As you have probably heard, some nitwits at a long Island newspaper called the Journal News, thought it would be fun to post the names and addresses of all the local, legal gun owners on the Internet.   

Well, both sides in the gun-control debate can have fun. 

Guerrilla filmmaker James O'Keefe and his people at Project Veritas decided to go by the homes of some of these serial privacy-invaders, as well as some of the politicos who support them, to see if they had enough strength in their convictions to put a sign on their lawns proclaiming their homes to be gun-free. The results were what you'd expect.  And as with all of James video endeavors, they were also funny, maddening, and ultimately insightful. 

 

Enjoy:

 

Wanted to get to a little old business before we mush on to new things.

We watched the Super Bowl while away.  Good game.  Interesting to contemplate how the power outage   affected the teams.  It seemed to help San Fran.

 

One of the things you always talk about in relation to the big game is commercials.  It seemed like a particularly bad year for them.  Go Daddy...really??

 

That said, two ads stood out, and we wanted to recognize them.

 

Last December, at a dinner in Washington, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida received the Jack Kemp Foundation Leadership Award.  The senator was introduced by last year's award recipient, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. 

I consider Rubio and Ryan to be the brightest rising stars of the Republican Party in DC, and along with several governors like Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker, will be in the forefront of fighting the Democratic Party and it's increasingly statist and Progressivist agenda for the next generation or two.  Those of us who are concerned about such things should be interested in the thinking of both of these two fine men.

 

The links to both speeches as seen on C-SPAN are linked here.  Worth your time!

 

No separate link or embed code was available, sorry.

 

I realize now that was a mistake.

Randy Barnett of Georgetown Law School has also been thinking about the Libertarian Party, and he shares some of those thoughts here.  His piece was written right before the election, but the major points he makes are still valid.  The main one, which he and I agree on, is that the Libertarian party is an experiment whose time has past.  People with our political orientation should join the Republicans and get involved so as to move the center of gravity in the GOP in a more libertarian direction.  The Tea Party has already moved the ball that way, and I think more progress can be made in this area.  Poll after poll tells us that there is a strong libertarian streak in the American people, and we would do well to work at making the Republicans more a party that speaks for those values.

One last thought on this:  What it means to be a libertarian is nicely summarized in this blog post by Jonah Goldberg.

 

That's easy.  The media. 

 

The same media that pilloried President George W. Bush for the failures of the federal government after Hurricane Katrina, has largely been absent from any meaningful follow-up of the response to "Superstorm" Sandy. 

 

Some of the charges leveled against President Bush back then were deserved, some not.   The proof of the media's double standard on this was near complete lack of any criticisms of Mayor Nagin of New Orleans (the recently indicted on 22 counts Mayor Nagin, that is) or Governor Blanco of Louisiana, both of whom botched the emergency response every bit as much as any feds did.

 

Sandy was just as bad as Katrina, by many measures worse, because it hit a far more densely populated region. Despite what the buffoonish Paul Krugman thinks, the federal response to Sandy has been no better. The fact that this fool Krugman actually won a Nobel Prize for Economics is having the same effect on that award that the likes of Yasser Arafat winning the Peace Prize has done for it: destroying it's credibility.   Only Obama's fawning press coverage has kept this from becoming a enormous scandal, and a public opinion drubbing for the President.

Regular readers know my two favorite analysts are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and law professor/radio host/author and blogger Hugh Hewitt.  Both of them have written recently on how Republicans should best approach the debt ceiling vote that is coming soon. 

The Speaker doesn't think the debt ceiling is the best place to have a fight with the President over the spending cuts we clearly need.  He argues that there are other tools at the Republican's disposal, and other points in the process, that would be more efficacious.  

Hewitt argues that there should be no increase in the debt ceiling without meaningful entitlement reform.  He may be right, but the greater value in his post is how it breaks down the abysmal failure that is the GOP messaging strategy, and how they can reverse their recent experience of watching Mr. Obama run public relations rings around them. 

