·:[ The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy ]:·
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First a little bit of back story…

This topic/situation came up today as my two fellow EqDeriv interns (Vlad from Carnegie Mellon and Matt from Penn State) and I were stuck in an empty office while our desks were being used/moved around. We originally started talking about the 2nd Amendment and how Matt and I (he’s a conservo-tarian like myself) would like to go to a shooting range before the summer is over. Vlad, while admitting he would not want to deprive everyone of the lawful right to own a fire arm, was a little more skeptical on the subject of the 2nd amendment - he was unfortunately harping on the usual “gun control” talking points of “protecting” small children, people bringing concealed guns to bars and getting drunk and shooting people and criminals having an easier chance to kill you if you draw a weapon (all of which I strongly disagree with, but that’s neither here nor there).

Anyway, I brought up the point of being safe in one’s home. I firmly believe that a man (or woman’s) home is his castle and he has every right to defend it with deadly force if necessary. I explained to Vlad (while Matt agreed and tried to further convince him) that I would like to own a gun and learn to use it properly so that, God forbid, if I ever had to use it to defend myself or my family, that I would not hesitate and pull the trigger. He was still a little skeptical on the whole issue (he thought if you pulled a gun on a robber in your home you would be more at risk to being shot yourself), so I brought up the following slightly related situation…

In the light of the terrorist bombings in London, the MTA decides to allow commuters on the Long Island Rail Road to carry concealed hand guns. You would be required to go through stringent background checks and complete a qualification course, but if you fit the requirements and passed the screenings, you could carry on a LIRR train. This is purely hypothetical of couse, because this situation would also have to involve NYC allowing concealed handguns to be legal, which has about as much of a chance of happening as say, the City Council having a Republican majority next year.

With that background in mind, you pass the required federal background screenings, shoot a pefect qualifying test, and decide to carry your small .45 Glock in a hidden inside pocket of your briefcase for your ride on the LIRR. Obviously not everyone will be carrying on the train, but given the times you could imagine that more then one person probably is.

After a long day at work you crack open that bottle of Diet Coke and sit back on your aisle seat hoping that the woman sitting next to you with three suitcases piled into the overhead rack won’t have to change trains at Jamaica. About midway through the tunnel under the East River you notice an Middle Eastern man about six rows infont of you stand up and reach for his back pack in the overhead rack. Giving the times your curiosity perks up and you glance up from your NY Post at him. He takes his bag down and returns to his seat. Satisfied and eager to return to your crossword puzzle you break off your concerned glances and dive back into your paper. A nagging feeling pops into your head and you, as almost an unfelt reflex, move your briefcase from its position inbetween you and Mrs. Three Suitcases and onto your lap where you have quicker access to Mr. 45 in his secret compartment. Two minutes later that same Middle Eastern man stands up again, this time wearing a vest covered in plastique explosives, holding a wired detonator, and screaming something murderous in Arabic. Fully alert now, and happy that his back is still to you, your hand reaches into that secret compartment of your briefcase and you carefully and slowly retrieve your hidden handgun.

The terrorist is standing with a vest-ful of high explosives in the middle of a crowded commuter train racing under the East River with his back to you and you are holding a loaded handgun unbeknownst to him. He is at most 10 feet away from you and there are no obstructions - no one is getting up to challenge him, hell people further away can’t even see what’s going on yet. You have no idea if there are more terrorists in the other cars of the train or if this guy is a solo artist. Cell phones do not work in this tunnel so calling for help is truly not an option. The MTA never had planned to put police or armed guards on every train so you are obviously alone right now. What do you do?

(more…)

The Paris City Hall has passed a resolution to never welcome Tom Cruise into their city:

Europe snubs Cruise
July 13, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

Not welcome … Tom Cruise won’t be welcomed by Paris Town Hall / Reuters Advertisement:
IT seems Hollywood star Tom Cruise’s wacky behaviour is turning off more than his fans - whole cities are now declaring him persona non grata.

The Paris city hall has pledged “never to welcome” the actor to the city of love - all because of his membership of the Church of Scientology. Cruise and film director J.J. Abrams have also been banned from filming upcoming action flick Mission: Impossible 3 in the Vatican.

In a debate late yesterday, Paris’ Socialist-controlled municipal assembly approved a resolution “never to welcome Cruise, spokesman for Scientology and self-declared militant for this organisation”.

This is great - we can laugh at Tom Cruise for being an absolute IDIOT and the French for not doing something more important with their time, such as, say, fighting terrorism.

Claudio

Spanish convicts kick Al Qaeda member’s behind in prison

From Captain’s Quarters via Ace.

