Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Let me file that under fuck it.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The lights are all blinking red.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

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156Comments

  6. 6.

    Chief

    Might a chainsaw be a little to accurate ?

    How about doing a lobotomy with a back-hoe? Or a very hungry (you fill in the animal) ?

  8. 8.

    PsiFighter37

    I’m pretty sure LaPierre won’t be satisfied he’s done a good job until it’s raining blood. I wonder how the man manages to wake up and look himself in the mirror every morning.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    @PsiFighter37: I wonder how the man manages to wake up and look himself in the mirror every morning.

    Rationalization, denial, and only looking enough to finish shaving.

    And never-ever meeting his own eyes.

  11. 11.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @PsiFighter37: It was a peaceful nine months since that A-hole was seen or heard from after that turd of a press conference. If there is a Hell may LaPierre be forced for an eternity to sent to a room where images of gun victims are shown and forced to hear the mourning of the survivors, or the victims come back to haunt him when they ask “Why?”.

  18. 18.

    Ben Franklin

    We still don’t know why the SWAT team was told to stand down in the Navy yard, and the issue of mental health is still in stand-down mode.

    Those issues are not germane to gunz. That’s why those questions are forgotten. The boogeyman under the bed is scarier and easier for the public to understand.

  19. 19.

    Violet

    The blog seems to be forgetting my name/email again. Have to enter it every time FYWP.

    I can’t imagine just how small Wayne LaPierre’s p3n1s must be. Probably requires an extra strong microscope to see it.

  21. 21.

    The Dangerman

    Maybe the Navy can get a good 2 for 1 deal on a “Fuck You” gift basket; one for Thomas Hoshko and one for LaPierre. Assholes.

  22. 22.

    Short Bus Bully

    The fact that the military, with all of its guns, heavy weaponry, warrior culture, etc. does NOT swagger around armed to the teeth 24/7 should be telling.

  24. 24.

    ronin122

    Come on guys and gals, no comment about the title being “peak NRA”? Well like peak wingnut I assure you that it is at best an unproven theory and in all likelihood a lie.

  25. 25.

    Wolfdaughter

    @Sir Nose’D:

    The solution will always be more guns until the day after a workplace shooting at NRA headquarters.

    But the NRA workers are all armed and ready to take on nutcake shooters! Right? Or something…

  28. 28.

    gogol's wife

    @Ben Franklin:

    Yeah, right, mental health is the real problem. I’ve been so admiring of Wayne LaPierre’s leadership in improving our mental health care system.

  29. 29.

    aimai

    Just re-read a very good book by Stuard Neville called Ghosts of Belfast (originally published as The Twelve). Its the story of an ex IRA killer who is haunted by the ghosts of 12 of his victims. The book counts down from 12 to 1 as he carries out their silent demands that he avenge their deaths by killing the men who ordered their deaths. I only wish it were true that there were ghosts because if anyone deserves to be haunted and followed, day and night, by the corpses of our gun dead it is Wayne LaPierre.

  31. 31.

    Splitting Image

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    Actually I was thinking of that device O’Brien uses on Winston Smith in 1984 with the rats.

    I don’t think that would work. The point of that device was to make Smith say “Do it to Julia!”, and that is already the cornerstone of LaPierre’s philosophy.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @PsiFighter37:
    By believing he’s right and that if everyone had lots of guns there would always be a Hero to stop any problem. Always leave open the possibility that your enemy is stupid and crazy enough to be absolutely honest about his intentions.

  33. 33.

    srv

    I’m telling ya, we need to have gun training for 6th graders or at least a course in mobbing an adult with a assault weapon. We have a whole generation of adults who obviously don’t know what to do. Like the Heimlich, the McArdle Maneuver could save countless lives.

