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2004 Archive
David Kopel,
November 30, 2004 at 2:10pm]
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Another Victim of Arafat
My recent media
column in the Rocky Mountain News
examined the press's moral bankruptcy in its
coverage of the death of the mass-murdering
terrorist Yassir Arafat. A reader sent his own
memories of one of Arafat's many crimes against
humanity:
When I was living in Israel from 1977-78 Yasir
Arafat sent a group of terrorists down from
Southern Lebanon in a small boat. They landed
north of Haifa and when they came ashore found a
young American woman by the name of Gail Rubin.
She was a nature photographer who had the
misfortune of taking photographs in the area
where Arafat's men beached their boat. (A
beautiful collection of her photographs was
published after her death under the title:
Psalmist with a Camera). After extracting
information from her about their location they
murdered her and proceeded to the coast highway.
There they commandered a bus and drove down the
highway, shooting at pedestrians and passing
cars. When the Israeli army shot out the tires
and stormed the bus the terrorists opened fire
on the passengers. Gail Rubin and the others
murdered that night were just a few of the
victims of Yasir Arafat. As you pointed out in
your piece on November 20 in the Rocky Mountain
News, he was a man responsible for death of
thousands of Jews and, because of the violence
he fomented, of thousands of Palestinians as
well. I agree with you that the news coverage
about Arafat after his death was unbelievably
distorted and cowardly.
David Kopel,
November 19, 2004 at 1:20am]
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Condoleeza Rice and the Second Amendment:
Condoleeza Rice has described herself as
"a Second Amendment absolutist." An
article in the
Montgomery Advertiser
explains why. She grew up in Birmingham,
Alabama, where her father, a Presbyterian
minister, was a strong advocate of civil
rights:
Rice has said memories of Birmingham's
racial turmoil shaped some of her core
values.
During the bombings of the summer of 1963,
her father and other neighborhood men
guarded the streets at night to keep white
vigilantes at bay. Rice said her staunch
defense of gun rights comes from those days.
She has argued that if the guns her father
and neighbors carried had been registered,
they could have been confiscated by the
authorities, leaving the black community
defenseless.
David
Kopel,
November 17, 2004 at 11:43am]
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Illinois Limits Gun Ban
Enforcement:
Chicago and several of its suburbs ban the possession of
handguns. A new law in Illinois prevents the conviction of a
person for violating the handgun ban, if the person used the
handgun for lawful self-defense on his property. The new law
(720 ILCS 5/24-10) states:
It is an affirmative defense
to a violation of a municipal ordinance that prohibits,
regulates, or restricts the private ownership of firearms
if the individual who is charged with the violation used
the firearm in an act of self-defense or defense of
another as defined in Sections 7-1 and 7-2 of this Code
when on his or her land or in his or her abode or fixed
place of business.
Although vehemently anti-gun
Governor Rod Blagojevich vetoed the bill, the Senate
over-rode the bill narrowly, and yesterday the House voted
to 85-30 to over-ride. The reform was
the result of the prosecution of a man who violated the
Wilmette handgun gun, and whose violation was discovered
after he shot a burglar during the burglar's second invasion
of the man's home.
In my Arizona Law Review article
"Lawyers,
Guns, and Burglars", I argue that one reason the United
States has a much lower rate of home invasion burglaries
than do countries such as the United Kingdom is that
American law allows crime victims to shoot home invaders.
The new Illinois law is a good first step on legal reform;
in the minority of states (such as New York) in which local
governments are allowed to ban certain types of guns, an
Illinois-style reform deserves careful consideration.
David
Kopel,
November 13, 2004 at 2:03am]
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Arafat. Godfather of
Terror:
A new one-minute
film from Honestreporting.com sums up the
legacy of the founder of modern terrorism.
With one despot already gone, another Middle East
despot may not survive much longer, according to a
report from the indispensible StrategyPage.com:
"With its military falling apart and all its
traditional sources of foreign aid drying up, the
Syrian dictatorship is sliding closer to
revolution, and disaster."
David
Kopel,
November 12, 2004 at 2:06am]
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Letter
To John Perry Barlow From A Pot-Smoking
Deadhead Bush Voter:
This
letter on Dean's World says it all.
A few of the great quotes:
"A lot of us grew up being told to
question authority, and a lot of that
authority we now question is the
left-wing orthodoxy of your
generation..."
"In other words, I've experienced
firsthand just how hateful, intolerant,
and irrational you guys can be when
someone dares to question your beliefs.
You guys often come off exactly like the
theocratic mullahs and the lock-step
fascists you claim to hate (but which
you, oddly enough, don't seem willing to
use American power to try to
overthrow)."
"You guys may have whipped a bunch of
dumbass kids into a rage by feeding them
Michael Moore style hate-propaganda, but
you equally p----- off a bunch of other
folks in the process who showed up to
vote just to spite you guys for being
such mean-spirited, reactionary,
paint-by-numbers, bigoted, closed-minded
jerks."
"It reached a point for a lot of us that
on election day, we were doing more than
just saying 'We want to re-elect George
Bush.' When we pulled that lever for
Bush, we were also just plain saying
'F--- YOU!'"
Were Deadheads who question the
authority of the official Questioners of
Authority among the micro-groups which
Karl Rove targeted? Has the independent
Question Authority voting bloc become a
counterforce against the Politically
Correct authority which proclaims its
love for diversity and tolerance, but is
more intolerant of intellectual
diversity than any other large group in
the United States?
