Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The words do not have to be perfect.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / What I got will knock your pride aside

What I got will knock your pride aside

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I’ve never thought that there was much chance the NRA would implode as a successful lobbying organization, but this enemies’ list has me wondering. The act of compiling enemies’ lists always strikes me as shameless and pathetic, the last gasp of a weakening, paranoid force, and this list is unusually extensive:

[T]he NRA published an official list of gun enemies including the ADA, AMA, ADL, Mel Brooks, Chaka Khan and hundreds of other domestic gun enemies.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Xantar

    The American Medical Association? The NRA versus the doctors? Really?

    Wait, scratch that. They’re picking a fight with MEL BROOKS? Oh it is so over now.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    Not to mention that now, a lot of organizations that apparently didn’t qualify for the NRA’s enemies list are really pissed off.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I would love it if Mel Brooks did a commercial about this, maybe with Lauren Bacall and Springsteen. But he needs to bring Gene Wilder back to reign in his excesses.

  10. 10.

    Suffern ACE

    @mellowjohn: I know. I think I need to raise my game. I now not only support closing the gun show loophole, but I also support Feel 4 U replacing the Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yutsano: I looked at it last night, and it’s a long ass list, but I think MTM is indeed on there.

    Yup, also too, the Fonz and Moon Zappa. That Valley Girl song from thirty years ago is a great threat to our Bill of Rights.

  14. 14.

    Ben Franklin

    Reading through the list I thought, ‘If everyone is against them, who can be for them?’

    Truly all en-compassing. It seems to me there is a shift in the Tide.
    I am seeing, more and more, that the idiocy is beginning to punch though the Public Crust. i’m not talking media or blogtalk. I am hearing it from conservatives. I live in a verrrry conservative area of libertarian/conservative ‘gubmint’ is bad theology.

    Nevertheless I am getting some genuine reticence to self-identify with the current conservative malatrope from everyday Joe Lunchbuckets I know and talk to in the market or the street. It’s almost the reverse of those who had to tamp down their position of liberal to ‘moderate’ independent in the 80â€Čs and 90â€Čs, not to mention the New Millennium.

    The CRAZEEEEEE in conservative may have reached a political perihelion, and will melt away like ice cream on a hot summer’s day.

    The current spike in their stupidity seems to be a discouraging word, but IMO it the the wondrous rattle of death; the last spasms of a death throe.

    Am I an optimist, or what?

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    For favorite entries, I’m torn between Mary Lou Retton, a whole slew of Zappas, the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, and the National Parent, Teachers Association.

  20. 20.

    gogol's wife

    There’s going to be a discussion on guns and the Second Amendment at my university on Wednesday evening, with interesting experts invited to be on a panel, followed by a community discussion. I of course intend to be there, but it really pisses me off that the thought keeps crossing my mind that it might be a great place and time for someone to do something bad. (We already narrowly avoided a mass shooting a couple of years ago, when the guy who murdered a poor innocent student he was fixated on had to leave his guns at the scene because the police showed up too soon — he had planned to proceed to an outdoor student rock concert to finish the job.) I hate living in fear!

  21. 21.

    gf120581

    Do they ever update this list? I mean, Dick Van Dyke? Mary Lou Rhetton? Chaka Khan?

    You know, at least Nixon kept his enemies list contemporary.

  28. 28.

    RSA

    The most trusted professions in the U.S. include nurses, doctors, police officers, teachers, and clergy; it’s striking how many of their professional organizations are on the NRA’s list of enemies. (And the least trusted professions are advertising people, members of Congress, and car salespeople. At least the first two professions include a lot of NRA friends.)

  29. 29.

    thalarctos

    Me: “Hey, you listed American Trauma Society twice!”
    NRA: “We like trauma.”

    (HT: Mel Brooks)

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne: Life and death are irrelevant for this list. We should just be grateful that they haven’t listed Abraham Lincoln, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Hammurabi.

  31. 31.

    ruemara

    The AMA & Chaka Kan? Well, this is the first time there was diversity of thought anywhere in the NRA.

  34. 34.

