Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary

How Bad Is Chris Christie On The Second Amendment?

10 Comments

Pretty awful. If he had any presidential ambitions, this by itself would shoot them down, unless he runs as a Democrat. And maybe even then. He’s swimming against the tide of public opinion in general.

[Update a while later]

Thoughts on President Obama’s awful choice for the head of BATF:

Mr. Traver’s forked-tongue performance in that sloppy NBC story was typical: The popular-disarmament gang has long attempted to conflate semiautomatic weapons and machine guns in the public mind, though it was unusual, almost refreshing, to see a federal law-enforcement agent engaged in so flagrant and undisguised a display of dishonesty. Most of the so-called assault weapons are the ballistic equivalent of sheep in wolves’ clothing; they’re basically scary-looking squirrel guns. The greatest part of them are .223-caliber semiautomatic rifles, which is to say that they are largely indistinguishable from the little .22-caliber plinkers boys have been knocking cans off of fence posts with for generations. The .223 is too small to be used legally for deer hunting in most of the country — these paramilitary terrors being insufficient to bring down Bambi cleanly. Notable, that: The gun-grabbers always insist that they do not want to restrict hunters’ access to legitimate sporting guns, but a North American hunter stalking grizzly bears or moose frequently will be armed with a rifle packing a far more powerful pop than that of those carried by most of the world’s infantrymen.

All of which is rather beside the point, since rifles as a category, from Granddad’s deerslayer to Uncle Nasty’s assault rifle, are used only rarely in crimes. Even for a gangster in sagging jeans, it’s hard to walk around casually with Elmer Fudd’s blunderbuss in your shenanigans, and those .50-caliber competition-grade rifles they’re soiling themselves over in California go for about 15 grand, putting them out of the financial range of Joe Crackhead. Rifles just aren’t where the action usually is, crime-wise.

Which is not beside the point. What Traver and those philosophically aligned with him are engaged in is the opposite of law enforcement. We might call their business anti-policing, inasmuch as they seek to restrict the actions of law-abiding citizens — lawful gun owners, licensed firearms dealers — while largely leaving actual criminals untouched.

I agree that the agency should be disbanded.

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Bloomberg’s War

…on the First Amendment:

As long as Mayor Mike is in the dock, let us also note that when it comes to building a mosque near Ground Zero, he has from the start stood behind the First Amendment — sort of.

That is, he likes the part that gives Muslims the right to build a house of worship just about anywhere they want.

But the part guaranteeing a separation between religion and government?

Not so much.

That much became obvious last week with the release of e-mails demonstrating that City Hall did much more than offer the mosque’s organizers routine help.

In fact, it turns out that Team Bloomberg was heavily involved in operating the political machinery needed to ensure that various regulatory agencies approved the controversial project — which has rightly drawn the ire of many 9/11 survivors and victims’ families.

It’s OK. I mean, it’s not like it was a Christian church or something. That would be wrong.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Don’t Like The Winter So Far?

3 Comments

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Funny, he’s got a better track record than the warm mongers. Though, while I joke about firing up the SUVs, I don’t think that increasing the CO2 levels are a solution to a new glacial advance (I continue to be unconvinced that CO2 is a cause, and not a symptom, of climate change). We’ll have to think about serious geoengineering for that.

[Update a few minutes later]

When white isn’t right.

[Update a few more minutes later]

Here’s how you transcend ideological differences. It’s too hard for most people, though.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Things The Chattering Class…

3 Comments

…got wrong:

You would think the liberal intelligentsia would, with a record of so many misses on so many consequential matters, become chastened. But no. They are filled with certainty: Obama is back, the recovery is around the corner, Russian “reset” is a success, ObamaCare can’t be repealed, there are no electable Republican 2012 contenders, and more, they tell us. We’ll see if the left’s crystal ball is any more accurate in 2011.

I know how I’d bet. They can’t help themselves.

[Update a while later]

Something else the chattering class is getting wrong — Barack Obama isn’t the “Comeback Kid.”

Business, Political Commentary, Space

Restrospective And Prospective

You’ll be seeing a lot of pieces like this one from Leonard David over the next few days, with a look back one year and forward one year at commercial spaceflight. Leonard got quotes from Brett Alexander, Jim Muncy, and me among others. I’ll have a couple up myself, probably early next week, at AOL News and Popular Mechanics.

[Update a while later]

Clark Lindsey has a roundup of the past year as well.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Islam On Campus

8 Comments

The numbers from the UK are pretty scary:

The statistic that stood out the most was that 32% of Muslim college students believe it is OK to kill someone in the name of religion. Most who held that belief said that killing is perfectly fine if you are defending your religion. So it shouldn’t be surprising that another CSC study (done in July 2010) revealed that 1/3 of terrorist attacks done by British Muslims the last ten years was done by people who had attended universities.

Other parts of the CSC research found that 40% of Muslims want Sharia law in the UK for Muslims. 1/3 of those want a worldwide Caliphate based on Sharia. There are already over 85 Sharia law schools in the British Isles, so their wish is becoming true. Moreover, 54% of those survey wanted a Muslim Party to be represented in Parliament.

I too would like to see a similar poll done on American campuses.