Somebody is finally reporting that Track Palin has a serious alcohol problem. Well that's a start.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

Sarah Palin’s son is heading into treatment instead of jail after his January domestic violence arrest — and his own lawyer told RadarOnline.com he needs help for his alcohol problem! 

Track “has been assessed” by the VA, his attorney, Kevin T. Fitzgerald told Radar, and at a hearing later this month, he will receive his proposed treatment plan. 

“I would expect it has some alcohol component,” Fitzgerald said. “In all candor, Track could be well-served by treatment.”

That is a fairly significant admission since up until now Sarah Palin has refused to admit that Track has a substance abuse problem, instead blaming his most recent difficulties on PTSD and oddly enough President Obama.

Fitzgerald had more to say: 

Getting the domestic violence assault charge dropped was “not an insignificant dismissal,” he said, insisting that the possession of a weapon while intoxicated charge “really more accurately tracks what went down” when Track was accused of drunkenly attacking his girlfriend in January. 

Still, Fitzgerald said they weren’t altogether pleased with the final charge that stuck. “I believe it’s got constitutional infirmities because it precludes people form possessing firearms, even unloaded firearms, in their own homes if they’re under the influence,” he insisted. “We weren’t going to make a big constitutional issue of it, but that’s what the situation was.” 

(Yeah, after all what is a Palin without their guns? Besides you know a drunken asshole who abuses women?)

Now, Track, 27, will enter a therapeutic program through the VA, which could last “several months,” the Anchorage DA, Clinton Champion, told Radar. 

Said Fitzgerald, “If he completes the treatment, the last charge too will be dismissed. If he doesn’t then he’s looking at 180 days … with two years of informal probation.”

I will argue that the chances of Track finishing this treatment program successfully are slim.

Because while they seem willing to admit that Track has a drinking problem from what I have heard from just about everybody is that alcoholism is only the tip of the drug addicted iceberg.

And Track has been abusing these substances since he was in high school, so the idea that he can suddenly break the addiction cycle is a high bar to set in my opinion.

I mean do not get me wrong, I really do hope that he is successful because he has two small children to care for, but working on all of this while living with his ever ready to enable, excuse making parents, seems like a recipe for disaster.

Police firearms instructor will miss two months of work after shooting himself during lesson.

Courtesy of TPM:  

The firearms instructor for the Hewitt Police Department is recovering from surgery after accidentally shooting himself in the left hand while teaching family members to shoot. 

Sgt. Heath Vanek will miss at least two months of work while rehabilitating from surgery to repair a wound from his personal 9mm pistol, Hewitt Police Chief Jim Devlin said. 

The incident occurred July 15 on Vanek’s family property near the McLennan and Falls county lines and did not involve any Hewitt-issued guns or equipment. 

Devlin said Vanek, 35, declined comment Friday about his accidental injury.

The chief went on to day that Vanek was teaching a family member how to clear a chamber after jamming, when  he was shot in the hand. 

“He said, ‘I made a classic mistake,’ ” Devlin said. “We are human, too. We are not infallible. We make mistakes, and when we mess up, we mess up and do our best to correct it and get back to giving the public the best service we can.” 

Yeah and if this kind of thing can happen to a trained professional, who has been a police firearms instructor for five years, just imagine how often it can happen when more and more people are encouraged to own handguns and are told repeatedly that doing so will keep them safe.

Remember accidental shootings do not always hit just the hand, or the person handling the weapon.

Guns kill, and though they may not kill all on their own, it certainly does not take much encouragement before they perform the function that they were created to perform.

Sarah Palin's latest promo for her soon to be cancelled new show seems to feature everything about America that embarrasses most of us.

"There's not just the huntin, and fishing, and snowmachining, and dog sledding, we're going to showcase people places and things that inspire people to get off their...."

Gee I wonder what they left out?

You know I have watched entire John Wayne movies that featured fewer gun than this promo did.

Fanatic nationalism, drunken rednecks, abundant firearms, duck calls, running from cattle, apparently Sarah Palin's version of America is a potpourri of idiotic behaviors, near fatalities, and hillbilly hijinks, all set to music by second rate bands found ducking flying beer bottles on the stages of honky-tonk bars.

Yeehaw, America! It's time to lose s few more of them there brain cells.

Growing number of firearm manufacturers may refuse to sell weapons to law enforcement if new gun control laws restrict them from selling to everybody.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

A growing number of firearm firms in the US are vowing to reverse-boycott local and state governments that enact any new infringements on the Second Amendment. 

Vowing to close what they're calling "the police loophole," at least 50 US companies, ranging from gun machinists to gun shops, are now saying publicly they'll refuse to sell weapons and gear to police in places where governments have banned the use of the same gear by civilians. 

Quality Arms, located in Rigby, Idaho, writes on its website that it "will not supply any firearm or product manufactured by us or any other company, nor will we warranty, repair, alter or modify a firearm owned by any state, county or municipality that infringes on the right of its citizens to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment." 

The move comes as Congress and some state houses are considering new gun controls in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The most direct target of the "police loophole" movement seems to be New York State, which put into law a raft of new gun control regulations, including limiting the size of magazines, last month. 

"Based on the recent legislation in New York, we are prohibited from selling rifles and receivers to residents of New York [so] we have chosen to extend that prohibition to all governmental agencies associated with or located within New York," York Arms of Buxton, Maine, writes on its website. 

So far, none of the major gun manufacturers have joined the list, and it's an open question whether the smaller companies are bluffing or would even have occasion to sell directly to governments in New York State, for example.

I doubt that ANY of the major gun manufacturers, especially those that have contracts with law enforcement, would be willing to join such a ban, which makes it an empty gesture that smacks of desperation.

However it also reveals a very troubling mindset of those who create this death dealing instruments in that if they there are any restrictions places on who they can sell them to, regardless of that person's intent, they are saying they would be willing to further place the citizens of this country at risk by not selling weapons to law enforcement that would use them in defense of those citizens.

Sounds a little like passive aggressive terrorism to me.