    Left Coast Tom

    I mentioned this in the relevant dKos thread…I particularly liked their selection of “Tim Toles” as an enemy. You’d think that someone going through that much effort to compile an enemies list would learn how to spell “Tom”.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    I get a sense that some NRA hack put lefty-ish seeming people and orgs on that enemies list as their names occurred to him. Like, Frank Zappa’s widow and children are all on the list. I have trouble believing that Frank’s survivors are a particularly great threat to gun ownership in America.

  37. 37.

    The Dangerman

    Mel Brooks I can understand (did you SEE “Space Balls”?)…

    …but Chaka Khan? How about Peaches and Herb (disregarding that I think Herb is no more)?

  39. 39.

    Poopyman

    Dick van Dyke? Hell, I thought he brought the “Bang! Bang” to the Chitty movie. Thought the NRA would love him for that.

    And I’m afraid to ask if Julie Andrews is on that list.

  40. 40.

    maus

    @The Dangerman: The funny thing is that Chaka Kahn is a Scientologist, a member of a paramilitary organization that literally hoards guns in their HQs for when the time comes to dispose those evil psychiatrists and take control of the world, you know, to show it peace for once.

  41. 41.

    22over7

    @Ben Franklin:

    Peak wingnut, you say? Well, from your keyboard to Her Noodly Appendage, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

    I’m still waiting on one of these yahoos to fire on Fort Sumnter.

  42. 42.

    Poopyman

    BTW, is this list ordered in any way? By degree of eneminess? Alphabetically? As candidates occur to them?

  44. 44.

    Alison

    At first I was surprised that MacGyver was on the list, because I thought they’d like him since he could probably make his own guns. But then I realized that would eat into the gun manufacturers’ profits.

  45. 45.

    Anya

    @dmsilev: my favorite is the Zappas (who knew that many Zappas even existed), the dead or over 80 year old celebrities, Boys to men and The Temptations. WTF?

    I wondered why they didn’t include Brat Pitt since they included his buddy George Clooney. So, I googled Brad Pitt and guns and this is what he said after the Colorado massacre :

    ‘America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere. That’s my thinking, right or wrong.
    ‘I got my first BB gun (a type of air gun) when I was in nursery school. I got my first shotgun by first grade (aged six), I had shot a handgun by third grade (aged eight) and I grew up in a pretty sane environment.

    That’s dissapointing. I hope he doesn’t turn into a full fledged wingnut like his mom and crazy FIL.

  46. 46.

    Loneoak

    Is Boys II Men a misspelling of Boyz II Men, or are they referring to the politically powerful, Brady Campaign co-chairs Boys II Men, the Boyz II Men cover band?

  47. 47.

    g

    I just tried to contact the NRA and request that I be placed on the list. Their “contact us” interface requires you to input your full name, address – including street address – and phone number.

    You have to reveal more of your personal information to contact the NRA than you do to purchase a gun.

  48. 48.

    piratedan

    and those peacenik thugs known as the Gray Panthers and their lackeys…

    who do these guys think they are? the only people that keep lists like these suffer from mental illnesses like extreme paranoia and megalomamia…. hey, wait a minute….

  52. 52.

    JoyceH

    Y’know, if you have so many enemies that you have to keep a list of them, you might want to start considering that perhaps that means you’re not really a very nice person.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @Palli: I wonder when the list was drawn up. There are a number of big corporate changes that aren’t reflected in the list; for example Time Warner is now HQ’ed at the Time Warner Center (Columbus Circle), Carl Levine isn’t the CEO any more, and a bunch of others. Tara Lipinki is indeed an Olympian but they couldn’t even find out her sport (Ice Skating) and she’s been quite quiet in retirement. It made me laugh.

  54. 54.

    Southern Beale

    A bunch of people on their enemies’ list are dead, and have been for a long time. They even have Hadassa on the list. Pretty much anyone and everyone is on that list. It’s pretty crazy.

    In other news, the White House released a photo of Obama skeet shooting. Or, as the wingnuts will say, Obama holding up a gas station.

    Wingnuts are already criticizing his form in the photo. Bet they start claiming the pixel count is off and demanding we check the kerning in 5… 4… 3…

  55. 55.

    Sly

    MacGyver: Because the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a ballpoint pen, some twine, a 9-volt battery, and a half-chewed piece of Wrigley’s Big Red.

