Let's Get This Straight

According to the White House, we (that is, America) is in the middle of a war in Iraq which somehow translates into an effort against terrorism.

As lately but oh-so-briefly publicized, this effort has thus far cost over a thousand American lives, and between ten and thirty thousand Iraqi ones.

But it was all worth it. America is somehow safer today than it was on September 10th, 2001. The cutting of civil liberties, the deliberate pushing of a partisan agenda by the White House, the squandering of moral capital in Guantanamo Bay and at Abu Ghraib have all contributed to make certain fewer Americans will be killed in acts of terrorism.

But two days after the third anniversary of the attacks that got the ball rolling, the US government lets the assault-weapons ban expire. Okay--the ban never actually restricted the sale of most assault weapons, and it didn't stop the sale of such weapons manufactured prior to 1994. What it did was max out the size of a magazine to ten rounds, restrict 19 of the most offensive of this most offensive category of weapons, such as the TEC-9 (popular where your target is surrounded by other dancers at nightclubs and such situations) and forbid the use of things that made such weapons easier to conceal, such as folding stocks.

So, after at least three years and 11,000 lives spent in the name of anti-terrorism (although the term "counter"-terrorism seems more appropriate), the Bush White House wants to make it easier to carry high-fire-rate weapons with large numbers of bullets, and furthermore wants to ensure that you can once again hide such weaponry under a trenchcoat?

This is not a story.

Freeway Blogger--all I can say is, "Rock On"