Christopher Buckley, son of WFB, just endorsed Obama:
I am—drum roll, please, cue trumpets—making this announcement in the cyberpages of The Daily Beast (what joy to be writing for a publication so named!) rather than in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column. For a reason: My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker, recently wrote in National Review Online a column stating what John Cleese as Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”: namely, that Sarah Palin is an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that. She’s not exactly alone. New York Times columnist David Brooks, who began his career at NR, just called Governor Palin “a cancer on the Republican Party.”
As for Kathleen, she has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster. There’s Socratic dialogue for you. Dear Pup once said to me sighfully after a right-winger who fancied himself a WFB protégé had said something transcendently and provocatively cretinous, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Well, the dear man did his best. At any rate, I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is he’s no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first.
***As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man, though that’s sure as heck no guarantee of anything, these days. Vietnam was brought to you by Harvard and (one or two) Yale men. As for our current adventure in Mesopotamia, consider this lustrous alumni roster. Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common? Andover! The best and the brightest.
I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.
But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.
Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.
So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.
I actually think his dad would approve. And can we stop calling these people Obamacons and call them what they are- sane?
This is, of course, good news for John McCain.
Mary
I think he’s the son of, as well as being some of, WFB.
Juan del Llano
The most important thing he says in that quotation is that we’re all in this together. Amen to THAT, and let’s please get on with this freaking election, get Obama in there, and kick some serious anti-plutocratic ass.
Dork
I’m confused. So by NOT publishing that in the NRO, he actually thinks he’ll be spared hate-emails? Was he smoking crack when he penned that gut-buster?
Has he heard of hyperlinks? RedState? Powerline? I bet the ‘necks will use the "12,000" as a benchmark, and strive to double it.
He’s now a marked man, I’m afraid.
Brian J
What is he talking about?
In any event, this seems surprising, but good news for John McCain, as always.
jibeaux
/h/t to myself, thanks very much
If you haven’t read Christopher Buckley, I recommend Thank You for Smoking and his essays skewering Tom Clancy in Wry Martinis.
Evinfuilt
He’ll at least be spared a bit of hate mail from those that don’t understand these electronic computing machines.
I do feel sorry for his postman, its going to come in via snail mail by the truck load.
SamFromUtah
I doubt his dad would approve of "(quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails" and calling K-Pax "dishy".
Apart from that, I cannot say.
Mark S.
Of course this is good news for McCain. The Republican party will emerge much more focused once they have jettisoned all of the RINOs and slims down to its core 22%
Oh, wait, this isn’t a parliamentary system. They’re screwed!
Zifnab
Is the book based on the movie? Because I fucking loved that movie.
Conservatives have been dry-humping the corpse of Buckley almost as fervently as they’ve been groping the coffin of Ronnie Ray Gun. His son will get a deluge of hate mail and promptly be forgotten in the next round of hate orgies scheduled for next week.
No one gives a flying fuck about founding conservative principles anymore. Not that founding liberal principles have faired much better. The only two ideologies still standing in American politics are "hang together" or "hang separately".
SGEW
Another winner for the "Conservative Sees the Obvious, Smacks Forehead Until It Bleeds" category tag.
Brian J
The calls to violence motivated by hate are now spreading to down-ticket races. Good work, Sen. McCain.
Jon H
" So by NOT publishing that in the NRO, he actually thinks he’ll be spared hate-emails? "
No, but he can hardly say the real reason: "Tina Brown desperately needs pageviews for this, her new website, so I agreed to flash a brown eye at the Republican over here, in order to attract the inevitable flood from the cro-mags."
gopher2b
The great irony or McCain’s campaign and the whole Ayers tactic is that this election, with Obama the victor, will likely spawn domestic terrorism. These people, who are uneducated, poor, violent and in search of a scape goat for their unsatisfying lives, will come out of this election feeling disenfranchised and oppressed. Their rage will boil over somewhere.
Very scary.
J.
Why is this good news for John McCain? It’s certainly good news for us Christopher Buckley and Barack Obama fans. Or is it time to really worry when Conservatives start running for cover, to a Liberal?
Va Highlander
In other news, the NOAA has just issued a freeze warning for the lower depths of Hell.
Michael Demmons
Christopher Buckley wrote the book on which the movie was based.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
I can see some water starting to spurt from the cracks in the dam………..
