May, 2016, Part 10, Poltiical Class Insanity: More Syrian Lies, Releasing Known Criminals Into America, Hillary's Bad Priorities and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc. In fact, last month we set a record, needing ten full posts to cover it all.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

It looks like our politicians have been especially insane over the past month or so let’s get started with our another look at this month’s insanity:

1) As we have already pointed out earlier this month, there are about 45 million Americans getting Federal government food assistance every month, almost 6 million Americans are working part time because they cannot find full time work, hundreds of thousands of veterans are likely not getting the medical treatment and attention they were promised, the labor participation rate is at forty year lows, almost 50,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses because of the current heroin epidemic in the country, our schools are still under educating our kids, and terrorism is growing stronger and wider every day. 

But what does Hillary Clinton think is important as spoken by her in a recent op-ed piece she wrote in the Washington Informer? She is advocating for making Washington D.C. the 51st state. Do we really think that making Washington D.C. the 51st state would make the top fifty most important issues if we asked Americans what their top issues of the day were? Would it make the top hundred? The top thousand? Just another out of touch politician fixing problems that are unimportant, trivial, and what nobody really cares about.

2) As we have pointed out probably hundreds of times in this blog, Obama once boldly promised that he would operate the most transparent Presidential administration EVER. Of course, like most of Obama’s promises, this a was a lie and deception. His administration has spied on reporters, blocked and delayed Freedom of Information Act Requests, used executive orders to block Congressional requests, etc.

According to reporting by the Daily Beast, an employee at the U.S. Central Command within the Defense Department was removed from her job for cursing, yes cursing, after she allegedly spoke up about how the Defense Department and Obama administration were distorting intelligence reports on ISIS. Carolyn Stewart, an Army veteran, was a former subordinate to the highest-ranking civilian at Centcom’s Joint Intelligence office. She worked for Gregory Ryckman, one of the senior intelligence officials who have been accused of covering up an effort to doctor ISIS intelligence reports to offer a more favorable outlook of the campaign against the terror group.

Obviously, the administration and its Defense Department allies wanted Ms. Stewart to go away and cooked up a lame excuse to move her out and into another position because she dared to not go along with the allegedly bogus intelligence reports about ISIS. If she is guilty of using foul language and needed to be reassigned, then why wasn’t Vice President Joe Biden reassigned when an open mike picked up him telling Obama that the passage of Obama Care was “a big f---ing deal?” Why wasn’t he “reassigned” for cursing? Such insane hypocrisy.

3) We could probably devote a number of days reviewing all of the lies that Obama has put forth. One lie that he spewed at least 16 times is that the U.S. would put “no boots on the ground in Syria,” i.e. he was adamant that no U.S. troops would be deployed into the civil war and terrorist haven that is now Syria. We say at least 16 times since the following article actually went back to document 16 times that he explicitly said “no boots on the ground:”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2015/10/30/16-times-obama-said-there-would-no-boots-ground-syria/74869884/

And yet, he recently announced that he would deploy several hundred special operations troops into the quagmire that is Syria despite at least the 16 times he said he would not. How are we not approaching or already inside George Orwell’s “1984” when a leader says he will not do something sixteen times and then does the exact opposite?

This hypothesis gains credibility when you listen to a State Department press person try to explain how saying no boots on the ground is totally consistent with putting hundreds of U.S. troops in the danger zone in Syria. Consider the following exchange at a State Department press conference between Associated Press reporter Matt Lee and State Department spokesperson John Kirby:

Lee: “I’m just curious if this is, like, part of some kind of devious grand strategy to say one thing and then do the complete opposite of it.”

Kirby: “I just — I don’t see it that way. There was never this ‘no boots on the ground.’ I don’t know where this keeps coming from.”

Lee: “For months and months and months, the mantra — from the President and … everyone else in the Administration — has been ‘no boots on the ground,’ and now —”

Kirby: “That is not true.”

Lee: “What?”

Kirby: “It’s just not true, Matt. When we talk about boots on the ground in the context that you have heard people in the administration speak to, we are talking about conventional, large-scale ground troops that are designed to actually engage in, plan, coordinate, integrate, and engage in combat operations on the ground as units. We're not doing that. We've never done that in Iraq or in Syria, and we're not going to do it now."

Definitely 1984 territory where Orwell proclaimed that war is peace, ignorance is strength. In Obama’s world, no boots on the ground means boots on the ground, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor means you cannot keep your doctor, closing Gitmo means not closing Gitmo. Insanity.

Oh, one last comment on this insanity. Politifact, a supposed unbiased fact checking entity that always gives Democrats, Obama and liberals the benefit of the doubt in their analyses, rated Kirby's statements as false. When Politifact calls an administration official a liar, you can be sure it was a whopper.

4) One of the fundamental functions of government should be to protect the safety, lives, and property of the people they are governing. This is a basic, basic function. But even that simple concept is lost on this President and his administration. 

According to Melanie Hunter, writing for CNS News on April 28, 2016, the Obama administration release 86,288 criminal illegal immigrants between 2013 and 2015. Think about that for a moment: the government knew those 86,288 people were here illegally AND they were criminals and yet, the administration still released them onto the streets of America. This was the Congressional testimony of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Sarah Saldana.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the committee looking into the matter was incredulous: “What’s going on at Homeland Security? What’s going on with Immigration [and] Customs Enforcement is one of the most infuriating things I think I’ve seen in this government yet. In a three-year period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more than 86,000 criminal aliens into the American public. These are people that were here illegally, got caught committing a crime, were convicted of that crime and instead of deporting them, they were just released back out in the United States of America.” 

