Month: January 2014

An Armed Society is a Polite Society – Except When It’s Not

~ R. Stanton Scott ~ Leave a comment

Concern that other movie goers might be armed did not keep Chad Olsoun from annoying others in the audience by impolitely texting his 22-month-old daughter’s caregiver during previews in a movie theater last week.  Nor did the possibility that Olsoun might have a firearm keep Curtis Reeves, a retired Tampa police captain, from losing his temper and starting an argument over this annoying behavior.

But because Mr. Reeves did happen to be armed, Olsoun’s family held funeral services today.  In this case the “good guy” escalated the argument over texting in a movie theater until he drew a weapon and shot Olsoun to death.   Continue reading →

Gillespie challenges Warner

~ R. Stanton Scott ~ Leave a comment

Washington lobbyist and Republican political operative Ed Gillespie made Virginia political news last week with this video announcement that he plans to challenge Mark Warner for Senate this year. This decision apparently pleases Virginia GOP political activists: state Republican Party Chairman Pat Mullins, for example, called Gillespie a “good candidate” in this Bearing Drift op-ed (intended more to frame Jeff Shapiro as a Warner supporter than to call for a Gillespie run).

Some think Governor McAuliffe’s success offers reasons for optimism despite Warner’s popularity (57% total approval rating according to this poll).  Bearing Drift columnists Norm Leahy and Paul Goldman argue in a Washington Post editorial that Gillespie’s lobbying background won’t hurt him given the way McAuliffe overcame his own political fundraiser history.  And Shaun Kenney, also at Bearing Drift, makes a case that Warner should fear Gillespie’s candidacy, mostly because he believes the challenger will be able to mobilize conservatives in the state while painting Warner as responsible for the Affordable Care Act. Continue reading →

Strong to Texas

~ R. Stanton Scott ~ Leave a comment

It’s official: Louisville football coach Charlie Strong will leave to coach the Texas Longhorns next season.

I have mixed feelings about this.  I’m sorry to see him go, but I’m frankly not convinced he’s the guy who can build a truly lasting winner (a la Nick Saban) at either Louisville or Texas.  He certainly turned the program around after Steve Kragthorpe failed to build on Bobby Petrino‘s success.  He is perhaps one of the premier defensive coaches and recruiters in the game (or he managed to identify and hire the right staff). This showed in Louisville’s defensive success this season and in the clearly improved quality of recruits now at the school compared to five years ago. Continue reading →

Virginia Political Blogs

~ R. Stanton Scott ~ Leave a comment

Over at Bearing Drift a few weeks ago Shaun Kenney said this about MSNBC:

“Let’s be very honest about it.  MSNBC caters to probably the most hateful, unintelligent, mean-spirited, and closed minded of the American left.  The smugness and arrogance of the blathering idiots are perhaps only punctuated by the occasional bright light offered by Rachel Maddow, but beyond this are nothing but the vapid darkness of a fanatic who won’t change their mind and rarely changes the subject.”

“They really do hate us,” says Mr. Kenney (emphasis in the original), and it’s this hate that irks conservatives.  This makes MSNBC a “perfect caricature of what liberals think Fox News must be” (emphasis again from the original). Continue reading →