*Awaits the trolls*
SamFromUtah
@J.: Why is this good news for John McCain?
Everything is good news for McCain!
w vincentz
hmmmm….
Where have I heard the words "We’re all in this together"?
oh yeah, in the pet and DOW thread below.
I said those words also.
Feel the LOVE, Chris B. and welcome to sanity.
Zifnab
There was a running gag back when Obama was in the Primary about how every time events would shift in Obama’s favor, Hillary supporters would declare that this is "GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY!" in the face of all available evidence.
Right after the primaries, McCain’s team adopted a similar tactic. Hilarity ensued.
I will give Hillary points. She set up a masterful campaign to come in a solid second place, and she’s sold that campaign strategy to McCain’s team with flourish. If I find out Mark Penn is on the McCain staff payroll by the end of this, I will be the least shocked person on the internets.
Wayne
Obama’s really not a "Harvard man." He’s a graduate of Harvard Law School, which isn’t quite the same thing. Strictly speaking, a Harvard man would have been an undergraduate at Harvard College. Buckley should know this.
However, there’s absolutely no dishonor in his being a Columbia man, which he indeed is.
Dennis - SGMM
McCain and Palin both seem blissfully unaware that they’re giving an excuse to people who are stupid enough to act on their rage. Their names will be tied to any acts of violence perpetrated by the people whom they’re whipping into a froth. The first idiot in handcuffs who shouts at the cameras "Sarah Palin said he was a terrorist!" will mark the end of her career.
They also overlook the fact that people of good conscience just may turned off by their racist, xenophobic campaign. One of my very Republican friends told me the other day that he’s sitting this one out.
SGEW
Say that to the residents of Harlem. Come on, say it to my face.
Eminent domain my ass . . .
(joking, kind of)
greynoldsct00
Don’t you just love these right-to-lifers?
Svensker
Chrisitopher Buckley talks like a poofter. Has anyone checked his countertops lately? Also!
Brian J
Wow, this is quite the catch by someone at TPM. Apparently, the man who asked McCain to "take it to" Obama, claiming it was "vital," was no ordinary citizen. It was a conservative radio host by the name of James T. Harris. The diarist at TPM is right to be outraged that the media didn’t pick up on this.
les
I doubt it. I suspect the campaign is debating the proper time to start supplying axe handles at Palin rallies.
The Other Steve
I need to buy a gun.
Should I go with a handgun like a glock or a shotgun?
Maybe a rifle? I’m a pretty good shot at long range.
NonyNony
I’m not expecting Mark Penn. But at this point, I’m beginning to wonder if McCain’s campaign hasn’t been infiltrated by some deep-cover Discordians who have decided to end the Republican party with a bang. If Steve Schmidt turns out to be Hagbard Celine in a rubber mask, I’m not going to be overly surprised.
gbear
In other other news:
jake 4 that 1
Poor man. K-Load will stand athwart him and yell "Stop!"
Also, he makes the ol’ Gaydar(TM) shriek.
satby
They’re not unaware. Hate is all they have left.
Svensker
Can we start calling it half-baked Alaska?
Clor
@ BrianJ
Okay, that answers one of my questions. I like in Waukesha and I was surprised by the anger exhibited by the crowd, since I personally haven’t run into anyone like that.
John PM
I found this passage especially intriguing, especially coming in light of the David Brooks’ column noting that Republicans have driven out all of the intellectuals. The current crop of Republican "leaders" are primarily East-Coast boarding school and Ivy League educated. Leaving aside the issue of the quality of education one receives from the Ivy Leagues, the Republicans have sacrificed intelligence for ignorance and education for hatred. I do not see how any thinking person can vote for the Republican party this election.
Conservatively Liberal
I am glad that Parker is getting buried in hate mail. She is getting a tiny dose of what the left has been getting shoveled on them for years now. She is seeing firsthand that the Republican party has veered off the road and over the cliff.
I am glad that some notable conservatives are stepping up and calling bullshit on McCain and Palin and I hope it snowballs. Reasonable party members may dismiss a few voices leaving the McCain ticket but as the chorus grows louder it makes it harder for them to ignore. Some will start to question their decision to support McCain and they will be the ones to look into Obama to see if what they have been hearing is the truth.
I have a feeling that some nut on the right is going to go postal before this election is over and McCain and Palin just may be the ones who pushes the nut over the edge. McCain is a mean old guy with a nasty attitude. Like President Chimpy, McCain is a spoiled brat who thinks the world revolves around him.
