Month: December 2012

Guns Save Lives, And More Guns On Sandy Hook Campus Would Have As Well

Published by Papa Giorgio

Via Breitbart:

Gun control advocates just need to look at Virginia. Between 2006-2011 gun sales went up by 73% and at the same time gun-related violent crimes fell 24%. Virginia Commonwealth University professor Thomas R. Baker, who specializes in research methods and criminology, said this proves that more guns do not in fact cause more violence.

“While there is a wealth of academic literature attempting to demonstrate the relationship between guns and crime, a very simple and intuitive demonstration of the numbers seems to point away from the premise that more guns leads to more crime, at least in Virginia,” said Baker.

Baker examined six years of data from the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center that broke down the number of gun transactions for every federally licensed firearm dealer in Virginia. Background checks went up from 243,251 in 2006 to 420,829 in 2011. In 2006 there were 23,431 violent crimes in Virginia and dropped to 18,196 in 2011.

Handgun purchases increased 112% between 2006-2011 and violent crimes committed by people using handguns dropped by 22%. 

Guns are a major part of Switzerland’s culture. Instead of a standing army they have a militia. Men between the ages of 20 and 30 are put into the militia and undergo military and weapons training, which means Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world. Yet, Switzerland has a low crime rate. In 2010 there were only 40 gun homicides.

…read more...

Which supports the idea I intimated on my FaceBook the day of the attack:

I am even madder at Mayor Bloomberg (NY) and Mayor Menino (Boston) are using this opportunity to politicize a horror. I was listening to Larry Elder talk to a security expert, he made the point that our banks, federal buildings, many corporations, and the like have armed security. But our schools are soft targets. He said “you don’t think a bunch of terrorists are putting two-and-two together. Twin Tower type attacks… hard. Walking into a school… easy.”

[…]

If only 5% or 10% of the staff were trained and were able to carry concealed firearms… this would not have been so tragic. But crazy lefties are wanting to restrict what can only help in this type of situation. Crazy.

[…]

I watched 60-Minutes and the nurse that lived through the ordeal hid in the closet for 4-hours… and she said she felt helpless. No duh! Even having a 22 in her purse (or other faculty) and shooting out his kneecaps would have stopped countless deaths. And she wouldn’t have felt helpless.

Gateway Pundit shares this story of the Police Chief saying “its time to arm staff:”

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says after the shooting last week in Newtown it is time to arm the teachers. Local KMOX reported:

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says it is time to talk about arming civilian school personnel following Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, comparing it to arming airline pilots after September 11, 2001.

“I see it no differently,” he said. “Pilots have been armed now for many many years, we’ve not had another hijacking and the issue is, for the bad guy, he doesn’t know which airplane he’s getting on, if the pilot is armed or not.”

Fitch said the killing will not be stopped by legislation or laws. “If there’s somebody that’s really hellbent on doing something like this, they’re not going to care what the law is.”

An EXAMPLE of this logic working recently:

PORTLAND — Nick Meli is emotionally drained.  The 22-year-old was at Clackamas Town Center with a friend and her baby when a masked man opened fire.

“I heard three shots and turned and looked at Casey and said, ‘are you serious?,'” he said.

The friend and baby hit the floor.  Meli, who has a concealed carry permit, positioned himself behind a pillar.

“He was working on his rifle,” said Meli.  “He kept pulling the charging handle and hitting the side.”

The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter.

“As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them,” he said.

Meli took cover inside a nearby store.  He never pulled the trigger.  He stands by that decision.

“I’m not beating myself up cause I didn’t shoot him,” said Meli.  “I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.”

This shooter saw an armed citizen, and took his life. Similarly, when Adam Lanza heard the first responders coming, he turned the weapon on himself.

Another recent example for the record books here at RPT, via Free Republic:

Two people are hospitalized after a gunman chased terrified restaurant patrons into the lobby of the Santikos Mayan 14 movie theater during a showing of “The Hobbit” last night, 1200 WOAI news reprots.

Police detectives and sheriff’s investigators say the incident started in the China Garden Restaurant on Southwest Military Drive about 9 PM Sunday, when an employee of the restaurant walked in looking for a woman.