  34. 34.

    piratedan

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yup, Wayne obviously believes that today’s society has parallels to the 50’s Hollywood staple of westerns and moar westerns, where a man with a gun can solve all problems and still get the girl and win the admiration of the community.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I love the way you write and the tough questions you raise in that blog essay. This is an area about which I know very little, so I’m looking forward to following and learning.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a dull, rusty chainsaw with anthrax on it is a good guy with a dull, rusty chainsaw with anthrax on it.

    How about a regenerating mutant with razor sharp adamandium claws? I seem to remember somebody mentioning him earlier in the thread.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @Comrade Dread:

    The motherf***ers in the gun industry won’t be happy until we’re all walking around our towns and cities in full military combat gear. .

    Not at all. They won’t be happy until we spend all our disposable income on weapons and ammo. Whether we choose to use those weapons and ammo to pack heat on all our minor errands or to build an impregnable fortress in our back yard is up to us, just as long as they get our money.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @gogol’s wife:

    Thanks! I’m still debating whether my next essay should be about “Love Me Tonight” (Maurice Chevalier musical airing tomorrow night on TCM) or “The Divorcee” (Norma Shearer drama airing early Wednesday morning at 3 am ET). I need to make my mind up soon so folks can set their DVRs.

  42. 42.

    Mike E

    @BruceFromOhio: I don’t see a megaphone per se, but a hand-held douche canoe.
    @Joel: Speaking of which, hacktastic Easterbrook doesn’t make the public funding connection to his rightwing darlings’ ascension to national political dominance. He always leaves that part out, heh.

  44. 44.

    Davis X. Machina

    The First Amendment precludes establishing a state religion.
    The Second Amendment then turns around and establishes one.

    Any deity worth his, her, or its salt can demand, and receive, human sacrifice.

    The gun is perfectly normal in this respect.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Roger Moore:

    Asked …

    How about a regenerating mutant with razor sharp adamandium claws?

    … and answered:

    I would think the razor sharp adamantium claws would do too neat a job of it.

    Do.Not.Want.Neat.Job.
    Want.Rust.And.Anthrax.

  46. 46.

    TAPX486

    @Roger Moore: Maybe they should include a small hand gun in the courtesy packs that they give new parent’s when they take the baby home from the hospital. Can’t get started to young in being prepared for those bad guys!!!!!

  47. 47.

    pseudonymous in nc

    I now think that Wayne LaPebble is actually trolling in order to get someone to have a crack at shooting up NRA HQ in NoVa so that his manly manly menfolk can prove themselves.

  49. 49.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Wayne LaPierre is not alone on that:

    One or maybe two or three shooters shut down an entire US Navy base. That is disgraceful regardless of whatever facts relate to this case. Our enemies are now taking note: if you want to go to war with the United States, you start with a few three-man commando teams attacking major US military bases – it will paralyze our military for hours, at least.

    We need to change this – our bases have to be fully armed with people who know how to shoot to kill in an instant. No US base should be shut down because of an attack – and no one should flee their post, nor should a “shelter in place” (translation: cower in fear) order be issued. The strength of any military force is expressed by its instant readiness for war. There are no rear areas for the military and there is no peace time. Violent enemies are always out there, always seeking to kill…the military must always be ready.

    I guess the talking points hath been distributed.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I can understand LaPierre’s point. In the movies, everyone on a military installation has at least one loaded pistol, there are constant patrols by guys with assault rifles, machine gun nests on towers, bazookas and man portable miniguns lying around on racks available for all the manly men able to lift them, and one guy who’s doing maintenance on a tank and will drive it out through the garage door at the first sign of trouble. Actual military bases must seem pathetically weak and begging for trouble.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Blogs for Victory, hmmm?

    And they’ve got a book up, on why Barack Obama is the Worst President in History.

    Will take a pass on them.

    Parallel universe it must be hell to inhabit.

  52. 52.

    gene108

    @PsiFighter37:

    I wonder how the man manages to wake up and look himself in the mirror every morning.

    Knowing he wouldn’t be making half as much money doing anything else probably helps.

