Geez, get a grip. Do you visit any forums besides GD and GDP?
The recent-post thing only goes back 48 hours, but I happened to remember this one because it stuck in my mind, in Health:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=222&topic_id=6332I browse a lot of the forums, have posts in many of them, but usually don't say anything unless I have something meaningful to say. Because our son is a special-needs kid, Health is one forum that I can sometimes contribute a meaningful insight to. Guns are another, because I know a lot about them. I also know a lot about physics and a smattering of quantum theory, but one doesn't see a lot of threads where a discourse on Landau quasiparticles in a Fermi gas would be apropos.
And yet, you demand that Democrats ditch their moderate position on gun regulation
Fighting to ban and confiscate all civilian firearms with handgrips that stick out, or guns that have been civilian-legal since the freaking
Civil War, is not a "moderate" position. It is an extreme position, one I am convinced the party leadership would never have taken if they had not been misled by the bait-and-switch tactics of the gun-ban lobby.
Respecting the compromises made between the pro- and anti-gun sides over the past 72 years is NOT an extremist position. Trashing those compromises and enacting sweeping new bans of unprecedented scope--like the Bradyites/VPC/AGS/SHV extremists want--is hardly a moderate position.
I say, enforce the huge array of laws already on the books, look for common ground on addressing criminal possession/use and theft deterrence, and leave the rest to the states. Is that so extreme?
the only things you and your gun activist cohorts seem to contribute to the Big Forums are insults to Democrats, for their failure to support your gun-centric view of the world, or for their lack of esoteric knowledge about firearms.
When somebody is being manipulated by the gun-ban lobby because they honestly don't know the difference between a banned automatic weapon and a legal NFA Title 1 civilian firearm, I think it is helpful to point that out. Knowledge is power, and lack of knowledge leads to gullibility, as the "assault weapon" bait-and-switch so aptly demonstrates.
BTW, if you've stood idly by while a couple of well-known anti-gun zealots on DU trash Russ Feingold, Paul Hackett, gun-owning Dems and indies, or state-level Dems who don't support the gun ban
du jour, then you're being hypocritical. I wouldn't address a freaking DOG the way that these guys address pro-gun Dems.
Perhaps you'd like to point out where I've ever "trashed," say, John Kerry, Wes Clark, or Tammy Duckworth. I have offered what I think is constructive criticism of their positions, hopefully in a respectful way. The thing about misconceptions (such as the one common among some top advisers, that most gun owners are hunters and care primarily about hunting guns) is that they eventually collide with reality, as Senator Kerry found in 2004, and Vice President Gore found in 2000.
That, and the occasional masturbatory-quality photos of your favorite shooting irons.
What, pray tell, is a masturbatory-quality photo? I for the life of me can't fathom people (mostly gun haters) who view guns as sex objects. FWIW, most of the photos I've posted aren't mine, they are links to outside photos to illustrate a point. Right-click to check the link; only the photos hosted at commongroundcommonsense.org are mine.
I've posted photos of my son on DU also. May get my car on here at some point (got a newer one recently since my Camry was totaled by an SUV a few weeks ago, but oh, you never read any of my posts unless they're gun-related...)
If you really are the Democrats you claim to be, you might try acting like it.....
I am a center-left independent, and registered as such, with a a strong interest in civil liberties, including a high view of the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments. My views tend to line up more Dem than Repub, though the occasional "get the hell away from my party" post from people like you and MrB are a bit discouraging.
If you want to tell all left-leaning independents like me to stay the hell away from voting Democrat because you don't want anyone less authoritarian than Dianne Feinstein in YOUR party, fine. I just don't think that's a wise strategy for the party at large.
If it were constructive criticism of Democrats, it would be different
If
this post doesn't count as "constructive criticism," I'm not sure what would.