David
Kopel,
November 11, 2004 at 4:23pm]
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Zogby's
Implausible Analysis of Catholic Voters:
Pax Christi, one of the leading
organizations of the Catholic Religious
Left, is
touting a new Zogby poll which
headlines "Catholic voters ultimately
turned-off by single issue messaging of
conservative Catholic leaders."
Horsefeathers.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Bush lost the Catholic vote 47-50 in
2000, and won the Catholic vote 52-47 in
2004, for a net Catholic gain of 3.3
million votes--a rather substantial
contribution to Bush's 3.5 million
margin of victory. Bush's strongest
Catholic support came from Catholics who
attended Mass weekly.
The Zogby/Pax Christi spin reminds me of
the many polls which claim that there
are more voters who will support a
candidate because he is a strong gun
control advocate than who will oppose
him because they support gun rights.
Many politicians, including Al Gore,
have entered early retirement because
they believed those polls. The actual
behavior of voters is a much more
reliable guide about how people vote.
David
Kopel,
November 9, 2004 at 12:49pm]
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How
Hillary Clinton Won the Presidential
Elections of 2008 and 2012:
That's the title of my newly-published
future history of the United States.
Looking back on the United States from a
French perspective in the year 2150, the
story explains how Mrs. Clinton won, and
how she governed so successfully. The
keys to her first election, it turned
out, were President Bush's victory in
the War on Terror, and the Supreme Court
decision over-ruling Roe v. Wade.
Characters who play a prominent--but
often unexpected--role during the
Rodham-Clinton administration include
Michael Moore, Glenn Reynolds, Anita
Hill, and Chief Justice Clarence Thomas.
The future history is tongue-in-cheek,
but many a truth is said in jest.
David Kopel,
November 4, 2004 at 3:03pm]
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Hillary's Vice-President:
Assuming that Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic Presidential
nomination in 2008, who will she pick as her running-mate? Some people
would say Illinois Senator Barack Obama--an excellent speaker who
could help bring out the black vote.
But I'm putting my money on Colorado's new Democratic Senator Ken
Salazar. Salazar is a very dull public speaker, but he's much closer
to the political center than Obama. And Hillary doesn't need a staunch
leftist to shore up her base.
Moreover, Salazar is a proven Democratic winner under tough
circumstances. His victory on Tuesday was the only Democratic victory
in a seriously contested open seat, and he won in a state which George
Bush carried.
A fifth-generation Coloradan, Salazar is of Mexican ancestry, and
would likely increase turn-out and Democratic voting among Americans
of Mexican ancestry. He might help Mrs. Clinton carry Colorado, New
Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona, all of which have large populations of
immigrants from Mexico.
Hispanics are not nearly as monolithic as some political pundits
claim; I doubt that Salazar's Mexican roots would mean a great deal to
Floridians who immigrated from Cuba, or to New Yorkers from Puerto
Rico.
But for the Democrats to win the electoral contest while being shut
out in the South, they're going to need to add some more states, and
Salazar could be part of a winning strategy to pick up the southern
Rocky Mountain states.
P.S. A couple points in response to reader comments. New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson would also be a good VP choice, for many of
the same reasons as Salazar. But he does have the burden of serving as
Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration. Another reader
suggests that North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, who was re-elected
this week, might make a stronger candidate in the general election
than Senator Clinton; he is more moderate, and both parties do well
nationally when they nominate Southern Governors.
David Kopel,
November 4, 2004 at 1:57pm]
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Gun Case in the Supreme Court; Sporting
Clays Case in Virginia:
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in U.S. v. Small.
The case involves interpretation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), which
prohibits firearms possession by any person "who has been convicted in
any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding
one year." The question for the Court is whether the statute applies
to foreign convictions, or only to American convictions.
Before buying a gun in Pennsylvania in 1998, Small had been convicted
in a Japanese court of a non-violent firearms offense punishable by
more than one year in prison. The procedures of the Japanese trial
were grossly divergent from American legal standards of due process.
Small is represented by Paul Boas (who gave the oral argument) and
Stephen Halbrook (a firearms law expert with a 3-0 record in Supreme
Court cases).
The Halbrook and Boas
opening brief argues that when Congress said "any court," Congress
meant "any state or federal court." Halbrook and Boas muster a host of
federal statutory and legislative history arguments to support their
point.
They also point out that Congress has explicitly found the Second
Amendment to be an individual right, and that Congress therefore would
not want a person to be deprived of one constitutional right based on
a foreign court conviction obtained contrary to other standards in the
Bill of Rights.
Another interesting
brief
on Halbrook's website is
the Virginia state case of Orion Sporting Group v. Nelson County.
The case is currently before the Virginia intermediate court of
appeals. Nelson County denied Orion a permit to use land for simulated
hunting. Halbrook argues that the denial violates the Virginia
Constitution, which guarantees the right to hunt.
Orion wants to operate a sporting clays facility. Sporting clays,
which first became popular in the 1980s, involves firing a shotgun at
clay disks. Sporting clays is usually considered much more difficult
than trap or skeet shooting, because the clays fly in a wide variety
of different paths--such as very steep arcs in the air, or gliding a
few feet off the ground. Sporting clay fields are natural land,
comparable to typical bird hunting terrain.
Bolstering Halbrook's argument are Virginia state laws which specify
how local governments may regulate firearms discharge. The Orion
sporting clays field would comply with all such laws.
