The Gunner's Blog

I have in mind, here, two contrasting news stories. The first is the IRS targeting of Obama's opponents. The second is the inexplicable matter of Holder's Justice Department dropping the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panthers. If you line them up side by side the contrast is clear. If you are against Obama, we'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too. If you are for Obama, you get a free pass. Evidently, some people are more equal than others. More examples could be found where justice has been shaded by politics, the truth hidden for the sake of expediency. Allegations and denials of voting irregularities have been going on for a long time, and it is one side, not the other, that works vigorously against measures to clean things up. Makes you think. Notice, for example, this vituperative and non factual attack on voting reform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=trueview-instream&v=FIDUFwzNZNY   If there is a good case to be made here, why ma...

This picture is making the rounds of the Interwebz. I find it creepy, in a Big Brother kind of way. I conjecture that it was 'shopped together to bolster the identification of Obama with Trayvon Martin, an identification Obama has fostered and encouraged, first by saying Trayvon was like his son, then by saying Trayvon could have been him 35 years ago. Oh, it bolsters all right. It is a powerful symbol. Look into Trayvon's hoodie, see the prez looking back out at you. See the U.S. Department of Justice For Trayvon single out George Zimmerman with an informant tip line of his very own. See a tragic but hardly singular event in Florida turned into the new national centerpiece for race grievance politics and a new drumbeat for gun control. See the news media's attention instantly diverted from numerous scandals surrounding the administration. Here, of course, is the iconic photo of Trayvon that is the basis of the above Photoshop job. See the resemblance? No? Me neit...

"Justice for Trayvon" has been done. If you don't like the verdict, that does not mean it wasn't justice. I waited until the verdict was in before commenting on George Zimmerman's trial for killing Trayvon Martin. I have been on a couple of juries and know that a lot goes on in a courtroom that isn't well reflected in news reporting. In this case, I further felt that left-leaning news outlets were whipping up the story , playing on racial tensions and politically correct memes, and in general being a bunch of jerks. I figured I would have a clearer picture of the case after the jury spoke. It looked to me like Zimmerman was not guilty of what he was charged with. He looked guilty of first degree stupidity maybe, not murder, but I was not sitting in the jury box. The media circus was the least of it. I sensed, or suspected, a political overtone to the prosecution. If  the case was as insubstantial as it appeared to be, then it looked to me as if the defen...

I got retwittered for saying Fear the man who says, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." This saying struck a chord with some people. Let me strum that chord for a minute. Let me parse the reasoning. The speaker is key here: Focus upon the one who says, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."  He decides. He decides! He thinks he has a right to know your business and then to judge, after the fact, whether you had anything to hide. But what gives him any such right? The thing spoken implies a forceful person speaking, who will take anything he is denied. That is not America. That is, indeed, what each and every word in the Bill of Rights seeks to avoid. Legal questions of the right to privacy are somewhat complicated by prior rulings, which sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be. "Hard cases make bad law." But in principle you have, supposedly at least, the right to be left alone, absent ...

I see some troubling factors in America's current situation, an unwholesome convergence of symptoms in the body politic that are merely annoying singly, but together feel rather like something worse. Can you put your finger on why I feel uneasy? I do not believe in global conspiracies, only the habit of mankind to repeat the same mistakes: the dog, the vomit, the sow and the mire. Here are the factors I find troubling when seen together: Charismatic leader Leader has some thuggish associates And some very rich and socially elite associates Socialist ideology is popular Economic instability is evident Rising food prices Government interference in businesses and markets Hateful rhetoric directed at the leader's political opponents Evasion of answering the rational cases posed by the political opposition Leader calling for strict gun control Gun control is supported with misleading claims Growing dependency on handouts Recruiting  children as political dupes Re...