The Congressman went on to state that:

• These 86,000 criminal aliens were convicted, not accused, of more than 231,000 crimes. 
• What is even more amazing, 196 of those released were convicted, not accused, convicted, of murder and yet they were still released back into the country. 
• Of the 36,007 who were released in 2013, 5,700 went on to commit additional crimes against Americans.
• The 30,558 criminal illegal immigrant released in 2014 had a combined 79,059 criminal convictions.
• 1,895 of the 30,558 went on to commit an additional crimes against Americans, crimes that included sex offenses, assault, burglary, robbery, driving under the influence.
• The 19,723 criminal illegal immigrants released in 2015 had a total 64,197 convictions, including 934 sex offenses, 804 robberies, 216 kidnappings, and 196 homicide-related convictions. 

Chaffetz continued his rant in front of Saldana: “They were here illegally. They got caught committing a crime. They were convicted of a crime, and instead of following the law and deporting them, you released them back into the public, and they commit more crimes. How do you look those people in the eye?” 

So much for the government protecting its citizens.

More crazy insanity from your American political class: unleashing known violent criminals into American neighborhoods, Orwellian lying about Syria, shutting up whistleblowers, and Hillary’s bad priorities. More insanity tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2015, By The Numbers, Part 2: What America Wants and What American Politicians Deliver (Or Really Care About)

This is the second post among a few days worth of discussion of “by the numbers.” We do this theme occasionally where we look at the reality of the numbers in the world and not the lies, deceptions, and spin of the American political class. I used to work for a boss whose favorite quote was: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.” By looking at the statistics, trends, and numbers in our world we can cut through the politicians’ smoke screen to truly understand what is going on and hopefully, remedy the issues of the day.

The numbers we will look at this week will often have a common thread running almost through all of them: the views, positions, and opinions of the majority of Americans are often the exact opposite of the views and related actions that our politicians own. Since we are supposed to be living in a representative government system one would hope that the laws, rules, and government functions that our politicians oversee reflect the thinking, hopes, and views of the American citizenry.

As the numbers will usually show, that is nowhere close to reality, which I think reflects two underlying negative trends:

1. American politicians vote and act for their own personal interests first, Americans’ interests and well being being of secondary consideration. If a politician’s actions can get them more votes or more campaign cash for their perpetual reelection campaigns, than that is their priority, usually not the priorities of their constituents.
2. Second, I personally believe that today’s American politicians take care of their special interest friends and financiers first and foremost, and the interests of those special interest friends (e.g.unions, corporations, lobbyists, etc.) are usually not in alignment with what the majority of Americans have as their priorities.

Keep these two possibilities in mind as we go “by the numbers” for the next few days and try to show the major disconnect between what Americans want and what politicians are doing:

1) Judicial Watch recently completed a new study using a lot of official government documents and found that the number of illegal criminal immigrants being released unto U.S. streets and civilians is mind staggering:

• There are now 340 so-called sanctuary cities across the country, cities that are breaking Federal law everyday by allowing illegal immigrants to reside in their cities, protected from deportation by the Federal government.
• Over the nine month period studied, in total, these cities on average allowed 1,000 illegal criminal immigrants to be released every month.
• In those nine months, 9,295 illegal criminal immigrants were set free before Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could get them deported.
• More than 600 of the criminal immigrants had been released twice.
• The majority of the criminal immigrants released (58%) had prior felony charges or convictions, 37% had prior misdemeanor charges and 5% had multiple misdemeanor charges.
• 2,320 of the 9,295 released were subsequently arrested within the nine month time frame for NEW crimes they committed.

Is there any doubt why 59% of Americans want illegal immigrants deported and 78% want a fence built on the Mexican border to keep illegals out of the country, as we discussed in yesterday’s post? If the local politicians will not turn over illegal criminal immigrants for deportation and the Obama administration does nothing to make them obey the law and do them over to the Feds for deportation, this becomes just another example of where the politicians we elect do not reflect the values and desires of those that elected them.

2) Obama and his fellow Democrats are on the warpath to gut or ignore the right to bear arms as outlined in the Second Amendment. One of the efforts they want to try enforcing is crack down on the purchasing of guns at retail stores and gun shows under the false theory that criminals actually buy their weapons at stores and gun shows.

I know, stupid assumption from stupid politicians but the numbers from a recent study actually prove that such lame efforts at gun control are actually that, lame. Researchers from Duke University and the University of Chicago conducted a study of criminal gun purchases that will be published in Preventive Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal. 

According to reporting by the Washington Free Beacon: The study found that due to fears of encountering undercover police officers attempting sting operations, a large majority of the criminals surveyed would only make illegal gun purchases from people they knew. “In discussing the underground gun market in their neighborhoods, most respondents emphasized the importance of connections — prior relationships that could create sufficient trust to reassure the seller that the transaction would not create an unacceptable legal risk,” the survey says. “A majority of the primary guns (40 of the 48 for which we have detailed information on the source) were obtained from family, fellow gang members, or other social connections; the fraction is still higher for secondary guns.”

The study went on to quantify that only 2 out of the 70 primary guns, or 3%, were reported as being purchased from a gun store. NONE of the criminals in the study, NONE, got their weapons from a gun show. The Chicago Sun-Times quoted Harold Pollack, co-director of the crime lab that did the study: “In a survey of almost 100 detainees in the Cook County Jail, few said they get firearms at gun shows or through the Internet. They also said they don’t normally steal guns or buy them at a licensed store.” 

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, put these numbers in perspective relative to proposed new gun laws: “Criminals don’t obey laws. That’s why we call them criminals.”

3) And to illustrate another disconnect between Americans and politicians, especially those that want to restrict or eliminate gun rights and possession,consider the findings of a recent Gallup poll:

• The majority of Americans feel that more concealed weapons would make America safer.
• In a poll taken between October 7 and 11, 2015, 56% of those polled stated that they would feel safer if more Americans carried concealed weapons vs. 41% who would feel less safe.
• In a somewhat inconsistent manner, while 86% of respondents said they would favor a law which would require universal background checks for all gun purchases, a majority (53%) of the same group said background checks would have no impact on the number of mass shootings and only 19% said it would have a great amount of impact on the number of mass shootings.

