NOVATOWNHALL

I was shocked. Truly. A gun store owner that would vote for Obama? You have to be kidding. Yet if you believe the video is not faked, then Blue Ridge Arsenal’s owner voted for the candidate that most likely would attempt to restrict firearms ownership.

I for one will not be giving him my money.

The video is here.

I have not weighed in on this apparent raging controversy over whether Barack Obama is eligible to be U.S. president, since he has not been able to produce a birth certificate, because right now I have bigger fish to fry. Like the fish which is my life. And I just have not seen any reason to sacrifice one more nanosecond of said life to the 2008 elections.

On top of that, the controversy has the whiff of flailing about, and David Horowitz is of the opinion it is nonsense, and over the years I have found I agree with David Horowitz on just about everything.

But the bottom line is I am not inclined to fight that fight. Any who are of the opinion they have nanoseconds of their own lives to devote, please feel free to weigh in.

UPDATE: Well the debate is taken very seriously at World Net Daily, a fact we will certainly never blithely overlook.

Firearm quick hits:

Not too shabby. Go over to Classic Arms right now and you’ll see that freedom is alive and well in America.

Of particular note, in my view, are the AR-15s for $719.95 - I got to shoot ACTivist’s (which he purchased for a tad better price about two months ago, but that’s life in the big city) and I can vouch that these are excellent rifles.

Also, the Romanian .22 for $99, and the M91/59 Nagant for $129.95.

That’s not all, scroll down the page. Some great items are available for very reasonable prices.

The AK inventory has dwindled almost to zero across the country, but I think that is going to change once everyone realizes that President Obama is going to have much bigger fish to fry than attacking the Second Amendment - at least in his first term.

Another quick-hit potential conversation starter:

If President Obama overreaches, we should pummel him for it and march on Washington if necessary. But he is our QB now, so as Americans we must allow him to begin his presidency with assurance that we have his back.

Prior to the 2008 elections, progressives projected onto Barack Obama their hopes and we conservatives projected our fears. From his initial steps as President-elect, it appears we have all had our expectations dashed.

Having your fears dashed, it turns out, is a pretty cool thing (with hopes, however … it’s not so great.) I said a couple times I would love to be proven wrong about my assumptions that Obama’s past statements and affiliations portended dark days for America’s future. It is looking like I was wrong.

AND I, FOR ONE, AM GLAD ABOUT IT.

I think there is a real danger and missed opportunity for conservatives if we go into the 2009 federal government period poised to reflexively trash the Barack Obama presidency. He seems to have a strong pragmatic streak. Not saying he doesn’t have some important issues to work out, but I plan to give him the benefit of the doubt for a long while.

The election of Barack Obama has done as much to further gun ownership in America as would Chinese troops coming ashore in Long Beach. This is no judgment on the President-elect but a simple statement of fact about consumer behavior. Prices are jacked up and inventories empty all around the Internet, gun shops are having their shelves emptied, and at this weekend’s gun show in Chantilly, Virginia the crowd was much bigger and more diverse than usual.

And by “diverse” I mean gender wise. I’ve been attending for about four years and have never seen such a high percentage of women. Maybe the female segment is usually less than 5 percent of the crowd - this time it had to be over 10 percent when I was there at about 3:00 pm.

Here are a few scenes.

Prices of items I was interested in were, at best, on the high side and the items themselves were far scarcer than usual. (Guess there is probably some economic theory related to that, huh). For example, ammo …

Now I could have bought just about anything I wanted or needed to keep my own operation well stocked, but it would have been like shopping for a Halloween costume at Tiffany’s. Doable, but at a cost.

The cheapest AK I saw was $489 and there was exactly one of them left. After that nothing was under $650; all total I think I only saw about 40 AKs. Normally there are three or four times that many around and prices start around $369. There were a few nice SKSs for under $300 - but still about $95 more than they cost at the last show and very few to be had.

Ditto on pistols; there are a lot, but the tables are far emptier than normal by Saturday afternoon (did not check prices on these). There did seem to be plenty of high capacity magazines available but at a price point that does not fit into my budget at this stage of my career.

The parking lot was WAY fuller than in the past. People were parking almost a mile away in the office parks. As I walked in, I saw more guns and hand trucks loaded with ammo coming out of the building than I have seen before. ACTivist told me that this morning the lines to get in were 100 people deep on each side of the building for much of the morning.