  58. 58.

    BethanyAnne

    We made the list! Unitarians, represent!*

    *Only, of course, if representing meets with the dictates of your own conscience.

  60. 60.

    PurpleGirl

    @Ben Franklin: I looked at the photo and thought his stance is off, but I’ve just remembered that he’s left-handed so he wouldn’t hold a rifle the same way I did.

    Bur yeah, he does need a shoulder pad or he’s doing damage to his shoulder and joint.

  62. 62.

    J R in W Va

    @g:

    Wow, what a list. I wanna be on the list, even though I have guns, because I want universal background checks, special licenses for special guns, etc.

    And you do have to provide a lot information to buy a gun, in order for the background check, if you buy from a licensed dealer.

    Of course, if you buy a gun in a barn, that’s different, right? Oh! wait…

  63. 63.

    Ralph Wiggum

    You want meaningful gun control in this country?

    Re-establish ACORN and make it mandatory for them to carry assault rifles.

    You will have gun control legislation in a week.

  64. 64.

    Suffern ACE

    @ruemara: wholly cow. I’m – wow. Next up, not only that the government can discriminate…how long before the argument before the court is that it must?

  66. 66.

    Rathskeller

    @Ralph Wiggum: No. I really wish people would stop walking down this fantasy lane where doing this kind of jujitsu on racists would cause them to implement complete gun control.

    it’s not funny. it’s stupid. and it’s been beaten to death, and yet still keeps coming back as a zombie insight, the inverse of clever. Stop posting it.

    There is a racist cycle of fear that lies behind much gun ownership. That’s not going away. We all have to deal with paranoia and ignorance of a fraction of our populace.

  67. 67.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Sylvester Stallone is on that list, as well as Uma Thurman, I think they are pissed because she used swords in Kill Bill Vol 1&2. I think Tarantino will be on there because of Django

  68. 68.

    quannlace

    people with any kind of future just don’t do enemies lists, do they?

    Maybe not people, but my dog Clemmie had a pretty extensive enemy list. And I’m sure many cats do as well.

  70. 70.

    Scott S.

    Well, I’ve tweeted ’em to add me to the list. Not that it’ll probably do any good — they’re probably swamped with people wanting to be added…

  71. 71.

    Gian

    @Alison:
    Not shocked at all about him. The macgiver character wouldn’t use guns and his stargate character had a back story about his son finding his gun and accidently killing himself and perhaps precipitating the character’s divorce

  72. 72.

    Linda

    You know the NRA is losing their fastball when they go on the loud offensive, as opposed to eviscerating legislation and regs behind the scenes, which is the smart way. As Matt Taibbi noted, their lobbying week was like watching the Three Stooges performing a liver transplant on roller skates.

  75. 75.

    PPOG Penguin

    Oscar Wilde: “You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.” Seems kind of appropriate for the NRA to have Dick Van Dyke and Moon Unit Zappa, then.

  76. 76.

    YellowJournalism

    @dmsilev: After the dead celebrities, my fab is Steve Buscemi, just for the irony of that scene in Billy Madison where he has an enemies list of people to shoot. “I’m glad I called THAT guy!”

    I wonder if the NRA heads smear lipstick all over themselves when they finish an update.

  77. 77.

    YellowJournalism

    @Scott S.: I bet the odds are better of getting “John Cole and the majority of commenters at Balloon Juice” added to the list.

    Did anyone check to see if Tunch is on there? Furry or human.

  78. 78.

    PaulW

    …great.

    I never made Nixon’s Enemies List and I didn’t make the NRA’s Enemies List either.

    What do I have to do to get on a paranoid fanatic’s Enemies List? Write nice things about kittens?!

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @Doug Galt:

    The act of compiling enemies’ lists always strikes me as shameless and pathetic, the last gasp of a weakening, paranoid force

    Or a signal that liberals may need to get ready for a fight.

    When dopes compiled enemies lists in the 1950s, people lost jobs, couldn’t get work.

    When authoritarian governments compile enemies lists, people get harrassed, sometimes they disappear.

    When virulent anti-choice nuts compiled enemies lists, people died.

