I'm surprised it took this long

[sirs]

Clyburn: Words can be danger

BY YVONNE WENGER
Monday, January 10, 2011

COLUMBIA ? U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in Congress, said Sunday the deadly shooting in Arizona should get the country thinking about what's acceptable to say publicly and when people should keep their mouths shut.

Clyburn said he thinks vitriol in public discourse led to a 22-year-old suspect opening fire Saturday at an event Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords held for her constituents in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed and 14 others were injured, including Giffords.

The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech, Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling on elected officials and media pundits to use 'better judgment.'

'Free speech is as free speech does,' he said. 'You cannot yell ?fire' in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.'

Clyburn used as an example a comment made by Sharron Angle, an unsuccessful U.S. senatorial candidate in Nevada, who said the frustrated public may consider turning to 'Second Amendment remedies' for political disputes unless Congress changed course.

Clyburn said the man accused of shooting Giffords did just that.

'He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection,' Clyburn said.

Despite Clyburn's position, law enforcement has not yet revealed any motives in the shooting.

Clyburn has been the most outspoken of the state's congressional delegation on the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, the 1st District Republican, said the Fairness Doctrine would stifle free speech and be harmful to the public, but he would say little on the matter beyond that. Engaging in a partisan conversation is not appropriate now, Scott said, because the focus of Saturday's shooting should remain on prayer for the victims.

'A 9-year-old little girl is gone and the Fairness Doctrine is not going to bring her back,' Scott said.

The Fairness Doctrine has been a controversial subject during the Obama administration. The Federal Communications Commission in 1987 stopped enforcing the policy that required the media to present both sides of an issue. Now, with the popularity of partisan cable news, some want the FCC to use the policy to inject balance into heated media discussions.

Clyburn's daughter Mignon Clyburn is an FCC commissioner. She took a stand on the matter during her confirmation hearings, saying she opposed such a policy in 'any way shape or form.'

Scott published an opinion piece in a October 2009 edition of The Post and Courier, writing that he, too, opposed the Fairness Doctrine, calling it is a 'clever way to regulate speech.'

Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint did not weigh in on whether Saturday's shooting could be tied to political rhetoric. The state's senators both called the shooting senseless and said they were thinking about and praying for the victims and their families.

Meanwhile, Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift disclosed comments Giffords made in late December about the political climate while the two women were in Charleston for Renaissance Weekend. Clift, in a column for The Daily Beast, wrote that Giffords and her astronaut husband, Capt. Mark Kelly, have regularly attended the off-the-record event, that features 'polite, political reflection.'

Renaissance Weekend, headquartered at Charleston Place Hotel, drew more than 1,000 participants to the city. It featured 500 lectures, seminars, discussions and performances. Besides Giffords, participants included outed former CIA agent Valerie Plame and Obama administration 'Drug Czar' Gil Kerlikowski. Giffords' husband also was a featured guest.

Clift recalls that Giffords 'talked about how ugly her last campaign was with ads that said, ?Her husband won't even vote for her ? why should we?' '

The ads referred the fact that Giffords' husband, an active duty Navy pilot, is assigned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and as such has a legal address that is not in his wife's district. His children from a former marriage also require his residency where they live, Clift said.

In recounting the ads, Clift said Giffords 'seemed stung by the unfairness of the attack and its personal nature, considering the supposed reverence of her opponent for the military.'

Giffords, Clift continued, 'lamented how lawmakers with high profiles today get attention, pointing to Michele Bachmann, Alan Grayson, and Joe ?You Lie' Wilson, who earned their place in the spotlight through ?outlandish and mean behavior ? You get no reward for being the normal, reasonable person.' '


Suppression of dissent is even more Dangerous, Mr Clyburn

[Plane]

Can't be serious.

I would understand a call for civility because civility is good , but this guy isn't doing anything other than what he is accuseing others of doing.

[sirs]

Talk radio under siege

As I reported on the main site today, conservative media figures? fears that the left will use Tucson to clamp down on them are not entirely unfounded.

Rep. Jim Clyburn wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine ? a move aimed directly at talk radio ? while Media Matters CEO David Brock asked Rupert Murdoch to rein in or possibly even fire Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

It?s hard not to read today?s news that Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee plans to ban state employees from appearing on talk radio during work hours within the same frame, though Ben Smith points out that likely has more to do with local beef than the current national debate about "tone."


