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“Trump plan calls for nationwide concealed carry and an end to gun bans”

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The Washington Post:

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump — who said he has a concealed carry permit — called for the expansion of gun rights Friday, including making those permits applicable nationwide.
 
In a position paper published on his website Friday afternoon, Trump called for the elimination of gun and magazine bans, labeling them a “total failure.”
 
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” Trump wrote.

Where did this come from? Perhaps Trump’s people read this and similar articles from libertarians. Gun rights is a gimme issue for Trump. He can use it to get the support of libertarians, and of conservatives who lean libertarian, without alienating his other supporters.

It’s a pity that the other main Republican candidates are so inept by comparison in their use of modern media.

(Via The Right Coast.)

More on Politics and Social Media

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…some thoughts from the UK:

A lot of what happens on Facebook, as with Twitter, is “virtue signalling” showing off to your friends about how right on you are.

via the Assistant Village Idiot, who says:

I mentioned this long ago in terms of Not In Our Name, and also suggested that Jonathan Haidt overlooks those places where liberals are just as purity vs. disgust* concerned as conservatives. (See also environmentalism, vegetarianism, NASCAR and a host of other disgust issues, including, I think wealth – though that is more ambiguous in both camps.

*And  authority driven, another trait supposedly more common among conservatives.   The imprimatur of Roberth Reich or Paul Krugman is enough in economics; climate change catastrophe is based on choice of authorities.

See also my related post  Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is…do you, Mr Priebus?

 

Worthwhile Reading & Viewing

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Propaganda:  turning human beings into automatically responding machines

Victor Davis Hanson:  Progressive mass hysteria, enabled by the Internet

Sarah Hoyt thinks we are suffering from  the political equivalent of an autoimmune disease

Tolerance for ambiguity  can be an important career asset

It seems that color movie film was often used in early cinema, going back to the 1890s

If  railroads  are a gauge of a society’s health, then it sounds like  Sweden is in serious trouble.  See also  railway socialism and safety

The story of  Pyrex

A visit to the Le Creuset factory

Virtual reality for football training

Once there was a “know-nothing” movement in America;    today, we have the “know-betters”

Why we should study the ancient Greeks

Still Not Finished With Sad Puppies

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With some apologies because this is not a matter which particularly touches me, or the books that I write, I am moved to write about this imbroglio one more time, because it seems that it didn’t end with the official Hugo awards slate of nominees being finalized with many good and well-written published works by a diverse range of authors being put forward. The Hugo nominations appear for quite a good few years to have been dominated by one particular publisher, Tor. And it seems that the higher levels of management at Tor did not take a diminishment of their power over the Hugo nominees at all gracefully. (This post at my book blog explains the ruckus with links, for those who may be in the dark.)

A Ms. Irene Gallo, who apparently billed as a creative director at Tor, replied thusly on her Facebook page, when asked about what the Sad Puppies were: “There are two extreme right-wing to neo-nazi groups, called the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies respectively, that are calling for the end of social justice in science fiction and fantasy. They are unrepentantly racist, misogynist and homophobic. A noisy few but they’ve been able to gather some Gamergate folks around them and elect a slate of bad-to-reprehensible works on this year’s Hugo ballot.”

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Gift Card Drainer Tip

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Over the holidays my daughter went to London on a trip with her band and marched in the New Years Day parade. As Christmas presents, her grandparents wanted to send her over with some spending money. I didn’t trust her with cash and didn’t want her to incur the expense and hassle of currency exchange, so we bought her prepaid VISA gift cards. When they got spent down, there was a couple bucks left on each. What do to.

It is difficult to transfer the funds to a bank account without incurring expenses. I found out that Amazon will allow you to purchase a “gift card” for yourself in any amount. We just did that for all of the gift cards and it worked very quickly and to perfection so we were able to drain the cards and can now cut them up and use the funds.