3. Being a manager, I frequently wound up closing the store with only one other employee after the Christmas rush died down. Usually it was with a guy around my age who I’ll refer to as Dave.
Dave was probably the best worker I’ve ever seen who didn’t get promoted to management. Absolutely unimpeachable character, but with an oft-alluded to shady set of friends.
Dave finishes checking out a line of people and comes to find me out on the floor. He says “If the police come here, I need you to back me up, ok?”
I might’ve not known to turn electrical appliances off before spraying them with cleaning solution, but I do know A Clue™ when I hear one. I asked what happened. He’s literally shaking he’s so mad. He says “I can’t talk about it right now, I’ll tell you later.”
The police don’t show up in the interregnum, and at the end of the night he tells me that a person from school, with whom he shares a mutual hatred pushed their way past customers to the front of the line.
“What are you doing?” Dave asked.
“Hey buddy, can you sell me some pot?” The person replies. He asked twice more and got rather loud and insistent about it while Dave was helping customers. Apparently, their long-standing feud had escalated to the point where the nemesis was attempting to get Dave arrested by hoping someone would phone in that he was a drug dealer.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
Tales From Retail Pt2
Sorry for the lack of updates. School's winding down (which means finals) and work is winding up (because of Christmas) and they're both combining to prevent me from writing very much either here or elsewhere. That said, for a while at least, there'll be a new Tales From Retail every Monday.
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2.I hate heights. My old store had high ceilings. With 2 banks of TVs attached. Those TVs needed to be cleaned about once every two weeks, or so I found out after Christmas. Guess who wound up doing that?
I haul the ladder out of the back (which is 3 times my height and weighs 3 times as much.) I only manage to drop it twice setting it up. I carry the paper towel and Windex up, and watch the music videos from closeup while I’m spraying and dusting the screens.
Hindsight is 20/20. I should’ve been intelligent enough to know then what I was about to learn.
The first bank of TVs goes ok. I haul the ladder to the second bank, and set it up. The placement is a little awkward since there’s a long browser of CDs right under the TVs. It strikes me that if I were to fall, I’d fall into the CDs.
I climb up with my cleaning supplies, dust the first TV, and spritz the second. I’ve wiped the screen half clean when I hear what sounds like a handclap. Both my hands spring open and I drop the Windex and paper towel, and I jerk backwards. I don’t know if my knees went weak, but I managed to grab the ladder and wedge my feet into the rungs enough to stay upward. I immediately come down, check myself for burns and other damage. My mouth tastes like iron.
When I told the manager about the incident later he laughed and said “I should’ve told you to turn the TVs off first.”
So yeah, that’s how I electrocuted myself on the job.
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2.I hate heights. My old store had high ceilings. With 2 banks of TVs attached. Those TVs needed to be cleaned about once every two weeks, or so I found out after Christmas. Guess who wound up doing that?
I haul the ladder out of the back (which is 3 times my height and weighs 3 times as much.) I only manage to drop it twice setting it up. I carry the paper towel and Windex up, and watch the music videos from closeup while I’m spraying and dusting the screens.
Hindsight is 20/20. I should’ve been intelligent enough to know then what I was about to learn.
The first bank of TVs goes ok. I haul the ladder to the second bank, and set it up. The placement is a little awkward since there’s a long browser of CDs right under the TVs. It strikes me that if I were to fall, I’d fall into the CDs.
I climb up with my cleaning supplies, dust the first TV, and spritz the second. I’ve wiped the screen half clean when I hear what sounds like a handclap. Both my hands spring open and I drop the Windex and paper towel, and I jerk backwards. I don’t know if my knees went weak, but I managed to grab the ladder and wedge my feet into the rungs enough to stay upward. I immediately come down, check myself for burns and other damage. My mouth tastes like iron.
When I told the manager about the incident later he laughed and said “I should’ve told you to turn the TVs off first.”
So yeah, that’s how I electrocuted myself on the job.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Springfield Armory GETS IT RIGHT!!!
I'm not an XD owner, but I'm ecstatic about the new XD45 Compacts. Someone somewhere finally remembered that it's not the barrel you worry about concealing, it's the grip. So instead of chopping that barrel down to a ridiculuous length, the left it at 4 and 5 inches, and cut down the grip instead. Ten rounds of .45. & a 5 inch barrel, all in a compact gun. I have to hold one.
Then there's the EMP. Enhanced Micro Pistol. Basically a teeny-tiny "Loaded" 1911, chambered for 9mm. Ten rounds of 9mm, cocked and locked carry, and you can dang near fit it in your pocket. What's not to like?
Then there's the EMP. Enhanced Micro Pistol. Basically a teeny-tiny "Loaded" 1911, chambered for 9mm. Ten rounds of 9mm, cocked and locked carry, and you can dang near fit it in your pocket. What's not to like?
Monday, November 27, 2006
Tales From Retail Pt1
This will supplement the Random Reflections until I gather up some new material. It's sort of like doing 5 standup comedy routines per week. I don't want to just keep hitting the same easy-to-ridicule targets (victim disarmament, stupid trends, bad government) over and over. So here's something completely different.
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1.In another part of my life, I sold cellphones. Not very well, mind you, but I did sell them. The staff of which I was part (and indeed the entire industry) refers to cellphone services in a sort of ambiguous personal way (they, who, etc.).
So, I’m working one night and two (rather attractive, if I do say so myself) teenage girls come into the store and start looking at Sprint phones. I amble over, and as per my training, the first thing out of my mouth is a qualification about which provider they currently use.
I hope you can see where this is going.
Yup. I walk over, and start the conversation by asking “So, who are you with currently?”
There’s that moment of dawning comprehension between the time when you’ve finished a sentence and when you realize what you’ve committed to saying where this little, calm voice in your head states, very matter-of-factly “You idiot.”
They both looked at me like I was pondscum, and I managed to save face by laughing and saying “Yeah, that didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.” They left shortly thereafter. I wish I had a surveillance tape of the incident, because I think that for about 5 seconds, the looks on all 3 of our faces were probably priceless.
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1.In another part of my life, I sold cellphones. Not very well, mind you, but I did sell them. The staff of which I was part (and indeed the entire industry) refers to cellphone services in a sort of ambiguous personal way (they, who, etc.).
So, I’m working one night and two (rather attractive, if I do say so myself) teenage girls come into the store and start looking at Sprint phones. I amble over, and as per my training, the first thing out of my mouth is a qualification about which provider they currently use.
I hope you can see where this is going.
Yup. I walk over, and start the conversation by asking “So, who are you with currently?”
There’s that moment of dawning comprehension between the time when you’ve finished a sentence and when you realize what you’ve committed to saying where this little, calm voice in your head states, very matter-of-factly “You idiot.”
They both looked at me like I was pondscum, and I managed to save face by laughing and saying “Yeah, that didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.” They left shortly thereafter. I wish I had a surveillance tape of the incident, because I think that for about 5 seconds, the looks on all 3 of our faces were probably priceless.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
92 Year Old Woman Dies In Police Shootout
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/national/main2205048.shtml
Cops supposedly hit the right house, but get the occupant wrong. Instead of some drug-dealing gangsta with a face full of chrome, they get an irascible old woman who takes the notion of home defense seriously.
Predictably, she died. Not so predictably, she put the hurt on at least 3 cops before going down.
Probably used a pistol. I can't see a woman nearly 100 years old using a (much better) rifle like an AR, AK, or M1A.
The warriors in Valhalla have some rather unexpected company tonight.
Cops supposedly hit the right house, but get the occupant wrong. Instead of some drug-dealing gangsta with a face full of chrome, they get an irascible old woman who takes the notion of home defense seriously.
Predictably, she died. Not so predictably, she put the hurt on at least 3 cops before going down.
Probably used a pistol. I can't see a woman nearly 100 years old using a (much better) rifle like an AR, AK, or M1A.
The warriors in Valhalla have some rather unexpected company tonight.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Charles Rangel Promises To Propose Draft
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2006/11/19/524445.html
I know this likely has little chance of going anywhere. Really, this is little threat. BUT. He is a Democrat, and one who is gaining power.
After stuff like this, it makes me think that maybe the right side of the grass is the wrong side for him, if you know what I mean and I think that you do.
For anybody reading this and looking for hidden meanings or messages, I am a peaceable person. I will remain so until myself, my family, or my freedom is threatened. I'm just thinking aloud that the country needs a Henry Bowman, now more than ever, and not to have words with just Chuckie.
I know this likely has little chance of going anywhere. Really, this is little threat. BUT. He is a Democrat, and one who is gaining power.
After stuff like this, it makes me think that maybe the right side of the grass is the wrong side for him, if you know what I mean and I think that you do.
For anybody reading this and looking for hidden meanings or messages, I am a peaceable person. I will remain so until myself, my family, or my freedom is threatened. I'm just thinking aloud that the country needs a Henry Bowman, now more than ever, and not to have words with just Chuckie.
Random Reflections Pt17
71. The local elementary school was displaying artwork at my store today. One of the biggest displays was a set of “Death Day” dioramas. A cardboard box with a picture of a deceased loved one inside, surrounded by a few of their favorite things and – get this – paper cut-outs of dancing skeletons. I thought it was rather morbid and disturbed.
And then I dug a little deeper.
My tax dollars are going to fund tweens making low-quality art projects about a very personal matter, the design of which is based on a holiday not even belonging to their culture! What did this teach them? What did they take away from this exercise that will benefit them at any time in the next 80 or years that they’re alive? How could, in a free market, anyone sell this a good expenditure of money to a rational adult?
72. One of the many things that few people understand is that you can’t CONTROL anyone. No threat, law, words, restraining order, plea, or request can control another humans’ actions if they decide not to obey.
Sure, you can threaten them with dire consequences. You can convince them to do something. You can punish them at threat of violence if they do not do your bidding. But the honest truth is every human being chooses what they’re going to do. Whether they go along with laws or not, societal conventions, little niceties, proper etiquette, it’s all a matter of choice. We make this choice because deep down, we want everyone else to (whether we want to or not), and a majority of people sharing this opinion has decided to hurt us if we don’t follow some basic (and a whole lot of not so basic) principles. But ultimately, we still CHOOSE to play along.
You can’t make someone play if they don’t want to. You can do any number of horrible things to them, up to and including taking their life, but you can’t force them to do anything they do not choose to.
73. If their signs are to be believed, according to the Salvation Army, Need Knows No Season. Despite this, they only appear around Christmas. What gives?
74. A person can still be good and do bad things. The federal agents who bankrupt a family for possessing endangered bird feathers they picked up at the bird feeder can still have husbands and wives and kids and can still love their cats. The judge who sends a guy to prison for having a smoothbore .22LR rifle 16 inches long can still buy his grandkids Christmas presents and sit on his back porch and watch the sun go down. The youths marching off to die for the Fuhrer probably didn’t believe that the only people who deserved to live were blue-eyed blondes. They probably had dogs when they were kids and went to school and hugged their parents before they left for the war.
Evil is a description we like to place on those who oppose us. The problem is, the majority of the people who get that title don’t deserve it. The majority of them are good people. But they still do evil things.And evil should always be punished, even when performed by good people.
75. What is permissible in the quest to survive? What can legitimately and justly be done to remain on the green side of the grass? Is there anything we cannot justify for survival?
Can we apply what we justify for our survival to the survival of others?
Can we apply what we justify for our survival to the defense of liberty?
A wiser man than I once said "Extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice, and moderation in defense of tyranny is no virtue."
And then I dug a little deeper.
My tax dollars are going to fund tweens making low-quality art projects about a very personal matter, the design of which is based on a holiday not even belonging to their culture! What did this teach them? What did they take away from this exercise that will benefit them at any time in the next 80 or years that they’re alive? How could, in a free market, anyone sell this a good expenditure of money to a rational adult?
72. One of the many things that few people understand is that you can’t CONTROL anyone. No threat, law, words, restraining order, plea, or request can control another humans’ actions if they decide not to obey.
Sure, you can threaten them with dire consequences. You can convince them to do something. You can punish them at threat of violence if they do not do your bidding. But the honest truth is every human being chooses what they’re going to do. Whether they go along with laws or not, societal conventions, little niceties, proper etiquette, it’s all a matter of choice. We make this choice because deep down, we want everyone else to (whether we want to or not), and a majority of people sharing this opinion has decided to hurt us if we don’t follow some basic (and a whole lot of not so basic) principles. But ultimately, we still CHOOSE to play along.
You can’t make someone play if they don’t want to. You can do any number of horrible things to them, up to and including taking their life, but you can’t force them to do anything they do not choose to.
73. If their signs are to be believed, according to the Salvation Army, Need Knows No Season. Despite this, they only appear around Christmas. What gives?
74. A person can still be good and do bad things. The federal agents who bankrupt a family for possessing endangered bird feathers they picked up at the bird feeder can still have husbands and wives and kids and can still love their cats. The judge who sends a guy to prison for having a smoothbore .22LR rifle 16 inches long can still buy his grandkids Christmas presents and sit on his back porch and watch the sun go down. The youths marching off to die for the Fuhrer probably didn’t believe that the only people who deserved to live were blue-eyed blondes. They probably had dogs when they were kids and went to school and hugged their parents before they left for the war.
Evil is a description we like to place on those who oppose us. The problem is, the majority of the people who get that title don’t deserve it. The majority of them are good people. But they still do evil things.And evil should always be punished, even when performed by good people.
75. What is permissible in the quest to survive? What can legitimately and justly be done to remain on the green side of the grass? Is there anything we cannot justify for survival?
Can we apply what we justify for our survival to the survival of others?
Can we apply what we justify for our survival to the defense of liberty?
A wiser man than I once said "Extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice, and moderation in defense of tyranny is no virtue."
Monday, November 13, 2006
Random Reflections Pt16
66. I’ve got a confession to make. Unless the product is really cheesy/tacky/horrible, I don’t see much wrong with the commercialization of Christmas. Yes, it’d be nice if people spent more time with their families, celebrating the birth of the Christ. I ain’t disputing that.
But. There such things as supply and demand. There’s a demand for Christmas gifts, and it’s amazing and inspiring to see the human creativity at work in trying to get a share the money that WILL be spent fulfilling that demand. It’s not a horrible thing – it’s human intelligence and ingenuity at work.
67. It’s hard to believe in evil and badness when looking at a countryside in the fading light of a fall afternoon. The sun skimming the tops of the corn stalks, making them glow, the way the fields roll on and on, bordered by either dark looking patches of evergreens or grayish-brown skeletons of trees. I can understand, now, why so many people love the countryside. Never used to – I hate empty skies. Now though…well, it is the stereotypical American dream going back 200 years: Buy some land, raise some crops, raise a family…and I can see why. I guess I’m getting mellow in my old age.
68. Never had a significant other in my life, not so far at any rate. Don’t know what the future will bring. But I see these guys being jerks to their girlfriends and I want to dope-slap them upside the back of the head – with lead-shot gloves. You do not tell anyone you care about where to go by pointing at them and then pointing at where you want them to be. You do not make fun of them. You do not stop them from going somewhere by grabbing their arm and buttonhooking in the other direction.
And sometimes I wonder why my gender gets a bad rap.
It’s the golden rule here folks. Learn it.
69. Rappers who invoke God on their albums bug me. They spend hours rapping about violence and stupid or immoral choices, arrogance and their prowess in the criminal trade, and then they have the audacity to croon about how they’re just trying to do the right thing and God sees and either approves or forgives.
If you’re going to create an 80 minute CD about drug use and drive-bys, and the last 3 minutes are about God, I expect that to be your last CD with that subject matter.
*sigh* They’re just trying to show their sensitive sides, trying to keep from looking like total wastes of space and oxygen. To those of us with a brain, it ain’t working.
70. Political yard signs weird me out. Are we to believe that seeing a sign with a person’s name emblazoned upon it will inspire them to vote for that candidate? Or that a bigger sign will have a bigger impact? Is a bumper sticker more or less likely to inspire someone to vote a certain way than a yard sign? How about a pin? Or a highway sign-board?
But. There such things as supply and demand. There’s a demand for Christmas gifts, and it’s amazing and inspiring to see the human creativity at work in trying to get a share the money that WILL be spent fulfilling that demand. It’s not a horrible thing – it’s human intelligence and ingenuity at work.
67. It’s hard to believe in evil and badness when looking at a countryside in the fading light of a fall afternoon. The sun skimming the tops of the corn stalks, making them glow, the way the fields roll on and on, bordered by either dark looking patches of evergreens or grayish-brown skeletons of trees. I can understand, now, why so many people love the countryside. Never used to – I hate empty skies. Now though…well, it is the stereotypical American dream going back 200 years: Buy some land, raise some crops, raise a family…and I can see why. I guess I’m getting mellow in my old age.
68. Never had a significant other in my life, not so far at any rate. Don’t know what the future will bring. But I see these guys being jerks to their girlfriends and I want to dope-slap them upside the back of the head – with lead-shot gloves. You do not tell anyone you care about where to go by pointing at them and then pointing at where you want them to be. You do not make fun of them. You do not stop them from going somewhere by grabbing their arm and buttonhooking in the other direction.
And sometimes I wonder why my gender gets a bad rap.
It’s the golden rule here folks. Learn it.
69. Rappers who invoke God on their albums bug me. They spend hours rapping about violence and stupid or immoral choices, arrogance and their prowess in the criminal trade, and then they have the audacity to croon about how they’re just trying to do the right thing and God sees and either approves or forgives.
If you’re going to create an 80 minute CD about drug use and drive-bys, and the last 3 minutes are about God, I expect that to be your last CD with that subject matter.
*sigh* They’re just trying to show their sensitive sides, trying to keep from looking like total wastes of space and oxygen. To those of us with a brain, it ain’t working.
70. Political yard signs weird me out. Are we to believe that seeing a sign with a person’s name emblazoned upon it will inspire them to vote for that candidate? Or that a bigger sign will have a bigger impact? Is a bumper sticker more or less likely to inspire someone to vote a certain way than a yard sign? How about a pin? Or a highway sign-board?
