The terrorist attack against American citizens in Orlando looks like a Rorschach test for the chattering classes. Did you think that because the attacker was a Muslim who openly professed loyalty to the Islamic State, and had apparently found the sight of two men kissing revolting and irrelegious, that the attack might have had something to do with Islam? You know, the religion whose adherents openly call for the deaths of homosexuals?
No, turns out you were wrong. It was all about guns. And you’re a terrible person for even suggesting otherwise….
Politicians like Barack Obama and have issued the typical, mealy-mouthed statements using weasel words like “tragedy” and “sad” and “acts of hate”.
If you want a “tragedy” and feel some sort of cathartic sadness, go read Aeschylus. But, frankly, the emotion I feel right now is not sadness, but anger. I didn’t know any of the dead or injured. I don’t know if we had much in common beyond the fact that we were all American citizens. But I don’t need anything more than that. One citizen attacked by an adherent of an noxious religious ideology is one too many. The fact that the President couldn’t manage to man-up enough to say the word “Islam” tells me all I need to know about him. Whatever his virtues (and I assume he has some,) strength and integrity aren’t among them.
No, instead, the President decided that this was the perfect occasion to gas on about gun control. He decried the fact that the Islamic terrorist had a “handgun and a powerful assault rifle“. “[W]e have to decide if this is the kind of country we want to be.”
I’m in agreement with the president on that last point: we do have to decide what kind of country we want to have, for ourselves in the future, for our children, and for generations to come. It’s time to ask some harsh questions, to remain unsatisfied until we have answers that make sense, and to kick to the curb any leader that prefers the mental comfort of threadbare slogans and outdated ideologies to tackling hard issues.
(1) Do we want a country whose citizens can be murdered, on their own soil, by an adherent to an murderous religious ideology, and the reaction of some of the citizens is to claim that the incident occured because Americans have too many civil rights?
(2) Do we want a country as large and diverse as ours to focus its limited resources on losing campaigns to ban things such as firearms, or alcohol and other recreational drugs?
(3) Do we want a country in which an unholy alliance of business interests and left-wing politicians has developed on immigration policy, in which both clearly believe that mass immigration will help them achieve their goals: respectively, an underclass of low-wage workers, and a guaranteed vote at the ballot box? (Thereby endangering some constitutional liberties, not least of which include the right to keep and bear arms, but based on Sunday’s events, I might add: the right to free association in whatever nightclub one might prefer.)
(4) Do we want a country where Chrisitan bakers can be fined for declining to bake a cake for a wedding between two men, but those who dare ask about some of the issues raised in the previous question, above, are denounced as bigots, racists, “Islamophobes” and people generally unfit for society?
(5) Do we want a country where anti-gun ideologues rush to embrace terrorist attacks like the one perpetrated in Orlando with barely-concealed glee because they want to blame the instrument of the attack, and not the person who did it, the religious adherents who supplied the moral and materiel support for the attack, or the religious ideology itself that provided spiritual succor for the murders?
These are the questions that I wonder about now. Because, in part, of who I am — an atheist, whose grandmother was an illegal from Mexico — some of these questions are personally uncomfortable, but patriotism and reason compel me to ask them and follow the answers wherever they lead.
He doesn’t want a country, he wants a Caliphate.
Oh bullshit. Obama is a garden variety liberal. He knows nothing about guns other than what he gets from MSNBC. He believes all the usual lefty media stereotypes. We’re all a bunch of half-literate beer swilling wife beaters in pickups who barely graduated high school blah blah blah bullshit blah blah.
Knowledge about firearms and the Second Amendment is completely beyond his experience. But this idea that the president is a closet Muslim and wants ISIS to win is just not helpful. As gun people we need to get the facts out and support rationality and the rule of law, not herpa derp conspiracy theories.
He may not be a muslim, but he certainly has a contempt for America, it’s institutions and traditions. It’s almost as if he believes setting the savages loose among us is just retribution for our oppressive, white, christian, imperialist past.
“He may not be a muslim”?
Actually he IS a “Moslem” have you ever seen his ring? He’s worn it since high school, ALL “Arabic” writing it even says “There is NO god but Allah”. Like the Orlando shooter he’s also “Gay” with a large “G”. Nothing we have been told about him by his family, friends, supporters and Liberal Media is “true”, hell he’s not even “Black”, he’s “biracial’.
Enlighten yourself: http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obamas-ring-there-is-no-god-but-allah/
I have seen no convincing evidence that he adheres to any ideology except progressivism.
Indeed.
He is as much a zealot for the ‘Church of Progressivism’ as an indoctrinated homicide bomber is to Islam.
And far more lethal, since your garden-variety homicide bomber is dangerous mostly in the bomber’s blast radius.
He dreams of taking this entire country out and converting it into his version of a Progressive theocracy…
Obama’s no Muslim, but he is a good little dhimmi.