    Last gasps can be nasty.

  80. 80.

    PaulW

    Wait. I’ve re-read the list and I noticed a name missing.

    Why isn’t Barack Obama (or his Irish co-hort Barry O’Bama) anywhere on that list?

  81. 81.

    andy

    First they came for Chaka Khan, and I said nothing…

    The shrieking and wailing and rending of garments on the Face Book has been so invigorating I was inspired to create a Motivational Poster. What do you think? WOLVERINES!!!

  82. 82.

    RaflW

    I’m pleased to note that the Unitarian Universalist Association is an enemy of the unlimited, 24/7, no background check, arm children with AR-15s under the Xmas tree gun industry.

    For no good reason, of course, do the UUs oppose unlimited guns and no background checks.

  84. 84.

    moda31

    @PaulW: Oh I’m sure they wanted to, but that would probably earn them a visit from the secret service. I imagine that putting the President on an enemy list, especially one compiled by a gun lobby would rightfully be considered a threat. Even they can’t be that stupid.

  86. 86.

    Crusty Dem

    Most of this list is at least 10 years old.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/13/opinion/13HERB.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1066045127-NegMvPiv6bnP6QgL5Goklw

    I think somebody at TBogg was calling Bill Kristol an anti-Cassandra, let’s all give props to Bob Herbert, the real-life deal. Dude never got any attention, was just consistently right about every major issue (that I can recall, I’d imagine some if you w/great memories can find some error, but compared to other major columnists, he was the shit. We should name an award for accurate predictions after him).

    Sorry for any incoherence, fighting the flu.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    Why are there non-Americans on the list? I see Britons Sir Patrick Stewart, Sting and Mrs Sting, and Julia Ormond; and Canadians Shania Twain and Mike Myers.

  91. 91.

    trollhattan

    @Southern Beale:

    Heh, hilarious post. I see he’s shootin’ an old fashioned coal-fired shotgun, complete with chimney (chimbly).

    Maher had a lot of fun with skeetergate last night–he does understand that wingers can and will never be satisfied, so why the hell even try?

  93. 93.

    Todd Dugdale

    Quite a list. Patrick Stewart, The Temptations, Ricki Lake, Barry Manilow, and Lisa Kudrow? Really?

    It’s not clear what being an “enemy” means in practical terms. Boycott the enemies’ films, TV shows, and recordings? Turn off the radio whenever “My Girl” comes on? Just gnash your teeth?

    As with so many of the right-wing’s boycotts, it’s analogous to a vegetarian boycotting a steakhouse. And they don’t even stick with their feeble efforts. How many conservatives are still shopping at Whole Foods (or ever did) because the CEO opposed the ACA?

    Underlying all of this is the weird belief that the rest of the world will beg them to come back to sanity, in exchange for a long list of concessions. The truth is that, the more time they spend in their isolated world with their fellow wingnuts, the sooner they will realise how dreary their “culture” is and how boring and unlikeable their “side” is.

  95. 95.

    Poopyman

    One last (?) thing. I thought an enemies list was usually secret. What’s the point in putting it out in public?

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    @Quinne:
    They’re of a political ilk with people who still won’t admit that Jack Bauer and Stephen Colbert (the TV character) are fictional.

  97. 97.

    Chris

    @Maude:

    Don’t know if you meant MacGyver or Stargate, but in either case, hell yes it was! As a fanboy of both, I’d have been sad if RDA hadn’t made their list.

  98. 98.

    Rosie Outlook

    I was once an NRA member but stopped renewing because I thought their increasing intransigence would cause a backlash against respectable gun owners. I am hurt that I did not make the enemies list even though I dropped membership.

  99. 99.

    Chris

    Also, do mein eyes deceive me, or was “no gun” Batman spared the honor of sharing the list with “no gun” MacGyver? Jesus, they can’t even stop sucking up to *fictional* billionaires. It’s Pavlovian at this point.

    (Yeah, I know, they think Batman’s conservative).

  100. 100.

    Just One More Canuck

    Groucho said, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” I think he would make an exception for this

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    Why are there non-Americans on the list? I see Britons Sir Patrick Stewart, Sting and Mrs Sting, and Julia Ormond; and Canadians Shania Twain and Mike Myers.