I frankly am not sure which of these two very smart gentlemen has the best case, but I present both of them here because I am sure that the House leadership is taking none of this very wise advice to heart.  Their failure is setting us up for legislative and electoral disaster.  They must develop a strategy, and quickly.

 

We learned last week that former Vice President and serial climate change alarmist Al Gore sold his small TV network, Current TV, to Al Jazeera for a half-billion dollars. 

Nice deal Al. 

There has been a fair bit of reaction to the Arab news network, who many see as sympathetic to terrorists and certainly anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-semitic, operating in the US.  My $ 0.02 is that I have no fear of the marketplace of ideas, so bring it on.  BUT, both sides have to be free to bring their arguments to the table.  Political correctness being what it is, a lot of the critics of the Arab and Muslim worlds have been silenced, and a pro-Islamist message could go unanswered.

That got me to thinking about what would make me less queasy about this network going on the air here?  The perfect solution would be if the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia allowed Rupert Murdock and Roger Ailes to start an Arabic/Farsi translated news network in their countries.  The new channel could do some fun things like:

- Have a talk show every day hosted by Charles Krauthammer, Michael Ledeen and Andrew McCarthy.

- Replay any episodes of Food Network programs that feature recipes with pork fat (would pretty much include all the back catalogue of "Emeril Live!")

- Have a midnight showing every week, like a Rocky Horror Picture Show sort of thing, of Zero Dark Thirty or Raid on Entebbe. 

You see? The possibilities are endless. 

 

But all kidding aside, we must keep in mind that the money generated by the English language Al Jazeera would support it's much more vehemently anti-West Arabic version.  If you want more on that, check out the website for MEMRI, the Middle East Media Information Institute.  They are the good folks who translate a lot of Middle East news reporting into English, so we can see what they're saying about us. 

 

A lot of it is very scary stuff. 

Many of us were despairing that with Presient Obama's win in the election, we'd have the statist nightmare that is Obamacare with us for life. 

 

Happy New Year everybody! 

Since the 2012 election, I've been doing a fair bit of thinking about where I want to take this blog, and how I want to be involved in the political debate going forward.  I started the Proud Ex-Democrat in the summer of 2009, largely to give voice to my opposition to the policies of our then-new President, Barack Obama.  It gave me no particular joy to do this.  I was hopeful at the beginning of his term that the first African-American President of the United States would attempt to be a President for all the people. 

As we saw, that was not to be.  Mr. Obama turned out to be the most extreme statist to ever hold the office of President.  And he pressed for a lefty wish list of, in my view, very destructive policies.  He did so in the face of unprecedented opposition from the 50% of the country who disagreed with him.  These efforts by Mr. Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress culminated in passage of the left's crown jewel: Obamacare.

 

I don't see Mr. Obama and his activities as the main problem, as much as they are an acceleration or expansion of a steady leftward movement by the Democratic Party that has gone on for years.  This drift left has made them increasingly hostile to the Constitution and to freedom in a variety of areas, from economics to speech to education.  It was this drift that was responsible for me becoming an EX-Democrat.  I had reached a breaking point with their disinterest in protecting individual rights in the mid 90's, and I left for the Libertarian Party.  The last straw was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  That was when I realized that many of the Republican's charges about Democrats being naive about the evil intentions of some of our adversaries around the world were right, and we had seen that national security failure come home to roost in Manhattan, Arlington, and Shanksville.

In the last couple of years I've re-registered as a Republican.  Being a libertarian, I still have many disagreements with conservatives on social issues.  But the Tea Party movement, with it's emphasis on the economy and constitutionalism, has made it easier for folks like me to operate within the GOP.  I have also come to see how third parties are really a big waste of time.  But that is another post for another day. 

Getting back to the future for this blog, we must face the fact that Barack Obama won.  He will not be facing the national electorate again, so it is appropriate for the focus of this blog to change accordingly.    

