13 July 2009

While We're Squabbling over BIG Issues...

We're being disarmed.

Anything fishy about that?

I was listening to a local radio host today, and he just said the same things - using almost exactly the same words - as I did a few minutes ago.

Specifically, "With all of our other issues, govt focus on further disarming citizens ('switchblade' legislation) is AWFULLY fishy..."

I just thought that was interesting... and worth pointing out publicly. Your thoughts?

8 comments:

Ann said...

um, that's a bit "interesting" that he said close to the same thing!

And YES, I do find it very fishy indeed.

Happy Thought, Indeed! said...

Tell me more...I'm not getting the full picture (do you have to have a twitter account to read the link?), but it sounds very fishy. Is this yet one more thing that is being sneaked through along with the Supreme Court nominee, Iran, Honduras, Cap and Trade, Health Care, etc?

Unknown said...

More info:

Nope, no twitter account necessary to read the update! :-)

And what's going on, (as far as I can figure), is that in their infinite wisdom and spare time, the Senate decided that they needed to clarify the definition of a prohibited knife for weapons we're bringing into the country, with an amendment to an appropriations bill for DHS.

(I'd post links, but there are just scads of them - the original bill, the specific amendment I'm talking about, roughly a zillion other amendments, etc.... the original bill number is H.R. 2892, and S.AMDT.1373 is the amendment the Senate is putting forth, and S.AMDT.1447 is the one our 2 Idaho Senators are submitting to that amendment... in the house that Jack built.)

Appropriations bill gets amended to more strictly prohibit knives from entering the country.

That amendment's new & improved definition happens to apply to most Boy Scout pocketknives & Leatherman tools, as well.

Senators & most Americans go "WTH?!?!"

More Senators sponsor a new amendment to amend the first one to specifically *exclude* such tools as Boy Scout pocketknives and Leatherman tools.

Classic example of government "working."

But... I can't help but wonder whether the original language was deliberate. (Lots of sneaky things happen in amendments to giant bills...) We already know that disarming citizens is pretty high on the international agenda, and its application to our country is only getting more solid.

Unknown said...

Oh - my overall point is that, of those paying any attention, our collective gut feeling is sounding an alarm, and normal people tend to think along many of the same lines ... alarm bells, people!!!

Happy Thought, Indeed! said...

I'll google it. But I'm surprised that I have not heard of this, between checking Fox news and WSJ at least once a day, and other sites, that I never saw it. Maybe I just missed it, but I feel like this has been done very quietly and suspiciously.

Unknown said...

Yeah... Sen. Risch was on 670 that day and was talking about how it really wasn't that big a big deal... but kind of like the "lead test" for toys & books that was an "unintended consequence" of the child safety act - or whatever it was - it's those stupid, little things that are adding up to make legal life a lot harder.

And worse, they show that Congress is just free-wheeling through this legislation *which can actually affect us* in the interest of increasing their own power and being seen "doing something."

Or maybe I'm just cranky and cloudy-minded today, LOL...

Sarah said...

Every day I find another thing that I hadn't heard yet and that freaks me out...

My latest is this:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854

Unknown said...

Thanks for that link, Sarah! That article is SO much easier to understand than the actual bill text, LOL!!!

I'm seriously getting an increasingly sick feeling just thinking about it...

I would say that I'm going to have to turn off all the news again, but since that doesn't let me DO anything about it, which actually helps (at least for *my* sanity), I won't, LOL...