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PAGE NINE -- No. 40 |
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by Alan Korwin, Jan. 30, 2008 |
ALAN'S ON THE MOVE:
Feb. 2 - 4, 2008
Feb. 23 - Mar. 2, 2008 Send me an email if you'd like to try to hook up along the way, at the meetings, or at the bigger ranges and stores -- I plan to visit as many as I can.
March 18, 2008
Quote of note: ---------- 1- Gun Ban Questioned The lamestream media told you: "Senators Urge Bush to Allow Guns In National Parks -- Nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush Administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges," writes Mathew Daly for the AP.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Senate Trying to Drop Infringement on Federal Land -- National Parks, unlike other federal lands, maintain a total ban on operable or visible firearms, with no apparent authority to do so. The Senate, after decades of inaction, is finally trying to end this civil-rights abuse. The authorities who implemented the ban by regulation, with no enabling statute, are unlikely to face punishment. Currently, even driving across these federally managed lands subjects an otherwise innocent citizen to arrest, fines and confiscations. ---------- 2- Political Gun Control The lamestream media told you: The presidential campaigns are all avoiding the hot-potato issues of gun control, renewing the assault weapons ban and increasing Brady background checks for gun buyers.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: The only gun issues the media can see are missing are gun-ban and rights-denial issues. Real gun issues are really really missing, like nationwide discreet carry for all law-abiding citizens -- the same as retired and off-duty police got in 2005. This was promised to the public as "the next step," to help gain support for national cop carry. Absolutely nothing has been done for the public since then. Also missing -- any discussion of interstate carry-permit recognition under the full-faith-and-credit clause, gun education for students, national safety-training programs, tax credits for good marksmanship, gun-free-zone liability laws, repeal of various odious gun bans, and similar common sense, reasonable "Sunshine Gun Laws." Why the powerful gun lobby has not pressed for such laws, and why reporters have not asked candidates about such things, was unknown at press time. --------- 3- "Greenwashing" Abuses Investigated The lamestream media told you: Al Gore, in an effort to reduce global warming and help save the planet, buys "carbon offsets" to compensate for his "carbon footprint" and reduce the "net carbon emissions" generated by his 26,000 square foot home and frequent jet trips around the world to speaking engagements. This makes Gore's larger-than-lifestyle "carbon neutral."
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Al Gore buys his so-called carbon offsets from a firm he owns, a possibly deceptive practice now called "greenwashing." Many greenwashing schemes are spreading, playing on people's fears and ignorance. Gore is chairman of the London-based company, Generation Investment Management, according to WorldNetDaily. The Center for Media and Democracy reports that, "Deborah Majoras, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission feels that with the tremendous growth in the field, there is potential for abuse of the public's trust. The last revision of the FTC's environmental advertising guidelines was in 1997, and did not include terms common today, like sustainability, carbon offsets or renewable energy. "As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated." She's being too kind. A simple Google search reveals thousands of scam-looking
operators seeking money to clear a consumer's conscience with
unverifiable promises to plant trees somewhere and no measurable or
scientific information whatsoever. Further details: ---------- 4- Bush Snubs Heller The lamestream media told you: The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the District of Columbia's gun ban in the D.C. v. Heller case. The Office of Solicitor General's brief makes it clear that regulation and registration of guns is allowed under the Second Amendment.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: The OSG brief is disappointing from a pro-rights view but the media's characterization of it, like nearly everything the media does about guns, is just wrong. Bush's Justice Dept. brief recognizes 2A as an individual right, and asks that the D.C. ban be overturned. What it does not do is ask for "strict scrutiny," the highest standard when applying 2A to other laws across the nation. I suspect (without hard evidence) OSG is trying to justify some wiggle room in the decision, so a robust individual-right finding does not also wash away gun laws that even hard-boiled gun-rights advocates usually support (for prisoners, escapees, parolees, fugitives, arming vessels of foreign powers, violent felons, true nut jobs, sticking up convenience stores, etc). None of that would end anyway. What's important now is to ask the presidential candidates
where they stand on gun rights. It's critically important, so expect the
media to not do it. If you can squeeze a question into the debate at a
town hall, ask. For a clear description of the matter, my friend Sandy
Froman has a good one posted at TownHall.com (remove the blank space to
link up): Some 19 briefs asking the Court to deny your rights have been filed by the usual suspects: Janet Reno and former Justice Dept. officials, the NAACP, American Academy of Pediatrics, a variety of "public health" groups, Brady and the Violence Policy Center, several city mayors, D.C. activists, and 18 members of Congress. The brief supporting the Second Amendment from Heller's team is due Feb. 4, and friend-of-the-Court briefs for the we-have-rights side come a week later. As many as 40 are expected. Stay tuned. John Lott points out: The District's acting attorney general, Peter Nickles, happily noted that the Justice Department's brief was a "somewhat surprising and very favorable development." Alan Gura, the attorney who will represent those challenging the ban before the Supreme Court, accused the Bush administration of "basically siding with the District of Columbia" and said that "This is definitely hostile to our position." Los Angeles Times said in their lead on Sunday, "gun-control advocates never expected to get a boost from the Bush administration." --------- 5- U.N.'s Comic Book The lamestream media told you: Nothing.