By spocko, on January 16th, 2013% Today there was a very calm discussion on guns on KQED’s Forum radio show.
It was exactly what the NRA wanted; a discussion a month after the last big shooting so that the conversational focus can move away from the emotional pain of 20 dead kids. It was all very rational. And that pissed me off.
During the conversation Hammond threw in the perfunctory line, “our hearts and minds go out to the victims of that horrible shooting.” How many times have you heard that line right before they switch to talking about the needs of a small group of entitled, self-indulgent jerks who think their desire to go “pew pew pew” with real army weapons outweighs everyone else’s rights?
Here is the link to the question, his response, the perfunctory line and then the pivot away from the tragedy to his figures on gun deaths in New Hampshire.
I’ve been listening to lots of gun enthusiasts’ podcasts lately. They are desperate to show how this shooting has nothing to do with their obstruction of sane gun laws and gun hawking. If they didn’t personally put the semi-automatic into the person’s hand and said, “Go shoot ’em.” they think they . . . → Read More: The Disgusting Lack of Empathy of Gun Owners of America’s Michael Hammond
By spocko, on January 12th, 2013% National Rifle Association gearing up for a fight – CNN
“We are mobilizing for a fight,” NRA President David Keene told CNN. “We will engage our members.”
The association is planning to send mailings to its members urging them to contact members of Congress with their opposition to new gun laws. “Let them know you feel strongly,” is how Keene summarized the group’s message to member.
So my question to you my friends in the public safety movement is, “What are you going to do to beat them?”The NRA went into yesterday’s meeting with Vice-President Biden yesterday knowing they weren’t going to agree to any suggestions or make any concessions. How do I know? They had their statement written to send out before the meeting even started. Although I don’t have a time stamped copy, I’ve worked with organizations who put out statements. It takes days, sometimes weeks to get one put together. They are working hard to get the discussion back on their terms and on their turf. The NRA says, “Come on America, stop focusing on dead kids! Think of yourself!” I’m going to bet 200 Quatloos that there wasn’t a press release . . . → Read More: 20 Dead Kids = Inconvenience in NRA Lifestyle
By spocko, on January 4th, 2013% Sales of AR-style rifles, ammo spike up
–Walla Walla Washington Union-Bulletin
Right now the NRA is primarily a marketing and sales organization. Sure they do other things like offer gun safety training programs and threaten politicians to push some laws and crush others. But I believe a lot of their power comes from the development and training of their members in communication skills and providing them with the right words, phrases and concepts to achieve their current goal: guns everywhere.
If you have become pro-public safety, like I have, you’ll want to figure out ways to convince others of your views and then develop ways to reach your goals. Also, when you see the NRA for what it really is, how they make the public less safe, and can work on ways to increase public safety.
The NRA has a $300 million budget, a large portion of that goes to “education and communications.” And they are good. Very good. Tobacco industry good. In a recent LA Times Op-Ed there is a story from a former NRA trainer about the psychological and linguistic techniques used on NRA members.
Ever since reading, the brilliant and funny book by Christopher Buckley, “Thank . . . → Read More: Guns Don’t Sell Guns, People Do
By spocko, on October 17th, 2012% Idea: Friend of edgery, Photoshop by Kyle Weidleman
You know when Obama did a poor job in the first debate, we on the left trusted our eyes and ears and said, “Yep, that was weak. Romney’s style was better. His substance was filled with lies, but style-wise he won.”
Last night Obama did a great job on style and substance, but the right wing media called it a draw. Suuuurrre it was.
Mitt, “It’s just a flesh wound!”
NOTE: At no time do I support actual violence toward any political candidate. This parody/fantasy image from “The Holy Grail” is meant to metaphorically show the damage that Obama did to Mitt and his positions in the debate.
