Snowflakes in Hell

Yes, Mitt, they are.

As you know, Mitt got caught lying about being a “lifelong hunter” and winning the NRA’s endorsement. However, for those of you who are just following the gun news, there are a few new nuggets to add to his collection of stories that the NYT says have showed his talent for being “prone to exaggeration.” Well, when he made his big religion speech, he claimed that he saw his father march with Martin Luther King. A little research proves it never happened, and well, you just have to watch how he pulls a Clinton trick out from his ass.

The NYT even caught him in Iowa, and he now blames journalists for their ignorant reporting on his claims on getting tough on drugs.

On Thursday, for instance, at a campaign stop in Indianola, he ran into trouble when talking about his record on illegal drugs while governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Romney had been airing ads in Iowa attacking his rival, Mike Huckabee, for his record on clemencies while governor of Arkansas and for reducing penalties for methamphetamine-related crimes.

“I’m very proud of the fact that we, my state, when I was governor, we made it tougher for people with meth labs,” he said, echoing his commercial in which he claimed that he “got tough on drugs like meth” in the governor’s office.

“We cracked down on crime and on meth in particular,” Mr. Romney added. “It’s a very important topic. I want to make sure we do everything we can to keep our kids off of this terrible, pernicious, captivating drug.” …

Mr. Romney’s office proposed legislation that would have toughened penalties on those in possession of the drug and chemicals to manufacture it, but the bill stalled in the state legislature.

After The New York Times pointed out Mr. Romney’s misstatement in a posting on its politics blog, he made sure to correct himself before taking questions from reporters at his next campaign stop here.

“If I said this morning that we ‘got tough’ on methamphetamines, I proposed we get tough on methamphetamine and I’ve corrected that right here for all of you,” he said. “You don’t need to make any error of reporting that somehow Governor Romney actually got it done.”

You see, if you interpreted his statement that “when I was governor, we made it tougher for people with meth labs” to mean anything other than “when I was governor, we thought about making it tougher for people with meth labs,” then Mitt wants you to know that it’s an error in your judgment.

You can see that if Romney is elected, we get to go back to the good old days of debating what the word “is” means, along with a very public debate on reasonable interpretations of common phrases. You’ll sleep better at night knowing that your tax dollars are funding some recent college grad to look through every copy of every dictionary in every language to find obscure interpretations of words like “saw” and “endorsement.” Who doesn’t look forward to those important debates?

Thirdpower gets his comment deleted over at Bryan’s blog because it was an attack on a CeaseFire PA board member that he says isn’t germane to his post.

Well, folks, it’s Bryan’s sandbox, so you play by his rules. But I note it’s always the anti-gunners that like to delete comments. I won’t generally do that here, except for threats or truly vile statements. I can count on one hand the number of comments I’ve deleted. You’ll note I didn’t delete any of Jadegold’s musings, even when he attacked NRA leaders like Harlan Carter or Jeff Cooper. Anyone is free to disagree with me, or make outlandish accusations, but on blogs, we ferret out the truth. The anti-gunners ferret out the comments because the truth isn’t, and has never been on their side.

Looks like the American Red Cross is the most recognized organization, but look at this:

Consumer Reports was the next most-familiar organization, followed by the AARP and then the National Rifle Association.

Take that Brady Campaign!

The most-powerful group was the labor union AFL-CIO, netting 84 percent, narrowly topping the National Rifle Association, which garnered 83 percent of respondents who said they believed the group had at least a fair amount power.

That’s sure to make Peter Hamm choke on his Christmas ham.

Often commenter Ian Argent has an interesting post on how our society treats children:

I certainly wasn’t an adult at 12-13. But I certainly wasn’t helpless, defenseless, or hapless. I no longer needed the kind of close supervision a young child might need - I was allowed to operate within fairly loose guidelines (in some ways, looser guidelines than I was when I was in my later teens, because I did have somewhat less responsibility). Nonetheless, I’m quite sure that had the need arisen for me to fly unaccompanied, my parents would have made sure the people at the other end knew my flight info, and then dropped me off at the airport (accompanying me to the gate if possible under time constraints), and expected me to make my way onto the plane, into my seats, and off the other end to the people I was going to without expecting much, if any, official support form the airline.

I flew to see my grandparents in Florida when I was pretty young, in so far as I can recall, I was in this age group.  It had to have been a while ago, because Eastern Airlines ceased flying in 1991.  You have to wonder about an airline who’s logo is a seatbelt.  What’s that supposed to mean?   “Hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” or maybe “Eastern, wear your seatbelt or you’ll die.”

I seem to recall the grandparents dropping me off at the gate, and my parents picking me up.  Of course, now you can’t do that because we’re all more worried about terrorists than perverts or kidnappers, but that was also in the days before cell phones, when all had to be pre-arranged, and it was just hoped everything would go off without a hitch.  Nonetheless, Ian has a good point that kids today are no doubt not any less safe than they were twenty years ago.  That’s certainly true, even with all the terrorists.