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Nancy Pelosi Commemorative Assault Rifle
I saw the writing on the wall for this election about six months ago, and began stocking my Money Market account for another Election Day weapons buy.
After 60% of my countrymen flushed their brains down the toilet and voted a gang of outright socialists into office, I took a look at some Democrat platforms. If I'm not mistaken, #23 or #26 on their agenda is re-enacting the assault-weapons ban, which they unfortunately have the votes to do in both houses.
So, being possessed of the contrary and irascible nature that so many of my family are, I decided today it was time to bring home the Nancy Pelosi Assault Rifle.
A little less than $350, and if it goes on sale after Thanksgiving, I can redeem the receipt for the sale discount off my purchase price.
Got it all outfitted the way I want it, and I must say, Ms. Pelosi has never looked more beautiful. I'll be plugging a collapsible stock into her within the the next few weeks.
After 60% of my countrymen flushed their brains down the toilet and voted a gang of outright socialists into office, I took a look at some Democrat platforms. If I'm not mistaken, #23 or #26 on their agenda is re-enacting the assault-weapons ban, which they unfortunately have the votes to do in both houses.
So, being possessed of the contrary and irascible nature that so many of my family are, I decided today it was time to bring home the Nancy Pelosi Assault Rifle.
A little less than $350, and if it goes on sale after Thanksgiving, I can redeem the receipt for the sale discount off my purchase price.
Got it all outfitted the way I want it, and I must say, Ms. Pelosi has never looked more beautiful. I'll be plugging a collapsible stock into her within the the next few weeks.
Swearing code
While dealing with a very bad man on the basketball front long ago, my brother decided he needed a way to express his displeasure with a person or situation without actually saying the appropriate words in innappropriate places.
Thus was born the swearing code.
It's simple. You take the first letter of the word (or of each word in the phrase), and convert it to its numeric equivalent. A=1, B=2, C=3, etcetera and so forth.
Then you use that number or string of numbers in place of the far more satisfying word you wish you could use. For example, if I called Governer Doyle a 21136 in its entirety, the people reading this blog (both of them) would probably not come back. But this way, I can say things the way they're meant to be said, without unduly offending anyone.
Thus was born the swearing code.
It's simple. You take the first letter of the word (or of each word in the phrase), and convert it to its numeric equivalent. A=1, B=2, C=3, etcetera and so forth.
Then you use that number or string of numbers in place of the far more satisfying word you wish you could use. For example, if I called Governer Doyle a 21136 in its entirety, the people reading this blog (both of them) would probably not come back. But this way, I can say things the way they're meant to be said, without unduly offending anyone.
Stupid vs Evil, and Evil wins
Yeah, that's right. Bush drove his party into the ditch. Turned the 06 elections into a referendum on Iraq pretty much.
Socialists control the House, Senate, and most states by a narrow margin.
I vote straight Republican. Voted Yes on the marriage amendment, because like the Democrats, I don't want one more group squeezing me for money now or in the future. Voted no on the death penalty because I don't believe that a state that denies me the right to defend myself outside my home has any right killing anyone. H*ll, they can't even pave the roads right.
DP and marriage passed, by large margins. There's a nugget of hope in there - people who voted for liberals have conservative tendencies. That strikes me as a good thing.
Back on the national front...Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi...*shudders*
Socialists control the House, Senate, and most states by a narrow margin.
I vote straight Republican. Voted Yes on the marriage amendment, because like the Democrats, I don't want one more group squeezing me for money now or in the future. Voted no on the death penalty because I don't believe that a state that denies me the right to defend myself outside my home has any right killing anyone. H*ll, they can't even pave the roads right.
DP and marriage passed, by large margins. There's a nugget of hope in there - people who voted for liberals have conservative tendencies. That strikes me as a good thing.
Back on the national front...Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi...*shudders*
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Hold Your Nose
I had the idea to write an Election Day piece quite a while ago. What I had in mind back then in no way resembles what I’m about to write. It occurred to me, while reading a centrist appeal to vote for our values, that this election really comes down to holding our noses.
Bear with me awhile whilst I explain that.
Should we hold our noses and vote for socialized medicine, open borders, massive welfare, failed and evil victim disarmament, punish-the-successful economics, and appeasement-based foreign policy simply because the alternative is hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and vote for big-oil subsidization, library searches, illegal detainments, the so-called Patriot Act, illegal declarations of war, and an unnecessary invasion and occupation simply because the alternative is hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and spend our precious agent-of-change vote on a third party that we must, honestly, acknowledge cannot win at any state or federal level, simply because we wish a conscience free from the knowledge that we voted for ANY party hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and stay home – waste our precious agent-of-change vote, refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the rigged game by refusing to play?
Can it be that one option is as repugnant, or only slightly less so than every other? Is the only choice now left to us to pick between evils? What is to be our guide in choosing between equally bad?
Or perhaps the question is: How did we get to a point where our only choice is evil or evil?
I think I can answer that one. We got to this point by systematically removing the shackles of the Constitution from the American government. Each arm we unchain throws punches, each leg lashes out. Each tie we undo is one more place upon ourselves, of our own undoing. When we stopped applying the laws governing our government, we created the opportunity for tyranny, which has grown day by day, year by year.
I don’t know whether to blame ignorance or malice.
On one hand, there’s the innate human tendency to seek power, best exemplified by Lincoln’s Secretary Of State William Seward’s boast that he could ring a bell and have any man in the nation arrested at whim.
On the other hand, there’s the innate human tendency to try to raise up those in distress, best exemplified by Noam Chomsky’s assertion that the welfare nation must flourish for the good of the poor and destitute.
Let a man seek personal power under the guise of seeking charity and hospitality for all, and there’s no measuring the number of previously reasonable people he could bend to his cause. With the apparent blessings (and the votes) of reasonable people, there’s no measuring the political force that man could wield, the laws he could change in pursuit of fairness and justice.
We’ve seen it before – liquor was once blamed for all of society’s evils, by a majority of previously rational people. The putrid lies of “gun control” and “the drug war” had their roots in racism, but are now regarded as near gospel by what are deemed to be rational people. The invasion of Iraq came about because previously rational people demanded action based on the implied (and false) connection that Saddam Huessein was planning to attack America.
When we ask who is to blame for the evils and evil choices of today, we need only look at our neighbors, who advance an agenda handed down to them for the past 150 years. THEY are the ones who cannot recognize the evil their choices propagate, and so are doomed to repeat history.
Whether we vote for change or vote our values, vote Republican or Democrat, Green, Libertarian, or not at all, we are more or less not aware that the choice of evils that we face is ultimately the responsibility of people who were either too selfish or stupid to realize the monster they were loosing upon their country long ago, and of the people since then who were too selfish or stupid to put a halt to it when they had the chance.
We have been cast by those before us, for good or ill, into a position where the ONLY choices left to us are between a rock and a hard place, bad or worse.
It is no longer a choice between good and evil, right or wrong. It is no longer a choice between those who would bind government down and those who would give it powers it neither needs nor deserves. It is no longer a choice between freedom and tyranny, chains or liberty, life or death. It is a choice between tyrants who cast their tyranny in the light of fairness and common welfare, or those who cast their tyranny in the light of safety and protection. When measured by the yardstick that is our highest law, it is clear one side wishes to enslave us for our own protection, the other for our own well-being.
You cannot deny it. Those are the choices: Those and no other.
The question now becomes – what to do? Knowing that we have been doomed to this choice by the selfishness, stupidity, and cowardice of those who chose to either support evil and illegal policies, or go along to get along, how are we going to remedy the situation? How are we going to fix it? How are we going to make it right?
A far greater philosopher than I once said: “It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
That whole and painful truth is, now, that there is nothing we can do to make it right.
The situation is, in a word, hopeless.
Those before us locked us into this ugly conundrum, where no choice we make can matter. Like it or not, the choice has been for far to long, which evil will we pick. Like it or not, the vast majority of our fellow man is too selfish, stupid, or malicious to recognize that. We are now on automatic pilot. There is no way to reverse our course.
No choice we make now can reverse the evil. No checkbox on the ballot will fix things. No vote we cast will restore just, legal, constitutional government. It just won’t.
Any evil we choose only perpetuates itself. Any choice we make beyond that at the ballot box does not matter to anyone other than ourselves. Meanwhile, everyone keeps telling us that things just keep getting better and better.
As many have said, jokingly: “If voting could change anything, they’d make it illegal.”
But there is hope. The machine of government can only be strained for so long. It can only continue to debase the currency for so long. It can only continue to oppress people for so long. Despite the vicious cycle of evil vs. evil every 2 years, the machine will begin to break down. Probably economically first. Then, as control starts slipping away, the true nature of the beast will be revealed – in the form of capricious power, used at whim. More and more control will be asserted, until, at the very end, the choice will be between a flailing and failing prison state, and some sort of revolution – intellectual, political, or violent. I cannot say.
That’s the brightest future we can look forward to: That someday, probably sooner than later, something’s going to break.
That’s not much of a hope. Things are going to get much, much worse before they get even the slightest bit better. That hope, summarized, is that somewhere, down the road, some group of people will have to make a choice between the light at the end of the tunnel, and the darkness midway through.
Between then and now, our choices are evil and evil. For my part I'll take this time to prepare, hold my nose and vote based on who gives us the most time for this preparation. I'll buy gold and silver. I'll buy guns. I'll privacy-proof my communications. I'll make plans to move through the nation without detection. I would ask that all who are able do the same. But most importantly, teach. Teach everyone we can reach, anyone who can possibly hear us, WHY our choices are between evil and evil. Teach them HOW we got to this point. Teach them to oppose, with cold mercilessness, the tyranny that selfishness and compassion and tyrannical power exercised for the good of your neighbor, for any reason, can bring.
Because someday, hopefully, the people we teach will be in a position to make that choice I talked about earlier.
Until then, we can only hold our noses.
Bear with me awhile whilst I explain that.
Should we hold our noses and vote for socialized medicine, open borders, massive welfare, failed and evil victim disarmament, punish-the-successful economics, and appeasement-based foreign policy simply because the alternative is hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and vote for big-oil subsidization, library searches, illegal detainments, the so-called Patriot Act, illegal declarations of war, and an unnecessary invasion and occupation simply because the alternative is hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and spend our precious agent-of-change vote on a third party that we must, honestly, acknowledge cannot win at any state or federal level, simply because we wish a conscience free from the knowledge that we voted for ANY party hostile to our values?
Should we hold our noses and stay home – waste our precious agent-of-change vote, refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the rigged game by refusing to play?
Can it be that one option is as repugnant, or only slightly less so than every other? Is the only choice now left to us to pick between evils? What is to be our guide in choosing between equally bad?
Or perhaps the question is: How did we get to a point where our only choice is evil or evil?
I think I can answer that one. We got to this point by systematically removing the shackles of the Constitution from the American government. Each arm we unchain throws punches, each leg lashes out. Each tie we undo is one more place upon ourselves, of our own undoing. When we stopped applying the laws governing our government, we created the opportunity for tyranny, which has grown day by day, year by year.
I don’t know whether to blame ignorance or malice.
On one hand, there’s the innate human tendency to seek power, best exemplified by Lincoln’s Secretary Of State William Seward’s boast that he could ring a bell and have any man in the nation arrested at whim.
On the other hand, there’s the innate human tendency to try to raise up those in distress, best exemplified by Noam Chomsky’s assertion that the welfare nation must flourish for the good of the poor and destitute.
Let a man seek personal power under the guise of seeking charity and hospitality for all, and there’s no measuring the number of previously reasonable people he could bend to his cause. With the apparent blessings (and the votes) of reasonable people, there’s no measuring the political force that man could wield, the laws he could change in pursuit of fairness and justice.
We’ve seen it before – liquor was once blamed for all of society’s evils, by a majority of previously rational people. The putrid lies of “gun control” and “the drug war” had their roots in racism, but are now regarded as near gospel by what are deemed to be rational people. The invasion of Iraq came about because previously rational people demanded action based on the implied (and false) connection that Saddam Huessein was planning to attack America.
When we ask who is to blame for the evils and evil choices of today, we need only look at our neighbors, who advance an agenda handed down to them for the past 150 years. THEY are the ones who cannot recognize the evil their choices propagate, and so are doomed to repeat history.
Whether we vote for change or vote our values, vote Republican or Democrat, Green, Libertarian, or not at all, we are more or less not aware that the choice of evils that we face is ultimately the responsibility of people who were either too selfish or stupid to realize the monster they were loosing upon their country long ago, and of the people since then who were too selfish or stupid to put a halt to it when they had the chance.
We have been cast by those before us, for good or ill, into a position where the ONLY choices left to us are between a rock and a hard place, bad or worse.
It is no longer a choice between good and evil, right or wrong. It is no longer a choice between those who would bind government down and those who would give it powers it neither needs nor deserves. It is no longer a choice between freedom and tyranny, chains or liberty, life or death. It is a choice between tyrants who cast their tyranny in the light of fairness and common welfare, or those who cast their tyranny in the light of safety and protection. When measured by the yardstick that is our highest law, it is clear one side wishes to enslave us for our own protection, the other for our own well-being.
You cannot deny it. Those are the choices: Those and no other.
The question now becomes – what to do? Knowing that we have been doomed to this choice by the selfishness, stupidity, and cowardice of those who chose to either support evil and illegal policies, or go along to get along, how are we going to remedy the situation? How are we going to fix it? How are we going to make it right?
A far greater philosopher than I once said: “It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
That whole and painful truth is, now, that there is nothing we can do to make it right.
The situation is, in a word, hopeless.
Those before us locked us into this ugly conundrum, where no choice we make can matter. Like it or not, the choice has been for far to long, which evil will we pick. Like it or not, the vast majority of our fellow man is too selfish, stupid, or malicious to recognize that. We are now on automatic pilot. There is no way to reverse our course.
No choice we make now can reverse the evil. No checkbox on the ballot will fix things. No vote we cast will restore just, legal, constitutional government. It just won’t.
Any evil we choose only perpetuates itself. Any choice we make beyond that at the ballot box does not matter to anyone other than ourselves. Meanwhile, everyone keeps telling us that things just keep getting better and better.
As many have said, jokingly: “If voting could change anything, they’d make it illegal.”
But there is hope. The machine of government can only be strained for so long. It can only continue to debase the currency for so long. It can only continue to oppress people for so long. Despite the vicious cycle of evil vs. evil every 2 years, the machine will begin to break down. Probably economically first. Then, as control starts slipping away, the true nature of the beast will be revealed – in the form of capricious power, used at whim. More and more control will be asserted, until, at the very end, the choice will be between a flailing and failing prison state, and some sort of revolution – intellectual, political, or violent. I cannot say.
That’s the brightest future we can look forward to: That someday, probably sooner than later, something’s going to break.
That’s not much of a hope. Things are going to get much, much worse before they get even the slightest bit better. That hope, summarized, is that somewhere, down the road, some group of people will have to make a choice between the light at the end of the tunnel, and the darkness midway through.
Between then and now, our choices are evil and evil. For my part I'll take this time to prepare, hold my nose and vote based on who gives us the most time for this preparation. I'll buy gold and silver. I'll buy guns. I'll privacy-proof my communications. I'll make plans to move through the nation without detection. I would ask that all who are able do the same. But most importantly, teach. Teach everyone we can reach, anyone who can possibly hear us, WHY our choices are between evil and evil. Teach them HOW we got to this point. Teach them to oppose, with cold mercilessness, the tyranny that selfishness and compassion and tyrannical power exercised for the good of your neighbor, for any reason, can bring.
Because someday, hopefully, the people we teach will be in a position to make that choice I talked about earlier.
Until then, we can only hold our noses.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Karl Van Roy For State Rep.
Yup, time for a new McCain-Feingold violation post. I do so love these things.
State rep Karl Van Roy came to the door the other day, talked to my mom, left. So, after coming up with some questions, she emailed him about his positions on abortion, the draft, and concealed carry.
He called back (had to hunt up our phone number himself) to answer her questions, and said "no, don't know, and yes" respectively. He said he doesn't currently own a gun, but if CCW goes through, he's going to buy, learn, and carry. My mom said, "you should talk to my son."
The short of it is there's a state rep out there who'll be giving me a call for tutoring and gun-advice if CCW goes through. I'll probably give him a call in a few months and offer to take him shooting sometime, whether it goes through or not.
I ENDORSE KARL VAN ROY FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE. GARY FROSETH, YOU'RE AN ANTI-RIGHTS SOCIALIST.
There. I think that's a big enough violation.
State rep Karl Van Roy came to the door the other day, talked to my mom, left. So, after coming up with some questions, she emailed him about his positions on abortion, the draft, and concealed carry.
He called back (had to hunt up our phone number himself) to answer her questions, and said "no, don't know, and yes" respectively. He said he doesn't currently own a gun, but if CCW goes through, he's going to buy, learn, and carry. My mom said, "you should talk to my son."
The short of it is there's a state rep out there who'll be giving me a call for tutoring and gun-advice if CCW goes through. I'll probably give him a call in a few months and offer to take him shooting sometime, whether it goes through or not.
I ENDORSE KARL VAN ROY FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE. GARY FROSETH, YOU'RE AN ANTI-RIGHTS SOCIALIST.
There. I think that's a big enough violation.
Random Reflections Pt15
61. People must take great pleasure in messing up retail restrooms, because they do it so often. Can’t they just be nice? And the toilets are there for a reason, with handy flushers attached…one should make use of both. You’d think they’re proud of the bodily functions the rest of the world is possessed of, they feel the need to display them so much. Idiots.
62. It’s amazing to me how people stick to things that are proven to be bad – tobacco, for one. Even in the 1700s they were saying “A cigar is a fire on one end and a fool on the other.”
One of the things I learned as I started to become a programmer is the almost tautological wisdom “If it doesn’t work, stop doing it.” I will get nowhere in programming if keep doing things that don’t work, simply because I like them or I think they SHOULD work.
