The NRA seeks to create 'Wedge Issues' to define it's purpose.

Could there be another mission for the NRA? Sure, but, they wouldn't have the wealth they have now. The NRA's 'take' after each one of these tragedies where they pander to members has to be considerable.

A different NRA? Let's create an new NRA and call it The Association of Rifles Nationally. The ARN.

The mission of the ARN is to provide education to gun owners, competition for sports enthusiasts that like accuracy challenges, to support responsible gun ownership whereby government policy is minimized to what is necessary to insure safety in society, to promote hunting with discounts to members for these activities through affiliations with other product manufacturers and services.

The ARN would never receive the kind of monies the NRA does now. The ARN would be a moral organization that would seek to support families when tragedies happen, work to suppress extremism, minimize gun violence in the media to what is necessary and not shocking or promotes obsession with power. The ARN would never seek promotion of memberships when these gun tragedies strike, but, instead apologize for the failure of their primary mission to prevent extremism. 

The mission of the ARN would be embedded in values very different than what is promoted today. No high caliper ammunition, no military content in gun ownership, safe storage of weapons in the home while still being available for break ins or criminal activities. Safe storage away from the home of weapons and ammunition for owners of many guns and their ammunition to fire them.

Basically, wimpy and practical attitudes rather than tough guy attitudes promoted by fear and faux bravery to any government on Earth. Mostly sports minded activities and FUN.

So, there you have it. The fear agenda of the National Rifle Association, the NRA, has a purpose and it is wealth beyond what is reasonable for any sincere organization interested in the well being of their members. The mission and political activities of the NRA are also illegal. The NRA website states www.nra.org. DOT ORG? Really? I though political action committees were 501(c)4 not 501(c)3. 

You know, Mr. Rove has the same problem with his non-profit status.

The NRA is raising money at the expense of children's death.

These are not new members, they are 'upgraded' members. If the reports are correct and there has been activity to enroll 250,000 members or in this case re-enroll them, that is whole lot of money.

If one third of these members are paying $300 to upgrade their membership to life memberships, that is a tally of $25,000,000. Add to that the remainder of the 250,000 enrolling for only one year, equates to $5,833,333. So, the grand total is nearly $31 million and probably much, much more.

The people taking advantage of this promotion in the face of the deaths in the USA are doing so to prevent paying regular annual memberships, STATUS as a Lifer and for the discounts afforded them by participating merchants from all venues of products and services.

How can anyone provide any brevity to the stand of the NRA if all this is about is money and nothing more. The NRA uses these horrific tragedies as a method to raise money through scare tactics as if the government is actually seeking to take away their guns. Their members anticipate this pandering and jump on it when it is offered knowing full well after every such event this is a methodology for money. Like, what? Wow.

This is outrageous. This is outrageously immoral. This is an outrageous campaign, both the money campaign and the campaign for military style weapons in our society. This is outrageous in complete disrespect for human life and this time is it children and their educators.

The NRA is immoral, opportunistic, exploitative and a threat to a civilized society.

Jan. 10, 2013 @ 10:36a

A lifetime membership (click here) with the NRA is normally $1000, but the NRA has relaunched their $300 Life Membership offer at NRA - We the People.

Unlike in some previous years, where this had to be done over the phone, this is completely online.

The form at this site requires the NRA Member ID, email address, and ZIP code of an existing Life Member, as well as a Security Code (which is shown on the page to prevent bots from submitting the form).

Updated:

You (or a Life Member) must enter an existing Life Member's information (Member ID, email address, and ZIP code) and the Captcha-type Security Code - then click "Continue". Don't click "Not a member? Join here."

The second page will ask if you want to upgrade the membership of the Life Member whose ID was entered to Endowment. Unless you wish to do this, just click "Continue".

The third page will say Give a Gift Membership. On this page, select the Life Membership in the first drop down list, and enter the name and other info of the new/to-be-upgraded member - not the Life Member that provided the ID.

Select Review & Complete Your Transaction. You should be able to enter all relevant credit card info there.

Starting to get that 'Here come the planes' feeling? There is a 12 step program for you, too.

Lawyers (click here) for 9/11 Truth member Ferdinando Imposimato takes the duty seriously, and is requesting that the International Criminal Court commence a trial concerning 9/11.

The GOP needs to get ready to carry the cross in 2014.

