Feinstein urges shotguns to defend against terrorists
Dianne Feinstein
The leading gun-grabbers keep proving they know little about guns.
On “Fox News Sunday” April 21, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) explained that Americans should buy a shotgun instead of a semi-automatic “assault rifle” to protect themselves against terrorists.
Show host Chris Wallace asked Feinstein if Americans should have the right to defend their homes with a high-powered semiautomatic rifle, referring to the incident the previous week in Watertown, MA, where law enforcement officials pursued two suspected Boston Marathon terrorists on the run.
Feinstein indicated that she didn’t find the scenario applicable as there were “police all over the place” during the hunt for the fugitive terrorist in Watertown.
“I think there are people that want to make this argument, but 12-gauge shotgun, there are many weapons, 2,000-plus weapons that are available to people for choice without an assault weapon,” Feinstein explained.
Feinstein cited Vice President Biden’s promotion of the use of a shotgun for self-defense.
“You could use a 12-gauge shotgun and have a good defensive effect and there’s the element of surprise,” she added.
But she stopped short of suggesting people shoot in the air from an outside balcony or through a door like Biden.
Mormon bishop’s sword daunts neighbor’s stalker
With a neighbor in distress, one Utah man did what any concerned citizen would do.
“I threw on some clothes and grabbed my sword,” Kent Hendrix told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Samurai-wielding Latter Day Saints bishop and others in Millcreek, UT, came to the aid of a woman who was being attacked and chased by a former co-worker, authorities say.
Hendrix was in the shower at approximately 7 a.m. when his teenage son alerted him to a woman’s screams for help, ABC 4 in Utah reported. Hendrix, a fourth-degree black belt, put on some clothes—and grabbed the 29-inch steel samurai sword he has owned since he was 17.
The sword intimidated the suspect, who fled in his car when Hendrix and other neighbors chased him away from the woman.
Bloomberg sees need to review Constitution
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, but before the bombshell revelations on the federal government’s eavesdropping on US citizens, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks, according to Politicker.com.
“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Bloomberg allowed during a press conference.
“But we live in a complex world where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.” Bloomberg, who has come under fire for the NYPD’s monitoring of Muslim communities and other aggressive tactics such as the Stop and Frisk program currently being challenged in civil rights lawsuits, said the rest of the country needs to learn from the attacks.
“We have to understand that in the world going forward, we’re going to have more cameras and that kind of stuff.
That’s good in some sense, but it’s different from what we are used to,” he said.
Still, Bloomberg argued the attacks shouldn’t be used as an excuse to persecute certain religions or groups.
Bloomberg’s parallel disdain for the NRA and the ACLU got special attention by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic about the same time.
Progressives are generally sympathetic to Bloomberg when he advocates for gun control, trans-fat bans, limits on the salt content of meals, and restrictions on the size of soft drinks, Friedersdorf noted. “They’re more suspicious of the racial profiling of innocent Muslims he has overseen and defended since taking office, and stop-and-frisk, an abusive policing strategy that subjects NYC minorities to a disproportionate number of searches conducted without probable cause.
“There is nothing inherently inconsistent about favoring the former policies and objecting to the latter. Yet libertarians would argue, correctly in this instance, that the same flawed mindset motivates them all—that Bloomberg’s paternalism and dismissiveness toward any individual liberty he finds inconvenient are core to the controversial policies he pursues,” he concluded.
Disgraced Weiner runs for NYC mayor
Nearly two years after he resigned from Congress because of a sexting scandal, Anthony Weiner is running for mayor, according to the New York Daily News.
He formally announced his candidacy with a two-minute, 16-second video that he posted online at midnight May 22.
“I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I have also learned some tough lessons,” Weiner says in the video, posted on YouTube.
“I am running for mayor because I have been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life, and I hope I get a second chance to work for you.” Weiner’s wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, offers a testimonial to her husband, declaring, “We love this city and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony.” The unconventional campaign launch culminates a comeback tour that began in early April with a magazine interview and continued with the posting of a policy booklet online filled with ideas for the next mayor.
Although the sexting scandal made Weiner a national punchline, he has the potential to be a force in the mayoral race, the newspaper reported, saying he had $4.3 million in campaign funds before his political career derailed. It’s the second-largest war chest among all the candidates, after that of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is currently a narrow front-runner in the mayoral race.
All of which illustrates that some Americans will vote for almost any critter, regardless of the candidate’s past performance.
One poll commissioned in April had Weiner in a solid second place in the race.
His congressional career unraveled over Memorial Day weekend in 2011 when he accidentally sent a lewd photo of himself to all his followers on twitter, instead of to a woman in Seattle. At the time, Weiner denied any wrongdoing, claiming his account had been hacked—but his excuses unraveled as more women stepped forward. Even President Obama suggested he should resign.