  55. 55.

    aimai

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’ve been putting off Iain Banks because, well, what if I don’t like him? But I’ve definitely run out of fiction writers that I do like, and plowed through all series’ that appealed to me, so I’ll put him back on the list. Thanks for the recommendation.

  57. 57.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @TAPX486:I agree that there is likely some pathology evident in LaPierre’s views, but he has a pedantic “out,” if you will. In psychiatry, delusions are defined as “fixed, false beliefs.” That the Navy Yard or Newton mass murders could have been prevented or diminished in scope is in my view clearly a fixed false belief.

    Excluded from that definition of delusion, however are religious beliefs. Many here have noted the totemic status of firearms for people like LaPierre indeed these folks have a gun fetish, in the original sense of “fetish” – attributing mystical properties to inanimate objects. You could go so far as to characterize the view as worship of the god of the gun, with mjaor saints like Samuel Colt, Gaston Glock,Peter Paul Mauser,
    Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, Mikhail Kalashnikov, and of course Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. Then it falls under the religious belief exception to delusion.

    LaPierre should not be able, without pushback, to call people with a neurobiolgical illness “lunatics,” and

    criticize the flaws in the nation’s treatment of the mentally ill, especially of those mentally ill people who try to buy guns. “They need to be committed is what they need to be, and if they’re committed, they’re not at the Navy Yard,” he said.

    nbc

    I’ll bleg for supporting mental illness awareness and stigma reduction – join Team Bella Q at the link on my nym.

  58. 58.

    CaseyL

    @Davis X. Machina: @Elizabelle: Gun ownership is absolutely a religion to the gun nuts, and massacres are indeed blood sacrifices to that religion.

    Once you realize that, you realize gun nuts are throwbacks to ancient times, where a religion’s savagery was proof of its power.

    And once you realize that, you know just how much we’re screwed: each mass murder only reinforces the validity of their faith. No death toll is too high to them, no images of the dead are horrifying to them; they can’t be appalled or shamed by evidence that their god is a mighty god, only exhalted by it.

  59. 59.

    RSA

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    In the movies, everyone on a military installation has at least one loaded pistol, there are constant patrols by guys with assault rifles, machine gun nests on towers, bazookas and man portable miniguns lying around on racks available for all the manly men able to lift them, and one guy who’s doing maintenance on a tank and will drive it out through the garage door at the first sign of trouble.

    And amazingly, the good guys never shoot other good guys by mistake or accident. Okay, maybe that weaselly guy who should never have been in the military in the first place, but he kinda deserved it.

    The blogger’s view that we need people “who know how to shoot to kill in an instant” on these bases seems to assume that these people, if they exist, can just turn off their hair-trigger instincts and go home to the wife and kids at the end of the day. Somehow, I don’t think this is possible.

  60. 60.

    TAPX486

    Somewhat off-topic but still dealing with bad guys having guns. Congressman King (the slightly less crazy one from New York) is concerned that the terrorist group that attacked the mall in Kenya has been recruiting in the American Somalia community. He is afraid that some of these terrorists will try to slip back into the US and attack an American target. He hopes that the FBI and other homeland security agencies are prepared to counter this threat. You know the government that on Friday he voted to shut down. According to the new FBI director the current sequester level will require the FBI to shutdown for two weeks and the GOP wants to make even larger budget cuts. .

  63. 63.

    gene108

    @Elizabelle:

    Then you missed this nugget of “wisdom”:

    I blame the entire situation. As I’ve said again and again and again these things used to never happen. Now they do. The dividing line is that school shooting in San Diego back in 1979.

    It is everything that went in to the killer which caused him to kill – our broken morality, our glorification of violence, our attacks on masculine virtues (men not taught to be properly manly often wind up as brutes); all of this and more caused this to happen…and, yes, someone who plays violent video games for long periods of time is feeding in to his brain things which can come out in very bad ways.

    Yes America, I am the cause of mass shootings.

    I was not raised on masculine virtues and I play video games (though mostly fantasy RPG’s, so I’m more likely to kill you with a sword I get at the next Comic-Con I go to, I guess).

