Quote of the Day — Sheila Stokes-Begley (April 15, 2015)

Writing, as she often does, at The Zelman Partisans:

For people to live in freedom, freedom from slavery, from poverty, from annihilation, the first thing we need to do is to quit committing suicide.

She's referring to the Jewish people, in honor of Yom HaShoah — the Holocaust Remembrance Day* — and how Jews and others likely voted for the very politicians and laws that would eventually be used in an attempt to destroy them.

In the modern era, American Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat and support the same "common sense gun laws" that disarmed their forebears and enabled the lawfully-elected government of the time to exterminate them. The relevant German laws were the 1928 Law on Firearms and Ammunition, which did relax prior restrictions but created a mandatory licensing and registry scheme for all firearms; the March 1938 German Weapons Act, which further relaxed some regulations for some people (mostly government workers), but tightly controlled handguns and completely prohibited issuing firearm manufacturing licenses to Jews; and the November 1938 Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons, which removed all gun rights from all German Jews.

Do I need to say that, because of the 1928 law requiring full licensing and registration, the government workers charged with collecting Jewish-owned firearms knew exactly where to find them?

Or that America's Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA'68) was rooted in the German example and copied nearly verbatim from their March 1938 law?

At this point, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the Jews of the time (or now, for that matter) were/are assisting in their own suicide.

American conservatives and gun owners, generally, aren't any better. As a group, we're so easy to divide into warring factions too busy fighting each other to mount an effective resistance to lock-step "Progressives" and their collectivist agenda. Libertarians don't trust Republicans, and vice versa, and refuse to work together consistently. "Gun Culture 1.0" (generally older folks, mainly hunters and "sport shooters", shotguns and bolt-action rifles) doesn't stand up to help "Gun Culture 2.0" (generally younger crowd, focused on self-defense, prefer semi-auto pistols and modern rifles) when the gun-grabbers go after "assault weapons". The "concealed carry all the time" crowd doesn't tend to support the "open carry all the time" crowd.

Here's the reality, as stated by Benjamin Franklin: "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." We are here to defend our rights. How we choose to exercise our rights is not anywhere near as important as protecting our rights. All of our rights. We must cease the in-fighting; it only serves the "gun control" and "Progressive" agendas by making us easier to defeat politically.

In short, in order to continue to live in freedom, we must quit committing suicide.

Stay safe.
------------
* - I'll be reminding my pastor about this day, too. We're not Jewish, but we do support Israel, and the historical parallels are numerous. As they say, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Gun Cleaning Accident

 Jose Canseco Shoots Finger In Gun Cleaning Accident

(riveraveblues.com)

Hey, hey, hey: be careful out there!

HT: TMZ

On "Othering" Allies

Programing note: This blog is about two months old. In that period, I've often felt I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness. However, as of now, there's two voices crying in the wilderness. Please join me in welcoming Archer, a man with definitely a lot to say!

I had originally hoped that my first post here would be lighter and/or more humorous, but inspiration is a funny thing, and we have to work with what we're given.  So here goes.

We hear constantly - in the mainstream media, in online and face-to-face discussions, everywhere about "The Left" and "The Right," and what each side wants.  And we hear each side demonizing and ridiculing the opposing side in a desperate race-to-the-bottom to out "Other" the opposition.

It makes my brain do a fingernails-on-a-blackboard cringe.

"But, wait" - in the words of the late Billy Mays “there's more!"  Not only does The Left try to portray The Right as the "Other" - and vice versa - but The Right tries and generally succeeds at doing it to themselves.

Perhaps these Gallup poll findings should come as no surprise; the number of claimed Independents is at nearly unprecedented levels, as both the "major" parties succeed in alienating the fence-sitting moderates.

And that brings us around to the topic of this post, and the unexpected events that inspired it.

We were at our County Fair recently, and stopped by the local Republican Party kiosk to chat with the folks working the tent.  Oregon recently held its primary elections, and the strongest Republican contenders were Tea-Party-favorite and Oregon-Firearms-Federation endorsed Jason Conger and GOP-establishment-darling Dr. Monica Wehby -- Wehby won on an entirely anti-Affordable-Care-Act campaign and will face our current sitting Democratic Senator in November.

What surprised me, though, was how incensed the people at the tent got when we hit the topic of who would have been a better candidate, based on their respective platforms.  Everyone working the tent seemed to reflexively oppose Conger and support Wehby, even though nobody could seem to agree where either candidate stood on any non-ACA issue.

(Don't get me wrong, I'd like the ACA repealed as much as the next person, but there are other issues I care about, too.  As you might have noticed, this is a gun blog, and Jason Conger is strongly pro-gun; Wehby hasn't formally taken any position on firearms, but her affiliations in the Portland-area ["gun-control"-central in Oregon] and her active membership/support of the AMA [which sees guns as a "public health issue"] make her views somewhat suspect.)

My final remark before we left the tent was this: "The fact that we're even having a discussion like this means a lot of the message is being lost."  And it is, to our detriment.  Conger -- like most primary challengers -- had already been successfully "Othered" by the GOP establishment long before any primary ballots were cast.

Circular Firing Squad

And that, I think, is why the GOP doesn't seem to win any big elections outside their strongholds.  The Left comes in two main varieties -- we'll call them "Liberal" and "Progressive" -- which march in ideological lock-step, differing mostly in degree and method.  The Right, on the other hand, is more like Baskin Robbins' 31 flavors -- moderates, big-L and small-l libertarians, Constitutionalists, Tea Partiers, generic "conservatives," and the Liberal-Lite variety known as "RINOs" (did I miss anyone?) -- and the differences are anything but subtle.  Like a double-scoop of orange sherbert and mint chocolate chip, yeah, we'll mix, but it'll leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

Why would we do this?  Why would we waste so much political and monetary capital fighting amongst ourselves that there's nothing left for the main event?

It's no longer any wonder that every election feels like choosing the lesser of two evils.  It's even less wonder why more Independents lean toward Democratic principles.  The Left presents both a unified front and a synchronized message; The Right is too divided against itself to do either.