And it bubbles some more

[Christians4LessGvt]

[Xavier_Onassis]

I do not see gun control as a viable solution. There are too many guns in the US to make it useful unless they start confiscating them, which would, in my opinion, provoke far more problems than it could solve.

In the 1980's I tutored a French Canadian guy named Michel Champagne in English diction. He needed to be able to speak English clearly because he was after a job as a captain of yachts owned by wealthy Canadians who ferried them back and forth between Canada and the Caribbean, and did not want to do the work themselves. But Michel had a classic Inspector Clouseau accent. I made tapes for him and he manged to pass the exams to get his licenses and such after about four months of classes twice per week.

After he got his license we had a couple of beers at the house where he was living that belonged to some wealthy Quebec car dealer, and he showed me his gun collection. He had about 20 pistols and 20 rifles and shotguns. I asked him "why so many guns?" and he said "I had more, before they broke in last year and stole most of what I had then." He had a couple of German Nazi Lugars that were apparently very dear to him, because some uncle brought them back from WWII, and another 30 pistols and rifles.He had them in a small apartment and someone broke in and looted his collection.

I am hoping all his weapons found good homes with fellow collectors like Michel, but I have my doubts. None of these were registered, so he did not report the theft, even though it was most of his life savings.
 

[Stray Pooch]

Gun Control.  Word Control. Thought Control.  Wealth Control.  Vote Control.  Government Control. Complete Control.

Uh oh, looks like I'm out of control.

I must be an enemy of the people.

[bsb]

>>I asked him "why so many guns?"<<

My older brother had a collection of SAA Colts, mostly antiques, and Winchesters, mostly 1873s, many SRCs (Saddle Ring Carbine). I never asked him how many he had but it had to have been over 200. He started buying them when he was about 25, and kept it up for 35 to 40 years. At 65 he had them appraised and the collection was valued at over $500 thousand. He gave me 2 Colts, and 3 Winchesters, then sold the rest at auction. One Deluxe 1873 went for $55,000.

By the way, anyone looking for the best, to my mind, tactical 1911 made, there is one for sale here: http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=40676

If you're in the market, have the cash, and want the best, jump on it. Very few people in the world know more about tactical light weapons then Larry Vickers.

bsb

[Xavier_Onassis]

I would say that as an investment, you need to make your ownership legal, as in registering all your guns,and you need to keep them in a very secure place. Michel did neither with his first collection,and I am guessing he didn't register the guns in his second collection, either.
As an investment, losing 40 unregistered guns has to suck.

[bsb]

Yeah, it's a little crazy to put a lot of money into guns that aren't legally yours.

As for protecting them my brother was lucky because he never bought a safe. He had them in gun cabinets with glass fronts. I told him several times to buy 2 or 3 big gun safes to store them in when he traveled with his wife. He never did. And he lived in a rural part of Maine where people new everybody else's business. It's amazing to me that they weren't stolen.

bsb

[Xavier_Onassis]

I am pretty sure he legally owned the guns, but he did not report them as stolen because he had not registered them. Also, it could be that he was not actually legally a resident of the US, come to think of it.

Any way you look at it, unsecured unregistered guns are not an ideal investment for someone who has no fixed address and shuttles back and forth between countries.

I would not invest in guns because I do not know much about them. Mutual funds, I can get excellent advice on. No one argues much about the price of 100 shares of EWX. You can offer a few pennies less to buy an ETF, or a few more to sell, and usually you can get your wish, because of all those who sell everything at market. But each gun is a unique item with regard to condition,and haggling is a necessity.

[Amianthus]

Any way you look at it, unsecured unregistered guns are not an ideal investment for someone who has no fixed address and shuttles back and forth between countries.

Most firearms are not required to be registered. Only machine guns have that as a federal requirement, and very few states have registration requirements.

I'd say he didn't report the theft because of either a) he was not in the country legally (possibly a tourist visa which does not allow working or owning property) or b) some of the firearms were acquired illegally.

My father is a resident alien (green card holder) and has an extensive collection of firearms. None of them are registered because North Carolina does not have a registration requirement. They are, however, insured and a theft would be reported.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I know that Michel thought that his gun should have been registered, because that is what he told me. I am not sure he was here legally, and I suspect that he had no idea where the guns came from, though I doubt that he stole them personally.

I know that Florida requires at least some guns to be registered now, because I know of people who were sent to prison for not registering them. (and were shooting them off while drunk on New years Eve, near a friend's house).