"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Remedial Civics (Updated)


Piers Morgan, the British journalist who presently is working as a commentator on CNN, has been vocal in his calls for tighter regulation of guns and ammunition. The expected response is, of course, just as expected: a petition to deport him has gotten 62,000 signatures in two days. I'm sure those 62,000 are all "real 'Murricans" who have the Second Amendment memorized.

British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.

Wayne LaPierre could have written that, don't you think?

Unfortunately for the signers, they should have spent some time memorizing some of the other ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights -- like the First. You know, the one that guarantees freedom of speech.

Oh, and a little dose of reality wouldn't hurt: Morgan, has vocal as he has been, has absolutely no power to do anything to the Second Amendment, or any other.

More's the pity.

Update: Just caught this story:

The day after Labor Day, just as campaign season was entering its final frenzy, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based tea party organization, went into free fall.

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news.

Josh Marshall has an interesting quote at TPM:

“This was two weeks after there had been a shooting at the Family Research Council,” said one junior staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “So when a man with a gun who didn’t identify himself to me or other people on staff, and a woman I’d never seen before said there was an announcement, my first gut was, ‘Is FreedomWorks in danger?’ It was bizarre.”

Maybe that's the whole point.

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