The Village Voice et CNN December 11, 1990 By Dan Gifford Morrisville, Pennsyslvania — John Pozsgai (pronounced pose-guy) dons inmate khakis and starts each morning in a federal prison lineup since Thanksgiving because he is now an environmental criminal, an enemy of the American political state. It’s a change from the way he used to […]
THE CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF ANGLO AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE IN RELIGION AND REASONDAN GIFFORD Tennessee Law Review Spring, 1995 University of Tennessee Ask the American Civil Liberties Union for information about itself and you will receive several briefing papers. (1) Briefing Paper Number 10 contains a drawing on the front page depicting the 1735 seditious libel trial of John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly […]
When “journalists” are liarsInsight magazine The Washington Times February 26, 1996 By Dan Gifford “The AK-47 assault weapon is a myth of its own,” BBC reporter Jo Durden-Smith confidently advised me from London. “Just listen to the street talk, the rap songs, they tell about the AK’s sheer control of the street. Everybody has one.” During Durden-Smith’s May […]
Era of Big Government Thrives at the IRSInsight, The Washington Times April 29, 1996 By Dan Gifford “Taxes are the life-blood of government” and, despite the move toward federal downsizing, lawmakers seem to regard tax collection akin to making sausage — none wants to look at the process. Death and taxes may be inevitabilities of of human existence, but that is hardly […]
Tax reform must not hit real people at homeThe Washington Times March 29, 1996 By Dan Gifford During the mid ’80s, Houston had a housing disaster. Home prices plummeted. Suddenly, the $150,000 tract houses builder-developers were marketing six months earlier were being offered for $100,000 or less by the same builder-developers in the same subdivision. Angry at seeing their home prices drop, their […]
CAN MASS SHOOTINGS BE PREVENTED?By Dan Gifford Firing Line Amid all the specious rhetoric about banning AR-15s and other “weapons of war” from civilian hands that have often been used in the highly publicized mass murder of strangers or casual acquaintances (the basic definition of a “mass shooting”), there’s a cogent question that’s never asked: Why didn’t we have […]
FBI Mass Murder Of The Branch Davidians At Waco And The Establishment Collusion To Cover It UpBy Dan Gifford “The federal government was absolutely out of control there. We spoke in the jury room about the fact that the wrong people were on trial, that it should have been the ones that planned the raid and orchestrated it and insisted on carrying out this plan who should have been on trial.” […]
When the media defended Second Amendment rightsBy Dan Gifford It’s hard to believe now, but there have been times when major media opinion makers pushed back against activist and government propagandists and their ginned-up howls for Second Amendment infringements as a crime cure. One such time was the 1920s and 1930s era when gangs fought each other for control of the […]
The Uplifters Try It AgainBy Dan Gifford H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) was at the top of the list of the most influential newspaperman and common man thinkers of his era. His books and essays were iconoclastic and emphasized individual thought and responsibility as opposed to the group think of elitist academics, politicians and Bible thumpers. Mencken was one of my […]
Waco Skepticism and CounterskepticismThis article appeared on page 31 of Skeptic Magazine (Vol. 7 No.1 1999). It is my response to an earlier article attempting to discredit my film, “Waco: The Rules of Engagement,” printed in the magazine’s 1998 3rd quarter (Vol.6 No. 3 1998, page 10) issue. By Dan Gifford Producer, “Waco: The Rules Of Engagement” “We […]
Why Facts Don’t Change Our MindsBy Dan Gifford One of the more common beliefs expressed by Second Amendment rights activists is that those who oppose those rights would change their minds if they were told “the real facts.” It’s at that point names like Florida State University Criminologist Gary Kleck, former University of Chicago prof John Lott or academic fraud […]
You back the blue, so why doesn’t it back you?By Dan Gifford If there is one thing both the National Rifle Association and its stalwart members have in common aside from being defenders of Second Amendment rights, it is that they are backers of police. Conversely, if there is one thing police unions and police “brass,” have in common, it is that they have […]
