And speaking of the perversion of “common sense” by anti-rights nuts, it is fairly common knowledge now that Joan Peterson is a board member of the Brady Campaign, among other anti-rights organizations, but we did not know the extent or limits of her influence.
Well, consider this news release from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Ownership:
Supporters of common sense restrictions on guns, from both political parties, won a number of U.S. Senate seats yesterday.
[...]
This shows again that support for common sense gun laws will not hurt candidates at the polls…
[...]
Senator Wyden has long supported common-sense gun measures…
[...]
…support candidates who stand up for common-sense gun laws.
Ok, stop your giggling at the Brady Bunch trying to claim victory out of this past election, disregard that “common sense” does not mean what the anti-rights nuts think it does, and try to ignore Paul Helmke’s blatant lies – instead, consider the bolded sections of the above quotes. See anything… familiar?
I am certainly not going to say that Joan Peterson / Japete wrote the above press release, nor am I going to say that she is wholly responsible for the broken-record repitition of “common sense”, but I think it is fair to say that she appears to be something of a trend-setter for the Brady Bunch… and this is a Very Good Thing (TM), as I said over at AmericanMercenary:
Honestly, every time Joan says one of her stupid-assed things, it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside… Remember, this woman sits on the board of the Brady Campaign – she is, literally, one of their better minds, otherwise she would not be there. And she does not have a gorramed clue what she is talking about. Worse, she appears to have no way of learning a damned thing, much less processing or comprehending anything.
And she is one of the few, the proud, the guiding voices of the Brady Campaign. *giggle* We can only hope she is part of a growing trend at that fine and upstanding organization…
I have no idea how one ends up on the Brady Campaign board, and I honestly do not much care (though I have a sneaking suspicion that the job requirements amount to “volunteered”, “shows up”, and “breathes”); the fact remains that the organization is sufficiently comfortable with Joan Peterson representing it, actively and passively, that she is permitted to remain on that board. Think about that for a second. I am not sure about the rest of you, but if I ran an organization as dependent upon public opinion as the Brady Bunch is, I would have some very serious qualms allowing a potentially mentally deficient individual who cannot do elementary-level mathematics officially represent that group in public… but maybe that is just me.
On the flip side, were the Brady Bunch to drop her, Joan might have grounds for a lawsuit on the basis of discrimination against her syndrome…
(Oh, and would it be too much to ask for the Brady Bunch press release writer to decide whether or not he is going to incorrectly hyphenate “common sense”? Inconsistent dolts.)
I disagree with you about her status in Brady. I am convince that she is a good little indian rather than a Chief. I think that the real leadership of Brady writes the press releases and this little gem
“Since I am on a daily e-mail list about gun violence issues, I have a sense for things going on around the country, including shootings in the news, press conferences, state legislative initiatives, Supreme Court cases, homicides, etc.”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/29wvzyo
tells us how she gets her writing orders. These foot soldiers of the revolution can’t think for themselves generally. She is just mouthpiece and a figurehead. She, and Colin, and James Brady are just victims they put up front to gain sympathy for the disgusting agenda of victim disarmament. Do you really think that she looked up the data she put in to her comment yesterday about gun deaths and relationships between shooters?
http://preview.tinyurl.com/27gnw7u
She’s consulting something, but I’m pretty sure that it is a manual of how to argue their talking points, not the data source itself, like I did.
The similarity in argument between her and her parent organization implies a common source for the statements, but I don’t think that common source is Joan Peterson.
What’s hilarious is Joan is a “shining mind” for gun control, and meanwhile there are several other anti-gun bloggers who you know would love a position on one of the many Joyce/Brady boards, but just didn’t have what it takes to make the cut.
@Sean Sorrentino – Like I said, she is certainly not the one writing these press releases, but Joan is hardly just a cog in the overall machine, either: the Brady Campaign webpage describes her as “President of the Northland Chapter and the Million Mom March Chapters’ national representative to the Board of Directors”, which is further corroborated by a Brady Campaign post at the Common Dreams webpage. Likewise, she might not have been the one to come up with the first use of “common sense gun laws”, but she is certainly the first one to beat the everloving crap out of the idea, repeatedly, incessantly, and without mercy at her webpage – her first post misappropriating “common sense” is almost exactly two months before this press release.
