Daily Archives: January 21, 2015

Please Be Careful Out There

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I found the first paragraph of this news story to be hilarious, in a twisted sort of way:

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has asked vigilantes to please be careful about which gun owners they choose to attack after a black concealed carry permit holder was wrongly assaulted at a Florida Walmart.

Yes, please be careful about which people you assault. Some people don’t like being assaulted.

According to the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office, 62-year-old Clarence Daniels was entering Walmart with his legally concealed firearm to buy coffee creamer on Tuesday when he was spotted by 43-year-old vigilante Michael Foster.

Foster, who is white, had observed Daniels conceal the weapon under his coat before he came into the store. When Daniels crossed the threshold, Foster tackled him and placed him in a chokehold, Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Larry McKinnon explained.

“He’s got a gun!” Foster reportedly exclaimed.

“I have a permit!” Daniels repeatedly shouted back.

After a struggle, the men were separated. Deputies later arrived and Foster was charged with battery.

“Unfortunately he tackled a guy that was a law-abiding citizen,” McKinnon noted. “We understand it’s alarming for people to see other people with guns, but Florida has a large population of concealed weapons permit holders.”

Yes, it’s alarming to see people you don’t know personally walking around with guns, but if you live in a place that allows everyone and his uncle to carry guns, you’re likely to run into strangers with guns. The bad guys don’t have “bad guy” stamped on their foreheads. And they’re both lucky the other guy didn’t fire his gun.

Highlights and Reviews

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The highlight film:

Some people have no sense of humor:

Republicans were irked by President Barack Obama’s caustic reminder in his State of the Union speech that he defeated them twice.

“I’ve run my last campaign,” Obama said toward the end of the nationally televised address. Republicans in the chamber applauded derisively, which prompted the president to ad-lib a zinger which wasn’t in his prepared remarks: “I know because I won both of them.”

Democrats erupted with applause.

In the Capitol after the speech, Republicans expressed displeasure at being jabbed by the president in the same speech where he asked for their cooperation.

“Probably not helpful when you rub the other guy’s nose in the dirt a little bit,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a close ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), told reporters.

The problem with Republicans is that they dish it out but can’t take it. Weenies. Maybe the baby party needs a nap.

Elias Isquith saw the SOTU as a repudiation of both Reagan conservatism and Clinton neoliberalism.  This President prefers the long game, Isquith said, and realize it or not, he’s pushed the country’s trajectory to the left. Charles Pierce was less enthusiastic, however, and thinks the President avoided the issue of poverty:

The argument as I understand it is that all these policy initiatives will work to “expand” the middle class by enabling people to rise and to join it. But can it not be argued that this position is merely trickle-down in populist drag, merely trickle-down from a lower height?

Both the issues of the shrinking middle class and poverty have to be addressed, IMO, but let us not forget that this is the President who expanded Medicaid. That may have been the greatest single anti-poverty initiative undertaken in decades, even if it was denied to a lot of people because of the backward ideologies of their governors.

People seem uniformly underwhelmed by the several Republican responses, which were long on either folksiness or whining but short on any actual ideas that might remotely translate into policy.

As many have pointed out, the President has laid down a challenge to Republicans — how can they block his proposals and still claim to care about ordinary Americans instead of just the rich? I’m sure they’re deep into meetings right now to figure that out.