Palin? She is stupid and vain enough to be dangerous. She will never be qualified to be President. Never. She is not presidential material and she never will be. She can barely speak English yet the fundies love her and think she is ready to rule the Universe.
Dangerous. And we have McCain to thank for it. Some judgment.
Conservatively Liberal
Interesting. I wonder if it was astroturfing. Ok, stupid question.
SamFromUtah
@Zifnab: If I find out Mark Penn is on the McCain staff payroll by the end of this, I will be the least shocked person on the internets.
Heh. But the Clinton primary campaign was bad enough, it suxx0rs that we’re having to sit through it twice.
Dennis - SGMM
K-Lo and athwart in the same sentence? Have you, at long last, no decency?
Cris v.3.1
Damn, that was a great read. Thanks for posting that — I’ve never read Christopher Buckley.
You know who else went to Andover? THAT’S RIGHT
jeffreyw
Some one once remarked that the successful pol was the one who saw a parade and jumped ahead of the drum major and said this proved he was a leader.
McCain jumped ahead of what he thought was a parade, but when he looked over his shoulder saw only the torches and pitchforks of the mob. He has to stay ahead now, lest he be overtaken and destroyed.
Zifnab
@Cris v.3.1: Wait, who went to Andover?
Cassidy
If you’re not being snarky and really concerned about some sort of social upheaval, what you want is a revolver (won’t jam like an automatic) with plenty of speedloaders, preferably in a .357 mag (can also fire .38). A shotgun will do nicely as well.
Not much good for home defense, but if the proverbial poo does hit the fan, it would be good for finding dinner….or picking off Republicans at long range.
Jon H
"Also, he makes the ol’ Gaydar™ shriek."
He actually has an illegitimate son, whom WF Buckley completely disowned (and the poor kid is only, like, 8).
WFB’s will basically said "this child is dead to me."
comrade scott
If used inside, shotguns tend to mess up your house.
At least bullet holes are easier to fix.
Cassidy
If I have raging hoards of republicans in the house, the least of my worries is patching holes. To be perfectly honest, I would gladly make large holes in the wall….the one behind said individual(s).
Gus
I would say one of each. I have the shotgun from my days as a bird hunter. I’m planning on getting a pistol next, and a rifle last.
r€nato
The bitter hard right is not going to go down in defeat quietly, I’m afraid.
Get ready for an upswing in domestic right-wing terrorism next January, incited by the usual suspects (Limbaugh, Hannity, Michael Savage).
Darkness
The first idiot in handcuffs who shouts at the cameras "Sarah Palin said he was a terrorist!" will mark the end of her career.
Oh, if only. Martyrdom is a tool, not an end game.
r€nato
she herself has written some pretty unhinged, hate-filled, inciteful shit over the years.
I wonder if she has the self-awareness to understand she helped create the monster which has turned on her. I doubt it.
Zifnab
@r€nato: The bitter hard right is composed of a bunch of survivalist nutjobs living out in the boonies and a large contingent of keyboard commando WATBs blogging from their parents’ basements.
No Michelle Malkin reader has ever done anything politically productive and none of them are going to start now. Paper Tiger.
comrade scott
Ayup. They’ve been quiet the last 8 years, gee, I wonder why? Now that they have a turr’st-friendly, dark-skinned Muslim to target (as Digby pointed out, the narrative’s already starting to paint Obama as "not one of us" even in a grand-‘Murkin scheme of things), just watch the quiescent militia nutjobs suddenly getting headlines again.
r€nato
and it will all be
Clinton’sObama’s fault.Screamin' Demon
And escalated by an alumnus of Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
Darkness
Google 18 inch home protection shotgun. You can’t maneuver around inside a house with a long barrel and unless you go to the range monthly you are unlikely to hit anything with a pistol in a panic.
Remember too, lots of things in the house work as weapons. chili powder or windex in the eyes will take someone out of action and are unlikely to kill a family member in an accident.
r€nato
Zifnab, I hope you are right but remember Tim McVeigh… a right-wing nutjob who decided he was going to have the ‘courage of his convictions’ and follow through on the right-wing racist rhetoric he devoured.
Tom65
I think she understands well enough; whether she cares is another issue.
