn’t.

For what it was, it wasn’t bad, but it was still (I think intentionally) misleading.

CNN has a transcript of some of the story up here, just scroll down to where it starts: “Welcome back.” It is not complete when compared to the video, but they may correct that later.

The transcript of the original story with Sheriff Jenne is here, and it’s got more to it than the NRA piece had, but the full-auto piece is not included. This was obviously the first piece where the cinderblocks were untouched by the post-ban weapon.

I have not located the transcript of the full-auto demonstration.

If you’re interested, the day after the original Zarella piece on Wolf Blitzer Reports, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA was on and called CNN on it in no uncertain terms.

THAT transcript is here. He calls them liars to their faces.

I’ll come back to this topic later, but I’ve got an asswhuppin’ to deliver debate to get back to.

Besides, I do this better when I’m not pissed off.

KevinLeave a comment

We ARE Going to Have a Debate!

Jack has responded to my opening post in our debate on gun control over at The Commentary. It’s going to take me a while to generate my response, but all I’ve got to say is, This is going to be FUN!

Go on over and give it a read.

KevinLeave a comment

The Lying News Media, Part IV

Here’s that update. Ruben Mendiola, an NFA dealer (that means he’s licensed to sell machine guns) reports:

Today, (Sunday, May 18) Pedro Bello, Nick Davitian and I met with a CNN camera crew and two producers to demonstrate the non-existing actual differences between pre and post ban AR15 and AK47. As we know it the so-called crime bill outlaws guns strictly on cosmetics alone, IE flash hider or bayonet lug.

Apparently CNN received a lot of flack over the terrible story it aired last week in which Sheriff Ken Jennings(sic) of Broward outright lied about machines guns becoming available to any and all if the crime bill sunsets and that pre-ban rifles having more power than post ban.

The story will air at 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM Monday and they will air it as a retraction/correction to the previous extremely anti-gun and false story.

NRA Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre has also done a fabulous job making CNN go nuts. I understand he will be on the ready with Rush tomorrow.

Sincere thanks to Wally Phillbrick owner of IPS Gun store and range in Hollywood FL for letting us shoot 21 CBS concrete blocks in his indoor range and to Raul for becoming such a pain in the ass to CNN that they called us to do the demo. (He went up all the way to the top)

One person can make a difference. Be active, just don’t sit back and bitch.

Terrific work, and excellent advice. I e-mailed him to verify that those were his words and for permission to post this here. He verified, and added:

Be my guest.

From their attitude, I strongly feel it will be a fair story. They took a LOT OF HEAT over the stunt that the Sheriff pulled.

Well, we’ll see how fair it is. I don’t think CNN is going to like eating crow, and I’ve yet to see them do anything fair when it comes to the gun question.

But I could be surprised.