Everybody — everyblogger — is supposed to make some comment on Obama’s anti-gun announcement today. I’ve been thinking about it and here’s mine: I don’t care.
It doesn’t matter whether he called for outright confication (he didn’t; not yet) or whether he actually wussed out under “conservative” pressure. (H/T D for the link even if I don’t buy its nice, hopeful content.)
Yeah, it kinda ticks me off that the Washington Post, which surely knows better, calls some of Obama’s most facile propaganda (page two of this Post artitorial) a “Constitutional argument.” Constitutional argument my Aunt Fanny; Obama’s remarks about the Second Amendment interfering with the First show not even a high school level of understanding about the purpose of the Bill of Rights. And I’m sure the WaPo editors know that.
Yes, it’s sickening to see Our Glorious Leader, just like Stalin, surrounding himself with little tot-lets to demonstrate his pretend benevolence. Sickening to hear the media endorsing the idea that eight year olds should write U.S. law.
It pains me, as I’m sure it pains you, to hear the constant misuse of terminology and the constant lies and misunderstandings about firearms that have been dragged out by the media (again!) since the Newtown murders.
But what Obama said? I. Don’t. Care.
First, the actions he took and recommendations he made are pretty wussy compared with what some people feared. No doubt there are hidden time bombs in them. But a renewal of the ugly-gun ban and the elimination of private sales still have a long and really iffy way to go before they become law. And if that private-sale ban does take us by force, the civil disobedience — the creative disregard — are going to be fascinating.
But the real reason I don’t care — and the real reason people who stand up for their rights shouldn’t care — is that no matter what Obama says or does, no matter what soggy rot the media produces, no matter how many adorable children are trotted out for propaganda purposes — WE WILL NOT YIELD.
We have yielded enough. It stops here. We are free people. And no gangs of political thugs, no cowering hoplophobes using police and soldiers as their “beards,” and no compromising lobbying groups or “acts of bipartisanship” are going to take anything more away from us.
So, Mr. Obama, go ahead and posture all you like. Say whatever you want. You are not the boss of me. You are not the boss of any free person. You are an irrelevancy.
One day you will be remembered as we now remember the multitudes of corrupt, controlled minor emperors of the falling Roman empire — with derision, if at all.
Some folks were raving about how he was going to somehow confiscate all the guns by Executive Order or some such nonsense. Didn’t happen. Ain’t gonna happen.
So he issues a few toothless and pointless directives to federal agencies, and then narratively asks Congress to step up to the plate and ban all the guns. Which even Obama’s staunchest allies in Congress have flatly said they can’t do and won’t do. And hell, right now you couldn’t get both houses of Congress to agree on a nonbinding resolution in praise of baseball, motherhood, and apple pie — let alone an actual law against guns.
It’s all theater. Nothing is going to happen, because they don’t _want_ anything to happen. But the Democrats will go back to their constituents next election and cry “we tried…we tried SO HARD to ban all the guns, but those damned Republicans are too powerful…you’ve got to send even more of us, this time around, if you want us to get rid of the guns”. And the Republicans will go back to their constituents next election and cry “those damned Democrats tried SO HARD to ban all the guns! But we fought ’em back! It was a pretty near thing, though, and they’re bound to try again, so unless you want the government to come for your guns, you’d best send even more of us back this time around!”.
Seriously. Who didn’t see this coming? Find a political scenario that can play out in a way where Democrat politicians win, Republican politicians win, and ordinary citizens get bamboozled…well, that’ll be a story you can pretty safely bet on seeing come to pass.
I was all ready to say I didn’t care, but then you said it better.
FWIW I also don’t care because I don’t think the people living within the notional borders of the US really changed their minds much at all on the subject. I suspect the suddenly-noisy gun-grabbers are shooting themselves in the foot all over the place. Which is okay with me.
I love that last sentence. Perfect!