When the woman, who officials say is also a restaurant employee, wasn’t there, the man pulled a gun and attempted to open fire in the restaurant but his weapon jammed.

“It started at the restaurant and then went into the parking lot and then into the movie theater,” Deputy Lou Antu told 1200 WOAI news.

Investigators say some of the terrified restaurant patrons poured into the movie theater, and the gunman followed.

He opened fire, shooting one man in the chest, before Antu says an off duty sheriff’s deputy who was working security at the theater shot him once.

…read more…

ACLU [e.g., leftist orgs] To Blame for these Mentally Ill Persons Being Free and Undiagnosed/Treated Able to Kill (Updated)

Published by Papa Giorgio

UPDATE via Breitbart:

In February 2012, Connecticut Senate Bill 452 (SB452) was put forward to remedy the fact that Connecticut was one of less than ten states in the U.S. to lack an “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT) law. 

But the bill was passed to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Judiciary in March, where it quietly faded away because of opposition by those who viewed it as “egregious” and “outrageously discriminatory.”

[…]

Why didn’t the legislation pass? Because the ACLU and other “civil liberties” groups and individuals cried foul. The ACLU in particular said 452 would “infringe on patients’ privacy rights by expanding [the circle of] who can medicate individuals without their consent.” They also said it infringed on patient rights by reducing the number of doctors’ opinions necessary to commit someone to institutionalization. 

To be clear, no one can know that the passage of SB452 would have stopped Lanza for sure, as there’s no guarantee a doctor or mental specialist would have seen the warning signs in time to institutionalize him for treatment. 

However, it is worth noting that proponents of SB452 had the prevention of situations like Friday’s shooting in mind when they tried to provide Connecticut residents with another layer of protection from the mentally ill (and criminal).

….read more…

Gateway Pundit brings up a couple of stories that really find their genesis in leftist groups decades ago. Similar to my conversation with the Michael Berryman (actor), we see the hands of far left groups making impossible health related options for these sick individuals… even helping cause deaths in the wake of the many homeless (mentally ill) people on the streets:

Months before the Newtown massacre far left groups defeated a Connecticut mental health protections law.
Counter Contempt reported:

Here’s a fact you might not know – Connecticut is one of only SIX states in the U.S. that doesn’t have a type of “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT) law (sometimes referred to as “involuntary outpatient treatment”). There’s no one standard for these types of laws, but (roughly speaking) these are laws that allow for people with mental illness to be forcibly treated BEFORE they commit a serious crime. Whereas previous legal standards held that the mentally ill cannot be institutionalized or medicated until they harm someone or themselves, or until they express an immediate intent to do so, AOT laws (again, roughly speaking) allow for preventative institutionalization or forced medication (I highly recommend reading the data cited in the link I provided in this paragraph, especially regarding what is known as “first episode psychosis”).

AOT laws vary state-by-state, and often bear the name of a person murdered by an untreated mentally ill person (“Kendra’s Law” in New York, “Laura’s Law” in California, etc.).

Earlier this year, Connecticut considered passing an AOT law (and a weak one, at that), and it failed, due to protests from “civil liberties” groups.

In my conversation with Berryman, I pointed out that the blame often associated with Reagan for this is in fact deserves to be laid at the feet of the ACLU and the liberal/progressive Democrats of that day and now:

The people who ‘liberated’ the inmates tended to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum. In fact, it was the ACLU who provided legal representation to force the VA to release these patients.

[…]

The ACLU was the main catalyst behind fighting for the rights of these people to be free, even the freedom to live in alleyways and eat from trash cans. Anything but a conservative or Republican institution, they were one of the main thrusts behind both California and later a nationwide release of patients.  They [the ACLU], have long held that involuntary institutionalization of an unwilling person, even if mentally or physically incapable, is the worst of two evils.