By the time I get there some vendors had already left because they sold completely out. About the only thing I’ve seen sold out in the past has been the hot dog concession.

So, all in all, this pre-Obama period is one hell of a good time to be in the gun or ammo selling business. People think it’s all going to change once he takes office. Personally, I think it won’t, because in light of the enormous, widespread interest in firearm ownership among the American people, any moves to impose restrictions will be political suicide. It would be 1994 all over again and Obama would become the instant enemy of a huge portion of the United States population, which tends to hamper one’s ability to accomplish a lot.

I think it’s a fight he would wait to pick until his second term, which would mean that before long all the stuff that I saw overpriced and sold out today will be available and reasonable.

But if you have no firearms or are low on anything you consider vital, don’t take the above as a reason to put off the purchase until prices come back down. I have been wrong in my predictions before, so I have everything I consider vital.

UPDATE: Here’s last year’s post. Obviously I put a lot more effort into the photography back then. Today I wanted to spend the time actually looking at stuff.

They not only kicked a puppy — they kicked our puppy.

With each new appointment Barack Obama makes, I see less and less reason to think he is going to be the radical leader his past and recent statements had led me to fear.

Like I told Kevin and the Chief the other night, and commented here some months ago, I would LOVE to be proven wrong on my suggestions Obama would try to squelch free speech, transform our capitalist economy into a subsection of the Department of the Treasury, open a system of gulags, confiscate our retirement accounts and unleash an army of brownshirts to ferret out thought crimes.

In fact, if instead of all the crazy progressive talk during the campaign Obama had simply proclaimed that his administration would be basically a third term of the Clinton presidency but with Hillary in a subservient position to himself, as looks to be taking shape, I’d have been down with that. There is some upside to letting the Democrats take the reins of power for a spell.

Instead of political invective we’d have seen a lot more shamanic wisdom on this blog - that I can assure you.

UPDATE: And if you want a little more feel-good, warm and fuzzy, things are really not so bad, savor this.

UPDATE II: The second George Herbert Walker Bush term.

UPDATE III: Obama to delay repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’. A little outside the topic of this post because this was not an issue keeping me awake at nights, frankly. But it goes to show 1) Obama appears to be tending toward the “center” if not center-right, and 2) The enhanced-gay-rights movement seems on a success trajectory roughly mirroring that of the Republican Party. Maybe we should all compare notes while regrouping?

UPDATE IV: And holy smokes, if somehow Barack Obama actually manages to make smoking ok again, it would be one of the greatest PR coups of all time. I remember a National Review article in the 1980s eulogizing the smoking culture, with the example of a European official on a TV panel discussion who, when asked a question, pulled one from his cigarette case, tapped it several times on the case, lit it up, took a long drag and exhaled slowly before answering. How much better style for gathering one’s thoughts, the NR writer observed, than the typical American politician who will blather nonsense for 30 seconds while the brain works to summon a cogent response. If President Obama can reawaken that sense of suave in the nation’s highest office, think about what it will do for public confidence.

UPDATE V: Here’s the best analysis I have seen:

I think that Obama is similar to Bill Clinton in one important respect. Clinton famously wanted to be President not because there was anything in particular he wanted to do, but because he craved the status of being President. In Clinton’s case, this seems to have been due to an insatiable need for approval and affection. Obama, likewise, wants to be President not in order to do anything, but because he believes that for Barack Obama to be President is an end in itself. In Obama’s case, this view is due not to a psychological craving, but rather to the historical importance of being the first African-American President.

If I’m right about that, it makes sense for Obama to be reasonably moderate. He makes history simply by being a President with dark skin; what he desperately wants to avoid is for his Presidency to be seen as a disaster or a fiasco.

Read it all.

The video below is one of the better explanations I’ve seen of the misnomer “assault weapon.”

As an example: My pedigree in the field is pretty well established here. Earlier this year a friend I had not seen for awhile who had heard about the blog said “So I hear you are into machine guns now.”

Well, NO, but the confusion - thanks to the decrepit Fourth Estate and the impact it’s had on some of our readers - is understandable. What I am into is certain rifles that function exactly like most of the rifles that have been used by civilians in this country for over a century, but which also happen to be built to last like the Great Wall of China.

But they look exotic and therefore make some of my fellow liberals nervous when they see them.