FRIDAY, JAN 18, 2013 02:55 PM EST

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

We’ve been writing (click here) a lot about the conspiracy theories surrounding the Sandy Hook school shooting — some say too much. “Why you’re giving these Sandy Hook truther media whores the time of day. Ignore them and they go away [sic],” one reader emailed.

Unfortunately, that’s probably not the case. The genie is already out of the bottle and this myth will likely only heat up as the debate over gun control does. “It’s by far the hottest topic of the moment,” David Mikkelson, the co-founder of the myth-debunking website Snopes.com told BuzzFeed. As the site’s Ben Smith and CJ Lotz wrote today, “Some of the factors that can bring theories in from the fringe appear to be driving its unexpected surge this month: A connection to America’s intensely polarized political culture in general, and a message that appeals to a longstanding fear among gun owners, in particular.”...

                                       Ah, the ratings war. 

Leadership is not about indulging the extremists, it is about protecting the majority.

The reason leaders in the GOP are ineffective is because they allow lies to exist to benefit them politically. It has been a long practice of the GOP to indulge the public rather than educate them. That venue of power has served them well. We can afford lies in our country anymore.

President Obama is a strong and determined leader. He is brilliant. When he seeks to address the political differences between the Democrats and Republicans that actually serve the nation; he meets up with the political enforcement of lies with the Republicans. The gerrymandering has to be overcome. The people within this dynamic are caught up in a void of effective policy. The gerrymandering has gotten to be more than an odd corrupt political strategy; it is adversely effecting people's lives and quality of life. I always thought the USA was founded in trust, truth and justice. It is time those values are actually returned to everyone.

Anyone besides me get the impression capitalism is a bunch of horseshit?

I think we need a twelve step program for capitalists.

War instead of peace.

One of the reasons it is so easy for the USA to have Wall Street wars is because of the impoverishment of Africa as a chronic state of being. It is difficult for any African nation to mount a serious defense of itself, even from terrorists within.

Poverty is a convenient strategy for The West when it comes to Africa.

So, what the Algerians have been able to do to end the infiltration of terrorist attempts in their country is very impressive. I sincerely didn't expect it. They did very well for themselves.

What did those actions sincerely mean?

It means The West has no right to invade their country as the USA invaded Iraq and the Algerian people will not face the nightmare of war and death. That is what that means.

As noted in Mali, there was one incident, virtually unnoticed by the world which caused a huge instability in Mali. That one incident was viewed by the people as the beginnings of a tyrannical regime taking over their lives. The Mali people believed they would be facing another Darfur. Hence, the terrorist network gained validity and grew.

Now, because al Qaeda has a valid and growing presence in Mali they have become a threat to The West. They are not a threat by name only, they are a real threat. France did not send jets into Mali because it was 'al Qaeda' with a larger membership, it is because al Qaeda IN ITS ROLE IN MALI, is blaming The West for the people's problems. The march north by al Qaeda in Mali is no accident. Al Qaeda in Mali is a rudimentary force that puts their lives on the line for their purpose. They believe they have a noble purpose. What they actually have is gross negligence of The West for a need for their own national security.

Why gross negligence? Why not? It is cheap. The West knows the economic uptick it receives from war. So, what difference does it make that seventeen holy men were killed out of some kind of 'telephone chain' authority without clear national security directives. So what if the holy men were left to solicit a well traveled truck driver for a lift through the rigors of check points? So what? That is not The West's problem. After all we have jets and bombs; who in Africa has room to do anything about it?

Ah, Russia. China. But, alas they aren't sincerely there in a way that matters because The West out guns them too.

Do yourself a favor and ask why the peace movement is viewed as a weak defense of the USA?

Have a better day. It would be nice if Africa did.

Northern Africa is a security issue for Europe.

Alliances with countries such as Algeria should exist long before a need results. The Algerian government and people will carry out the security of their own nation.

If the British are going to pump oil out of the ground in Algeria, they should have offered an alliance with military assistance long before the oil companies established their their first well.

This backward approach to protecting Europe causes wars with people that don't deserve them. There is much in the way of foreign relations that have lacked with African nations for a very long time. 

The terrorists succeeded. They were able to secure weapons and take hostages. Europe needs to work with North Africa to push that reality a long way back on the timeline. An EU military base in Algeria could have collected intelligence and interceded with the Algerian government to prevent the spread of such power among the people. This is anarchy. Terrorist networks are a manifestation of anarchy. Preventing anarchy is a basic understanding of sovereignty. 

