It’s been a long time coming, but I’m glad to hear that we finally won the Iraqi war… That’s what just happened, right?

From Reuters:

Addressing military leaders in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: “Our sovereignty has started and … we should move forward to build a modern state and enjoy security which has been achieved.”

The government has declared June 30 a national holiday, “National Sovereignty Day”.

One more time, with feeling:

When you live in a town full of glass houses, you should really limit the amount of stones you throw. In Washington DC one must be extra careful on what you call out, rather than on whom. Take South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, whose condemnation of Clinton’s marital affair make him look even more like a cad in light of his own recent affair.

From Huffington Post:

The standard Sanford has set for other politicians over the years has been fairly high. A member of the House of Representatives during the heyday of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, he was often a harsh critic of the president for his marital misconduct.

This is “very damaging stuff,” Sanford declared at one point, when details of Clinton’s conduct became known. “I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally (to resign)… I come from the business side,” he said. “If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.”

Explaining his decision to back impeachment articles against Clinton, he added, “I think what he did in this matter was reprehensible… I feel very comfortable with my vote.”

“In politics you can get away with anything as long as it’s what’s expected,” he was quoted saying in a Boston Globe article published in December 1998. “If people expect you to be a rascal, you can be a rascal.”

At another point, however, Sanford seemed to acknowledge that when it came to politicians, skeletons in the closet were to be expected. “This is a human institution,” he said of Congress, in a Maclean’s article from September 1998. “Take it as a given that weird stuff goes on.”

I’ve been staying over at my girlfriend’s house for the last month or so, and since she doesn’t listen to NPR in the mornings I’ve remained blissfully ignorant when it comes to national news. I mean, I don’t suppose I’ve been missing much: protests over Iranian elections, car bombs in Iraq and Pakistan, in this economy memes and so forth. Early into his career as the 44th elected president of the United States it was easy to pedict that Obama’s love affair and subsequent honeymoon with the press would soon end. And while this may have been happening over the last two months or so, it seems that as of Tuesday’s press play-date the relationship has soured.

From NY Times:

“What, are you the ombudsman for the White House press corps?” Mr. Obama said at one point, chiding Jake Tapper of ABC News for trying to ask about two things, including following up on a health care question the president had not directly answered.

As the reporter’s question lingered, the president interjected: “I got it. You’re pitching. I’m catching. I got the question.”

Later, as Mr. Obama talked about the virtues of freedom of expression in Iran, Helen Thomas piped up from her seat in the front row, “Then why won’t you allow the photos from the guards?” (She appeared to be speaking of his refusal to release photographs of abuse of prisoners by military guards.)

“Hold on a second, Helen,” said Mr. Obama, who clearly had not planned to call on the longest-serving scribe in the room. “That’s a different question.”

This Associated Press article also takes Obama to task, shooting down Obama’s “facts” one by one. If this is any indication, it’s going to be a short four years folks…

Maybe he’s just ashamed about hooking up on the down-low, but either way President Obama isn’t going to bat for homosexual marriage rights. Gay rights activists and politicos insist that Barack’s just paying lip-service (and not in a sexy man-on-man way).

From CNN:

Charles Moran, the spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans said the lack of full benefits in Thursday’s memorandum shows a lack of commitment to the gay community.

“That’s the part that just shows that the Obama administration really isn’t serious about their promises to the gay and lesbian community. Things like the health benefits, things like retirement benefits and coverage for spouses. These are the core issues,” Moran said.

“Why start the marathon if you’re not serious about ending the race?” he added.

I hopped on to Google Trends this morning expecting to see the usual flood of nonsensical keywords that almost always ends up in the top 10: the dead B-list celeb, the free chicken that Oprah is giving away, Axl Rose, etc. Instead, I was a bit perplexed about the fact that Fire David Letterman was the most searched term on the web at the moment. I immediately checked out some of the associated stories and came across a number of almost laughable pieces, many like this gem:

You can see the Letterman Bristol Palin and Sarah Palin jokes - the source of the Fire David Letterman controversy and firedavidletterman.com - and David Letteman’s apology by clicking the links at the bottom of this article.

The Fire David Letterman movement has unloaded a raucous debate. Letterman’s detractors are calling for his ouster and his supporters see the Fire David Letterman movement as a desperate attempt on the part of conservatives - and Sarah Palin - to regain political relevance.

While many consider the joke David Letterman told about Sarah Palin (where he essentially calls her a slut) is relatively harmless, almost everyone would agree that the joke he told about Bristol Palin getting “knocked up” by A-Rod was, at the very least, in very bad taste.

