“Let’s see what happens when the balance on the Supreme Court changes. I think we could have a day in the US when you guys are seen as the fanatics you are and gun appreciation peaks out and wanes. I’m giving it four more years then I’m either gonna switch sides or start blogging about cats.” – mikeb302000
I have a great book about cats I am willing to donate.
That day has already come and gone. Pay attention.
mikeb would actually switch sides? in 4 years? what if obama loses this November? And i doubt gun appreciation will wane if the supreme court changed, too many kids love Modern Warfare , movies and TV to lose interest. Just because they might be stuck with a .22 bolt action or side by side shotgun doesn’t mean they’ll lose interest, they’ll just get very good at reloading. And if he starts blogging about cats, I hope he doesnt post excerpts of his articles here, god i hate those bitchy, filthy animals. Mantis Shrimp make far superior pets.
Don’t hate on all cats, some of em can be pretty cool.. you just gotta get the right kind and raise em right. I’ve got a 25 pound Maine Coon who is the chillest pet in the house, least bitchy pet I’ve ever had. Our dog is awesome as well, but definitely more bitchy than the cat.
The ones I grew up with were bitchy, if you pet them too much, they would get excited and try to play with me by biting me. If if they’re not bitchy, they’re still filthy. Piss and shit in your house, i don’t care if its in a box, they flick their tail constantly across their anus and then across every surface they come across, dogs at least stay on the ground. Plus they’re constantly vomiting everywhere, especially if you have a long hair. I’ll stick with a pet I can keep in a tank, and that has a deep seated desire to kill anything it comes in contact with.
and they’ll destroy your furniture unless you get them declawed
Before today, I never thought I would see a conversation about cats on a gun website.
If you get your cat declawed for anything other than medical reasons you suck as an owner and as a human being. It’s not even legal in many countries.
None of mine were, thats why i’m bitching about them.
What, Claw controll, now ?
You can take their claws when you
pry them from their cold, dead….
um, wait …..
Man I love the comments sections, especially when they are about topics like this. ;P
Maine coons are truly superior cats.
It’s been said that they are a cross between a cat and a bulldozer.
I can’t argue with that.
Would you even hate this cat? 🙂
Apparently the cat we had when I was a child was an anomaly. She never did her business in the house – she would just sit by the front door until someone let her out. Short haired, seldom vomited in the house. Did make a mess of the bottom edge of the sofa, though. Since she was an indoor/outdoor cat declawing was out of the question. No one cared about the sofa except Mom, though.
Like this one Matt?
Yep, a Peacock Mantis Shrimp, the stabbing (Zebra and others) aren’t nearly as fun, not as aggressive, live in holes instead of above ground, and they stab things instead of punching them. This is a better video, the Coral Banded Shrimp rips off its own arm and offers it as a truce to the Mantis Shrimp, it kind of works, until it gets the idea to stick it’s remaining arm in the Mantis lair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG2tvepHN2A
The only video i’ve seen of something killing a Mantis Shrimp, was some kind of octopus on a Japanese TV show.
Yep, gota love the Peakock Mantis Shrimp. This is a better video, the Coral Banded Shrimp rips off its own arm and offers it as a truce, which works until it sticks its remaining arm in the Mantis lair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG2tvepHN2A
The only video i’ve seen of something killing a Mantis Shrimp, was some kind of octopus on a Japanese TV show. Its on youtube somewhere
Here is that video with the octopus
Free Speech is great! Enjoy your cats.
God, cats suck. By all means, though, if you think you’ll enjoy it. But what part of four years means you’ll change sides?
This is coming from an attorney who has spent his life studying Constitutional Law and civil rights, including gun rights. I own many guns and value the right to bear arms. Sorry, but I’m not into fear mongering. The most liberal court in history, the Warren Court, did nothing to hurt gun rights and I don’t expect any future court to overturn Heller. There challenge to gun rights comes from legislatures and executives, not the courts. It is unlikely that we’ll get another Congress any time in the near future that tries to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights. Many Democrats own guns too.