Nick Istre
@The Other Steve:
To a degree, I’d have to echo Cassidy’s opinions about rifles, though in the end, it depends on what you’re looking for in a gun.
If for general defense purposes, a handgun would be best first choice, IMO (If you get a second firearm, I’d go with the shotgun or rifle for that). I think the malfunction issues of automatics that Cassidy mentions are a bit overblown (especially if you use good quality magazines (or as some people call them, clips) and do proper maintenance on them), but I do have to echo the .357 recommendation if you go with a revolver. If you get an semi-automatic pistol, my own recommendation for caliber is the largest you’re comfortable with, though preferably staying with the common 9mm, .40, or .45 calibers. This will take some experience handling each before picking your own, though. Some shooting ranges may allow you to rent guns.
But most importantly, get professional training on maintenance, safety, and operation of which ever firearm you get.
Josh Huaco
@Zifnab: Bill Ayers? Osama Bin Laden? John Tesh?
Josh Huaco
@r€nato: Yeah, I remember when she wrote some column predicting gay marriage would lead to fascism. In a way I guess it has, but not in the way she’d think.
Svensker
@Zifnab:
I’m not so sure about that. My brother is a Rush listener and Soros/Obama hater. He has been organizing and working hard with the Repubs since he decided Newt G. had sold out back in the 80s. Another friend’s brother (what is it with RW crazy brothers?) is a very successful guy, a professor at a rather good college, who is also very active in his local politics, and has given lots of money, as well. Yet another friend’s brother is a prominent cardiologist in the NYC area, again very active in local politics. None of them liked McCain, they all love the pitbull. They are all convinced that Obama is a mastermind socialist muslim (who is also, somehow a neophyte) who will destroy these United States. None of them would take any physical action themselves against liberals, but neither would any of them mind if some of their lower-brow brethren did.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
Nah. Let’s save it for Palin when we get tired of "Bible Spice".
Darkness
Rereading this, I wonder if he isn’t consciously or maybe even subconsciously issuing a challenge to the hate mail writers, daring them to push him farther out of the party. He’s taken on the mantle of his father and thinks maybe he can make a change just by intentionally taking a seat in the dunk-tank.
Zifnab
@comrade scott:
LIEEEEEEEEEEEES!
I think Mikey "Weiner" Savage tried to get his name on the Republican primary ballot at one point. Limbaugh spent half of 2005 telling people off for criticizing him over calling Michael J. Fox a "faker" with Parkinsons. But yeah, they’ve been anything but silent.
McVeigh was responding directly to Ruby Ridge and Waco. And those were some horrible blunders on the part of the Clinton Administration. But the Oklahoma City bombing wasn’t strictly the result of Democrats in office. McVeigh had a serious bone to pick. He wasn’t just another purple band-aid wearing keyboard ninja.
Quicksand
BUT . . . BUT . . . McCain was (is?) a POW! 9/11 changed everything! Muslim! Terrorist! Treason!
Bah. Where are my cheetos?
Juan del Llano
All this gun talk is just perverse and loony. Things don’t work that way, take your heads out of your asses and own up to your fears and cowardice. All the nazis can do is kill you, big fucking deal. Buy a gun and get killed sooner — say now, THAT’s a winner. Make a million bucks, get cancer and die. Yippee! Just as stupid…
True strength is spiritual, dudes. A gnat has more integrity than a scared human with a weapon. Turn off the fucking TV, forgodssakes. Look out the window, watch a bird. A goddamn chipmunk by the side of the road has the whole freaking universe inside its puny little head. Hasn’t anyone been paying attention all this time???
Bah.
Obamanos, motherfuckers, and on with the show.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
For Obama supporters who are also Pittsburgh Steeler fans, yet another reason to hate the Cleveland Browns
AkaDad
It’s obvious to everyone, not wearing a straight-jacket, that Buckley is a RINO and I wouldn’t be surprised if his future included a book deal.
Punchy
@“Fair and Balanced” Dave: This is another reason that I chose Matt Ryan over Matt HasselChuck in my fantasy draft, despite my buddies tellin me what an idjit I was. Couldn’t stand the hootch he was married to or their politics.
Turns out, Ryan is smokin his ass in fantasy stats right now, and his beeyotch of a wife is about to get canned off her show.
Life is gud.
Napoleon
And the rally Quinn was at was the one someone here linked to a youtube video of yesterday of the loons who attended.