The Nelson County government argues that since Orion is a corporation,
it is not a person, and therefore has no right to hunt. Halbrook
answers that "the constitutional right to hunt implies a right to make
and provide the goods and services that make hunting possible, just as
the right to a free press includes a right of corporations to print
newspapers or communicate on signs. Corporations manufacture firearms,
ammunition, clay pigeons, blaze orange clothing, and other items
necessary for hunting, and corporations sponsor hunting safety
classes, opportunities for simulated and actual hunting, and other
services. "
These days, even anti-gun groups claim that they support "gun safety."
An isolated 450 acre rural tract is certainly a safe place to shoot
sporting clays, and to improve the shooting skills that are important
to safe hunting.
David Kopel,
November 2, 2004 at 11:26am]
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Second Amendment Election Guide:
I've just published a
Second
Amendment guide looking at all U.S. Senate races, all Governor
races, and important U.S. of House of Representatives races. You can
use the guide to see how the Second Amendment is faring when election
returns come in tonight.
David
Kopel,
November 1, 2004 at 3:10pm]
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Michael Moore and Osama bin
Laden:
The Canadian web journal
PoliticsWatch.com has a new
article noting some of the many similarities between the
claims in Osama bin Laden's latest movie and the claims in
Michael Moore's latest movie.
The reporter asked me for an observation, and I said, "It's
a poor reflection on both of them. Michael Moore presents
numerous anti-American falsehoods in Fahrenheit, and Osama
bin Laden echoes them.
"It should not be surprising that bin Laden finds so much in
common with Michael Moore. After all, Moore says that Al
Qaeda terrorists in Iraq such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and
the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored terrorists who want to
prevent free elections in Iraq, are the equivalent of the
pro-freedom 'Minutemen' who won the American Revolution."
Although the Osama video will likely make Michael Moore even
more popular among totalitarians around the world, Moore's
reputation in central Europe may have suffered a new blow,
as a Czech citizen has just produced a
translation of the 4-page
summary of my report
59 Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11. Or as they say in the
Czech Republic,
59
lží dokumentu Fahrenheit 9/11. Update: It appears that
Michael Moore doesn't mind being an indirect speech-writer
for Osama bin Laden. Moore's final pre-election web
letter says, "did you get the feeling that he had a
bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in
Afghanistan?"
David Kopel,
November 1, 2004 at 10:31am]
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Federalists "sniped" at Western New
England College School of Law
Last Thursday, I spoke on the Second
Amendment, at Western New England College School of Law, in
Springfield, Massachusetts, at the invitation of the school's
Federalist Society. The night before, the Red Sox won the World
Series, and it was fun to be in the hotel bar, with plenty of Red Sox
fans, as the 86-year Curse was lifted. It was sort of like being an
eyewitness to the final scene of Beauty and the Beast—a very rare
event.
My speech the next day
also unusual had an unusual experience, although the WNEC Federalists
tell me that it happens all the time to them. For the first time ever,
I was "sniped." According to the WNEC Federalists, when they schedule
an event, the school administration quite often schedules a
counter-event, designed to keep the law students from hearing whatever
the Federalists have to say.
My speech was final event in the WNEC
Federalists' "Second Amendment Week." On Tuesday at noon, they showed
a video of the recent
debate in
London between the NRA's Wayne LaPierre and Rebecca Peters, a leading
scholar of the international gun prohibition lobby. At the last
minute, the administration scheduled an event at the exact same
time—on the highly controversial Solomon Amendment, which forbids
schools which receive federal funding from barring military
recruiters. Many law schools, including WNEC, would like to prohibit
the military from conducting campus interviews to recruit lawyers for
the Judge Advocate Generals Corps, because the military discriminates
against homosexuals.
The Federalists asked the
administration why the event had been scheduled to conflict with the
Federalist event. According to the Federalists, the administration
replied that the conflict was unavoidable, because of faculty
scheduling. The Federalists, and even some members of the faculty,
suggest that the administration's rationale was nonsense; faculty
schedules are the same every week. If the faculty speakers were
available last Tuesday at noon, they would also be available the next
Tuesday, at noon, or the Tuesday after that.
My speech was scheduled for Thursday
at noon. The Federalists entice students to attend events by offering
free pizza and soda, which the student Federalists pay for out of
their own pockets.
Just a few days before I arrived, an
announcement was made that PMBR, a company which offers classes
to prepare students for the bar exam, would be holding an
informational meeting about how PMBR could help students pass the bar.
As is the norm at PMBR events, free pizza was offered.
When the PMBR representative arrived
on campus, a Federalist heard him remarking to his assistant about how
unusual the WNEC administration's request had been: the administration
had contacted him on very short notice, and insisted that he make his
presentation on a particular date and a particular time. The date and
time just happened to be the exact time when I was scheduled to speak.
Now WNEC does not graduate any
students in December, so none of its students would be preparing for
the bar exam until next summer. So why would the WNEC administration
be so insistent that PMBR make its presentation on a particular
Thursday at noon—as opposed to the next day, or the next week?
According to the U.S. News & World
Report rankings, WNEC is a "tier 4" law school, meaning that it is in
the bottom quartile. A professor at another (mid-ranking) school once
explained to me that political correctness and hostility to
intellectual diversity are more intense at the lower-ranking law
schools than at the higher-ranking schools. At the high end, the
leftist faculty are influential in legal scholarship, and in the
broader world. Accordingly, they can afford to be tolerant of a few
conservative or libertarian faculty or students. But in the
lower-ranking law schools, power over of the school itself is the only
power the faculty have, and they are often especially rigid about
attempting to suppress diverse points of view.
