Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
When it comes to the Second Amendment and guns, it seems that President Obama can’t make anyone happy. Ever since Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency, the NRA has screamed that Obama will be taking away the guns. This scare tactic continued when Obama defeated John McCain for the Presidency. Just what has Barack Obama done to make the NRA and gun owners frightened for their guns? The simple answer to this question is nothing. The head of the National Rifle Association, Mr. Wayne LaPierre actually admitted recently that Obama has done nothing to attack gun owner’s rights to bear arms, but claims Obama’s inaction against guns is actually a conspiracy to take away guns!! ‘ “[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone,” LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday. “In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment.” “But it’s a big fat stinking lie!” the NRA leader exclaimed. “It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country.” ‘ Raw Story
Now, before anyone thinks I am making this stuff up, the linked site includes a video clip wherein Mr. LaPierre verbalizes this alleged reverse conspiracy. Mr. LaPierre makes a point of throwing in the necessary names of alleged liberal co-conspirators to rev up his base. ‘ “Sotomayor, Kagan, Fast & Furious, the United Nations, executive orders. Those are the facts we face today… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!” ‘
The lying, conniving Obama crowd as Mr. LaPierre labels them has not done anything to harm the Second Amendment rights that the NRA claims to be at risk. I was interested in the last few words of LaPierre’s quotation above. The phrase “kiss our Constitution” appears to lay claim that the NRA and its followers own the Constitution and its protections. I could have sworn that my law school Constitutional professors taught me that the Constitution protects all citizens, but maybe I heard them wrong. But, I digress.
As the Raw Story article suggests, President Obama has actually taken heat from his own supporters over his alleged conspiracy to not take away the guns. NPR Does Mr. LaPierre provide any evidence of this bizarre claim? None that I could find. Maybe you will have better luck than me in finding evidence of presidential actions to hide President Obama’s intentions and/or actions of stealing legal guns from their owners.
I have to admit that if you read the comments section of the NPR article that details how the Left is disappointed with Obama’s inaction on gun control, you will read almost nothing except gun owners claiming that Obama’s words of inaction are actually code words that the End is Near and the Sky is Falling for gun owners! Just what will it take gun owners to ask Mr. LaPierre for evidence of his wild claims? I, for one would love to hear his answer to that question. I understand that candidate and President Obama may have stayed away from the 2nd Amendment issues for political reasons, but where is the evidence of this alleged conspiracy? I would think Fox News would be sending Bill O’Reilly’s reporters all over the country to uncover such a heinous conspiracy.
If Mr. Obama has not written any executive orders or supported additional legislative steps to control or take away guns since he has become President, just what is the basis for these wild claims? I realize that the NRA has a financial interest in getting gun owners scared into buying more guns, but are there other, underlying reasons why the gun owners are frightened so easily, when the facts do not support the NRA’s claims?
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
Additional sources: Gun Owners of America; NRA-ILA; Pajamas Media;
Mike,
I never studied with Feynman, but I did study with a student of Smale for several years (who is quite well-known on his own), Luol Deng once apologized to me for having a bad game on my birthday, and Cal Ripken, Jr. told me I had a good handshake (so I got that going for me…). I can’t verify any of these (well… I suppose I can verify the first – it would be on my transcript), but they are all true.
anon,
Actually, I’m guessing that I have once again demonstrated my integrity to anyone who’s opinion I’m likely to care about, while you have demonstrated your lack of the same. You’re nothing but an ignorant, hate-filled little troll and you are deserving of nothing by my contempt – but I pity you anyway…
anon,
A year ago last month my then 1 year old granddaughter went through a 14 hour open heart surgery to correct birth defects to her heart (valve, arteries, hole). After having gone through all the usual difficulties in life that any 65 year old woman encounters, that one day stands out as the hardest day of my life … multiply that 10 fold for my daughter and son-in-law. Her prognosis going in was not good … the result was a 100% cure that left her doctors literally stunned and to this day referring to her as their “miracle” baby.
I tell you this for no other reason than to give you a context for my next comment … I wish you all the best in dealing with your heart situation and highly recommend St. Anthony to you. (Put any and all prejudices aside and look him up knowing that I am not Catholic, probably not even Christian, but willing to testify to the strength that can be found down that path.) If any ask me to back this up, I won’t. One does not argue these sorts of matters.
Why are people in so much pain. I read this space and ache.
Mike,
I never said I worked with Feynman. Student, not colleague. He wouldn’t have known me from Adam if you had asked.
Also, I may have misled you, I do have heart issues, and have required (too many) open heart surgeries, but nothing yet to suggest I need a transplant. My interest in transplantcafe is that it is good and interesting to see a great support community.
