Do you know where your Senator is ? If your Senator is Phil Journey, he is reading the Midtown Miscreant.

I usually respond to comments in the comment section. The fairly common anonymous nimrod, rarely even gets my attention. Every now and then there is the rare exception to the rule. If the comment is especially annoying, or just down right retarded, as is the following commenter, then I feel compelled to ridicule the author for the edification and amusement of you the reader. Moron Du Jour is the honorable and apparently thin skinned Senator Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican who is a strong gun-rights advocate. Senator Journey took exception to this post. In fact in his comment he calls me a liar, thus waking the dreaded sleeping dog. You can read his ill advised comment in the above referenced link.

The whole sordid mess started over a humorous yet scathing piece I wrote about the bill which allowed private Kansas citizens to own Machine Guns. I was pretty clear that my issue was what happens when those machine guns get stolen and end up on the street. Th 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery and gun battle is a prime example of the bad guys outgunning the cops, and a stolen machine gun in the wrong hands is a problem. Furthermore and contrary to what Gun Nuts would have us all believe, legal gun owners have been known to snap as well, just ask the MT who was shot and the cops and firefighters who were greeted by this guy, Donin E. Wright. You might recall the gun battle and carnage that took place in Kansas City when Ronin went nuts with his legally purchased, armor piercing Armalite AR-50.

I took a couple of shots at Journey for making retarded statements like this one, " Machine guns are expensive, I can't even afford one". The line of reasoning here is that if Pistol Phil cant afford 10 grand for a machine gun, then there aren't any criminals or crazy people who can. My point , which was clear and concise was this, there is no reason why a private individual should own an operational machine gun. Just Google Phil Journey Machine Gun, if there is any question as to who was the loudest voice in support of this stupid bill.

Why Journey decided to call me a liar is beyond me, especially since all of my info was taken from the Topeka journal, the KC Star, and The Wichita Eagle. I cant find any outraged comments or letters to the editor in any of those papers archives from Phil Journey. The truth as I see it, and here in Midtown it's the only opinion that matters, Phil Journey is the typical politician who uses fear tactics to keep his seat in politics. He takes on causes that awaken the ultra conservatives fear of losing their rights at the hands of liberals. Politicians on both sides have used fear tactics to keep them in office. All you have to do is find what your constituency fears and play on it. In this case it's the fear of losing the right to bear arms.

Senator Journey would serve his people better by focusing on doing his job, rather than googling his name and responding to obscure blogs on months old posts. And Senator Journey should get righteously indignant at the many media outlets who named him as spearheading this bill, rather than some curmudgeonly ex con blogger. But I suppose it's easier to call me out and accuse me of lying, rather than confronting the media, who has a bigger bite than I do. Whether Journey introduced the bill or not, there is no denying that he was all over the place singing it's praises, and making idiotic comments like the ones I called him on.

So to Senator Phil Journey for calling me a liar, while failing to address my piece and it's many valid concerns, you are the winner of the first ever Midtown Miscreant Douche Bag O' the Week Award. Congrats and Kudos. This ones for you Phil.