Another example where a great many politicians are on the wrong side of what the majority of Americans want. While people like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton threaten to illegally confiscate guns of law abiding Americans, the numbers show that criminals do not buy their guns where these ill informed politicians think they do and the majority of Americans would welcome more concealed weapons in the real world outside of the Beltway while those inside the Beltway want to have NO concealed weapons. 

But of course, people like Obama and Clinton would still have their armed guards available around the clock to protect their families while the rest of us would be stripped of our protection under their views, which are contrary to ours.

That will do it for “by the numbers” today, more proof that those in the Washington political class are so out of touch with the rest of America when you look at the numbers regarding the Second Amendment and the handling of illegal immigrants, especially illegal criminal immigrants who bring danger, violence, and crime to ordinary American citizens.

More numbers tomorrow.

Part 5, Bonus Post: Illegal Immigrants Killing American Citizens is NOT A "Little Thing"....Despite What A Congressman Thinks

A little while ago we discussed the terrible tragedy where a young American citizen, Kate Steinle, was gunned down by an illegal immigration who had seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. If that was not enough heartache for Ms. Steinle’s family and friends, an Illinois Congressman, Luis Gutierrez, described her cold blooded killing as a “little thing” that got in the way of his political aims for illegal immigrants. As we observed at that time, this is just a cold hearted, despicable thing to say especially when Ms. Steinle’s parents. family members, and boy friend were in mourning for this senseless death.

But this is how far the country has fallen away from respecting those with different opinions and the rule of law. The Congressman views her death as a little thing in the context of his political aims and ambitions. Cities and the politicians across the country who operate them have decided that the rights of illegal immigrants are more important than observing current Federal law and the lives of American citizens. 

Thus, I thought it worthwhile to take some discussion time to identify and honor those American citizens that have suffered and died as a result of politicians who think that the the status of illegal immigrants is more important than the lives of American citizens. I am not saying that all illegal immigrants are violent or criminals, the majority are likely not. 

But it is important to understand that because the Washington political class has not sealed the border, that Washington politicians have not enforced standing immigration law in so-called “sanctuary cities,” and that local politicians give haven and refuge to illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities, many of whom are criminal elements, Americans are dying. And the mainstream media for the most part of ignored or downplayed these deaths to facilitate the work of people like Congressman Gutierez who thinks that a single, unnecessary American citizen death at the hands of illegal immigrant who never should have been on an American street is a “little thing.”

Note: we thought we would finish this theme a few days ago after four posts but we have come across another set of murders, rapes and other violence as a result of illegal immigrants today or two to complete the discussion.

1) Last week we discussed the Congressional hearings that were recently held and the stories of three American families who had lost loved ones to acts of violence committed by illegal immigrants. As if losing a loved one was not enough agony for these families, the reality is that most of the crimes that we have discussed over the past week were perpetrated by illegal immigrants who had extensive criminal records, had been arrested and convicted of past crimes, and still were allowed to illegally walk the streets of this country, eventually resulting in the unnecessary deaths of American citizens.

Luis Gutierrez is a Congressman from Illinois who is a big advocate for illegal immigrants. He had the nerve and coldheartedness to publicly state that the death of a young American citizen, Kate Steinle, by an illegal immigrant who was a seven time felon and five time deportee was a “little thing.” Despicable that he would put his political agenda ahead of the loss of life of a young American woman. 

During the Congressional hearing referenced above, he spoke in very antagonistic terms against those that dared to disagree with his coldness and lack of sympathy for Ms. Steinle’s unnecessary death. The reaction of one of the mothers at that hearing, who had lost a son to an act by an illegal immigrant, Brandon Mendoza, is repeated below:

“As I sat in the hearing room and heard testimony by Jim Steinle and listened to testimony from Jessica Vaughn, it not only broke my heart but also brought back some very familiar, gut-wrenching reactions to additional preventable deaths in America at the hands of criminal illegals allowed to stay in this country as my son’s killer was.

As each of the panel's members began speaking, they vocalized their sincere condolences to Jim Steinle and proceeded to go over their thoughts and their support of stopping the federal funding to Sanctuary Cities as one way to prevent some of the tragic deaths that happen as illegal criminals are released back onto our streets with the high percentage of committing another crime.

When Luis Gutierrez was given the floor to speak, it was apparent by his demeanor that he was not happy. Just the tone of his voice made my skin crawl. As he started ranting and raving about previous statements he had made and then took great effort to spit Jessica Vaughn’s name out of his mouth, all the while raising his voice to a hate-filled scream, I, along with Sabine Darden, Laura Wilkerson and Maria Espinoza, left the hearing room. Not only was I disgusted with his behavior and lack of empathy for the real reason this hearing was taking place, but I was shocked at his demeanor and screaming voice. Sabine, Laura and myself have all lost a child at the hands of an illegal criminal and to see this so called Representative of the people of Illinois speak with such hate and disregard for the victims families in the room was unacceptable. I can’t imagine what Jim Steinle was thinking. Video doesn’t lie Mr. Gutierrez. If he was embarrassed for being quoted while dismissing Kate Steinle’s death as a ‘little thing,’ then shame on him. This hearing was not the time or place to dig himself out of the hole his mouth put him in.

I am asking, as an American citizen who has lost my son Sgt. Brandon Mendoza at the hands of an illegal criminal, that Luis Gutierrez be stopped from being allowed to use precious hearing time as a way to air his displeasure and obvious hate for a witness at hearings he is unfortunately a part of. Especially when that witness is merely repeating words that have come out of his mouth.

This was my first trip to Washington, D.C. and the time spent in the hearing listening to Mr. Gutierrez has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I wonder if the people of Illinois who elected him to represent them really know what a rude, uncaring, egotistical jerk they have erroneously elected to be in Washington, D.C.”