By spocko, on October 17th, 2012% Don’t Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About the Economy
If you are like me (and the odds are 89.5 to 1 that you are) you have heard this line seventy Brazilian times since you started paying attention to messages or talking points on issues. “The right wing does a much better job than the left when it comes to messaging.” Amiright or amiright? Then the person talking (sometimes you) will say, “You know what we need? A Frank Luntz on our side, someone who can come up with stuff like “death panels” or “Job Creators” and then get everyone to repeat them. Next someone who reads books will shout, ‘Lakoff!! Frames! Don’t Think of an Elephant!” as if Lakoff, his books and his defunct institute is any match for the fully-funded, focus-group-tested, linguistically robust messaging work conservatives do. And don’t get me started on the multi-million dollar right wing infrastructure of belief tanks and media. (Seriously, don’t get me started, I’m really pissed off about it and I can pontificate and whine about it for hours.)
But here’s the thing, we do have a Frank Luntz on the left, and she does great messaging work for us. Her . . . → Read More: The Economy is NOT a Deity! Review of “Don’t Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About the Economy.” By Anat Shenker-Osorio
By spocko, on September 6th, 2012% Daniel Suarez’s book Kill Decision takes on the topic of drones, especially autonomous drones that can make their own, “Kill Decisions” as in, “Identify and Kill that person” with no human in the loop. (Gee, with no humans in the loop, drones with guns will screw up the NRA slogan. “Guns don’t kill people, autonomous drones with guns and kill decision programming, kill people.”)
I was excited to read Daniel Suarez’s new book, “Kill Decision” because Daemon and Freedom (TM) were the two best SF books I read last year. While this book doesn’t rise to their heights it is still a good techno-thriller that contains a few of the big issues Suarez developed in Daemon and Freedom.
The Kill Decision characters aren’t totally stock, but still follow some of the same guidelines of caste that I’ve seen in other techno-thrillers.
Military caste interfaces with civilians. Civilian scientists caste learn how great the military folks are. Military folks grudgingly learn to respect the civilians. Together they trace down the bad guys.
Tension! Action! Gadgets! Guns! Things that explode! Thrills!
It’s a real “page turner” as they used to say before eBooks. (I wonder what they say now?” Kill Decision is . . . → Read More: When Drones Attack! Daniel Suarez’s book Kill Decision
By spocko, on July 9th, 2012% “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Did you know that over 10 acres of beautiful parkland in Golden Gate Park might be bulldozed, scraped of all organic life and converted into a soccer complex? (With a parking lot!)
The planned development would feature artificial turf with toxic shredded rubber tires for in-fill, ten 60-foot tall towers beaming AT&T Park-like lights into the night–right across from Ocean Beach. These lights would blaze from dusk until 10:00 p.m. every night of the year. Oh, and you know how fog magnifies and glows around car lights in the dark? Envision 150,000 watts of those babies glowing in the night sky on a foggy San Francisco night. (Fog in San Francisco? That’s crazy talk!” )
Now you might ask, “How the hell did this proposed project get this far in San Francisco? Isn’t San Francisco the greenest city in the US. Didn’t they ban plastic bags so you no longer have to answer the dreaded “Paper or plastic” question?
Those were my questions, and so I went to find out some of the answers. And, since I like to understand how things work and what to do about them I dug . . . → Read More: Paving over Golden Gate Park for Fun and Profit!
By spocko, on June 25th, 2012%
I love it when kids do science.
This is the related to the project to pave over 10 acres of natural grass in Golden Gate Park and replace it with artificial turf with shredded rubber tires as the infill.
I spoke about this, the book burning video below and other issues on In Deep with Angie Corio last week.
Here is a link to the podcast of that show.
By spocko, on June 18th, 2012% I think about this a lot, how do you show people the consequences of defunding government? This is one solution.
h/t Cory at Boing Boing
By spocko, on June 8th, 2012%
I watched Schneiderman talk yesterday. Interesting, but I wanted more stories about what he was going to do to make people accountable. In the mean time, if people what to know what thousands of foreclosed homeowners can do, they can join Home Defenders League.
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