Quotes on Concealed Carry

Here are a couple interesting quotes that I have seen recently on the topic.

"A Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of Park Tower. To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense..." -- Judge Richard Posner 

"David Hemenway & Deborah Azrael, “The Relative Frequency of Offensive and Defensive Gun Uses: Results from a National Survey,” 15 Violence & Victims 257, 271 (2000), finds that a person carrying a gun is more likely to use it to commit a crime than to defend himself from criminals. But that is like saying that soldiers are more likely to be armed than civilians. And because fewer than 3 percent of gun-related deaths are from accidents, Hahn et al., supra, at 40, and because Illinois allows the use of guns in hunting and target shooting, the law cannot plausibly be defended on the ground that it reduces the accidental death rate, . . . ." -- Judge Richard Posner 

"The Supreme Court has decided that the amendment confersa right to bear arms for self-defense, which is asimportant outside the home as inside. The theoretical and empirical evidence (which overall is inconclusive) is consistent with concluding that a right tocarry firearms in public may promote self-defense. Illinois had to provide us with more than merely a rational basisfor believing that its uniquely sweeping ban is justifiedby an increase in public safety. It has failed to meetthis burden. . . ."  -- Judge Richard Posner, arguing that the range of estimates show either a benefit or no change (for my recent survey that supports his claim here see this paper). 

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office pronounced itself "disappointed." Democratic State Rep. Eddie Acevedo said parts of the city may resemble "the wild, wild West" -- as though they were islands of tranquility right now." -- Steve Chapman

Gergen: Democrats trying to humiliate Republicans in tax deal

David Gergen: But since this election, there’s been — I think it’s the Democrats are the ones who are really trying to rub it in and almost humiliate the Republicans, and that’s not going to get to a bargain. Again, I think it has to be win-win. … You hear among some Democrats right now, and it’s disturbing, that maybe we ought to just take it over the cliff, that’ll, we’ll score political points against the Republicans, that will force their hands in the new year. That is a very, very, dangerous risk.

See also this statement from Krauthammer:

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER:  The only reason the president insists on raising rates is because he knows it will destroy Republican unity. It will cause a complete fracture of the Republican majority in the House. It will hand him a Congress that he can then manipulate for the next two years at least because the Republicans will be neutered. 

Bernanke describes how bad the labor market is

Here is part of Bernanke's talk on Tuesday to the New York Economic Club:

Moreover, many other features of the jobs market, including the historically high level of long-term unemployment, the large number of people working part time because they have not been able to find full-time jobs, and the decline in labor force participation, reinforce the conclusion that we have some way to go before the labor market can be deemed healthy again. . . .

Leno: "Good News For The Economy, President Obama Is Out Of Town"

George McGovern explains why it is important for politicians to have some business background

Possibly this is something Mitt Romney should point to when Obama attacks him for being a businessman.  From the WSJ in 1992:

. . . In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut's Stratford Inn. Hotels, inns and restaurants have always held a special fascination for me. The Stratford Inn promised the realization of a longtime dream to own a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility--complete with an experienced manager and staff. 

In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of such a business, especially during a recession of the kind that hit New England just as I was acquiring the inn's 43-year leasehold. I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender. . . .

Bill Clinton: "It is true [the economy is] not fixed."

Bill Clinton at a campaign event in Ohio (October 18, 2012): "Governor Romney's argument is, we're not fixed, so fire him and put me in.  It is true we're not fixed. When President Obama looked into the eyes of that man who said in the debate, I had so much hope four years ago and I don't now, I thought he was going to cry. Because he knows that it's not fixed."

So Obama now supports the "Free Enterprise System"

From tonight's debate:

OBAMA: Barry, I think a lot of this campaign, maybe over the last four years, has been devoted to this nation that I think government creates jobs, that that somehow is the answer.
That's not what I believe. I believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world's ever known.
I believe in self-reliance and individual initiative and risk takers being rewarded. But I also believe that everybody should have a fair shot and everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules, because that's how our economy's grown. That's how we built the world's greatest middle class. . . .

In December, 2011 in Osawatomie, Kansas, Obama said this:

“The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes -- especially for the wealthy -- our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty. 

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory. . . .

It is amazing to me that Obama would now be arguing that he doesn't believe that government creates jobs.