Could not have said it better myself. In the area of illegal immigration, as in other areas affecting Americans' lives and families, the Washington political class could not care less about the country or those that live there and support the Federal government. They are mostly concerned only about their own enrichment and perpetual stay in elected office, constituents and their families be damned. To them, we are all just a “little thing” in their ego trip.

More details on the Congressional hearings can be found at:

http://www.teaparty.org/mothers-of-children-killed-by-illegals-condemn-luis-gutierrez-110882/#sthash.0brjnK9P.dpuf

2) Let’s look at some official government reports on illegal immigration to see how bad the numbers and reality really are:

• Government Accountability Office report, GAO-050646R, was released on May 9, 2015.
• That report analyzed crimes committed by 55,322 illegal immigrants who entered the country illegally and were in some type of jail or prison at all levels of government during fiscal year 2003.
• These illegal immigrants were arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal immigrant.
• 97% of them had more than one arrest, while 26% had over 11 arrests.
• These 55,000 or so criminals had perpetrated almost 700,000 crimes, an average of 13 crimes per illegal immigrant.
• 10% of these criminals were arrested for committing 26 or more crimes.
• 12% of their crimes were for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, assault and sex-related crimes, 15% were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage, 24% were for drug offenses, and the rest were for DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons, immigration and obstruction of justice.
• A whopping 80% of the arrests occurred in just three states: California, Texas, and Arizona.
• Keep in mind that these staggering crime totals were just for the illegal immigrants that were in jail or prison at the time of the study, it does NOT include illegal immigrant criminals that were still walking the streets.

These crimes were totalled up over twelve years ago. I would bet money that twelve years later, there are more illegal immigrant criminals in the country and that these 2003 numbers, staggering as they are, are probably less than the number of crimes being committed today by illegal immigrant criminals. 

I make that claim since according to House Judiciary Committee reports, in 2013 the Obama administration released over 36,000 convicted illegal immigrants criminals onto the streets of America and in 2014 released another 30,558. The Committee also made these observations and conclusions:

• The crimes that these 66,000 plus people were involved in included “dangerous drugs, assault and domestic violence, stolen vehicles, robbery, sex offenses, sexual assault, kidnaping, voluntary manslaughter, and even homicide.” 
• More than 25% of these released illegal immigrants criminals were classified as “level 1s” which is the worst of the worst of criminal elements, according to the administration. And in 2013 alone, the Obama administration didn’t even bring removal proceedings against an additional 68,000 criminal illegal immigrants who had been convicted of everything from homicide to sexual assault.
• Thus, in just two years, the Obama administration allowed more than 130,000 violent criminals to continue to be here on our streets illegally, more than double what the GAO quantified back in 2005. 

Does Congressman Gutierrez think that these heinous and violent crimes committed by these illegal immigrant criminals are “little things?” 

Americans who want a secure border and rational and sane immigration rules and laws are not racists. We think that any unnecessary deaths, in this discussion unnecessary citizen deaths by criminal and violent illegal immigrants, are horrible and not a little thing. We think these unnecessary murders and violence are an absolute disgrace relative to Federal government incompetence and local government’s sanctuary cities and tolerance of criminal illegal immigrants.

To attack and slander Americans who blame the current system for letting multiple felon illegal immigrants to walk our streets is the height of absurdity. Just another example of where logic an adult conversations is choked off by politicians that have their own agendas and personal careers placed ahead of what is right for the welfare and safety of the rest of us.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

February, 2015, Part 3, By The Numbers: Criminal, Illegal Immigrants Released Into Society, American Kids Going Hungry and More

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) According to a recent Washington Times article, 1,000 of the 36,000 illegal immigrant criminal that the Federal government released from custody in 2013 have gone out and committed a whole host of additional crimes once put out onto American streets. These crimes include, but are not limited to, child sex abuse, hit and run traffic accidents, drunk driving, drug offenses, car jacking, weapons incidents, and child cruelty.

This information was provided by the Department of Homeland Security to a the chairman of a U.S. Senate committee, Senator Grassley: “The Obama Administration claims that it is using ‘prosecutorial discretion’ to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens from this country. But this report shows the disturbing truth: 1,000 undocumented aliens previously convicted of crimes who the Administration released in 2013 have gone on to commit further crimes in our communities.” 

The crimes of the original 36,000 criminal illegals totaled 88,000 convictions including 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 303 kidnapping convictions and 16,070 drunk or drug driving convictions. As usual, the Obama administration blamed someone else for this travesty, this time blaming a Federal court ruling that forced them to release these criminals. 

And again, as usual, rather than trying to actually resolve a problem, the Obama administration went the simple route that has obviously endangered millions of Americans with the release of obviously dangerous and known criminals. The numbers do not lie on what a disgrace this is for American citizens and the safety of their families.

2) A Businessweek article from December, 2014 reported that the current median annual U.S. household income is $54,417. This number is actually 4.4% lower than the inflation adjusted levels from January, 2000. According to a quote in the article, “calling the U.S. the world’s strongest economy is akin to naming it the winner of the least ugly contest.” 

More proof in the numbers that the Washington political class has no clue on how to grow an economy efficiently, effectively, and long term, especially if most American households have less purchasing power today than they did 15 years ago.

3) As if we had not reviewed enough numbers over the past month or so on how poorly the Obama administration and Washington in general had handled the economic affairs of the country, according to recently released U.S. Census Bureau data, more than one in five American kids are living in a household that was receiving food stamp assistance from the government. One in five, a disgraceful number for a country such as ours, the largest and wealthiest country in the world.

Even worse, there are more kids in families on food assistance now than there were when the recession ended five years ago during the most abysmal economic recovery of the past century. So much for the administration’s boast the economy is humming along, not when more than one in five American kids are getting fed every day as a result of government support.




