So, one of the political gossip items of the day has featured some off-color remarks by Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck, who, in an apparent dig at GOP primary opponent Jane Norton during a recent campaign event, said that GOP voters should choose him “because I do not wear high heels.“
The comment was apparently well-received at the time, but Buck’s campaign has responded to the subsequent fallout by claiming that the remarks were not motivated by gender, and blaming the Norton campaign for injecting gender politics into the race.
Setting that aside, though, I noticed that the caption on the video says the remarks were made during the “Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Party,” which sounds a lot like lunch with the M.O.D. squad from “Thank You For Smoking.” What is this group? Who would hold such an event? Who would attend it?
After a bit of online poking around, I’m here with the answers.
The event was organized by Colorado’s “Independence Institute” (“Freedom’s Front Line”), which as far as I can tell, is a libertarian-ish quasi-think tank whose central insight seems to be that protecting freedom necessarily involves engaging in as many self-destructive activities as possible, simultaneously (thus making them exponentially more self-destructive). I wanted to learn more about them, so I clicked on their Web site’s “About” tab:
This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.
There is a pretty through description of the “8th Annual ATF Party,” however:
The award-winning event features a PETA-friendly clay pigeon shoot followed by a clubhouse luncheon complete with whiskey and cigars in one of the last places available to smokers – the outside.
“The thought of responsible adults enjoying these pastimes just drives the liberal meddlers nuts,” said Institute president Jon Caldara. “I can’t think of a better use of my time or yours for that matter.”
The $150 fee to participate in the ATF event also includes 100 sporting clays, ammunition, lunch, libations, cigars and lunch time entertainment. Past lunch speakers include Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes, Joe the Plumber and internationally renowned columnist Christopher Hitchens.
Sounds delightful.
