Gun restrictions
I have a challenge for the Winston-Salem City Council members who want to keep guns out of city parks.
Name one shooting that happened in a park where people with gun permits were allowed to carry guns. Name one college or k-12 school that has had a shooting on campus that was not designated a “gun free” campus. Name one shooting that was carried out by a person that had a legal gun-carry permit that was not used in self-defense of that person or others in the area. Name one shooter who was not mentally unstable or was not taking mind-altering drugs such as Ritalin when the shooting took place.
Simply put: Restrictions on where guns can be carried has created more problems than the restrictions solved.
B. FRANK EVERHART
Advance
Surprising loss
Almost seven weeks after the presidential election, I continue to read about the surprise Republican loss and what the GOP should do now to recoup. I started thinking.
In 1954, a Republican-appointed Chief Justice, Earl Warren, provided the leadership in the 9 to 0 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that became a major victory for civil rights.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the progressive Federal-Aid Highway Act that gave us one of the greatest national infrastructure accomplishments in our history.
In 1964, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil-Rights Act. President Lyndon Johnson could not have passed the act without the strategic leadership of the Senate minority leader, Everett Dirksen. These are just three examples of a progressive Republican Party.
Then, for whatever the reasons, the composition of the party began to change. Ironically, after the Civil-Rights Act, Sens. Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms fled to the Republican Party and they were welcomed. They were the two most prominent racists in our country.
In 1983, Ronald Reagan spoke to the National Association of Evangelicals and let them know that they could not endorse him, but that he could endorse them. This speech became an open invitation to the religious right, and the Republican tent made room for figures such as Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reid with their uncompromising religious ideology.
Now, Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and Jim DeMint, et al., have become the GOP thinkers.
Why do they wonder what happened? Why?
CHARLES FRANCIS WILSON
Winston-Salem
Unsustainable
I see the new “low information” voters (I call them reality idiots) are alive and well. The author of the letter “A taxing problem” (Dec. 21) deserves a prize for the most ill-informed of the year. Someone please explain to this person that yes, we do have a catastrophic spending problem, which has resulted in an unsustainable $16.4 trillion entitlement debt.
A few other realities for this author: Taxing “the rich” is a straw-man issue for President Obama because no amount of tax increase on this group will make a dent in our debt, but will kill jobs and economic growth. Whatever we tax — we will get less of it.
Tragically, this administration abhors even talking about less federal spending. The real fairness question is, why should 47 percent pay no federal tax and the top 1 percent pay 40 percent of taxes?
PETER T. WILSON
Winston-Salem
Definition of freedom
President Lincoln once said, “The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one…[I]n using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. …With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself…while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men…The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty…”
Advocates for stricter gun laws and their opponents among the gun lobbies are wrestling with that very issue: what is freedom?
When someone else’s definition of freedom puts us all in danger, we have every right to seek the government’s protection.
A total ban on assault weapons and clips, designed for military use, and background checks and waiting periods for private gun sales are not a violation of our constitutional right to bear arms, nor are they examples of government tyranny. They are a very rational and necessary response to a national emergency.
Single-shot muskets, which took even a highly experienced soldier at least 15 seconds to reload, have given way to more rapid weapons of annihilation. New technologies create new challenges and demand new thinking, or at least, a more sane and rational approach to the old thinking.
THE REV. S.J. MUNSON
Winston-Salem
“Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.”
ReplyDeleteVoltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan.
One should always cover one's bases.
DeleteOn July 6th, 1791, a funeral car, decked with laurels and oak leaves, drawn by four horses and escorted by a detachment of the National Guard, left Romilly-on-Seine and began its solemn triumphal progress to Paris. On the front of the car was written, "To the memory of Voltaire." On one side, "If man is born free, he ought to govern himself!" on the other, "If man has tyrants, he ought to dethrone them."
DeleteAs it passed the villages, the people came out to greet it with wreaths of flowers and laurels in their hands. Mothers held up their babies that they, too, might say the they had seen this great day; old men pressed forward to touch and be healed. At night the villages through which the procession passed were illuminated; by day could be seen triumphal arches, girls dressed in white and garlands of flowers. Out of their misery and wretchedness, the submerged poor recognized him who had wept and clamored for the right of all men and made freedom a possibility even for them.
At nightfall, on July 19th, the cortege reached Paris. The sarcophagus was placed on an altar on the ruins of that tower of the Bastille in which Voltaire had been twice a prisoner.
On the altar was the inscription, "On this spot, where despotism chained thee, receive the homage of a free people."
