Posted on 04/16/2014 7:21:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Actually, it’s difficult to choose whether to start with the first paragraph or the last paragraph in this New York Times report on Michael Bloomberg’s latest project. The first paragraph covers Bloomberg’s ongoing efforts to pass gun-control legislation after the failure of his Mayors Against Illegal Guns to move the needle at all on his agenda. Besides, several of the mayors walked out after it became obvious that Bloomberg opposed a lot more than just illegal guns … which are, of course, already illegal.
This time Bloomberg wants to spend $50 million to set up a grassroots network to take on the National Rifle Association:
Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association.
Normally, that would be arrogant enough to fuel a few blog posts all on its own. That brings us to the last paragraph, in which Bloomberg mulled over his mortality with NYT reporter Jeremy Peters. And … well, this has to be read to be grasped:
But if he senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a Judgment Day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
Ahem. According to Bloomberg, there may or may not be a God, but Bloomberg will tell Him what to do in the former case. I’m not an expert on Bloomberg’s Reform Judaism, but, ah … I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works. Or maybe Bloomberg just believes that heaven is the eternal nanny state. Hard to guess, really, from the data presented here, but from Bloomberg’s track record here on this side of the veil, I’d guess that Bloomberg figures to be on Big Gulp/Trans-Fat Watch for the rest of eternity. That may be heaven for Bloomberg, but how many of us dream of an afterlife with a self-important bureaucrat telling us and God how it’s going to be?
Speaking of which, here’s Bloomberg’s idea about how to win friends and influence people here on Earth:
Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said gun control advocates need to learn from the N.R.A. and punish those politicians who fail to support their agenda — even Democrats whose positions otherwise align with his own.
“They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the N.R.A. “ ‘If you don’t vote with us we’re going to go after your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids. And we’re never going to stop.’ ”
He added: “We’ve got to make them afraid of us.”
Well, it’s his money and he can do what he wants with it, but there are over 60 million lawful firearms owners in the US. He’s not even putting up a dollar against each of those. Fifty million samoleans might buy an election or two in New York, but spread out across the US for grassroots purposes, it’s not going to make as much of an impact as Bloomberg anticipates. It’s just a little over a fifth of the NRA’s annual budget, and they raise four times that much each year from their membership alone.
If Bloomberg thinks he can bully gun owners, he’s got another think coming. His arrogance really does know no bounds, and his Democratic allies had better rethink their relationship to him before political lightning strikes too close to them … or some other kind of lightning.
Update: Reform Judaism, not reform Judaism; it’s been corrected above.
Ivan, I too realize that assault magazines have no place in pre-school. I think that we, you and I, need to make a series of videos for Mr Bloomberg aimed at NRA members to show them how unsafe assault guns are.
I think showing teh effect of a high capacity magazine weapon on watermelons, pumpkins, jugs of water, ballistic gel and shaving cream cans will convince meany of them to quit NRA and join an anti-gun organization like AARP or the Girl Scouts. Our second video will show how these terror weapons can be used to harm innocent drones- we will fly drones tagged with LED lights, light sticks, smoke bombs, and illuminated by xenon spots, over a range where several NRA members will show that tracer rounds can take such a drone down, even when flown by an expert. We’ll record footage from the drones and from the ground, with some gun-mounted cams as well.
We should ask for enough grant money to buy the best vidiography gear and lots of cop-killer hollow bullets and watermelons, about $180,000 should do it. Oh and $60,000 worth of Parrot quad-copter drones and some computers.
The largest so called republican’t new paper in New Hampshire, the Union Leader on their website have huge everytown.org advertisements today.
I will boycott every other advertiser in the Union Leader and tell them why... If I shop local, work local, I sure don’t want some NYC jerk imposing his anti-gun views on me via the Union Leader locally either. Far too many people in Nh make a living via the firearms industry
Support the Union Leader=no support from me...
its kind of organic man.. boycott dude uuuhhhhhh... I have to go shoot some guns to get my chakra back in alignment with my inner 2nd amendment... like wow (all said in a caroline kennedy stoner voice)... My M240b awaits!
I am heading to the range today though
We need some Koch brothers money to counter this!
Must be nice to be able to piss away $50M
Jews for gun control are beyond stupid
Somebody needs a little help understanding the meaning of "grassroots". Hint - such things aren't set up by rich guys spending money from on high. Need I cite the mighty Coffee Party?
“They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the N.R.A. “ ‘If you don’t vote with us we’re going to go after your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids. And we’re never going to stop.’ ”
Mr. Bloomberg is a liar. But then we already knew that.
I must say I'm awfully impressed by his ability to bypass the entry criteria for nothing less than Heaven. Does God know about this?
Apparently Bloomberg did not learn any lessons from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. “Never again”? Ha! So ironic. Too bad his direct ancestors weren’t there.
As far as getting into Heaven, I'll leave that up to God, but the way I read it, it does not have anything to do with works, only faith. Good works are a wonderful thing but won't get me into Heaven.
I am not sure telling others how to live their everyday lives constitutes "good works".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.