Notwithstanding the "sniping"
attempt, about 55 students showed up for my lecture, including (to
their credit) some students who were well-known members of the campus
Left.
Like many of the members of the
Volokh Conspiracy, I have spoken at Federalist events all over the
country, at law schools all over the prestige rankings. But this was
the only time I have ever been sniped.
WNEC charges its students $29,000 a
year in tuition. Perhaps the administration might offer the students a
better value for the very hefty tuition if, instead of sniping
Federalist events, the administration celebrated intellectual
diversity, and stopped trying to distract its students from hearing
non-Left points of view. Why not schedule campus programs so that
students can attend both events, rather than having to miss one?
After all, a good lawyer is
comfortable with being confronted by the best arguments of her
intellectual opponents. A law school which tries to shield students
from speakers who dissent from politically correct ideology does a
very poor job of training lawyers to engage in intellectual combat,
which is an essential skill of a lawyer.
Oct.
23, 2004
HOLY
BIAS, BATMAN! [Dave Kopel]
Have the New York Times and other media been fair in covering the controversy
over Catholic Bishops urging Catholics to vote pro-life? Not entirely,
I argue in my new media column.
Posted at
09:41 PM
Oct.
22, 2004
ME,
.INF [Dave Kopel]
What file extension am I? "You are .inf. You are informative. When you are gone
you make life very difficult for others." What operating system am I? "You are
HP-UX. You're still strong despite the passage of time. Though few understand
you, those who do love you deeply and appreciate you." Which Nigerian spammer am
I? "YOU ARE AN ACCOUNTANT WITH THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP. YOU WISH TO
REMIT $21 MILLION TO MY COMPANY FOR SAFEKEEPING. YOU ENJOY BICYCLING AND TYPING
IN ALL-CAPS." To learn more about yourself,
try these on-line
quizzes.
Posted at
12:33 PM
Oct.
21, 2004
DEBUNKING MOORE [Dave Kopel]
A new college student activist website,
Must Have Info, promotes campus screenings of the movie "Farenhype 9/11,"
which debunks the lies in "Farenheit 9/11." Among the people appearing in the "Farenhype"
are Ed Koch, Zell Miller, and myself.
My written report "Fifty-nine
Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11" now has over one million page views. There is a
4-page summary in
PDF which you can distribute for free. The 4-page summary
is also available in
Spanish, in Italian,
and in Swedish. There is also a
French
version of the full-length report, covering deceits 1-33, and supplemented
by many photographs and documents.
Posted at
03:08 PM
Oct.
16, 2004
FOR
YOUR VIEWING [Dave Kopel]
A new 14-minute film, now
available for web viewing, uses Michael Moore's film-making techniques to
examine The War of the Ring: "Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn
administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep....He
looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the
Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs
that attacked the castle were actually Uruk-hai who were spawned in and financed
by Isengard. "
Posted at
10:12 AM
Oct.
14, 2004
AK-47 [Dave Kopel]
Ramesh is wrong but that doesn't mean he should apologize. The AK-47 (an
automatic rifle) is not and never has been illegal; but it is very severely
regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934, which covers automatic firearms.
The (now-expired) 1994 Clinton ban on so-called "assault weapons" had nothing to
do with automatic weapons, including the AK-47. The ban applied to about 200
firearms with a military appearance, yet had nothing to do with real automatic
military weapons. Kerry makes a big deal about being a hunter (he wants to "hunt
and kill terrorists," supposedly), but the "assault weapon" ban was about the
cosmetics of ordinary guns, not about automatics, as
I detailed for NRO.
Posted at
01:56 AM
Oct.
13, 2004
MARRYING UP [Dave Kopel]
With all due respect to
my esteemed webmistress KJL, Kerry's "marrying up" line was a disaster. For
the voters who are deciding on character rather than issues (many of the
undecided and uninformed voters), the line was a stark reminder that Bush is
still married to the girl of his youth, through all the ups and downs of his
alcoholism and career. Bush did not "marry up"; he married down for the woman he
loved. Kerry, in contrast, married up for his first wife, dropped her, and then
married up big-time for his arrogant billionairess second wife. Which guy would
you trust for steady leadership? Hugh
Hewitt gives Kerry an "A" for his response to the question, but I think Hugh
is dead wrong. Game, set, and match to GWB.
Posted at
11:10 PM
Oct.
10, 2004
ALTERNATIVE READING [Dave Kopel]
The new issue of Liberty magazine includes a
detailed analysis of Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Bandarik's
swing through Colorado, by Colorado writer Ari Armstrong. Armstrong discusses
candidate Bandarik's disturbing answers to some questions which I posed to
Bandarik on a public television interview show--regarding Bandarik's refusal to
pay federal income taxes, and Bandarik's support for a man who was convicted of
threatening a judge.
Besides writing for Liberty, Armstrong publishes his own online magazine,
Colorado Freedom Report. It's
filled with interesting stories about federal interference with Colorado's
medical marijuana law, Amendment 36 (the initiative to split Colorado's
electoral votes), and of Al Franken's recent visit to Colorado. My favorite new
article, however, is a mostly
favorable review
of the Colorado premiere of Farenhype
9/11, a movie with debunks the lies in Fahrenheit 9/11, and which features
Frank Gaffney, David Frum, David Hardy, Ed Koch, Zell Miller, Ann Coulter, Dick
Morris, and yours truly.
