From the Chicago Tribune:

Among the many groups that opposed Barack Obama’s presidential race, few were more
certain or vehement than gun-rights organizations. "Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history," the National Rifle Association announced. . . .

So it's no stunner that after a year in office, the president is getting hammered by people who have no use for his policy on firearms. The surprise is that the people attacking him are those who favor gun control, not those who oppose it.
. . .

[The president] has proposed nothing in the way of new federal restrictions on firearms. Even the "assault weapons" ban signed by President Bill Clinton — and allowed to expire in 2004 — has no visible place on Obama's agenda.


Not only that, he's approved changes that should gladden the hearts of gun-rights supporters, a group that includes me. He signed a law permitting guns to be taken into national parks. He signed another allowing guns as checked baggage on Amtrak. He acted to preserve an existing law limiting the use of government information on firearms it has traced. . .

Obama is a long way from being anti-gun. This is not because he has fond memories of sitting in a deer stand. . . . It's because his mother didn't raise a fool.

Be sure to check out the full article and tell us your reaction.

As a citizen and voter, I expect a minimum level of common sense and pragmatism from the people elected to represent me. After so many years of bitter disappointment, I have no idea why.
 
For example, my home state of Oklahoma has the dubious honor of having the largest state budget deficit in the nation. A reasonable person might assume our elected representatives are at this very minute hard at work trying to solve this urgent problem. A reasonable person would be wrong.
 
Two Democratic state lawmakers want a sales tax holiday on the purchase of guns. Sen. John Sparks, and Rep. Wes Hilliard, of Sulphur, have introduced Senate Bill 1322, also called the Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday Act. It would set a sales tax break on handguns, rifles or shotguns starting at 12:01 a.m. on the third Friday in August until midnight the following Sunday. Oklahoma is facing a revenue failure for the current fiscal year and expects to have 20 percent less to spend next fiscal year due to declining state revenue.

"I thought it was a perfect way to reduce the barrier to exercising our Second Amendment rights and saw no reason to delay trying to implement the new law,” Sparks said. "Recessions come and go. There will always be an excuse to not do something like this.”

In a state known for the systemic moronitosis of its elected leaders, this just may be the most ridiculous statement uttered by a politician this year. Anyone who thinks a normal, non item- or category-specific sales tax constitutes a "barrier to exercising our Second Amendment rights" is either a dunce or a jackass. If I were forced to pay some sort of punitive gun-specific sales tax I could perhaps see it. But I don't. I pay the same state sales tax for a gun as I would a package of crayons for my children. And as a gun owner and a Second Amendment absolutist, but more importantly as a citizen, I don't believe I deserve any special tax break when my fellow citizens are still forced to pay sales tax on everything else.

Special interest pandering to gun owners is still special-interest pandering, and shamelessly wrapping it in the Second Amendment doesn't make it right.

From the Examiner:
In a November survey, the Consumer Reports Money and Shopping Blog  . . . revealed a number of items new to the [poll] that gifts respondents said they’d be ‘thrilled’ to receive: boots, purses (designer, no doubt), pajamas and guns.

“It's a feeling of confidence, like having a shield,” Tony Orifici, a salesman at Dunedin's Florida Survivalist gun shop, told the St. Petersburg Times. “Grandpa wants a shotgun. Mom wants a revolver. ... We had a family come in and buy an AR-15, a shotgun and two handguns, one for each of them . . . .”

But unlike trendy toys and gadgets, there are no fashionable brands of armaments.
“It's like a candy store. You come in and decide what flavor you want,” one gun store manager told the Times. “You might like Fords. I might like Chevys.”

So, what flavor do you want?

Here's an interesting story via the blog of former Field & Stream editor and noted vampire expert Scott Bowen.
 
Researchers at the University of Rochester have discovered that exposure to nature can actually change how we view the world.
 
From the story:
"...a recent article by researchers at the University of Rochester shows that experiences with nature can affect more than our mood. In a series of studies, Netta Weinstein, Andrew Przybylski, and Richard Ryan, University of Rochester, show that ...

... exposure to nature can affect our priorities and alter what we think is important in life. In short, we become less self-focused and more other-focused. Our value priorities shift from personal gain, to a broader focus on community and connection with others.

"...These results are part of a growing body of evidence showing the powerful effect of natural experiences. And, for people like me who enjoy spending time in nature, the results are encouraging. However, when viewed within a larger societal context, the results also provide an intriguing perspective on some noted shifts in the values and priorities or Americans over the past 40 years. People living in the United States are spending much less time outdoors today than ever before. Data from a variety of sources show that on average, Americans are spending less time outdoors today than they did 30 or even 20 years ago. Children tend to spend more time outside than do adults, but that number too is declining. With the growth of Internet, social networking, on-demand programming, and computer games, there is more to keep us inside than there is to draw us out into the natural environment."

We've discussed the topic on this very blog a number of times, so far be it from me to continue beating a dead horse. It is, however, nice to see some empirical data to support our anecdotal certainty that the therapeutic and life-enhancing qualities of an HD-free lifestyle are very real. That's why I've always believed that people who hunt, fish, hike, birdwatch or engage in any other nature-based activity tend to be - on average - much happier, less stressed and more laid-back than their angst-ridden concrete-dwelling cousins.

It's becoming an accepted scientific certitude that having some individual relationship with nature - in whatever form it takes - is a touchstone of a healthy, well-adjusted person. The big question is: how to achieve it? Greener urban planning? School programs? More public land? Shooting the Playstation and smashing the cell phone? Good ideas, all.

But I see it as a perfect, gift-wrapped opportunity to promote the holistic and mental-health qualities of hunting and fishing. Hell, market it as shotgun-based Tai Chi. Whatever it takes to get the message out there, because the old paradigms and the old arguments - however valid they still are - are falling on deaf ears. Reinvention, re-making, rebranding; that's the lubricant of modern society's engine. Change, adapt or die. May not be right, but it is what it is, and if I were a state game agency, a hunting or fishing/based conservation organization or, yes, a hook-and-bullet magazine, I'd be firing my marketing department if they didn't run with all this new research. I hate to say it, but we've got to figure out a way to make hunting and fishing...trendy.