Category: Crap For Brains

Was That A Toy Gun In Your Living Room?

How bad has the anti-gun hysteria gotten among some in our educational system? So bad that a grade-school student from Colorado Springs, Colo., was recently suspended for having a toy gun—in his own home!

Isaiah Elliott, who is 12 years old, was home last August participating in an online class. His school was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Isaiah was sitting on his living room couch with his laptop computer. He was next to a friend who was also doing online class work with a different teacher. During his second-period class, Isaiah’s art teacher noticed the friend was holding a “gun” and asked Isaiah to move it off screen.

Isaiah then took the green toy pistol—which had the words “ZOMBIE HUNTER” emblazoned on one side—from his friend and placed it out of the teacher’s sight.

Afterwards, the art teacher informed her superior that a student had what looked like a gun. The school official called the police.

“They said they called the police for my son’s safety,” said Dani Elliott, Isaiah’s mother. “But, if they were so concerned about him and if they really thought his life might be threatened, why didn’t they call me immediately? And why did the police take four-and-a-half hours to get to our house?”

As was widely reported by local and national news media, Widefield School District 3, Isaiah’s school district at the time of this incident, repeated its “student-safety” mantra to explain the school’s reaction. The district also claimed Isaiah had violated school policy by bringing a “facsimile” firearm to school. Because of this, he was suspended for five days.

“But he was not at school,” said Elliott. “He was in our living room. Apparently, they have the right to dictate what goes on in our own home, over a Nerf gun no less!”

Elliott did receive an email from the school about an hour after the incident. She called the school and told them it was a toy gun. Bodycam footage (available on the internet) shows an El Paso County Sheriff’s office deputy at the school to take the complaint from school staff. The video shows one staffer admitting it was most likely a toy gun as they laughed over the incident.

“It really scared Isaiah when the deputy sheriff showed up,” said Elliott. “And I believe the school suspended my son to save face, to pretend they actually had some policy in place to cover this. They don’t. It’s our home, not the school building.”

Elliott soon pulled Isaiah out of the Widefield School District 3 and put him into a new school. Continue reading “”

“Defund the police” and the damage done.

“DEFUND THE POLICE” AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Remember the debate over the meaning of the phrase “defund the police”? Repeated over and over on the progressive left, it seemed pretty clear — it meant that cities should no longer fund, and thus effectively abolish, their police forces. But some Democrats worried that embracing such a radical proposal might hurt them politically, so they suggested that it actually meant re-directing some, but not all, funds from police to things like mental health treatment and affordable housing. Nothing too radical.

Every time Democrats thought they had limited the political damage done by a literal interpretation of “defund the police,” some progressive voice would mess it all up. For example, in June, the New York Times published an op-ed headlined, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police.” Continue reading “”

Texas Anti-Gunners File Many Bills

At least 16 gun control bills have already been filed for the upcoming Texas Legislative Session beginning in January, setting the stage for a contentious battle over the gun rights of private citizens.

One of the bills is HB 196, filed by Irving State Representative Terry Meza.  Her bill would remove a homeowner’s legal right under the Castle Doctrine to use a firearm in the defense of their homestead against an intruder.  Meza believes homeowners are too quick to pull the trigger during a home invasion, and HB 196 would essentially gut that provision from the Castle Doctrine.

“I’m not condoning stealing, it is against the law, “Meza says, “but it’s not an offense that is punishable by death.”

Meza claims she’s already become the target of intense scrutiny online.

“People are already attacking me on Facebook saying I’m against the 2nd Amendment,” she says.

Meza says a homeowner would still be able to defend their life, but using a gun would be illegal, thus placing the homeowner in legal jeopardy.

Critics point to what is often a slow response time from police, and argue that there’s very little time to determine whether a person who has broken into a home is there simply to steal, or to commit acts of violence.

Other gun control bills awaiting the next session include:

  • HB 152 and HB 245 would ban the private sale of firearms at gun shows;
  • HB 238 would eliminate the state’s firearm preemption, allowing local governments such as the Austin City Council to pass local gun bans and regulations as they see fit;
  • HB 201 would ban Campus Carry;
  • HB 127 would ban the open carry of long rifles;
  • HB 236 would overhaul the 30.06 and 30.07 signage requirements to make it much easier for a business to ban a legal and licensed gun owner from entering;
  • HB 118 would eliminate family members from being able to transfer firearms among each other, instead requiring a federal license application to process each transaction “at an undetermined fee”;
  • HB 164 and HB 395 relate to Red Flag laws, allowing the removal of a person’s firearm without due process;
  • HB 185 would legally require homeowners to keep all guns locked inside of a safe at all times;
  • HB 231 raises the legal age required to purchase semi-automatic rifles and shotguns;
  • HB 172 and HB 241 would ban the transfer or possession of certain “commonly owned semi-automatic firearms”;
  • HB 178 and HB 234 would ban the sale or possession of any magazine that holds more than ten rounds.

