I often wonder if it is my strict fundamentalist upbringing that allows me more skepticism when someone is trying to sell me swampland in Florida.

I have seen this comment before, I started this campaign pro-Hillary, I loved her since the Clinton era.

I knew that the attacks on her were on her because she was a moderate female. It is a rare thing to have a moderate “equalist” woman anywhere. The top 50 pundits had 7 women only one was a feminist and she was also a moderate.

I am tired of obama supporters, really tired of them.

I will not be blogging as much as I start back to the grind next week.  Read more 

Dadburn it, I can’t find the story I was reading the other day about this now. But there’s an extra layer here: the guy in this case is a gay man, and had the help of a bunch of gay-rights groups to get this case as far as it did. His argument was that as a gay man, the streets are extra unsafe for him. He was chased by a gang of kids while walking down the street with his partner. He claims if he’d not brandished a gun, they would’ve severely beaten or killed him. What do you think? Is this a useful argument to make, for anyone gay or str8? Anyway, Here’s the story about the SCOTUS decision and its implications.

The court has not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: “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.”
The basic issue for the justices is whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
A key justice, Anthony Kennedy, seemed to settle that question early on when he said the Second Amendment gives “a general right to bear arms.” He is likely to be joined by Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - a majority of the nine-member court.
Gun rights proponents were encouraged.  Read more 

I wonder if Clarence Thomas owns a gun.

In 2003, Washington resident Dick Heller, who lives in one of the city’s tougher districts, lodged a suit against the local authorities saying his constitutional right to bear arms was being violated. Although his case was initially rejected, he won on appeal to a federal appeals court in March.

Washington officials in turn then lodged a case with the Supreme Court in September insisting that it must rule on the extent of access to handguns, the weapon of choice in two-thirds of robberies and assaults.  Read more 

This is just terrible. Here you have a highly-trained Police Officer accidentally killed by another highly trained Police Officer. Wait just a minute. Excuuuuuse me. I want Michelle Malkin and Newt Gingrich and Bill O’Reilly and John Derbyshire to explain to me again about how great it would be if everybody on every college campus in America started packing concealed heat. Lunatic fringe, I’ll tell ya.  Read more 

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Jim Webb has stood for some good stuff since becoming a Senator. How in the HELL could he imagine that it’s ok to carry loaded pistols, and who knows what all else, in DC?  Read more 

This story from the Times didn’t get any play on Sunday, so I thought I’d take a look at it today. The short version:

Question: How can you “stand up” the Iraqi army when they’re selling all their new guns in the black market?

Answer: You can’t. We are so fucked.

But, as always with Junior’s Excellent Adventure in Iraq, the details are always interesting, and appeal the same way that one can’t take one’s eyes off a horrific traffic accident. Here’s how the magic of the marketplace is working in Iraq:

Weapon prices are soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices several times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly four years ago. Rising prices, in turn, have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption — the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market sales.

Three types of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars here as well: Glock and Walther 9-millimeter pistols, and pristine, unused Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries.

“Every type of gun that the Americans give comes to the market,” said Brig. Hassan Nouri, chief of the political investigations bureau for the Sulaimaniya district. “They go from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi Army to the smugglers. I have captured many of these guns that the terrorists bought.”

Well, freedom’s untidy. Want a gun? See your friendly neighborhood dealer!

The dealer said they had recently been taken from an Iraqi armory. “Almost all of the weapons come from the Iraqi police and army,” he said. “They are our best suppliers.”

And what’s at the heart of the matter? You got it, yet more Enron-style accounting Republican accounting procedures!  Read more