A local right-winger, who happens to be a state legislator, was on the local right-wing-nut radio station this morning and was talking about a recent vote by our increasingly reactionary legislature to present to Missouri voters this November a new and potentially dangerous amendment to the state constitution. Before I get to what Charlie Davis, of Webb City, said, here’s how the Associated Press described the bill:
The amendment would define the right to bear arms as “unalienable” and require the state to defend against any “infringement” of that right. It would also include keeping ammunition and defending one’s “family” with a firearm as guaranteed constitutional rights.
The state constitution already protects the right to bear arms in defense of an individual’s home, property and person. Supporters contend the measure would force courts to use a higher standard of review when considering the constitutionality of gun controls.
Here’s part of what Representative Davis said on KZRG this morning:
It gives the constitutional right to keep and bear arms and also to have your ammunition and any other object that is a normal function of such arms. Because we see what the federal government is trying to do. They say, yeah, you have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, but it doesn’t say anything about ammunition. Well, for us common-sense folks here in Southwest Missouri, “keep and bear arms” means arms, ammunition, the things that you need to protect yourself from an individual or from an overextension of government.
Hmm. Our local right-wing talk radio jock didn’t bother to ask Mr. Davis what he meant by “overextension of government.” Maybe our local right-wing talk radio jock knew what Davis meant without asking. But I don’t know what he meant. Thus, today I sent the following email to Mr. Davis at charliedavis@cableone.net and Charlie.Davis@house.mo.gov :
Representative Davis,
I heard you on KZRG this morning say the following about the proposed new amendment to the state constitution:
“It gives the constitutional right to keep and bear arms and also to have your ammunition and any other object that is a normal function of such arms. Because we see what the federal government is trying to do. They say, yeah, you have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, but it doesn’t say anything about ammunition. Well, for us common-sense folks here in Southwest Missouri, “keep and bear arms” means arms, ammunition, the things that you need to protect yourself from an individual or from an overextension of government.”
Sir, I like to think of myself as one of those “common-sense folks” who lives here in Southwest Missouri. But I’ll be darned if I know what you meant by “overextension of government” in this context or exactly what kind of overextension of government would justify a Missourian picking up a weapon and shooting and perhaps killing a government official doing his or her duty. Please enlighten me as to a specific circumstance in which you, a state legislator, would condone the use of violence against any government official.
Sincerely,
R. Duane Graham
Joplin, MO
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
kabe
/ May 10, 2014I wonder if he is talking about the same government that gave millions to SW Mo in recent years? Looking forward to the reply you get.
LikeLike
R. Duane Graham
/ May 16, 2014So far the reply is hiding behind the obvious meaning of his words. Hopefully someone at the Globe will force him to answer, if he doesn’t offer up something substantive before then.
LikeLike
Jim Wheeler
/ May 11, 2014In this season of political paranoia, Rep. Davis is doing what opportunistic legislators do, and it seems to be working. The same thing happened in Nevada when Cliven Bundy attracted an emboldened lunatic fringe. That bubble of course popped when he was revealed to be just another self-centered scofflaw who also happened to be a bigot.
Legislators are not the only ones hopping on this bandwagon. Since we have a DVR now, we don’t usually watch TV commercials anymore, but I happened on a local one the other day that astounded me. It was a GM dealer’s commercial. Guy in a cowboy hat, a cartoon cowboy in the background sporting a six-shooter in each fist. Guy was shouting. The gist of it was that customers should get their rides from him because he stood for three things: “freedom, freedom, and freedom!!!!”. Huh? This crap must work, else why do it? Sigh.
LikeLike
R. Duane Graham
/ May 16, 2014It does seem to be working. At least if legislators aren’t forced to answer the question of whether Missourians, under the proposed amendment to our state’s constitution, have Rep. Davis’ permission to shoot down government agents. If he is forced to confront that question, and answer it honestly, I think we have something to fight back with. As it is now, he is merely hiding.
LikeLike
kabe
/ May 11, 2014Jim, the auto dealer (Nevada and Butler Mo) you are referring to is Mark Muller, brother of national conservative radio host Eric “Mancow” Muller. The show was called, I kid you not, “God, Guns, and Automobiles”. I watched one episode of the show. In it, Mancow wants to help repo some vehicles and is driven to tears when he meets the people and sees that they are actually trying to make payments and are not the freeloaders he expected. I have to give credit to Max Motors though because they actually encourage viewers to buy American. Very curious show to say the least.
Kabe
LikeLike
Jim Wheeler
/ May 12, 2014Thanks for that insight, kabe. However, buying American ain’t what it used to be. This is an exerpt from a NYT article on the subject:
LikeLike
R. Duane Graham
/ May 16, 2014When I was transitioning from right-winger to reality, I owned a Honda Accord. Some local union activists were on my ass for not “buying American.” Eventually I agreed with them and traded away the Accord for a Chevy Silverado pickup (which I still own after 21 years!). Problem was that I found out later that my Honda Accord was put together in Ohio and my Chevy truck was assembled in Canada! What is a conscientious American supposed to do….
Duane
LikeLike
R. Duane Graham
/ May 16, 2014Never heard of that show. And didn’t know Muller had a dealership in Nevada. Damn.