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Also from the Center for Media and Democracy, "The UN is partnering with Marvel Comics on a comic book to be released later this year. The comic "is expected to be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature heroes including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, as well as workers from UN agencies such as children's charity UNICEF, and blue helmets of the peacekeeping forces. Eventually, the work will be translated into several other languages ... but it is American schoolchildren who the UN plans to target first. ... The comic will be distributed free to one million U.S. school children." Although the report says the comic will be "free," experts note that everything called "free" actually "costs" someone, and in this case, most U.N. funding comes from U.S. taxpayers. ---------- 6- National Biometric ID The lamestream media told you: "Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled secure basement here," she writes. Soon the system will be able to spot "criminals and terrorists" and presumably anyone else by iris patterns, face shape, scars, and by your walking stride and speech patterns. "Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," says T.E. Bush III of the FBI Criminal Justice Info Services Division, of the system based in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: The article doesn't say it, but tiny Clarksburg, WV (16K pop.), is where the FBI "NICS" gun background check computer is housed. That system (a set of buildings on a sprawling "campus") was designed to be able to check any American from a single location. It was built with $250 million a year for four years by former AG Janet Reno, under the guise of controlling gun sales. Although the pressure was on to "do something" about guns, the real reason appeared to be to finally fund a massive citizen tracker for the FBI (with more than $1 billion casually added recently in the NICS "Improvement" Act). These reasons for the most massive real-time computer ID system ever conceived were ignored in public discussions, government press releases and "news" reports. The AP has still not connected the dots. The Uninvited Ombudsman however, who didn't even have that title at the time, sounded a faintly heard alarm that the NICS "gun" system was actually the framework for centralized FBI computer control of the entire population. It makes perfect sense from a bureaucratic mindset, if you overlook the totalitarian potential. Eventually, if the NICS system says nix to you, you won't be able to use your bank account, board aircraft or do anything that requires a card swipe. RFID chips will eliminate the need to even swipe a card since you'll just be read at a distance as you pass by (and if you can't be read a flag will go up). Think of the convenience. You won't even have to stop at cash registers (take a photo of those quaint devices while you still can), since all products can have RFID printed on the labels with metallic ink (replacing olden manual bar codes). All your purchases and bank info will be scanned by sensors at the exit, your status will be checked, and off you go. Very efficient -- why would an honest person object to this brave new world... order. According to the Post, employers can voluntarily register their workers in the system to keep an eye on them. "It is drawing criticism from those who worry that people's bodies will become de facto ID cards," Nakashima writes. Sarah Brady could not be reached for comment. The Uninvited Ombudsman may have been wrong in claiming the system could track any U.S. citizen because, according to the Post, it can also track anyone "abroad," implying the entire planet. 7- Superbowls Aren't Elections The lamestream media told you: The Patriots will play the Giants at the Superbowl in Glendale, Arizona. See eight pages of coverage inside.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Even though I am a football fan, it has become intolerable to see newspapers everywhere give more coverage to an opiate for the masses (coliseum games) than to elections (the job of the fourth estate, a well informed public, the fate of the nation, etc.). At least they continually complain the turnout for voting is so low. Considering that elections are pretty much presented as horse races though, maybe that's not so bad. I like New England because of the team's name, and the Giants cuz there from my birthplace. Tough choice, but at least I will be in Vegas (for the SHOT Show) when the game is played. Shucks, I wanted to eyeball Paris Hilton in my home town. ---------- 8- Friendly Gasoline Tax The lamestream media told you: "Would you pay an extra 66 cents a day -- on top of soaring gas prices -- if it meant less rush hour traffic, better public transit and fewer people dying on the highways?" writes Hope Yen in a lead sentence for the AP. A special commission "is presenting a choice something like that," Yen says.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Trying to sell the government's interest in raising taxes, using hollow appeals the government hands you, is not the proper role of a reporter, but no charges are expected to be filed. "With mountains of money already poured into Washington by taxpayers, and much of it grossly wasted, asking for more to provide essential services is a brutal slap in the face," says The Uninvited Ombudsman, speaking on condition of anonymity. Justifying the increase by pointing out the tax hasn't gone up in 15 years, and that the Minneapolis bridge collapse was caused by an inadequate design, adds insult to injury. Repeating a commissioner's claim that the cost is "less than the price of a candy bar," is an affront, and hopelessly deceptive if you do the math and see the estimate is actually $240 per year per person, forever. ---------- 9- Times' Grizzly Deception The lamestream media told you: The New York Times reported that returning vets have committed or are charged with 121 murders in the U.S. since the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns began. Part of an ongoing campaign to educate the public, the story ran on the front page on a Sunday, above the fold.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: In one of the most reprehensible deceptions of many perpetrated by The New York Times, the paper failed to mention that, according to their published statistic, returning veterans are at least five times less likely to commit murder than the population at large. The Times smear story actually shows that U.S. military service has a measurable and enormously positive impact on behavior, but they failed to include that point in their sensationalist page-one assault on our troops. Experts have long noted that America has what may be the most well behaved and ethical military the world has ever seen. Remove the blank space to use this link and read all about it,
in the Times' competitor, The New York Post: |
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