Gateway Pundit continues:

It actually very hard to force people with severe mental diseases to be treated because of a range of reforms pushed by progressives starting in the 60′s:

1) Ronald David Laing, a Scottish Psychiatrist, In the 60′s put forth the foundation of the Anti-Psychiatry movement. He maintained that schizophrenia was “a theory not a fact”. The popularity of Laing’s theories is blamed for decline in students entering the psychology profession.
2) President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 Community Mental Health Centers Act accelerated the trend toward deinstitutionalizationwith the establishment of a network of community mental health centers and changes in laws regarding commitment.
3) Kenneth Kesey, wrote “One Flew over the Cukoo’s Nest”based in part on Laing’s thinking (and his own intensive use of drugs). “Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave.” The Book,play, and later the movie, portrayed a anti-psychiatry philosophy leading to a public displeasure with residential mental facilities resulting in further deinstitutionalization policies.
4) Deinstitutioanlization led to many legal and structural changes. American public mental hospital patients declined from more than 550,000 in 1955 to fewer than 40,000 at present. The displaced patients now represent 30-50% of the homeless populations.

As a result of Laing, Kennedy, Kesey and public efforts to transform the mental health care system to be more humane, to characterize mentally ill people as “Just thinking differently”, and characterizing mental health care as some form of evil, we now have a system that makes it virtually impossible to get folks like Loughner the care they need.

Deinstitutionalization policies driven by “do good” liberals and the federal government put focus on limited bad acts. Kesey wrote a story based on his LSD induced observations in one VA mental hospital. Once his story was put into film, his small example falsely characterized the bulk of mental health care as dehumanizing and made it impossible to force the Laughners of the world to get treatment.

Critics will focus on gun control after today’s school massacre. The focus should be on failed liberal policies that excuse rather than assist extremely dysfunctional individuals.

So again, the people who say they are for the “little-man” are in fact hurting everyone, even our kids.

Hope in the Face of Tragedy ~ Heading Into This Season with Advice from Father

Published by Papa Giorgio
  • “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”…. We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:10, 19)
  • “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8)

My message to Craig Scott whom I listened to this morning on Fox & Friends, he is the brother of Rachel Scott, who was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

===================

Thank you for your strength in making your sisters and your families experience be a beacon of light in the darkness. Your [Craig] intimating of letting go of this hate reminded me of a verse in Revelations:

Rev 6:9-10:

✞ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the blood of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Any action taken against people who are in opposition to God’s plan (read here: those who take innocent life, who would be the most in opposition to God’s plan, since the “blood” represents life [Lev 17:11], given by God) is God himself — in the ultimate sense. And by giving this hate/action to Him, we are free to live in His mercy and grace, affecting and interacting with those around us much more positively. He [God] is interested in each of our well-beings… and putting actions (like hatred) upon the cross is what He wants for our well-being. Justice is His to doll out, and this realization helps us live.

Blessing to you and yours, and a heart-felt prayer to the recent loss from our current presence these young persons, and a realization that Heaven gained their presence.

SeanG

Prescription Anti-Depressant Drugs Part of the Problem

Published by Papa Giorgio

While I think there is a combination of reasons for these types of actions (the secularization of society, desensitizing people to violence or moral duty, and the like), this is an issue that is pushing many to despair by numbing the conscience and increasing the will to act on evil thoughts. TAKE NOTE that the following is a bit of Scientology propaganda… where psychiatry and all drug prescribing are seen AS the culprit. But you can dissect this “all-or-nothing” view and use some of the info from this presentation.

Too `White` for ESPN`s Rob Parker ~ Kudos to Stephen Smith!

Published by Papa Giorgio

Liberals “love” and tolerate blacks (and who they date/marry), that is, until they find out that black person may be a Republican. Then all bets are off. For example, watch ESPN “First Take” commentator Rob Parker and his comments about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III

The Middle-East`s Latest Curve Ball

Published by Papa Giorgio

CNN reports the following (via Drudge Report):

The United States gave the go-ahead Friday to deploy Patriot anti-ballistic missiles to Turkey along with enough troops to operate them as the heavily embattled government in neighboring Syria again vehemently denied firing ballistic missiles at rebels.

The United States has accused Damascus of launching Scud-type artillery from the capital at rebels in the country’s north. One Washington official said missiles came close to the border of Turkey, a NATO member and staunch U.S. ally.