Remember all of that fear mongering that President Obama was going to take away your guns? Yeah? He didn’t. It was nothing but radical right wing b.s. in an attempt to discredit the President’s campaign (and if you ask me, increase gun sales, because that’s exactly what happened). And don’t give me that “if he gets another four years, he’ll take our guns” crap, because he won’t. In his first term, Barack Obama respected gun rights and expanded protection for Second Amendment rights by allowing citizens to carry handguns in national parks and wildlife refuges.
By that measure, President Obama is more pro-gun than Ronald Reagan, who actually campaigned FOR THE BRADY BILL IN A NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED!
There is nothing that would give us a reason to believe that the Supreme Court would overturn Heller, or that the President would be anti gun if he wins another four years.
Congress pushed for the bill that allowed carry in parks and lands NOT the president. He merely signed the bill. His plan for the first four years has been to win a second four years. He has done nothing but divide America with thug tactics and inflammatory actions. His rhetoric and history shows he is anti-2A (from Chicago). Perhaps it is a product of working within the Chicago machine and he has put it behind him, but once a thief always a thief.
It is not that guns will be outlawed but the laws could change to make them impossible to own. For example, I do not see the SCOTUS banning guns, but there is nothing that would stop additional taxes and fees or further restrictions – see CA for examples.
Also, gun ownership is primarily and OFWG activity. The demographics are rapidly changing as we have already seen that white babies are the minority. Latino and Blacks and Women voters and most children having been fed a steady diet of far left and anti gun rhetoric will over time change the agenda and the USA could end up with UK and AUS style gun laws.
Mikeb may get his wish because OFWG do not vote and while there is more gun ownership and more women, the various gun organizations and pro-2A groups do very little to attract membership which is not of the OFWG type. Is there even a national spokes person for pro-2a that is not an OFWG?
Yes, I don’t expect to have to change sides or start cat blogging.
JDT – I’m not an attorney and thus don’t have your background in Constitutional issues, but do pay pretty close attention to what lawyers and judges say and do.
While I can’t speak to the doings of the Warren court, it would seem to me that firearms ownership and CCW in particular might have been less of an issue during the 1950’s and 1960’s than it is now. Again, I’ve not researched this in detail, so can’t comment with any authority on this issue, but even assuming the facts you lay out are correct, it really isn’t terribly relevant. Just because one liberal court did not attack firearms rights 40 years ago, one should not conclude that a new liberal court won’t. Some of the written decisions in recent cases give one cause for concern.
In Heller, Justice Stevens specifically called out the preamble mentioning militias and indicated this belief that gun ownership is tied to state militias only. This is a view that he has espoused in the past. In the McDonald case, Justice Breyer wrote, “In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self defense. There has been, and is, no consensus that the right is, or was, ‘fundamental It seems reasonable to me that should a gun case find itself in front of the current SC, a majority led by Stevens or Breyer could very well rule differently than it has with Heller and McDonald.
It is important to remember that both Heller and McDonald were decided by one vote majorities – splitting on traditional conservative/liberal lines. Should the balance of the SC change by one more vote in favor of the liberal side, later cases could go very differently. This really is my greatest fear because in the end, 2A’s meaning is defined by the SC – that part is also in the Constitution – the SC has the power to “interpret” the Constitution and if a case were to come along where the SC could rule that 2A does not protect private gun ownership, things could be in a real pickle. SC justices don’t care what the voters think as they are not elected and in the past have shown how they don’t really give a damn what the average person thinks – they have applied their elite mentalities (both conservative and liberal justices) to do they believe is best for us.
As for Obama’s first four years being proof that he is gun friendly or at least not gun-hostile, I would disagree here as well. I would instead argue that he is a political realist and understands that overtly pressing for new gun restrictions would hurt his re-election chances. On the other hand, he has quietly used his executive power to hinder gun owners whenever possible. Just look at the ATFE – not only do we have the fast and furious debacle, the illegal gun registry in the border states, but we also have the deliberate roadblocking of Class III firearms and silencer transfers by an agency that has cut back on inspectors while undergoing a huge boon in requests. Seems to me that if he wanted to be more firearms friendly, he could cut back on the gestapo battalion of FFL inspectors who seem to spend all of their time trying to revoke FFLs because someone misspelled something on a form 4473 and instead reassign them to the Class III transfer desk.