Regarding credibility, just go down this thread, first with Gene, then with Kevin. Google what I’ve said. Pass my comments regarding DNS etc past a friend. Gene is a total bullshit know nothing. Kevin an unethical tool. I’ve given you plenty of links so that you can determine the truth of each. Gene has given you a bunch of bluster, Kevin a lot of whining denials.
But actually Bdaman is completely correct about the total waste of time.
Mike,
Enjoy your holiday – see you on the other side!
anon,
I made the following post on the corrections page:
This is as far as I’m willing to go in raising the issue to the Professor. Once again, we see that I act in transparency and good faith while you consistently demonstrate the opposite.
Bron,
I’ll take your “new” handle as a sop towards my request and I greatly appreciate it. I meant what I said above about your support on the 9/11 thread – it was important to me, thanks.
As for your arguments as to why the free market should be regulated, I’ll address them for a break this afternoon or this evening…
Blouise,
As I clearly still don’t posses the ability to comment here in moderation, I’ll probably avoid commenting regularly, but I am watching the site and will certainly add my $0.02 from time to time. Sorry I wasn’t Johnny Depp (I did bear a resemblance to Steven Segal when I wore my hair in a pony tail – before I shaved my head – but that’s just not the same, I know… :-()
Bdaman,
Thank you for respecting my time. Just so you know, I would have been happy to give you as much info as I could have dug up had you met my price of an act of good faith, but I’m fine with this, too.
In regards my time and the drama, I may have lost a day of work time, but I also got other things out of it which I feel are worthwhile. This doesn’t impact my short-term plans, but it is a project I plan on returning to in the future. In any case, this distraction will probably cost me some sleep in the next couple of days, but I doubt it will cost me financially… Anyway, take care of yourself and your mother until someone summons you by using your name on another thread I’m commenting on.
Finally, I want to mention that a computer technician will arrive shortly to deal with my security issues, so I’ll be offline.
Actually though, tonight is the eve of the Jewish New Years, Rosh Hashonah. I have had many blessings this year and my thoughts and prayers will be involved in giving thanks for them, atoning for my sins and hoping I will be put into the Book of Life for another year. I extend that wish to all of you and also my regrets for offenses towards some of you that I might have made. I will be offline for the next 2 1/2 days so don’t expect further responses from me.
L’Shana Tovah.
“But you’re barking up the wrong tree if you think I give a shit about who the guest bloggers are. Most of you are damn fools, but I still have no idea what anyone except for Professor Turley would gain by dumping your asses.”
“I will admit though, that I think of the guest bloggers write posts that are just total crap and demean the blog and Professor Turley and he would be better off moving on to different guest bloggers.”
“Anyway Mike, so what is it? Are you an iconoclast, an independent, a liberal, a progressive?”
Anon,
I am an iconoclast, as I’ve already stated and shown through the years by the positions I’ve taken, the sense of which I presented in a comment way above. Now as for not giving a shit about who the guest bloggers are Anon that is totally disingenuous given your continued attacks on their work as well as my own. Whether you are working directly with others, or just your lonesome, does not belie the fact that your writings have all been to deface the credibility of these guest bloggers. That, by the way is your right and I would not want that right to be stifled, but because you have the right to say things doesn’t prevent others like myself from calling you on it.
You claim to have a degree in physics and to have worked with Feynman. Very impressive and I’m sure a claim that cannot be at all substantiated.
The advantage of anonymity is that you can claim to be anything you want
and no one can dispute it. Slarti, has not invoked that privilege for himself and so right there I give him greater credibility. The guest bloggers also do not maintain anonymity. As for Anonymously Yours he has his reasons, but I know his name since we have exchanged E Mails. This is true for many of the other regular commenters here, there is discussion that goes on beyond the blog and there exists a community beyond it as well. Therefore in my scaling of credibility those who I know rise above your own. You have the right to be anonymous though and I don’t urge others to take the path I’ve chosen. However, while anonymity provides protection it also diminishes credibility.As for my take on your dispute with Slarti, I’ll let my two posts above talk to my position.
“Also, on a completely unrelated note, I was surprised, saddened, glad to learn of your heart issues. And interested to learn about transplant cafe. I’m not where you are, but I think I’ll be getting open heart #3 soon, and that’s due to a birth defect and apparently a body just really annoyed with the various replacement valves.”
I’m sorry to learn of your own heart issues and since via parents, siblings and myself have lived with them all my life I can empathize with your distress. As for Transplant Cafe, from what you describe of your issue I’m not sure if that will be a helpful resource for you at the moment. As an aside someone who gets to see the blog part of Transplant Cafe, would have to register there. This means that if in the bleak possibility that it was where the photos were gleaned (highly unlikely) that gleaner would have had to register there with the false information that he was a members of the pre and post transplant community, that is who and what it is for.