Here is what the Census Bureau had to say about their findings: “The number of children receiving food stamps remains higher than it was before the start of the Great Recession in 2007. The rate of children living with married parents who receive food stamps has doubled since 2007. In 2014, an estimated 16 million children, or about one in five, received food stamp assistance compared with the roughly 9 million children, or one in eight, that received this form of assistance prior to the recession.”A national embarrassment for which most of the blame goes to the inane regulations and legislation of Washington.4) In a recent Heritage Foundation article by Kate Scanlon, she documented 112 state of the union promises that President Obama has failed to honor or fulfill. The source of her 112 number comes from a multimedia company called Grabien.Some of the more outrageous promises that are not even close to coming true include:

• Cancer will be cured “in our time.” Not even close to becoming a reality.
• The Federal government deficit will be cut in half by the end of his first term. Instead, his administration has not only not cut the deficit at all, the six highest deficits of all time have occurred during the first six years of the Obama administration.
• Families making less than $250,000 won’t see their taxes go up by “a single dime.” Not enough time to document this failure.
• The conflict between Israel and Palestine will end. No, they actually just got over fighting another violent and destructive war in the past year or so, not even close to ending the conflict.

These are the more obvious and glaring failures to deliver on the promise, over a hundred others can be seen at the following link:http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/20/112-state-union-promises-obama-hasnt-kept/?utm_source=facebook5) I happen to support all parts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights including the Second Amendment. I believe in the right to bear arms not only because it is in the Constitution and it helps to keep unbridled government and political class power under control, but also because the numbers show that it works. Consider the following set of numbers from the The Federalist:




The numbers again to not lie. The ability of citizens to easily arm and protect themselves and their families under the protection of the Second Amendment is again illustrated by the above numbers of realities vs. the sinister aims of certain politicians. Being four times safer in Houston than in Chicago per 100,000 people is proof in the numbers.6) Not only are families’ household incomes sinking but according to an article on the The Atlantic’s website that was summarized in the February 13, 2015 issue of The Week magazine, the median income for young American adults today is $2,000 less on an inflation adjusted basis than what their parents were earning 25 years ago. Incomes for young adults is lower in 35 states than it was 25 years ago.Just another number proving that the Obama economic recovery is tepid, weak, and non-existent by some measures.7) One last set of numbers for this “by the numbers” update. President Obama is claiming that his economic leadership has reduced the Federal deficit to under $500 billion during the last fiscal year. Not much of an accomplishment since it is still larger than any previous annual deficit number of any previous President.But even if he thinks $500 billion is good news, that might be short lived. According to a recent Associated Press report: 

• The Federal government deficit in January, 2015 was almost 70% higher this year than January of last year.
• For the first four fiscal months of 2015, the cumulative deficit for fiscal 2015 is already 6.8% higher than the first four months of fiscal 2014, $194.2 billion vs. $182.8 billion.
• At $194.2 billion, the Federal government is spending an obscene $1.6 BILLION every Day.

Disgusting numbers, numbers that will crash the country’s financials if things do not change and change soon to get out of control Federal spending under control.That will do it for this month's "by the numbers" update. As you can see form the past three days of discussion, not matter what Obama and others in the Washington political class tell you, the numbers show that is not the reality. The economy is not in good shape. Household and young adults income is down, the national debt is growing by hundreds of billions of dollars every year, unemployment is stubbornly high, the economic recovery has been anemic, American kids are going hungry, and released illegal immigrant criminals are now walking our streets. I don't think that the politicians in Washington want to acknowledge these numbers and realities but that is what they are, the reality of our times, brought upon us by an inept and uncaring set of Washington politicians.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

How About More Hate Control Than More Gun Control, Part 7: A Summary Of Reality

This is the final, at least for now, in a series of posts that took a rational, fact based view of gun control in this country in light of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting. The original post proposed that we take at look at controlling the hateful speech and political venom that is now rampant in this country, courtesy of the political class, before we go about restricting rights as laid out in the Constitution.

Other posts looked at quick, inexpensive ways we could go about protecting our kids in schools, the original cause of the national debate, without raising taxes and without shredding the Second Amendment. We took an extensive look at how law abiding, gun owning citizens have protected themselves and their families from criminal elements because they had the right own and use guns in self defense.

More ominously, we examined the fact that many local and state government entities will not impose any edicts out of Washington that they feel infringe on Second Amendment rights in their states, towns and counties, setting up the potential for as nasty confrontation between state/local officials and Federal agents.

Despite all of the hot air coming out of Washington, let’s conclude this series with a look at the facts on the ground and how the political hot air and posturing are not addressing the real issues and reality:

• Three months after the Newtown shootings, no action has been taken by most politicians to protect our kids in school, of which the simplest fix to the real problem would be to put armed and trained police officers in all U.S. schools. In other words, our kids are no safer today than they were prior to the Newtown shooting tragedy.
• Everyday, dozens if not hundreds, of law abiding, gun possessing Americans use their guns to protect themselves, their families, and their assets from criminal elements.
• Local government and law enforcement officials are advising their constituents to become gun proficient in order to protect themselves, their family, and their assets from criminal elements,
• The fact is that the average police response time to 911 calls across the country is now 23 minutes in light of budget and police force cutbacks, putting law abiding citizens on their own for almost a half hour in the midst of a potentially violent crime.
• Every year, there more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States, an average of five children die as a result of child abuse in the United States every single day, the United States has the highest child abuse death rate in the world, it is estimated that 500,000 Americans that will be born this year will be sexually abused before they turn 18, and in the United States, it is estimated that one out of every four girls is sexually abused before they become adults with no public outcry or political class focus on addressing these this national disgraces.
• Criminals rape despite rape being a crime, criminals rob despite robbery being a crime, criminals murder despite murder being a crime, and criminals will be able to obtain, use, and not register any kind of gun they want despite obtaining, using, and not registering any kind of gun is a crime.
• The biggest gun runner in the world, the United States government, is in the process of sending 20 F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks to Egypt. The cost of this transaction, paid for by the American taxpayer, almost $1.1 billion, could have been used to put a trained armed police officer in over 19,000 U.S. schools to protect our kids rather than contribute to the hate and potential for violence in the Middle East.
• And finally, almost three months after the Newtown shootings, no action has been taken by most politicians to protect our kids in school, of which the simplest fix to the real problem would be to put armed and trained police officers in all U.S. schools. In other words, our kids are no safer today than they were prior to the Newtown shooting tragedy.