  65. 65.

    TAPX486

    @gene108: I kinda liked the idea of the citizen militia, where every one gets to keep a machine gun and hand grenades at home in the closet. Let’s just turn the neighborhood into a free fire zone. These folks need help

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @aimai:

    Apparently the author not only exaggerates the links that did exist (which are bad enough, as the Doherty book apparently shows), but his film analysis is WAY off-base. The Self-Styled Siren (who is a terrific classic movie blogger) wonders if the guy even saw some of the films he criticizes since he seems to have missed little things like the fact that the tax collector that Rothschild lies to at the beginning of “House of Rothschild” is played by Boris Karloff. You really couldn’t have a stronger statement of “this guy is a villain” in 1930s films, but the author seems to think we’re supposed to be on Karloff’s side. Etc.

  67. 67.

    scav

    @gene108: “our glorification of violence”? LePierre clearly needs to be taken on a tour of the tagets being flogged at his own circuses of Appropriate Manliness. And, not only did he get the gender wrong of his appropiatly manly rock, he’s only got one of them.

  68. 68.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OT, but who is controlling the messaging over at Newsmax?

    Arsenic in Drinking Water: 13 Million at Risk

    In the article, it’s stated that 19 parts per billion of arsenic is enough to cause reduced lung function. The article goes on to state that EPA regulations require US water supplies to test at less than 10 parts per billion, but private wells are NOT regulated, and thus 13 million Americans are at risk.

    Pardon me, but I thought “regulations” were the source of all evil to the wingtards, and now they are implicitly calling for regulation of private wells to deal with this issue.

    Next, Newsmax takes a look at fracking and what it does to water supplies…oh, wait, what the fuck am I thinking?

  70. 70.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @WereBear:

    Exqueeze me, but how is it bad for firearms and ammunition manufacturers (the true masters of the NRA) for there to be a “glorification of violence” in this culture? Just more product being moved, more hookers and blow for the CEOs of Colt, Bushmaster, etc.

  71. 71.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @gene108:

    (men not taught to be properly manly often wind up as brutes)

    I believe we’ve just discussed the case of Ted Nugent, cowardly draft dodging shitstain.

  72. 72.

    MomSense

    Oh my FSM I feel like the little ball stuck in a pin ball game of stupid.

    We need more good guys with guns to stop the bad guys with guns and there are not even enough armed guards at the Navy Yard or Fort Hood and we can’t afford to have our own government do government jobs so we have to hire those functions out to private contractors who cost more but they can’t be expected to be thorough because of funding cuts (sequester fester) and look over there at the Somali AQ people who might be here so we better have our FBI investigate them but first let’s shut down the government altogether so no one can do anything including the FBI all to stop a law that is already in effect and providing rebates to the insured, insuring young adults, and providing more preventive care to Seniors for cheaper all while extending the solvency of Medicare, and giving us the lowest medical price inflation in 50 years.

  75. 75.

    RSA

    @gene108:

    ” (men not taught to be properly manly often wind up as brutes)”

    I thought the conservative position was that being manly doesn’t need to be taught: it’s part of how we men are naturally constituted by God. The blogger makes it sound as if being “properly manly” is a social construct–what crazy idea!

  76. 76.

    scav

    @MomSense: Don’t forget, we can in no way infringe on the rights of those hypothetical Somali’s immediate access to high capacity weapons once here as it might have a knock-on effect on the rights of the appropriately manly, melanined, worshipping men.

  77. 77.

    Fort Geek

    Fark’s sake. The entire time I was in the army, the ONLY times we ever had rifles were when we were a) doing rifle qualification or b) doing a field training exercise. As soon as we were done, the guns went back into lockup. We didn’t walk strapped around the armory.

    We never even had ammunition until we got TO the damn firing range, every single round was accounted for, every piece of brass was accounted for, and no one left the field until the accounting was done.