+1.
Didn’t Obama also say something to the effect of “don’t worry I don’t have the votes for that…” ? That, to me, implies that they’re actually keeping a tally of who is pro gun and when would be the best time to bring another AWB back to the house floor.
And he told Sarah Brady he was working “behind the scenes” on gun control.
Are you kidding me?! Have you ever heard of the phrase “second term issue.” ? Its an issue that a president cares about but recognizes will be politically unpopular, so it gets put on the backburner until the second term.
I hope you’re right. La Pierre and company are still self-interested idiots, but I will just love it if they turn out to have been right.
The most liberal court in history, the Warren Court, did nothing to hurt gun rights
Utter nonsense. Congress and the states were busy tearing apart the second amendment. The Warren Court was busy screwing up the other nine. Call it division of labor.
I agree. One can never underestimate the power of stare decisis. If you don’t know whqat that means, or what its effect is, read Thomas’ partial dissent in MacDonald, suring which he calls on the majority to overrule the Slaughterhouse Cases. The decision in the latter has long been condemned by jurists and scholars alike–probqably because it was and is dead bang wrong–but rather that overrule it, the Court would rather sidestep the issue, as Justice Scalia patently admits in his majority opinion. REversal of Supreeme Court precedent by a later panel is an extremely rare occurence.
I need an edit key. To clarify, I agree that it is unlikely that Heller or MacDonald will be revesed by a more liberal court.
JDT is factually correct here.
Does this mean we should all run out to vote for Obama? No, of course not — the next President will likely get to nominate at least one Supreme Court justice, and remember that Heller was decided by a 5-4 margin. If it was politically popular, would Obama try to push gun control laws? Of course.
But the same is likely true of any imaginable GOP President, other than maybe Ron Paul or Bob Dornan.
Remember that the vaunted Ronald Reagan supported gun control measures as both Governor and President. Hell, forget ‘behind the scenes’ — he campaigned openly for the Brady Bill.
My God, do you actually think the Gun Collective will fall for your pawltry propaganda? It’s a mere 2 months later and you have been proved a liar (again).
Could somebody just take mike shooting? Let him play around and have some fun. AR’s, Fifty cal, suppressors, machine guns, all the fun stuff he doesn’t want us to have. Get him hooked.
he is a ex-pat living in England, and I think he has said he has gone shooting once or twice
Italy.
You guys know so little about me. It’s funny.
Mike has taken his delusional thinking to a whole new level, and I think his comments are indicative of the panic, stubbornness, and denial that we are seeing across the board with the antis. It is no longer sufficient to just ignore the facts around the failure of gun control. They now must ignore the facts of the growth of the gun industry, the spread of self-defensive thinking, and the increased recognition of second amendment rights. These trends are not limited to OFWGs. Go to any shooting range or event and you’ll see many people in their 20s and 30s, women, elderly folks, kids, and minorities. Self-defense and carry laws continue to spread state to state. The gun industry is one of the few healthy and growing American industries during these tough economic times. Anyone who ignores these trends has their head up their ass. The antis missed their chance during the 70s and 80s when gun rights did appear to be dwindling and could maybe have been dealt a death blow. Things turned around after the 94 elections and they are not going back. No amount of crying and moaning or delusional thinking from the antis is going to change this.
“Go to any shooting range or event and you’ll see many people in their 20s and 30s, women, elderly folks, kids, and minorities. ”
Many???
Yep.
Have you seen the responses to Mike’s blog? Most of the few he gets seem to be responses in disagreement. If he went to blogging about cats he would probably increase his readership a thousand-fold.
This has been around for a while but it’s still a lot more fun and sensible than anything mikeb302000 has to say.