LikeLike
kabe
/ May 16, 2014The show was cancelled. I happened to be channel surfing when a city sign for Butler Mo was on and decided to check it out.
Kabe
LikeLike
ansonburlingame
/ May 12, 2014Two points related first to the blog and Duane’s letter. Good points, excellent points made by Duane, particularly in the letter published in today’s (Monday) Globe. BZ for a good question to which you will NOT get a reply I suspect!!
Second point relates to the discussion between Kabe and Jim, above. Jim makes the point, a valid one based on “links”, I assume, that truly American made cars never make the top selling list in America, by and large. Jim’s point that fewer Americans now make cars is a “so what” in my view. If they made BETTER cars that were also well designed in the first place, well ……..?
In the past I owned a Mercedez and a BMW. Both were purchased used and both were superb automobiles, well designed and well built to last for a long time. No American car that I know of can match such German design and engineering, and construction for that matter.
I now, for the first time in my life drive a Toyota, a Prius. It is not by mistake that the Prius was the first hybride to make it big in America and the one I now have owned for about 1 1/2 years is another marvel in my view. My monthly car payments and insurance were cut by about 2/3ds and my monthly gas cost is down by about 60%, not bad for a limited fixed income budget these days.
My guess, and it is only a guess, is that “foreign” cars have engineering specs much tighther than American designed cars. As well at a “foreign” factory I suspect the QA to ensure conformance with such specs is much greater. In other words workers are held to higher but achievable standards of performance on the factory floor, particularly in a non-union factory which most of the Japanese cars (and German ones maybe) “made in America” are, non-union workforces.
It is a simple “formula” for success. Design things completely and correctly, build them better, do all of that at equal or less cost of the competition, and then sell them for nearly the same prices as more poorly designed and made cars (products). Do that and you win in business. Put out poorly designed and manufactured products and then complain about the “market” driven by capitalists that sell to other capitalists (including workers looking for a good deal like any capitalist).
Anson
LikeLike
kabe
/ May 12, 2014I was not trying to start an American made auto discussion here. 🙂 My point in bringing it up was to point out the oddities of the conservative Muller brothers. Most hard core conservatives now loath American made cars dues to the auto bail outs. As for Jim’s points, sad but true. I would say however, that I would rather see profits go to an American company. My history in buying American vehicles has mostly served me well. All but one out of 5 was driven for around 10 years. I bought a used Toyota pick up that has run well and my wife once bought a Hyundai that was a total POS! I am pretty sure that I have purchased my last foreign vehicle though. With all the instability in the world getting parts could become more difficult and it is always more expensive for foreign parts.
As for Anson, he never misses an opportunity to union bash. Welcome back! 🙂 As far as Japanese being superior at all levels, you left out one important detail. Japanese CEOs make much less that American CEOs. The Japanese culture places shame on greed and encourages a team effort that is not distorted by huge pay gaps like in American companies. Just browsing through a few articles, for instance, the Toyota CEO made 1.7 M in 2011 and the Honda CEO 1.54 m after taking 5% PAYCUT. (CNN) (Find that word in an American CEO package) In a Bloomberg article it states that the average CEO pay of the Japanese stock market companies is 580,000 G, vs 3.5 M for the top 3,000 US companies.
And by the way, your guess as to whether the German companies are non-union is not like you. Any research at all would tell you that BMW plants in Germany are heavily unionized and not demonized by its management. They didn’t even fight the effort in Chattanooga recently. Your BMW was most likely built by one the strongest labor unions in the world. It can be done.
Kabe
LikeLike
ansonburlingame
/ May 14, 2014Kabe,
I too do not want to engage in a lengthy comparison of union vs non-union manufacturing issues. I am aware of unions in Germany because Duane has written as such at length as you have commented upon as well. Good unions and good management can make a great team, competitively and such should be the case. Good engineering, good QA on the factory floor, competitive prices, all can be achieved when management and unions work together as they should do so, for the sake of the company if I might be so bold to insert that priority for anyone working for any company.
My last Ameridcan vehicle was a Ram truck, purchased when I moved to a “farm” in MO, coincidental with a divorce. It was a good truck and would have lasted “forever”. But I remarried, left the country side and no longer needed a truck. Since then my autos have all been foreign, based on price, qualtity, cost of maintenance (now), gas economy (now), etc. I shopped and got the best deals I could find based on all those factors.
I will say that I disagree with all this “buy American” stuff. As a consumer I shop for the “best deals and products that I can find”. Self-centered, maybe. But my purchase has as much affect on the American economy as your call for lower pay for CEO’s will have. Take the top ten wage and bonus earners at GM and give them NO money at all. Then calculate the percentage of change in the total cost of autos sold by that American manufacturer. I MIGHT get free floor mats in an new American made car based on that financial juggling act but not much more, in my view.
I could do the same financial slight of hand by removing all retirement and medical benefits from union workers as well, to lower the cost of American made products.
Janet, my wife, majored in marketing and finance in college and worked in sales for years, office equipment. Cost, cost cost, and add in the needed quality and maintenance and you sell winners in almost any market, politics be damned in HER view.
Anson
LikeLike