As to our laws being written by eight-year-olds, perhaps that’s just as it should be. Certainly that’s about the emotional and intellectual maturity level of far too many of our national “leaders”. But more than that, we’re becoming an entire nation of children, increasingly infantilized by decades of nanny-stateism, generations of welfareism, an increasingly dumbed-down education system, and public media (news as well as entertainment) targeted to the lowest among us. The level of our public discourse is reflects this trend.
In the end, as a people we get the government we deserve. We’ve earned Obama.
Well said. I didn’t listen to the actual speech, my meds can only do so much afterall, but I did read the list of telling the various federal agencies to do their jobs, but better this time. He punted. I would say someone mumbled in his ear that he had pushed his “party” far enough and needed to back off if he wants anything else done. He will now continue to grandstand and let everyone know that he didn’t cave into the NRA, or to congress etc. The NRA and congress can claim they held the president to impotent administrative instructions.
Now maybe they can take care of serious problems facing our nation;.
“Now maybe they can take care of serious problems facing our nation.”
Glad you put the smiley on that. 🙂
So…no “conversation,” then?
I’m very sad. I was looking forward to a good confab. But here’s my side of the discussion anyway: No.
If writing “laws” were a legitimate human activity- which it is NOT– then I’d trust 8 year-olds before I’d trust Congress- but only as long as they had been unschooled.
Here’s my entry: Blame not the tyrant, blame the people who obey him
“…as a people we get the government we deserve. We’ve earned Obama.”
Ummmm. No. “We” didn’t. At least not this part of “we”… I can’t speak for everyone else.
Some people were asking me early this AM if I was going to listen to Obama. I had the same reaction. I have no interest at all in listenting to that narcissistic, marxist, pompous, ignorant, bloviating, fascist gasbag. I don’t care about his undisguised manipulative theatrics. Of course, I expect nothing else from him, nor from any of the other politicos on Capitol Hill — they’ve been engaging in theatrics for decades. It’s just gotten more brazen, particularly with the new mass media fawning over them like groupies. Why should I care what they say or think? Well, unfortunately, I’m stuck with the tax burden, and at some point they might declare me an enemy of the state for quoting James Madison at them. But other than that, I prefer to pay them as much regard as I do to my intestinal fauna (less, actually).
And Laird, while I can think of some people who richly deserve to be governed by a bunch of elitist progressives, I ain’t one of them, and I certainly didn’t earn it. Nor do I consent. (Gosh, I’m feeling all Spoonerist now.)
Claire, have you ever READ some of the laws that get passed? I’m up for giving some eight year olds a shot at it. 😉
Oh, and tickled Jim Bovard’s fancy with this one today:
“Any person that unequivocally requires me to be a potential victim, because of his personal phobias and prejudices, has lost all credibility to be any part of a serious discussion on resolving a problem.”
Anonymous local attorney
Though his current thinking on a state level is pretty apt:
http://jimbovard.com/blog/2013/01/16/new-york-gun-control-law-restricts-everything-except/
Molon Labe
I haven’t read all the president’s suggestions yet – I’ve been having too much fun reading the responses. But a person mentioned that he wants doctors to ask patients how many guns they have at home. Anyone with common sense would answer zero. Some years ago I had to fill out a form at the doctor’s office. Two questions I remember were: Does you spouse beat you (or words to that effect) and Do you have guns in the home. I said no. What business was it of their’s?
If it accomplished anything, that would be to push the ones over the line or off the fence….gun & ammo sales boomed, yes, but the hidden part of that is all the people who woke up and had to actually think about how quickly their freedoms are disappearing – to make a decision to say no more often….to really think about what’s going on now a days…it was a lot of noise that couldn’t be ignored…
Clap, clap, clap….if you could see me you would know I am standing. enough said.
The thing that irks me is the whining about Obama’s kids being off limits, and people shouldn’t mention them and the special treatment they get, but at the very same time, the tyrannical douche(and the bag he came in) that Obama is, surrounds himself with other people’s kids, and exploits the hell out of them.
