June 29, 2006

"...America Latina es la region del mundo con la

    mayor violencia armada. El 42 por ciento de los

    homicidios con armas de fuego, en eventos no

    belicos, suceden en America Latina. Se calcula

    que puede haber alrededor de 80 millones de

    armas con las cuales se cometen entre 73 mil

    y 90 mil agresiones armadas cada ano. Tambien

    es la zona del hemisferio con la tasa mas alta

    de criminalidad, entre 4 a 5 veces mayor a la

    del resto del mundo....

 

 

                    - Text in Spanish in the June 26, 2006,

                      IANSA "RevCon" News Bulletin, explaining

                      that Latin America, (despite the

                      widespread enactment of firearms bans),

                      is the region with the most armed

                      violence in the world, thus implying a

                      need for a global small arms ban.

                    

 

 

To All,

     It looks like the Workplace Safety For Criminals Crowd has gone global, if it turns out to be true that the "poster boy" for IANSA's and Oxfam's campaign against civilian gun ownership is a former cattle rustler enjoying his 15 minutes:

 

 

Fractured Fairy Tales, The Sequel:

     The folks over at The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Oxfam are doing their best "dog and pony" show favoring global civilian disarmament over at Turtle Bay these days.

 

     But while our representatives stand for lawful civilian ownership in the face of a move by the world's egg-heads for state-control of the means of self-determination, US tax dollars are being used to wine and dine a "passel of furriners" up to no good.

 

     Still, close review of the material being published reveals some of the same old methods, and same old players, that have come up short in the political wars here in the Land of The Free (By Dint Of The Second Amendment).

 

     For example, a "Google" search on UN's Plan of Action will turn up with lobbying pages from IANSA, Oxfam, Amnesty International, the Brady Bunch, and all the interlocking elements of the World Security Institute (The Center for Defense Information and Azimuth Media are "divisions" of the World Security Institute).

 

     The long and short of their collective approach still lies, though,  with the old hypotheses posited unsuccessfully here in the US (ie. Guns, bad; violence, bad; teaching the world to sing and drink carbonated sugar water, good) And no more illustrative of this is IANSA's bringing up of the case of Julius Arile of Kenya in their own news bulletin.

 

     To quote IANSA:

 

     "...Many of the signatories have seen at first hand

       the suffering caused by the global trade in guns,'     

       said Anna Macdonald, campaign manager at

       Oxfam.

 

        Julius Arile is one of them. At a young age he

        became involved in livestock rustling, a

        traditional activity in his area of northern

        Kenya. Before the arrival of guns, cattle raiders

        rarely killed. But now, due to the widespread

        availability of guns in his community-- many of

        which have leaked from conflict zones in

        neighbouring countries-- the violence has

        escalated and the number of deaths is

        soaring..."

 

     To be honest, it is a trifle hard to be sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of cattle rustlers if it turns out that Kenyan cattle ranchers have armed themselves in response against the "traditional activity" of grand theft bovine.

 

     And surely a rustler's dilemma (to escalate or find some other line of work more conducive to survival) makes a poor example for those who wish to convince the rest of organized society world wide to dispense with the sole technological means by which the aged can overcome younger predators of the criminal persuasion.

 

    But the rub of the global campaign to ban small arms involves leaving it up solely to states to determine ownership and transfer of everything from Red Ryders to the Ma Deuce. That means, in turn, that it's "okey dokey" for Russia to license General Kalashnikov's rifle designs to Hugo Chavez's Venezuela (Yea, right. Like Chavez is going to have perfect traceability on arms likely to be distributed to Marxists large and small across Latin America.). In turn, said countries are likely to object strenuously at the next UN rhubarb when free countries supply small arms, for self defense purposes, to their neighbors (Balance of power politics has not gone out of style, especially with the current revival of Castro-ism from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego).

 

     So far only two countries, Canada and the US, appear to be standing up for their own people's inherent right to self defense. But it is only because these governments are listening to the majority of their respective electorates that such resistance to unilateral disarmament can take place. Gun owners and firearms activists are best advised to keep on writing their representatives, objecting to both the current Plan of Action (more gun bans) and the continued funding of such hare-brained UN schemes. Stay tuned.

 

Links at:

http://www.iansa.org/un/review2006/documents/RevConNewsMonday26.pdf

http://www.iansa.org/about.htm

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-28-voa2.cfm

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/CamEdwards/2006/06/28/
202908.html

http://www.ak-47.net/ak47/ak100/

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/6/8/130728.shtml?s=os

 

 

Note To Henry Reid-  Call The Boss:

     Drudgereport is reporting yesterday about a Roll Call story that has Senate Minority Leader Henry Reid in trouble with presumed 2008 Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton.

 

     Drudge cites reporting by Mary Ann Akers that Reid's move on announcing Democrat plans to filibuster Congressional pay raises until an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage apparently stepped on a plan and publicity that was already launched by La Clinton.

 

     What is more, Hillary!'s people were not notified by any of Reid's people, nor was Hillary brought in upon the discussions by Reid and other Donkey Party leaders when they planned to do the announcement.