Syria’s government called the accusations “untrue rumors” Friday, according to state news agency SANA. Damascus accused Turkey and its partners of instigating rumors to make the government look bad internationally.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed the order while en route to Turkey to send two Patriot missile batteries and 400 U.S. troops to operate them. The surface-to-air interceptors will help in “dealing with threats that come out of Syria,” Panetta said after landing at Incirlik Air Base, a U.S. Air Force installation about 80 miles from Syria’s border…

…read more…

This may sound cut-n’-dry, but as we see via DebkaFiles, the Middle-East has an “Ace” up its sleeve to make one cringe:

By the blacklisting Tuesday, Dec. 11, of the Jabhat al-Nusra group fighting in Syrian rebel ranks as “a foreign terrorist organization” and affiliate of al Qaeda in Iraq, Washington faces four quandaries:

1. The 10,000 fighters of this al Qaeda affiliate are the best-trained and most professional component of the Syrian rebel front;.

2. Jabhat al-Nusra fields 3,000 fighters out of the mostly Free Syrian Army’s 14,000 rebels fighting in and around Aleppo. They also constitute the assault force’s spearhead.

3. The Islamists are at the sharp front edge of the rebel force battling for control of the Syrian army’s biggest chemical weapons store at Al Safira, near Aleppo. Thursday morning, Dec. 12, they were just a kilometer from the base’s northwestern perimeter fence and advancing fast. By week’s end, Jabhat al-Nusra jihadis may have smashed into the base and seized control of the chemical stocks and Scud D planes standing there armed with chemical warheads.
The imminence of this peril forced Bashar Assad’s hand into sending Scud jets against rebel-held areas in an effort to stop their advance on the base.

4.  This al Qaeda affiliate is also better armed and equipped than any other Syrian rebel force, thanks to the generous financial and logistical aid laid on by Persian Gulf sources, especially in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

The difficulty here is that those three Gulf Arab states are also American allies in the war against Assad and the most important contributors to the US-sponsored Friends of Syria, a forum which met in Marrakesh Wednesday and formally recognized the umbrella Syrian opposition coalition of exiled groups as the legitimate government of Syria.

Reporters inside Syria reported that when the Jabhat al-Nusra fighters heard this news, they declared 700 of their number had died… laughing.

But as the vicious civil war of nearly two years and more than 40,000 dead approached another dangerous peak, no one was laughing in Damascus or Washington.

debkafile’s military sources point to the next crisis looming ahead: If Assad fails to stop the al Qaeda fighters from reaching Al-Safira and its poison gas stores – and an al Qaeda affiliate succeeds for the first time in arming itself with chemical weapons – the United States will have to mount an air assault – not on Assad’s army but on the Syrian rebel forces fighting him, because if they do manage to seize control of the base, rebel fighters may decide to send the chemicals-tipped missiles against Assad regime centers in Damascus.

The fall of al Safira would then transform the Syrian civil conflict into a chemical missile war.

Union Member Calls Conservative/Libertarians `Fascists,` But Fails to See Who is Acting Like One (Strong Language)

Published by Papa Giorgio

One can see from this presentation of well-thought out meme, that the left — as usual — has an upside down view of what “fascism” is.

In fact, the “fascists” of Germany, would regularly shut down — by violence and intimidation — speech that countered there own. So, for example, when Steven Crowder is assaulted, and the tent is torn down and people hurt and terrified by these thugs… by definition this is “fascism.” AND, fascism is a leftist (historically) movement, something that fits these unions and union thugs fascist actions as well.

So when these thugs intimidate people and call for blood, THEY are the FASCISTS! Michelle Malkin collects many thoughts from the left on this violence as part of their platform:

“There Will Be Blood”
Union Violence in the Age of Obama
by Michelle Malkin

Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to “make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” He Who Heals advocated “a more civil and honest public discourse” in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre. As usual, though, the White House has granted Big Labor bullies a permanent waiver from the lofty edicts it issues to everyone else.

This week, menacing union goons unleashed threats, profanity and punches in Michigan, which is now poised to become a “right-to-work” state. Obama met the initial outbreak of violence with the same response he’s given to every other union outbreak of violence under his reign: dead silence.