The vast majority of those gun control bills are not expected to pass muster when state lawmakers reconvene.

Portland Anarchists Attacked A Democratic Party HQ And Suddenly Vandalism Isn’t Cool Anymore

The LA Times published a story today highlighting a growing divide between two strains of activists in Portland. On one hand you have the mostly white Antifa groups who have adopted Black Lives Matter as their own cause and are holding protests/riots nearly every night. On the other hand you have black activists who sometimes hold their own protests and who increasingly believe the anarchists are doing more harm than good.

But the most revealing thing about this story may be the tone and the timing. For most of the summer, Portland anarchists were cool. But suddenly the LA Times wants us to know that maybe these anarchists are just in it for the wanton destruction:

The day after President-elect Joe Biden delivered his victory speech, telling the nation it was time to heal and unite, a clandestine Twitter account — @safePDXprotest — summoned Portland anarchists…

Word spread through the group that the target tonight would be the local headquarters of the Democratic Party.

Somebody started beating a drum as a chant broke out: “F— Joe Biden!”

Then the anarchists marched into the upscale neighborhood, intent on destruction.

News flash from the LA Times: These anarchists are bent on destruction! Yes, and it’s curious that prior to the election President Trump was saying so and I didn’t see a lot of articles agree with him. I guess this is one of those now it can be told situations. Suddenly the anarchists just aren’t cool anymore:

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The Chump Effect
Progressive policies penalize those who play by the rules and shower benefits on those who don’t.

Last January, a small but telling exchange took place at an Elizabeth Warren campaign event in Grimes, Iowa. At the time, Warren was attracting support from the Democratic Party’s left flank, with her bulging portfolio of progressive proposals. “Warren Has a Plan for That” read her campaign T-shirts. The biggest buzz surrounded her $1.25 trillion plan to pay off student-loan debt for most Americans.

A man approached Warren with a question. “My daughter is getting out of school. I’ve saved all my money [so that] she doesn’t have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?”

“Of course not,” Warren replied.

“So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and those of us who did the right thing get screwed?”

A video of the exchange went viral. It summed up the frustration many feel over the way progressive policies so often benefit select groups, while subtly undermining others. Saving money to send your children to college used to be considered a hallmark of middle-class responsibility. By subsidizing people who run up large debts, Warren’s policy would penalize those who took that responsibility seriously. “You’re laughing at me,” the man said, when Warren seemed to wave off his concerns. “That’s exactly what you’re doing. We did the right thing and we get screwed.” Continue reading “”

I wonder if they know the street they’re playing in is a ‘two way’ street.

CNN Gets in on the List Game, Targeting ‘Enablers’ of Trump’s Election ‘Defiance’

In the past few days, Democrats and their allies in the #NeverTrump movement have started the ominous practice of compiling blacklists of Trump supporters or those who refuse to immediately trumpet Joe Biden’s contested and as yet unconfirmed victory in the November election. CNN, perhaps afraid of falling behind, ran a report listing every single Republican senator who has refused to congratulate Biden so far. At the bottom on the screen, the outlet singled out the president’s dastardly “enablers” who dared to stand up for Trump’s right to raise legal challenges in response to serious concerns about potential fraud.

On Tuesday, CNN published a list of 49 Republican senators guilty of the unspeakable crime of waiting for the final confirmed election results. The chyron screamed, “TRUMP’S DEFIANCE FUELED BY ENABLERS LIKE BARR, MCCONNELL, FOX.”