You get the idea. The need to protect our kids has devolved into the typical shouting match between political elements resulting in much ado but nothing accomplished.

I will take this bet right now: six months down the road, our kids will be just as unprotected in their schools as they were the day before the Newtown shootings, Egypt will be using and abusing over $1 billion worth of taxpayer funded weaponry, criminals will still be ignoring all of the laws in every area, the police response time to 911 calls will not improve, and every day law abiding citizens will be on their own to protect themselves, possibly under more difficult conditions if the out-of-touch with reality gun control advocates in Congress get their way.

And this bet is why we are so in need of term limits, if only to get armed protection into our schools before Newtown II happens. After that, maybe new people in office can address the bigger issues facing all of our kids every day including physical and sexual abuse. It is obvious the current set of politicians don’t much care about them.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control: More Americans Protecting Themselves With The Second Amendment

Several weeks ago we ran a series of gun control-related posts under the theme, “How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control” as a result of the Newtown, Ct., school shooting. The initial post in that series can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-about-more-hate-control-before-more_4871.html

The basic premise of that series is that maybe we should start changing our political dialog before we start shredding the Second Amendment. Our political dialog is one of hate and venom where we ridicule and dehumanize those with a different opinion than us, with the dehumanization making it so much easier to accept bad things, including violence, befalling those that differ from us.

This reason alone is why destroying the Second Amendment is not the right course of action in this case, it will likely solve nothing and make certain situations worse without dealing with the hate and venomous speech. However, we also explored other reasons why excessive gun control and confiscation is not the solution to this problem, with one primary reason being the fact that innocent, law abiding Americans are defending themselves everyday from thugs and violence. A representative sample of these incidents were reviewed in the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-about-more-hate-control-and-less.html

Since that post, more examples of Americans using their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves, their families, and their property have come to light:

1) A January 31, 2013 report by Houston's NBC 2 News discussed how a mother who used her handgun to fight off three armed intruders while her son was in his bedroom. The three armed men broke into her home and confronted her, demanding money. She told them that her TV was the only thing of value and to take it but they insisted she give them any money she had. She was able to lie and distract them until she could get to her gun in her bedroom. At that point she began shooting, wounding one of the thugs and chasing the others off, possibly saving her life and the life of her son.

2) Detroit local news sources reported on January 24, 3013 that when a young man tried to rob a 56 year old woman, a great-grandmother, on a bus in Detroit, the woman fought back. The man stole her purse and backpack and jumped off the bus at the next stop. But the great grandmother got off the bus, went after the thieve, and confronted him. When the suspect turned to come at her, the grandmother, a concealed weapons permit holder, defended herself, drew her legal semi-automatic 9mm pistol and fired 11 shots at the suspect.

The punk ran away and it is unknown if the man was hit. The woman used a semi-auto 9mm that held at least 11 rounds. This type of weapon would be banned under Dianne Feinstein’s proposed assault weapons ban.

3) On January 14, 2013, CNN reported on an incident in San Antonio, Texas where a homeowner came face-to-face with a burglar. The burglar was already out of the house carrying a television when the homeowner pointed his legally owned shotgun at the man and told him to get on the ground. The police believe that this action stopped a burglar string that had been plaguing the homeowners neighborhood.

4) On January 29, 2013, KVFS News in Missouri reported on a police report that stated an 82-year-old Ellsinore, Missouri man shot a man who reportedly broke into his home. The police report identified Charles L. White, 30, of Ellsinore, as having broke into the residence and assaulting the 82-year-old. The suspect fled after being shot by the homeowner but was shortly apprehended in a nearby home after a search warrant was served. The 82-year-old homeowner was taken to a hospital and then by air ambulance to a St. Louis hospital with head injuries.

Thankfully, the beatings stopped once the gun owner fired on and hit the intruder. Otherwise, the injuries might have been far worse.

5) WCYB NBC News in Tennessee had a report on February 4, 2013 on how an 86 year old woman and homeowner was able to defend her home when a female intruder burst in after breaking a window with a wrench. The homeowner wrestled with the intruder and was eventually able to get off a shot from her legally owned weapon, hitting the intruder and scaring her away before the 86 year old was seriously injured. The intruder turned herself in the next day to police.

6) On February 10, 2013, KING Channel 5 News in the Seattle area reported that a thug who broke into an occupied home was shot by the home's owner with his legally owned gun. Police arrived at the home after the shooting to find a 51 year old man with a gunshot wound.

The wounded man had broken into the home, causing the homeowners to call 911 to report the early morning break in. They armed himself with a pistol while waiting for the police to arrive. However, at one point, the intruder charged down a hallway toward the homeowner, who fired a shot which struck the suspect. After a brief struggle, the homeowner held the suspect at gunpoint until the police arrive.

7) An early February, 2013 report from 8 News NOW in Las Vegas reported how a 72-year-old homeowner retrieved his handgun when he heard several home intruders attempting to gain entry to his Las Vegas residence early one morning. When the multiple intruders entered his bedroom, he opened fire, killing one of the suspects and sending the rest fleeing. Police reported that the intruders were carrying weapons when they ran into the legal gun owning residence.

When police arrived at the Las Vegas home, they found one of the intruders trying to escape in a car which ended up hitting hit a patrol car. The suspect attempted to flee on foot but police were able to capture him. A second suspect, described as a Latin male, was last seen running from the neighborhood where the attempted robbery took place and was not taken into custody. A third male, armed with a handgun, was found dead in the homeowner’s backyard. The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound, likely form the homeowners weapon.