So, when his progressive ideals have gutted our economy and left us morally and literally bankrupt unable to feed and /or defend ourselves you’re all saying Jihadi Joe won’t take advantage?
He wants a Latin country, a small, wealthy, protected ruling class ruling over a sea of poverty stricken, dumbed down, dependent, disarmed Loq IQed serfs.
We’re almost there. When the next big economic collapse happens, I don’t know that turning on the electronic presses will save us.
When it happens, not if, but when, it’s gonna be ugly.
It’s both good news and bad, in a political sense, as both left and right will have an opportunity to sell their philosophy of ‘salvation’ to the masses.
This election cycle, we’re in the better position. Trump just needs to point out that the HildaBeast is going to be a third term of Obama…
This. Progressivism is a return to feudalism. We are becoming a divided nation of improvised renters dependent and regulated by omnipresent government control. Ruled by a small minority that exists outside of law and locked into position by the force of the State.
You assume Obama has virtues. You assume incorrectly.
Tom
Personally I’d like a country, or more specifically a political leadership, that doesn’t shit on me every chance it gets because I have the gall to enjoy and exercise my constitutional rights. I’d like to stop being painted as the root of all problems in the country/world just because I’m a white guy who enjoys the shooting sports.
That’s what I’d like.
BO promised to “fundamentally transform America”.
He has succeeded to a great extent in achieving his “transform” goal, which for him meant destroy.
He wants a dictatorship and we’re about there.
I can’t say that I know precisely what kind of country Obama wants, but it sure as hell isn’t America.
Eloquently put.
“[W]e have to decide if this is the kind of country we want to be.”
No Obama, we do not want to be slaughtered like vermin by some detestable piece of garbage, whos actions make him barely recognizable as a human. We want the opportunity to defend ourselves, to stand as humans to face our attackers, to have the chance of defeating evil when we are forced to face it, not to simply survive an attack by some freak twist of fate or luck. Not to be resigned to be something someone “cleans up” after dying in such an unjust manner. To do any of that we require the means to defend ourselves.
We’re about at the point of “irreconcilable differences.”
F the country. Split it. We need a divorce. Let the left and northeast form “The People’s Republic Of America”, and let the midwest and south form “The American Republic”.
That way the liberals can create their utopian paradise, and enforce any rule they want — total gun control, abortion up to and including the day of birth, mandatory gay education and “tolerance” classes in school, a minimum wage of $50k/year, single-payer health care, repeal of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th amendments, raise taxes to 100% on “the 1%”, and repeal of all immigration laws.
The conservatives can create their conservative paradise – outlaw government welfare, slash taxes, get rid of the HUD, Dept of Education, Energy, etc., enable constitutional carry, get rid of all public schooling, ban abortions, enforce immigration laws.
Let’s do it. Let’s just see whose society prospers, and whose collapses in on itself.
Hell, if Trump’d support that, I’d go all in for Trump.
How long before the hungry invade for food? Venezuela is a good example, I bet Columbia is worried what is on the doorstep.
There’s the small problem that the place they’d be invading would be inhabited by armed residents well versed in the use of firearms, and one hopes, small to medium level unit tactics, e.g. the Korean shopkeepers during the LA riots of 1992. Notice how theirs were among the few businesses that weren’t looted and torched? Something like that on Superman steroids.
They can have the NorthEast, over my dead body. What you fail to see is the pockets of liberalism in your “Free” Red States. Just as there are pockets of Red in the Blue States. I do agree there is no common ground, butt, dont assume this is a regional issue. Thats a far to simplistic view of whats coming. Stock fat and deep brothers and sisters. PS, stay far away from the cities, better yet, build walls around them, because, walls do work.
Lot of heart in this piece. Good stuff.
Thank you. I was furious when I wrote the first draft, and had to edit it after calming down a little.
Oooh, please post that original in the comments.
No. It gets boring to read an article that has the word “suck” in it 152 times.
Yes, well written and echoes my own feelings.
How about a country where Islam, homosexuality or firearms owners aren’t to blame. Why is it that he can paint people who use the second amendment to defend their freedoms with one breath as the enemy while claiming people who exercise their first amendment rights to gather, speak or choose their own religions as victims? Why is it that anything that targets Islam is a distraction and politically oriented rhetoric while anything he says about gun control isn’t? Why is it that we “must not give into terrorists” except in the case of gun rights?
There is a reason why Obama uses the phrase “NRA” versus “gun owners.” It is because the NRA is an institution, and when people realize that he is talking about their friends, relatives and neighbors it puts a human face to what they are trying to do. In most cases these faces are of people who are law abiding tax paying citizens like you or I. At the realization that “hey, jim or joe over there isn’t a bad guy why is he trying to demonize them or make them a felony” the battle turns in many cases.