Originally, the “knocked up” joke was thought to be about 14-year-old Willow Palin because it was she who accompanied Sarah Palin to the Yankees game, which was the source material for the joke. And that undertandably unleashed a storm of controversy.

David Letterman issued an apology for the Bristol Palin/A-Rod “knocked up” joke, but clearly it wasn’t enough to get his detractors to call off their demand that he be fired.

I guess we do have to consider the fact that I did get this particular ’story’ from Associated Content of all places, but let’s boil this one down a bit, shall we? Critics, the majority of whom are hailing from the Neo-con Right, are calling out Mr. Letterman because of 2 things: the first being attacking Sarah Palin, the second being the joke about the daughter, a minor.

The first is utterly moronic. I’m not quite sure how the nation all laughed along when these jokes were called out about any of the girls from The Hills, Britney Spears or that damn Octomom, but somehow calling out someone who was arguably the worst choice for VP in the history of the universe (which not only placed a giant bulls eye on her, but the entire G.O.P.) is considered wrong.

The second argument has it’s roots in controversy, but can be laid to rest with 1 simple fact: the man is a comedian. This guy isn’t hired to be politically correct, he’s hired to get laughs. Personally, the more shocking and completely inappropriate he could have made it the better. The only problem I can see with the joke is it’s note vile enough. If it was up to me the words 9/11, Hitler, coat hanger, sodomy, Polly Klaas and reverse cowgirl would have been thrown in the mix… but hey, every single joke can’t be a grand slam, right?

What most logical people are realizing is that this is the Right’s last attempt to feel like they have control over something, seeing as no one has their back at the White House. The fact of the matter is that even if you engulf yourself in Rush Limbaugh’s demonic, Bill of Rights burning rhetoric, there’s no feasible chance you’ll sleep well at night knowing that a black man has power over your country, your money, your Congress or anything that you had previously connected your self worth with. Go check out the stupidity over at Fire David Letterman (.com, of course) to see the onslaught on censorship.

Bonus: What’s the best part about ass-raping 26 year olds?
There’s 20 of them!

Clip of behind the scenes footage from The Tonight Show can be seen HERE.

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind…Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.” -Thomas Jefferson

The Westwood Rifle Range on Highway 36 in Lassen County is a great place to exercise our Second Amendment rights and have some good old-fashioned fun. A few friends and I went up there for a little “therapy session” a few weeks ago. There’s nothing as inflating to the ego as the look of awe and trepidation on the faces of Westwood’s gun crowd when us city boys showed up with six shotguns (including 2 Winchester pumps and a sawed-off Mossberg 12 gauge “hallway special”), a .44 Magnum, a snub-nosed .357 Magnum, two Glock 9mm’s, two Chinese SKS assault rifles, a BFR Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum (the most powerful handgun in the world) 12 canisters of mapp gas, a stick of dynamite, 2,000 rounds and 750 clay pigeons.

We began with a light warm-up round of skeet shooting. But this soon devolved into two pigeons being thrown, and then blown into a fine powder by a thundering volley of shotgun fire, followed by us laughing loudly, congratulating each other for our fine marksmanship and firing our guns into the air in approval. Soon after, we moved to the handguns. The others at the range stared in disbelief as we let out blood-curdling screams and fired off 10-round clips at life-size posters of Alex Rodriguez, Spencer Pratt and Nancy Pelosi, or took aim at the mapp gas canisters with the .500 and .44 Magnums.

At one point, I almost got shot myself; I had just finished mounting a poster of CNN’s Rick Sanchez on a tree when I heard a blood-curdling scream behind me. I whipped around just in time to duck as a friend of mine started running at the poster, foaming at the mouth and a glazed look in his eyes as he unloaded two ten round clips from the 9mm’s and then pulled the .44 Magnum out of his belt, squeezed off six shots with stunning precision, then pulled out the sawed-off Mossberg, pumped three slugs into what was left of the poster and finally collapsed on the ground, moaning loudly and clearly sexually-aroused. I was a bit shaken by this episode and I considered toning it down a little as I watched the other visitors at the range quickly pile into their cars and pull out their cell phones. But then someone mentioned that this sort of fun would all be over if the Democrats, and President Obama in particular, got their way. I shrugged the comment off outwardly, but inwardly a dark pall fell over me and my shooting took on a desperate, frenzied nature.

I had never considered that a Democrat-controlled White House, Congress and Senate might lead to serious curtailments of the 2nd Amendment, but when I got back into town I began to ask people if they felt this way about the incoming administration.