Why are professors writing crap that nobody reads?By Dan Gifford Firing Line magazine Some of the first things I do before reading an academic study are look up the writers, see who has funded them and skim for recognizable falsities and dodgy sources. In addition, I also keep an oft asked question in my mind about academic superciliousness expressed in the […]
Twilight of the FuddsBy Dan Gifford You know the FUDDs by what they say. “You don’t need 30 bullets to kill a deer” “What do you need a gun like that for, anyway?” “That’s a weapon of war, not a sporting gun” Yes, they’re the guys who consider most any form of government Second Amendment infringement as reasonable. […]
From Petitio Principii To Lubrico FastigioBy Dan Gifford Proposals for the enactment of “Red Flag” laws or “Extreme Risk Protective Orders,” as some call them, are at the top of the current list of demands by forward thinkers and way too many others who function largely on emotion and assumed truths. But two glaring fallacies underlie those proposals. One is […]
Red coats to red flag laws to bloody red revoltBy Dan Gifford Every picture tells a story and the one on the Seal of Union County, New Jersey tells a deadly one. It depicts the 1780 cold blooded murder that ignited righteous anger of New Jerseyans and colonists at large and caused the fence sitters among them to take up arms against their own […]
Why do we have a National Firearm Act tax?By Dan Gifford Kansas Republican Congressman Roger Marshall has drafted a bill to free short barreled rifles — those with barrels less than 16 inches — from National Firearm Act (NFA) restrictions that require purchase of a federal license and registration. That has been the case since 1934 when the NFA was put on the […]
Who Wants Roger Stone Dead?By Dan Gifford Republican political adviser and alleged “dirty trickster” Roger Stone has been found guilty of lying to Congress and obstruction of a bogus investigation and now awaits sentencing. Prosecutors want to put Stone in prison for 7 to 9 years which means that at age 67, he would likely die there of old […]
UFOs ‘were always there’ …By Dan Gifford During the mid 1990s, director William Gazecki gave me a video that showed flying objects called “air rods” or “flying rods” or “sky fish.” Their presence was an unexplained phenomena and still is, so far as I know. The existence of the “rods” had been verified by others qualified to do so. […]
What Beto Said …First published Firing Line magazine November/December 2019 By Dan Gifford The good part of what Democrat presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said is that after more than 50 years of weasel words and outright denials, a politician on the national stage has partially pulled the confiscation cat out of the bag. The bad part is that […]
When the Modern Gun Control Movement StartedFirst published Firing Line magazine September / October 2019 By Dan Gifford That date was November 22, 1963. It’s not only a date those aware of the world at the time remember, they also remember where they were on hearing the news that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered. I was in French class […]
“We choose truth over facts!”First published Firing Line November/December 2019 issue By Dan Gifford Perhaps the most frustrating part of writing an article about Second Amendment “gun control” issues is that the subject is thoroughly plowed ground. There is nothing new save the new faces mouthing the same well known discredited “truths.” You know them: A study proved a […]
Do Police Really fake Evidence and Lie?First published: The Compton Bulletin April 12, 1995 By Dan Gifford In court, the Simpson defense lawyers claim a Los Angeles Police Detective may have framed their client and lied about it. Out of court, defense attorney Alan Dershowitz broadened the charge to all police, claiming they’re taught to lie. Media pundits generally scoff at […]
Social Disorder and the Lack of ReligionFirst published: The Indianapolis Star August 31, 1995 By Dan Gifford Is America’s growing illegitimacy simply a welfare money problem? Is welfare the core problem behind the demise of the family structure that many now realize is vital to the continuance of America as a free society? That’s the relationship Senators Phil Graham and Daniel […]
All for Guns and Guns for AllFirst published: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday May 23, 1993 By Dan Gifford Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We’re about to test Benjamin Franklin’s warning by allowing the First Amendment protected media to kill the Second Amendment with false information. I adduce […]