That One - Cain
A friend of mine at work mentioned to me today that a couple people he trusts are buying guns and canned food. Apparently, the depression stuff has spooked them and they are hedging their bets. I myself think that’s a bit nutty. But maybe it might not hurt to be cautious and buy a couple days worth of speghetii’os.
cain
Perry Como
@The Other Steve: Shotgun, 12 gauge. Remingtons are nice. You should be prepared for the zombie apocalypse.
Aaron
Translation: just because you won, don’t think you’ve gotten a mandate to do any of that left wing crap, cause if you dare, we will do to you what katrina did to new orleans.
Alan
Regarding the Brooks quote. The cancer on the GOP isn’t Palin. It’s Rush Limbaugh. After all, Palin is Rush Limbaugh’s choice. And Christopher Buckley’s "pup" embraced Limbaugh as one of his own.
The Moar You Know
First off, Juan del Llano has a point. Don’t buy a gun because you’re scared of these people. They are pussies and cowards to boot.
There are good reasons to own a gun, however. I find shooting them quite relaxing, there’s some weird Zen thing that happens when you must keep a deadly lethal tool under absolute and conscious control.
So what kind? Well, I own all of ’em, and they all have different uses and challenges. I’m a crack rifle shot and find that the most enjoyable. I’m a fairly lousy pistol shot and I find the pistol to be the most challenging. And shotguns are just a blast because of the huge energies involved.
No matter what, if you get one, get some training. I can’t overstate that enough. The number one risk factor for dying from gunshot is…owning a gun. MOST people who are shot shoot themselves. So get some training and learn how to use your gun if you get one.
And if you get one, don’t take a course and throw it in your dresser drawer and assume that it will work and that you’ll know how to use it. If you get one, you gotta use it all the time. I learned how to shoot at age 8 and still go to the range every month, with every weapon. No point in getting one if you’re not going to get good at it.
Wonder how far bullets go through objects? Check out The Box Of Truth – all your questions will be answered.
Faux News
No one has mentioned that Dick Cheney is a college drop out.
boug
the fact that i kind of want a group hug from david brooks, george will, k parker and now christopher buckley is creepy…and clearly more good news for mccain!
The Populist
Did anybody see the rightwing talking points at work in the posts below that article? All saying the same crap about Obama without any proof to back it up. Argh.
Juan del Llano
Sigh. Sorry, folks. Too much preacher juice this morning.
Xanthippas
I say shotgun. Since right-wingers are generally chickenshits, the noise alone should scare them off even if you miss.
Punchy
Ya know who’s NOT voting for Obama? Incredibly, New Yorkers.
Nope. They’re voting for Osama. Literally. No shit.
Cuz the "b" is sooooooooooooo close to the "s" key on the keyboard.
comrade scott
I wasn’t referring to the prominent windbags of the Right Wing Noise Machine but rather, the unknown McVeigh-like whackos who are most likely many of my neighbors.
In the 90s, we had all kinds of stories about rurl militia group activity. Those stories amazingly vanished after the Sooopremes elected President 19%.
So sure, the people inciting militia groups to violence have been anything but quiet, but the actual trigger pullers and bomb throwers, again, funny how we haven’t heard anything about them…aside from the occasional abortion clinic turr’st.
Cris v.3.1
@Zifnab: the "that’s right" exclamation in my post is a link, but the weird all-caps filter in Balloon-Juice 3.0 does not color it as such. Anyway, the answer is Bill Belichick.
Cris v.3.1
@Punchy:
Jesus Fucking Christ. No level of incompetence can explain that. Some smartass jackass knew exactly what he was doing.
oh really
No dishonor? Columbia is in NYC where all those communists live. If you live or go to school in a city in which communists live, you are a communist. And don’t forget Ahmadinejad was recently in NYC — so now we’re talking about palling around with a known terrorist.
No dishonor indeed.
If Obama wins, going to Columbia is likely to be one of the earlier grounds for impeachment mentioned by the suddenly very interested in oversight Republicans. (Too bad they won’t have a majority; otherwise Obama could find himself standing trial in the Senate before he gets to sign his first piece of legislation.
redbeardjim
@Zifnab:
Ruby Ridge happened on Bush I’s watch, not Clinton’s.
/nitpick
Chuck Butcher
This is something you need to think seriously about bfore doing it, if you have none already.