Posted at
03:45 PM
Oct. 9,
2004
FYI
[Dave Kopel]
My latest media column
examines the draft hoax. Along the way, I point to good work by Beldar Blog,
INDC Journal, Snopes.com, and two anti-draft websites with intellectual
integrity. And I show that John Kerry is the candidates who has advocated
mandatory national service for young people, although he is now trying to cover
up his proposal for coercion.
Posted at
07:36 PM
Oct. 6,
2004
MY
FOCUS GROUP [Dave Kopel]
I watched the VP debate with a Boulder, Colorado, focus group, consisting of my
relatives and neighbors. Except for me, none of them was considering voting for
Bush. Some were confirmed Kerry voters, and others were undecided between Kerry
and a third party (Nader or Green Party candidate David Cobb).
The verdict: two members of the focus group (one a solid Kerry vote, the other a
solid Nader vote) were impressed with Edwards' poise, and liked him more. The
majority of the group, however, thought that Cheney outperformed Edwards. The
former was solid, experienced, and comfortable in his job. The latter was glib,
superficial, and platitudinous. The solid Kerry votes remain solid, while swing
voters who were considering a third party are now more likely to vote third
party, particularly because they found Edwards too aggressive on foreign policy
and too pro-Israel.
Posted at
12:28 AM
Sept.
7, 2004
RE
KERRY'S GUN [Dave Kopel]
S. 1431, co-sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, says that an "assault weapon" is any
semi-automatic rifle or shotgun with a "pistol grip." According to the bill,
"(42) PISTOL GRIP- The term 'pistol grip' means a grip, a thumbhole stock, or
any other characteristic that can function as a grip." Kerry's new
semi-automatic gun has a protrusion below the stock, which a person could grip.
The protrusion is not a "pistol grip" in the ordinary meaning of the term, but
it is a "pistol grip" as defined by S. 1431.
Posted at
03:04 PM
Aug.
24, 2004
RE:
MYSTERY [Dave Kopel]
A little bit ago, I asked why Kerry's Silver Star was signed at least twelve
years after the fact by the Secretary of the Navy. FrontPage offers an excellent
article
by Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer examining the issue, and many other
anomalies about Kerry's Silver Star citation.
Posted at
01:10 PM
SILVER STAR MYSTERY [Dave Kopel]
On John Kerry's website, one can read
the document
awarding him the Silver Star for his actions on Feb. 28, 1969. Strangely, the
document is signed by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman. Yet the Secretaries of
the Navy in 1969 through 1974 were John Chafee and John Warner.
Not until 1981 did John Lehman become Secretary of the Navy. Does anyone
have an explanation for why Kerry's Silver Star award letter appears to have
come at least 12 years after the incident in question? Certainly the naval
bureaucracy can move slowly, but a 12 year delay seems strange.
Posted at
06:29 AM
Aug.
14, 2004
MEDIA AND KERRY-CAMBODIA [Dave Kopel]
Another important daily newspaper breaks the media vow of silence on Kerry's
Cambodia Christmas Caper:
my latest media analysis column in the Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post.
Posted at
11:11 AM
Aug. 6,
2004
SWELL VIDEO [Dave Kopel]
There is a free preview on the Net (2:46) for "A
Question of Balance." It presents some highlights of a firearms policy
symposium held in London in 2003. You can also get details about the
full 56-minute DVD, which
offers the best excerpts from the day-long presentation. Speakers include
Stephen Halbrook, Don Kates, Mary Stange, and myself.
Posted at
11:06 AM
July 5,
2004
MOORE & MOVEON [Dave Kopel]
MoveOn.org is running an "astroturf" campaign in support of Fahrenheit 911. As
detailed by "doubleplusungood
infotainment," the MoveOn has succeeded in getting newspapers to publish
pre-written form letters to the editor. Most newspapers work hard to avoid
publication of such phony "grassroots" letters, which are pushed by unethical
groups on all sides of the political spectrum. Smaller papers are more
vulnerable to such letters, since they do not have the staff to fully
investigate all suspicious letters.
Posted at
03:54 PM
June
22, 2004
REAGAN, 1982 [Dave Kopel]
How did the media cover Reagan in June 1982? As I detail in my latest Rocky
Mountain News
column, the media trashed Reagan's foreign policy of peace through strength,
and fawned over the Soviet-manipulated "peace" protestors who were holding
rallies all over Europe and the United States. Sort of reminds you of the
present, doesn't it?
Posted at
01:12 PM
June
19, 2004
JUNE
19 [Dave Kopel]
Today in history, on June 19, 1953, the traitors Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
executed at Sing Sing prison. Although Communists and others whose philosophy is
hate-America-first bewail the Rosenbergs as victims, the Rosenbergs chose to
betray their country and to assist a genocidal tyrant. The fact that you are
free today to study
the debate
about the Rosenbergs is only because the Rosenbergs their fellow traitors failed
in their efforts to impose Stalinism on the entire world.
Posted at
06:07 PM
May 27,
2004
"JUSTICE" IN ZIMBABWE [Dave Kopel]
According to ZWNews,
the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe has filed murder charges against a white farmer
who apparently shot one person in an armed mob of people who had invaded his
land. The Mugabe regime
has been
disarming potential victims of government violence (including white
farmers), and has been
stealing land
to give to thuggish young gangsters who support the tyrant in exchange for
impunity to rape, rob, murder, and pillage the rest of the population.
