It seems like it’s not even enough for newsfolk to disagree with their political opponents and claim objectivity any more. Now it’s gotta be flat-out ridicule of people who don’t buy the political agenda they’re selling. I had a tough time finding a way to write what I am thinking about (hat tip: Snowflakes in Hell) this disgusting Philadelphia Daily News editorial (link) titled: “My Name Is Joe. I am a Gun Addict”. They write childish stuff like this and wonder why people don’t buy their rag (my comments in bold):
LOOK AT THEM.
Shaking. Sweating. Pacing.
Unable to concentrate. Unable to focus on anything other than . . . their next gun buy.
Well, that and a biased media.
Pennsylvania’s gun addicts are already going through withdrawal, as the planned four-day halt on gun sales to allow the state to update its computerized background checks grows closer.
Is this supposed to be funny?
The Pennsylvania Instant Check System is used by gun store owners to do state and federally required criminal background checks on potential customers. It will be closed for upgrading from 6 p.m. Sept. 2 to noon Sept. 6. That means that no guns can be sold.
Unfortunately, small “mom and pop” stores that rely on gun sales will not be able to make sales that help to pay their taxes, which fund filthy cities’ welfare rolls. When credit card companies and banks need to do systems upgrades, they do it at night so as to limit the impact of their commerce- aren’t there any companies that can do these upgrades at night?
Gun store owners are hot. Yeah. The shutdown coincides with the beginning of the early dove and goose hunting season, a popular time – at least in some parts of the state -for gun sales.
How about we ban newspaper advertising for a few days and see how you like a state interruption in commerce? Or maybe we require that your editorial board’s work be pre-approved by government hate speech experts? Hunting season isn’t what’s at issue- the ability to transfer firearms is.
One Harrisburg lawmaker, Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, is also in a snit. He’s claming that this is an attempt by Philadelphia liberals to limit the rights of gun owners.
It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it?
The outcry has us a little worried about just how stable some of these gun addicts are. We’ve seen actual junkies more behaved than this when they hear they can’t get their hands on their stuff.
Is this an attempt at humor, or Stalinism?
But four lousy days with no guns? And with plenty of warning so those who want to buy new hunting rifles can plan ahead?
I’m not planning to buy a gun that week. But if I want to, I should be able to.
Gov. Rendell is already beginning to back-pedal, ordering a committee to review alternate dates for shutting down the system. We hope he stands firm.
Maybe he can suggest that those four days should be spent productively. Instead of sitting around moping, why not take a field trip? Ride through some of the state’s larger cities and their suburban towns, where gun violence has grown. Let’s call it a reality check. Some of these guns used to kill are on the street, thanks to straw purchasers who patronize the state’s gun stores, and then sell the guns illegally.
Why doesn’t the Daily News staff take a reality check field trip to rehab centers throughout the state and tell me how hilarious real mental illness, drug addiction, and withdrawal is? I’m not a straw purchaser- the only straw you smell here is a straw man argument.
Tomorrow, during a national day of protest against illegal guns, there will be a “lie-in” in front of Sen. Arlen Specter’s house in East Falls. Thirty-two people, representing the number killed in the Virginia Tech shooting, will be dressed in black and lie down for three minutes, the time it took Seung-Hui Cho to do his sick work.
What do illegal gun protests have to do with my right to purchase, keep, and bear arms? I’m an individual, and I bear no responsibility for Seung Hui Cho’s actions. Rather, the liberal academic pussies that wouldn’t act on the known information that this guy was sick and needed inpatient psychiatric treatment bear responsibility.
A few days later, the four-day halt on gun sales in Pennsylvania begins.
We feel safer already. *
My disgust with this editorial is multi-faceted, my points again:
- The point is not that the four days impacts the hunting season. It’s the interruption in legal commerce.
- It is possible to perform system upgrades overnight when guns aren’t being sold, again without interrupting legal commerce.
- Calling your political opposition insane or deranged is a dangerous tactic, reminiscent of another “Joe,” Joe Stalin.
- The “illegal gun protest” has nothing to do with legal commerce being interrupted.
- You have a right to publish what you want. But it’s things like this that make people not buy your paper. Though as collectivists, you probably seek government means to force others into paying for your opinions, and forced digestion of them. Publishing drivel like this diminishes your rag’s market value, as well as the value in the field of news reporting.
- People in free states should be interfered with minimally by government, in fact government should try to minimize its impact on lawful commerce. Last week I gave the example of a bridge shut-down for a mere 15 minutes while demolition was performed on an adjacent structure. That’s a well-planned action, invading little on highway users. That’s all I ask. I may never fully agree with having to submit to a background check personally, but I do accept that the current controls keep felons and others who shouldn’t own firearms from purchasing them.
- This editorial suggests that Ed Rendell should stick it to firearm and store owners who’ve exercised their right to voice concerns over the PICS outage, as if (we/)they’re somehow responsible for straw purchasers’ transgressions. This is very disturbing. I support a law making anyone who knowingly makes a straw purchase responsible as an accessory or co-conspirator to any crime committed with their straw-purchased arms, punishable up to life imprisonment. Does the Daily News?