Prohibition of items and edibles is an example, if you know what I’m referring to and I think that you do. It hasn’t worked – ever. Not since its inception. Not at any time in recorded history. It’s been proven again and again that you cannot fix people by making it harder for them to buy certain plants and certain configurations of metal, wood, and polymer. Yet year after bloody year, they keep banging away at it. It’s OK. We won’t point and laugh. You can STOP now.
63. I love this line from The Libertine. “I will be frank from the commencement. You will not like me.”
I’m going to say something that will make you not like me.
In my humble opinion, and that’s all I have, men should not have to pay one penny of child support until they have a say in whether or not their significant other can have an abortion. See, it goes like this. If the mother doesn’t want the baby and the father does, the mother can kill his kid. If the mother wants the baby and the father doesn’t, he’s forced to pay (usually) unnatural amounts of child support for 20 years. The father is screwed either way.
So, we should level the playing field. All or nothing, for both sides.
64. The political candidates this year are real *edited*’s. I’ve written both candidates, TWICE, with some simple, non-confrontational questions (not stuff like “When did you stop beating your wife?”). I have not heard one thing back from either of them.
In the past, Congressional candidates have walked through selected neighborhoods to meet their (hopefully) future constituents face to face, maybe get a read on their important issues. Nada. Not a’tall. Nothing. I’ve met one candidate this year, and that was for state rep.
I sense a growing disconnect between us and those above us. Having an election isn’t worth a tinker’s damn if the people we elect don’t listen to the people they’re elected to govern and represent.
65. Every election year, though more often during presidential election years, we get a bunch of air-head celebrities in print, on radio, and on TV, trying to convince 18-20somethings to vote.
I’m sorry for being mean here, but this needs to be said. If you’re dumb enough to be convinced by a rapper with more gold in his mouth than resides at Fort Knox that voting is cool and will make you appear intelligent and attractive, then the country is better off without your vote. You are not possessed of the required intelligence to exercise your civic duty responsibly. Go back to reading your SI and tabloids. Move along, nothing to see here.
Seriously though folks, if someone can’t decide to influence their country’s future without celebrities appealing to their vanity, are they really smart enough to vote? Really. If they can’t make the decision without the it-boy/girl telling them how attractive voting is, what’s their vote worth? Not crap, in my opinion.
Being young and the average product of public schools, they’d probably vote a straight socialism ticket anyway.
62. It’s amazing to me how people stick to things that are proven to be bad – tobacco, for one. Even in the 1700s they were saying “A cigar is a fire on one end and a fool on the other.”
One of the things I learned as I started to become a programmer is the almost tautological wisdom “If it doesn’t work, stop doing it.” I will get nowhere in programming if keep doing things that don’t work, simply because I like them or I think they SHOULD work.
Prohibition of items and edibles is an example, if you know what I’m referring to and I think that you do. It hasn’t worked – ever. Not since its inception. Not at any time in recorded history. It’s been proven again and again that you cannot fix people by making it harder for them to buy certain plants and certain configurations of metal, wood, and polymer. Yet year after bloody year, they keep banging away at it. It’s OK. We won’t point and laugh. You can STOP now.
63. I love this line from The Libertine. “I will be frank from the commencement. You will not like me.”
I’m going to say something that will make you not like me.
In my humble opinion, and that’s all I have, men should not have to pay one penny of child support until they have a say in whether or not their significant other can have an abortion. See, it goes like this. If the mother doesn’t want the baby and the father does, the mother can kill his kid. If the mother wants the baby and the father doesn’t, he’s forced to pay (usually) unnatural amounts of child support for 20 years. The father is screwed either way.
So, we should level the playing field. All or nothing, for both sides.
64. The political candidates this year are real *edited*’s. I’ve written both candidates, TWICE, with some simple, non-confrontational questions (not stuff like “When did you stop beating your wife?”). I have not heard one thing back from either of them.
In the past, Congressional candidates have walked through selected neighborhoods to meet their (hopefully) future constituents face to face, maybe get a read on their important issues. Nada. Not a’tall. Nothing. I’ve met one candidate this year, and that was for state rep.
I sense a growing disconnect between us and those above us. Having an election isn’t worth a tinker’s damn if the people we elect don’t listen to the people they’re elected to govern and represent.
65. Every election year, though more often during presidential election years, we get a bunch of air-head celebrities in print, on radio, and on TV, trying to convince 18-20somethings to vote.
I’m sorry for being mean here, but this needs to be said. If you’re dumb enough to be convinced by a rapper with more gold in his mouth than resides at Fort Knox that voting is cool and will make you appear intelligent and attractive, then the country is better off without your vote. You are not possessed of the required intelligence to exercise your civic duty responsibly. Go back to reading your SI and tabloids. Move along, nothing to see here.
Seriously though folks, if someone can’t decide to influence their country’s future without celebrities appealing to their vanity, are they really smart enough to vote? Really. If they can’t make the decision without the it-boy/girl telling them how attractive voting is, what’s their vote worth? Not crap, in my opinion.
Being young and the average product of public schools, they’d probably vote a straight socialism ticket anyway.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
More Meat Loaf Thoughts And An AR15
The Monster Is Loose
The Monster Is Loose sounds like Meat Loaf doing a really good Bon Jovi album and less like Meat Loaf doing a really good Meat Loaf album. Shades of the previous BOH CDs are all over the place, definitely influence it, but the writing is definitely poppier, despite the darkness. Probably has to do with the hired help writing +1/2 of the material.
AR15 Goodness
Got to fire a 20in Bushmaster A3 this evening. I've only ever fired an AR once before - 5 rounds total - and I loved this one. By 5s and 10s, all 30 rounds went into the plate at 25 yards. The gun sounds like a slinky when you fire it. Followed by a massive boom. The recoil is non-existent. A beautiful weapon.
The BAG gun performed beautifully, despite its supposed hatred of Wolf ammunition. I guess I know my gun better than the gunsmiths.
Sold a guy on a Beretta 92FS and probably a CX4 Storm. Good deal. I'm probably going to do a writeup on the Storm soon. I realized if you could only have one gun, it's probably the best all-around weapon to have, and I want to impart my reasoning.
The Monster Is Loose sounds like Meat Loaf doing a really good Bon Jovi album and less like Meat Loaf doing a really good Meat Loaf album. Shades of the previous BOH CDs are all over the place, definitely influence it, but the writing is definitely poppier, despite the darkness. Probably has to do with the hired help writing +1/2 of the material.
AR15 Goodness
Got to fire a 20in Bushmaster A3 this evening. I've only ever fired an AR once before - 5 rounds total - and I loved this one. By 5s and 10s, all 30 rounds went into the plate at 25 yards. The gun sounds like a slinky when you fire it. Followed by a massive boom. The recoil is non-existent. A beautiful weapon.
The BAG gun performed beautifully, despite its supposed hatred of Wolf ammunition. I guess I know my gun better than the gunsmiths.
Sold a guy on a Beretta 92FS and probably a CX4 Storm. Good deal. I'm probably going to do a writeup on the Storm soon. I realized if you could only have one gun, it's probably the best all-around weapon to have, and I want to impart my reasoning.
Meat Loaf:Bat Out Of Hell III:The Monster Is Loose
Got this album yesterday. Absolutely fantastic. Here are some brief notes on it:
1.The Monster Is Loose. Fantastic song. Atmospheric, angry, loud...a really beligerent rock song, with some creative writing.
2.Blind As A Bat. There is approximately one half of a good song here. Exactly everything forward from the start of the guitar solo. Great chorus, but the writing to start sucks. You'd think this was written by 3 Doors Down or Bryan Adams it's so stilted.
3.It's All Coming Back To Me Now. Good song. I remember hearing Celine do it and thinking "That's got Meat Loaf written all over it."
4.Bad For Good. Not a bad song...it should be better though. It's kind of boring. The repeated bridge is where it starts to get better.
5.Cry Over Me. Yet another fantastic song. The meanest love song since Keith Urban recorded "You'll Think Of Me." I wanted to hate it - Diane Warren should never be allowed near a BOH record - but it works.
6.In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher Is King. Great running music. Fun, mean, and pretty meaningless, it's good to listen to when you are either angry or need to get your blood pumping. Steve Vai on guitar is great. Love the chorus. Starts off sounding like TSO.
7.Monstro. Starts off sounding like TSO. Ultimately a throw-away song. Nothing interesting here.
8.Alive. Another throw-away. Tried too hard to make it a fist-pumping anthem, wound up with a few too many syllables in each line, and a rather flat chorus.
9.If God Could Talk. Most excellent song. Can't say anything else about it really. Enjoyable to listen to.
10.If It Ain't Broke, Break It. Like Alive, it's kind of flat sounding, and winds up as a throw-away song. Just filler, though it does have some good points.
11.What About Love. The duet works better than any of the Bon Jovi duets ever did, but it should've been just Meat on vocals. At least as good as If God Could Talk.
12.Seize The Night. Massive, ponderous, and ultimately too big for its own good. It tries too hard to be a massive rock epic, in traditional Meat Loaf style. It just ends up being boring and repetitive.
13.The Future Ain't What It Used To Be. This is how a long song should be done. Lots of emotion, lots of ear-candy. I won't call it fun, but it is enjoyable.
14.Cry To Heaven. Either this is Meat's goodbye wave, or it's a setup for the next BOH album. I hope it's the later option. Ultimately it's just wasted space.
To recap: Good album. Great to listen to. I was going to say that Desmond Child (who's penned pop for Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith) shouldn't be allowed near a BOH album ever. To look at that review though, Steinman penned just as many filler songs (though they were more intelligently written than Child's). I kind of wish they had've shrunken this down to 7-10 songs, but there's not really a BAD song here that I HATE. It's ten dollars well spent.
1.The Monster Is Loose. Fantastic song. Atmospheric, angry, loud...a really beligerent rock song, with some creative writing.
2.Blind As A Bat. There is approximately one half of a good song here. Exactly everything forward from the start of the guitar solo. Great chorus, but the writing to start sucks. You'd think this was written by 3 Doors Down or Bryan Adams it's so stilted.
3.It's All Coming Back To Me Now. Good song. I remember hearing Celine do it and thinking "That's got Meat Loaf written all over it."
4.Bad For Good. Not a bad song...it should be better though. It's kind of boring. The repeated bridge is where it starts to get better.
5.Cry Over Me. Yet another fantastic song. The meanest love song since Keith Urban recorded "You'll Think Of Me." I wanted to hate it - Diane Warren should never be allowed near a BOH record - but it works.
6.In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher Is King. Great running music. Fun, mean, and pretty meaningless, it's good to listen to when you are either angry or need to get your blood pumping. Steve Vai on guitar is great. Love the chorus. Starts off sounding like TSO.
7.Monstro. Starts off sounding like TSO. Ultimately a throw-away song. Nothing interesting here.
8.Alive. Another throw-away. Tried too hard to make it a fist-pumping anthem, wound up with a few too many syllables in each line, and a rather flat chorus.
9.If God Could Talk. Most excellent song. Can't say anything else about it really. Enjoyable to listen to.
10.If It Ain't Broke, Break It. Like Alive, it's kind of flat sounding, and winds up as a throw-away song. Just filler, though it does have some good points.
11.What About Love. The duet works better than any of the Bon Jovi duets ever did, but it should've been just Meat on vocals. At least as good as If God Could Talk.
12.Seize The Night. Massive, ponderous, and ultimately too big for its own good. It tries too hard to be a massive rock epic, in traditional Meat Loaf style. It just ends up being boring and repetitive.
13.The Future Ain't What It Used To Be. This is how a long song should be done. Lots of emotion, lots of ear-candy. I won't call it fun, but it is enjoyable.
14.Cry To Heaven. Either this is Meat's goodbye wave, or it's a setup for the next BOH album. I hope it's the later option. Ultimately it's just wasted space.
To recap: Good album. Great to listen to. I was going to say that Desmond Child (who's penned pop for Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith) shouldn't be allowed near a BOH album ever. To look at that review though, Steinman penned just as many filler songs (though they were more intelligently written than Child's). I kind of wish they had've shrunken this down to 7-10 songs, but there's not really a BAD song here that I HATE. It's ten dollars well spent.
Upcoming Election Ire
I'm sick of seeing political ads on TV. There are probably 2-5 per commercial break, and at 4-5 commercial breaks per hour of TV, that's 8-25 ads per hour. I'm even sick of seeing the Republican ads. They're all annoying now.
At least we don't have to look at Nancy Nusbaum. As my brother said "She looks like she had plastic surgery, and the doctor left a towel in her face."
Even more annoying than TV commercials for spineless Republicans and socialist Democrats, it seems political candidates are exempt from the No-Call-List.
YEAH.
Every hour, on the hour. Mostly Democrats, but a few Republicans. And they're all recordings, so you don't get a chance to tell the caller exactly what you think of them. If I had the ability to call them socialists and wimps, that'd mitigate the annoyance factor. They don't even have the decency to display a number on the caller ID, just "Unavailable."
Grrrr...
The only bad thing about the election ending is that the Commies will be taking over (probably).
At least we don't have to look at Nancy Nusbaum. As my brother said "She looks like she had plastic surgery, and the doctor left a towel in her face."
Even more annoying than TV commercials for spineless Republicans and socialist Democrats, it seems political candidates are exempt from the No-Call-List.
YEAH.
Every hour, on the hour. Mostly Democrats, but a few Republicans. And they're all recordings, so you don't get a chance to tell the caller exactly what you think of them. If I had the ability to call them socialists and wimps, that'd mitigate the annoyance factor. They don't even have the decency to display a number on the caller ID, just "Unavailable."
Grrrr...
The only bad thing about the election ending is that the Commies will be taking over (probably).
Monday, October 30, 2006
Random Reflections Pt14
56. It is absolutely wrong that state and federal grants have no strings attached. There is no accountability for the wasting of taxpayer money. You should have to prove your cause’s worthiness over and over again, if we are to let the unconstitutional and immoral practice of doling out the bread of another’s labor for your research continue.
57. A recently released document states the US government wants to put weapons in space and deny access to space to any country that doesn’t have our interests at heart.
Much hand-wringing from the left, much back-pedaling and explaining by the right.
I can sympathize with both. I see no reason why nations, territories, and borders should not exist in space as on earth. Logically, it follows that such things should be enforced. However, space is a big place, and we shouldn’t be in the business of kicking people out of it.
If I had my druthers, private entities would go into space long before government. Mining rights, energy collection, tourism…last time I checked, Shopko hadn’t murdered (conservatively) 120 million of its customers in the last century.
58. When the criminal invaded the Colorado high-school recently, the call going out to the police was “Come quick” not “Come quick, but don’t bring guns, guns are yucky and violence doesn’t solve anything.” When the armed police showed up, nobody had a conniption fit seeing people trained in the use of arms carrying weapons. When the police went into the school, they went in with the intention of using their guns to enforce the safety of innocent lives.
Get it?
When it went down, they didn’t go in with plush Care Bears and M&Ms. It is unfortunate that sometimes sterner measures are called for, and no one would think to question an armed police officer killing a Bad Guy in defense of children.
Israel suffered through multiple high-profile school shootings during the 80s and 90s. Gunman walks into a school, opens fire, doesn’t care that the police just decided his life expectancy will be measured in minutes. After a spate of these shootings, the Israelis issued their teachers and chaperones semi-automatic pistols. Whereupon: The number of school shootings fell through the floor, to the approximate number of 0. (Except for that one field trip to Jordan, where the locals were offended by guns and the teachers had to leave theirs at the school.)
Get it?
So why is it that when reasonable proposals are made here to allow teachers and administrators who’ve had more training than most cops go through in their lives to carry concealed weapons, most people go into shrieking hysteria. One woman said (at the top of her lungs) on public radio and I quote: “You’re sick!” “You don’t even know what you’re saying!” “I would never send my child to a school where a teacher enjoyed shooting guns!”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the blogosphere calls: A blissninny. As in, “Ignorance is bliss.”
Check that. Ignorance can be cured. Her stupidity will last forever.
59. Bad things happen. They can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. The logical thing to do is try and prepare and within reason try and reduce the likelihood of something bad happening to you.
It is not reasonable to expect everyone else to make massive concessions so you can feel a teeny-weeny bit safer. It is not reasonable to try and rubberize the world, and put round plastic balls on all the sharp corners.
Funny thing is, odds are, bad stuff won’t happen to you. So don’t get bent out of shape about stuff that can’t be controlled, and don’t mess with everyone else’s lives for the same reason.
60. A few more rants on fashion. A current trend right now is for boys and girls to cut/style their hair so that one…flap…hangs over one eye. Every example I’ve seen of this has the wearer constantly patting and re-adjusting their impromptu eye-patch. They seem to be very proud of their vision impairment.
I saw a Goth walk into my workplace yesterday: he was wearing a yellow gas mask around his neck. I felt like asking him if mustard gas attacks were a common occurrence in his life.
Riffing on Goths a little more, why would a culture spring up celebrating negativity and death? And how is it celebrated by canvas trenchcoats and massive shorts trimmed in dayglow neon plastic cord? For all their anti-conformism, they happily (or is it unhappily) conform to another standard with surprising rigidity.
57. A recently released document states the US government wants to put weapons in space and deny access to space to any country that doesn’t have our interests at heart.
Much hand-wringing from the left, much back-pedaling and explaining by the right.
I can sympathize with both. I see no reason why nations, territories, and borders should not exist in space as on earth. Logically, it follows that such things should be enforced. However, space is a big place, and we shouldn’t be in the business of kicking people out of it.
If I had my druthers, private entities would go into space long before government. Mining rights, energy collection, tourism…last time I checked, Shopko hadn’t murdered (conservatively) 120 million of its customers in the last century.
58. When the criminal invaded the Colorado high-school recently, the call going out to the police was “Come quick” not “Come quick, but don’t bring guns, guns are yucky and violence doesn’t solve anything.” When the armed police showed up, nobody had a conniption fit seeing people trained in the use of arms carrying weapons. When the police went into the school, they went in with the intention of using their guns to enforce the safety of innocent lives.
Get it?
When it went down, they didn’t go in with plush Care Bears and M&Ms. It is unfortunate that sometimes sterner measures are called for, and no one would think to question an armed police officer killing a Bad Guy in defense of children.
