Good Luck, Bob Lonsberry
Media personality Bob Lonsberry, who has the show leading into Rush Limbaugh’s on WHAM 1180 in Rochester, NY, has been a fixture of local talk radio for years. I listen to him every morning at work and, years ago when I first worked in the greater Rochester area, I listened to him then, too. Apparently during a period in which I worked too far away to listen, Bob got divorced, got remarried, lost his radio show (due to spurious allegations of “racism”), got a new show in Utah, got his show in Rochester back, and lost his show in Utah. Then he ended up replacing, on Syracuse’s 570 WSYR, the most annoying radio host ever to inflict his mannerisms on the public airwaves — Jim Reith.
Jim Reith used to have the radio show after Limbaugh on WSYR. The result was radio whiplash that delighted WSYR’s lib minority listenership, as they had the chance to call in and flog conservatives while Reith lied about his politics (he was a Catholic who opposed abortion, but on all other issues he was a Democrat, deriding conservatives at every opportunity and always defending political figures like the Clintons).
The most annoying thing about Reith wasn’t his political leanings, though — it was his mannerisms. At one time I created a Jim Reith drinking game based on his many on-air tics. Did Jim repeat the same sentence verbatim for emphasis? Drink. Did Jim defend Bill or Hillary Clinton? Drink. Did Jim claim Laura Ingraham “just makes fun of people?” Drink.
“‘The Jim Reith Drinking Game’ has been around since winter,” wrote a reporter for Syracuse.com in 2003, “encouraging listeners in tongue-in-cheek style to take a sip every time Reith says ‘outstanding,’ cuts off a caller or does something else familiar. Reith laughed as he read the game’s rules on the air in February after Central New York writer Phil Elmore posted them at philelmore.com.”
When Lonsberry replaced Reith, it was a twofold victory (for me). First, the sliver that was Jim Reith had finally been tweezed from the inflamed collective epidermis of the CNY listening audience. Second, Bob Lonsberry was now on the radio in the morning AND in the evening, allowing me to listen to parts of both shows depending on when I was commuting across the region. I travel a LOT for work, so entertaining and engaging talk radio is very important to me.
(Reith was subsequently hired by WCNY, the local public television station, and one would think his left-leaning sensibilities would fit right in there. He was fired abruptly last December; his employers cited “viewer response and underwriter support.” Translation? The station’s viewers and sponsors didn’t like him any more than I do.)
But I digress. This morning, Bob Lonsberry opened his show by discussing the gun rights rally taking place in Albany today. I wish I could be at the rally, but I was not able to arrange for the time away. I am nonetheless grateful to the many friends and fellow gun owners (of which I am formerly one) who I know are there today, protesting New York’s unconstitutional “SAFE Act” and the illegal, immoral manner in which the law was rammed down voters’ throats overnight, without review and with almost no debate.
The law makes felons of honest gun owners who fail to turn in or register various magazines and firearms that were previously legal. It is also a de facto ban of almost all modern semi-automatic pistols in New York State, as manufacturers won’t ship guns or ammunition to New York now (thanks to its ridiculous seven-round magazine limit and uncertainty over background checks for ammo purchases).
As you can imagine, the law has been the subject of much discussion. I have written several WND columns about it. I started this Unregistered Assault Weapon blog to chronicle the aftermath of the hard decisions it has prompted in New York gun owners. They can make me sell my AK47, but they can’t take my mind — and to power-greedy politicians, it is the free mind that is the most dangerous “assault weapon.” We’ve seen that in recent legislation, signed quietly by Obama, that makes it possible for the Secret Service to arrest you and charge you with a felony for engaging in your First Amendment right to assemble and protest.
(FactCheck.org calls this a “manufactured controversy” and dismisses the infringement of constitutional rights that this bill represents, but if we’ve learned nothing else about the Obama regime, it is that Obama and his cronies will use the letter of the law to take every inch of power they can. Remember that the next time a US drone strike against some Jihadi terrorist kills that guy’s teenaged son instead.)
Lonsberry, in discussing the rally, announced today that he is not going to comply with the new law. I take that to mean he is not going to register any “assault rifles” he possesses, and that he probably owns “high capacity” magazines for those weapons. It could just mean that he owns a pistol capable of taking eight rounds in its magazine, of course. That’s how absurd this horrible law is, and how awful the oppressive government of New York has become.
Bob acknowledged on air that he is guilty (or will be), in the eyes of New York State, of felony crimes. He further admitted that he could lose his job and his freedom over taking such a stand. I have to admit that I don’t think it’s a good idea, if you intend to resist the law, to announce it to thousands of people. I do, however, admire Lonsberry for taking this stand and for defending both his principles and the United States Constitution with, to paraphrase, his life, his property, and his sacred honor.
Good luck, Bob. I wish I had your courage.