If you have good reason of your own to have a firearm, does everybody else in the house have good reasons? Once it is in the house is becomes everyone’s.
I do not like high velocity handguns for in home defence, you get into over-penetration problems which is a problem. Inside a house a .45 ACP hollow point has penetration power without overpenetration. The pistol is venerable, tried and true. Bigger and more powerful is not desirable inside, this ain’t a Tim Allen moment. A .357, .44 mag, .40 S&W, and .45 Colt all combine mass and velocity to create a bullet that doesn’t stop just because it hits something. A .357 at the lower end of this scale will go through a wood exterior wall and still kill and zip right through an interior wall. It will most likely pass right through a human and have killing power. These are serious drawbacks. I own a .45 Colt Ruger Vaquero revolver that uses handloads that are at the very top end of revolver mass and velocity (makes a .44 mag look like a pop gun) and it is not at all useful as a home defence weapon unless you think you have to deal with body armor. (I seriously hope not)
Shot guns are awkward (18 or otherwise), rifles are a long range firearm – period. Rifle cartridges are much too powerful for short range self-defence and a rifle is much too long.
If you are going to own a firearm you and everyone involved with it commit to spending time at the range. Everyone must know safe handling rules, by heart.
I own a bunch of firearms because each is good at what it is for. A home defence weapon is not good for much of anything else other than target shooting. Hunting rifles are good for hunting and target shooting. Shotguns are open area defence and small game oriented. I own both a Browning Auto 5 12 ga hunting shotgun and an 18" 12 ga double barrel stagecoach shotgun. With considerable experience with it, I don’t want to use the coach gun anywhere other than someplace spacious.
I own both an M1 Garrand and an SKS, the M1 is for National Match Highpower competition and the SKS for varmints and plinking. The M1 is also the WWII main battle rifle and SKS a light short functional assault rifle. I own rifles that will reliably kill anything in N America and rifles that will effectively reach out 600 yds on a man sized target. I also own a revolver that allows me to hunt anything in the lower 48 at 100yds. (this year’s buck at 60yds)
Do not try to go cheap with a handgun, it is flatly a bad idea. A cheaper rifle will let you hunt at 200yds which is more than most places afford and high priced shotguns are primarily vanity items unless you compete. A good semi-auto handgun will function reliably and quickly. A revolver is a simpler mechanism, though things like double action and transfer bars do complicate them. All double actions create accuracy grief with the increased trigger pressure which is solved with a double action semi-auto kept with one in the tube, cocked & locked. I keep my .45 Colt Commander single action cocked & locked, with the expanded magazine that makes 9 rounds of 200 gr hollow points going 900 fps.
Owning a firearm/s is a serious responsibility that requires competence and judgement and knowledge of state and local laws. It involves knowing what any particular arm is good for and what it is not good for and choosing appropriately. If you want a firearm for home defence, it is important to remember that circumstances requiring its use conspire against everything that involves accuracy which means you’d best be very familiar and competent with it. 911 is a better alternative than a hole in your wife, child, or neighbor.
If you want a more expansive treatment see Self defence.
Gregory
My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker
"Superb and very dishy"?!
Bad Horse's Filly
I’ve always loved Christopher Buckley…he’s an odd duck, but a likable duck.
But all this talk about Obama winning is making me nervous, I know McCain looks like the Titanic at 2am on April 15th, still I’ve been down this road before….I won’t rest easy until Nov. 5
@The Moar You Know:
Couldn’t agree more…something my friends don’t quite understand. What can I say, I’m a complicated woman!
Also, completely OT – shout out to all the Colorado people who commented on a previous thread. Didn’t know there were so many of us here. @ColoRambler: hey neighbor!
Jay C
A couple of points (three, actually)
1. The jackwad County Clerk or whatever (Republican, of course) who sent out absentee ballots marked for "Barack Osama" was in Rensselaer County, upstate near Albany (that says a lot right there) – so not all "New Yorkers" have to deal with this crap (I’d LOVE to see the GOP try to disqualify votes based on this shit: I would think that no one would seriously try, but then, this IS the NYS GOP we’re talking about: you wonder why they’re only slightly more plentiful than Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers?).
2. Endorsements for Obama by the likes of Christopher Buckley can – and probably will – be spun as "good for McCain" by at least SOME of the dead-enders out there (on RedState, most likely). Probably on the grounds that by winnowing the overeducated, pointy-headed, East-Coast-Elite intellectuals out of the Party, the Republicans will be able to reinvent themselves as the one true representative of salt-of-the-Earth Joe Sixpack America. And thus On To Victory!
