I've created a special feature for the print media and broadcasters ("Page Nine" regardless of where or when it runs), that covers stories afresh, not the way news rooms typically flavor things. It would help reduce the distrust so many news consumers feel and could be the most avidly followed item you carry -- if you carry it. It certainly is well received by my audience.
Here's a casual sample. It might make you say, "We'll NEVER run that!" but Page Nine is being built around ad revenues from clear-thinking mainstream businesses.
Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
"The Uninvited Ombudsman"
--Tell your friends--
(Sign up and blog info at end)
PAGE NINE
The Uninvited Ombudsman Report, No. 40
by Alan Korwin, Jan. 30, 2008
Feb. 2 - 4, 2008
I'll be at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, the biggest shooting and hunting trade show in the world -- 13 miles of aisles! Look for me signing books at the Second Amendment Foundation booth, or leave word for me at Circus Circus.
Feb. 23 - Mar. 2, 2008
Meet me at the Texas Concealed Handgun Assn. annual meeting in Kerrville, followed by a barnstorm through San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and ending in Dallas at the Texas State Rifle Assn. annual meeting.
Send me an email if you'd like to try to hook up along the way, at the meetings, or at the bigger ranges and stores -- I plan to visit as many as I can.
March 18, 2008
Look for Cartridge Family Band member Bob Blackmer and me at the U.S. Supreme Court for the D.C. v. Heller Second Amendment case. We're putting plans together to get in and observe the oral arguments on the most significant gun-rights case ever heard in the nation's history.
Quote of note:
"If we can't change the laws, we'll change the lawmakers." --Jim Brady, on the envelope of his wife Sarah's first 2008 fundraising letter.
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1- Gun Ban Questioned
The lamestream media told you:
"Senators Urge Bush to Allow Guns In National Parks -- Nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush Administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges," writes Mathew Daly for the AP.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Senate Trying to Drop Infringement on Federal Land -- National Parks, unlike other federal lands, maintain a total ban on operable or visible firearms, with no apparent authority to do so. The Senate, after decades of inaction, is finally trying to end this civil-rights abuse. The authorities who implemented the ban by regulation, with no enabling statute, are unlikely to face punishment. Currently, even driving across these federally managed lands subjects an otherwise innocent citizen to arrest, fines and confiscations.
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2- Political Gun Control
The lamestream media told you:
The presidential campaigns are all avoiding the hot-potato issues of gun control, renewing the assault weapons ban and increasing Brady background checks for gun buyers.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The only gun issues the media can see are missing are gun-ban and rights-denial issues. Real gun issues are really really missing, like nationwide discreet carry for all law-abiding citizens -- the same as retired and off-duty police got in 2005. This was promised to the public as "the next step," to help gain support for national cop carry. Absolutely nothing has been done for the public since then.
Also missing -- any discussion of interstate carry-permit recognition under the full-faith-and-credit clause, gun education for students, national safety-training programs, tax credits for good marksmanship, gun-free-zone liability laws, repeal of various odious gun bans, and similar common sense, reasonable "Sunshine Gun Laws." Why the powerful gun lobby has not pressed for such laws, and why reporters have not asked candidates about such things, was unknown at press time.
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3- "Greenwashing" Abuses Investigated
The lamestream media told you:
Al Gore, in an effort to reduce global warming and help save the planet, buys "carbon offsets" to compensate for his "carbon footprint" and reduce the "net carbon emissions" generated by his 26,000 square foot home and frequent jet trips around the world to speaking engagements. This makes Gore's larger-than-lifestyle "carbon neutral."
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Al Gore buys his so-called carbon offsets from a firm he owns, a possibly deceptive practice now called "greenwashing." Many greenwashing schemes are spreading, playing on people's fears and ignorance. Gore is chairman of the London-based company, Generation Investment Management, according to WorldNetDaily.
The Center for Media and Democracy reports that, "Deborah Majoras, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission feels that with the tremendous growth in the field, there is potential for abuse of the public's trust. The last revision of the FTC's environmental advertising guidelines was in 1997, and did not include terms common today, like sustainability, carbon offsets or renewable energy.
"As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated." She's being too kind.
