Twice is coincidence....

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's enemy action. -Auric Goldfinger (from the novel by Ian Fleming)

 A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a couple of posts about the shooting murder of Hadiya Pendleton which took place in Chicago (here and here). It was notable not just because she was a promising young woman, but because she had performed at the presidential inauguration earlier in the month. At the time, I speculated that she was not accidentally shot as part of a gang conflict. I considered it possible, though unlikely, that she was specifically targeted as part of an orchestrated plan in order to provoke an emotional reaction in support of forthcoming gun control legislation.

Now comes the news of a suspiciously similar shooting in Chicago:

Two people are being questioned in the shooting death of a Janay McFarlane, who was shot to death in North Chicago hours after her little sister sat just feet away as President Barack Obama spoke in Chicago Friday about the violence plaguing the nation.

This is the second time that the following circumstances have occurred:

• A young woman was shot.
• She was shot in Chicago.
• She was allegedly shot by someone who intended to shoot someone else who was there.
• She had a connection to the President.

This is, most likely, a coincidence. However, if it happens a third time, it will be stretching the bounds of credulity. I will be watching.

Fatigue

Former (not ex) Marine Robert Hall is tired. He is tired of many things and, to be honest, I'm tired of them too. All of them are worthy of excerpting but that would require copying and pasting his entire post. So I'll pick just a couple:

I believe “a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.” I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of President Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois. I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less in an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful. That thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his, that slammed Palin with two years as governor for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

My thanks to Mr. Hall for his service in the Marines, and also for his service in the Massachusetts State Senate which I'm sure was just as honorable. If only we had more like him in our political class.

Steve Capus leaves NBC

Now I doubt that Steve Capus, newly-resigned President of NBC News, was directly responsible for the obvious instances of journalistic malpractice and editorial fraud that occurred under his watch. I'm sure he didn't personally tell the people who actually carried them out to do so.

At best, however, he is guilty of fostering a culture and environment where such acts were considered acceptable, if not encouraged. At worst, he's guilty of specifically instructing his staff to engage in such actions, though this obviously can't be proven. At the very least he should have taken steps to put a stop to it after the first one or two incidents, but he clearly did not.

In any event, he's out. I'd like to believe it's because of these incidents, though there are certainly other possible reasons. Regardless, they happened on his watch, and he's ultimately responsible for them. Here is the list from the Breitbart article linked above:

1. During last year's presidential election, Andrea Mitchell was caught manufacturing a Romney gaffe where none existed.

2. During last year's GOP primary, Ed Schultz edited video of Texas Governor Rick Perry to make him look racist.

3. In April of last year, the "Today Show" was caught editing audio of a 9-1-1 call to make George Zimmerman look racist.

4. In August of 2009, Contessa Brewer sliced and diced a photograph so it wouldn't look like a black man attended a Tea Party carrying a firearm.  

5. Just this week, NBC News maliciously edited video of a town council meeting to make it look as though Second Amendment civil rights activists heckled a parent who lost his son in Newtown.

There is simply no excuse. He had to go.

Overplaying of hand

Following on from the last post, I'm beginning to wonder if the Democrats/liberals/progressives have actually done it. Have they gone just a bit too far and awakened enough people to what's going on to push it over the tipping point? Dare I hope?

At the National Journal a couple of weeks ago, this article notes that the priority of the Democrat leadership in the Senate is no longer on gun control:

Calling for a "cautious" approach to gun control, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid downplayed the chances of the Senate renewing an assault-weapons ban in a weekend TV interview, suggesting he will instead move forward on measures with a better chance to pass muster in the Republican-controlled House.

This was before the so-called gun violence task forced headed by Joe Biden gave its suggestions to Obama and the resulting list of decrees, er, executive orders that the current occupant issued.

Now we're seeing reactions like the one in the video I linked to and also from the various Sheriffs and Sheriffs' organizations who have put Obama and others on notice that they will not comply with any laws that contravene the Constitution, especially any that call for the confiscation of weapons that become outlawed.

And, of course, there's the undeniable evidence of guns and ammunition flying off the shelves wherever they are sold such that we're facing a real shortage of ammo in common calibers. I bought some myself before the supply dried up.

The people are speaking loud and clear. Do you hear it in the White House Mr. President?

Straws

This is beautiful. Is it possible that the camel's back has finally been broken?

From Market Ticker via The Deth Guild.