Posted at
10:13 PM
LISTEN [Dave Kopel]
Here's what I talked about yesterday. In the evening, I gave a
tribute to
Harry Truman at the Boulder County Democrats annual Truman Dinner. Before that,
I appeared on WBUR's national program "On
Point," where Jim Hightower and I debated the influence of Michael Moore.
Our discussion begins at 17:30 into the show, following an interview with Frank
Rich.
Posted at
10:08 PM
May 25,
2004
MOORE RADIO [Dave Kopel]
On Wednesday, May 26, on WBUR Radio, Boston, I will be discussing Michael Moore,
his new movie Farenheit 911, and his role in American culture. The show
airs from 7-8 p.m. Eastern Time, and is available live and archived
here. Listener call-ins are allowed.
The program is "On Point," a syndicated National Public Radio program hosted by
Tom Ashbrook. The show will open with a segment with New York Times columnist
Frank Rich. Then Jim Hightower and I will talk about Moore.
Posted at
08:49 PM
KERRY'S NOMINATION MISTAKE [Dave Kopel]
According to the Boston Globe, Senator Kerry had the following
reaction to Republican criticism of his plan to delay accepting his party's
nomination:
The senator chuckled at the
criticism. "Once again, the Republicans don't know history, and they don't
know facts," he said. "The truth is that it used to be that the convention,
after nomination, traveled to the home or the state of the nominee to inform
them they've been nominated. Woodrow Wilson was at his house in Princeton,
N.J.; Harry Truman was in Independence, Mo.," he said.
In fact, it is Senator Kerry who
apparently does not know the history and facts. On July 14, 1948, President
Truman's name
was placed in nomination at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia by
Missouri's Governor, Phil M. Donnelly. Just as Governor Donnelly was nominating
President Truman, President Truman and his family arrived in Philadelphia by
train. The Democratic delegates voted for Truman's nomination that night. The
next night, July 15, 1948, President Truman came to Convention Hall in
Philadelphia, and accepted his party's nomination, delivering a blistering
speech which set him on the course for victory in November.
As for Wilson, Kerry is closer to the truth. The 1912 Democratic Convention in
Baltimore voted for the nomination to Woodrow Wilson on the 46th ballot on July
1. Wilson was formally
notified of the offer on August 7, 1912,
by a
convention delegation which traveled to Wilson's summer home in Sea Girt,
New Jersey (not Princeton).
Posted at
06:16 PM
May 22,
2004
A
SHOUT-OUT FOR FRANKEN [Dave Kopel]
My new
Rocky Mountain News media column looks at Air America. The verdict: "The
O'Franken Factor" is a strong show, equal to many of its right-wing
counterparts. Randi Rhodes, on the other hand, offers an amazing combination of
stupidity, banality, and smugness.
Posted at
07:41 PM
May 20,
2004
"THE
CRISIS" [Dave Kopel]
Rob S. Rice is a
classicist and poet whose poems on the current war have earned the favor
of OpinionJournal,
among others. Dr. Rice also helps me produce my monthly
free e-mail newsletter on
Second Amendment issues. Here's Dr. Rice's newest verse.
The Crisis
By Rob S. Rice
In these dull dreary days the truly brave man knows
That steel, true steel, is tempered by blows.
Fools sneer and deride, let them cheer for our foes
So much harder steel that they temper with blows.
Honor is eternal, though fools disregard
The tests they despise, or consider 'too hard.'
Or in scheming for power they chatter, like crows,
But steel, true steel, is still tempered by blows.
We face scheming murderers with calm defiance.
They have soulless evil, we have self-reliance.
They butcher civilians, their cruelty shows.
Our steel, true steel, is tempered by blows.
Let them come and dare face us, or run, if they choose.
In battle or treachery, the wicked shall lose.
For the acts of their madness are in truth their death throes.
They'll die on our steel that they've tempered, with blows.
May 19,
2004
EXCOMMUNICATION FREQUENCY [Dave Kopel]
When was the last time an American Catholic Bishop actually excommunicated an
elected official? On April 16, 1962, the Archbishop of New Orleans, Joseph F.
Rummel, excommunicated three men who had persistently defied and interfered with
the Archbishop's order to integrate the parochial schools of New Orleans. The
three men were State Judge Leander H. Perez, State Senator E.W. Gravolet, and a
racist citizen activist B.J. Gaillot.
Two days later, President John F. Kennedy was asked at a press conference, "Mr.
President, would you care to comment on developments in New Orleans where the
Archbishop excommunicated three people for hindering school desegregation?"
He replied: "No, the action of the Archbishop related to private acts and
private individuals, which did not involve public acts or public policy, so that
carrying out the spirit of the Constitution which provides a separation between
church and state, I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment on that."
Excommunication aims to make the excommunicant aware of the grave nature of his
sin, and the peril to his soul. At least for Perez, the excommunication
eventually worked. In 1968 he repented his fervent racism, which was extreme
even compared to other segregationists. He died in 1969 and received a Catholic
funeral.
May 16,
2004
RC
VOTING GUIDES [Dave Kopel]
Whether or not Bishop Sheridan's edict about the voting duties of Catholics is
wise, it is not unprecedented. In July 1949, Pope Pius XII declared that any
person who consciously advanced Communism was “without question excommunicated.”