Anyway, this guy does a much better job explaining it than I could. It is well worth watching all of it.

Key points:

“The confusion and misunderstanding over firearms is the result of mislabeling.”

“The media blitz that many of these supposedly military style weapons are being converted to fully automatic is not true.”

Here is the video:

On the off chance you might think the incoming administration does not understand the facts related in the video, and if you are therefore now motivated to procure one of these magnificent little babies for yourself, my initial advice would be to go to the Nation’s Gun Show this weekend in Chantilly and buy one. I would bring $600 and hope the world has not gone insane so that I could buy the gun and $100-$200 worth of ammo to go with it. If it appears the world has gone insane and you get caught up in the frenzy, break out your credit card and just buy the first AK-47 that bares its soul to you.

If you strike out there, check out these Web sites. Supplies are ridiculously limited because the entire country is snapping up anything with a trigger (wonder if this fact might influence the potential gun-grabbers in the Obama administration to have second thoughts for political reasons…) but if you are diligent you can find great firearms at affordable prices.

-Classic Arms

No AK’s right now, but check every day. He usually gets them in periodically at the best prices you’ll find. What they do have now which would interest me are:

Ammo - 7.62 x 39 (AK-47/AKM and SKS)
Rifle - Saiga 236 (Excellent AK-style hunting rifle, only 10 rd. capacity but close to the real thing)

Scroll down for a Norinco 12 gauge shotgun for $149! Currently out of stock but check back for restocking. It is a hell of a deal for a home defense gun.

-Aim Surplus

Also out of AKs right now but keep checking back and, in the meantime…

Some nice handguns

-Atlantic Firearms

Site says to call first because they are basically out of everything, but check out the AK-47 page and scroll way down. You will find some AKs and Saigas for under $500. If you are in the market, start calling to inquire about those.

Any gun you buy on the Internet needs to be shipped to a licensed dealer who will do the paperwork and background check before handing it over to you (and charge $30-$50 for the service).

Here is one in Manassas.

Here is one in Leesburg.

Actually almost any local gun shop will do this for you so just call the local ones for their pricing and necessary information.

Or, of course, you can go to any gun shop and buy it there. From what I have heard, their supplies are more limited than any of the other two options but it is worth checking.

Final note: Buying at the gun show or at a local gun shop are a little more satisfying than over the Internet because you pay your money, do the background check right then and there, and go home with a gun. You pay a little more, but sometimes it is worth it to get it done with.

This has become slightly uncomfortable, I must say.

It appears my rapturous sense of brotherhood with my fellow Obama voters last night may have been misplaced.

Zogby today published more details from the survey represented in the video and, cumulatively, I fear many of my liberal brothers and sisters are as dumb as doorknobs and probably should not have been allowed to vote.

The media bears responsibility for apparently being, in general, crooks, but c’mon, it should be each person’s responsibility to have a remote familiarity with what is actually happening in the world. Maybe you don’t have access to NewsBusters, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to limit your information sources to cereal boxes and gum wrappers.

Click here for complete survey results.

I do not think the unprecedented ignorance of such a massive proportion of those who voted for it taints the Obama presidency or should cause more and more people to view its goals with extreme skepticism, but I do think I will have to exercise better vigilance regarding my fellow progressives because of the rampant mental torpidity in our ranks.

People talk about values. The values that have motivated me throughout my entire life as a liberal voter are grounded in the knowledge that I stand WITH, not over, the people who work and raise their kids and struggle to earn a paycheck and also, by the way, make this nation great.

Oh, sure: You can weigh the party platforms or ideologies of the day, building charts full of statistics, calling meetings, hiring experts, arguing different points of view, parsing position papers and, basically, doing all of the things that have gotten this country into the mess we are currently experiencing. That’s called the politics of the past - and THE PEOPLE are sick of it.

They are sick of the talk, sick of the infighting, sick of the backstabbing and politics of personal destruction. What the people are looking for is not the officially sanctioned “information” and “data” but the things that don’t lend themselves quite so readily to debate and statistical analysis: Things like honesty, and compassion, and clarity, and understanding.

And sometimes, the people know what is best.

The video I am about to show you was compiled as part of an upcoming study of the impact of the media on the 2008 election.

The people who commissioned the study seem to have thought they were uncovering some type of scandal but, quite the contrary, they have unwittingly unveiled the glorious reality of the sheer purity of heart that has changed our nation.