The Tackle Box on Park Avenue was my first stop. I sidled up to the counter and asked a man named Phil if I could ask him a few questions for a possible article. He fixed me with an amused look in his eyes, leaned back in his chair and said, “Well, let me ask you a couple of questions first. Do you own a gun?” I smiled back at him, showing lots of teeth, and said I did, making sure not to mention the loaded .357 in my belt. He said to proceed, so I asked him if there was any truth to these sadistic rumors I had been hearing. He told me that the government in general has been trying to limit our right to bear arms virtually since it became a right. “But,” he said, “Obama’s scaring the shit out of everybody.” I offered to attribute that particular quote to an anonymous source, but he would have none of it.

We talked some more and he told me that gun sales had gone through the roof since November 4th, but also explained that in poor economic times gun sales tend to go up anyway. But he also estimated that roughly half the people who had bought guns since the election had done so in order to get all the guns they could while they still had the right to do so. To emphasize this point, he pulled out an absolutely gorgeous Springfield Arms .45 semiautomatic and told me that a woman had called the day after the election asking for a price on the gun ($750) as well as 100 rounds pre-loaded into 10 clips.

I pondered the significance of increased gun sales in a conservative, pre-dominantly white county after the election of a black Democrat to the White House while I headed to the next shop. Grim implications indeed. When I arrived and informed the owner why I was there, he agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. I shrugged, said why not, and began asking him about assault weapons such as the AK-47 and its less expensive cousin, the SKS. How do people justify using these guns? Aren’t assault weapons above and beyond what we need for home protection purposes? The glint in my eye must have scared him as I rattled off the names of various assault rifles, my voice rising with each one, because he slowly backed away with his hand on the pistol in his hip holster. When he finally answered, he told me that the NRA fought to keep such guns legal so that anti-gun activists did not have any legal precedent to begin banning even more guns. Or, as several of the people I talked to outside the shop said, it isn’t about protecting people’s right to own assault weapons specifically, it’s about protecting the right to own guns in general. If anti-gun activists were to get their foot in the door regarding assault weapons, they surely would not stop there; gun lovers have no intention to find out just how far anti-gun activists will take their crusade.

I had set out to see whether there was any legitimacy to the dark rumors I had heard concerning the Obama administration and future gun control measures. I suppose I had always known that gun lovers would harbor some sort of concern about gun rights when a Democrat moves into the White House, but I wanted to gauge the paranoia level and compare it to my own. But the paranoia simply wasn’t there. What I discovered instead were people who were indignant, angered and exasperated by repeated attempts to limit a very basic right of theirs. In tough times like these, gun control is not high on the government’s list of priorities. But when things are better, the government now in place will have the will and the werewithal to enact harsh anti-gun legislature if they choose to.

When considering that gun sales in California have gone up roughly 50% since November, it’s hard not to think that gun owners have become gripped with unnecessary fear and paranoia at the remote possibility that their gun rights will be taken away. But these people are not paranoid; they simply understand that their vigilance in protecting their rights might have to become a little more focused now. It is the effort of these “paranoiacs” that spearhead the fight to preserve what has been a basic American right for more than 230 years. Free speech advocates must protect even the rights of pornographers if they want to preserve free speech, and gun lovers face the same situation in their fight. Are there some horribly paranoid gun freaks out there who are convinced that Obama’s out to get them and their guns as the first step in turning this country into a totalitarian police state? Sure, but those people are far and few between, even if they are the ones who get plastered all over the cable news networks as “gun advocates”. Besides, those uneducated inbreds don’t even realize that it’s the Dick Cheneys of the world, not the Obamas, that are most likely to turn this nation into a modern day 1984.

I also noticed another interesting trend at the gun stores I visited. Without exception, every shop is completely out of ammo, aside from .22 caliber bullets (which may as well be pellets) and shotgun shells. Gun prices have also gone up by as much as 50%. (A Glock 9mm a few months ago went for around $500 but now start at $700) Given that I didn’t find any ramped up levels of panic or paranoia about Obama’s gun control intentions, I think it is entirely possible that some of the hysteria caused in the media recently may have been at the behest of gun and ammo companies. Are they looking to jack up the hysteria to boost their profit margins? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Although my own behavior has done little to dispel this notion, people with guns are not homicidal maniacs trying to preserve their right to act in such a manner. Every gun owner I spoke to readily acknowledged that assault weapons are severely pushing the boundaries of good taste, but they also fear that banning such guns would be the first step toward banning ALL guns. Many also readily accept that protecting the right to own guns means protecting the right to own guns that they personally feel should be illegal. But they will gladly fight to protect your right to do something, or own something, that they may not agree with because they fully expect you to do the same for them and their rights.