The second amendment shouldn’t be treated as a second class citizen. All rights by all people build on one another, and tearing down one or two of these rights is a danger to all of them.
The man who walked into a night club and started shooting plus those who back and encourage him are the enemy. The ability of people in that night club being compromised so they couldn’t defend themselves is the enemy.
With my final thought I will say that as the gun rights movement we need to encourage inclusiveness. I am happy to see organizations like the Pink Pistols fight for not only their rights, but the rights of everyone else. We need to get as many allies from as many demographics as possible in order to win against people that would rather see us as sheep.
Just one man’s opinion, but I’d like to give living in a free country a try for a change.
Being an atheist means you are a racist, homophobe, and misogynist in the eyes of the libbies. Now you have to swear loyalty to Atheism+ and the Great Fem-Goddess to be acceptable.
“It’s time to … kick to the curb any leader that prefers the mental comfort of threadbare slogans and outdated ideologies to tackling hard issues.”
It will never happen unless the Three Percenter types do it themselves by force. Most of the masses will stick to the comfort of threadbear slogans and outdated ideologies because those things FEEL good.
Our nation, our society is on the proverbial sinking Titanic. Will the masses devote their energy to preparing improvised life rafts to save as many lives as possible when the ship inevitably sinks? No, that doesn’t feel good. Rather, the masses will be cramming in as much fun as possible at the wet bar and the dance floor until the icy water overtakes them.
He wants the same country all leftists want. The Soviet Union.
A wonderful rant, the only flaw (very minor) is that the “but” in paragraph 4 should be an “and”
A country where immigrants will be screened. ALL of them. Where citizens CAN purchase guns, any type of guns, via previous test. There. I can even conceive a test; just like a drivers license. A screening to see who can use what. If they can. At least, this. And once you passed the test, you can have anything you want with no respect to NFA, NSA, ATF and GTFO.
A Republic….and we’re going to keep it!
Make that “A rights-respecting Republic” and I’ll agree.
Republic just means “not a monarchy” and all sorts of despotisms (like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany) were Republics. Even a pure democracy is also a republic (though the reverse is rarely true).
We’ll keep the Republic under the terms of the Constitution that went into effect in 1789 as it would have been interpreted by the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
In response to the President, this I the kind of country I want. Our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is secured by the 2nd Amendment, not threatened by it. Sometimes you have to fight for your rights, and sometimes that requires more than protesting on a sunny day in a safe space. Some aren’t willing to avail themselves of their 2A rights and that’s fine; it’s a free country. But don’t go telling me I have no right to defend myself and my family. If you lack that right, you aren’t free, period. Anybody with a brain can see that gun bans don’t work. France has the gun laws that Progressive dreams are made of, and they have suffered just as many jihadist attacks. So let’s dispense with the BS and find a real solution.
“What Sort of Country Do YOU Want to Have?”
W E A L R E A D Y D E C I D E D
It’s in the Constitution, idiot. You think you can change it, BUT YOU DON’T RATE!
Obama is not one of our Founding Fathers. He’s one of ISIS’s because he seems to continually do for them what they could not do for themselves. CAN WE PLEASE EMPTY GITMO SO YOU CAN WIN THE PR BATTLE WITH YOUR muslim HORDE? Mr. (Manchurian) Prez. – said no one ever.
G.W. BUSH WAS DONE WITH THE WIPE UP IN IRAQ 7.5 YEARS FASTER THAN THIS PRESIDENT COULD EVEN BRING HIMSELF TO SAY muslim EXTREMIST. If you don’t think so, you at least you’d have to admit that Obama thought (without any major conflict engagements under his belt) that it was “mission accomplished” 5 years ago.
“In December 2011, we pulled out — with no stay-behind force. Obama said: “We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations.” When the last of the troops left, Obama called Iraq “self-reliant and democratic.”
http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2014/08/14/obama-the-iraq-bug-out-was-not-my-idea-n1878411
Fuck Obama. It’s his fault this happened. He is the one who yanked the troops out of Iraq despite repeated warnings of it creating a vacuum for terrorists. He is the one who then ignored ISIS when it was forming. And now that ISIS is slaughtering innocents from around the world, including now in the United States, what is his response? To go after gun rights, when gun control hasn’t done squat against stopping these massacres in Europe.
Maybe Ohole didn’t “ignore” when ISIS was forming.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/06/14/hillary-clinton-received-secret-memo-stating-obama-admin-support-for-isis/
To a certain extent, I believe that Obama was following the draw-down program bequeathed to him by GWB when he left office.
That doesn’t absolve him of responsibility – “I was just doing what George Bush told me to do in Iraq” is not exactly a sound defense. A significant chunk of the responsibility DOES go to him. But not to him alone.
You’d have to choke down a 6′ B.S. hero to believe that.