On the floor of the Michigan legislature on Tuesday, Democratic state Rep. Douglas Geiss thundered: “We’re going to pass something that will undo 100 years of labor relations, and there will be blood. There will be repercussions!” Geiss referenced the Battle of the Overpass, a violent 1937 incident between the United Auto Workers and corporate security officers for the Ford Motor Company. Dozens of union activists were beaten.

But Geiss wasn’t crying victim. This was clearly a signal to the brass-knuckled Big Labor bosses, whom Obama egged on during his Monday visit to the state. Obama inveighed against right to work with his usual class warfare dog-whistle. The thugs heard it loud and clear.

As the Michigan House voted inside to approve right-to-work legislation allowing workers to choose whether or not to join/fund unions as a condition of employment, protesters outside the state Capitol ambushed a tented information booth sponsored by the pro-right-to-work state chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Angry union mobsters were filmed cursing and screaming just before the attack.

One hurled an unidentified object at police officers. Another screamed at a citizen journalist filming the chaos: “Freedom of speech this, you f’n fascist a**hole!” Several peaceful AFP members and supporters were stomped on and punched while trapped under the tent as the labor operatives chanted: “This is what democracy looks like.” Young Michigan conservative activist and YouTube entrepreneur Steven Crowder was beaten by at least two union assailants while trying to protect the tent and those inside.

Of course, this is just more of the same twisted “civil and honest public discourse” of the administration’s union protection squad:

–May 2010: The Service Employees International Union buses in 700 workers from 20 states to storm Bank of America deputy general counsel Gregory Baer’s neighborhood and terrorize his youngest son while at home alone in Chevy Chase, Md. The tactic is straight from an SEIU intimidation manual on using community groups to “damage an employer’s public image and ties with community leaders and organizations.”

–September 2010: AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka praises Nancy Pelosi for taking Obamacare and driving “it down the Republicans’ throats and out their backsides.”

–August 2011: Striking Communications Workers of America declare “open season” on Verizon. Dozens of cases of sabotaged cable lines are reported.

–September 2011: ILWU bosses lead a “Days of Rage” protest at Port of Longview, Wash., taking a half-dozen guards hostage, sabotaging railroad cars, dumping grain, smashing windows, cutting brake lines, threatening a local TV station and blocking trains in violation of a judicial restraining order.

–February 2011: A Communications Workers of America union thug is caught on tape striking a young female FreedomWorks activist in Washington, D.C.

–February 2011: A Providence, R.I., union supporter says to a cameraman: “I’ll f**k you in the ass, you faggot.”

–February 2011: Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts revs up Big Labor goons by urging them to “get a little bloody.”

–March 2011: Racist SEIU supporters in Denver, Colo., taunt gay black tea party activist and entrepreneur Leland Robinson, who criticized teachers unions at a Capitol rally, by calling him “son,” telling him to “get behind that fence where you belong,” and jeering, “Do you have any children? That you claim?”

–March 2011: In Madison, Wis., an unhinged crowd of AFSCME, UFCW and SEIU union protesters corner a Wisconsin GOP senator shouting, “F**k you!” and “Shame!”

–August 2011: In Boston, local IBEW 827 storms Verizon Senior Vice President Bill Foshay’s neighborhood. Union members scream, “We’re here to fight” in front of his private residence on a weekend afternoon.

–September 2011: Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa screams: “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out…”

–December 2011: Union-endorsed port protests in Oakland, Calif., Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego and Houston cause massive commerce disruptions, lost wages, property destruction and untold injuries. A year later, ports are shut down on the West Coast during the busy holiday season, and another set of union port strikes — spearheaded by the violence-prone ILWU and ILA — threaten the East and Gulf coasts at the end of the month.

We should “do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations,” Obama lectured just over a year ago from his politeness pulpit. In the age of Obama, it’s Opposite Day 365 days a year.

Women-We Want You ~ Not A Dream

Published by Papa Giorgio

Men look at women. That’s their nature. But is this fascination with the female body a threat to their spouse or the woman they are with? That’s the question that best-selling author and nationally syndicated talk show host, Dennis Prager, deals with here. His answer will be a revelation to most women… and a relief to most men.