The declaration was consistent with the 1937 statement of Pope Pius XI that any
form of support for Communism was sinful. Voting for a Communist Party candidate
would obviously be a form of conscious support for Communism
April
9, 2004
SECOND AMENDMENT ELECTION [Dave Kopel]
This election year, there is no candidate who is more deserving of support from
Second Amendment supporters all over the nation that
Gary Marbut, who is running for a
state house of representatives seat in Montana. As I detail in the
foreword
to Gary's new book Gun Laws of Montana
Gary's leadership of the Montana Shooting Sports
Association has not only led to the enactment of outstanding gun laws in
Montana, those laws have set excellent examples for other states to follow.
Should Gary be elected to the Montana House, he will be in an even better
position to fight for good laws in Montana, whose benefit will redound to
gunowners everywhere.
March
18, 2004
MEL'S NEXT [Dave Kopel]
Folks who would like to preview the general plot background for Mel Gibson's
forthcoming (I hope) movie on the Jewish war of independence against Syria might
want to check out
my 2002 column on the military history of the war, and
my 2000 column providing a broader historical perspective.
Feb.
26, 2004
GUNS
IN MISSOURI [Dave Kopel]
The gun-prohibition lobby has suffered a
major defeat in the Missouri supreme court. Today the court ruled that
Missouri's new law to create concealed-handgun permits for licensed, trained
citizens who pass a background check. The law was enacted last fall, when the
Missouri legislature over-rode the governor's veto. The gun-prohibition lobbies
quickly filed suit against the new law, shopped for an anti-gun judge, and
obtained a temporary injunction against the concealed-carry law. The Missouri
supreme court overturned the injunction, thereby allowing the law to go into
effect.
Article I, section 23, of the Missouri constitution states: "That the right of
every citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property,
or when lawfully summoned in aid of the civil power, shall not be questioned;
but this shall not justify the wearing of concealed weapons." The obvious
meaning of the final clause is that concealed carry is not part of the right to
keep and bear arms. The Missouri legislature could prohibit concealed carry
entirely, could allow unrestricted concealed carry, or could allow concealed
carry under certain circumstances. The Missouri legislature chose the third
option: prohibiting concealed carry except for people who are given a license
according to state standards.
The gun prohibition groups made the preposterous argument--with the trial judge
in Saint Louis accepted--that the constitutional clause forbids concealed carry
under all circumstances. The Missouri supreme court rejected this absurd claim.
The court wrote: "There is no constitutional prohibition against the wearing of
concealed weapons; there is only a prohibition against invoking the right to
keep and bear arms to justify the wearing of concealed weapons." A contrary
decision would have made it illegal for even police officers to carry concealed
guns.
Not long ago, the New Mexico supreme court rejected a similarly nonsensical
claim against a new concealed-carry law in the Land of Enchantment.
The Missouri supreme court did rule that the new law cannot go into effect in
four counties, because the law, at least arguably, imposes an unfunded mandate
on local law enforcement for the cost of issuing the permits. The Missouri
constitution's "Hancock Amendment" prohibits unfunded mandates. Sheriffs are
allowed to charge a fee of up to $100, but a few sheriffs have argued that the
fee is inadequate. It is expected that the issue regarding appropriate fees will
not be difficult to fix by the state legislature.
Posted at
05:37 PM
READY, AIM... [Dave Kopel]
The Senate is currently debating a bill to prohibit junk lawsuits against
firearms companies. A variety of amendments are being proposed. Here are some
resources for background on the issues:
Summary of problems with the lawsuits.
Why protecting Second Amendment rights from abusive lawsuits is similar to
protecting First Amendment rights from abusive lawsuits, as the Supreme Court
did in New York Times v. Sullivan.
Extending the 1994 ban on so-called "assault weapons," which is due to sunset in
September 2004.
Redefining "cop-killer" bullets so as to allow prohibition of ordinary rifle
ammunition (coming soon on NRO).
Authorizing federal regulation of gun shows, in a manner imposing gun
registration on all sales at gun shows, and allowing gun shows to be eliminated
administratively.
Requiring gun dealers to sell gun locks with guns. Unnecessary, since federal
law already requires that gun dealers make locks available to customers.
Posted at
01:51 PM
Feb. 3,
2004
DEAN
[Dave Kopel]
Howard Dean's collapse is much worse than Hart (1987/88) or Muskie (1972). Hart
in 1987 was the front-runner, but nobody was claiming that he had a lock on the
nomination. His biggest endorsers were people like the Speaker of the Florida
House--rather than former nominees of the national party. As for Muskie, he went
on to win New Hampshire with 46% (but McGovern's 37% was portrayed as moral
victory), and he later won the Illinois primary with 63%. Will Howard Dean win a
single state?
Posted at
11:06 PM
IMPORTANT [Dave Kopel]
Last September, I wrote a
NRO article
criticizing the legal strategy in the litigation over the Morton Grove handgun
ban, in the early 1980s. Although I contacted several people who were involved
in the litigation, and who had personal knowledge of the case, I made a serious
error in judgment by failing to contact Victor Quilici, the attorney whose
strategy my article criticized. Mr. Quilici has written a
response to
my article, which provides a different perspective events in Morton Grove, and
which I should have included in my original article.
Another response
has been written by Robert Kukla, who has served as Executive Director of the
NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Mr. Kukla support's Mr. Quilici's
recollection of the Morton Grove history. I urge all readers of my original
article (and anyone else interested in the history of the Morton Grove cases) to
read what Mr. Quilici and Mr. Kukla have to say.
