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The Edges vs the Middle
Rich Galen
Wednesday January 16, 2013
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The conventional wisdom among the geniuses who are paid to tell us what to think about and how to think about it has been that the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre had lost his mind when he proclaimed, after the tragedy in Connecticut, that the way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.
LaPierre went on to suggest that schools hire armed guards to protect the children against some nut showing up with a weapon and an agenda.
The popular press and the social elite went bat --- well, they disagreed.
Now comes an actual poll by one of the prized news organizations of the social elite, the Washington Post, which shows that once you get out of what reporter Chris Cillizza calls "The Acela Corridor" - the tract of America between Washington, DC, New York City, and Boston:
"A majority (55 percent) of Americans in the poll support the idea of putting an armed guard in every school in the country, including 65 percent of Republicans, 53 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats."
Whoa! Check Please!
Even a majority of Democrats? Yes, but none of them attended the Golden Globes earlier this week.
To be fair, there is significant support for changes to existing gun laws in that poll:
-- 88% - 11% on whether to require background checks for people buying guns at gun shows.
-- 71% - 27% on whether to establish a federal database to track gun sales.
-- 65% - 32% on whether to ban the sale of high capacity clips.
-- 58% - 39% on whether to ban the sale of assault weapons.
But:
-- 96% - 3% the President and Congress should put a high priority on the economy
-- 88% - 10% they should put a high priority on reducing federal spending
-- 59% - 38% they should put a high priority on "enacting stricter gun control laws."
President Barack Obama is expected to, according to the NY Times, to
"embrace a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence that will call for major legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases and lay out 19 separate actions the president could take by invoking the power of his office."
That should happen about noon on Wednesday and we'll have to wait and see how far the President presses the envelope of the power of Executive Orders and how willing even Democrats on the Hill are to support him.
New, but related, topic:
You've read about the environmentalists' opposition to what is known as "fracking" - the method of recovering natural gas and oil from huge shale deposits by injecting the formations with high pressure water and chemicals to break apart the rock and release the fuel.
A-listers Matt Damon and John Krasinski, decided to cash in on the anti-fracking frenzy sweeping Hollywood by writing, and starring in, a film called Promised Land about a big, bad natural gas company trying to make a bunch of Pennsylvania farmers really wealthy by putting in natural gas wells on their land.
John Krasinski, as the do-gooding environmentalist, attempts to make Matt Damon see the light about why money isn't everything - especially if you already have a lot of it.
Ok, the movie opened in a few theaters in December to make it eligible for the 2013 Academy Awards.
Wait. Cheap red wine just shot out of my nose.
The producers used every trick in the movie-maker's bag-'O-tricks to market this thing. They ran ads that made Obama and Romney look like cheapskates. They convinced CBS' Sunday Morning to interview Damon. Krainski is the cover story in this month's Delta "Sky Magazine."
Promised Land opened in wide distribution a week ago and came in 10th for the weekend earning about $4.3 million. This past weekend, word-of-mouth having worked its magic, the film only sold about $1 million in tickets - a 67% drop week-over-week.
Promised Land may well go down as the Edsel of movies for the amount of marketing money wasted.
As I have told you before, I do work for T. Boone Pickens on the Pickens Plan, so I have an interest in the expanded use of natural gas.
The people at the edges of our nation have no idea what the people who don't live near an ocean think or desire.
What the social elites believe Americans are interested in have nothing whatever to do with making a living, paying the bills, keeping the house, and getting a good education for the kids.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the essay from the Washington Post, to the data in the poll, to a short blurb about the Edsel, and to the weekend box office results.
There is also a wistful Mullfoto from Old Town over the weekend.
-- END --
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