Israel suffered through multiple high-profile school shootings during the 80s and 90s. Gunman walks into a school, opens fire, doesn’t care that the police just decided his life expectancy will be measured in minutes. After a spate of these shootings, the Israelis issued their teachers and chaperones semi-automatic pistols. Whereupon: The number of school shootings fell through the floor, to the approximate number of 0. (Except for that one field trip to Jordan, where the locals were offended by guns and the teachers had to leave theirs at the school.)
Get it?
So why is it that when reasonable proposals are made here to allow teachers and administrators who’ve had more training than most cops go through in their lives to carry concealed weapons, most people go into shrieking hysteria. One woman said (at the top of her lungs) on public radio and I quote: “You’re sick!” “You don’t even know what you’re saying!” “I would never send my child to a school where a teacher enjoyed shooting guns!”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the blogosphere calls: A blissninny. As in, “Ignorance is bliss.”
Check that. Ignorance can be cured. Her stupidity will last forever.
59. Bad things happen. They can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. The logical thing to do is try and prepare and within reason try and reduce the likelihood of something bad happening to you.
It is not reasonable to expect everyone else to make massive concessions so you can feel a teeny-weeny bit safer. It is not reasonable to try and rubberize the world, and put round plastic balls on all the sharp corners.
Funny thing is, odds are, bad stuff won’t happen to you. So don’t get bent out of shape about stuff that can’t be controlled, and don’t mess with everyone else’s lives for the same reason.
60. A few more rants on fashion. A current trend right now is for boys and girls to cut/style their hair so that one…flap…hangs over one eye. Every example I’ve seen of this has the wearer constantly patting and re-adjusting their impromptu eye-patch. They seem to be very proud of their vision impairment.
I saw a Goth walk into my workplace yesterday: he was wearing a yellow gas mask around his neck. I felt like asking him if mustard gas attacks were a common occurrence in his life.
Riffing on Goths a little more, why would a culture spring up celebrating negativity and death? And how is it celebrated by canvas trenchcoats and massive shorts trimmed in dayglow neon plastic cord? For all their anti-conformism, they happily (or is it unhappily) conform to another standard with surprising rigidity.
More cool stuff
M:I:3
Rented Mission Impossible 3 this morning, watched it all the way through already. Great movie. Alternately like and not like J. J. Abrams's style on Lost. I think he even canabalized some Lost music. The pace just does not let up in MI3. It goes from one action scene to a few seconds interlude of peace to another action scene.
The part where Ethan breaks out of prison with a Kershaw Chive was my favorite. Not nearly bloody (realistic) enough, but it couldn't be and still be PG13.
Range Day
Took my carbine and my Sig 220 out to the range today. Ran 50 rounds through the Sig, and an equal amount through the carbine. Actually, it was my brother doing the rifle work, I never fired it. He did quite well.
The Sig has a moderate kick. Well, let me rephrase that. It's powerful. It likes to jump around. But fortunately, it's easy to hang onto. I'd estimate the kick being at or just a tid more than my dad's 1911.
I had 2 misfires, but I believe those are because I didn't let the trigger reset all the way. I'm used to being able to judge the reset distance on my Beretta and keep squeezing, letting it only move forward as much as it needs. Haven't learned how to do that with Mr. Nelson yet. It liked all the ammo I put through it - 7 rounds of Blazer Brass and 43 rounds of Wolf steel case. Next up, some hollowpoints.
I had acceptable accuracy at pistol distances. Roughly 12x12 inches at 15 yards. There were times when I was punching one big hole, there were times when I opened up my pattern high and right. It's perfectly accurate for house or room distances, as long as I don't have to target specific parts of, say, insect anatomy.
All in all, Mr. Nelson performed admirably. Which is more than I can say for his animate counterpart.
Rented Mission Impossible 3 this morning, watched it all the way through already. Great movie. Alternately like and not like J. J. Abrams's style on Lost. I think he even canabalized some Lost music. The pace just does not let up in MI3. It goes from one action scene to a few seconds interlude of peace to another action scene.
The part where Ethan breaks out of prison with a Kershaw Chive was my favorite. Not nearly bloody (realistic) enough, but it couldn't be and still be PG13.
Range Day
Took my carbine and my Sig 220 out to the range today. Ran 50 rounds through the Sig, and an equal amount through the carbine. Actually, it was my brother doing the rifle work, I never fired it. He did quite well.
The Sig has a moderate kick. Well, let me rephrase that. It's powerful. It likes to jump around. But fortunately, it's easy to hang onto. I'd estimate the kick being at or just a tid more than my dad's 1911.
I had 2 misfires, but I believe those are because I didn't let the trigger reset all the way. I'm used to being able to judge the reset distance on my Beretta and keep squeezing, letting it only move forward as much as it needs. Haven't learned how to do that with Mr. Nelson yet. It liked all the ammo I put through it - 7 rounds of Blazer Brass and 43 rounds of Wolf steel case. Next up, some hollowpoints.
I had acceptable accuracy at pistol distances. Roughly 12x12 inches at 15 yards. There were times when I was punching one big hole, there were times when I opened up my pattern high and right. It's perfectly accurate for house or room distances, as long as I don't have to target specific parts of, say, insect anatomy.
All in all, Mr. Nelson performed admirably. Which is more than I can say for his animate counterpart.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Cool stuff
The Monkey's Corner
Blogger's messed up, and has put all my links at the bottom of the page. This is unfortunate, as I've added my first link, The Monkey's Corner. Belongs to a friend of mine, as cool a monkey as I've ever met. We stand together on some issues, apart on others, but I'm honored to call him my friend and link to his blog.
I LOVE THIS GUN!!!
Mr. Nelson was a police trade-in about a year ago. Seems every year around Halloween, a local constabulary farms about 5 P220s and 3 P226s out to Gander Mtn (this year they dropped a P2009 on the store, which is odd, considering it was NIB and still had the original 10rd mag). Like I said, Mr. Nelson came in a year ago. This year, they dropped a few more used 220s and 226s (including a NIB 2006 220, and a P220T, which looks like it's about 20 years old but has a Titanium slide), all of which were in better condition than Mr. Nelson. I got the pistol I'd been handling for a year, instead of the newer, less-beat-up guns that were priced the same. Yes, I'm a sentimental fool - Mr. Nelson has character and I felt sorry for him.
Ye Gods, this Mr. Nelson thing is getting creepy. I'm going to stop now.
Ok. So Mr. Nel...So the 220 I bought was a beat up police trade in that had been sitting in the case for a year. I bring it home, clean it up, load it, etc. What I failed to pay attention to were the sights. Standard Sig sights are three little dots of white paint in dimples on each of the three posts. Lots of used Sigs (especially the multiplicity of 225s (great guns BTW) that I've handled) have some or all of this paint scratched/scuffed off, or the paint is faded. This looked to be the case on Mr. Ne... my gun. The dimples are filled with this grayish scuffed metal looking stuff. On impulse, I cover the sights with my hand, and peak under my fingers.
They glow.
(Note:I've unloaded the gun at this point) I shut my bedroom door, turn off the lights, and push the gun forward and up, sighting in (on nothing - it's dark in my room). Three glowing green dots hover in the pitch black. Night sights. Not the best or brightest, but DEFINITELY visible in the dark.
I just checked online. To have Sig put nights on your gun costs around $150-$200. The sights themselves cost $100, and if I'd bought them seperately, Gander Mtn. would probably charge me another $100 to install them and sight them in, and they'd keep my gun for 2 months while they were doing it.
Like me, I bet the Gander Mtn. people never thought to check to see if the nights worked. They just assumed they didn't. That's at least $100 value that I got for free.
I am SO pumped right now.
Blogger's messed up, and has put all my links at the bottom of the page. This is unfortunate, as I've added my first link, The Monkey's Corner. Belongs to a friend of mine, as cool a monkey as I've ever met. We stand together on some issues, apart on others, but I'm honored to call him my friend and link to his blog.
I LOVE THIS GUN!!!
Mr. Nelson was a police trade-in about a year ago. Seems every year around Halloween, a local constabulary farms about 5 P220s and 3 P226s out to Gander Mtn (this year they dropped a P2009 on the store, which is odd, considering it was NIB and still had the original 10rd mag). Like I said, Mr. Nelson came in a year ago. This year, they dropped a few more used 220s and 226s (including a NIB 2006 220, and a P220T, which looks like it's about 20 years old but has a Titanium slide), all of which were in better condition than Mr. Nelson. I got the pistol I'd been handling for a year, instead of the newer, less-beat-up guns that were priced the same. Yes, I'm a sentimental fool - Mr. Nelson has character and I felt sorry for him.
Ye Gods, this Mr. Nelson thing is getting creepy. I'm going to stop now.
Ok. So Mr. Nel...So the 220 I bought was a beat up police trade in that had been sitting in the case for a year. I bring it home, clean it up, load it, etc. What I failed to pay attention to were the sights. Standard Sig sights are three little dots of white paint in dimples on each of the three posts. Lots of used Sigs (especially the multiplicity of 225s (great guns BTW) that I've handled) have some or all of this paint scratched/scuffed off, or the paint is faded. This looked to be the case on Mr. Ne... my gun. The dimples are filled with this grayish scuffed metal looking stuff. On impulse, I cover the sights with my hand, and peak under my fingers.
They glow.
(Note:I've unloaded the gun at this point) I shut my bedroom door, turn off the lights, and push the gun forward and up, sighting in (on nothing - it's dark in my room). Three glowing green dots hover in the pitch black. Night sights. Not the best or brightest, but DEFINITELY visible in the dark.
I just checked online. To have Sig put nights on your gun costs around $150-$200. The sights themselves cost $100, and if I'd bought them seperately, Gander Mtn. would probably charge me another $100 to install them and sight them in, and they'd keep my gun for 2 months while they were doing it.
Like me, I bet the Gander Mtn. people never thought to check to see if the nights worked. They just assumed they didn't. That's at least $100 value that I got for free.
I am SO pumped right now.
Overheard at 10pm
While watching the news after CSI:Miami:
Dad:John Gard is a wimp.
Vincent:I wish John Gard and Steve Kagen would both take it upon themselves to drop their drawers in front of the state and show everyone that they do indeed possess the defining anatomy of the male gender.
Mom:*snort*
Dad:John Gard is a wimp.
Vincent:I wish John Gard and Steve Kagen would both take it upon themselves to drop their drawers in front of the state and show everyone that they do indeed possess the defining anatomy of the male gender.
Mom:*snort*
...And it's home!!!
Picked up the Paul Nelson Commemerative .45 at about 5:30 this evening. Brought it home, cleaned all the green shipping gunk SIGARMS filled it with, oiled it, loaded it, and it's now slumbering peacefully next to my carbine under my bed.
When cleaning it (CopperCleenz, or whatever it's called is the most destructive substance I've ever had the misfortune to be around. It literally chaps my hands whenever I clean a gun. Nasty stuff.) I noticed several things.
~First, a lot of the wear on the inside of the slide is just dirt and that green gunk.
~Second, the rifling looks much stronger when clean. Not as strong as, say, my 9mm, or my battle-rifle, but better than I thought it was.
~Third, the lockup on this gun is TIGHT. It fits together like clockwork. When chambering a round, the slide demands some muscle, but moves like glass on oiled glass. Smooth, that's how we do it...as they'd say in Miami Vice.
~Fourth, this thing has some miles on it. A smile on the barrel, a heckuva ding on the trigger guard that went straight through the finish...those are just the imperfections I remember.
~Fifth, this is not an elegant gun. It's heavy, it requires some muscle to operate, and unlike my 92FS, it's just plain ugly. Absolutely no frills, no unnecessary curves or metal at all. It is utilitarian in the extreme - it is designed for one task only and it is designed to accomplish that task with no flash or pizzazz, just extreme dedication and hard work. It's like a my Spyderco in that regard. I'm not sure I could destroy it, even with a week off work, a pickaxe, and a mission statement. It is THAT tough.
I look forward to taking it out to the range on Monday.
Post-script:I'm buying another battlerifle on Nov. 7th. It's sort of a family tradition - vote, then go buy an assault weapon.
Post, post-script:Two nickel Novak mags and 2 boxes of either Hydrashoks or Silvertips will be entering the house in the next few days. Then that's it, I'm done with buying guns until my 21st birthday, when I pick up a USP45. Or until the godless communists this country's about to offer it's throat to start passing more victim-disarmament.
When cleaning it (CopperCleenz, or whatever it's called is the most destructive substance I've ever had the misfortune to be around. It literally chaps my hands whenever I clean a gun. Nasty stuff.) I noticed several things.
~First, a lot of the wear on the inside of the slide is just dirt and that green gunk.
~Second, the rifling looks much stronger when clean. Not as strong as, say, my 9mm, or my battle-rifle, but better than I thought it was.
~Third, the lockup on this gun is TIGHT. It fits together like clockwork. When chambering a round, the slide demands some muscle, but moves like glass on oiled glass. Smooth, that's how we do it...as they'd say in Miami Vice.
~Fourth, this thing has some miles on it. A smile on the barrel, a heckuva ding on the trigger guard that went straight through the finish...those are just the imperfections I remember.
~Fifth, this is not an elegant gun. It's heavy, it requires some muscle to operate, and unlike my 92FS, it's just plain ugly. Absolutely no frills, no unnecessary curves or metal at all. It is utilitarian in the extreme - it is designed for one task only and it is designed to accomplish that task with no flash or pizzazz, just extreme dedication and hard work. It's like a my Spyderco in that regard. I'm not sure I could destroy it, even with a week off work, a pickaxe, and a mission statement. It is THAT tough.
I look forward to taking it out to the range on Monday.
Post-script:I'm buying another battlerifle on Nov. 7th. It's sort of a family tradition - vote, then go buy an assault weapon.
Post, post-script:Two nickel Novak mags and 2 boxes of either Hydrashoks or Silvertips will be entering the house in the next few days. Then that's it, I'm done with buying guns until my 21st birthday, when I pick up a USP45. Or until the godless communists this country's about to offer it's throat to start passing more victim-disarmament.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
McCain-Feingold Violation Post 2!
I wasn't planning on posting up anything more tonight, but the muse hit.
The Democrats are negative whiners.
I see probably +12 political adds on TV everyday, and without fail ALL Democrat ads are attack ads. Probably 60% of Republican ads are attack ads, but most of the time they actually TALK about what they'll do in office. The Democrats just *edited* about Republicans voting against the minimum wage. Seems to me that's goofed up, because voting against the minimum wage is a good thing.
Even back after the primary, the Democrats were *edited* about the opposing party. John Gard accepted his party's nomination gracefully, humbly, and with dignity. Not one negative word passed his lips.
Steve Kagen on the other hand, used the news coverage of HIS nomination to absolutely BASH John Gard.
Most recently, when Steve Kagen was recorded joking about "Injun time," he apologized, then went on a 1-minute rant about how the morally bankrupt Republican party was trying to divert attention from their failed national policy by focusing on his one trip-of-the-lip.
John Gard, when asked to comment on it, COULD'VE given Kagen a royal smackdown. Instead, his comment was a slightly more elaborate "I was surprised that he said it."
Jim Doyle meanwhile, the man solely responsible for preventing Tereasa Halbach from taking a gun to Steven Avery's car lot, is mugging for the camera on the streets of Madison while wearing a leather jacket and talking about how many child molesters he's sent to prison.
In any just world, he'd get locked in a room with all of them.
The Democrats are negative whiners.
I see probably +12 political adds on TV everyday, and without fail ALL Democrat ads are attack ads. Probably 60% of Republican ads are attack ads, but most of the time they actually TALK about what they'll do in office. The Democrats just *edited* about Republicans voting against the minimum wage. Seems to me that's goofed up, because voting against the minimum wage is a good thing.
Even back after the primary, the Democrats were *edited* about the opposing party. John Gard accepted his party's nomination gracefully, humbly, and with dignity. Not one negative word passed his lips.
Steve Kagen on the other hand, used the news coverage of HIS nomination to absolutely BASH John Gard.
Most recently, when Steve Kagen was recorded joking about "Injun time," he apologized, then went on a 1-minute rant about how the morally bankrupt Republican party was trying to divert attention from their failed national policy by focusing on his one trip-of-the-lip.
John Gard, when asked to comment on it, COULD'VE given Kagen a royal smackdown. Instead, his comment was a slightly more elaborate "I was surprised that he said it."
Jim Doyle meanwhile, the man solely responsible for preventing Tereasa Halbach from taking a gun to Steven Avery's car lot, is mugging for the camera on the streets of Madison while wearing a leather jacket and talking about how many child molesters he's sent to prison.
In any just world, he'd get locked in a room with all of them.
Paul Nelson Commemerative .45 And Gun Statistics
Because the ever intelligent authorities are concerned about us shooting someone right now and not in 49 hours, the two day "cooling off" period for my Sig Sauer Paul Nelson Commemerative P220 .45 is counting down. As I type, we've got about 47.45 hours to go.
Anyway, I figured it'd be a good time to review some gun statistics, just in case anyone hostile to the 2nd article of the Bill Of Rights is in the house (so to speak).
~120,000,000 people in the United States believe having a gun in the house is better than having no gun in the house
~There are 300,000,000 privately owned guns in the United States
~The lowest number of defensive gun uses recorded is 800,000 per year
~The highest number is between 2,5000,000 and 4,000,000
~That means that on the low side, there's a 1 in 375 chance you'll defend yourself with a gun in the next year
~On the high side, that's a 1 in 75 chance
~There are 13,000,000 crimes committed every year
~There are 1,300,000 crimes committed every year with a gun
~That means there's a 1 in 23 chance you'll have a run in with crime in the next year
~That also means there's a 1 in 230 chance you'll have a run in with gun crime in the next year
~There are 1,500,000 violent crimes committed every year
~There's a 1 in 200 chance you'll be the victim of violent crime in the next year
~There are roughly 17,000 homicides each year.