If you are anything like me, you will be moved by it … and I have to admit that after watching it three times through my heart still sings and my eyes well up each time as I watch and listen to these beautiful, forthright, focused people who I am so, so proud to stand with during this historic time.

These are my “great Americans,” who have done the impossible by overcoming the noise machine and delivering Barack Obama to the presidency. God bless them for their hearts filled with purity rather than malice. Now that they have been politically awakened, they control the future direction of our nation for generations to come, and America is well and truly fixed because of them. God bless the United States of America: now, finally, a government of the people!

Enjoy! (And have some tissues handy.)

One of the great scandals of the past half century has been the ease with which wealthy Americans have been allowed to divert substantial portions of their “income” to tax-incentivised retirement accounts. While so many in our country have been suffering, these wealthy few have skulked under the radar, squirreling away huge amounts of cash under the guise of “protecting their future.”

Thus through these misbegotten 401k, IRA and pension allotments, the rich have diverted funds which otherwise reasonably would have been accessible for the public pool. All for the cause of some imaginary, far-off “future” for themselves and their progeny. WHILE REAL PEOPLE, TODAY, HAVE BEEN GOING WITHOUT THE BASIC NECESSITIES!

It is a massive injustice that literally trillions of dollars have been shunted into secret, private accounts for the benefit of the few. For too long, our weak kneed, nervous nellie politicians have cast a blind eye to this practice, all the while contriving ways to try and force hard working Americans to “pay their own way” for public benefits.

That ignomy, I can say happily, is about to come to an end. The time is coming soon when so-called individual retirement accounts will be brought out of the shadows, and the astounding surpluses of money residing in these accounts will be put toward the public good.

As Teresa Ghilarducci, professor at the New School For Social Research recently testified before Congress, all of that “private” money could go a long way for the well being of the U.S. general public.

The basic idea is, remove the tax advantages of these hidden accounts and at the same time provide pressure for Americans to transfer their private money into publicly-managed “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts.” Once that happens, the U.S. government will have control of all the money individuals were previously squirreling away for themselves and their families, which obviously would be a huge benefit to society as a whole. As Ms. Ghilarducci notes:

If subsidies for 401(k)-style plans and IRAs can be reallocated to Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, why not use this money to shore up and expand Social Security?

This is certainly an option. Social Security is the cornerstone of our retirement system, and will continue to be the most important source of retirement income for the majority of retired Americans.

She also notes how this plan would eliminate the horrendous injustice whereby those who have squirreled away this 401k or pension money are allowed to pass it along to their heirs. In the new plan, only a small fraction of an individual’s retirement savings would be allowed to be kept within the individual’s family. The larger portion would go where it rightfully belongs - the U.S. Treasury, for the benefit of the people.

From what I have heard and read about our Democrat leaders in Congress and our dynamic President-elect, I think we will now have leadership with the backbone - the cajones, if you will - to pull this off.

Those greedy few Americans who have gamed the system and profited off the largesse of America’s institutions by building up 401k, IRA and pension savings accounts for their own selfish purposes will finally get their comeuppance under the Obama administration, I truly believe.

It will start with a tax “incentive,” but mark my words it will not end there. All that money which these greedy individuals attempted to hoard for themselves is going back into the public till to provide a better future for ALL Americans instead of their own selfish families.

To any of the greedy bastards who argue “I should not have worked so hard and sacrificed to put that money away if it was going to be taken away from my family” I would say simply: “God damn you, of course you should have, because that is your patriotic duty as an American. You just should not have been so selfish to think you would have been allowed to keep it all.”

Let’s just hope Mr. Obama has the cajones to keep his word, and spread it all around.

If you were thinking this might be a good time to load up on firearms and ammunition before the supposed Obama gun ban goes into effect, you would be absolutely correct.

As long as you were thinking that two weeks ago. Because if you are thinking it now you are nearly too late.

AK-47? Fuhgedaboudit. The best, most reasonable source on the ‘Net is O-U-T out. As of this moment they still have ammunition but it’s about gone. This place is not bad overall, but they too are out of the queen of carbines.

Next week is the Nation’s Gun Show right here in Chantilly, which I will likely attend just for curiosity to gawk at how unbelievably high prices have gotten, pick up some interesting doo-dads and thrill from the energy. But I probably can’t afford to buy firearms or ammunition in this market.

