Someone send me a cold drink

[CitizenBBN]

Per the VP of the national teachers union, NRA members and "gun lobbyists" (whoever they are) and pro 2nd Amendment politicians are "going to hell".

National teachers union leader Lily Eskelsen Garcia offered a prediction Friday about gun lobbyists and politicians who are indifferent to the carnage of gun violence.

"I'm not an ordained minister, I'm not a theologian, but these guys are going to hell," the National Education Association's vice president said during a panel discussion at the Netroots Nation convention of liberal online activists.

http://www.examiner.com/article/if-gun-rights-advocates-are-going-to-hell-we-ll-liberate-the-place (warning this site has some annoying popups, nothing dangerous but it was the best citation of stuff I found)

This was at the "Netroots" thing, a big even for "progressives", or tree hugging hippies as Cartman calls them. That doesn't surprise me, but it was disturbing that it was from the teacher's union that we got such things. Anyone who thinks the teachers in general are not the front line troops for the progressive movement are fooling themselves. We are losing the battles because we are letting kids get fed this crap.

I did like how one of Bloomberg's guys said the NRA isn't just "selling guns" but "selling fear of government":

The NRA isn’t [just] selling guns, they’re selling fear and mistrust of government,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns [a wholly owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg, Inc.], said Friday at the ”Not Another Newtown: Building a Movement to Prevent Gun Violence” keynote panel.

“The NRA is selling fear, mainly fear of government,” echoed Matt Gertz, deputy research director at Media Matters for America, at a panel Saturday on “Disarming the NRA: Debunking Misinformation on Guns and Gun Violence.”

Folks, say what you will about the NRA, but they don't have to sell that one to anyone who is a member or supporter. The NRA doesn't convince people to distrust government, people distrust government and some find their way to the NRA. They're just one place for those of us with an innate dislike of government to gather, and there are a LOT of us with an innate distrust of government, even a fear of it, and this Administration has done nothing but prove those fears all too well founded. Drones used on our own soil without warrants or our knowledge, our associations maintained in giant government databases, secret star chamber courts where our civil liberties are decided and we aren't even told, agencies using their bureaucratic power against those with opinions contrary to theirs, they are proving any fears well founded and driving Americans into the anti-government camp in droves.

They have no one to thank but the government's own terrifying excesses for the fear of government, and the obvious conclusion that the final defense against it is a well armed citizenry.

I would love nothing more than to privatize the education system of this nation and introduce competition into it and break the unions. I have friends who are teachers who don't like that view, but I also have friends who are teachers who would gladly join me in the cause.

[badrose]

Preaching to the choir here. I've been advocating privatization of schools for a while. The Leftist takeover of public schools has been in the making since the early 1900's.

[kritikalcat]

If one believes in Hell, then I'd say that indifference to any kind of violence might help stamp your ticket there. The poor assumption is that opposing particular poorly conceived measures means you're indifferent. It just means you don't jump on the next "let's do something to do something" bandwagon coming down the pike.

Not sure where I stand on schools. I did public and private, and my kids have mostly gone to private (Catholic.) I believe in school choice, but wonder if part of the problem is that so many parents who might influence and make a difference have pulled their kids from public schools that the only ones there are the ones who are receptive audiences for the propaganda.

[badrose]

If one believes in Hell, then I'd say that indifference to any kind of violence might help stamp your ticket there. The poor assumption is that opposing particular poorly conceived measures means you're indifferent. It just means you don't jump on the next "let's do something to do something" bandwagon coming down the pike.

Not sure where I stand on schools. I did public and private, and my kids have mostly gone to private (Catholic.) I believe in school choice, but wonder if part of the problem is that so many parents who might influence and make a difference have pulled their kids from public schools that the only ones there are the ones who are receptive audiences for the propaganda.

I think the issue lies squarely in the metroplolitan areas where school districts have way too much jurisdiction. In Charlotte the district included all of Mecklenburg County. The lack of discipline and quality education there was a migration to private schools which sprouted up everywhere and did quite well academically. Most offered discounts to families who valued education but couldn't afford tuition. Most, if not all, had some connection to a local church but shied away from any particular denominational doctrine.

I should add that many sub-districts in Mecklenburg tried to secede but the courts overruled. My oldest kids went to school there briefly and you wouldn't believe the bs they were teaching/ had nothing to do with eductation. For instance, a teacher posed this question to a class: A man and his two sons are in a boat. Both sons fall out of the boat. Which son does the father save? Answer: The youngest, because he presumably had longer to live. I kid you not.