3. No answer yet from John, so I’ll ask again: is fivethirtyeight right? Is WV in play this year? Or (dare we suggest?) about to turn Blue?
Randy S
Punchy,
Ryan’s a better choice than Matt Hasselbeck anyway — but Matt’s not married to Elizabeth-from-The-View, his brother Tim is.
Zifnab
@Cris v.3.1: HAHAHA! Awesome.
Zifnab
They didn’t go away. They just got less media attention than the latest missing white girl.
Austin Texas had an abortion clinic bombing a year or so back that got zero media attention. There were a slew of documentaries about crazy people up in Colorado, California, and various back country areas forming into what were – for all intensive purposes – cults. Back in ’02 and ’03, during the "ohshitMuslimsaregonnagetme!" hey day, you could hear about mosques getting defaced on a weekly basis. And there was a rash of racial violence that swept the south.
The wackos did not go to bed during the Bush Administration. If anything, they’ve gotten much much worse.
HyperIon
umm…no.
i wish it were so but…no.
LanceThruster
I have heard Christopher Buckley speak at other times where he makes a tremendous amount of sense as well. Let’s hope this becomes a trend with principled conservatives.
Polarbear
"I actually think his dad would approve."
I thoroughly doubt it. His father’s last political donation was to John McCain.
SamFromUtah
Dear Pup once said to me, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.”
And now, what can one say to Dear Pup other than EPIC FAIL
Kamishna ya Watu Xenos
@redbeardjim:
A remarkable number of wingnuts I have known have been shocked to hear that Ruby Ridge was under Bush. Cognitive dissonance at work.
Ed Marshall
McVeigh was responding directly to Ruby Ridge and Waco. And those were some horrible blunders on the part of the Clinton Administration.
Comrade Desert Hussein Rat
Ironically, Christopher Buckley represents the kind of Republican I can grudgingly respect, if not agree with.
And right now, those conservatives, are undoubtedly taking a look at the freak show the GOP and its Presidential ticket have become, and are shaking their heads, either not voting at all, or voting for Obama for the good of the country.
Country over party for the best of them, anyway.
Johnny Pez
The Great Orange Satanist himself was just saying a few days ago how the amount of right-wing hate email he’d been receiving had fallen off. Now we know. They’ve all been emailing K-Pax instead.
Johnny Pez
I’d like to point out to Mr. Buckley that he can trace back the origins of today’s events to the time when Republicans first started using the phrase "law and order" as a racial dogwhistle.
Cassidy
The automatic vs. revolver isn’t so much an overblown problem, but more a recognition of the limitations of the owner. While the Beretta M9 and various other pistols will work under the most adverse conditions, the reality is that new gun owners, like Steve would be, aren’t going to maintain it to that level. It takes practice. Secondly, keeping an automatic as a home defense weapon is not bad, but most people tend to keep jacking rounds as a form of stress relief, or keep the magazines loaded for long periods of time, etc. Generally the likelihood of misfeeds, double feeds, etc. increases. That’s why I suggest revolvers. They are generally user friendly.
As for the .357, you don’t have to worry about overpenetration. Lower velocity hollowpoint bullets will work fine, or simpley loading it with .38 +p rounds will negate that possibility.
Personally, I own a Colt Commander as well, so I have nothing against automatics, but I also have a lot of training with firearms, so the concerns I listed above don’t apply.
In the end it’s all about comfort and training. I don’t use Glocks as they don’t feel comfortable in my hands. I’d rather use a 5.56 rifle over 7.62 any day, but I’ve also trained with those for 10 years.
As to the individual who wrote the long diatribe about fear and whatnot….the reality is this. Regardless of a right wing uprising, total collapse of civilization, or a zombie apocalypse, fear is an excellent motivator. There is nothing wrong with fear, as there is nothing wrong with hoping for the best, but planning for the worst. Planning for your family’s survival under the most adverse conditions is something every husband and father should do. Are these situations likely…probably not. But I also know that my planning, combined with my training will give me the ability to provide for my family should the worst case scenario ever happen. And that’s what it boils down to. Whether it means going to work every day to make money, or preparing for the zombie apocalypse, I’m going to provide for my family until the bitter end.