Claudio

Again, on fire as always, the post/quote of the day goes to Ace of Spades HQ. Regarding Islamofacists, he types,

A large part of this insanity is fueled by pathological chauvanism and pan-national cultural jingoism… but not on our side, on theirs. They really do believe they are fated to be the inheritors of the earth, and the fact that the US sits as the 400 pound gorilla in the room that won’t give up the banana drives them nuts. They’re supposed to be the Masters of the Universe; how can it be that infidels seem to be in that position?

Sucks for them.

Claudio

To be truthful, every single Canadian I have ever met has been really, really, really cool peoples. From my man Jean who was my Rappoteur during my tenure as Chair of the NMUN IAEA simulation to my boy Sasha who just left Budapest for Montreal, all of them have been down-to-earth and dependable friends.

Now, let us hope this trend continues.

Beginning tomorrow night, I will be housing a Canadian student who is interning with my organization here in Budapest. He will fly in from London, and come straight to the apartment. If he can deal with the right-wing rants (he will get them inevitably from me and my friend from Atlanta, John), late afternoon sunsets spent sipping some fine drink, loud music played prior to a night out, and the incessantly annoying tick-tock of my old school wind-up alarm clock, he just might survive.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

Claudio

Alright, good news coming from the Ognibene camp. It seems Tom has 7,800 petition signatures, 300 more than the 7,500 needed to secure a place on the ballot in the mayoral primary. Some are arguing that the signatures may not be valid as 1,000 or so of them were inherited from the now-defunct campaign of Steve Shaw (see Slantpoint comments for discussion).

I think Bloomberg’s people may try to challenge, but the petition will stand. Ognibene on the ballot means finally a chance to send a message to Bloomberg and the state GOP.

Claudio

Hilary Clinton has long begun her campaign for the presidency. She is now targeting New York City universities, as I have received this email from her office:

Dear [somebody],
My name is [somebody else] and I am an intern at Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign office. The interns are interested in increasing college awareness about the upcoming Senatorial re-election in 2006. More specifically, we are looking to expand political visibility throughout the campus as well as raising money for the campaign. We are looking to sell Hillary t-shirts at a reduced college rate and to distribute information about the campaign. Please let us know who we could contact regarding this issue. Thank you for your help. The number at the office is 212-213-xxxx or you could email us at [email].

Grrr. Well fine, if Hilary’s peeps are beginning their assault on the college campuses, then I will do my part to counter it. I urge all of you to go and register to volunteer with the Ed Cox campaign. Also, I will try to bring Cox, Ognibene, and some other real Republicans to City College in the fall. I will keep y’all posted on that as it progresses.

Claudio

Ed Cox for New York Senate, 2006

I guessed I should’ve let y’all know that I would be outside of Budapest from Thursday until Saturday and thus unable to blog. But then I remembered: nobody cares. So keeping with that mentality, I will now ramble on about my weekend for a while before I resume normal posting.

Thursday: Feeling sick as a result of the previous night. Good time freestyle battling three Hungarian rappers. Left for the boondocks (aka: Kiralyret, Hungary) on a big bus, played with my PSP.

Friday: Did a bunch of outdoors-y stuff like building a raft from barrels, rods, and rope. Actually did pretty well - must be the effect of all the time I spend around my engineering friends (big shout outs to Seth, Andrew, Aron, Robert, and others). Got real cool with some students from Prague and Warsaw. Had Polish vodka (it has grass in it like tequila has worms - go figure). Wasn’t a bad night at all; ended up defending Bush and the War in Iraq before a table of drunk Poles and Czechs.

Saturday: Came back to Budapest, played basketball with John, my boy from Atlanta. Found a beautiful court that overlooks the city. Came home, chilled on my balcony for the sunset with John and talked politics and film. Went downstairs to Marxim’s, the neighborhood’s “Cheers.” Everybody knows my name. Met up with the Czechs and Poles, talked about New York. Exchanged emails and promises to visit. Left Marxim’s for Dokk Club: dance club with pool and jacuzzi in the center. Got crazy, jumped in the pool, jumped in the jacuzzi, jumped out and jumped into broken glass. Cut my foot badly, kept partying, went home, went to sleep.

Sunday: Woke up 6 pm. Inspected damage to foot - OUCH - blood soaked sock not cool. Cleaned wound, dried clothes. Hobbled to store, bought bandaids. Called girlfriend, called John. John comes through. Watch another sunset, talk politics. Talk movies: he now must see Lost in Translation and The Professional, I have to watch for subliminal political commentary in Starship Troopers. Watched Coming to America in Hungarian. Was still funny since between the two of us, we knew most of the lines. Mourned the loss of Eddie Murphy (how does one go from Beverly Hills Cop to Haunted House or whatever that movie was?!). Mourned the loss of Arsenio Hall (woo! woo! woo!). Received a call from girlfriend, went to sleep happy, had weird dreams/nightmares.

Now I’m back at it. Hobbling, but back at it.

Claudio