Regarding your own heart problems i wish you well. I think, if your MD’s haven’t mentioned it you should explore getting an ICD (google it) because that device is minimally invasive and saved my life on at least 6 occasions. As for your possible need of a transplant though, that issue should be fully explored with your Physicians, many good Heart Specialists are not conversant with transplants and indeed though I’ve always had excellent Doctors, many were reluctant to tell me that my condition was degenerative no matter how I modified lifestyle. I was very lucky that just as my heart began to rapidly fail I ran into a doctor who set me on that path. I wish you well in your coming procedure.
Slarti,
“Blouise,
You were brought up because most (two-thirds) of the many (3) posts by Swarthmore mom’s multitude (2) of unacknowledged sock puppets were in support of you. And… HI BLOUISE! *waving*”
Damn, not Johnny Depp … waving madly back at you and very, very glad to see you posting again.
Mike,
“Their typical tactic, with which you are no doubt familiar is to call their attackers unethical, while conveniently forgetting their unethical behavior.”
Bingo!
Otteray Scribe,
Yes, indeed, banning is the way it’s handled. There are those who compete with each other to see how many times they can be banned … it’s a game for them and they write some nasty, nasty stuff to see how long it stays up.
“It had nothing to do with the DNS server. It had to do with IP Address Allocation.”
No shit, Sherlock. IP allocation that works with the DNS server systems to tell the server what’s connected to it where in conjunction with the regional Internet registries and the local Internet registries (a.k.a. ISPs and other entities that buy blocks of addresses). How does the FBI knows a hacker is working out of say, Lisbon? They analyze the DNS traffic to get the IP’s being used and cross-reference with the data of the RIR’s to narrow suspect addresses down to a local block of address owned by an ISP or other entity. They got Markham because his header information contained IP information for his mail servers. Mail servers that like everything else on the Internet are connected and have their traffic managed by the DNS systems.
But you’re the expert. You should have known that.
Good luck in catching Vinnie, Slarti. He sounds like a piece of work.
“You offered an explanation, I was examining the evidence. Since, your explanation only accounted for one photo that was mentioned, and then not even well (has NL been lurking on the site since before Mike deleted his profile? How do you explain the second picture reference? etc.) in my opinion it has holes big enough to drive a Stephen King Deus Ex Semi into.”
Gyges,
Thank you for making that point, let me expand the argument further though. I’m not into keeping photographs on my PC. The “My Photos” section of “My Documents” only contained 3 photos. One labelled “Mike”
which is what I use for my Gravatar. One labelled “Mike and Max” which is a picture of me and my wife at a Cocktail Party. This is the photo I cropped to get the “Mike” picture. The 3rd is labelled “Grampa and Grandson” of whom being obvious. No Way’s alter ego NL, clearly identified these three photos and referenced that they came from the “My Pictures” file on my PC. He described my wife’s dress and could obviously see that I had cropped my Gravatar from the couple’s photo.
As to the one with my Grandson, he brought that into the discussion because it was taken when I was dying and I looked like crap. His point was that I was being deceitful in using a better picture of myself, from an earlier time, though God knows why he even considered that relevant.
Given his writing and given that these are the only three picture of me on my computer, I think it is patently obvious what he was doing. Since the “My Photos” file is a subset of “My Documents” on my PC, it is obvious that his invasion of my privacy was of a more sinister nature. Beyond that the whole comment where he did this was of a threatening, sinister nature. Given that the unfortunately sidetracked topic was gun control one is left to wonder how far he is willing to carry his menace. The ironic part of it all is that I’m a supporter of the Right to Bear Arms and have made that clear here for years.
Bron,
Glad to see you back after so long. What a fortuitous occurrence for you to suddenly reappear after a long hiatus only to run full into a heated debate. In your return you then offer this little tidbit:
“Did it occur to you and others that you were engaging in force to stifle dissent? To me that is the unconscionable part, that a person who classifies himself as a liberal would resort to force to discourage others from voicing their opinion. And then to defend the indefensible instead of just admitting a mistake. I would expect Buddha is Laughing to stifle dissent through force but not you.”
The destruction of any debate is deceit. One enters into debate with the hope that those with whom she/he disagrees are indeed the same individuals, even via the use of pseudonyms. The debate gets stifled and distracted one of the parties uses sock-puppets to distract via serving as a Greek chorus. This distracts because it diffuses the discussion and makes difficult the task of addressing others points. This was what was occurring here when Slarti began his project.
A concerted effort was being made to disrupt each thread and thereby cause the topic to become unfocused. Since the days of Richard Nixon
“dirty tricks” this has been the skill and the trade of various paid members of the Corporatists. The Koch Bros. ALEC Project is but an example. Professor Turley’s least activity of note is his blog. He has dedicated himself to taking principled stands on Civil Liberties issues, despite some of those stands unpopularity among the Corporate Establishment. This has made him a target and his blog, as one of his means of self-expression, has been attacked by those who would sow
disinformation for fun and profit. Perhaps, given your past writings you may even fall among that group, who knows.
