wingedmonkey
Inactive
From a Blog mentioned in today's NRO "Kerry Spot."
Gun Raffle
Here's the clip:
http://www.discriminations.us/storage/002721.html
Virtually all of the extensive press coverage of this new ad says it pictures Kerry "hoisting a hunting rifle" (New York Times, cited above) or "with hunting rifle" Washington Post.
There are actually several problems here, but the first is that the picture in the ad does not show Kerry with a rifle. Here (picture) is a larger version of that picture, taken from the Firefighters For Kerry web site. Kerry, as you can see, is holding a double barrel shotgun (the picture was taken during his photo op pheasant hunting trip in Iowa last fall). This is not a minor error, and I'll come back to it in a moment. Meanwhile, Wait! There's more.
Kerry may or may not be the avid hunter he and his ad proclaim, but this picture of him with the thumb of his left hand wrapped across the top of the barrels suggests that he hunts for photo ops rather than game. Trying to shoot with this grip is roughly akin to trying to write by gripping a pencil in your fist the same way you would grab a knife as though you were going to stab someone with an overhand blow.
Hold on; I'm not through. If you can view the ad itself (cited above), do so, and hit the stop button when Hunter Kerry appears. Those guys standing around off to the left but in front of him probably aren't in the line of fire (if any firing were to happen), but I wouldn't want to be standing there, especially not when the man with the gun is holding it with such an odd grip.
Now here's the funniest part. I would have said that no hunting was actually going on here -- just a photo shoot -- but take a closer look at the still picture from the firefighters' site. Doesn't that look like a dog behind Kerry, pointing in the opposite direction from where he's poised to shoot? Come to think of it, maybe this scene is deeply symbolic. Kerry is being provided with information (in the form of the point) on the location of sought after targets from a highly trained professional field operative (the dog), and he turns his back and looks resolutely in the wrong direction, under the watchful eye of his advisers off to the left. Think what Michael Moore could do with this if only Kerry were a Republican!
Now, as long as I'm being snide, there's one thing I would like to know. Is the gun in Kerry's hands a stage prop or, as he's claimed, something that's been in his family for years? If the latter, what exactly is it? If it's a fine English double of the sort one might expect to find in any one of Kerry's several multimillion dollar mansions, it might well be worth more than the annual salaries of many people "all around" motorcycling, hockeying, piloting, hunting guy Kerry would like to vote for him. Inquiring minds want to know.
So much for the fun. Here's the serious part. I assume the reporters writing about this ad were writing not only from viewing it but also from material provided by Shrum and Donilon, who produced it for Kerry. I think this because most of the articles were written in similar if not identical ways using similar if not identical organization and phrasing. If so, it means that Kerry's advisers (and even Kerry himself, since he announces, as required, that he approved the ad, though not necessarily the descriptive materials that must have accompanied it) don't know the difference between a rifle and a shotgun or that rifles are not used in pheasant hunting. The fact that such a blunder occurs as a central part of an ad whose purpose is to make Kerry look like a regular guy whom hunters and sportsmen can trust to protect their interests is quite telling.
Gun Raffle
Here's the clip:
http://www.discriminations.us/storage/002721.html
Virtually all of the extensive press coverage of this new ad says it pictures Kerry "hoisting a hunting rifle" (New York Times, cited above) or "with hunting rifle" Washington Post.
There are actually several problems here, but the first is that the picture in the ad does not show Kerry with a rifle. Here (picture) is a larger version of that picture, taken from the Firefighters For Kerry web site. Kerry, as you can see, is holding a double barrel shotgun (the picture was taken during his photo op pheasant hunting trip in Iowa last fall). This is not a minor error, and I'll come back to it in a moment. Meanwhile, Wait! There's more.
Kerry may or may not be the avid hunter he and his ad proclaim, but this picture of him with the thumb of his left hand wrapped across the top of the barrels suggests that he hunts for photo ops rather than game. Trying to shoot with this grip is roughly akin to trying to write by gripping a pencil in your fist the same way you would grab a knife as though you were going to stab someone with an overhand blow.
Hold on; I'm not through. If you can view the ad itself (cited above), do so, and hit the stop button when Hunter Kerry appears. Those guys standing around off to the left but in front of him probably aren't in the line of fire (if any firing were to happen), but I wouldn't want to be standing there, especially not when the man with the gun is holding it with such an odd grip.
Now here's the funniest part. I would have said that no hunting was actually going on here -- just a photo shoot -- but take a closer look at the still picture from the firefighters' site. Doesn't that look like a dog behind Kerry, pointing in the opposite direction from where he's poised to shoot? Come to think of it, maybe this scene is deeply symbolic. Kerry is being provided with information (in the form of the point) on the location of sought after targets from a highly trained professional field operative (the dog), and he turns his back and looks resolutely in the wrong direction, under the watchful eye of his advisers off to the left. Think what Michael Moore could do with this if only Kerry were a Republican!
Now, as long as I'm being snide, there's one thing I would like to know. Is the gun in Kerry's hands a stage prop or, as he's claimed, something that's been in his family for years? If the latter, what exactly is it? If it's a fine English double of the sort one might expect to find in any one of Kerry's several multimillion dollar mansions, it might well be worth more than the annual salaries of many people "all around" motorcycling, hockeying, piloting, hunting guy Kerry would like to vote for him. Inquiring minds want to know.
So much for the fun. Here's the serious part. I assume the reporters writing about this ad were writing not only from viewing it but also from material provided by Shrum and Donilon, who produced it for Kerry. I think this because most of the articles were written in similar if not identical ways using similar if not identical organization and phrasing. If so, it means that Kerry's advisers (and even Kerry himself, since he announces, as required, that he approved the ad, though not necessarily the descriptive materials that must have accompanied it) don't know the difference between a rifle and a shotgun or that rifles are not used in pheasant hunting. The fact that such a blunder occurs as a central part of an ad whose purpose is to make Kerry look like a regular guy whom hunters and sportsmen can trust to protect their interests is quite telling.