~There are roughly 10,000 gun homicides each year
~That means you have a 1 in 17,500 chance of being murdered in the next year
~You have a 1 in 30,000 chance of being murdered with a gun in the next year
~66% of all homicide involves criminals killing criminals
~There are roughly 30 child firearms deaths each year
~The 1 child gun death per hour statistic comes from increasing the age of childhood to 24
~Most homicide is committed by males aged 16-24, and is related to the drug trade
And the most concerning of all statistics, and the main reason the Founders listed the human right to keep and own weapons of military significance in the Bill Of Rights:
~There were 120,000,000 civilians murdered by their own government in the 20th century.
Anyway, I figured it'd be a good time to review some gun statistics, just in case anyone hostile to the 2nd article of the Bill Of Rights is in the house (so to speak).
~120,000,000 people in the United States believe having a gun in the house is better than having no gun in the house
~There are 300,000,000 privately owned guns in the United States
~The lowest number of defensive gun uses recorded is 800,000 per year
~The highest number is between 2,5000,000 and 4,000,000
~That means that on the low side, there's a 1 in 375 chance you'll defend yourself with a gun in the next year
~On the high side, that's a 1 in 75 chance
~There are 13,000,000 crimes committed every year
~There are 1,300,000 crimes committed every year with a gun
~That means there's a 1 in 23 chance you'll have a run in with crime in the next year
~That also means there's a 1 in 230 chance you'll have a run in with gun crime in the next year
~There are 1,500,000 violent crimes committed every year
~There's a 1 in 200 chance you'll be the victim of violent crime in the next year
~There are roughly 17,000 homicides each year.
~There are roughly 10,000 gun homicides each year
~That means you have a 1 in 17,500 chance of being murdered in the next year
~You have a 1 in 30,000 chance of being murdered with a gun in the next year
~66% of all homicide involves criminals killing criminals
~There are roughly 30 child firearms deaths each year
~The 1 child gun death per hour statistic comes from increasing the age of childhood to 24
~Most homicide is committed by males aged 16-24, and is related to the drug trade
And the most concerning of all statistics, and the main reason the Founders listed the human right to keep and own weapons of military significance in the Bill Of Rights:
~There were 120,000,000 civilians murdered by their own government in the 20th century.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Liberalize Me
So there's this guy on public radio this morning who wrote a book called Conservatize Me.
Capitalizing on the success of that moron Morgan Spurlock's movie Supersize Me (supposedly the magnum opus of anti-fast-food thinking, all it does is show the predictable result of being stupid), John Moe writes Conservatize Me to try and get inside the minds of right-wingers (anyone being right of Marx being a NeoCon to him) by taking in nothing but right-wing politics and media for an entire month.
Why is it rank-and-file Republicans and Libertarians are always stereotyped as rednecks?
Anyhoo, I tried to duplicate the experiment within the confines of my own mind. I tried to get inside the head of a liberal for about 45 minutes.
It was hard. I generally don't think the world owes me anything, and I obviously had to adjust THAT. Then there was that whole "hatred of the successful and wealthy" attitude to get used to. I knew I was getting somewhere when the words "proletariat" and "bourgeois" and "wage slave" started coming more naturally to me. I also started developing a fondness for Cindy Sheehan, Ted Kennedy, the Dixie Chicks, and Al-Jazeera.
Thus suitably prepared in the liberal mindset, I tried to envision utopia. It needed the following criteria:
~All basic needs are provided. Food, shelter, basic furniture.
~Work is not necessary.
~Healthcare is absolutely free for all.
~Dentalcare is absolutely free for all.
~Education is free.
~College is free.
~Entertainment is provided.
~No one can have access to weapons of any kind.
~Only the police can protect you.
~The police are everywhere.
~Authority makes all the decisions for you.
~A few of your rights are protected.
~There are strict rules, designed to keep everyone safe.
~Any attempts to change the system outside of political means are punished.
~Anyone can join the society.
~Societal benefits last from the time you come in until the time you leave or die
Ye Old Lightbulb went on at this point. Not a dawning flicker, mind you. Someone, somewhere, just threw another 6 rods on the nuclear reactor and the lightbulb lit up like a Christmas tree covered in strings of 1,000,000 candlepower bulbs. The illusion ended, and I was left with the realization that...
Such a place exists on earth! The liberal utopia is here!
Wait for it...
The liberal utopia, the state the Democrats and other assorted socialists want to create, the state the embodies all the virtues listed above is...
You knew this was coming, didn't you? I mean, is this IT or is this it?
It's prison.
Capitalizing on the success of that moron Morgan Spurlock's movie Supersize Me (supposedly the magnum opus of anti-fast-food thinking, all it does is show the predictable result of being stupid), John Moe writes Conservatize Me to try and get inside the minds of right-wingers (anyone being right of Marx being a NeoCon to him) by taking in nothing but right-wing politics and media for an entire month.
Why is it rank-and-file Republicans and Libertarians are always stereotyped as rednecks?
Anyhoo, I tried to duplicate the experiment within the confines of my own mind. I tried to get inside the head of a liberal for about 45 minutes.
It was hard. I generally don't think the world owes me anything, and I obviously had to adjust THAT. Then there was that whole "hatred of the successful and wealthy" attitude to get used to. I knew I was getting somewhere when the words "proletariat" and "bourgeois" and "wage slave" started coming more naturally to me. I also started developing a fondness for Cindy Sheehan, Ted Kennedy, the Dixie Chicks, and Al-Jazeera.
Thus suitably prepared in the liberal mindset, I tried to envision utopia. It needed the following criteria:
~All basic needs are provided. Food, shelter, basic furniture.
~Work is not necessary.
~Healthcare is absolutely free for all.
~Dentalcare is absolutely free for all.
~Education is free.
~College is free.
~Entertainment is provided.
~No one can have access to weapons of any kind.
~Only the police can protect you.
~The police are everywhere.
~Authority makes all the decisions for you.
~A few of your rights are protected.
~There are strict rules, designed to keep everyone safe.
~Any attempts to change the system outside of political means are punished.
~Anyone can join the society.
~Societal benefits last from the time you come in until the time you leave or die
Ye Old Lightbulb went on at this point. Not a dawning flicker, mind you. Someone, somewhere, just threw another 6 rods on the nuclear reactor and the lightbulb lit up like a Christmas tree covered in strings of 1,000,000 candlepower bulbs. The illusion ended, and I was left with the realization that...
Such a place exists on earth! The liberal utopia is here!
Wait for it...
The liberal utopia, the state the Democrats and other assorted socialists want to create, the state the embodies all the virtues listed above is...
You knew this was coming, didn't you? I mean, is this IT or is this it?
It's prison.
Random Reflections Pt13
51. If a mountain were to slide down and annihilate a town, that would not be evil. Evil requires consciousness, the willful act to violate the rights or life of another who has not harmed you.
If that mountainslide were to be willfully caused by a person, that would be evil. For society to continue, evil must be punished in proportion to the damage it has inflicted upon society. I say in proportion because too weak a punishment would be the exact same as no punishment at all, and two harsh a punishment would establish tyranny.
This is not law. Laws change, year to year, regime to regime. This is justice.
Law is not written for the good. The good carry the Law in their hearts. Law is written for the bad, so that society may, as a whole, bear the responsibility of enacting justice. Written law is meant to mirror the Law that good men carry in their hearts. But law is written by men, who can be evil, venal, and corrupt. Thus law, like any tool, can be used for good or ill. Laws change, year to year, regime to regime. Simply because a law IS, doesn’t mean it embodies justice. It may be an unjust law. Similarly, actions which enact justice may not be enshrined in the law.Laws change, but justice is justice.
52. I know life is short, whatever time you get is luck. – Neil McCauly, “Heat”
It’s going to sound trite, but don’t wait until you’re dying to start living like it. Within reason, do what you want to do NOW. Or work towards it. The sooner you realize that, the happier your life will be. But I can't MAKE you realize it - you have to want it, you have to have that "aha moment" all by your lonesome.
53. Heroes are not people who save lives. Otherwise, doctors giving flu shots at grocery stores would be heroes.
Heroes are people who RISK their own lives to save others. Who show uncommon valor or bravery to help their fellow men. We talk so much of heroes today, and few other people we apply the heroic adjective to actually deserve it.If, as I have said before, that choice is the only thing worthy of respect, then risking your life with no obligation to do so, knowing that your death, possibly, will have absolutely no merit is worthy of the descriptor “nobility.” There aren’t too many heroes like that these days.
54. Free people will never be equal. People forced to be equal will never be free.
In a condition of freedom, people will never be equal. There will be people who are better than others at certain things. There will be people who get ahead in life when others don’t. Lest we all forget, we are still animals, beholden to the same animal impulses, and we’re still living in a civilized jungle, where the laws of nature still hold some sway. This is FREEDOM. It’s a dangerous, scary thing.We can do our darnedest to equalize housing conditions, income, diet, healthcare, whatever. But in doing so we MUST take from those who are successful, and make beholden to us those who we would raise up.
We can have freedom, or an attempt at absolute equality, but we can’t have both.
(Notice I’m not talking about equality of rights. Everyone’s inalienable human rights should be protected, with no one’s rights greater or lesser than another’s.)
55. There’s been some grumbling in my state’s government recently about how all our college graduates are drifting out of state. There’s also been some grumbling by our college graduates about how tuition rates are unreasonable. Leaving aside the fact that no one in the state should have to pay for the education of a child that is not their own (and would likely have plenty of money to pay for their child’s education if they weren’t paying for everyone else’s), how about this for a plan: Each student can only receive tuition aid if they agree maintain a 3.0 grade point average and will remain in the state for 4 years after graduating.
We all get what we want then, except for the elderly and single people who are putting their neighbor’s kids through college.
If that mountainslide were to be willfully caused by a person, that would be evil. For society to continue, evil must be punished in proportion to the damage it has inflicted upon society. I say in proportion because too weak a punishment would be the exact same as no punishment at all, and two harsh a punishment would establish tyranny.
This is not law. Laws change, year to year, regime to regime. This is justice.
Law is not written for the good. The good carry the Law in their hearts. Law is written for the bad, so that society may, as a whole, bear the responsibility of enacting justice. Written law is meant to mirror the Law that good men carry in their hearts. But law is written by men, who can be evil, venal, and corrupt. Thus law, like any tool, can be used for good or ill. Laws change, year to year, regime to regime. Simply because a law IS, doesn’t mean it embodies justice. It may be an unjust law. Similarly, actions which enact justice may not be enshrined in the law.Laws change, but justice is justice.
52. I know life is short, whatever time you get is luck. – Neil McCauly, “Heat”
It’s going to sound trite, but don’t wait until you’re dying to start living like it. Within reason, do what you want to do NOW. Or work towards it. The sooner you realize that, the happier your life will be. But I can't MAKE you realize it - you have to want it, you have to have that "aha moment" all by your lonesome.
53. Heroes are not people who save lives. Otherwise, doctors giving flu shots at grocery stores would be heroes.
Heroes are people who RISK their own lives to save others. Who show uncommon valor or bravery to help their fellow men. We talk so much of heroes today, and few other people we apply the heroic adjective to actually deserve it.If, as I have said before, that choice is the only thing worthy of respect, then risking your life with no obligation to do so, knowing that your death, possibly, will have absolutely no merit is worthy of the descriptor “nobility.” There aren’t too many heroes like that these days.
54. Free people will never be equal. People forced to be equal will never be free.
In a condition of freedom, people will never be equal. There will be people who are better than others at certain things. There will be people who get ahead in life when others don’t. Lest we all forget, we are still animals, beholden to the same animal impulses, and we’re still living in a civilized jungle, where the laws of nature still hold some sway. This is FREEDOM. It’s a dangerous, scary thing.We can do our darnedest to equalize housing conditions, income, diet, healthcare, whatever. But in doing so we MUST take from those who are successful, and make beholden to us those who we would raise up.
We can have freedom, or an attempt at absolute equality, but we can’t have both.
(Notice I’m not talking about equality of rights. Everyone’s inalienable human rights should be protected, with no one’s rights greater or lesser than another’s.)
55. There’s been some grumbling in my state’s government recently about how all our college graduates are drifting out of state. There’s also been some grumbling by our college graduates about how tuition rates are unreasonable. Leaving aside the fact that no one in the state should have to pay for the education of a child that is not their own (and would likely have plenty of money to pay for their child’s education if they weren’t paying for everyone else’s), how about this for a plan: Each student can only receive tuition aid if they agree maintain a 3.0 grade point average and will remain in the state for 4 years after graduating.
We all get what we want then, except for the elderly and single people who are putting their neighbor’s kids through college.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
McCain-Feingold Violation Post!
The only race I'm really passionate about this year is Mark Green vs. Jim Doyle for WI governer. I hope Green wins and Doyle loses. I hope Doyle has a very painful run in with crime, regardless, since he is ultimately responsible for disarming everyone in this state outside their home. Note, for anyone official who finds their way here:I WILL NOT be the cause of any crime directed at our evil governer. I would simply do a Snoopy-style happy-dance.
I hope John Gard wins and Steve Kagen loses, simply because Gard is a Republican and Kagen is a Democrat. They're both *a swearword first introduced to me by my aunt, years ago, one that starts with "a" and rhymes with "brass poles"* but at least Gard's party isn't actively opposed to the Second Amendment.
I'm voting strictly on who gives me the most time to prepare for war (want peace?). The Democrats will go off the cliff at 90mph. The Republicans will take a little less time to get there, only travelling at a leisurely 60mph, but they'll still go over eventually.
Meanwhile, Herb "The Fa****" Kohl is running pretty much uncontested for Senator. I don't call him that because I disrespect gay people - their life choices are none of my dang business, and I simply don't care. I call him that for the same reason I call John Kerry "Hanoi John." Can't figure out a better nickname for someone I have less than no respect for.
Bush wasted all his "credit" on the occupation of Iraq (and no, we should not be there) instead of actually making the American people even freer at home, and has screwed things up bad enough that the whole country is polarized against the Republican party. This year they ain't gonna be voting based on issues, they'll be voting based on who's NOT a Republican. I hope I'm wrong.
No matter who wins, it's gonna be an ugly 2 years until the Presidential election. Then, there's a good chance it'll get even uglier. Ugly on a scale like we have not yet seen ugly.
I hope John Gard wins and Steve Kagen loses, simply because Gard is a Republican and Kagen is a Democrat. They're both *a swearword first introduced to me by my aunt, years ago, one that starts with "a" and rhymes with "brass poles"* but at least Gard's party isn't actively opposed to the Second Amendment.
I'm voting strictly on who gives me the most time to prepare for war (want peace?). The Democrats will go off the cliff at 90mph. The Republicans will take a little less time to get there, only travelling at a leisurely 60mph, but they'll still go over eventually.
Meanwhile, Herb "The Fa****" Kohl is running pretty much uncontested for Senator. I don't call him that because I disrespect gay people - their life choices are none of my dang business, and I simply don't care. I call him that for the same reason I call John Kerry "Hanoi John." Can't figure out a better nickname for someone I have less than no respect for.
Bush wasted all his "credit" on the occupation of Iraq (and no, we should not be there) instead of actually making the American people even freer at home, and has screwed things up bad enough that the whole country is polarized against the Republican party. This year they ain't gonna be voting based on issues, they'll be voting based on who's NOT a Republican. I hope I'm wrong.
No matter who wins, it's gonna be an ugly 2 years until the Presidential election. Then, there's a good chance it'll get even uglier. Ugly on a scale like we have not yet seen ugly.
There's the chance...
...actually a good chance, that I'll be laying some money down on that Sig Sauer P220 .45ACP pistol this afternoon. It's not the nicest looking pistol ever, it's definitely got some miles on it, but it's in good condition and I've been handling it for nearly a year (possibly more). When I pick it up, I'll have bought 2 more magazines and a few boxes of Winchester Silvertips to go with it.
It will be the first gun I've ever named. I plan on calling it the "Paul Nelson Commemerative 45." Paul Nelson is an anti-freedom Republican running to unseat a Democrat Rep. in my state, who says he'd support a draft if we went to war with North Korea. We can only hope he loses, though the alternative is almost as nauseating.
Paul, I'm gonna have a .45 with your name on it!
It will be the first gun I've ever named. I plan on calling it the "Paul Nelson Commemerative 45." Paul Nelson is an anti-freedom Republican running to unseat a Democrat Rep. in my state, who says he'd support a draft if we went to war with North Korea. We can only hope he loses, though the alternative is almost as nauseating.
Paul, I'm gonna have a .45 with your name on it!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
See you in another life
Lot's of updates goin' on here recently. I wish this one was going to be a fun one.
A guy I know died two days ago. He was one of our friends at Gander Mtn. He knew us by name, watched out for cool stuff he thought we'd like, would shoot the breeze for an hour if we stopped in. He was the one who sold me my carbine and was absolutely honest in all his dealings.
Sunday, October 15th 2006 he died of pneumonia, a complication of spreading pancreatic cancer, which he'd had for 3 years. He wasn't expected to live 6 months past the diagnosis, but beat the odds to the point where when he finally gave up the ghost, his doctors now want to know every single detail of his lifestyle.
Besides once experimenting with Navaho (Navajo?) Indian medicine, the one lifestyle point that everyone contributes his longevity to was his enduring good spirit. To my knowledge he never once anticipated dying. He just kept fighting, kept his cheer up, kept living. He was planning on going varmint hunting in Montana in Summer 2007. That he'd outlived his expected "expiration date" by 2.5 years didn't factor into the equation, he planned ahead and expected to be there.
We'll miss you Don, and we hope you're still as happy as you always were.
A guy I know died two days ago. He was one of our friends at Gander Mtn. He knew us by name, watched out for cool stuff he thought we'd like, would shoot the breeze for an hour if we stopped in. He was the one who sold me my carbine and was absolutely honest in all his dealings.
Sunday, October 15th 2006 he died of pneumonia, a complication of spreading pancreatic cancer, which he'd had for 3 years. He wasn't expected to live 6 months past the diagnosis, but beat the odds to the point where when he finally gave up the ghost, his doctors now want to know every single detail of his lifestyle.
