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Afternoon Links: Chopper NIMBYism, Wasteful Gondolas, and a Second Amendment Fight

By Jim Swift

What’s in the most recent issue? Editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes is here to show you what is in this week’s issue.

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Chopper NIMBYism. I don’t know what most people expected moving to Washington, D.C., but here’s what I expected: a helluva lot of noise. Why? It’s a big city. There’s an airport smack dab in the middle of it, helicopters flying all around, and trains, and cars, and also annoyingly loud bicyclists shouting: SHARE THE ROAD!

Which is why my congressman, former lieutenant governor of Virginia and car magnate Don Beyer is pursuing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would study helicopter noise is something I find interesting. It’s not a winning proposition. My humble abode is 200 feet from the (very loud) D.C. Metro, when I walk my dog in the field behind our place, it’s a helicopter highway, and the least loud thing? The Beltway.

Unless we tell the U.S. military to vacate Washington, helicopter noise is always going to be a problem that is unsolvable. There will always be winners and losers. Don’t like it? Don’t live here.

While we’re on the topic of transportation, the D.C. do-gooder crowd has revived their most asinine follow-up to the failed D.C. Streetcar: THE D.C. GONDOLA. (Crowd oohs, ahhs.)

Yes, Georgetown, which famously didn’t want anything to do with the D.C. Metro, is now part of a proposal to get a gondola. Yes, a gondola, like we’re New York City… or Aspen.

But for a town with a barely functioning train system, these transit foamers sure do have a lot of fun ideas on how to waste money that’s not theirs.

U-LINE 2018. Over at Politico, Maggie Severns has a look at the previously little-known Illinois shipping magnate filling a void in GOP politics.

Amazing troll, or serious? Hard to say. Roll Call reports that “Rep. Tom Suozzi Suggests Using the ‘Second Amendment’ on Trump”:

“This is where the Second Amendment comes in, quite frankly,” Suozzi said. “Because you know, what if the president was to ignore the courts? What would you do? What would we do?” In response, someone in the audience asked what the Second Amendment entails. “The Second Amendment is the right to bear arms,” he said. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Chris Martin said the video was “incredibly disturbing.”

Is it really, though? I’m old enough to remember when the GOP thought quoting Jefferson on the Second Amendment was a good thing, not just because somebody bearing our party label was in power.

Suozzi’s staff pushed back:

But his adviser Kim Devlin denied he was advocating for armed insurrection. “Taking a page from such great Americans as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Congressman Suozzi explained why our founding fathers created the 2nd Amendment as a way for citizens to fight back against a tyrannical government that does not follow the rule of law,” he said. “To suggest his comments meant anything else or that he was advocating for an armed insurrection against the existing president is both irresponsible and ridiculous.”

It’s good to see Democrats backing the Second Amendment’s underlying principles, but sad to see Republicans ignore history just to be partisans.

Save the date! Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard summit. This
May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, join Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, John McCormack, Michael Warren and special guests Bret Baier, Senator Tim Scott, Representative Trey Gowdy, A.B. Stoddard, and Jonah Goldberg as they discuss the future of American politics. Book your tickets now.

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