The incident was the second time in three days that a homeowner in Las Vegas had used a firearm during an attempted burglary and fired at an intruder.

8) ABC News TV out of Pensacola, Florida reported on an incident where three teenage punks broke into the home of an elderly gun owner. One of the punks hit the homeowner in the hit with a baseball bat as they entered his home. Fortunately, the home owner was actually packing a legal firearm, pulled it out, and started firing.

Although his hit on the head took eight stitches to close up, he did manage to hit two of the three home invaders but refused to fire at the third because he would have shot him in the back, certainly a class act on the homeowner's part. All three criminals were arrested. The news report quotes the homeowner as worrying what would have happened if he did not exercise his second amendment rights.

9) ABC News TV in Detroit recently reported on how a 70 year old high school basketball coach used his gun to protect students on February 4, 2013. The coach was escorting two members of his girls’ basketball team outside of their high school when two young thugs came up to the three and put a gun to the coach’s head.

The coach pulled out his legally owned handgun and shot both of the attackers. One died at the scene and the other was put in the hospital Lord knows what could have happened if the coach was not able to exercise his Second Amendment rights.

We could go on and on but hopefully you get the idea. Disarming innocent, law abiding citizens of their right to bear arms is going to result in a crime wave never before seen in this country. Every day and in every part of this country, citizens are successfully defending themselves against thugs and punks that are up to no good and who would have brought harm and violence to these many innocent citizens listed above if they had not legally armed themselves.

So when, a gun control advocate tells you that we need to shred the Second Amendment because people are killed by guns every year, ask them three questions:

1. How many of those deaths by guns were caused by people having illegal guns, people that would not register their guns or stop from owning a gun despite increased gun control laws?
2. How many of those deaths were bad guys killing other bad guys, criminals killing other criminals, in which case I have little sympathy for their deaths.
3. How many more deaths of innocent people would occur if the right to legally bear arms was severely restricted or outlawed?

You cannot look at just the number of gun deaths every year and be upset. You have to look at the number of guns deaths PREVENTED every year by the Second Amendment in order to get a complete picture.

We will look at another aspect of this issue tomorrow, namely the fact that law enforcement and state and local governments will not abide by any severe Second Amendment restrictions, a situation that could represent a severe judicial and Constitutional confrontation between defenders of the Second Amendment and an illegal overreach by the Federal government.

How About More Hate Control And Less Gun Control, Part 2 - Real Examples Of Americans Defending Themselves With Legal Guns

Yesterday we proposed that before we start messing around with the Constitution and shredding the Second Amendment that we consider doing some “hate control” rather than gun control to solve a perceived problem on some people’s part that gun play is out of control. And that we start this hate control effort with our so-called leaders in the political class that are prime examples and sources of the hate and venom that are pervasive in this country.

Today we will just look at a series of real life examples where private citizens were able to protect themselves, their friends and family, and their assets because of the freedom allowed by the Second Amendment. The mainstream media is only looking at the victims from the Newtown school shooting as if that was the whole equation. That is wrong, it is only part of the total equation and reality. What needs to be done is to look at the other side of the equation, the side that tallies how many deaths were PREVENTED because of private gun ownership:

1) On January 10, 2013, ABC news affiliate KFSN reported on a shooting that occurred at a pharmacy in Madera, California. The shooting happened inside the pharmacy shortly after the last customer left for the day. Two men in ski-masks barged in through the back door and started shooting up the store.

The owner of the pharmacy and his mother, the only two people left inside, ducked for cover as bullets whizzed around them, with one hitting her in the leg. The mother and son said they ducked behind the counter as bullets kept flying. The pharmacist described the situation: "It was not a robbery so much as an execution. It was an attempted assassination, they didn't make any demands, they simply came in, reached over, and it was basically shooting us almost in the back of the head. They shot my mother and almost shot me, I was just surrounded by holes."

Fortunately, the pharmacist had a gun which he grabbed and started returning fire. He wounded one of the shooters, who eventually died, and police apprehended the other shortly afterwards. This wasn't the first time the pharmacy has been hit. The owner was able to stop two other attempted robberies in the 15 years he's owned the business, but this was the first time he felt he and his mother might die: "I thought yesterday was the last day for both us, and luckily it didn't turn out that way."

Fortunately, he and his mom did not die because he had the means and the right to defend his family, himself and his business. It is doubtful that these two hoodlums would have registered their guns in any crackdown on Second Amendment rights.

More details on this incident can be found at:

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8948286

2) According to a LA Times article from August 2, 2012, the following details describe an attempted heist of a LA jewelry store:

• Surveillance footage from the jewelry store showed a white SUV backing up to the front of the store and five men getting out carrying pillowcases.
• The men ran into the store and pointed handguns at the clerks and a customer.
• Immediately afterwards, shots are fired and the men run back to the door, fighting each other to get out and get to their vehicle as a woman, a store employee, runs after them with her gun.
• The SUV left before three of the suspects got back inside the vehicle.
• Fortunately, nothing was taken from the store and no one was hurt.

The article goes on to report that this was the second local robbery incident in a week that an Orange County store owner had used a gun to thwart a robbery.

In the other robbery attempt, two men tried to rob a mall watch store only to be stopped by a store owner who shot one of the suspects in the head. Both men were later apprehended by police.

More lives possibly saved by the Second Amendment. I doubt the seven robbers would have registered their weapons under any crackdown on Second Amendment rights.

The details of these two robbery attempts can be found at the following link which also includes the store video of the employee chasing out the five robbers (by the way, the employee who chases the FIVE robbers out is the owner of the store, she is a woman, and she is 65 years old!)

Http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/65-year-old-shoots-at-would-be-jewelry-store-robbers-in-garden-grove.html

I find it interesting that both of these incidents occurred in California which I understand to have some of the more stringent gun laws, laws that did not prevent these criminals from obtaining firearms.