A simple Google search reveals thousands of scam-looking operators seeking money to clear a consumer's conscience with unverifiable promises to plant trees somewhere and no measurable or scientific information whatsoever. Further details: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Carbon_offsets
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4- Bush Snubs Heller
The lamestream media told you:
The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the District of Columbia's gun ban in the D.C. v. Heller case. The Office of Solicitor General's brief makes it clear that regulation and registration of guns is allowed under the Second Amendment.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The OSG brief is disappointing from a pro-rights view but the media's characterization of it, like nearly everything the media does about guns, is just wrong.
Bush's Justice Dept. brief recognizes 2A as an individual right, and asks that the D.C. ban be overturned. What it does not do is ask for "strict scrutiny," the highest standard when applying 2A to other laws across the nation.
I suspect (without hard evidence) OSG is trying to justify some wiggle room in the decision, so a robust individual-right finding does not also wash away gun laws that even hard-boiled gun-rights advocates usually support (for prisoners, escapees, parolees, fugitives, arming vessels of foreign powers, violent felons, true nut jobs, sticking up convenience stores, etc). None of that would end anyway.
What's important now is to ask the presidential candidates where they stand on gun rights. It's critically important, so expect the media to not do it. If you can squeeze a question into the debate at a town hall, ask. For a clear description of the matter, my friend Sandy Froman has a good one posted at TownHall.com (remove the blank space to link up): http://townhall.com/columnists/SandyFroman/2008/01/15/ candidates_must_trump_justice_department_in_dc_gun_case
Some 19 briefs asking the Court to deny your rights have been filed by the usual suspects: Janet Reno and former Justice Dept. officials, the NAACP, American Academy of Pediatrics, a variety of "public health" groups, Brady and the Violence Policy Center, several city mayors, D.C. activists, and 18 members of Congress.
The brief supporting the Second Amendment from Heller's team is due Feb. 4, and friend-of-the-Court briefs for the we-have-rights side come a week later. As many as 40 are expected. Stay tuned.
John Lott points out: The District's acting attorney general, Peter Nickles, happily noted that the Justice Department's brief was a "somewhat surprising and very favorable development." Alan Gura, the attorney who will represent those challenging the ban before the Supreme Court, accused the Bush administration of "basically siding with the District of Columbia" and said that "This is definitely hostile to our position." Los Angeles Times said in their lead on Sunday, "gun-control advocates never expected to get a boost from the Bush administration."
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5- U.N.'s Comic Book
The lamestream media told you:
Nothing.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Also from the Center for Media and Democracy, "The UN is partnering with Marvel Comics on a comic book to be released later this year. The comic "is expected to be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature heroes including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, as well as workers from UN agencies such as children's charity UNICEF, and blue helmets of the peacekeeping forces. Eventually, the work will be translated into several other languages ... but it is American schoolchildren who the UN plans to target first. ... The comic will be distributed free to one million U.S. school children."
Although the report says the comic will be "free," experts note that everything called "free" actually "costs" someone, and in this case, most U.N. funding comes from U.S. taxpayers.
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6- National Biometric ID
The lamestream media told you:
"The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of people's physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the U.S. and abroad," reports Ellen Nakashima for TheWashington Post.
"Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled secure basement here," she writes. Soon the system will be able to spot "criminals and terrorists" and presumably anyone else by iris patterns, face shape, scars, and by your walking stride and speech patterns.
"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," says T.E. Bush III of the FBI Criminal Justice Info Services Division, of the system based in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The article doesn't say it, but tiny Clarksburg, WV (16K pop.), is where the FBI "NICS" gun background check computer is housed. That system (a set of buildings on a sprawling "campus") was designed to be able to check any American from a single location.
It was built with $250 million a year for four years by former AG Janet Reno, under the guise of controlling gun sales. Although the pressure was on to "do something" about guns, the real reason appeared to be to finally fund a massive citizen tracker for the FBI (with more than $1 billion casually added recently in the NICS "Improvement" Act).
These reasons for the most massive real-time computer ID system ever conceived were ignored in public discussions, government press releases and "news" reports. The AP has still not connected the dots.
The Uninvited Ombudsman however, who didn't even have that title at the time, sounded a faintly heard alarm that the NICS "gun" system was actually the framework for centralized FBI computer control of the entire population.
It makes perfect sense from a bureaucratic mindset, if you overlook the totalitarian potential. Eventually, if the NICS system says nix to you, you won't be able to use your bank account, board aircraft or do anything that requires a card swipe. RFID chips will eliminate the need to even swipe a card since you'll just be read at a distance as you pass by (and if you can't be read a flag will go up).