All Sunday night the sarcophagus remained there. At three o'clock on the sunny afternoon of Monday, July 11th, it was placed on a car designed by David and drawn through Paris, escorted by an enormous company organized, orderly, and representing every rank and condition. Here were the men who had demolished the Bastille, carrying its flag, and in their midst that terrible virago who had led them in the fray. Here were citizens with pikes, Swiss, Jacobins, actors and soldiers. Some carried banners with devices from the dead man's writings. Some dressed in Greek costume, carried a gilt model of the famous statue by Houdin. Among the self-constituted guard were many who, not a month before, had brought back that other king to this capital -- from Varennes -- with howls, insults and imprecations.
Singers and music preceded the car itself. Supported on four great wheels of bronze, it looked like a magnificent altar. On the summit was the sarcophagus, and on that a full-length figure of Voltaire, reclining in an attitude of sleep and with a winged Immortality placing a crown of stars on his head.
The procession itself consisted of a hundred thousand persons. Six hundred thousand more witnessed it. It first stopped at the Opera House. The operatic company came forward and sang that song in Voltaire's Samson, which became, with the "Marseillaise," the song of the Revolution:
"Wake ye people. Break your chains!"
After the Opera House, the Tuilleries was passed. Every window was filled with spectators, save one. Behind that, closed and barred, sat the most unhappy of mortals, Louis and Marie Antoinette, awaiting doom.
At last, at ten o'clock at night, and in a drizzling rain, the Pantheon was reached.
___Clarence Darrow
Surprising loss. A few Republicans were surprised they lost but that is over with. A loss is a loss. At the same time Democrats seem angry they won. Were they not supposed to? They ran the more effective campaign. For some reason they don't like their brand of redistribution/agitation once they win with it.
ReplyDeleteUnsustainable. Your 16.4 trillion "entitlement debt" is an error. It is current national debt that is carried "on the books". The greater problem was written about by Mort Zuckerman in US News & World Report:
ReplyDelete"The greatest fiscal challenge to the U.S. government is not just its annual deficit but its total liabilities. Our federal balance sheet does not include the unfunded social insurance obligations of Medicare, Social Security, and the future retirement benefits of federal employees. Only in the small print of the financial statements do you get some idea of the enormous size of the unfunded commitments. Today the estimated unfunded total is more than $87 trillion, or 550 percent of our GDP. And the debt per household is more than 10 times the median family income."
Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be. Make your plans accordingly. Math is an unforgiving teacher.
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DeleteYou're absolutely correct Whitewall. Reality never quite sinks into some people's thick skulls though until something catastrophic happens.
DeleteThen suddenly, the weak, A/K/A liberal Democrats are the first to start whining like little children, and they coming running to the government with their hands out. That wouldn't be so bad. But in the impending crisis, the government won't have any money either. Guess where they'll go next. That's right. They'll be sitting on conservatives' door steps with their hands out.
Amazingly, the church down the street won't be filled with dummies after all. They'll be saviours.
Imagine that?
Definition of freedom. Good point. People know the definition when they first taste it. People know the definition when they finally sense they are about to lose it. In both cases, expect insurrection.
ReplyDeleteWe may be angry sometimes, but we're not the ones talking about insurrection.
DeleteAgitation is as agitation does.
The Roman Empire never thought it would break- up either.
DeleteI'm sacrificing to Janus for good luck in the New Year.
DeleteLTE #1 - Deja vu - I guess when it comes to ignorance, once is not enough.
ReplyDeleteJust one note for Mr. Everhart – the worst school shooting in American history occurred in 2007 at Virginia Tech. 32 people were killed, almost as many as the 35 or so armed, trained Virginia Tech police force who were present on campus that day.
LTE #2 - Indeed, the GOP was once a respectable organization, with slightly different views from the Democrat Party. Today it is run by bigoted mad men who learned nothing from their November defeat. By comparison, the crazy Democrats seem downright sane.
In the sentence referring to Rove, Ryan and DeMint, I would put the word “thinkers” in quotation marks.
LTE #3 - “Low information” is a good description of the content of this LTE. Still singing the old “trickle down” song, with a strong dash of “Henny Penny, Henny Penny…the sky is falling, the sky is falling.”
What a bunch of chicken poop.
LTE #4 – As stated before, it is far too late for any cut and paste legislation regarding guns.
Either we need to get serious about finding answers to many questions, or we can just resign ourselves to a never ending parade of gun nut violence.
The Journal News in White Plains, NY, said they will unveil the names of permit holders in Putnam County. They’ve already released the names of permit holders in suburban Westchester and Rockland counties.