No one’s debate/opinions were stifled by exposing their using the ruse of
multiple, anonymous identities. What did occur was that their deceit in debate was exposed and I assume that made them uncomfortable. People of this ilk have as a group shown to be “whiners” when attacked, despite their own original duplicitous methods, somehow feeling they are victims when their deceptions are exposed. Their typical tactic, with which you are no doubt familiar is to call their attackers unethical, while
conveniently forgetting their unethical behavior.
Slarti:
I got news for you, I dont believe in free enterprise to the point of violating some one’s right to privacy or to the point of violating ethical standards. There are 2 aspects to human liberty, they are economic and political freedom. You cannot have one without the other.
Personal privacy is a part of political freedom. A violation of some one’s privacy is a pretty serious offense in my opinion. But I understand why you did it and I also agree with anon that just because something can be done doesnt mean you should do it.
I also agree with anon [who is about my age] that there is a real problem in this country with ethics. Now I may have backslid a bit here [and you know why] but you and others did what you did to try and stifle dissenting opinion. You may think I am a troll but my views are shared by very many people who have concern for our country and people.
The harvesting of email addresses isnt that big a deal, as Gene H said there isnt much expectation of privacy on the web, but the reason you did it is rather disturbing. Honestly, did you think about what you were doing? Did it occur to you and others that you were engaging in force to stifle dissent?
To me that is the unconscionable part, that a person who classifies himself as a liberal would resort to force to discourage others from voicing their opinion. And then to defend the indefensible instead of just admitting a mistake. I would expect Buddha is Laughing to stifle dissent through force but not you.
NoWay,
You offered an explanation, I was examining the evidence. Since, your explanation only accounted for one photo that was mentioned, and then not even well (has NL been lurking on the site since before Mike deleted his profile? How do you explain the second picture reference? etc.) in my opinion it has holes big enough to drive a Stephen King Deus Ex Semi into.
I didn’t know that Mike was a member of that particular site. I’d be few if any here knew it either. The point is, you freely shared information about somebody that they hadn’t deemed it necessary to share, after complaining about people invading your privacy. That just makes your complaints seem a little disingenuous, don’t you think?
Anyway, I’m done. The serious crime is being handled by the proper authorities, and knowing how Slart’s program works, I can tell you that I could get the exact same information about with a couple of “xxxxx Site:Jonathanturley.org” and “xxxxxxxxx site:wordpress.com” searches.
If I thought my advice would do any good, I’d suggest that if you’re as concerned as you claim to be about the issue, tell WordPress to fix it or else you’re no longer going to visit their sites, and then do that when they tell you they can’t. I’d go a step further and encourage you to start a website complaining about how you treated here and by wordpress, get the word out.
Kevin/Slartbartfast it’s really not important. As per your admission you lost a whole days work yesterday. I’ve been focusing on other things as of late and have found that I’m more productive by not getting sucked into all the drama by posting comments here. I slipped up last night only because I was brought into the conversation.
I hope what information you been able to gather becomes useful to you one day. Hopefully it will lead to additional income which has become a key focal point in my household. If it doesn’t then think of all the time you wasted.
On topic from the off topic thread, which professor Turley really needs to consider having an open thread to discuss off topic matters instead of ruining IMO Raffs thread is this.
‘We didn’t mean to track you’ says Facebook as social network giant admits to ‘bugs’ in new privacy row
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2042573/Facebook-privacy-issues-Social-network-watching-youre-logged-out.html#ixzz1ZFoTV72o
Later, got work to do.
Hey OS, my entire life I was worried about my permanent record. But really, for us, there was no permanent record. The shit I didn’t do that I should have.
Google will murder.
anon, I don’t think you can dictate terms to anyone. Personally, I find that little ploy more than offensive.
OS, what terms am I dictating?
That Kevin Kesseler acknowledge what is obvious? That Professor Turley would never have given him permission? And that clearly makes his actions unethical and illegal?
I am not dictating terms — I fully know that Dr. Kevin Kesseler, Ph.D. will never write such a thing, and why? Because your BFF Slartibartfast down deep is a goddamn unethical sleazebag.
I might be an asshole, very little dispute about that. (Mike, I’m waiting to hear your denial. Mike?)
But I’m not an unethical idiot coward.
(just an idiot coward, but that’s a different story.)
You should write the paper because you acted unethically and you would be repaying your considerable debt to this community.
You should write the paper because it would be a public good.
And you should write the paper because you do have a Ph.D and you will have a larger megaphone than I and a larger audience.