Besides once experimenting with Navaho (Navajo?) Indian medicine, the one lifestyle point that everyone contributes his longevity to was his enduring good spirit. To my knowledge he never once anticipated dying. He just kept fighting, kept his cheer up, kept living. He was planning on going varmint hunting in Montana in Summer 2007. That he'd outlived his expected "expiration date" by 2.5 years didn't factor into the equation, he planned ahead and expected to be there.
We'll miss you Don, and we hope you're still as happy as you always were.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Media
Since I managed to escape from Hardware 2 early this evening, I got to watch CSI: Miami. For once it was a treat. A real pro-freedom message tonight.
The gist was thus:A councilman is found dead, a developer is stealing people's homes with eminent domain, and a corrupt judge is looking on.
Lots of good stuff. Eminent domain (the kind detailed by the fascists on the Supreme Court recently), received a brutally thorough smackdown. Kinda nice to hear the good guys talking about law in a bad light. The POLICE carrying it out got roughed up by a main character (so much for just-following-orders!) The corrupt judge was sent to prison, and it turns out the equally corrupt eminent-domain-swing-vote councilman was greased by a kid who's house was going to be stolen. The kid did it with a folding pocketknife no less, in a blitz ambush that probably would've had Marc MacYoung wincing, nodding, and saying "Well, yes, that IS how that's done."
They were VERY careful to show the various violent and confrontational actions taken by the outraged and displaced victims (the homeowners, not the ones who got what they deserved) as wrong, preferring instead to advocate a legal means of vengence. Specifically:Let Horatio Caine dig up dirt on them.
The real world more than likely does not contain Horatio Caines, so I preferred to read the message tonight as "How NOT to get caught."
I probably won't get so much enjoyment out of television again until I go see The 300 in theaters. Watch the good (but fuzzy) trailer here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6124436450423739706&q=300+%2B+trailer&hl=en
Well, that's not entirely true. Lost, House, and Prison Break will be on between now and then, and Miami Vice will be coming out, so I will enjoy myself to a great degree before THe 300 is released.
The gist was thus:A councilman is found dead, a developer is stealing people's homes with eminent domain, and a corrupt judge is looking on.
Lots of good stuff. Eminent domain (the kind detailed by the fascists on the Supreme Court recently), received a brutally thorough smackdown. Kinda nice to hear the good guys talking about law in a bad light. The POLICE carrying it out got roughed up by a main character (so much for just-following-orders!) The corrupt judge was sent to prison, and it turns out the equally corrupt eminent-domain-swing-vote councilman was greased by a kid who's house was going to be stolen. The kid did it with a folding pocketknife no less, in a blitz ambush that probably would've had Marc MacYoung wincing, nodding, and saying "Well, yes, that IS how that's done."
They were VERY careful to show the various violent and confrontational actions taken by the outraged and displaced victims (the homeowners, not the ones who got what they deserved) as wrong, preferring instead to advocate a legal means of vengence. Specifically:Let Horatio Caine dig up dirt on them.
The real world more than likely does not contain Horatio Caines, so I preferred to read the message tonight as "How NOT to get caught."
I probably won't get so much enjoyment out of television again until I go see The 300 in theaters. Watch the good (but fuzzy) trailer here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6124436450423739706&q=300+%2B+trailer&hl=en
Well, that's not entirely true. Lost, House, and Prison Break will be on between now and then, and Miami Vice will be coming out, so I will enjoy myself to a great degree before THe 300 is released.
Saga of the BAG Day Gun Pt3
At last posting, my BAG day junker rifle was FTFing, FTEing, and despite a wiggly handguard (which I pointed out to him THREE times, along with descriptions of the necessary replacement part), the gunsmith at Gander Mtn said the only problem was my Wolf ammunition.
Having decided in the affirmative upon his incompetence after he suggested the remedy to be $1/rd Federal ammunition, I set about correcting the problem myself. A replacement gas valve was located and ordered.
After a sufficiently bad dad at work on Friday, I return home to find that my gas valve has arrived. I happily discard the packaging, do some minor stripping to the front of my rifle, and replace the old gas valve with the new. Reassembling the rifle, I determine that the handguard STILL wiggles. This does not bode well. I start investigating replacement handguards online.
Saturday my dad and I decide to take my rifle out to a public range not far from where we buy our wonderful and wonderfully illegal fireworks. (Actually, it's legal to buy them, not legal to set them off, which of course, we would never do. Nope, not us, not once, not never.) After an hour of driving, we return home, not having found the range.
Today my brother and I took the rifle out to our regular range. I load up the magazine, snap the bolt shut, and hold the rifle at waist level (one can never be too sure with repaired junker guns, and I'd rather take an exploding receiver in the kidney than in the eye - I KNOW how powerful these things are). My first shot bucks the gun up in my hands, I pull the trigger again...and...click. No dice. This is good actually. Seems whereas before it was short-stroking, now it's stroking far enough to re-cock the gun, but not far enough (or too fast) to eject. My brother hammers the bolt back and chambers another round. I pull the trigger.
*BOOM*
*Tinkle tinkle tinkle*
The sound of a steel case skittering off concrete has never sounded so good. I ran through the rest of the magazine while trying to determine if I was too much of a gentleman to go back and laugh at the Gander Mtn gunsmith. I think I am. Not sure yet though.
Having decided in the affirmative upon his incompetence after he suggested the remedy to be $1/rd Federal ammunition, I set about correcting the problem myself. A replacement gas valve was located and ordered.
After a sufficiently bad dad at work on Friday, I return home to find that my gas valve has arrived. I happily discard the packaging, do some minor stripping to the front of my rifle, and replace the old gas valve with the new. Reassembling the rifle, I determine that the handguard STILL wiggles. This does not bode well. I start investigating replacement handguards online.
Saturday my dad and I decide to take my rifle out to a public range not far from where we buy our wonderful and wonderfully illegal fireworks. (Actually, it's legal to buy them, not legal to set them off, which of course, we would never do. Nope, not us, not once, not never.) After an hour of driving, we return home, not having found the range.
Today my brother and I took the rifle out to our regular range. I load up the magazine, snap the bolt shut, and hold the rifle at waist level (one can never be too sure with repaired junker guns, and I'd rather take an exploding receiver in the kidney than in the eye - I KNOW how powerful these things are). My first shot bucks the gun up in my hands, I pull the trigger again...and...click. No dice. This is good actually. Seems whereas before it was short-stroking, now it's stroking far enough to re-cock the gun, but not far enough (or too fast) to eject. My brother hammers the bolt back and chambers another round. I pull the trigger.
*BOOM*
*Tinkle tinkle tinkle*
The sound of a steel case skittering off concrete has never sounded so good. I ran through the rest of the magazine while trying to determine if I was too much of a gentleman to go back and laugh at the Gander Mtn gunsmith. I think I am. Not sure yet though.
I Smell Bacon
Or: The Pig Fell In The Mud
When last we interacted with the thin blue line, a city bus driver had, with no proof or witness or investigation, gotten our family charged with a $185 dollar fine which the police lowered to $85 for cooperating.
So:My dad calls back, asks the pig at the desk to go through it all once more. Turns out, the bus driver incorrectly recorded the streetnames. Whether he saw correctly or not, he definitely did NOT see it at those coordinates (one intersection over). So dad asks if the bus driver could've shut his lights off before the illegal manuever (my mom freezes around buses and red lights) and forgotten about it (having so many better things to concentrate on OTHER than writing down a license plate, make and model of a car, etc.). He then adds that to be informed about only the fine a week later means its the word of a citizen against a city official. The cops gives a variation of the didn't-work-for-the-SS routine of "We're only following orders." Says they can't have a squad car follow every bus and that bus drivers can, legally, accuse you of anything without proof and have you fined without an investigation. Not in so many words for that last part though.
My dad says we want to contest it. The cop says that given the bus driver screwed up the location, and the city just does NOT have the resources to go to court over an $85 traffic violation, they'll just drop the whole thing.
No fine.
Never underestimate the stupidity, incompetence, or maliciousness of anyone working in city government. Yes, they didn't fine us. No, it wasn't because they saw the error of their ways and have decided to become born-again good public servants. It was because they didn't have a dang thing and knew it.
When last we interacted with the thin blue line, a city bus driver had, with no proof or witness or investigation, gotten our family charged with a $185 dollar fine which the police lowered to $85 for cooperating.
So:My dad calls back, asks the pig at the desk to go through it all once more. Turns out, the bus driver incorrectly recorded the streetnames. Whether he saw correctly or not, he definitely did NOT see it at those coordinates (one intersection over). So dad asks if the bus driver could've shut his lights off before the illegal manuever (my mom freezes around buses and red lights) and forgotten about it (having so many better things to concentrate on OTHER than writing down a license plate, make and model of a car, etc.). He then adds that to be informed about only the fine a week later means its the word of a citizen against a city official. The cops gives a variation of the didn't-work-for-the-SS routine of "We're only following orders." Says they can't have a squad car follow every bus and that bus drivers can, legally, accuse you of anything without proof and have you fined without an investigation. Not in so many words for that last part though.
My dad says we want to contest it. The cop says that given the bus driver screwed up the location, and the city just does NOT have the resources to go to court over an $85 traffic violation, they'll just drop the whole thing.
No fine.
Never underestimate the stupidity, incompetence, or maliciousness of anyone working in city government. Yes, they didn't fine us. No, it wasn't because they saw the error of their ways and have decided to become born-again good public servants. It was because they didn't have a dang thing and knew it.
Scary Morning
I'm yanked from a deep sleep by the sound of something shattering.
It's 0-Dark-Hundred in my room. It's dark outside, I can't see a thing. Something in the rest of the house woke me up.
The first thought through my head is "How can this be happening AGAIN?!" The second is "They are NOT getting away with it this time!" Well, there were a few more cusswords in those thoughts, but this is a website for everyone, so...
I'm out of bed in a heartbeat, discard the idea of taking my carbine (even high as a kite on adrenaline at God-Knows-What-Time in the morning, I still allow for the possibility of another explanation), and hold my open knife down by my leg. There's light coming under my door and I think "That's bloody bold of them." I open my door, see my dad a few feet ahead of me, hurrying down the hallway - now I know something's up.
I follow him out into the dining room, see my mom in the kitchen, see the time on the clock (6:07) , and everybody turns to look at me. I said "I heard something shatter."
My mom had dropped something - that was the noise I heard. I return to my room (I get up at 6:30) and go back to bed. Won't be going to sleep though: My hands are shaking.
I absolutely hate the idea of being party to violence.
It's 0-Dark-Hundred in my room. It's dark outside, I can't see a thing. Something in the rest of the house woke me up.
The first thought through my head is "How can this be happening AGAIN?!" The second is "They are NOT getting away with it this time!" Well, there were a few more cusswords in those thoughts, but this is a website for everyone, so...
I'm out of bed in a heartbeat, discard the idea of taking my carbine (even high as a kite on adrenaline at God-Knows-What-Time in the morning, I still allow for the possibility of another explanation), and hold my open knife down by my leg. There's light coming under my door and I think "That's bloody bold of them." I open my door, see my dad a few feet ahead of me, hurrying down the hallway - now I know something's up.
I follow him out into the dining room, see my mom in the kitchen, see the time on the clock (6:07) , and everybody turns to look at me. I said "I heard something shatter."
My mom had dropped something - that was the noise I heard. I return to my room (I get up at 6:30) and go back to bed. Won't be going to sleep though: My hands are shaking.
I absolutely hate the idea of being party to violence.
Random Reflections Pt12
46. I’ve never heard of anyone being robbed at the shooting range.
Just think about it - Multiple instances of usually expensive items, which beyond resale value have great occupational use for an aspiring thief, often tended by just one or two people, who are far more interested in viewing holes in paper hundreds of yards away than keeping track of their $500-$1500 investments laying on the table next to them.
And despite all that lax security, despite the major incentives, I’ve never heard of one instance of anyone’s guns being stolen at the range. And doesn’t more guns equal more crime? You’d think the gun range would be a MAGNET for the criminal class. Why isn’t it?
Nah, the obvious answer can’t be the right one.
47. Riffing on school shootings a little more, why is it that whenever some little wacko flies off the handle and kills someone the predictable response is always “He was bullied. Where were the social workers?”
Bullying is a bad thing. I’ve dealt with it some in my life. And it seems to me that as long as we allow their unconstitutional, completely useless existence, schools should be safe places for kids.
But: Would these kids find it necessary or desirable to shoot up a school IF they were allowed to respond in an appropriate fashion to their tormentors? But no: Jack a bully in the face a couple of times and you’re getting booked for assault and battery and expelled from school.
But instead, we turn a blind eye to the bullying, dang near criminalize the resulting fisticuffs, and then we can’t imagine how things could’ve gone so wrong when these tormented youths, forced against their will to spend 8 hours inside a concrete box running around to the Prussian equivalent of Pavlov’s bell finally explode in an unjustifiable and evil surge of repressed rage.
48. I hate the way most TV portrays men. For the most part, men are portrayed as arrogant, ignorant, lustful, socially insensitive clods.
Look at the classic sitcom Home Improvement. The basic plot goes thusly: Family breadwinner Tim Taylor does a whole host of stupid, dangerous things at work. He comes home and causes a major disturbance by getting in an argument with his wife – which is ALWAYS caused by him being wrong and unable to admit it, or completely ignoring his wife’s feelings. After fumbling around a bit in the dark (so to speak) he’s enlightened by his genius neighbor, usually to the tune that he needs to listen to his wife more and quit obsessing over himself or his tools and (though I hate to say this) ignore his some of his male instincts and behavior. He goes into his house, misapplies his neighbor’s sayings, and begs his wife’s forgiveness, understanding, and tells her to go ahead with whatever it was he was too blind and stupid to take a shine to in the first place.
Or watch any episode of According To Jim. Much the same situations, same portrayal of men. Heck, most any sitcom you can think of shows husbands and fathers as completely out of touch with their family, and usually obsessed with projecting a stereotype of maleness.
Now, reverse the gender roles, and tell me it would be as well received. Tell me there wouldn’t be a public outcry to the tune that it’s stereotyping women in a negative way. Tell me there wouldn’t be hate mail, demonstrations, boycotts, and finally an apology or cancellation.
Most men strive and sacrifice for their families, usually with very little thanks or recognition. This is not the norm on TV. And yes, it is television – so what, right? What lessons do people take away when they constantly see MEN being held up as objects of ridicule, the wonderful and defining differences between them and women being scorned as old-fashioned or out-of-fashion or stupid? Yes, there are traditional roles for men and women in society. That doesn’t mean that women should be kept barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, it means that MEN are usually the ones to run the household, and that’s the way things have been for thousands of years, in any society worth noting (find me one instance of a matriarchal society worthy of the label "Civilization"). It’s almost human-bloody-nature. When MEN as heads of households are held in scorn and contempt, and their NECESSARY roles in their childrens’ and significant others’ lives negated by social assistance and scorn, it’s no wonder we have a skyrocketing problem with out-of-wedlock births and broken homes. The simple presence of a male role model, teaching them traditional values of honor, loyalty, hard work, and respect (especially for women) is invaluable for boys – I would propose that it is as damaging to have a large percentage of our young male youth raised solely by their mother as it would be to have a large percentage of our young female youth raised solely by their father. Each gender needs close role-models for its gender, and you chip away at some of the validity of that by ridiculing one or the other.
Best sitcom ever was Malcom In The Middle. At least there both parents were portrayed as equally insane.
49. Like Christians never being able to outrun the Crusades, I’ve come to the conclusion that constitutional government will never outrun slavery.
Speak of the wonderful freedom guaranteed (not granted) by the Bill Of Rights – the other side brings up slavery. Speak of the wisdom and courage of a handful of men in creating, out of thin air, a style of limited government never before seen on earth – the other side brings up slavery. Speak of following the Constitution as the only way to achieve legal, righteous government – the other side brings up slavery.
Yes, slavery was bad. Yes, it was antithetical to hold people in servitude while espousing the cause of freedom.
HOWEVER: In the eyes of the majority of the people back then, blacks were not viewed as anything more than property. To speak of giving them freedom was like speaking of giving one’s carriage freedom. This is not an excuse, it’s an explanation. Furthermore, in order to create and continue a union that guaranteed freedom to the MAJORITY of its citizens, the founders had to pander to certain…special interests. Despite a good number of them believing black should be free, we would not have the freest country on earth if the founders had’ve stood on pure principle and demanded equality for everyone RIGHT NOW. They realized that the union had to be preserved, else NO ONE be free.
Yes, that was a terrible decision to have to make. But frankly, I’m glad they made the decision they did – that decision guaranteed that we’d have the freedom some day to sit back and call them dead white men and bigots and racists.
To conclude: The prevailing attitude towards blacks, mixed with the necessity of preserving the union led to the perpetuation of slavery. It was a fault of the day, not of the men of the day. Their failings in no way taint the beauty of the gift they gave us.
50.Yet again, it is time to be insensitive. *sigh* You’ve been warned.
If I were presented with a lineup of the Halloween decorations of fifty domiciles, I could, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, pick out which belonged to duplexes, and which belonged to houses.
For some reasons, duplex dwellers buy really expensive, massive, and totally ugly lawn decorations, mostly the inflatable variety. One would think, if you live in a duplex, it’s generally because you can’t afford a house. So why decorate with dozens of expensive (and horrendous) blow up dolls and tinfoil headstones and fog machines.
Not that I’m saying every duplex yard contains ugly Halloween decorations, or that houses don’t occasionally go overboard (there’s one in my neighborhood that is an absolute eyesore any time there’s a holiday), but in my experience, people living in duplexes have a monopoly on the ugly lawn ornament trade.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
I Smell Bacon
Or: Run-Ins With The Pigs Part 2.1
So, yesterday my dad receives a letter in the mail from the Green Bay police department stating something to the effect that a car registered to him (as the head of the household) violated traffic laws and he owes $185 dollars; if you require information before we shake you down, or you wish to contest this charge, call ***-***-****. (Notice the use of the emotional-charged phrase "shake you down?" That's called fore-shadowing.)