Michelle Obama claims: "We Are in the Midst of a Huge Recovery"

Michelle Obama doesn't seem to realize that you have to create more than a certain number of jobs each month just to keep threading water.

Pablo Sato, co-host of Pablo & Freeon WPGC 95.5, a Washington, D.C.-area hip-hop radio station, asked the first lady:  “Mrs. Obama, you know what, in your words, tell us what you think the state of the union is in right now?” 

Mrs. Obama said, “I mean, we are seeing right now that we are in the midst of a huge recovery. Right?  Because of what this president has done.” 

Free: “Yes.” 

Obama: “Pulled this economy from the brink of collapse when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Now were gaining every -- throughout most of his presidency, we’ve been adding jobs to this economy because of what he’s been doing. The stock market has doubled. Housing prices are rising. Foreclosure rates are lowering. But in the face of that, you still have people trying to convince us that things aren’t better.” . . . .

Biden claims that deficits cause recessions? Is that why Dems are running such huge deficits?

From the Vice Presidential debate:

And, by the way, they talk about this Great Recession if it fell out of the sky, like, "Oh, my goodness, where did it come from?" It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, to at the same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. I was there. I voted against them. I said, no, we can't afford that. . . .

Democratic Businessman Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, again blasts Obama

Wynn might have been a loyal Democrat for many years, but he is holding nothing back in going after Obama (italics added).  From Real Clear Politics:

WYNN: I've created about 250,000 direct and indirect jobs according to the state of Nevada's measurement. If the number is 250,000, that's exactly 250,000 more than this president, who I'll be damned if I want to have him lecture me about small business and jobs. I'm a job creator. Guys like me are job creators and we don't like having a bulls-eye painted on our back.  

The president is trying to put himself between me and my employees. By class warfare, by deprecating and calling a group that makes money 'billionaires and millionaires who don't pay their share.' I gave 120% of my salary and bonus away last year to charities, as I do most years. I can't stand the idea of being demagogued, that is put down by a president who has never created any jobs and who doesn't even understand how the economy works. . . .

UPDATE: Wynn has continued to speak out on Obama.  CNSNews has this:

“I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn.  “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.” . . .

CNBC has this:

"They're noticing in their homes...that their paychecks are shrinking in real time because of government irresponsibility and the management of this deficit," Wynn added. "It's killing the living standard of my employees, and that immediately affects their attitude at work." . . . 

Biden says that middle class has been "buried" during the last four years

From The Hill Newspaper:

. . .  “How they can justify, how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years — how in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts,” [Vice President Biden said.] 

Republicans quickly seized on the remarks, accusing the Obama administration of implementing policies that have hurt the middle class. 

“Vice President Biden made a stunning admission today and we couldn’t agree more: the middle class has been ‘buried’ under the last four years of this President’s policies," said Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "Under President Obama, the middle class has suffered from crushing unemployment, rising prices and falling incomes. They can’t afford to be ‘buried’ for four more years." 

“We agree, the middle class has been buried the past four years by Obama's failed policies from higher taxes to more debt, which is why he doesn't deserve another term in the White House to make it worse,” said Kirsten Kukowski, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. . . .

10 statements that Obama should be embarrassed for making

I would have picked different quotes than Politico did here, such as Obama's constant 2008 promise to cut "net government spending," but here is their list:

-- “Washington is broken. My whole campaign has been premised from the start on the idea that we have to fundamentally change how Washington works.” 

-- “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” 

-- “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” 

-- “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not.” 

-- “Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.” 

-- “I think that health care, over time, is going to become more popular.” 

-- “It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” 

-- “I fought with you in the Senate for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President.” 

-- “What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further. We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else’s.”

Democrats views from their National Convention on fairness and capitalism

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren: I'm here tonight to talk about hard-working people: people who get up early, stay up late, cook dinner and help out with homework; people who can be counted on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors, and the lady down the street whose car broke down; people who work their hearts out but are up against a hard truth—the game is rigged against them. . . .People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: they're right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs—the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs—still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them.  . . . We just don't want the game to be rigged. . . . No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people. . . . For years, families had been tricked by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages. . . .[President Obama] believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. . . .Where no one can steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street. . . .

Democratic convention delegates in favor of banning or capping corporate profits. 



Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, has a different view on this: "We [workers] are the ones who built America. We are the ones who build it every single day — because it is our work that connects us all."