Posted at
12:18 PM
Feb. 2,
2004
SECOND AMENDMENT AND KERRY [Dave Kopel]
After winning the New Hampshire primary, John Kerry
told
CNN, "I've been a hunter all my life, and I'm a gun owner, and I've never
thought of going hunting with an AK-47. I believe in the Second Amendment."
Indeed, while Kerry has almost always voted with the anti-gun lobby, on May 17,
2000, he was part of the 69-30 Senate majority that passed a non-binding
resolution urging respect for Second Amendment rights. The resolution,
Amendment
no.
3150 by Senator Lott began: "(a) FINDINGS.--The Senate makes the following
findings: (1) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects
the right of each law-abiding United States citizen to own a firearm for any
legitimate purpose, including self-defense or recreation." The resolution
concluded that "It is the sense of the Senate that:...The right of each
law-abiding United States citizen to own a firearm for any legitimate purpose,
including self-defense or recreation, should not be infringed."
Senator Kerry
has pledged that as President he would only appoint judges who support Roe
v. Wade. Accordingly, it is reasonable to ask Senator Kerry if he will promise
to appoint only judges who agree with Kerry that "The Second Amendment to the
United States Constitution protects the right of each law-abiding United States
citizen to own a firearm for any legitimate purpose, including self-defense or
recreation."
Posted at
04:04 PM
Jan.
27, 2004
PREDICTIONS [Dave Kopel]
My prediction: Dean 30, Kerry 29, Edwards 19, Lieberman 12, Clark 9, Kucinich 1,
Sharpton 0. Second prediction: No-one drops out between now and Feb. 3. Instead,
every candidate looks for a state to win on Super Tuesday. Clark goes all-out in
Oklahoma, Edwards in South Carolina, Kerry in Missouri or Arizona, Dean in
Delaware or New Mexico. Lieberman tries to place or show in enough states so
that he can survive until early March, and win Florida and New York. And because
South Carolina will have a real choice among several serious candidates, the
state's blacks decide not to waste their vote on Al Charlatan, who finishes
under 10%.
Posted at
11:18 AM
Jan.
20, 2004
NUTS? [Dave Kopel]
The media is certainly capable of artificially inflating a trivial error into a
disaster that can wreck a political career--as the media did when Dan Quayle
used a spelling of "potato" that was proper in the mid-twentieth century, but
which had become archaic by the 1990s. Howard Dean's speech to his supporters in
Iowa last night strikes me as even less important, substantively, than "potato(e)."
Dean struck a tone that's more typical of a college football coach than of a
typical presidential candidate--but the speech hardly showed that Dean was going
crazy, or having a breakdown, or any other mental problem. John Kerry's use of
the "f-word" was likewise more appropriate for a locker room than for a
Presidential interview--but I don't think that Kerry's error in tone proves that
he is unfit to be President. If I lived in New Hampshire, I would vote for
Lieberman, but if I were inclined to vote for Dean, the Iowa speech would not
make me waver in the slightest.
Posted at
05:03 PM
Jan.
14, 2003
DC
PRIMARY [Dave Kopel]
In the non-binding District of Columbia Democratic Presidential primary, Al
Sharpton finished second, with 34 percent of the vote. Carol Moseley Braun came
in third, with 12 percent. So faced with a choice between a black candidate who
was a former U.S. Senator with a very liberal voting record, and a black
candidate who is a racist hate-monger who incited murder and made knowingly
false accusations of rape, D.C. voters preferred the latter by about 3:1.
Posted at
01:22 PM
Jan.
12, 2004
FENCE POLITICS [Dave Kopel]
Various groups which favor the extermination of Israel are complaining about
Israel's security fence, which is designed to protect the Israelis from
Palestinian terrorists. The pro-terror groups complain that the fence is a form
of discrimination against the Palestinians. If a protective barrier against
deadly invaders is "discrimination," then the Great Wall of China was
"discrimination" against the Mongols; and the Maginot Line was French
"discrimination" against the Germans. Like the Israeli security fence, the
Maginot Line was partly built in disputed territory, since the Germans claimed
that Alsace and Lorraine, which had many German-speaking people, properly
belonged to Germany. France acquired these provinces after Germany started and
lost a war against France in 1914--just as Israel acquired Judea and Samaria
after Jordan started and lost a war against Israel in 1967. As Cliff May points
out
in his latest column, many other nations have protective fences--including
India, the southern U.S., and South Korea. Like Israel's fence, India's fence is
for protection against Islamic terrorists, and is built in disputed territory,
Kashimir. But it is only Israel that is going to get hauled before the mis-named
International Court of Justice for the crime of defending itself.
Posted at
02:54 PM
Jan. 6,
2004
MEDIA NOTES [Dave Kopel]
My latest media column highlights the two best weblogs in Colorado, and
discusses the junk science behind the fabricated hysteria over depleted uranium
ordnance.
Posted at
02:01 PM
Jan. 5,
2004
WHAT
WE HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO [Dave Kopel]
Wait till Dean is campaigning for the Arab vote in Michigan. He'll say his
favorite book of the Old Testament is Sura 17, the "Night Journey" to Jerusalem.
However, Dean will favor a modern version in which Mohammed traveled from Mecca
to Jerusalem by bicycle.
Posted at
05:56 AM
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