Jonathan Jordan Made a Modest Investment in the NRA

According to an article in today's News and Observer, in 2014 Rep. Jonathan Jordan spent $125 of his campaign funds to buy a membership in the National Rifle Association, and I'm sure by total coincidence Jordan reaped some $3,300 in contributions from the same group. That's a pretty good return on his investment.

You lie down with dogs ... well, you know the rest of Benjamin Franklin's pithy saying.

The Gun Lobby Is Buying!

In descending order (Virginia Foxx is 6th; Jonathan Jordan is 16th), the dollar amount the NRA has contributed to North Carolina politicians, either through direct donations or independent campaign expenditures (thank you, ProgressNC Action):

• U.S. Sen. Richard Burr: $6,986,620
• U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis: $4,418,012
• State Sen. Buck Newton: $88,213
• U.S. Rep. Walter Jones: $56,655
• U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry: $43,070
• U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx: $22,078
• U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson: $19,525
• U.S. Rep. George Holding: $12,712
• State Sen. Phil Berger: $7,200
• U.S. Rep. David Rouzer: $5,504
• U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows: $4,150
• U.S. Rep. Ted Budd: $4,000
• Lt. Gov. Dan Forest: $3,746
• State Sen. Wes Meredith: $3,600
• State Sen. Bill Cook: $3,414
• State Rep. Jonathan Jordan: $3,359
• State Sen. Bob Rucho: $3,000
• U.S. Rep. Mark Walker: $3,000

Sens. Burr and Tillis Among Top 10 Recipients of NRA Money

Senator Richard Burr is actually Number 2 on the list of US senators bought off by the National Rifle Association = $6,986,620, either direct donations or expenditures to benefit Burr.

Senator Thom Tillis is Number 4 = $4,418,012.

Both Burr and Tillis are pious hypocrites. After the Las Vegas slaughter, Burr issued this statement: “My heart is with the people of Las Vegas and their first responders today. This morning’s tragic violence has absolutely no place here in America.”

Tillis matched Burr, crocodile tear for crocodile tear: “Susan and I send our deepest condolences and prayers to the families of the victims of this horrific and senseless tragedy in Las Vegas.”

Four million bucks buy a lot of prayers, eh, Senator Tillis?

Kevin Siers, in today's Charlotte Observer.

Fort Hood shooting.

What's Ahead in North Carolina

Even while the National Rifle Association was going very silent over the Newtown massacre, North Carolina gun enthusiasts were just getting more juiced.

First, the Asheville Tea Party announced a "Great Gun Give-Away" of a model .223 assault rifle that looks a good deal like the one Adam Lanza used in the Connecticut grade school. The Asheville Tea Party is throwing in two 30-round clips, provided you pay $20 for a chance to win and then actually win this prize.

Then comes news this a.m. that Grass Roots North Carolina is asking the Republican super-majority in the General Assembly to allow public school teachers to carry, thus lifting the ban on guns in schools.

There's nothing to stop our General Assembly from doing this, and more. Certainly, our new governor won't stop them.

Newtown, Conn., 14 December 2012

I hear two things from those on the political right, both among the comments on this site and from sources past numbering nationally:

1. The solution is to arm teachers.

2. This happened because we took God out of school.

Those who parrot # 1 love to trot out some version of what sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein wrote years ago: “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

Excuse me, but that is the rankest horseshit. According to the latest numbers I can uncover, the total number of nonmilitary firearms in the United States as of 2009 was 310 million. Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau listed the country’s population in July 2011 as 311,591,917. Do the math. We’re very close to firearm/citizen parity, and we ain’t noticeably less prone to gun violence. Calling for first grade teachers to be packing heat, along with priests in the pulpit and information-givers in the mall kiosk, is not just ridiculous; it's insane. When in the United States has an ordinary citizen with a gun stopped a mass shooting?

In 2009, the latest figure available from the Centers for Disease Control shows that 31,347 people died from gun injuries in the US. Compared to other "high income" countries, firearm homicide rates were 19.5 times higher in the U.S. than in 23 other countries, using 2003 data.

As for those who piously take the route of # 2 above, words cannot express the tin-ear inappropriateness of suggesting that 20 little first-graders in Connecticut lacked God, or that all they needed to be safe in this world was a school in which prayer and Bible-reading were mandated. If you can’t keep such opinions to yourself, at least get out of my face with that sick evangelizing. If you can first show me a state of the Union where mass consensus on piety and religiosity have produced a more angelic society -- instead of severe alcoholism, serial infidelity, and personal violence -- then we can talk.

By the way, among the six least-violent nations on the face of the earth, you might not like it very much that several of them are also well-known socialist societies or practice religions not covered in your Huckabee sense of religious entitlement.

This Is What He Used

Because he could.

Logic

You know the old saying, that if there's no evidence of a conspiracy, that's just proof that the conspiracy is working!

That was the line of attack of half-term Gov. Sarah Palin yesterday at the National Rifle Association convention in Charlotte. She said that President Obama and Nancy Pelosi wanted to ban all guns in the United States, and her proof is that they haven't done anything to ban all guns in the United States. But they want to, and the more they want to, the more they don't. Which is just a damn conspiracy to confuse all of us real Americans.

I'm not making this up.

The rhetoric at an NRA convention could be used to strip old oak furniture.

The Bosses Get a Clue

Last week a film crew from the National Rifle Association showed up at the Consol Blacksville #2 Mine in Monongalia County, West Virginia, and started cornering miners, trying to get some of them to speak out against Barak Obama.

This was not received well by the miners.

"This was a surprise visit," explained United Mine Workers Safety Chairman Eric Greathouse, "and a lot of the miners felt this was a direct slap in the face of the union because they were trying to coerce our people into saying things against Barack Obama."

"Consol doesn't let anybody on their property -- never," said Safety Committee Member Mark Dorsey, "and for them to let the NRA come on the property and solicit our membership was totally uncalled for. We made our endorsement to our political process, and we didn't bother them, and they shouldn't be harassing our membership over this."

Some 440 miners expressed their disapproval by failing to show up for work on Monday of this week, taking what's called a "Memorial Day," instead of going to work.