    But then, I bet LaPierre has zero military background. Farking, farking, FARKing idiot.

  78. 78.

    PsiFighter37

    Since it’s an open thread, I will mention that Mariano Rivera’s retirement ceremony was very well-done. As a Yankees fan who grew up with these guys in the late 90s, it’s sad to see age catch up to them. Aside from being nostalgic, it makes me feel my age more as well.

    Probably one of the classiest people in sports – sad to see him go.

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    @scav:

    Hot damn I forgot about allowing some bad guys to get guns so the good guys aren’t impeded in any way from getting more guns.

    I guess if a few terrorists get guns and do something bad because there aren’t enough good guys with guns we can always send them to GTMO. Does that stay open if we shut down the government?

  80. 80.

    Gene108

    @TAPX486:

    As anybody who has worked as an unpaid volunteer knows that purely voluntary unpaid members are perfectly designed to handle rigid top-down military structure.

  81. 81.

    Chris

    @gene108:

    As I’ve said again and again and again these things used to never happen. Now they do.

    When? When did they never happen? Our parents’ generation, when presidential candidates and civil rights leaders were getting shot left and right and urban crime went through the roof? Our grandparents’ generation, who came this close to open revolution during the Great Depression? When was the last time violence wasn’t a part of the American landscape?

  83. 83.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Fort Geek:

    Yup.

    LaPierre’s entire notion of how the military functions is culled from some John Wayne WWII flick that combat marines were thrown out of a theater for laughing at.

  85. 85.

    The Dangerman

    @PsiFighter37:

    Probably one of the classiest people in sports – sad to see him go.

    I’m assuming he’s the last of the “42” uniforms. I wonder how the Yankees retire a number already retired?

  86. 86.

    John O

    I know the Steelers don’t get their asses kicked by my mighty Bears until tonight, but does anyone know if JC is alive, well, and not having seizures?

  87. 87.

    PsiFighter37

    @Villago Delenda Est: That’s not saying much, but even compared to the average sports player, he’s a notch above.

    @The Dangerman: They put a plaque for Robinson up in Monument Park, and put Rivera’s retired #42 beside the rest of the Yankee retired numbers.

  88. 88.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @John O:

    I know the Steelers don’t get their asses kicked by my mighty Bears until tonight, but does anyone know if JC is alive, well, and not having seizures?

    September 22 is Hobbit Day. John and Walt have a middle earth celebration, dressing up as Bilbo and Frodo. I’d be surprised if he does much more than put up a football Open Thread this evening.

  92. 92.

    Darkrose

    @PsiFighter37: I only caught the tail end of it on the radio, but no matter how badly the Giants get their asses kicked today, I do want to watch the pregame stuff. Rivera really is a class act.

    On the other hand, I had to #RAGEQUIT my favorite Giants forum because some clown was arguing that Rachel Robinson was too senile to realize that Jackie wouldn’t have wanted his number retired across MLB.

  93. 93.

    Yatsuno

    @Darkrose:

    On the other hand, I had to #RAGEQUIT my favorite Giants forum because some clown was arguing that Rachel Robinson was too senile to realize that Jackie wouldn’t have wanted his number retired across MLB.

    Uhh…what?

  94. 94.

    shelly

    and wrong to set off a bag full of firecrackers in the atrium of the NRA’s HQ.
    *******

    Hard to imagine the firestorm that would set off. Like a Yosemite Sam cartoon.

  97. 97.

    Darkrose

    @Yatsuno: He was going on about how retiring numbers was stupid, and claimed that Jackie would have preferred to see young kids wearing his number and trying to live up to his legacy. I pointed out that the person who had a better idea of what her husband would have wanted than some clown on the internet was fine with retiring #42 across MLB.

    At which point, said clown started insisting that she was only fine with it because she didn’t really know what was going on, and that she made a different decision at 80 than she might have at 60. When I last checked, he was explaining to me that older people are more likely to get scammed by con artists.