Think of the convenience. You won't even have to stop at cash registers (take a photo of those quaint devices while you still can), since all products can have RFID printed on the labels with metallic ink (replacing olden manual bar codes). All your purchases and bank info will be scanned by sensors at the exit, your status will be checked, and off you go. Very efficient -- why would an honest person object to this brave new world... order.
According to the Post, employers can voluntarily register their workers in the system to keep an eye on them. "It is drawing criticism from those who worry that people's bodies will become de facto ID cards," Nakashima writes. Sarah Brady could not be reached for comment.
The Uninvited Ombudsman may have been wrong in claiming the system could track any U.S. citizen because, according to the Post, it can also track anyone "abroad," implying the entire planet.
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7- Superbowls Aren't Elections
The lamestream media told you:
The Patriots will play the Giants at the Superbowl in Glendale, Arizona. See eight pages of coverage inside.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Even though I am a football fan, it has become intolerable to see newspapers everywhere give more coverage to an opiate for the masses (coliseum games) than to elections (the job of the fourth estate, a well informed public, the fate of the nation, etc.). At least they continually complain the turnout for voting is so low.
Considering that elections are pretty much presented as horse races though, maybe that's not so bad.
I like New England because of the team's name, and the Giants cuz there from my birthplace. Tough choice, but at least I will be in Vegas (for the SHOT Show) when the game is played. Shucks, I wanted to eyeball Paris Hilton in my home town.
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8- Friendly Gasoline Tax
The lamestream media told you:
"Would you pay an extra 66 cents a day -- on top of soaring gas prices -- if it meant less rush hour traffic, better public transit and fewer people dying on the highways?" writes Hope Yen in a lead sentence for the AP. A special commission "is presenting a choice something like that," Yen says.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Trying to sell the government's interest in raising taxes, using hollow appeals the government hands you, is not the proper role of a reporter, but no charges are expected to be filed.
"With mountains of money already poured into Washington by taxpayers, and much of it grossly wasted, asking for more to provide essential services is a brutal slap in the face," says The Uninvited Ombudsman, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Justifying the increase by pointing out the tax hasn't gone up in 15 years, and that the Minneapolis bridge collapse was caused by an inadequate design, adds insult to injury. Repeating a commissioner's claim that the cost is "less than the price of a candy bar," is an affront, and hopelessly deceptive if you do the math and see the estimate is actually $240 per year per person, forever.
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9- Times' Grizzly Deception
The lamestream media told you:
The New York Times reported that returning vets have committed or are charged with 121 murders in the U.S. since the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns began. Part of an ongoing campaign to educate the public, the story ran on the front page on a Sunday, above the fold.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
In one of the most reprehensible deceptions of many perpetrated by The New York Times, the paper failed to mention that, according to their published statistic, returning veterans are at least five times less likely to commit murder than the population at large. The Times smear story actually shows that U.S. military service has a measurable and enormously positive impact on behavior, but they failed to include that point in their sensationalist page-one assault on our troops.
Experts have long noted that America has what may be the most well behaved and ethical military the world has ever seen.
Remove the blank space to use this link and read all about it, in the Times' competitor, The New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01152008/postopinion/ opedcolumnists/smearing_soldiers_265875.htm
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tell your friends!
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----------
Thanks for reading!
Alan Korwin
The Uninvited Ombudsman
Alan Korwin
Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws."
4848 E. Cactus, #505-440 <-- NEW STREET ADDRESS
Scottsdale, AZ 85254 <-- NEW STREET ADDRESS
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 Fax
1-800-707-4020 Orders
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alan@gunlaws.com
Call, write, fax or click for free full-color catalog
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you're reading this in English, thank a veteran.
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could do only a little."
--Edmund Burke
================================
Comments help keep me going. Alan.
================================
Alan, Torture is an intention, not an action. No interrogation method is inherently immoral. The anticipated intelligence to be gained from any particular application of an interrogation method needs to be weighed against the harm and death that might be caused. Americans may die because of the arbitrary restrictions we place on our interrogation methods. Matt L.
