They are linking to an editorial of the New York Times and Taco Stand where they “denounce” the top ten Senators and Congresspeople that have gotten money from the NRA. I added the totals for the 20 individuals and it comes to $36,534,740 for ten Senators and $4,301,241 for Congresspeople. Adding both we get $40,835,981. An impressive sum indeed!

But interestingly enough, there is a wee bit small font disclaimer at the bottom of the page. The last item in that disclaimer?

Dollar figures are career totals back to 1989. 

That is twenty-eight (28) years of donations they added up.  It averages $1,456,427 to be divided between 20 people or the grand individual sum (average) of $72,921. Some obviously got more, some less but I am just presenting an average.

During the same time span of 28 years and according to the FEC, one Democrat accumulated over 43 million dollars in contributions for her little self alone.

That would be one Dianne Feinstien who was busy this last couple of days writing a new Gun Control bill. Biggest contributors? Lawyers ($6,547,242) according to OpenSecrets.org, the same place  the NYT editors got the info for their hit piece.

And a nice little graphic from them, we like graphics:

Now, can we dispense with the purity bullshit that allegedly coats the Democratic Senators and Congresscritters? The fact is that the NRA contributions are firmly parked in the small side compared to what Feinstein alone gets.

The NRA’s power is the voters. But I don’t mind the enemy making the same mistake over and over again. I am just hoping the Republicans do not forget that.

I just went ahead and stole the whole thing from Sebastian.

Seeing gun owners try to explain to other people the laws around machine guns is painful, especially when they get terminology wrong. Let us go over briefly some terms.The Federal Firearms Licensee

There are a lot of different types of FFLs. Let us review:

Type 1 – Dealer in Firearms (but not destructive devices)
Type 2 – Pawnbroker
Type 3 – Collector of Curious and Relics. I lot of you have this one, and so do I.
Type 6 – Ammo manufacturer
Type 7 – Firearms manufacturer (but not destructive devices)
Type 8 – Importer of firearms (but not destructive devices)
Type 9 – Dealer in destructive devices
Type 10 – Manufacturer of destructive devices.
Type 11 – Importer of destructive devices.

The Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT)
You’ll often hear people refer to “Class 3 firearms” Ain’t no such thing as a class 3 firearm. Classes are Special Occupational Taxpayers. This is the license that allows an FFL to deal in NFA items.
Class 1 SOT – Importer of NFA firearms.
Class 2 SOT – Manufacturer and dealer of NFA firearms.
Class 3 SOT – Dealer of NFA firearms.

Title I and Title II
This refers to Title I and Title II of the Gun Control Act of 1968. This is how to categorize a firearm. Machine guns are Title II firearms. Rifles, shotguns and handguns are Title I firearms. Silencers are Title II items, but we’re trying to move them to Title I. The National Firearms Act regulates machine guns. It is part of the Internal Revenue Code. It was a 1986 Amendment to the Gun Control Act that banned any new machine guns from being registered to non-government entities, 18 U.S.C. 922(o). If you’re in possession of a Title I firearm illegally converted to a machine gun, you’ll be charged with violating 922(o), not violating the NFA. The government can’t prosecute you for failing to pay a tax it refuses to collect.

Source: Learn Your NFA Terms | Shall Not Be Questioned

The genius behind this tweet got obviously called names which I am sure most she did not understand, deleted her account and then came back under another name.

She was found but this time she decided to try to defend her tweet saying that there are better ways to say that word.  There is no other word in Spanish for black, in fact the word alone even when applied to a person does not have a negative connotation and is even used as nickname.

So, other than writing in Spanish “the opposite of white”, I really don’t see how is Maybelline going to tell Spanish-speaking women around the world that they are buying black eyeliner.

Do you remember when we were told Multiculturalism was going to end the misconceptions and troubles among people?

They lost the Multicultural war. It was a self-inflicted wound that festered.

There is a couple of items that we used and abused with glee and delivered. Boredom and lack of information are annoying at best and at worse can lead to desperation and stupid moves. Being able to get communications and even a bit of entertainment helps a lot. Both items are no longer being produced, but modern versions are available.

First, this AM/FM radio.

This is the model we had for many years now (since 2012 to be exact). I usually do not buy Sony because they charge you extra just for the name. But this one was priced around $10 in some flash sale of sorts and I snatched it for the wife who wanted something in her bathroom for the morning beautification ritual and to be small so it would not clutter her counter and a 4.5″ x 2.5″ x 1″ it does not get any more unobtrusive.

Next was this portable Digital TV.

Already a veteran of Katrina and Wilma. It is battery-powered, it can be plugged to your car’s lighter socket and to regular 120 AC.  It was a substitute to the old analog Black & White AM/FM 5.5″ TV you could find in every store in South Florida for under $20 and even under $10 if you were attentive.

Unfortunately, the new portable digital TVs are not  that cheap. Ours I found on sale at a Walgreens for the low-low price of $69.99 and you will find them in Amazon higher. The great thing about this little sucker is the external antenna that is connected to the TV via a coaxial input. The little antenna will help capture nearby stations, but I plugged an old inside-the-house antenna and I was getting stations from 2 counties away(I did add the aluminum foil bunny ears and they worked !)

I almost forgot: It comes with a remote and fully charged and not played with much it should give you about 90 minutes of play time. When the battery ran out, it was either charged via one of the cars or with its wall plug connected to the generator.

Now, these are not items to have on droning in the background 24/7 just to keep you company. You use them to give you a temporary respite and to be informed. TV and radio stations(if operative) will give you updates at the top and bottom of the hour and that is when you should tune. Saving an important event happening or a scheduled announcement, you should only tune at those times and shut off when the announcers become repetitive.  Remember, you need to conserve resources.

The TV is back in the closet where it had been since Wilma. The radio is back on the bathroom counter. Both have outlasted “normal” devices: I had two iPods die on me plus we are changing our TV come Christmas since it suddenly developed a weird shadow on the screen that is annoying as hell.

You will learn to have to do with a bunch less when things go to the crapper. But you can mitigate your exposure yo hellish boredom if you are smart about it.

PS: Dead Tree Books do not need recharging or alkaline batteries.

It was brought forward in comments and this is my explanation:

Because nature abhors vacuum.
The same applies to humans, specially after events like this. It is human nature to find the responsible party and assign blame and if we suddenly have a hole where the name of the shooter is supposed to be, our Opposition and the Media will do their best to put the NRA and our names to it.
In an era of instant and full information, to try to ignore the name of a shooter for whatever psychological reasons is sadly outdated.
To hobble ourselves and allow Gun Control to have free hand is suicidal.

So yes, I will mention names and details of the assholes because unfortunately we are not fighting against an honorable adversary. To expect they will fight clean or even with a semblance of honor and morality is to deceive ourselves.

PS: That is my particular standing on the issue.
J. Kb. may have a different notion and proceed accordingly.

Update: I saw this in Facebook and have to share:

Take control of the narrative, shape the debate, focus interest where YOU want it. These are basic principles. Abandon the field and the enemy occupies it, and you fight twice as hard to recover it.

This struck me as weird since so little info has come out about Stephen Paddock:

Has somebody tipped them the guy is not the unmitigated Redneck, Klan and NRA member they need for their political push?

Might be just a bad choice of hashtag trying to recycle some old classics, but it just strikes me as funny/weird.