Not having been pulled over for anything recently, every driving member of the household is a mite perplexed.
My dad calls the number and receives a rundown on the charges against one of the family members. Apparently my mom turned in front of a bus. Still no recollection of having been pulled over or charged with any form of crime. Confusion all around.
Now,given the police departments previous public relations debacle with my family (taking 11 minutes to respond to an attempted home invasion 7 years ago, taking 7 minutes to get to our house when a neighbor had a heart attack (despite the standard presense of four black and whites in the area), and sending 3 B&Ws, an unmarked, and 4 armed, vested up pigs to arrest my brother for fireworks ten days before the 4th, when resounding explosions could be heard all night long for 3 weeks prior), you can probably guess that this is about to take a bad turn. It takes a lot to awe me when it comes to government incompetence, disinterest, or downright malicious behavior slash law.
I have been suitably awed.
Seems no cop was ever involved, no traffic citation ever issued, no crime ever recorded, no one ever charged. See, the bus driver wrote down the license plate, submitted it to the police department with a complaint, and without so much as sending one of the boys in blue over to get a statement, the city proceeded to charge our family nearly $200.
Without taking a statement.
Without charging anyone with a crime.
Without informing anyone of the charges against them before levying punishment.
All on one person's say so.
Because we called, were polite, and decided to cooperate, they've generously lowered the fine for the unsubstantiated, undocumented crime by $100.
Let me see if I can lay this all out in plain language, in case there's any miscommunication leading to misunderstanding here: A bus driver can write down the license plate number of any car on the road, submit it to the police with a complaint about the driver's conduct, no investigation is ever performed, no communication is innitiated, and then based on one person's word, an unsuspecting person can be fined nearly $200.
Now, does that seem...I don't know...right? Just? The way a fair and equitable government should conduct its business?
Stay tuned for breaking developments in "I Smell Bacon:Run Ins With The Pigs Pt2!"
So, yesterday my dad receives a letter in the mail from the Green Bay police department stating something to the effect that a car registered to him (as the head of the household) violated traffic laws and he owes $185 dollars; if you require information before we shake you down, or you wish to contest this charge, call ***-***-****. (Notice the use of the emotional-charged phrase "shake you down?" That's called fore-shadowing.)
Not having been pulled over for anything recently, every driving member of the household is a mite perplexed.
My dad calls the number and receives a rundown on the charges against one of the family members. Apparently my mom turned in front of a bus. Still no recollection of having been pulled over or charged with any form of crime. Confusion all around.
Now,given the police departments previous public relations debacle with my family (taking 11 minutes to respond to an attempted home invasion 7 years ago, taking 7 minutes to get to our house when a neighbor had a heart attack (despite the standard presense of four black and whites in the area), and sending 3 B&Ws, an unmarked, and 4 armed, vested up pigs to arrest my brother for fireworks ten days before the 4th, when resounding explosions could be heard all night long for 3 weeks prior), you can probably guess that this is about to take a bad turn. It takes a lot to awe me when it comes to government incompetence, disinterest, or downright malicious behavior slash law.
I have been suitably awed.
Seems no cop was ever involved, no traffic citation ever issued, no crime ever recorded, no one ever charged. See, the bus driver wrote down the license plate, submitted it to the police department with a complaint, and without so much as sending one of the boys in blue over to get a statement, the city proceeded to charge our family nearly $200.
Without taking a statement.
Without charging anyone with a crime.
Without informing anyone of the charges against them before levying punishment.
All on one person's say so.
Because we called, were polite, and decided to cooperate, they've generously lowered the fine for the unsubstantiated, undocumented crime by $100.
Let me see if I can lay this all out in plain language, in case there's any miscommunication leading to misunderstanding here: A bus driver can write down the license plate number of any car on the road, submit it to the police with a complaint about the driver's conduct, no investigation is ever performed, no communication is innitiated, and then based on one person's word, an unsuspecting person can be fined nearly $200.
Now, does that seem...I don't know...right? Just? The way a fair and equitable government should conduct its business?
Stay tuned for breaking developments in "I Smell Bacon:Run Ins With The Pigs Pt2!"
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Random Reflections Pt11
41. Please, for your own sake, never cough while drinking orange juice. You won’t be able to breathe for about a minute, you’ll cough violently for fifteen minutes, and your throat will taste like vomit for at least twice that long. Please, just don’t.
42. It may sound contrary to already posted Reflections, but I really don’t care if you’re overweight. Like Jefferson said about religion – “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Long as you’re happy with your life, so am I. I just get a little torqued when you blame someone or something other than yourself for being overweight. As long as we all accept responsibility for our lives, everything’s cool.
43. I can understand 15 MPH speed limits around elementary schools. You never know which screaming, insensible critter is going to follow their own inner voice and do a nose-dive into the street.Around middle and high schools however…it’s a different story. You should’ve learned that the big, fast things can hurt you. Lowering the speed limit is an insult to both our intelligences, and it’s being unfair to Mr. Darwin.
44. A group in Wisconsin, the benighted state in which I live (but far more intelligent, legislatively, than CA or most of the east coast) is pointing to Cuba’s mandatory HIV testing as the reason for their low HIV/AIDS problem, and proposing that a similar program be adopted here.
These mush-minded despots actually seem to be gaining some Congressional traction in Madison. And according to the call-in show on Wisconsin Public Radio, everyone else in the state thinks it’s a good idea.
NO! Absolutely NO! You do NOT make criminals of people based on their unwillingness to submit to medical testing. You do NOT get to do whatever you please simply because you can hoodwink a majority of the populace into accepting whatever you can justify with the excuse of public safety. You do NOT go door to door rounding people up for bloodtesting for any reason. And by god, you do NOT darken my doorstep. There’s one solution for people who demand part or all of your body, and in this case, my solution is very much like theirs’ – small pieces of metal, inserted into the skin.
45. All year long we tell kids: “Don’t take candy from strangers.” Then Halloween comes along and we tell them: “Go, take candy from strangers.” What’s up with that?
42. It may sound contrary to already posted Reflections, but I really don’t care if you’re overweight. Like Jefferson said about religion – “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Long as you’re happy with your life, so am I. I just get a little torqued when you blame someone or something other than yourself for being overweight. As long as we all accept responsibility for our lives, everything’s cool.
43. I can understand 15 MPH speed limits around elementary schools. You never know which screaming, insensible critter is going to follow their own inner voice and do a nose-dive into the street.Around middle and high schools however…it’s a different story. You should’ve learned that the big, fast things can hurt you. Lowering the speed limit is an insult to both our intelligences, and it’s being unfair to Mr. Darwin.
44. A group in Wisconsin, the benighted state in which I live (but far more intelligent, legislatively, than CA or most of the east coast) is pointing to Cuba’s mandatory HIV testing as the reason for their low HIV/AIDS problem, and proposing that a similar program be adopted here.
These mush-minded despots actually seem to be gaining some Congressional traction in Madison. And according to the call-in show on Wisconsin Public Radio, everyone else in the state thinks it’s a good idea.
NO! Absolutely NO! You do NOT make criminals of people based on their unwillingness to submit to medical testing. You do NOT get to do whatever you please simply because you can hoodwink a majority of the populace into accepting whatever you can justify with the excuse of public safety. You do NOT go door to door rounding people up for bloodtesting for any reason. And by god, you do NOT darken my doorstep. There’s one solution for people who demand part or all of your body, and in this case, my solution is very much like theirs’ – small pieces of metal, inserted into the skin.
45. All year long we tell kids: “Don’t take candy from strangers.” Then Halloween comes along and we tell them: “Go, take candy from strangers.” What’s up with that?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Riffing on school shootings
Or: Smart stuff for students
Some *expletive* walks into a one-room Amish schoolhouse, kicks the teachers and boys out, zipties the girls, and shoots 5 of them in the head before eating his own pistol.
According to his notes, he picked the Amish schoolhouse because he knew he wouldn't face any resistance from the inhabitants (apparently victimhood is Godly to them or something) and because there weren't any police in the community.
As Lawdog http://thelawdogffiles.blogspot.com said, for all the resistance they offered up, he could've walked in with a pliers or a baseball bat and the outcome would've been the same.
Fortunately, the Victim Disarmament gang has kept relatively quiet over all of these murders. The call right now is for better mental health screening at schools. Me personally, I think they're waiting to spring the Victim Disarmament on us as soon as their socialist candidates get voted into office by the Anybody-But-Bush crowd in a little less than 2 months.
As promised a few posts prior, I'm now going to speak on self-defense.
My dad's a highschool chemistry teacher at a public school, and he says the invasion drills they practice are death. Tip the flimsy desks up, cower behind them, turn the lights off, pretend no one's home...never mind the fact that any intruder will KNOW the classroom isn't empty simply because it's the middle of the day. To that end, my dad has decided to turn the "stop or I'll say stop again" drill on it's head. He makes it known to his students that he has access to the chemical closet, and in the unlikely event that there's ever an invasion, anyone coming through the door is getting a beakerful of nitric acid in the face.
THAT, ladies, gentlemen, and assorted transgender beings is taking responsibility.
To return to Lawdog for a moment, he recently had a controversial post to the effect that you and ONLY you can truly be responsible for your safety. You can't be paid off, you're always there, and with the proper mindset, you can never be truly disarmed, only incovenienced.
Principal Klang in southern Wisconsin realized that, and while unarmed, fought an armed intruder to protect himself and his charges, and sacrificed his life so that many more could live.
The Amish in Pennsylvania did not realize that (or if they did, they chose the Godly route of being shot in the head) and so 5 of them died.
The 6 girls held captive in Colorado did not realize that, and they were assaulted, and one of them was killed.
Do NOT depend on anyone else to save you. Only you are responsible for you. To abdicate authority over your life is foolhardy and a burden on everyone else.
Therefore, I propose that if you are a parent, you send your kid to school with a knife. If you are a student, I propose that you buy a knife and carry it with you.
I was going to do a post on my knife eventually, but I might as well do it here.
My fully-serated Spyderco Endura is with me all the time. If I'm alive and awake, it's clipped to the back of my belt, where only the most thorough of patdowns could find it (and even then, probably not, likely only if I was strip-searched). If I'm alive and asleep, it is less than a foot away from my hand. I carry it everywhere I do not expect there to be metal detectors. My employer would fire me if they found out - I carry it anyway. My knife is always with me - I no more consider it a tool than I consider my hand a tool. I can tell you where the discolorations on the handle came from, the mars on the blade. I have beat that knife up and it's still as sharp and reliable as the day I got it.
It is utterly reliable and dependable. I would bet my life on my knife's ability to perform, with as much hesitation as I would (and do, in case of emergency) bet it on my battle-rifle: Specifically, no hesitation at all.
It's not necessary to buy a $400 knife like a Kerambit or a Benchmade butterfly, or a Microtech Halo. It is however necessary to buy a $50-$80 knife. Any full-size knife lower in price, or sold at the mall is probably crap. It should be thin and light enough to carry all day long, and not print in a pocket, and you should be able to forget that it's there. It should have a blade at least 3 inches long, with a handle at least an inch longer than that. Serrations are IMO better than none, but it's a matter of personal preference. It should have a point on the end of it (you laugh, some knives don't have a hardly any point). It should NOT be a switchblade or butterfly knife. You'll have an easier time explaining to Officer Bacon that knife you have in your pocket is a "utility knife" if it's a rather innocent looking folder than if it's a genuine Italian stilleto with "da switch."
(Yes, if you have to, LIE about your knife. To anyone. God/Nature/Other Himself/Herself/Itself gave you the right to carry it. Everyone else's opinion on the topic is secondary, and should only matter to you based on the amount of harm they can inflict on you. Anyone who would prohibit you from defending yourself does not deserve your respect. (Look up L. Neil Smith's excellent Murder By Gun Control for his three adjective diagnosis those who would prevent self defense.))
Similar to what you carry, where you carry it is another concern, and should partially dictate what you carry: If you're a student, like me, there are lots of places to hide a knife on your person. If you're required to maintain a professional appearance (ie shirt tucked in, tie, etc), it'll be a little harder, though behind-the-belt carry like mine would be easy with a suit coat. Think of everywhere BUT the pockets first.
Of equal importance to carrying a knife for defense is knowing how to retreat. Face it, unless you're a captive and can manage to puncture his - the school shooter's (or any shooter's) - anatomy while he's distracted, your knife is of less usefulness than being able to get the heck out of Dodge BEFORE you become a captive. Look at all the exits from whatever building you're in. Try and figure out how to get out through any of them, from anywhere, without attracting attention. Now figure out how to do it in a panic, in the middle of a panic. Back routes are good, and every school has them, especially colleges. Explore. Walk around. Think about it.
Your mind is your only weapon. It is the only tool you can never be deprived of. Use it to keep yourself and others safe. It's the only thing you can depend on.
Some *expletive* walks into a one-room Amish schoolhouse, kicks the teachers and boys out, zipties the girls, and shoots 5 of them in the head before eating his own pistol.
According to his notes, he picked the Amish schoolhouse because he knew he wouldn't face any resistance from the inhabitants (apparently victimhood is Godly to them or something) and because there weren't any police in the community.
As Lawdog http://thelawdogffiles.blogspot.com said, for all the resistance they offered up, he could've walked in with a pliers or a baseball bat and the outcome would've been the same.
Fortunately, the Victim Disarmament gang has kept relatively quiet over all of these murders. The call right now is for better mental health screening at schools. Me personally, I think they're waiting to spring the Victim Disarmament on us as soon as their socialist candidates get voted into office by the Anybody-But-Bush crowd in a little less than 2 months.
As promised a few posts prior, I'm now going to speak on self-defense.
My dad's a highschool chemistry teacher at a public school, and he says the invasion drills they practice are death. Tip the flimsy desks up, cower behind them, turn the lights off, pretend no one's home...never mind the fact that any intruder will KNOW the classroom isn't empty simply because it's the middle of the day. To that end, my dad has decided to turn the "stop or I'll say stop again" drill on it's head. He makes it known to his students that he has access to the chemical closet, and in the unlikely event that there's ever an invasion, anyone coming through the door is getting a beakerful of nitric acid in the face.
THAT, ladies, gentlemen, and assorted transgender beings is taking responsibility.
To return to Lawdog for a moment, he recently had a controversial post to the effect that you and ONLY you can truly be responsible for your safety. You can't be paid off, you're always there, and with the proper mindset, you can never be truly disarmed, only incovenienced.
Principal Klang in southern Wisconsin realized that, and while unarmed, fought an armed intruder to protect himself and his charges, and sacrificed his life so that many more could live.
The Amish in Pennsylvania did not realize that (or if they did, they chose the Godly route of being shot in the head) and so 5 of them died.
The 6 girls held captive in Colorado did not realize that, and they were assaulted, and one of them was killed.
Do NOT depend on anyone else to save you. Only you are responsible for you. To abdicate authority over your life is foolhardy and a burden on everyone else.
Therefore, I propose that if you are a parent, you send your kid to school with a knife. If you are a student, I propose that you buy a knife and carry it with you.
I was going to do a post on my knife eventually, but I might as well do it here.
My fully-serated Spyderco Endura is with me all the time. If I'm alive and awake, it's clipped to the back of my belt, where only the most thorough of patdowns could find it (and even then, probably not, likely only if I was strip-searched). If I'm alive and asleep, it is less than a foot away from my hand. I carry it everywhere I do not expect there to be metal detectors. My employer would fire me if they found out - I carry it anyway. My knife is always with me - I no more consider it a tool than I consider my hand a tool. I can tell you where the discolorations on the handle came from, the mars on the blade. I have beat that knife up and it's still as sharp and reliable as the day I got it.
It is utterly reliable and dependable. I would bet my life on my knife's ability to perform, with as much hesitation as I would (and do, in case of emergency) bet it on my battle-rifle: Specifically, no hesitation at all.
It's not necessary to buy a $400 knife like a Kerambit or a Benchmade butterfly, or a Microtech Halo. It is however necessary to buy a $50-$80 knife. Any full-size knife lower in price, or sold at the mall is probably crap. It should be thin and light enough to carry all day long, and not print in a pocket, and you should be able to forget that it's there. It should have a blade at least 3 inches long, with a handle at least an inch longer than that. Serrations are IMO better than none, but it's a matter of personal preference. It should have a point on the end of it (you laugh, some knives don't have a hardly any point). It should NOT be a switchblade or butterfly knife. You'll have an easier time explaining to Officer Bacon that knife you have in your pocket is a "utility knife" if it's a rather innocent looking folder than if it's a genuine Italian stilleto with "da switch."
(Yes, if you have to, LIE about your knife. To anyone. God/Nature/Other Himself/Herself/Itself gave you the right to carry it. Everyone else's opinion on the topic is secondary, and should only matter to you based on the amount of harm they can inflict on you. Anyone who would prohibit you from defending yourself does not deserve your respect. (Look up L. Neil Smith's excellent Murder By Gun Control for his three adjective diagnosis those who would prevent self defense.))
Similar to what you carry, where you carry it is another concern, and should partially dictate what you carry: If you're a student, like me, there are lots of places to hide a knife on your person. If you're required to maintain a professional appearance (ie shirt tucked in, tie, etc), it'll be a little harder, though behind-the-belt carry like mine would be easy with a suit coat. Think of everywhere BUT the pockets first.
Of equal importance to carrying a knife for defense is knowing how to retreat. Face it, unless you're a captive and can manage to puncture his - the school shooter's (or any shooter's) - anatomy while he's distracted, your knife is of less usefulness than being able to get the heck out of Dodge BEFORE you become a captive. Look at all the exits from whatever building you're in. Try and figure out how to get out through any of them, from anywhere, without attracting attention. Now figure out how to do it in a panic, in the middle of a panic. Back routes are good, and every school has them, especially colleges. Explore. Walk around. Think about it.
Your mind is your only weapon. It is the only tool you can never be deprived of. Use it to keep yourself and others safe. It's the only thing you can depend on.