    I’m at work, so I left the thread before I put a fist through my monitor.

  98. 98.

    Jebediah

    @shelly:
    I thought I read somewhere that NRA headquarters are a gun-free zone. If true, I suppose that would mean that the NRA realizes guns are dangerous and shouldn’t be everywhere – only in places where you don’t care about people being safe. If you are the NRA, that would be “everywhere except where the NRA is.” Which is not at all sociopathic.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    @Shakezula:

    It would be bad and mean and wrong to set off a bag full of firecrackers in the atrium of the NRA’s HQ.

    No it wouldn’t. They’d all shit their pants and hide in a closet. The gun nuts are gun nuts because they only feel safe with overwhelming firepower. They’re not brave enough to face someone on even odds. That’s why they’re such strong supporters of conceal-carry.

  100. 100.

    Violet

    @Jebediah:

    I thought I read somewhere that NRA headquarters are a gun-free zone.

    If this is true, it needs to be trumpeted in every conversation about the NRA. “Why doesn’t the NRA allow guns at its headquarters?” If the answer is, “the community the headquarters is based in doesn’t allow them” then it needs to be followed with, “Why is the NRA based in a community that doesn’t allow guns?”

    Over and over again it needs to be said. The NRA can easily be painted as hypocritical and wimpy if this claim is true. It needs to be repeated. Let Wayne LaPierre and his cohorts deal with everyone around him having guns. The more the better!

  101. 101.

    Bubba Dave

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    So Wayne LaPierre missed Vietnam because he was diagnosed with a “nervous disorder,” huh? I wonder if that’s the same as the sort of mental problems that are the real problem and not our culture of guns no way no how no why….

  103. 103.

    Jay S

    @Violet:

    “if this claim is true”

    I doubt it. Google tells me there is a shooting range in the basement of the NRA Headquarters open to the public. I didn’t find anything on restrictions elsewhere. Yelp indicates that people are bringing their own guns to the range.

  104. 104.

    WereBear

    @Bubba Dave: So Wayne LaPierre missed Vietnam because he was diagnosed with a “nervous disorder,” huh?

    There’s a reason Wingnut Heroes always turn out to have whole bodies made of clay. The “models” they hold up for emulation are ridiculously inhuman.

  105. 105.

    scav

    wandering a bit more along the lines of his position, the problem is not too many guns in ‘merca, it’s the lack of good men in ‘merca to carry them. All those poor guns, lookinjg for a home and not enough good men to care for them! No wonder the fewer and fewer good men are having to double up and adopt larger and larger families of the poor little lead-spitting dears. Men of ‘Merca! Many of you are not good enough for the ‘Mercan Gun! (Not that we’ll quiz you on your video-game watching insufficiently manly ways prior to your adoption, ‘v course. We’ll just expunge you from the list of responsible manly men once anything unfortunate happens.).

  106. 106.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:
    I would not blame anyone for draft dodging. I sometimes wonder if they can’t forgive themselves. It would explain the sheer desperation of Ted Nugent’s macho posturing.

    @scav:
    I also sometimes wonder if this is terrifying the handgun manufacturers. They’re making bank, but there’s no room to grow. When the crazy old gun nuts start to die off, the next generation is vastly smaller and not as crazy. It’s all downhill from here, and they surely know it.

  108. 108.

    jon

    Where was the Megan McArdle Linebacker Brigade? They could have at least done that, assuming they weren’t a bunch of cowards running for their lives or too busy being killed. The lack of a follow-through of libertarian ideas in a government setting such as a building under stress shows a fundamental breakdown in the fundamental values of individualism that need to be the shared responsibility of others.

  109. 109.

    The Sailor

    @Jay S:

    She told me that the security guards at the front desk were unarmed, but that visitors were not allowed to bring weapons into the building (except to their posh firing range, which has a separate entrance).

  111. 111.

    MikeJ

    @Jay S:

    Google tells me there is a shooting range in the basement of the NRA Headquarters open to the public.