The Dog’s Diary
8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm – Dinner! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!
The Cat’s Diary
Day 983 of My Captivity
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. Bastards!
There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.
Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.
I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now …
lol
The best explaination that I have seen is that the modern gun control movement was an abberation caused by the assasinations and urban riots of the 60’s. It lasted for about a generation from the late 60’s to the early 90’s and has been dying out ever since. The assault weapons ban was their high water mark and the phyrric victory that killed their movement. 9/11/01 was another big nail in the coffin of gun control and fear of the Obama administration combined with the current economic uncertainty has killed the anti gun movement off for good. American attitudes towards guns are returning to their historic norm.
The only people who haven’t figured it out are a few old hippies. To them, all I can say is: Get rid of that stupid Gallagher haircut and get-with the program already!
its not completely dead, my friends brother lives out in Venice CA (near LA), and he is virulent anti gun, he is in his early 30s.
He probably should take him to a range and cure him of the anti-gun disease. I’ve converted quite a few already.
GS, you know nothing about me. Your having converted quite a few is a ridiculous foundation to support the nonsense that all you have to do is take a gun control guy to the range to convert him.
I’d say there are more people moving in the other direction, which by the way, describes me.
1) 6 days later.
2) Nobody was talking about you.
I have come to enjoy mikeb302000’s posts because he reflects the ambivalence towards guns that a significant number of American Citizens express and highlights the sobering reality that no matter how much we gun/pro 2-A aficionados talk about increased gun sales, national right to carry advances, and SCOTUS’s Heller ruling, there is still a long, challenging road ahead to what we ultimately envision. He keeps me mindful that many of those (whose support we need) still in their hearts see many of us as borderline extremists who are potentially dangerous and unpredictable and who somehow enable those who are actually dangerous and unstable. Many of those people fearfully imagine danger to themselves and their families directly related to the many guns in U.S.Society and do not/would not think twice about allowing the craven Politicians they elect time and again to further “infringe” everyone’s 2-A rights in the deluded belief that they will be “safer” somehow.
Insofar as Cats are concerned…people who don’t like them, just don’t understand them. A Dog will eat its own feces. lick its butt, then lick your face, most of them will allow you to beat them to death and most of them smell really bad, even the day after an ungodly expensive perfumed bathing at the groomers. But I love dogs for their loyalty, unconditional love, boundless enthusiasm and joy at just being your “best buddy”.
Cats make you earn their affection, are brave (even a tiny kitten will stiffen its legs, arch its back and defend itself in the face of a perceived threat) and clever (know when to fight and when to flee), don’t smell bad..and when they bite you during play or petting that’s just their way of saying “I really like you!” (Keep in mind that love bites may hurt a bit, but don’t break the skin or draw blood. If a Cat wants to bite you in anger, 99% of the time there will be blood…count on it.) Yeah… the throwing-up fur balls and smelly litter boxes are a downside, but no worse than Dog issues.
While I am being a jerk and making myself unpopular here, I will close by noting that Peach Pie is much, much better than Apple Pie….
If mikey wants to blog about cats, I’n going to help.
Mikey, cats have four legs and a tail. Got that? Great. Now you know more about cats then you do about guns, the Constitution and human rights.
No need to thank me.
That’s more factual than anything else he has posted. He might not like that.
I know plenty of kids who have learned more about history and guns just by playing Call of Duty. They learn about famous battles and they can name every gun. Now they want to go and shoot real guns, so we have a new group of gun buyers when they are old enough to buy their own guns.
Well I have a feeling that Obama might not win a second term. If this is the case then, welcome to the dark side Mike. Have some cookies..
I thought like you once, or at least I wasn’t opinionated enough to care, but now I do. I took a while but now I understand, and it wasn’t from anyone dragging me there, I made the connections on my own.
Why wait, start that cat blog now, you’ve already lost.
Thanks for all the comments. I thought my remark about changing sides would elicit more response than that one about cats.
Months later and still no reply. Go back to Cat Fancy Magazine, they saved a litter box for you