ReplyDelete_______
Liberal newspaper continues its campaign of intimidation and hate against gun owners.
Good to have a list like that to make sure you’re not living next door to a fool like this one:
DeleteDate: November 23, 2012
People Killed: 1
Circumstances: On November 23, 2012, concealed handgun permit holder Michael Dunn, 45, fired several shots into an SUV in which Jordan Davis, 17, was sitting with other teens at a gas station in southeast Jacksonville, Florida. Dunn had complained to the teens about loud music coming from the SUV.
Although one passenger in the SUV turned down the music, Dunn claimed he heard the teens “cussing” at him and making threats and said to them, “...are you talking to me?”
He also claimed he heard a verbal threat from one of the vehicle’s passengers and saw a shotgun barrel from inside the vehicle on the rim of a window, although police later found no gun in the car.
Dunn’s lawyer claims that when he saw the shotgun he retrieved his gun from the glove compartment of his car, loaded it, and fired into the SUV, hitting and killing Davis. Dunn then drove away, telling his girlfriend that he had “fired at these kids.” He turned himself in the next day and now faces charges of murder and attempted murder.
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Classic gun nut…out looking for trouble…trying to impress his “girlfriend”…bet she was really impressed later when she saw the shriveled little thingy that his gun is a substitute for.
I wish they'd reign in these liberal hate groups.
DeleteYou'd think liberals would respect what the Constitution says, but oh no! Their hate runs deep.
Deletereign?
DeleteI remember having spelling tests in second grade. The worst speller would get sent to the cloakroom for a while...a potentially traumatizing punishment...maybe that explains some of Littlebuck's problems.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI wish they'd rein in these liberal hate groups
DeleteWe realize that American English is a bit tricky.
DeletePerhaps Littlebuck should switch to Swahili. I hear that Swahili courses are so easy that even UNC football players can pass them.
I'm sure you were a spelling bee champion in the second grade Rush. I'll bet you still put that on your resume.
Delete
ReplyDeleteGuns don't kill...people do...
I'll bet people won't be so sympathetic to gay rights once they find out the full effect of the aberrant, perverse world in which they live, and the legal consequences.
ReplyDeleteHere's a man that was trying to help a gay couple out, now he's being sued.
Hee Hee, you gotta love it!
______________
A Kansas sperm donor who was ordered to pay child support for the baby he helped a lesbian couple conceive plans to fight back in court, and suggested he might be a victim of bias against same-sex parenting.
William Marotta told FoxNews.com he might never have agreed to provide sperm to Angela Bauer and her former partner, Jennifer Schreiner, had he known the legal morass that awaited him after responding to the women’s Craigslist ad for a donor in March 2009. The Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) recently filed a child support claim against Marotta after the couple filed for state assistance this year, leading the department to demand they provide the donor’s name so it could collect.
“I have a hunch part of the reason this is going this way is because of people’s feelings toward same-sex couples,” Marotta said in an exclusive interview with FoxNews.com. “I can’t help but feel this is somewhat of a political issue.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/31/kansas-sperm-donor-to-same-sex-couple-readies-for-child-support-fight/#ixzz2GetzPQ6s
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: How many shots were there in the city parks this past year period? I've checked the city page to check on the number of violent crimes committed in the city parks and found a grand total of...0! A better question: how many peopoe were shot before the invention of the gun? 0. No guns = no one shot. Another question: why are there 100,000 shootings a year resulting in 30,000 deaths when there are 300MM guns in this country if the presence of a gun serves as a deterrent? Americans have proven they are incapable of handling the "freedom" of gun ownership.
LTE 2: The R's have chosen ideology over pragmatism. While that will work in gerrymandered districts, it makes for a failing strategy in state wide or nation wide elections which is why the D's hold the POTUS and the Senate.
LTE 3: Taxes are too low and spending is too high. Both need to be adjusted. "...why should 47 percent pay no federal tax and the top 1 percent pay 40 percent of taxes?" - because 47% of the people don't make enough to tax (0 * anything = 0) while the top 1% make a substantial amount of the total income earned in this country. The US is rapidly becoming like the 3rd world countries where 10% of the people own 95% of the total wealth.
LTE 4: The world in which the 2nd Amendment came into being i a far cry from the world that exists today. A handful of soldiers with today's weaponry could wipe out an entire regiment from the late 18th century. We no longer need militias to defend against enemies foreign or domestic. We have the most powerful armed forces in the history of mankind to keep us safe from foreign enemies, and only macho idiots think they can defend against or overthrow the domestic govt with their AR-15's (see Koresh, et.al.). It's too late to do anything about the guns, so it's time to focus on the availability of ammunition.