    I can verify there is a shooting range there. One of my friends used to work at the museum there (a museum science degree means you take the job that comes along.)

  115. 115.

    catclub

    @Joel: Great article — appalling. I like to pretend I do not support the NFL – small town, no cable,
    but I watch more than I would like.

  117. 117.

    JPL

    @raven: Whoa! Someone will put up a football thread soon and then you can tell me all about the Packers.
    The Falcons are moving the ball…

    just checked game view.. the packers only have two chances

    falcons score..

  119. 119.

    ruemara

    @Jay S: Headquarters are not a gun-free zone because of the range. This does not mean it’s an open carry office space or museum. Gun conventions do have gun-free zones on the floor of the convention space. This has not stopped accidents in the area.

    I do wonder if people are wandering into the NRA headquarters with lunch, a briefcase an AK, a Glock, 200 rounds of ammo-just in case the office copier gets uppity.

  123. 123.

    Yatsuno

    @JPL: Seahacks just scored, but I know better than to think this will be an easy win. Even it is against Jacksonville.

    (waves at Cassidy)

  125. 125.

    Yatsuno

    @MikeJ: Jeebus Times. WTF is wrong with you? Are they TRYING to curse us or something?

    EDIT: Then again Marshawn already has 55 yards and it’s still first quarter. But…

  126. 126.

    Mino

    Al Shabab Somalia has released the names and addresses of many of the jihadists involved in the Westlake attack. Several have home addresses in the United States. None have been verified..

  130. 130.

    JPL

    @Mino: AP sources say it’s a fake twitter feed and have told CNN.. Of course, CNN has not corrected cuz scary Muslims in the US sells. Warren Buffet doesn’t like Obamacare also.

  131. 131.

    Mino

    @JPL: Interesting. The original source was savvy enough to quote Rep. Peter King as regards recruitment. Glad to hear was bogus.

  134. 134.

    elftx

    @Bubblegum Tate: saw the comment on that link a citizen’s militia needs to be started and all I can think is yeah only if those joining it can do Nathan Lane’s version of John Waynes’ walk

  136. 136.

    raven

    @efgoldman: I was just talking to a Yanks fans down the street about vividly remembering Dave Windfield playing basketball for the Golden Gophers. Hell, I watched Quinn Bucker and Doc Rivers in high school.

  139. 139.

    raven

    @JPL: The announcers made the point that the home team had to prepare the locker room for the celebration and could have to do it again tomorrow for the Pirates!

  140. 140.

    Schlemizel

    Just ran an uncontrolled experiment to learn that hornets may be able to recognize colors. We have a hive being built under the cedar shake siding. Wasp killer did not seem to bother them. Today I took the shop vac to them & managed to suck up a hundred or so. They got rather agitated about the activity but didn’t seem to bother me while I was doing it. After several minutes I realized that even it I sucked up 5 times that many it was not going to get rid of them. I emptied the dead bodies & brought the shop vac back to the basement. When I came out one of the buggers hit me immediately – no swatting, no dance, just dive in & sting. I was wearing a red shirt. The woman stupid enough to marry me was out puttering in the gardens the whole time, they never bothered her even when she walked past them to see if I was OK. My preliminary conclusion is that hornets can see red & remember.

  142. 142.

    GregB

    The only thing stopping the bad guys is good guys, lots of good guys with guns, lots and lots of guns.

  143. 143.

    Schlemizel

    @JPL:

    I’d love to see Pittsburgh and KC simply because its been so long for them. But I actually expect the Justin Manure curse to torpedo the Pirates and KC is fading.

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I knew i was getting older when, first, I realized i was the same age as young ballplayers. Then, I realized I was the same age as veteran ballplayers. Then i realized that I was older than any active ballplayer. Then I realized I was the same age as managers….

    Wait until those managers start retiring….

  146. 146.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @Elizabelle:

    Blogs for Victory, hmmm?

