His screening questions include gun ownership questions which are not limited to person and spouse. WHY doesn’t anyone care about this?

This certainly helps explain the increase in gun purchases since November 4.

59. Do you or any members of your family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage.

You can read the screening questions yourself.

I would not have any problem filling it out, but I am guessing most of the people who have to do it have forty or fifty pages of listings. Certainly Hillary Clinton will, if they make her fill it out.

Clinton will be the new secretary of state. That should make the Pumas happier.

It just adds to my already fearful attitude.

A student with a conservative and a liberal parent decided to see what people said when she wore a t-shirt to school that said “McCain girl.” Students told her she was very stupid, deserved to die, should be crucifixed [sic] and burned in her t-shirt.

“In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain,” Catherine said.

Colleges aren’t immune, either. An 18-year old freshman girl was attacked for wearing a McCain/Palin button. This was after students felt okay in boo-ing her as a self-identified Republican and a Peta-guy went ballistic in her dorm room over her hunting pictures.

God help us all.

was 52% and the news continues to call it an “overwhelming victory.” (Bush’s 51% was a country divided.)

Look at this map if you think the country has gone liberal. It made me feel a little better.

I continue to pray for the nation and for our elected officials.

Thank you, Marines.

I like this one but it is a little scratchy.

If you don’t listen to me, listen to this guy.

Hurry. He has to go.

But I like it.

from BlackFive

from Stop the ACLU

In the interest of fairness, I have a concealed carry permit. I have a gun in my purse at this very moment. And having a gun in my car (probably) got the guy who hit my car to back off.

I have a gun. I want to have a gun. I know how to use a gun.

Obama wants to take away the Second Amendment.

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero - 55 BC

from The Common Room, the site of much interesting stuff

I am in Aunt Norma Land. She’s a wonderful lady, hardworking, brilliant, and a PhD. She’s also a liberal. Classic liberal. Well, not quite, since she has never ever ever in her long legged life been rich.

But I didn’t know she had infected the whole state with her liberalism.

I just spent two hours listening to a very long winded story about a socialist and how he sang songs about the powerful who hurt the poor. There were some interesting pieces and the songs were often fun, but… The politics was strong and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I did not know that some of that cruelty went on in the name of breaking the union and there was interesting information in the talk. And the singing was fun.

But overall I felt like I had attended an indoctrination workshop.

So here I am for the next two days, where I thought I would be among like-minded folk and it turns out I’m just here with liberals.

I guess I won’t bring up that I voted for McCain.

A Captain’s Blog has the story from an airline pilot’s viewpoint of the homecoming of one of our fallen soldiers.

As a commercial pilot, I too see the effects of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last month I showed up to start a trip and was approached by a gate agent. “Captain, good morning, I wanted to inform you that we have H.R. on this flight”, she said. H.R. stands for human remains. “Are they military?”, I asked. “Yes”, she said. “Is there and escort?”, I asked. “Yes, I already assigned him a seat”, she said. “Would you please tell him to come to the flight deck, you can board him early”, I said.

It goes on from there. Not only was the escort going home with the body, so was the soldier’s family.

Thanks to The Anchoress for the heads up on the story.

You have GOT to read Bob the Banker versus Bernie. There are some amazing facts there that I didn’t know about Clinton versus Bush taxes.

I’m pretty sure I agree with Bob. If I lose a $10,000 tax cut and am given a $1,000 tax cut, my taxes will go up.

Hot Air has the list, including discussion and video.

It includes:
abortion
taxes
radical associates
foreign policy judgement

Dan Rather acknowledges that the media is biased about the presidential campaign.

Orson Scott Card calls for the last honest reporter to turn ON the lights, since we are so in the dark from their coverage of this economic crisis.

What is a risky loan? It’s a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can’t repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can’t make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It’s as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn’t there a story here? Doesn’t journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren’t you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. “Housing-gate,” no doubt. Or “Fannie-gate.”

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled “Do Facts Matter?” ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): “Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury.”

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was … the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was … the Republican Party.

There is more. (Card is a Democrat.)

I don’t care who says he doesn’t.

When you don’t vote for a bill that would have protected born babies, you’re supporting infanticide.

A Princeton professor offers a calm and detailed look at Obama’s history.

Erin O’Connor talks of academic freedom and William Ayers in an article that begins:

Academic freedom does not mean “freedom from criticism.” But there are a lot of academics who would like it to mean that–and who respond to public criticism with cries that the criticism threatens academic freedom. The cries have grown especially loud since 9/11. Remember, for example, Daniel Pipes’ Campus Watch? This was an effort to publish the names and dossiers of academics whose public statements suggested that they were apologists for terror. It drew loud, angry protests from within academe, the word “McCarthyism” was much in the air, and the episode was defined by many as a threat to academic freedom. Of course, it was nothing of the kind. It was unwise and ill-advised–you don’t create meaningful reform of academia by targeting individuals, and you do encourage a mob mentality that serves no one well. But it was not a threat to academic freedom.

Public criticism of academics cannot, by definition, threaten academic freedom….