LTE 2: The R's have chosen ideology over pragmatism. While that will work in gerrymandered districts, it makes for a failing strategy in state wide or nation wide elections which is why the D's hold the POTUS and the Senate.
Delete_______
Statements like this one lets us all know the writer is WAY way...out there.
A bit from the GOP's sanest candidate in the 2011 primaries, via the Daily Telegraph:
DeleteFormer Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, had harsh words for his party in an interview published Sunday in Britain's Daily Telegraph.
"The party right now is a holding company that's devoid of a soul and it will be filled up with ideas over time and leaders will take their proper place," he said.
"We can't be known as a party that's fear-based and doesn't believe in math," he added. "In the end it will come down to a party that believes in opportunity for all our people, economic competitiveness and a strong dose of libertarianism."
Pretty much what dotnet just said.
Furthermore, the rapidly changing demographics in Arizona and Texas threaten two of the GOP's bellwether states, if not by 2016, certainly by 2020.
DeleteThey can gerrymander all they want...gerrymanders can only do so much.
As I said, the great thing about reality is, eventually you hit it. They're losing their national base of support.
DeleteSo is America.
DeleteEvery now and then, Smallbuck (aka Littlebuck), tops even himself in stupidity.
DeleteWhen he says "So is America", what he really means is that he considers himself to be America. His idea of America is the white, Anglo-Saxon protestant (and Catholic, don't forget) male old boys club that ran the country for the first 200 years, trampling underfoot blacks, women, children, and anyone else "different than them" who got in their way.
In those days, the lowest, most ignorant of "the White Man's Club" (which actually existed as an entity in the early 20th century), could succeed simply because they were white men, despite the fact that millions of blacks and women were far more competent than they were.
That culminated in the Great Depression, which might have finished them off, but they were rescued by the German NAZIs and the japanese Fascists, so had one more shining moment. That might have been enough to save them, but after WW II ended, they stumbled right back into their foolish ways, plunging into one stupid war after another…Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Panama, Iran-Contra, Operation Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq…who's next?
What they didn't notice along the way was that women and blacks and a dozen other "minorities" and people who were not members of "the club" had actually gained the right to vote…all people who had very different ideas about how their country should function.
So here's the news, Tinybuck (aka Smallbuck and Littlebuck): You are not America.
You are a tiny, shriveled, dying fringe element, the last gasp of the bigoted majority that used to rule. The funny thing is that you know it. That is why you hate all the new elements of our society, because they have indeed snatched your "bogus power" away, so you retreat into your vast ignorance and issue mindless rants that reveal your complete lack of relevance to the modern age.
My favorite part of this is the wave of frightened, cowardly Chicken Littles who loudly proclaim doom for America. Guess what boys. You're wrong. It isn't America that is dying. It is your own bigoted little selves. Do I feel sorry for you? Nope! Bye, bye!
I figured that would get you going Rushie. Hee Hee...you're easy to set off.
DeleteBest wishes for HRC's recovery.
ReplyDeleteUnless it's all a conspiracy. "right transverse sinus venous thrombosis"...something just doesn't add up.
I thought the old battleaxe was faking. She may be sicker than I thought.
DeleteWell, one thing is for sure...there is no one on this planet sicker than you, you pathetic, dickless, whining, cowardly loser.
DeleteI realize that you could never understand this in a million gazillion years:
"No man is an island, entire of itself ...
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
That was written hundreds of years ago by a man named John Dunne, a man whose butt you are not qualified to lick, although I am sure that you would love to.
It means that anyone who would celebrate the ill health of another human is, as they say in the US Navy "lower than whaleshit, and you know where that winds up."
Some of us are off to celebrate the arrival of a new year, while you celebrate your own pathetic eternal misery.
Tis Tis....Rushie...and Happy New Year to you too!
DeleteHee Hee...that's what I like about liberals. They're always up to something, and it's usually no good too.
Years of poor Democratic leadership leads to the closing of multiple public schools in Philadelphia.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/education/philadelphia-district-may-close-37-schools.html?hp&_r=1&
_________
When Democrats control these ghetto laden cities. Things usually get worse, not better.
Off to the party:
ReplyDeleteMay you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine. ~ Frank Sinatra
May your home always be too small to hold all your friends. ~ Irish toast
Happy New Year all!
N.C. outgoing governor can't resist one last stupid act:
ReplyDeleteWilmington 10 pardoned by outgoing N.C. governor
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57561427/wilmington-10-pardoned-by-outgoing-n.c-governor/