Monday, December 17, 2012


Mayor Michael Bloomberg says President Barack Obama's first priority in his second term should be to lead the country on gun control.
In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Bloomberg says the kind of violence resulting in the deaths of 20 schoolchildren "only happens in America." And he says it happens "again and again."
Bloomberg has been an outspoken gun control advocate for years. He noted that New York state has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and New York City the lowest murder rate of any big American city.
The mayor says it's time for the president to stand up and tell the country what needs to happen — not go to Congress and ask what legislators want to do.

Un-freaking-believable. This is what passes for political leadership in NYC?

His first priority should be gun control. 

Our foreign policy has no clear direction. Instability in the Middle East, Syrian revolution and possible war with Turkey, Iran is working on developing nukes, North Korea continues work on ICBMs, China and Japan rattling sabres over the Senkaku Islands.

We are 16 trillion dollars in debt. That's $16,000,000,000,000. We add roughly $1,000,000 to that every minute. Our tax revenues are no where near enough to make a dent, we're molding a mill stone around the necks of our children and grandchildren that gets bigger every day. We're inching closer galloping head-long towards a real fiscal cliff, not the "scary headline" fiscal cliff that you're hearing about in the news, but a for-real, default on the sovreign debt, plummeting standard of living, unable to pay for the essentials of government much less the optional, out of money fiscal cliff.

And Mayor Bloomberg thinks Obama's first priority should be gun control. But you know what's worse? There are undoubtedly thousands out there who heard him say that and nodded their heads in agreement.

It disgusts me that we're having this conversation right now. I think the notion of gun control is not just unconstitutional, but ignorant and foolish as well. I understand the emotional appeal to a certain kind of person though. If they must wring their hands and talk about bans and background checks and gun show loopholes, hey, some people think it's worth pursuing. But there's no good reason we should have this conversation right now, while the bodies aren't even in the graves yet, except that that same sort of person apparently feels no compunction whatsoever against using a tragedy like this to score political points. Just the tiniest bit of decency would compel them, one would think, to hold off on the grand-standing for a few days, but we mustn't let a crisis go to waste, right? And so we have the conversation.

Back to Bloomberg. This sort of thing happens only in America he says. Apparently the Honorable Mayor has never heard of Anders Breivik and the Workers Youth League camp. Or Matti Saari and Seinäjoki University. Or  Farda Gadirov and the State Oil Academy. And did he sleep through Rwanda, and Iraq, and the Balkans? Is he ignorant, or just taking advantage of great opportunity?

Are his statistics any better? After "only in America" we should probably check. It's true that New York has some tough gun laws, and that NYC has a very low murder rate. Texas law is fairly lenient, gun ownership is much more widespread, and Texas rate is slightly above New York's. But gun laws in New Jersey, right across the river from New York, are similar, and yet the rate in the Garden State is higher than the Empire, and on a par with gun-crazy Texas. Montana's laws are pretty lax, and their murder rate is much lower than New York's, New Jersey's or Texas'. Even more interesting, murder rates have been trending downward for years in places with stringent laws and lax; so if tough gun laws are the answer, then why do states with lenient regulation follow the same trend, and often at similar rates? Could it be that there's something more going on?

I do need to give the Mayor his props though. In a difficult time he's not above making a joke to try and lighten the mood. At any rate, I found it funny when Bloomberg says Attorney General GunRunner's boss should tell the rest of us what we need to do about gun violence. It has to be a joke right? If Bloomberg was serious he'd be pressuring the President to hold his Attorney General accountable for illegal gun trafficking, meddling in the affairs of a sovreign nation, and facilitating the murder of a Federal Agent. Okay, it's not that funny a joke, but I'll give the Mayor an E for effort.

Bloomberg is right about one thing though. It happens again and again. It's not going to stop either. Homo homini lupus est is as true as it ever was, our pretensions of civility and enlightenment notwithstanding; run on by your local clinic and watch a partial-birth abortion if you want to see the latest in lupine fashion. No, it's not going to stop, and because mankind is wonderfully, horribly, tragically creative in finding ways to do violence to the innocent, it can't really be prevented. It can only be resisted, sometimes to great effect, sometimes to little, but resisted it must be. A pox on those who, because they are too timid to do so themselves, would deny others the most effective means to do so.

Hey Mayor Bloomberg. I hear rumors of a convenience store on the lower East Side that is selling Coke in 32 ounce cups. Why don't you run on down there and catch those vile scum in the act, and leave those of us that don't live in your fair city alone. Hell, I'm a reasonable man, I'll make a deal with you. I'll never drink another Super Big Gulp again if you'll at least try to educate yourself before opening your big mouth and lecturing the rest of us.

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