Continue reading “”

Social Elites Call for Dangerous Gun Data Changes

It seems antigun billionaires think there’s nothing a few dollars and manipulation of government data can’t fix. Arnold Ventures, ran by former Enron trader John and Laura Arnold, is a billionaire philanthropy organization that wants to save us from ourselves through their deep pockets. More specifically, they seek to restrict the freedom to keep and bear arms

Arnold Ventures wishes to paint a grim picture that firearms are an epidemic much like political activist and gun control billionaire Michael Bloomberg. John and Laura Arnold have commissioned the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago to construct and convene a panel of medical professionals to organize a wishlist of dangerous and overreaching proposals. These demands are detailed in the Blueprint for a U.S. Firearms Data Infrastructure. With major changes possible in Washington, D.C., it is crucial to not only examine the large, sweeping gun control proposals but also to look at the less attention-grabbing proposals, like changing how the government collects, shares, and presents data. Gun control advocates in Congress are already turning to items on this wish list in their latest proposals, including the misleadingly titled, “ATF Improvement and Modernization Act.” Continue reading “”

When you read BS like this:

Robert B. Reich: Can Biden heal America when Trump and his allies don’t want it healed?

Remember he first wrote this:

And if you still think they are after anything but revenge, think again as he still is writing stuff like this:

Weaponizing the bureaucraps against political enemies seems to be a time honored tradition with demoncraps.

 

Frank Luntz: The Polling Profession Is Done

Last night, GOP Pollster Frank Luntz told Axios that “the polling profession is done” after blowing another big election.

“The political polling profession is done” Luntz told Axios this morning. “It is devastating for my industry.”

Last month, Luntz warned that his profession absolutely had to get this election right.

“Well, I hate to acknowledge it, because that’s my industry — at least partially — but the public will have no faith. No confidence. Right now, the biggest issue is the trust deficit. And pollsters did not do a good job in 2016. So if Donald Trump surprises people, if Joe Biden had a 5- or 6-point lead, my profession is done.”

Although we don’t know the final outcome of the election, it’s pretty clear the polling was off this time around. So, does that mean polling is going away? No chance.

What you may see, however, is that more pollsters start using “social circle” questions. In other words, they won’t just ask who you’re voting for, they’ll ask who you think your friends and family will be voting for as well. These questions have proven to be useful in spotting “shy” voters that aren’t telling pollsters the truth. They’re also why the polling company Trafalgar was able to correctly predict the 2016 election and was much more bullish on Trump than other pollsters this time around. In fact, their lead pollster Robert Cahaly predicted that Trump would win a close election this time around. Will he turn out to be right? Well, we don’t know for sure, but it certainly still seems possible and Trafalgar again appears to be one of the better pollsters this time around. Maybe some of these pollsters that blew the election AGAIN should learn from what they’re doing.

What do we do? The solution is simple. And so self evident it needs no further explanation. Of course, I haven’t said it would be easy.

Hating Your Mama Over Politics.

****************

Smartphones were introduced in 2007; social media soon followed. Whenever I talk to middle school and high school teachers, I hear the same thing: there is nothing that competes with the power of social media to socialize young people (or rather, un-socialize them) — and it is tearing these kids up inside. 

That’s young people — but what about the elderly woman who leaves her husband because he voted for Trump? What’s her excuse? What about the man in his twenties to cuts his mother off because she voted for Trump? What about the middle-aged man who turns family members against each other by going to holiday gatherings and not shutting his big fat mouth about how the “Demonrats” are going to be the death of us all?

What do we do about a person like this?:

Bandy X. Lee isn’t some nobody. She is a Yale University psychiatrist and holder of a master’s of divinity degree from Yale. And she believes that Trump supporters can only be persuaded to abandon their support for the sitting President of the United States by having some immense trauma visited upon them, along the lines of the firebombing of Dresden.

How does someone come to believe that their countrymen need to be treated that way — need to see their cities leveled! — because of their politics? Again, I remind you: this isn’t some fringe nut, but a Yale-trained psychiatrist and religious thinker. This is the kind of elite figure who will usher in soft totalitarianism because she does not think her fellow Americans are simply wrong, but evil.

More fantasies from his dementia

This is how freedom fails. When parents let their children get their heads filled with the mush of marxist professors let loose in our schools, colleges and universities.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”—Ronald Reagan

Kids today: 4 in 10 call Constitution ‘outdated,’ OK with silencing speech.

Free speech, support for the Constitution, and even having a variety of friends are taking a hit on America’s campuses as college undergraduates appear to be adopting a “my way or the highway” attitude.

A new survey of campuses developing the nation’s future leaders shows an antagonistic approach by students to views they don’t agree with. And worse, a majority feel that they can’t express a view different from those of their professors.

