1: Heh. I almost didn't post this one as it's highly anecdotal, but really my posting standards are flying out the window lately. I'm happy to see a substantive question from a Mineshaftian-in-need up for discussion, too.
I keep getting phone calls from my alma mater. I'm proud to have gotten what was supposed to have been a non-terminal MA from a university that is proud enough not to try to hide from caller ID.
Stanley:
I've signed you up as a gun supporter. They will be stopping by to see you personally.
3: It's kind of weird, because most cold calls come from Democratic organizations asking for money, or U.Va. asking for money. The nice NRA volunteer explained I must have signed up for a hunting/fishing magazine or something. Um, no. But again, please keep calling. It's hilarious.
Posted 5 before I saw 4. It all makes sense now.
I also texted Cuccinelli to tell him that you were a BIG supporter of his.
7: I gave your children four shots of espresso each. Call it even?
In high school, I used to sign a friend up for visits from Armed Forces recruiters. The Army called. The Navy came to his house. The Navy loved that shit, I tell you.
I also signed him up for an American Express card under the name "Dangerous Goldberg" which later became a song by our band.
We've been getting calls at the office about twice a week for someone who works here for about a week at a time, three times a year. Every time they ask me to get this person, and ask me if I know any other ways of getting in touch with her, and then when I offer her pager number and email address, they say "Actually no, thanks." They were always different people and didn't have scripts so I didn't detect a pattern, just was annoyed that she was using us as her message service and yet nobody actually wanted to leave a message.
Eventually one caller revealed that they were from some lobbying group with a name like the National Association of Doctors or the American Organization of Doctors or the Association of American Medical Professionals or something. I couldn't tell if they were for or against massive insurance profits, but told them to stop calling either way.
Thanks, Stanley. Cornslaw Industries is planning to rerelease our album presently. An old school friend who has an entire Internet label made of embarrassing juvenilia.
Caller I'd tells me the NRA has been trying to reach me for the past couple of weeks.
13: Maybe they're calling Obama donors? I'd guess you were one, too. The weird thing is, I never use the house phone (it's there for the cellphone-less roommate and because we have DSL), so anyone calling me on it is immediately suspicious.
In any case, you should take their call. It's great fun.
How I wish there was a gun rights organization I could feel comfortable giving to and a gun club that I would join. My BIL's club featured a placard warning and Photoshopped image about Barrack HUSSEIN Osama taking YOUR guns away last election, so umm, NO.
Caller I'd
I love auto-correct.
15: Given the ongoing decline in gun ownership, I think the NRA will end up being a "hey, look, guns; they're neat as objects conceived of; and there's lots of history and an amendment to boot" type of organization. For the moment, they're annoying.
17. Of course the founders didn't specifically mention plasma rifles, but the intent was for individual ownership to be sanctioned.
Re: The WaPo story, it's sad that John Bolton can't even conjure up a semi-plausible justification for his hatred of everything UN these days. In the old days, he'd be able to come up with something so out there, that while you were scratching your head wondering what the hell he meant he was on to the next subject, which was usually usually why we should bomb North Korea.
Now he's reduced to insisting that a treaty to regulate the international arms trade is really aimed at domestic trade.
15: the ongoing decline in gun ownership is a net negative for me, actually. All it does is leave the nutjobs further in their conspiracy/nutjob world, more paranoid than ever that the gubmint is gonna take their guns. I'd love it if there was a left equivalent to the NRA that took up advocating hunting (and fishing) as a positive contribution to environmental management.
Getting people out into nature leads to more support for environmental protection (hunters and fishers are very interested in ensuring that the meat and fish they eat isn't poisoning them due to environmental contamination).
Plus it would help come the water/food wars if the left had guns too.
20: How about Acorn combine voter registration drives with concealed carry permit drives?
I don't know if you actually hunt, but some actual hunting related group might be a less crazy gun oriented organization. Ducks Unlimited is a big conservation/hunting group, and I'm sure there are others. (Buck gets Outdoor Life and Field & Stream out of nostalgia for his woodsy childhood, and I read them because they're printed matter that's often within reach, so I have some, entirely magazine-based, sense of hunting culture.)
Of course the founders didn't specifically mention plasma rifles, but the intent was for individual ownership to be sanctioned.
I AGREE.
7: I gave your children four shots of espresso each. Call it even?
The other day I was in a Disney outlet store (don't ask) and the funniest thing in there was a sign that said:
Unattended children will be given a double espresso and a puppy.
24: That's what I was referring to. Flickr's down for me for the moment, but there are whole collections of signs like that. They make me smile every time.
17: The NRA's evolution has been just the opposite. When I was a kid they were still an organization that a sane person could be interested in, although getting less so.
20, 22: Yeah, Ducks Unlimited sounds like the kind of thing Chopper's looking for.
I have seen those signs everywhere from Portland to Hawi.
Maybe they're calling Obama donors? I'd guess you were one, too
I wasn't actually. I got pissed about FISA or something and told them they couldn't have my money after all. Or maybe I donated in the primary and got pissy at general election time? I think I'm still on the lists from Dean's campaign. I'm just happy to have finally stopped getting emails from John Kerry.
I'm actually pretty pro-2nd Amendment which just goes to show how effectively the NRA alienate support. I'd join Chopper's lefty gun nut club. I always wanted to learn to shoot.
Taking the Culture Wars out into the bush... it's so crazy it just might work. Or at least take some of the suspense out of wondering when they're going to become shooting wars.