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Drinking Liberally — Seattle

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Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

What’s the buzz? Lawmakers returned to Olympia yesterday, and Senate Republicans are in charge with their “majority coalition.” Jay Inslee gets sworn in tomorrow. And guns.



We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview chapter meet this Wednesday. On Thursday, the Spokane chapter meets. And on Monday, the Yakima, Aberdeen and Olympia chapters meet.

With 201 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Comments

  4. 4

    @1 Yep, that’s a 3-hanky performance. (One for each eye and the nose.) Five rousing cheers for the Sandy Hook kids. May they open adult minds.

  6. 6

    @5 “Winning” the Cold War was the greatest thing the United States accomplished in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century.

    It was also the dumbest. Since then, we’ve more or less been stumbling around like Mike the Headless Chicken, looking for a new sense of national purpose.

  7. 7

    Something I was wondering about the gun issue. I wonder, has the NRA ever used the Staples Center as a convention site? Some of the rebar came from a local steel mill as part of the LAPD’s Project Isaiah, which disposes of confiscated(such as ones used in crimes) guns.

    http://www.tamcosteel.com/comrel_prjisa.html

  11. 11

    Since the only progressive talk station was changed to be the THIRD sports talk station in the area, I skim the THREE conservative talk stations on my drive in.

    According to the conservative radio chorus, the only thing worth talking about was:

    1) Only crazy or brown or poor people go on rampages so we should ban crazy or brown or poor people, not high capacity clips.
    2) Since the proposed regulations would not have directly stopped the Sandy shooting, we are helpless to change anything so we should do nothing.
    3) Ever child needs an armed body guard at all times. Start with the kids of the rich and powerful kids.

    What I learned: regulate nothing and the answer is always more guns.

    Again, why does a gun nuts right to buy infinite weaponry trump a 2nd grader’s right to not be shot?

  12. 12

    @ 11

    Again, why does a gun nuts right to buy infinite weaponry trump a 2nd grader’s right to not be shot?

    Why does a citizen’s right to purchase a pistol for home protection or for concealed carry as a self-defense implement trump a poor Chicago teenager’s right not to be shot?

    It might be more palatable to make the second-grader argument but it’s a zebra, when hoofbeats almost always mean horse. Hundreds of young people are killed in inner-city streets and it’s crickets. Twenty white kids get killed in a CT suburb and suddenly there’s concern.

  13. 13

    We find no evidence that gun shows lead to substantial
    increases in either gun homicides or suicides. In addition, tighter regulation of gun shows does
    not appear to reduce the number of firearms-related deaths.

    http://closup.umich.edu/resear.....-final.pdf

    But it’s all about making lefties feel better about themselves and, most importantly, about Pyrrhic victories over the right. So full steam ahead. Who needs tangible benefits?

  14. 14

    Uh oh.

    Islamic militants take 7 Americans hostage in Algeria

    Islamic terrorists linked to al-Qaeda attacked an Algerian gas facility Wednesday, killing one British and one French worker and taking numerous hostages, possibly including seven Americans.

    A spokesman for the group, Qatiba, which translates as Those Who Sign with Their Blood, told Mauritanian news website Sahara Media Agency that jihadists seized the gas facility at In Mounas in eastern Algeria and took hostages.

    The group said the attack was in retaliation for Algeria’s decision to allow French aircraft to use its airspace in its military intervention in Mali that began last week.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/.....t/1839049/

    The first time many people heard of problems in Mali was when it was mentioned on a widely watched national TV event last year.

    During a debate, by Mitt Romney.

  15. 15

    The number of murders in the U.S. in 2011 committed with rifles: 323.

    The number involving handguns? A whopping 6,220. Or 49% of the 12,664 homicides committed in the U.S. in 2011, according to FBI data. And that’s a longstanding pattern. See murder statistics by weapon.

    The huge gap suggests President Obama’s call for new firearm restrictions would do little to reduce the number people murdered each year – even if a reluctant Congress were to pass all his requests. His proposals don’t really addresss handguns.

    http://blogs.marketwatch.com/e.....-the-data/

    Of course, it really isn’t about helping people. It’s about placating the left, while diverting attention from the economy and other problems facing him.

  16. 16

    Still works…
    Again, why does a gun nuts right to buy infinite weaponry trump a poor kid in Chicago’s right to not be shot?

    Hundreds of young people are killed in inner-city streets and it’s crickets.
    That’s partly true. Lefty types have been raising this issue for years, but it rates a collective yawn from the general populace. Apparently only lefties and the people there, care if inner-city kill each other. There is only traction on the problem when white suburban kids get killed. It’s sad but true. It takes white suburban kids dying to get conservatives to not dismiss the issue.

    I’d post more lefty links discussing the problem but I’d hit the filter.
    http://poptech.org/blog/on_the.....terrupters

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....27773.html

    http://my.firedoglake.com/caro.....dy-center/

    I take it your stupid message is, because we are not directly addressing inner city violence, we should do nothing. Jackass!
    Like you care one bit. Would you give up your assault rifle so a kid in Chicago wouldn’t die?

  17. 17

    @ 16

    You keep asking the wrong question.