The election certainly featured a number of tactical errors, most of which were chronicled in my election post-mortem, here.  But among all that sound and fury, and all the recriminations, the idea that I kept coming back to is the one in this post by Mike Flynn, writing at breitbart.com.  Mike's point is that the election demonstrated something Andrew had talked about all the time: That politics happens downstream from the culture. 

That really is the lesson, isn't it?  2012 turned on some changes in the culture, and so to be involved going forward, I need to think less about polls and turn-out models, and more about being part of moving the culture back to an understanding of, and a respect for, the first principles America was founded on: Individual liberty, limited government, equal opportunity, strong families, and strong community and civic institutions.
  
To that end, I will be doing a fair bit less blogging, and far more reading and thinking, as I try to figure out my place in all of this.  I have a large backlog of good books around here, and it's time I got to some of them.  I will write about what I learn if I think you'd find it of value.   I also plan to write more about good public policy ideas and good solutions, and less less about the politics involved, at least for now.

 

I will also be increasingly involved on Twitter.  If your on, follow me: @ProudExDemocrat.  If your not, check it out!  But you can see just my tweets without joining here.  I'll probably limit most of my political snarkiness to Twitter in the future.

 

I also think we should all take advantage of all the great online resources out there.  First and foremost I'm thinking of the great, and free, online courses offered by Hillsdale College: Constitution 101, on the history and meaning of the Constitution.  Constitution 201, which talks about the Progressive opposition (assault, really) on the Constitution, and how that conflict goes on to this very day.  And History 101, which goes back over the basics of western thought, from Aristotle to John Locke.  This philosophic arc, if you will, is the foundation our republic was built on.  The teaching of those ideas has been largely rejected by our schools and colleges for the last 50 years or so, and now many of our younger citizens have no idea what it means to be an American.  That ignorance is one of the main successes of Progressivism, and is a big part of the cultural changes I'm talking about.

My plan is to be very involved in the 2014 mid-terms, but I want that involvement be in the smartest and most effective way possible.  Any changes to this blog will be done with that end in mind.

In the days immediately after the election, when I was at my most bummed out, I had a conversation with a very wise friend who made the most profound of good points.  She noted that the truth always wins out in the end.  That is what I needed to hear, because that is how I came to reject the Democratic Party.  Twenty years ago or so, I got to see a variety of fair debates between Democrats and Republicans (or Libertarians), between liberalism and liberty, and the left's ideas, policies and solutions always lost.  They had no case, few facts, and only a handful of successes to point to.  Today, I see Democrats having only vague feelings and good intentions.  If our culture has turned away from the founders ideas, our challenge has to be to work for a level playing field on which to represent them.  By that I mean a news media, popular entertainment and education establishments that are simply fair.  Do that, and then let the marketplace of ideas have at it.  

And let the best ideas win.

 

 

Everywhere I look on the net I see folks going on re: The 2nd Amendment, and doing so without thinking very much.   All of this is adding to my already considerable depression over yesterday's terrible events.   

Comparisons to Europe and Japan re: gun violence?  Really folks?  Do you know what else they don't have in those places?  Repeat offenders.  Because if you commit a violent crime in those countries you go to jail for a long, long time.  Isn't it funny that the same political ilk that wanted to rehabilitate criminals and let them out of jail early, only to have them prey on society some more, are the same one's that think guns are the problem? 

I'm not a big 2nd Amendment guy.  Other issues really get me going.  But the amount of comment without thought tonight is particularly disturbing.  All the platitudes on earth about the Constitution might make you feel better, but will it lead to smart public policy?  I doubt it.  I also think passion without reason is, well, a little dangerous. 

I have  a good friend who is a big wheel in the NRA.  He very much believes we need, and can, do more to keep guns out of the hands of those with criminal records and mental illness.   

So, as you go about your grieving, and it is certainly appropriate for all Americans to grieve right now, consider this: crimes rates are much lower in places in the US that have concealed carry laws.  Why do you suppose that is?  And one armed and trained teacher, or security guard, in Connecticut yesterday probably would have saved many lives.