    The UK (and most European countries) have strong gun laws. Brits and Canadians who criticize Real White American(tm) gun laws and the constitution are probably godless commies who need to STFU. Doubly so because they can criticize us using the English language. And triple so because these Brits and Canadians have the nerve to come here and live or make money or eat our cheese.

    Or something equally dumbth.

  104. 104.

    trollhattan

    @Rosie Outlook:
    Have wondered for a long while why a competing organization–“Not-Insane American Gun Owners”–hasn’t sprung up to vacuum out the NRA membership.

    Don’t the Free Markets work this way?

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @Chris:

    Also, do mein eyes deceive me, or was “no gun” Batman spared the honor of sharing the list with “no gun” MacGyver? Jesus, they can’t even stop sucking up to *fictional* billionaires.

    MacGyver is rich? Who knew?

    Scrooge McDuck, anti-gun (especially doesn’t go in for duck hunting).

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Being placed on the NRA’s enemies list is pretty much the same as being placed on Al Qaeda’s enemies list.

    A point of pride.

  114. 114.

    Rosie Outlook

    @Thor Heyerdahl: Yes! And we could have spaghetti-dinner fund raisers! I say “we” because if there were such an organization I would certainly join.

    There used to be an organization for gay gun owners called Pink Pistols, but I don’t qualify for that one. The other gay groups didn’t seem to like them, for the most part, so they may be out of business.

  115. 115.

    Redshift

    @trollhattan: I’m pretty sure there are a couple of such organizations. In the free market, money from dues-paying members can’t compete with corporate lobbying dollars from gun manufacturers, which is why you’ve never heard of them.

  116. 116.

    mouse tolliver

    @Poopyman:

    Dick van Dyke? Hell, I thought he brought the “Bang! Bang” to the Chitty movie. Thought the NRA would love him for that.

    Dick Van Dyke is probably on the list because his Diagnosis Murder character never shot a murderer.

  117. 117.

    TGC

    @Anya: Not surprising that Brad Pitt would have some asshole tendencies. Did you miss how he dogged out his ex-wife? Turned me off of him big time.

  120. 120.

    debbie

    It’s time to start a counter-list. I nominate this guy:

    “By not having people carry openly, but by forcing them to conceal their firearm, we’re treating them as somehow unwholesome. We’re treating gun holders like some kind of criminal,” says John Pierce, who founded the group [OpenCarry.org]. “What the open carry movement is trying to do is to normalize the presence of firearms in daily life.”

    http://www.npr.org/2013/01/30/170652470/unconcealed-guns-can-unsettle-but-theyre-often-legal

  121. 121.

    danielx

    Paranoid? Nixonian? Redundant but accurate…except the NRA’s mission is moneymaking, like any other hierarchy. They more paranoid they make their membership (a lot of whom don’t need any additional encouragement in that area*), the more contributions they receive. The more paranoid their membership, the greater the volume of gun sales and the higher the profits for their other constituency, gun manufacturers.

    *Some of these guys are still bemoaning the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act, prior to which we had true freedom including firearms purchases by mail order**, among other things – all totally legal, no ID required. Gun freaks who were around in that era think things have been on a continuous slide towards totalitarianism ever since.

    **Which is how Lee Harvey Oswald acquired the Italian military surplus rifle with which he shot John Kennedy.

  122. 122.

    danielx

    And if y’all think the NRA promotes paranoia, check out Gun Owners of America – they think the NRA are a bunch of compromising weak-kneed wusses, and the organization has 300,000 members and is growing…

  129. 129.

    Paul in KY

    @danielx: Well, well, back in the 20s, if you had the dough, you could get a full auto Thompson submachine gun mail ordered to you from Sears & Roebuck.

    And we liked it!

  130. 130.

    PatrickG

    @Egypt Steve:

    If the ADL is on your enemies list can we say you’re officially anti-semitic?

    Not just the ADL, but the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Labor Committee, National Council of Jewish Women, Union of American Hebrew Congregations… I’m sure there’s a few more Jewish organizations on there, but that’s the quick skim.

    I fully expect Congressional hearings into why the NRA hates JewsIsrael.

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