My guess is this is a panic and lots of dealers are going to make scads of money before everyone realizes Barack Obama and the Democrats have no intention whatsoever of disarming the citizenry. Then prices will fall through the floor, and THAT will be the time to stock up on ammo and whatever else you need.

However, if you are currently unarmed, it might be prudent to pick up some of the basics, like a shotgun with an 18.5″ barrel and a handgun or two, just in case the manic Democrats in Congress manage to hoodwink our President into some type of pro-criminal restrictions on legal firearm ownership.

If you are in that boat, definitely hit the gun show or take a ride out to Loudoun Guns in Leesburg. You can probably still get a decent shotgun at Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Dulles Town Center for a good price. There is still time to furnish your home with the essentials … but hurry because the price is going up.

This topic has pretty much disappeared around here lately, which proves my point. What point? Why, Joe’s Maxim On The Illegal Immigration Controversy, of course.

Which is: If there are illegal aliens causing trouble on your street, you are concerned about illegal immigration. If they ain’t there, you ain’t so concerned.

I don’t know about your neighborhood, but I can tell you that thanks to the foreclosure tsunami, lots and lots of illegals have left Sterling. Guess much of that whole streamlined mortgage phenomenon was being conducted in Spanish, eh? Pepe’s closed a couple months ago. As far as I can tell, we may have one or two boarding houses left on our block but they are very discreet and it is a hell of a lot better than when we had five, three of whom were decidedly obnoxious.

Personally, I think a bunch of illegal migrants decided they stand as good a chance economically trying to make a go of it back in their own countries as here. To which I say: Good on ye, mates.

Zogby now reveals that voters in last week’s election were overwhelmingly in favor of immigration enforcement as opposed to amnesty - but the entire issue was not a factor in their vote:

– Only 32% of Obama voters considered his support for amnesty as a factor in their decisions to vote for him. 67% said it was either not a factor at all, or they voted for Obama in spite of his stance on amnesty.
– 60% of voters said reducing illegal immigration and cracking down on employers who hire them is important to them, while only 21% supported “legalizing or creating a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens.
– 57% of voters stated that amnesty would harm American workers and further strain public resources, while only 26% believe amnesty would aid economic recovery and ease public burdens.

And needless to say, McCain voters concerned about illegal immigration were obliged to take the clothespin-and-vodka route in order to pull the lever.

But many illegals have left. Construction has slowed. Winter is approaching. The issue has become less salient, even for Latinos, according to the research.

What this boils down to, for me, is more positive potential for the incoming Obama administration. The most egregious problem caused by illegal immigration is the negative impact on American workers - the downward pressure on salaries. Problems on our neighborhood streets run a close second, but these are much more difficult to quantify.

As the unemployment percentage creeps upward in this country, it will become more and more evident that allowing illegal workers to take American jobs and drive down American salaries is simply wrong.

Ten years ago Americans could make a living hanging drywall, doing rough carpentry, and a host of other forms of manual labor. When the opportunity to work picks back up, when housing starts are on the upswing, there is no reason that work should be going to illegals.

I have a strong hope - and faith, even - that President Obama will not turn his back on America’s blue collar workers.

Amid the hullabaloo of celebrities and media “professionals” rejoicing over the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, let us not lose sight of who really won last Tuesday: the American working class.

After eight (or was it sixteen) years of a federal government seemingly doing the bidding of the very rich, the people have finally taken their country back. As an editorialist notes:

In this age of 24-hour news cycles and instant information, when a seismic victory happens it’s important to take a breath and reflect even while celebrating. There will be analysis in the coming weeks in our pages and web site. We’ll be taking closer looks at the many different actors, issues and developments.

But here is an initial take, a basic framework to ponder and analyze such a momentous moment. This was a victory for the whole U.S. working class. And workers of all job titles, professions, shapes, colors, sizes, hairstyles and languages put their indelible stamp on this victory.

This beautiful, simple statement strikes a chord with me because of my longstanding blue-collar roots, hard-to-remember job title and always nebulous hair “style” because of which I am compelled to wear a ball cap during most daylight hours.

Most importantly, all Americans should recognize that this victory for the working class was at its foundation a triumph of the American spirit of pulling together for a noble cause.

Yes the difficult work now begins, but we will all be working as a team for a change.

From Dean Barnett, via Allah.