The survey for Yale University’s William F. Buckley Program, provided to Secrets, is the latest to show the fading of thought diversity on campuses and shrinking support for the First Amendment and the Constitution overall. Continue reading “”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ANONYMOUS SOURCING? all you need to know:
The New York Times’ “Anonymous”? The the “senior administration official” was actually just a staff guy out in the bureaucracy.

New York Times’ Miles Taylor Op-Ed Shows Everything Wrong With Anonymous Sources
If The New York Times was willing to lie about its anonymous source for their high-profile information operation, imagine the lies they’re willing to tell about all the other anonymous sources they use.

Two years after the New York Times published an op-ed from what they described as an anonymous, principled conservative “senior administration official,” it turned out to have been written by a low-level bureaucrat who later worked for tech giant Google and gave money to far-left Democrats.

Miles Taylor revealed he was the author of the highly hyped op-ed headlined “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” He claimed to secretly work to thwart Trump’s policy goals as the elected president of the United States.

While constitutional scholars worried about implications of such unaccountable thwarting of the will of the people, most media focused instead on identifying who “Anonymous” was. The New York Times assured readers that when it said “senior administration official,” it meant someone “in the upper echelon of an administration.”

Not A Senior Administration Official
People took seriously the New York Times’ claim that the anonymous writer was in the upper echelon of an administration. In “13 people who might be the author of The New York Times op-ed,” CNN followed the New York Times’ lead by offering the names of actual senior administration officials, such as Don McGahn, Dan Coats, Kellyanne Conway, Kirstjen Nielsen, John Kelly, Jeff Sessions, James Mattis, Nikki Haley, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump. Chris Cillizza also suggested it might be Fiona Hill or Melania Trump.

He also wrote of the Times, “They aren’t publishing an anonymous op-ed from just anyone in the Trump administration. They especially aren’t publishing one that alleges a near-coup … If some midlevel bureaucrat in the Trump administration comes to the Times — or has an intermediary reach out to the Times — asking to write a piece like this one without their name attached to it, the answer would be an immediate ‘no.’” He added:

Given all of that, it’s telling that the Times was willing to extend the cloak of anonymity to this author — especially, again, because of the stakes and the target. This is not a decision made lightly. That the decision was made to publish it should tell you that this isn’t some disgruntled mid-to-upper manager buried in the bureaucracy. This is a genuine high-ranking official. A name most people who follow politics — and maybe some who don’t — would recognize. The Times simply wouldn’t do what it did for anything short of a major figure in Trump world.

In fact, they were willing to do it for a very low-level political appointee. Taylor has been billed as “chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security,” but he didn’t have even that position that nobody knew existed when he wrote the op-ed and was described as a senior administration official.

Continue reading “”

Pennsylvania demoncrap gubbernor Wolf calls last night’s riots in Philadelphia. “Peaceful Protests”.

At Least 12 Philadelphia Officers Hospitalized As Violent Clashes Break Out Over Walter Wallace Shooting.

Philadelphia police say 1,000 looters targeting businesses on second night of protests.

Pa. National Guard being sent to Philadelphia in wake of police shooting

The Biden-Harris Antipathy toward Guns Portends Trouble for Law Enforcement
Thankfully, under our system of federalism, state legislatures can ward off such executive overreach.

It comes as no surprise former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are campaigning on promises “to end our gun-violence epidemic.” The leftward drift of the Democratic Party on most policy questions, including lawful firearm ownership, has been made explicit in its 2020 party platform. The presidential nominee’s campaign “issues page” takes it several steps further, promising to pass or incentivize all manner of gun restrictions.

In addition to the lack of evidence supporting these initiatives and their dubious constitutionality they all share one principal problem: The federal government — the helm of which Joe Biden seeks to occupy — has very little authority in this domain. In order to accomplish these policy aims, state and local law-enforcement agencies would need to be pressed into service.

Biden has already had his wrist slapped in this regard. His website touts his “shepherding” of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Among other provisions, the bill required that local chief law enforcement officers (CLEOs) perform background checks on prospective firearm purchasers.

Jay Printz, sheriff of Ravalli County, Mont., brought suit against the United States, stating that the federal government had no authority to compel state and local officials to execute federal law. In Printz v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, holding that despite the increasingly expansive interpretation of the “necessary and proper” clause, Congress cannot enjoin state officials to do its bidding. As a result, the mandate was subsequently ejected from the Brady Bill.