It could be that Helmke was simply inspired by her. It could be that she caught wind of an impending vocabulary change, and wanted to be the first one to exploit it, but either way, I still stand by my “trendsetter” comment
.
In any case, one really does have to wonder whether or not she realizes she is being used and abused by the Brady Bunch, and whether or not she cares… Or if she can realize it.
@Weer’d Beard – Could be a lack of genuine interest (after all, they are sufficiently uninterested in meeting each other that one flew halfway across the world and did not meet with the other an hour away while doing so), could be that they would be even worse representatives for the Brady Bunch than she is (which is true), and could be that the Brady Bunch is just… full up
.
In any case, must suck to be in their position… now those are the rusty, squeaky, defective little cogs in the machine that no one cares about…
Linoge,
I think you have a point but didn’t carry it far enough.
Joan isn’t just a member of the Brady Campaign Board — she serves on or volunteers for several gun control organizations.
Citizens for a Safer Minnesota
Protect Minnesota
Northland Chapter for the Million Mom March
Website EndGunviolence.com
While your “shows up, volunteers, and breathes” scenario is possible/probably it really points out how little true grass roots support gun control has — that she is more than a simple volunteer says much about the strength of the many organizations she works with. I think that the entire “Northland Chapter” may be 8 people.
Really? 8? We had nearly 3 times that many gun bloggers at ChristinaLMT’s party this summer. Heck, we have twice that many people serving on the board of the gun club I belong too — and I guarantee we put in as many or more hours than Joan does.
And we do it after we get done with our regular jobs.
And I can bloody well guarantee you that each of those organizations counts her separately and independently of each other, further inflating their numbers and supposed influence, which only goes to really show how shallow, if not outright artificial, that “grass roots” influence is.
In the end, I guess we will never know the extent and capacity of Joan’s influence on the organizations she works for and leads, at least until those things and she make the news, or until she is willing to be a little more forthcoming about them. However, for the time being, I am warmly and thoroughly encouraged that the Brady Bunch, and all of its little children organizations, have people like her working for them – that only bodes well for us
.
It is clear that their bench is not very deep. If someone was that stupid, would the NRA allow them to blog on their behalf? The membership would strip them of their Board Member status. It really does go to show how thin their talent actually is.
She kind of does make me wonder how it is that people make it to the Brady Campaign’s board… Did people realy elect her, and do they continue to do so? That is an even scarier thought than some of the nonsense she is trying to pull on us now…
[...] a week ago, I made a crack about how giggle-worthy Paul Helmke’s claims of victory in this past election were, and seeing similar press releases from all of the usual sources has continued to amuse the [...]
After being sick and tires of JAPETE censoring me, I started the following blog.
http://commongunnonsense.blogspot.com
Japete has time and time again asked me for further information on a fact I corrected her on, and then not posted it… She does this to make it look like she was right, and I was wrong…
She sensors facts to prove her further her agenda.
I hate to be the one to say it, but that particular link goes absolutely nowhere… If you need any help setting up the blog, though, let me know and I will see what I can do.
That said, you certainly would not be the first person who decided to start a weblog after being incessantly “moderated” by our all-too-intolerant Japete – Sean Sorrentino did exactly that as well, and has been making quite a splash as a new gunblogger. In the end, Joan has successfully done far more damage to her own cause as “someone on the inside” than we ever could have hoped to do from the outside.
[...] on it will take over the world!Linoge on the times are a-changingLinoge on *snerk*Linoge on common sense gun lawsLinoge on self-defense is a mindsetLinoge on in-action reportLinoge on this ain’t star [...]
[...] other pro-rights webloggers, I lost interest in Joan Peterson a while ago… especially after exposing her misappropriation of a simple phrase and debunking every single one of her arguments in a single post, but this recent turn of events is [...]