Of course, as a Canadian the t.d’s orders aren’t aimed at me, but still, blatant hypocrisy annoys the crap out of me.
Fast and Furious. He is responsible for it, and he has yet to pay any sort of price, or be held to account at all. He’s nominating a new Secretary of Defense, but not a new Attorney General. He likes the one that’s there now. We have a ways to go.
Please forgive my pointing this out. Sammy blinkin’ Sunshine, that’s me.
As the others have pointed out…well done.
It’s not that you won’t yield, it’s that you _can’t_ yield.
You see, you’re making the point that it’s not about hunting — it’s about protecting yourselves from a tyrannical government, right?
So, this is it. You either have to protect yourself against this tyrannical government, or you have to yield.
If you yield, it’s endgame, and you will, eventually, not in your lifetime, end up like Britain-the-formerly-Great.
I’m reminded of a text adventure game I played, where the (female) player has, close to the start of the game, the option to get in a car with a stranger. From that point on, you are dead. The game carries on for a long time, but once you get in that car, there are no other eventualities. You end up dead. This… is pretty much the same thing.
The one thing that gives me pause for concern is the mental health aspect he throws in, everyone kind of overlooks just how easily those parameters can be changed.
What “condition” can be included in those parameters?
Damn near any behavior these days can have an acronym thrown at it and it suddenly becomes a “syndrome” or such shite.
I think you see what I am getting at here……..
If you are concerned about where this “mental health” thing is going – and yes, it is a real threat – the best place to start is with an honest evalutation of the “mental health” field and its practitioners.
Dr. Thomas Szasz was a pioneer in challenging the established wisdom of establishment psychiatry – including the indiscriminate drug use. Fight fear with information.
From the New American: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/12839-the-passing-of-dr-thomas-szasz
“His first book, The Myth of Mental Illness (the first of 36 published during his lifetime, along with hundreds of articles), was seminal. It laid the groundwork — some would say charted the battleground — for the rest of his life’s work: the exposure of psychiatry as chicanery and a fraud, calling it “in the company of alchemy and astrology.””
The issue of not complying is fine IF you have everything you want to purchase I.e mags, rifles, etc. If you don’t have this stuff then you are forced to go to the black market and pay 6 times more for everything, which is where the real nastiness of any action they take which is what infuriates me. They essentially cut the supply off for us.
[What “condition” can be included in those parameters?]
“If you want a gun, you’re too crazy to be trusted with one.”
Ref: Dear Leader,
I do think some of the flyover state Democrats took him aside and said, “Look, Son, this ain’t Chicago. You’re about to get in a cowpie-kicking contest, and you ain’t got no boots.”
And if I worked in mental health, and I was watching how the media and government treats “sex offenders,” pot smokers, people on pain meds, and now gun owners, I’d be really scared of the government getting more involved with my clients.
I really don’t care anymore either…people ALWAYS choose false security and less freedoms for “those people” over liberty and justice for all. Every time. We’ve gone from a constitutional republic to a democracy full of poorly raised children voting to eat Oreos and Dr. Pepper for dinner.
I don’t think that Beloved Leader is smart enough to engineer an escape from a wet paper bag. The puppet masters behind him, now, they seem to have some smarts. First, this national assault on guns could be a smoke screen/bargaining chip in the coming immigration tussle (AKA: Democrat Voter Registration Drive) that the rinos have already signaled they will willingly collapse on (along with anything else The Beloved Leader’s team wants- he won the election, after all). Second, if the long range goal of the Beloved Leader’s Team is to disassemble, or radically change the Constitution, it is the 2nd Amendment that worries them the most. Those bitter clingers just might shoot back! If they come, it will be door to door, with the registration list in one hand, and a true assault rifle in the other. Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Stalin’s USSR there’s a lot of models to follow. Third, the politburo can argue about black guns and magazine capacity all they want, but when they realize that they really want to disarm the people, they’ll tax ammo just like they tax cigarettes, 500% or so of the original cost.