3) As reported by a Montana television station on January 4, 2013, police were doing an extensive manhunt for a criminal in Kalispell, Montana. A local citizen, Michael Stephens, came face-to-face with the fleeing criminal and tried to physically detain the criminal, but the suspect grabbed a flashlight from Stephens and began to hit him with it.

The attack ended when Amy Stephens came to her husband's aid and held Elliot at gunpoint until authorities arrived on the scene. It is unknown what would have happened to the Mr. Stephens if his wife did not have a weapon available to her but it probably would not have been pretty.

The video and text of the story is available at:

http://www.kpax.com/news/citizens-help-nab-man-wanted-after-flathead-pursuit/

4) The Canton Reporter ran an article on January 3, 2013 describing how in Canton, Ohio, two armed men went into a local butcher store and opened fire on those inside. Unfortunately, for them, an employee shot back, hitting both of them multiple times. After the exchange of fire, both teenage gunmen left the store but were eventually arrested by police at different hospitals.

Police investigators believe the two men entered Hever’s Family Meats with their weapons drawn. They attempted to take money from the cash register and, during the robbery, one of the robbers fired several rounds: “Fire was immediately returned by an employee. A gun battle ensued inside the store,” according to a police spokesperson.

It is highly unlikely that these two teenage hoodlums would have gone through the trouble of registering their weapons in any Second Amendment crackdown. Details of this incident can be found at:

http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x1896978485/Meat-market-robbery-ends-in-gun-battle

5) The CBS TV affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia reported on a violent home invasion incident on January 4, 2013 in the Atlanta area:

• Local police say that Paul Lee Slater used a crowbar to bust open the front door of a residential house in the middle of the day.
• However, a mother was home with her two children and when he heard her yell for them, he gave chase inside the house.
• The chase resulted with the family getting into a crawl space near the home’s attic, essentially trapping the mom and kids in their own home.
• However, when Slater opened the door, the mother starting firing her gun, hitting the intruder five times.
• Slater stumbled out of the house, got into his car but crashed into a tree trying to get away.
• The woman and her children were able to get to a neighbor's home for help.
• Police believe the family was not specifically targeted, that it was a random choice for a home invasion.
• The CBS article also reported that Slater has an extensive criminal history.

In this situation, the bad guy did not have an illegal gun. But the possession of a legal gun by a private citizen probably prevented the death, or at least the terrible beating, of a mom and her kids from a very bad person who went to the trouble of tracking them down and cornering them in their home.

Details of the story can be found at:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20506821/homeowner-shoots-intruder-in

6) A January 4, 2013 by ABC News in Oklahoma City reported on a woman who shot at two men breaking into her home, killing one of them:

• The woman was at home alone with her three month old baby because her husband had recently died of cancer.
• A week after his death, two men came to her home, armed with a hunting knife and tried to break into the house.
• When she heard the attempted break in, she barricaded herself and her child in a room with a 12 gauge shotgun and called 911.
• As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun: "I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"
• The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door.
• "I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her.
• The mother was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.
• When one of the intruders finally broke through the door and came after her with the knife, the mother shot and killed the 24-year-old.
• According to ABC, police are calling the shooting justified: "You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Detective. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said

Again, imagine the horror that could have happened if this brave mother was not allowed to arm herself in her house. I would assume that the intruder’s knife is not registered with the authorities.

7) Final example, in light of the previous incident and my own experience. We used to live in rural New Jersey, a township that was served by the New Jersey State Police. The nearest, serving State Police barracks was about twenty minutes away, IF you knew how to get from there to our home. As a result of this distance and time, we installed a monitored home security system in our home.

One day at work, a 45 minute ride from home, my security system monitoring company called me to say they had a reported break in at my home and the police have been dispatched. I decided to stay at work and wait for the police report since 1) they would be to my home before me and 2) I did not want to confront any intruders.

After about an hour, the security system people call me back with an incredible request: the State policeman was lost in the rural woods and could not find my home, could I give them directions. Fortunately, it was a system malfunction that tripped the alarm and the police were not needed.

But what if there had been an intruder and we had been home at the time? The State Police would have never gotten to us in time and who knows what the intentions and mental disposition of the intruder might have been, fight or flight, when confronted? I would have liked to have had the option of a legal firearm to protect my family and home.

The Oklahoma mom was in contact with the authorities for over 20 minutes and help had still not arrived. Fortunately, she had the ability and the permission to have firearms on site to also protect her family in the absence of a quick response from the police.

That’s enough for today, hopefully you see my overall point. It was a terrible tragedy that some nut case got hold of some legally acquired guns and murdered over a two dozen innocent people in Newtown. A horrible, horrible tragedy.

However, in any discussion of gun control, both sides of the equation have to be considered. In just the six examples listed above, at least fourteen lives were saved because legally armed citizens were able to protect themselves from violent criminals.

All of these six incidents happened in just the past few months. Do a couple of searches on the Internet and you will find that hundreds, if not thousands of lives, are saved every year by citizens legally defending themselves as a result of the Second Amendment.

Banning guns and shredding the Second Amendment is the not the answer. We have to do the really hard work of understanding why a person gets so screwed up mentally that their view of humanity and the sanctity of life is destroyed, enabling them to randomly kill for new apparent reason. Reasonable gun controls are right to be considered but the facts are:

• Americans successfully defend themselves everyday from very bad people using legally owned firearms.
• Criminals will always be able to get their hands on firearms.
• Criminals will kill using other methods also (e.g. knives, crowbars, etc.), methods that can be overcome by a citizen using a legal firearm (see examples above).
• If criminals obeyed laws against rape, rape would not longer occur.
• If criminals obeyed laws against burglary, burglary would no longer occur.
• If criminals obeyed laws against arson, arson would no longer occur.

Therefore, outlawing guns will not outlaw violence or crime.

More facts, statistics, and realities tomorrow in next installment of “hate control” vs. “gun control.”

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w