Saga Of The BAG Day Gun Pt2
To recap, my BAG Day gun thinks its a bolt action. FTEx, FTEj. It thinks it's a bolt-action. The gun-smith at Gander Mtn says it works perfectly well, I just had it set wrong. I set it right and wrong, and it still thinks it's a boltie.
So. I take it back today, with MY ammunition. He fires 4 rds of mine vs 4 rds Federal, and says that my Wolf is sticking in the chamber - I need to buy $20/20rd boxes of Federal to fix the problem. Never mind the fact that the gas tube is dang near falling off, a fact I've informed him of 3 times, once before I brought the rifle in, once when I took it in, and once when I picked it up. Nope, this cheap, junker gun, designed to be used by an illiterate peasant who probably peed in the action to keep it from freezing has developed a highly sophisticated and expensive palate now that it's on American soil.
I'm currently trying to contact a guy online about a replacement gas valve. Mine is too short, hence the gas tube wiggle, hence the escaping gas, hence the short-stroking, hence the bolt-action mentality.
Oh yeah and: My dad left his 1911 with the gun-smith. Apparently it came out of the factory with a burr on the ramp/in the barrel that is aggravated every time the gun cycles, to the point when it's FTFing nearly every round 2 years after manufacture. This gun was expensive enough that it should be point-and-click every time.
So. I take it back today, with MY ammunition. He fires 4 rds of mine vs 4 rds Federal, and says that my Wolf is sticking in the chamber - I need to buy $20/20rd boxes of Federal to fix the problem. Never mind the fact that the gas tube is dang near falling off, a fact I've informed him of 3 times, once before I brought the rifle in, once when I took it in, and once when I picked it up. Nope, this cheap, junker gun, designed to be used by an illiterate peasant who probably peed in the action to keep it from freezing has developed a highly sophisticated and expensive palate now that it's on American soil.
I'm currently trying to contact a guy online about a replacement gas valve. Mine is too short, hence the gas tube wiggle, hence the escaping gas, hence the short-stroking, hence the bolt-action mentality.
Oh yeah and: My dad left his 1911 with the gun-smith. Apparently it came out of the factory with a burr on the ramp/in the barrel that is aggravated every time the gun cycles, to the point when it's FTFing nearly every round 2 years after manufacture. This gun was expensive enough that it should be point-and-click every time.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Range Day
With my brother. More on that presently.
When last we saw my BAG day gun, it was being worked over by the gunsmiths at Gander Mtn. because it thought it was a bolt-action (and not a very good one at that) instead of a semi-automatic. Failure to extract or eject. According to everyone I asked, gas was escaping through a wiggly gas tube, and the lack of gas was short-stroking the bolt.
So, I give the gunsmith my gun, explain that yes, this gun can be set to fire cartridges or grenades (w/ blanks) and it's set on cartridge setting and not still not ejecting. (If you know guns, you probably have some idea of the gun of which I am speaking).
Gander Mtn says turnaround is 2 weeks. A week and a half goes by. I stop in on Monday, ask what's up. Apparently their military-surplus guy is on vacation, he'll be back next Tuesday. Next Tuesday comes and goes. I call on Thursday, say I thought I was supposed to get a call on Tuesday. Their response: "No one told you that."
We manage to get things squared away. They'll definitely give a call next Wednesday. Wednesday comes and goes. Thursday I call. "It's the next one up, I just cleared my bench for it. We'll call on Saturday.
Saturday comes and nobody calls. I've been eyeing a Sig 220, so I stop in to fondle it and ask about my BAG day gun. It's finished, you can pick it up on Sunday.
I pick it up on Sunday. $15 and 12rds of maintence later, the smith says I set it on grenade launcher, it's perfectly fine. I tell him one of his employees did that, I watched him fiddle with it when I handed over my rifle. No no, your mistake. Fine.
I take it out today, and dang, if the thing doesn't STILL think it's a bolt-action. On both regular AND grenade launcher setting.
We'll be going back. And I want my $15 back or a free fix.
EDIT:I suppose I should mention, the gun fires fine. It's dead-on at 25 yards, about 5 inches low center at 50, though I think I'm messing up with the aim because there was no discernable difference between rest shooting and standing shooting.
Oh yeah and the shooting shed we fire from got struck by lightning. I was outside about 5 feet away, standing next to a metal light pole at the time. I am SO lucky to be alive right now.
When last we saw my BAG day gun, it was being worked over by the gunsmiths at Gander Mtn. because it thought it was a bolt-action (and not a very good one at that) instead of a semi-automatic. Failure to extract or eject. According to everyone I asked, gas was escaping through a wiggly gas tube, and the lack of gas was short-stroking the bolt.
So, I give the gunsmith my gun, explain that yes, this gun can be set to fire cartridges or grenades (w/ blanks) and it's set on cartridge setting and not still not ejecting. (If you know guns, you probably have some idea of the gun of which I am speaking).
Gander Mtn says turnaround is 2 weeks. A week and a half goes by. I stop in on Monday, ask what's up. Apparently their military-surplus guy is on vacation, he'll be back next Tuesday. Next Tuesday comes and goes. I call on Thursday, say I thought I was supposed to get a call on Tuesday. Their response: "No one told you that."
We manage to get things squared away. They'll definitely give a call next Wednesday. Wednesday comes and goes. Thursday I call. "It's the next one up, I just cleared my bench for it. We'll call on Saturday.
Saturday comes and nobody calls. I've been eyeing a Sig 220, so I stop in to fondle it and ask about my BAG day gun. It's finished, you can pick it up on Sunday.
I pick it up on Sunday. $15 and 12rds of maintence later, the smith says I set it on grenade launcher, it's perfectly fine. I tell him one of his employees did that, I watched him fiddle with it when I handed over my rifle. No no, your mistake. Fine.
I take it out today, and dang, if the thing doesn't STILL think it's a bolt-action. On both regular AND grenade launcher setting.
We'll be going back. And I want my $15 back or a free fix.
EDIT:I suppose I should mention, the gun fires fine. It's dead-on at 25 yards, about 5 inches low center at 50, though I think I'm messing up with the aim because there was no discernable difference between rest shooting and standing shooting.
Oh yeah and the shooting shed we fire from got struck by lightning. I was outside about 5 feet away, standing next to a metal light pole at the time. I am SO lucky to be alive right now.
Random Reflections Pt10
36. Argh. I hate to keep going on religion like this, but there’s something I must comment on in the news today.The pope recently did a speech, like he usually does, the theme this time being that violence was incompatible with God, and quoted an old Byzantine guy’s comments that at that time, Islam had been spread by the sword.
Whereupon radical Muslims across the world call Islam a religion of peace and further call for the killing of the pope, the bombing of the Vatican, and the killing of even more Christians. Whereupon Muslim leaders explained that Muslims take their religion very seriously and we have to be sensitive to that.
Is it any wonder that Muslims think there’s a war on against their religion? Like it or not, the vast majority of people who commit terrorist acts are Muslims, and they’re using religious excuses to call for our deaths.
Not that all Muslims do that – but the vast majority of people who do that are Muslims. There’s a fine line there. It’s just as reasonable to say that the majority of people who commit crimes are black, but the majority of black people aren’t criminals.
The Muslim community has been sadly lacking in the spinal area when it comes to the more crazed members of their faith. We hear lots of “Islam is a religion of peace” but very little “Those who pervert our faith for an excuse to kill people are insane dogs.”
What you don’t punish, you subsidize. What you subsidize, you encourage.
Again, it’s no wonder they think we hate their religion – like it or not, their religion only receives airtime whenever a believer picks up a sword or a gun or a block of C4, kills some people who were just minding their own business, and then issues a statement that everyone who’s not Muslim should die. That’s the “brand” we’re seeing advertised right now. You don’t like it – rebrand your product.
37. I’d just like to state, for the record, that I hate Bush. He signed the McCain-Feingold bill into law, which prevents me speaking my mind about a candidate in the paper or on tv or on my own website. I am currently a criminal for doing just that. He banned the importation of FAL and AK47 kits, and has not rolled back ANY of the +25,000 laws illegally restricting my right to keep and carry anything I want for my own protection against thugs of the common or jackbooted variety. He signed into law the Patriot Act, which grievously violates the 4th Amendment among others. He has had American citizens held in prison without cause, without notification of the charges against him, without the notification of their families. And those are just the examples I can come up with at the moment that can affect ME. He’s invaded a country for bad reasons, without a declaration of war. He’s had foreigners tortured by other foreigners for suspected links to terrorism.
There’s one punishment for treason on a scale that grand, and folks, it ain’t a slap on the wrist.
However: I am perfectly willing to acknowledge the good things he has done. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner prosecuted those who would attack America throughout the world, as he should. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner attempted to secure the American nation and economy from the wave of invaders (their reasons for invasion mean not a thing) pouring over our southern border.
He’s done a few good things, for which he deserves credit. The majority of the country would just rather focus on the bad things he’s done, of which there are many. Yes, he’s done bad things – we know already! It’s not being a jingo-istic, right-wing chickenhawk to admit the man has done some good things.
This is what’s known as Bush-Derangement syndrome online: Previously rational human beings driven to a fit of frothing anger any time George Bush Jr.’s name is mentioned. He is not the font of all that is evil in the world. His successes deserve proportional airtime with his failures.
I’m absolutely sick of hearing EVERY-BLOODY-WHERE on tv, radio, internet, and carrier pidgeon how Bush personally thanked the 9/11 hijackers and that Michael Moore snuck into his secret mountaintop headquarters to film his meetings with the Zionist cabal of Haliburton and that he cut a few dollars from the massively inflated and ineffectual education budget so minorities won’t get a good education and that he wants to conquer the world with his moon based Laser Of Death. GROW UP!
38. People don’t understand something about war. I have to thank U. S. Grant, evil though he may be, for giving me this understanding. What they don’t understand is this – it’s hell. I mean that, and not in the trite, sound-byte way. War is the sum of all evils in the world. It is the highest sacrament we can pay to the devil.
You see, war isn’t about right and wrong – it’s about winning or dying. It’s about killing the enemy until they can’t fight anymore. And to so completely devastate the enemy that they can’t hurt you, you have to go all out – you have to attack and attack and attack without ANY regard for any life, enemy or civilian. You have to fight a war like an animal, or you will lose, because all the other guy has to do is outlast you (and if you’re not willing to commit to a war, it won’t take long). We can clear Baghdad of jihadists, all we need to do is firebomb it like we did the large cities in Japan. But we’re not willing to do that.
And if you’re not willing to go whole hog, to destroy and kill everything, then you’re doing nothing but encouraging your enemies. They will grow stronger despite your minor victories. It is absolutely fatal to engage in war without the will to do anything to win it.This is why war must be avoided if at all possible. Because it is every horrible thing human beings can do to each others, the sum of all evil. Because to win a war, you have to make good people suffer, you have drive good people to do things they should never have to do, you have to put good people in situations where it is kill others or die themselves, or allow others to die so that others may live.
War IS hell.
39. No matter the good it does, I have come to the realization that the Christian religion will never be able to live down the Crusades. Criticize the violence some might say is inherent to another’s religion (and we all know which religion that is) and point out that most places as practice it are roughly 1000 years behind in the development of civilization – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Stand up against the invasion of Iraq for religious reasons – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Good God, we know about that already, get over it!
The crusaders and their kin have been dead a thousand years, their actions in no way taint what we do today.
40. Wow, I didn’t think I’d get to 40. Just think how big a milestone 50 will be.
There are multiple levels of programming in a computer. There’s the stuff you see and interact with. There’s the operating system that runs behind it. And behind that, there’s the BIOS and all the hard-coded code that keeps all the chips and parts in synch with each other and running without tripping over their feet.
You can change the visible stuff with relative ease. The operating system…a little harder, but it can be done. But the stuff you REALLY don’t want to screw with is the code behind that. Mess with the BIOS and hard-coded instructions at your own risk – like as not you’ll crash the computer, and it’ll be “lights on, nobody home.”
People are just the same. You can force a change in their visible behavior with relative ease. For a little more effort, you can change what they believe. But deep down, we’re still all animals. We’re just animals who can choose. And when you screw with the animal instincts and impulses and behavior, you’re begging for trouble.
You can attempt to change the programming that runs behind our conciousness – but you will affect absolutely no change whatsoever and will do unimaginable worlds of destruction.
Whereupon radical Muslims across the world call Islam a religion of peace and further call for the killing of the pope, the bombing of the Vatican, and the killing of even more Christians. Whereupon Muslim leaders explained that Muslims take their religion very seriously and we have to be sensitive to that.
Is it any wonder that Muslims think there’s a war on against their religion? Like it or not, the vast majority of people who commit terrorist acts are Muslims, and they’re using religious excuses to call for our deaths.
Not that all Muslims do that – but the vast majority of people who do that are Muslims. There’s a fine line there. It’s just as reasonable to say that the majority of people who commit crimes are black, but the majority of black people aren’t criminals.
The Muslim community has been sadly lacking in the spinal area when it comes to the more crazed members of their faith. We hear lots of “Islam is a religion of peace” but very little “Those who pervert our faith for an excuse to kill people are insane dogs.”
What you don’t punish, you subsidize. What you subsidize, you encourage.
Again, it’s no wonder they think we hate their religion – like it or not, their religion only receives airtime whenever a believer picks up a sword or a gun or a block of C4, kills some people who were just minding their own business, and then issues a statement that everyone who’s not Muslim should die. That’s the “brand” we’re seeing advertised right now. You don’t like it – rebrand your product.
37. I’d just like to state, for the record, that I hate Bush. He signed the McCain-Feingold bill into law, which prevents me speaking my mind about a candidate in the paper or on tv or on my own website. I am currently a criminal for doing just that. He banned the importation of FAL and AK47 kits, and has not rolled back ANY of the +25,000 laws illegally restricting my right to keep and carry anything I want for my own protection against thugs of the common or jackbooted variety. He signed into law the Patriot Act, which grievously violates the 4th Amendment among others. He has had American citizens held in prison without cause, without notification of the charges against him, without the notification of their families. And those are just the examples I can come up with at the moment that can affect ME. He’s invaded a country for bad reasons, without a declaration of war. He’s had foreigners tortured by other foreigners for suspected links to terrorism.
There’s one punishment for treason on a scale that grand, and folks, it ain’t a slap on the wrist.
However: I am perfectly willing to acknowledge the good things he has done. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner prosecuted those who would attack America throughout the world, as he should. He has, in a faltering and somewhat wrongheaded manner attempted to secure the American nation and economy from the wave of invaders (their reasons for invasion mean not a thing) pouring over our southern border.
He’s done a few good things, for which he deserves credit. The majority of the country would just rather focus on the bad things he’s done, of which there are many. Yes, he’s done bad things – we know already! It’s not being a jingo-istic, right-wing chickenhawk to admit the man has done some good things.
This is what’s known as Bush-Derangement syndrome online: Previously rational human beings driven to a fit of frothing anger any time George Bush Jr.’s name is mentioned. He is not the font of all that is evil in the world. His successes deserve proportional airtime with his failures.
I’m absolutely sick of hearing EVERY-BLOODY-WHERE on tv, radio, internet, and carrier pidgeon how Bush personally thanked the 9/11 hijackers and that Michael Moore snuck into his secret mountaintop headquarters to film his meetings with the Zionist cabal of Haliburton and that he cut a few dollars from the massively inflated and ineffectual education budget so minorities won’t get a good education and that he wants to conquer the world with his moon based Laser Of Death. GROW UP!
38. People don’t understand something about war. I have to thank U. S. Grant, evil though he may be, for giving me this understanding. What they don’t understand is this – it’s hell. I mean that, and not in the trite, sound-byte way. War is the sum of all evils in the world. It is the highest sacrament we can pay to the devil.
You see, war isn’t about right and wrong – it’s about winning or dying. It’s about killing the enemy until they can’t fight anymore. And to so completely devastate the enemy that they can’t hurt you, you have to go all out – you have to attack and attack and attack without ANY regard for any life, enemy or civilian. You have to fight a war like an animal, or you will lose, because all the other guy has to do is outlast you (and if you’re not willing to commit to a war, it won’t take long). We can clear Baghdad of jihadists, all we need to do is firebomb it like we did the large cities in Japan. But we’re not willing to do that.
And if you’re not willing to go whole hog, to destroy and kill everything, then you’re doing nothing but encouraging your enemies. They will grow stronger despite your minor victories. It is absolutely fatal to engage in war without the will to do anything to win it.This is why war must be avoided if at all possible. Because it is every horrible thing human beings can do to each others, the sum of all evil. Because to win a war, you have to make good people suffer, you have drive good people to do things they should never have to do, you have to put good people in situations where it is kill others or die themselves, or allow others to die so that others may live.
War IS hell.
39. No matter the good it does, I have come to the realization that the Christian religion will never be able to live down the Crusades. Criticize the violence some might say is inherent to another’s religion (and we all know which religion that is) and point out that most places as practice it are roughly 1000 years behind in the development of civilization – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Stand up against the invasion of Iraq for religious reasons – you hear about the Crusades and you’re hypocrites. Good God, we know about that already, get over it!
The crusaders and their kin have been dead a thousand years, their actions in no way taint what we do today.
40. Wow, I didn’t think I’d get to 40. Just think how big a milestone 50 will be.
There are multiple levels of programming in a computer. There’s the stuff you see and interact with. There’s the operating system that runs behind it. And behind that, there’s the BIOS and all the hard-coded code that keeps all the chips and parts in synch with each other and running without tripping over their feet.
You can change the visible stuff with relative ease. The operating system…a little harder, but it can be done. But the stuff you REALLY don’t want to screw with is the code behind that. Mess with the BIOS and hard-coded instructions at your own risk – like as not you’ll crash the computer, and it’ll be “lights on, nobody home.”
People are just the same. You can force a change in their visible behavior with relative ease. For a little more effort, you can change what they believe. But deep down, we’re still all animals. We’re just animals who can choose. And when you screw with the animal instincts and impulses and behavior, you’re begging for trouble.
You can attempt to change the programming that runs behind our conciousness – but you will affect absolutely no change whatsoever and will do unimaginable worlds of destruction.
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