 

     It is safe to say that verbal ash trays were launched in the halls of Congress over that boo-boo.

 

     If anything, the contretemps may be further indication of the real divisions within a Democrat Party that had been already counting it's load of un-hatched 2007 poultry (Given what happened in California with Bilbray's victory in CD-50, and the Supreme Court's upholding of the vast majority of the Delay-Texas redistricting case, it's looking less like chicken drumsticks and wings and more like chicken guano every day.). If the Dems continue to be the "gift that keeps on giving" to Republican strategists nationwide, then there are going to be some terribly long faces in the Party of Jackson next November. Stay tuned.

 

     Aside on the Texas case- it's looking like the Texas Legislature is going to have to redistribute the voters between Representatives Cuellar and Bonilla in South Texas. There is surely nothing more exciting than the thought of two Southern Dems duking it out for the right mix of voters. Luckily for Bonilla, he has Dubya's private number on speed dial.).

 

Link at:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash4.htm

 

 

Thought of The Day:

     If Algore was really and truly worried about man-made CO2 emissions and their purported relationship with the hypothesis of global warming, he would shut up until he had purchased enough emissions credits to pontificate on the matter.

 

     Two tons worth ought to be enough for a standard Goron missive. Any sellers out there?

 

Links at:

http://www.epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=257909

 

 

 

No Doubt, Whatsoever:

     Roxana Tiron reports at thehill.com about the continuing efforts to maintain hunting on Santa Rosa Island, off of the California Coast.

 

     Perhaps the story really begins back when the island was first set up as a working cattle ranch back at the turn of century. The Vail and Vickers Co. had run cattle and one of the premier hunting operations on the West Coast (My father has a six point elk and a Russian boar trophy on his office wall to prove it, too).

 

     Unfortunately, the Vails had sold the island property to the National Park Service back in 1986, possibly without realizing the long term ramifications to hunting opportunities and their guide operation. The island was folded into the Channel Island National Park, and a lawsuit by the National Parks Conservation Association against the National Park Service resulted in a judicial settlement which would permanently end a hunting business contract in 2011.

 

     Ongoing battles by Rep. Duncan Hunter to maintain some sort of hunting of game mammals, even for such select and diminutive groups as disabled veterans, is still running into opposition by ecological restorationists and their shills in Congress. In this case, Tiron reports that the usual suspects in this case are Rep. Lois Capps (D-SB), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Apparently all three are against continued hunting on the island, though they have yet to pronounce on what is to be done with the game animals after the 2011 deadline (Something tells this poster that the pigs, if not the deer and elk, are going to be tough customers to eradicate or relocate completely).

 

     The story in itself is as old as long as restorationists have dreamed of limiting access and land use to as much territory as they can get their mitts on (East Mojave, anyone? ). But the number of successes of the movement to return the land to a condition estimated to predate the advent of Man should be considered a cautionary warning to land use managers and recreational activists across the Fruited Plain. While today it is 10th or 11th generation deer and elk on Santa Rosa Island, or rainbow trout in Tuolumne Meadows, tomorrow it will be chukar, pheasant, hungarian partridge, select species of regional turkey, and any other game bird that has been brought to this country over the past 150 years. Since that would mean that a significant amount of hunting could be adversely affected by restorationist policies (restorationism dominates wildlife management sciences today much as string theory does in physics, with the same concomitant parochialism one sees in press and journal coverage), it becomes a concern for firearms activists out to preserve a hunting heritage that dates back to the early 1500's. Perhaps a new philosophy of "NO NET HUNTING LOSS" should be applied when it comes to lobbying the Federal and State governments as to land use policies on parcels obtained with public funds. Anything less will most likely mean the demise of hunting as we know it.

 

Links at:

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/
062806_rosa.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/
06/24/state/n100800D53.DTL&type=politics

http://www.nps.gov/chis/press061005.htm

http://www.islandpackers.com/santarosa.html

 

 

What Goes Around, Comes Around Update:

     Bob Novak reported yesterday that Rep. John Murtha may be facing opposition in his home district related to his becoming a Left Wing Icon.

Novak even goes so far as to opine that Murtha may be the Tom Daschle of 2006.

 

     Novak reports that Murtha's district went for Kerry in 2004 by only 51%, and that his Republican opponent, Diana Irey, is getting a new lease on life through increased Internet fund raising.

 

     Novak also notes that Murtha may be subpoenaed in any upcoming military trials of any Marines charged with crimes related to casualties in Haditha, Iraq. If this were to occur before the November election, Murtha stands a chance of having to out his DOD informant or even admit his intel was "overstated" while under oath.

 

     Novak notes that Murtha has run as a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat in the past. While such positions are normally anathema to the Berserkley crowd currently dropping 527 funds in Murtha's piggy bank, it remains to be seen if he will run as a pro-gun candidate in 2006. Perhaps someone should ask the $ 64 K question now, before it gets too late into the election cycle. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15820
&o=ENPR003

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060627-090830-4302r.htm

 

 

Respectfully,