How can 6 pounds of gasoline, 1 gallon, be transformed into 20 pounds of anything? I know these numbers are commonly advocated as fact. However, explain the 200% + increase? -- E. A. Watson
[Sure, I thought about that too, and don't worry, it's correct. Carbon, atomic weight 6, oxygen, atomic weight 8. CO2 is two parts O for each part C. 6 pounds (you're correct on that) burned equals 20 pounds (actually more) at tailpipe. Good to know your eyes are pealed, and usually, catching bad math is easy. Alan.]
Alan, I have no intention of canceling my subscription to Page 9, however I do have to take exception to something you wrote. The terrorists that waterboarding has proved so effective on are not prisoners of war. The Geneva Convention protects only uniformed combatants and says nothing about terrorists. The Geneva Convention is based on the idea that uniformed soldiers are held to certain rules, even in times of war, and thus are entitled to certain protections. If we give POW status and Geneva style protections to the terrorists who are trying to exterminate all non-muslims, then we will lose this war. Thanks for Page 9. Its always good to see in my inbox.
Dear Alan, Re: Guns Save Lives, Guns Stop Crime: I think that if we are going to reject the assertion that Guns kill people, we shouldn't assert that Guns save people. It can't be one way and not the other. Agree? Enjoy page nine. Regards, Jack C.
[Yes and no. In a discussion with reasonable people and in a straight line for a length of time, guns are inanimate and it is people's actions that are the issue. In a bumper-sticker, sound-bite melee, guns save lives. Both battles need to be waged. Alan.
Alan, You continue to provide a wonderful take on the cr*p one usually is forcefed from the "lamestream" media (I love that!), the Hollyweird fruitcakes and all the other leftwing extensions of the Democr*p Kool-Aid drinkers!!
A past doting reader of yours when I lived in Flagstaff, I recently relocated to east Texas, where bullsh*t is what you step in, not what you read in the newspaper! I realized something was missing from my life and hastily found my way back to your site to resubscribe! Please keep page nine coming!
P.S. I wonder if the 3,000 souls wasted at Ground Zero would consider waterboarding to be torture? --Dave D, Gary, TX
Your point about feds finding drug runners with "50-caliber bullets" compared to 50-caliber cartirdges is too minor to matter, just semantics, not a hard news problem. --C.N.
[Maybe, but consider Dr. Brown's "Journalist's Guide to Gun Coverage" which says:
["Don't worry about getting technical details right. Many a reporter has accidentally written about semi-automatic revolvers or committed other minor errors. Since most people know little about guns, this is not a problem. Only the gun nuts will complain and they don't count. The emotional content of your article is much more important than the factual details, since people are more easily influenced through their emotions than through logic."
[So I guess the important part was where the reporter editorialized by saying "big enough to take out an airplane" without mentioning that almost any round can do that but it requires a perfect shot. Read the rest of Dr. Brown's brilliant piece ("When describing a gun, attach terms like 'automatic,' 'semi-automatic,' 'large caliber,' 'deadly,' 'high powered,' or 'powerful.' Almost any gun can be described by these terms. More than two guns should be called an 'arsenal.'") Alan.] https://www.gunlaws.com/HowGunSpinIsDone.htm
Alan, You wrote: "Equivalence is a dangerous and bogus standard used to sway debate and promote a destructive agenda of the socialist left." I completely agree. But from a PSY-OP standpoint, we can't afford the PR ammo it gives to the enemy....and we're great at giving PR ammo to the enemy. And it is a sh*tty thing to be doing to people. My fears lie with Gov't being pretty irresponsible and if you let them take an inch, as you know they'll take a mile...they're really good at that too. --Jim D.
I really appreciate the time and effort you put forth in Page 9. Barry S.
On the list for next issue:
May 11 Real ID starts
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative a done deal
Re: DHS Regs for new security measures, including Real ID (passed in 2005, snuck into HSD bill), the just-released summary is 285 pgs.
WE MOVED on JAN. 1, 2007!!
Alan Korwin
Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws."
4848 E. Cactus, #505-440 <-- NEW STREET ADDRESS
Scottsdale, AZ 85254 <-- NEW STREET ADDRESS
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 Fax
1-800-707-4020 Orders
https://www.gunlaws.com
alan@gunlaws.com
Call, write, fax or click for free full-color catalog
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you're reading this in English, thank a veteran.
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." --Edmund Burke
Gun Save Lives
Guns Stop Crime
Guns Are Why America Is Still Free
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