There's Gold In Them Thar Duck Calls

The Duck Dynasty fiasco might backfire on A&E and other liberal voices.

Before I go any further, I have to throw in a disclaimer.  I don't watch Duck Dynasty.  I'm not a fan.  I don't support Phil Robertson's beliefs or his statements.  This is not a defense of his statements or his opinions. However, I do support his right to believe whatever he wishes and to express those beliefs however he chooses.  This is still America, after all.

I also don't support A&E's decision to suspend Robertson.  I think it was a poor business decision.  Yes, A&E should be free to do whatever it wants with it's network programming.  It is a business.  It's their business.  They ought to be able to do with it what they want, however stupid their decisions may be, but it may not work out that way.

All of this might work out to be terrific for the Robertsons.  Before this is over the entire Robertson Clan may be the most widely known story in America.  Think about it.  They were already widely known and wildly popular.  Duck Dynasty was the most popular non-scripted show on cable TV.

Now, think about Miley Cyrus, as unpleasant as that might be.  She received more media exposure for her twerking performance than she'd ever received or ever would have. Before it, nobody was talking about Miley Cyrus.  Afterward, everybody was talking about Miley Cyrus, and they still are.  Was she being stupid--or smart?  Time will tell but, at least for now, she's laughing all the way to the bank.

Which brings us back to Phil Robertson.  Not everyone agrees with Phil about lifestyle, his religious beliefs, or his opinion of gays, but, thanks to A&E, almost everybody is talking about him.  Even people who don't agree with him, such as yours truly, are talking or writing about him.

Now, factor in what may happen next.  Irrespective of my previous statements about what A&E ought to be able to do, they may not be legally able to suspend or fire Robertson for his seemingly anti-gay statements. Why?  Because of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Among other things, Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment for religious beliefs, and that's exactly what Robertson was expressing in his interview.  He was very clear that his opinions about homosexuality are based on his Christian beliefs.  Oops, how inconvenient for A&E.

If Robertson chooses to fight his suspension, he may just rake A&E over the proverbial coals.  He already has an army of supporters who are setting up a boycott of  the A&E network.  Robertson could use a lawsuit to add to his already sizable pile of money or to break his A&E contract--or both.  Free of the A&E contract, the Robertson Clan and Duck Dynasty could write their own tickets to just about anything they wanted.

Any way you look at it, A&E is a loser and Phil Robertson and his family are winners in this episode.  I'm pretty sure that's not what the authors and supporters of the Civil Rights Act had in mind, but that's exactly how it may unfold.  Oh, the irony.

The Fallacy of Gun Control

The internet is full of wonderful stuff.  Some of it is true, some of it is kind of true, and some of it informs us with unintended information.  I found this to be so, today, with an article on the Examiner.com.

First, let me explain that I have no affiliation with Examiner.com but do occasionally read articles on it.  I'm usually captured by the headline, which, of course, is the intent of the headline.

Today's headline was, "DOJ [Department of Justice] Internal Memo Confirms Obama Plan for Gun Confiscation."  OK, I was hooked.  The article that followed was from an organization named Firearms Policy Coalition, which is another outfit with which I have no connection.  Here's the link to the article:  http://www.examiner.com/article/doj-internal-memo-confirms-obama-plan-for-gun-confiscation

You can click through the article to the actual DOJ report.  Or you can access it here:  http://static.infowars.com/2013/02/i/general/nij-gun-policy-memo.pdf

Contrary to the headline and the article's claims, the DOJ memo does not indicate plans for confiscation. What the DOJ report actually does is highlight how little overall crime, gun violence and mass shootings will be reduced by all of the assault weapons bans that have been proposed unless they are coupled with targeted buybacks and/or confiscations.

One of the things I found to be the most compelling in the DOJ memo is in the opening paragraph.  It states that the average number of deaths attributable to mass shootings in America is on average 35 per year.  While every individual matters and the loss of a single life by violence is wrong and should be condemned, the number is 35.  The DOJ memo continues that all of the proposed gun control measures are not likely to have any impact on that number.  Not ANY.  Zip.  Nada.

Did you get that?  If all of the considered and/or proposed firearms bans--assault weapons, semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines, gun registration, sales restrictions--were implemented, they are not likely to reduce the number of deaths attributable to mass shootings.

Remember that number?  35.  By contrast, in 2012, the number of traffic fatalities in America was 34,000.  About 30,000 Americans die annually from accidental prescription drug overdoses.  Cancer deaths were expected to exceed 575,000 in 2012.

The US population is 315,000,000, of which an estimated 65,000,000 are gun owners.  So what? Well, first, gun ownership is one of our inalienable rights, which is codified in the Bill of Rights.  Further, it means there are 65,000,000 gun owners in America who did NOT shoot anybody this year, or last year, or the year before that.

Yet, the prevailing liberal view is that we must control, reduce and limit gun ownership to stop these terrible mass shootings.  Gun control advocates seem to believe this, or at least want us to believe it, in spite of their own studies, analyses, and reports showing their proposed gun control will not have the desired results.

Now you have the facts.  Form your own conclusions.

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

The current mess in our Federal Government is filling the Blogosphere and mainstream media these days.  Most of what we see and hear is presented as fact or news.  Well, most of it isn't fact or news.  It's opinion, slanted by the political ideology of the presenter.  Some of it is so egregious as to be laughable.

Let's be clear about a couple of things.  Not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting on our sovereign debt are two very different things.  I'm not sure if the media doesn't get that or has simply decided it's better theater to present it that way.

Default means not paying our bills and not honoring (paying interest and principal) on Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds.  That would not be good.  It would damage further the US credit rating and could force interest rates higher throughout the US economy.

Not raising the debt ceiling would simply restrict the Federal Government's ability to borrow more money and further increase our already staggering debt. It would NOT mean default.

Fiscal conservatives don't want the US to default on its sovereign debt.  They want to stop, or at least slow, the uncontrolled and unsustainable growth of that debt.

Fiscal liberals want to keep borrowing and taxing and spending like there's no tomorrow.  As Wimpy in the Popeye cartoons used to say, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."  To fiscal liberals, Tuesday will never come.

Are the preceding two paragraphs my opinions presented as if they were facts.  No, they are demonstrated fact based upon verifiable evidence interpreted with a bias toward fiscal responsibility.

As is usually the case in disputes such as this, neither side of the argument is in the right.  We can't and shouldn't keep spending at present rates but we don't have to balance the budget overnight.

The answer lies in pulling back Federal spending to realistic, sustainable levels. The smart way to accomplish this is to use a scalpel, rather than a meat cleaver.

Nobody is holding the economy hostage.  In case you hadn't noticed, the world is still spinning and the sun will still come up tomorrow.  It will eventually come up on Tuesday.