    Fun fact about that site: It started life as Blogs for Bush, an online shrine to the C+ Augustus. The guy who wrote that ridiculous post still believes that Bush will be considered equal to or better than Lincoln. He’s pretty seriously looney-tunes.

  147. 147.

    MikeJ

    @efgoldman:

    My first major league game, at Fenway, 1955. I was 10. I don’t remember if Ted played (he probably did.) The only thing i remember is that Early Wynn pitched for the Indians, who (I later understood) were a great team at that time.

    Do you remember if it was June 17? One of the things I love about baseball it that you can look up everything that happened. On June 17, Teddy Baseball was walked, flied out to left, popped up a foul, intentionally walked, and flied to right.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS195506171.shtml

    Williams didn’t play in the May 17 game Wynn pitched though.

    Of course they played the Indians 22 times in ’55, presumably half of those in Cleveland, half in Fenway. No idea how many of those 11 Wynn pitched, but one could find out.

  148. 148.

    muddy

    @Schlemizel: Maybe they can smell the broken bodies of their fallen comrades on you. I don’t know what kind of wasps yours were, but I was told that you don’t want to crush a yellowjacket because it lets out a chemical that makes the others come after you.

  150. 150.

    Schlemizel

    @muddy:

    I was expecting a counter-attack while I was sucking them up & prepared to make a hasty retreat. But they buzzed al around me while I was vacuuming but none attacked until after wards. The oddest part was that it was immediate, there was no pretense or the normal business of trying to smack one & it retaliating. It was almost as if it was waiting for me. The second I stepped out it hit me!

  151. 151.

    muddy

    @Schlemizel: A few years ago I was closing the pool for the season, and got into a confrontation with a nest of yellowjackets. They had made a home in one of the uprights just under the rim of the pool, I had not noticed them all summer. I was putting the cover on by myself, so I hitched it on one side and then got in the water to pull it across. But I grabbed the rim right where they were and they got pissed. Swarmed out and attacked me, I dove under the water and 2 of them got me in the ass on the way under. Then I was tangled in the cover and thought I might drown from that. They were waiting when I got back up too, and I had to hide under the cover for a while. Relentless bastards.

    Imagine if I died because wasps drowned me. What a thing to read in the paper.

    ETA: I meant to say that maybe they didn’t come out when the vacuum was on because the vibration was like a giant insect buzzing?

  152. 152.

    Schlemizel

    @muddy:

    Not the way I want to go!

    I did notice that I had to pull the tube away from the opening for a moment to get them to come back, I assume it was the vibrations that they felt

  153. 153.

    gene108

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Fun fact about that site: It started life as Blogs for Bush, an online shrine to the C+ Augustus. The guy who wrote that ridiculous post still believes that Bush will be considered equal to or better than Lincoln. He’s pretty seriously looney-tunes.

    In 2003 and 2004 many right-wingers openly stated Bush, Jr. was the greatest President ever. Most like to pretend that never happened.

    I’m surprised BoV guy is still sticking up for Bush, Jr. That’s usually left to the chattering classes that have made or look to make some cash off Bush family contacts.

  156. 156.

    johnny aquitard

    @Schlemizel: It’s always the guy in the red shirt who gets it. Didn’t you ever watch StarTrek?

    Actually, the most effective hornet/wasp/yellow jacket spray is a mixture of one tablespoon of Dawn dish detergent per 1 liter of plain tap water. Put it in a spray bottle or one of those super-squirter squirt guns and wreak havoc on those buggy bastards at 30 feet out. IIRC someone on BJ had a comment or a post about using dish soap and water.

    It knocks ’em dead, as in right out of the air. It works even faster than the toxic Raid type stuff (which are basically nerve agents — holy cow).

    Since it’s just dish soap and water it won’t poison you if you get it on your skin or breath any of the fine mist that always seems to waft back at you. Won’t kill your shrubs (if you wash it off) or melt plastic or dissolve paint if you get it on your house. Washing it off the house just makes the house cleaner.

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