Algeria ended the danger to its nation very successfully. They were correct. The EU and USA have no place on Algerian soil unless they are invited. 

Now.

Is Europe invading Algeria? They have no basis for it.

When it comes to Africa, The West has been doing national security 'on the cheap.' I don't recommend it.

As allies, Algerians should have their own military and own intelligence. Until they are up to speed, the EU could provide value support to achieve it, but, not when there is a venue of war already begun. That would be nothing more than escalation.

I happen to think the Algerian government took the absolutely best action regarding terrorists.

Chaos has to be dealt with so it doesn't grow. I don't know of any better way to handle chaos when it results in the increase of terrorist infiltration then to end it. What did anyone believe Algeria was going to do wave a magic wand? They have to preserve their own sovereignty and their own military forces. No hand holding. End of discussion.

Where does any First World nation 'get off' criticizing Algerian forces when there are French jets dropping bombs and killing people? Where does that come from? There is a war being conducted. Someone is delusional as hell and it isn't the Algerians.

Gee whiz, it must not be directly out of the Pentagon's play book. Too bad it ain't their country.

One of the aspects of The West global terrorist networks count on is whining that goes on when people are taken hostage. They use it to reign terror and propagate their power. The only way to stop terrorism is to end it. Just that simple.

By Jeffrey Fleishman

January 18, 2013, 2:57 a.m.

CAIRO -- International officials Friday (click here) questioned the Algerian military's storming of a natural gas plant in the Sahara Desert that led to a firefight with Islamic militants and the deaths of an undisclosed number of hostages, including Westerners and Asians.

There was no clear indication of exactly how many hostages were killed or wounded in Thursday's assault. Conflicting reports continued to emerge. The Algerian government said the army raid had ended while the British Foreign Office said the "terrorist incident remains ongoing."

The chaos along the Algerian-Libyan border left the U.S.,Britain, France and other countries worried about their citizens while questioning what appeared to be Algeria's rushed strike against the kidnappers without consulting foreign capitals. One unconfirmed media report suggested that 35 foreign hostages were killed by gunfire from Algerian helicopters during the raid....

The IOC has a responsibility to investigate the sport.

The International Olympic Committee (click here) claims it is "premature" to even consider cycling's future in the Games following the Lance Armstrong scandal.

The IOC member Dick Pound, a former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, claimed cycling might have to be dropped from the Olympics if Armstrong implicated the International Cycling Union (UCI) in a cover-up of his systematic doping....

Lance Armstrong is the era of the corporate take over. There was a time when Olympic athletes did not receive monies from anywhere to participate in the sports. It was considered the execution of the sport at the purest level. For decades there has been a move by corporations to seek to create icons for their products and services. That is not an amateur athlete.

Everything in the world is big business as if that is the only reason people are motivated to live a life. It is the worst set of values ever held. Commercial focus brings corruption. Lance Armstrong and his rivals are suppose to be amateur athletes. The best in the world. The question is given the extremes they were achieving in competition when were by going to start using replacement parts for joints operated by distant computer?

The USA has seen sport after sport dominated by corruption. There is far less moral content in sports today than ever before. When a star athlete is motivated by imagination of a woman struggling for her life there is something sincerely wrong with the value system 'of the expectations' of the people appreciating the sport. The fans have a problem, too.

Corruption happens and values change because everyone is 'on the take' at some point in the food chain. The IOC has to examine the impact of corruption on the sport of cycling and reset the expectations of competitors at the amateur level. Armstrong effected the records of the sport for nearly a decade. There is a lot to reset to allow those that follow to actually achieve a real statement about the capacity of the sport.

Mr. Te'o stated after having experienced the death of his grandmother and imaginary friend in  the same day, "...there is a reason why I am at Notre Dame..." The implication is god has his hand on  the life of Mr. Te'o and will have his hand on him no matter where he is playing football. Does it sound familiar? I don't begrudge Mr. Te'o his faith or his career, but, his 'iconic image' is drenched with Christian focus which has become a political football in the USA. The entire 'money ball' is a mess, disaster and highly manipulative  as a power play throughout the spectrum of USA society. Even religion has become corrupt with wealth. Where does it stop?

The government investigation needs to look past the imaginary friend 'thing' and examine the potential it was a goal by a competitor. In other words, if Mr. Te'o were in a draft who would replace him in potential and/or money if he was defamed and removed as a guarantee commercial bet.