Resistance by CitizensFirst published: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Monday, March 8, 1993 By Dan Gifford Criminals and murderers occasionally wear a badge. It happens in police departments all over the world. But does a badge make its wearer immune from acts of self defense — even deadly self defense — from those at risk of unjustified harm […]
Remembering Chairman SamFirst published: The Harold Sun (Durham, North Carolina) Thursday, April 21, 1994 By Dan Gifford When retired North Carolina U.S. Senator Sam Ervin Jr. died nine years ago Saturday, a legacy of American Founding wisdom, humor, honor and constitutional integrity died with him. I didn’t fully appreciate all that until I watched “Chairman Sam” untangle […]
Gun Control Doesn’t Equal Crime ControlBy Dan Gifford First published Baltimore Sun 23 October 1993 The latest congressional head count indicates some sort of gun control legislation is likely to pass. If it does, will we be safer? Not that I can see. Through gun-control laws, Congress will have strengthened its precedent for curtailing other parts of the Bill of […]
Conviction: This Decade’s Most Important FilmBy Dan Gifford Breitbart. Com First published 8 July, 2010 Hilary Swank was sitting in “my” Brentwood coffee shop yesterday morning and her presence reminded me that she executive produced and starred in “Conviction,” a film I regard as the most important one made this decade or even during the past ten years because it […]
Tommy and Nancy: Like Father, Like Daughter?By Dan Gifford 26 May 2009 A prominent politician accustomed to the bare knuckle realities of that world once gave me what he said was the best advice anyone ever gave him: When accused, deny everything, admit nothing and make counter accusations. That politician was “Big Tommy” (aka “Old Tommy”) D’Alesandro, a former Maryland US […]
How Reality TV Pollutes Our MindsBy Dan Gifford First published Breitbart.com 16 June 2010 OK, I walk into the TV room the other night expecting to watch some vintage Eastwood and what do I wind up watching instead? The Real Housewives of New Jersey — aka nouveau riche, high maintenance, goombah psycho bitches — are squaring off. Their verbal […]
Why Won’t the Media Cover the Black Panther Scandal?By Dan Gifford Breitbart.com 15 July 2010 Poet Ogden Nash knew the score: …if called by a panther, don’t anther. And that’s exactly what America’s liberal agenda-setting media has done. It has not answered the “New” Black Panther’s call daring it to report on voter intimidation by two paramilitary dressed Panthers, one of whom […]
Exclusive: James Cameron Talks Tough, Runs From Fight, Lets Flunkie Take BlameBy Dan Gifford First published 2010, Breitbart.com One of the downsides of having been the victim of a classical education is that events often trigger unconventional connections. So when I heard that film director James Cameron, a man whose well known intolerance, arrogance and profane bullying equal his cinematic brilliance, had chickened out of a […]
Exclusive: James Cameron’s Chickened Out of Global Warming Debates BeforeBy Dan Gifford Breitbart.com 27 August 2010 A mere week after director James Cameron won a Chicken Award for running away from a climate change debate challenge he had made to Andrew Breitbart, filmmaker Ann McElhinney and Marc Morano, it has been confirmed that the Oscar-winner now deserves a second Chicken Award for similarly […]
REVIEW: ‘The Kids Are All Right’ Tells Us We Don’t Need FathersBy Dan Gifford 3 July 2010 Among Hollywood’s many mind benders is the fact that a book and a movie can have the same title but not be the same story, while two or more movies can also have the same title and tell the same story — or not. I mention that because […]
Franken’s Felony Vote News BlackoutBy Dan Gifford 16 July 2010 Maybe I’m deaf and blind, but two weeks after a voting records examination report showed Minnesota Senator Al Franken was probably elected by felons who were illegally voting in that state’s 2008 general election, I’ve yet to come across even one mention of that story in the agenda-setting media. […]
Film Review: In ‘Get Low’ Robert Duvall is SeamlessBy Dan Gifford First published Breitbart.com 2 August 2010 Tales of the whimmydiddle‘s mysteries aside, one of the most stupefying stories I can recall from my childhood in the North Carolina – Tennessee mountains was about a Volunteer State man who held a 1938 funeral for himself before he died so he could hear what […]
Film Review: Anti-Capitalist Melodrama Grounds ‘The Flight of the Swan’By Dan Gifford 10 August 2010 Having seen the preview director’s cut of this Greek film by auteur Nikos Tzimas twice now in hopes that it wasn’t as overplayed and trite as I first thought, I now feel better about saying that it is. My advice if you must see it when released: go for […]