“Status of Forces” agreements are signed with established/recognized governmental entities and full recognition was not granted until the end of President Bush’s last term. Bush would have been crucified by Obama for “leaving” Ohole with an agreement and timetable that Ohole was “stuck” with, so Bush allowed Ohole to negotiate it [away].
it’s all on O, and if you voted for him OR HAVE NOT LEFT THE (D) PARTY SINCE. . .
THEN IT’S ALSO ON-YOU.
First of all, 6″ heroes are for wimps. 9″ or GTFO, losers.
Second, I did not say that Obama’s hands were tied, merely that a plan had been drawn up with the intention of withdrawing from Iraq over the next ~ 4 years that was handed off to Obama, which he then followed. That was my understanding, anyway.
Of course, there was no SOFA in place when Bush left. Obama could have reassessed the situation and done something else while in office. He didn’t.
Shame on Bush for leaving behind a situation in Iraq that was dependent on, essentially, long-term American occupation with an army of 100,000+. Shame on Obama for trying to wash his hands of the entire affair without considering the long-term consequences.
6′ = six FOOT hero.
‘GW Bush left Iraq needing US presence’, you mean like Japan / Germany.
Ceasar codified human nature in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, when he conquered England and [after leaving for ~ 1 year] had to come back and conquer all over again BECAUSE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ENGLAND WERE TOO WILD AND DISORGANIZED A PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY CHRONICLE THE EVENT IN A LASTING WAY.
Ceasar essentially determined that it takes two (2) generations [1 generation = 4 years] so 8 years total, to occupy a territory long enough for an occupied territory of people will actually remember the event.
O hole did not just abandon Iraq, after pre-complaining about the war as a Senator. O hole went after Libya, Syria (and other secularly governed nations) because he’s a muslim sympathizer, and he was doing h’allah’s swill.
I thought we wanted a country acceptant of a religion that is completely incompatible with the ideals of the minority base that elected him.
It would almost be amusing if it werent bearing stupidly tragic, yet completely avoidable fruit.
Mr. Obama: What Sort of Country Do YOU Want to Have?
Donkeycrap free of course.
Be a good citizen and die on your knees. That kind of country.
Dear Johannes,
We apologize that President Obama was unable to read your article but he was too busy masturbating to his own image.
Democratic Party
you lower yourself to a liberals level with such comments. Be better than that
Just 7 more months.
You all should read for yourself The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Amendments to the Constitution, The Articles of Confederation, The Federalist Papers and all that was recorded of what our founders feared and intended for this great nation that are documented to ad nauseum and as a reasonable people we have to conclude that what is happening now to our nation and people is their worst nightmare.
You will see with your own eyes that we have freedom of religion to practice as we see fit or not to practice as we desire but certainly not to impose our will upon each other in anyway. We all have the freedom of choice and are free to chose to love God or not to, as long as it does no harm to anyone else. The freedoms of the press, of speech, of assembly, and to petition are in the same amendment. Would we deny yourself or anyone any of those?
What could be more perfect? That is the same choice given us by Jesus. He won’t force himself upon us, but he does hold out his hand to us. Yes I claim to be a Christian and I want you to go to heaven but I am not supposed to force you to believe, but just to tell you about the love of God and his plan for you. I certainly hope you will understand there is nothing for me to gain in the end but my own salvation. That is all that there is.
But we do have to live on this earth in the mean time.
The pesky second amendment is the one that gives the people power and protection from and over the government if it over reaches what the people feel is acceptable. It ain’t for rabbit hunting! You can see for yourselves why the Obama’s, Clinton’s and a lot of other people want to get rid of the second amendment. Call them “they” and they want to be who tells the rest of US (you and I) what we can or cannot or by God just better do.
He who beats his sword into a plow shear will be plowing for him who did not. There are people out there who think they should rule over you. Wanna be a slave? There are prayers in the Bible asking for victory over ones oppressor.
We fought a civil war to free our brothers and sisters from slavery. Would we put chains on ourselves?
This world and our nation have plenty of people who would love to rule you and I because they think they know better than you or I do concerning our lives and they really don’t care.
Do you want someone to decide if you can have a cigarette or not? How about if you can have a hamburger with fries and a soda? There are Mayors in some big American cities trying that now! They want to tell you all these things as well as where, and how to live, you will not own anything if they get their way! All you produce will go into a pile and they will decide what you get or don’t get.
They have already set aside great swaths of land in this nation where the American public cannot go without permission. That land is supposed to be for the use of the people not held by the government.
They are Progressive politicians who would love to make peasants of the rest of us. No middle class and no chance to do better.
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies…..
…Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.
To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways – by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness – cherishing the first, avoiding the last – and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.”
George Washington – Jan 8, 1790
by all means Mr. President, please read the whole thing…
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29431
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