My take: Workers getting paid according to their productivity.  Firms sell their products for what people are willing to pay for them.  In a free market economy, people get paid in accordance with the value that they provide others.  Government rearranges those deals and takes money from those who offered the better deals and thus made profits to those who didn't have as much to offer others.

Meanwhile, the big surprise is: "U.S. Competitiveness Slips."  

Northern European countries topped the overall ranking of a global competitiveness report released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, as the United States slipped for the fourth year in a row. . . . This year's survey showed the U.S. fell to seventh position from fifth in the global ranking but the country remains an innovation powerhouse and its markets work efficiently, the WEF said. . . .

Democrats' mindset: "The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To"

Obama makes it official that the deficit isn't such a big concern

Many times over the last few years Obama has positioned himself as the one battling against the huge buildup in debt.  Here is one example of his promises:

And yesterday I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office. My administration has also begun to go line by line through the Federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade. . . .  Obama's address before a Joint Session of the Congress, February 24, 2009.

Other Obama promises on the deficit are available here.  For example, just last year, regarding the deficit Obama promised: "That should be an incentive for us to act boldly now, instead of kicking our problems further down the road."  Well, that was then, this is now.  From Fox News today:

"What's necessary is to stabilize the debt and then work from there," [Senior campaign adviser David Axelrod] said. "You can't balance the budget in the short term, because to do that would be to ratchet down the economy." . . .

Of course, this Keynesian type justification for government spending is nutty as I have tried to explain.  But if it was this Keynesian argument, why does it apply now and not a year ago?

Mia Love goes after Obama dividing Americans, If only she can win her congressional race in Utah, she will make a real difference

President Obama's version of America is a divided one, often pitting us against each other based on income levels, gender, and social status.  His policies have failed. We are not better off than we were four years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker, or Hollywood campaign ad can change that. Mr. President I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012. . . .

UPDATE: "Mia Love tops Google searches after ‘rousing’ speech at GOP convention"

Mia Love, a 36-year-old black Mormon congressional candidate, exploded onto the national stage with her speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night.  

By Wednesday, "Mia Love" had become the fastest-rising search term on Google. 

If Love defeats incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson (D) in Utah’s newly formed 4th district, she will become the first black Republican woman elected to Congress. 

In her speech, she talked about how her parents came to the United States from Haiti with "$10 in their pockets and a hope that the America they heard about really did exist." . . . .

Former Dem Rep. and 2008 co-chair of the Obama presidential campaign Artur Davis talks about Democratic rhetoric

From Real Clear Politics:

We don't need flowery words about inequality to tell us that, and we don't need a party that has led while poverty and hunger rose to record levels to give us lectures about suffering. . . . 

When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work? 

When they tell you America is this unequal place where the powerful trample on the powerless, does that sound like the country your children or your spouse risked their lives for in Iraq or Afghanistan? 

Do you even recognize the America they are talking about? And what can we say about a house that doesn't honor the pictures on its walls? . . .

Obama declares: ‘We tried our plan -- and it worked"

Is this out of touch?  From Obama's speech in Oakland, California on July 24, 2012:

But here’s the problem -- we tried that and it didn’t work. (Applause.)  It’s not what you believe, it’s not what I believe, it’s not what most Americans believe will actually make a difference.  This country was not built from the top down; it was built from the middle class out, from the bottom up.  (Applause.) That’s how we became the most prosperous nation in the history of the world.  That’s the path that you can choose for America in this election.  And that’s why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States. . . . 

Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan -- and it worked.  That’s the difference.  (Applause.)  That’s the choice in this election.  That’s why I’m running for a second term.  

When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse, more than 1 million jobs were on the line, Governor Romney said, we should just "let Detroit go bankrupt." . . .

President Obama: "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Transcript from a talk in Roanoke, Virginia on July 13, 2012:

So I’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more. (Applause.) And, by the way, we’ve tried that before -- a guy named Bill Clinton did it. We created 23 million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did just fine. We created a lot of millionaires.
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. . . .

Someone should really educate Obama about the history of the United States. A lot of states in the US didn't have public education until the 1870s, and yet they had literacy rates around 96 percent. Public universities got started well after private universities did, and so the vast majority of our colleges were originally private. That even the subways in NYC were originally built and operated privately until government price controls (a 5 cent maximum fare) and "capturing" of existing private lines. You had private highways in the US up until 1916.