‘Animal Kingdom’ Review: Melbourne ConfidentialBy Dan Gifford First published Breitbart.com 22 August 2010 When Australian actor Guy Pearce played an honest detective in LA Confidential, he killed LAPD corruption by shooting his criminal police Captain mastermind. No such clarity or resolution in this film. In what could have been titled Melbourne Confidential, a city with a considerable organized crime […]
Bootstrap Christian Film Community Does it Without HollywoodBy Dan Giffod September 14, 2010 Breitbart.com Conservative Christians get no respect here in Hollywood. And because they don’t, they are making an increasing number of films that reflect their values in places where Obama says “bitter” people “cling to guns or religion.” Yes, we’re talking fly-over land, that vast cultural wilderness America’s Christophobic intellectual […]
‘100 Voices: A Journey Home’ ReviewCultures come and go. Some age into oblivion and are replaced by another. Some are lost through assimilation. But others are literally murdered. Such was the fate of Poland’s thriving thousand year old Jewish culture and its cantorial music tradition when the socialist jackboots of Hitler and Stalin goose stepped into that country and divided […]
‘Winter’s Bone’ Review: Tells Compelling Story, Avoids StereotypesBy Dan Gifford 20 October 2010 Back when I was a young hillbilly, it could be dangerous to go too far into some parts of the woods. The moonshiners there were clannish, hostile to strangers and guarded their stills with rifles and guile. They switched to marijuana cultivation during the late ’60s and became even […]
Watch for ‘Crazy Christian’ Sucker Punches in ‘Stone’By Dan Gifford 10 October 2010 If there’s one thing many criminals do well, it’s instinctively spot another’s inner demons and then mess with their minds to exploit them. In “Stone” (in theaters now), that street psychologist is the incarcerated arsonist Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Edward Norton) and his prey is Jack Maybrey (Robert De Niro), […]
Stewart, Santelli And SarcasmSomething didn’t sound quite right when I listened to Jon Stewart’s set-up for his sarcastic blast of CNBC’s Rick Santelli as a hypocrite who thinks federal bailout money for corporate America is just fine while a helping hand from Uncle Sam (a bailout by another name) for strapped mortgage holders isn’t. So I reverted to […]
The ‘America Is Arming Mexico’s Drug Gangs’ LieBy Dan Gifford Quote: “There is an iron river of guns that flows South into Mexico [from the United States] to supply criminal organizations on the border,” says Tom Mangan, senior special agent with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in Phoenix. “They are in the market for machine guns, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenade […]
A Fabio Fourth of JulyFirst published Firing Line magazine By Dan Gifford Italian born Fabio Lanzoni knows something way too many native born Americans have forgotten: He knows what we really celebrate on the Fourth of July. No, it’s not fireworks. No, it’s not baseball, hot dogs or watermelon. Fabio knows the Fourth of July celebrates the successful rebellion […]
Loose Lips Get SnitchedBy Dan Gifford First published in Firing Line magazine It’s a scenario the late Rod Serling could have written. Imagine, if you will, a world so thick with laws that ordinary people routinely break statutes they do not know exist as the book “Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent” attests. Imagine […]
“Show Me the Man, and I’ll Find you the Crime”By Dan Gifford The bad news for California gun owners is that even more pointless, repetitive and repressive laws have been enacted in order to criminalize and destroy the constitutional right of firearm ownership — and that situation is likely to worsen. The vote count from the November 8th election indicates Democrats will retain their […]
Confiscation NationBy Dan Gifford Political pressure is building for federal laws to empower police seizure of personal firearms as an alleged public safety measure. Those laws allowing confiscation are called Red flag laws, or Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs). Under the federal red flag proposals being made, police could legally confiscate an individual’s firearms if they […]
Rebranding the Gun CultureBy Dan Gifford Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture April, 2016 During the five years of the 1990’s that I served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one other member and I would occasionally upset the others by asking why the ACLU did not defend the Second Amendment rights […]