Harris’s understanding of the Second Amendment within our system of federalism is even more stunted. As the attorney general of California, she signed on to an amicus brief claiming that governments have complete authority to wholly ban handguns — an assertion that has been repeatedly rejected by courts and historians alike. During her presidential run in 2019, she promised to enact her preferred elements of gun control via executive orders, none of which were within the realm of executive control. Paradoxically, she is seeking to leave the one body that could enact substantive reform without so much as ceremonially filing legislation to do what she is promising. Continue reading “”

Coyotes Comment Confuses Trump Haters

During Thursday night’s Presidential debate, President Trump claimed — correctly — that coyotes have taken unaccompanied children across the border. “Coyotes,” of course, is a common term for people who illegally smuggle humans into the U.S. Everyone knows that, right? Apparently not. In fact, progressive social media blew up after he made that comment, because everything Trump says is stupid or something.

Moderator Kristen Welker had asked him about 545 illegal children whose parents can’t be found. Here is Trump’s full response:

“These children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they used to use them to get into our country.” 

Granted, Trump isn’t the most fluent of speakers, so Joe Biden took it as his cue to show Trump’s supposed ignorance:

“Coyotes didn’t bring them over, their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents, and it makes us a laughingstock, and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.”

It’s true that the vast majority of illegal children come with family members. However, some smugglers, aka “coyotes,” do smuggle children, often with heartbreaking results.

Like the three-year-old boy whom Border Patrol agents found alone and crying in a cornfield near the border. Or the two-year-old girl — two years old! — whom smugglers left at the riverbank with just her name and a phone number on her T-shirt.

But some liberal Twitter users thought that the President was being racist or just ignorant, since Trump Derangement Syndrome controls their every thought.

Like David Hogg, the cream of Hah-vahd, who accused Trump of “xenophobia.” Why? Because “immigrant parents” are the “coyotes.”

He has no clue, does he?

 

So the “level of xenophobia is sickening?” The level of Hogg’s ignorance is staggering.

One Twitter user attempted to educate him. I’m not sure it would’ve made a difference with Hogg, however. The Trump Derangement is strong with that one.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. “Coyotes” are human smugglers; in Central America they call them “Polleros.” Human trafficking is controlled by violent cartels; many immigrants are raped, beaten, or even left behind to die.”

But Hogg the Irrelevant at least correctly identified these smugglers as human. However, lots of Trump haters across the Twitterverse thought that the President referred to the animal. Or maybe they thought Trump was talking about this guy? Who knows what goes on in their fevered brains?

coyotes Continue reading “”

The Double Standard About Gun Ownership

While looking at gun-related stories earlier, I came across one that asked people of different faiths if the American interest in firearms was idolatry. Now, as a Christian myself, I was curious to find what people thought.

I had my ideas of what I’d find, of course, but one of the responses just outright infuriated me.

See, while most of those they talked to about it recognized that there’s no actual worship of firearms, one person both failed to answer the actual question and managed to show just how idiotic they were on the topic itself. It was kind of impressive, really.

David Gardiner – Buddhist

David Gardiner is an associate professor in the Colorado College Religion Department, specializing in Buddhism and religions of China and Japan, and is co-founder and director of BodhiMind Center.

I believe the relationship many Americans have with guns is pathological. Not all gun owners idolize their possession, but those who do suffer from insecurity, paranoia, susceptibility to conspiracy theories, likely racism and other disorders. Similarly, some idolize the power of the military and police to keep our world and communities safe. Missing is a consensus to care for one another just as we care for ourselves. We have a violence fetish in America that profoundly damages our individual and collective well-being. As some bible scholars say, perhaps one source is the image of the angry, retributive God of the Hebrew bible that remains strong in our Christianity, despite Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek, to practice forgiveness. Regardless, we need to grow.

Now, first, I’m always amused when a non-Christian seems to try to lecture Christians in how to Christian correctly. Usually it’s atheists that try to do it, at least in my experience, but a Buddhist doing it doesn’t surprise me.

However, what really pisses me off is the first sentence in his response. “I believe the relationship many Americans have with guns is pathological,” Gardiner said.

Just how is it pathological? Our relationship with firearms, even if you’re susceptible to conspiracy theories or what have you, is not a pathology. Maybe the susceptibility is, but the relationship with guns? Hardly. Continue reading “”