    If I had an assault rifle (I don’t, nor any other firearm) and gave it up voluntarily or under executive order, that kid in Chicago would likely still die, because it isn’t assault rifles responsible for the vast majority of gun-related homicide deaths in this country. See @ 15 for the numbers.

    I think that background checks for ammo make the most sense. There are already background checks for gun purchases, a gun doesn’t work without ammo, and with a gun a check can be done only once but with ammo a check can be done every time someone is out of ammunition. I, personally, have no objection to this approach, although it certainly will be problematic for people like hunters or true sports shooters that just need to load up. So are long gas lines after a refinery explosion, tho. If people want ammo badly enough they’ll stock up and order ahead of time. And it would give all of those veterans Wal-Mart is planning to hire something to do – they can be background-check liaisons, and stand right next to the greeter at the front door. /sarc

    The assault weapon ban is silly. It makes for great lefty theater but it won’t accomplish anything.

  18. 18

    In the election hub-bub, this article seemed to get lost:

    http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....rack-obama

    Good read.. Sample:

    To understand how air-force navigator Tyler Stark ended up in a thornbush in the Libyan desert in March 2011, one must understand what it’s like to be president of the United States—and this president in particular…

    Bubaker then called his friend, the former staffer in the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, now removed to Washington, D.C.

    It took a few hours for someone to come and fetch Stark. As he waited with Bubaker inside the hotel, word spread of this French pilot who had saved their lives. When they’d arrived at the hotel a man had handed Tyler Stark a rose, which the American found both strange and touching. Now women from across the city came with flowers to the front of the hotel. When Stark entered a room full of people they stood up and gave him a round of applause. “I’m not sure what I was expecting in Libya,” he says, “but I was not expecting a round of applause.”…

    And..

    I asked if he would take me to his favorite place in the White House…

    We turned right, into an oval room painted yellow, apparently known as the Yellow Room. Obama marched to the French doors on the far end. There he flipped a few locks and stepped outside. “This is the best spot in the whole White House,” he said.

    I followed him out onto the Truman Balcony, to the pristine view of the South Lawn. The Washington Monument stood like a soldier in front of the Jefferson Memorial. Potted poinsettias surrounded what amounted to an outdoor living room. “The best spot in the White House,” he said again. “Michelle and I come out here at night and just sit. It’s the closest you can get to feeling outside. To feeling outside the bubble.”…

    Now, standing on the Truman Balcony, little came between him and the outside world. Crowds milled about on Constitution Avenue, on the other side of the south gate. Had he waved, someone might have noticed him and waved back. He motioned to the place from which, last November, a man with a high-powered rifle fired at the White House. Turning, with only the slightest trace of annoyance, Obama pointed to the spot directly behind his head where the bullet struck.

    We’re lucky to have this man as President.. We may be even luckier that the other idiots who battled him fell short. If only there were better people in Congress to work with him.

  21. 21

    @19. At least YLB has something positive to say. You never do, too busy parroting right wing talking points.

  22. 22

    I like this observation:

    Just this year alone, we’ve had Republicans fight tooth and nail to:
    – protect unpopular tax breaks for the rich,
    – block popular disaster relief to hurricane ravaged New Jersey and New York,
    – continue wasting millions to defend anti-gay laws in the courts,
    – destroy the nation’s economy by threatening to block the raising of the debt ceiling, and
    – stand in the way of popular gun safety reforms.

    Makes me proud not be a republican.

  23. 23

    Wanting sensible gun laws does not make me anti gun just like wanting sensible traffic laws doesn’t make me anti car

  25. 25

    Militia jackassery is back. No, guys, the authority of local sheriffs does not preempt or supersede federal authority. That’s posse comitatas talk, and it’s never been a correct interpretation of the Constitution, and isn’t now.

    Of all the stupid things this sheriff said, by far the stupidest is that he can ask state officials to leave his county. Apparently he doesn’t realize that counties are municipal corporations which are subdivisions of the state and get all their authority from the state.

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/16/.....?hpt=hp_t2

  26. 26

    @ 21

    At least YLB has something positive to say.

    That’s a defense? YLB’s willing to blow sunshine up your ass?

    What is this, second grade? If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all?

    I suppose we can all count on YLB to bring a valentine for everyone in the class on February 14th.

  28. 28

    # 25: Yep, the old S. Carolina folks who advocated nullification during Andrew Jackson’s presidency and attempted to seceed from the Union in 1860, have spread to rural regions in various areas of the South. They seem to forget or ignore that they have multiple Supreme Court decisions against them, as well as a Civil War from which the South is still trying to recover economically.

    I loved the story about the Georgia state legislature allowing the police to arrest anyone who couldn’t prove that they were in the country legally. They had just given a huge amount of taxpayer subsidies and tax credits to a European car maker to re-locate there. Yep, you got it – the first petty police officer to catch a foreign auto executive in a roadblock hauled him off to jail until he could produce his passport and visa (which he left back at his hotel). Way to go, fellas!

  29. 29

    @ 25

    Apparently he doesn’t realize that counties are municipal corporations which are subdivisions of the state and get all their authority from the state.

    Yeah, the union members in Benton Harbor had a problem with that concept as well.

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