An Anniversary Of Sorts

Not only do I get to wish everybody reading this blog (both of you) a very Merry Christmas, it's also my 100th post.

Seems like a lifetime ago since I sat down in a library somewhere, logged into a generic computer using a fake name, and decided to try my hand at the blogging thing. In reality, it's only been about a year and a quarter.

So here's to another year, another 100 posts, and most of all, peace and freedom for mankind.

Merry Christmas!

Tales From Retail Pt5

5.It’s Christmas Eve, and the store has been off-and-on busy all day. I got in at about 8:45am, I’m scheduled to be getting out at 6:00pm, and I’m wearily wondering why on earth we can’t just close the store so all these people can go spend some time with their families.

It’s about 4pm, and a biker gang walks in. Or should I say, they look like a biker gang. 5 BIG guys wearing jeans, denim and leather letter jackets, their hair is a mess and they’ve all got huge scraggly beards. I think “Ok, biker gang,” and my trouble radar perks up.

Yes, I know, bikers are usually nice people. I will say that I believe stereotypes usually exist for a reason, and it doesn’t ever hurt to be cautious.

Following these scruffy bikers are about 5 of the richest-looking women I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m not one spend lots of time hanging out in the women’s clothing department, but if any one of their coats cost less than $1000, I’d be surprised. Jewels, expensive hairdos, expensive shoes, the works…didn’t look like they’d ever shopped at Walmart.

So my night’s just gotten a little weirder, and I figure “What the heck, these guys aren’t going to do anything funny with this crowd of women in tow,” so go up to the first guy, who looks like a grizzly bear trying to walk among mankind for a day, offer my hand and say “Welcome to *redacted*. I’m *redacted*, anything I can help you find?”

He says no, and I move on to the next biker. The rest have scattered throughout the store, and when he says no he’s not looking for anything, I let him pass and turn to watch them. All the men’s letter jackets are labeled with a rose and a guitar, and say “Trans-Siberian Orchestra World Tour 2005-2006.”

This is not unusual. TSO was playing the arena two days later, and lots of people are wearing their merchandise. So, I decide to shmooze a little. I find the first guy and say “Wow, a Trans-Siberian fan! Gonna be at their concert on the 26th?”

His reply, “I should hope so, otherwise they won’t have a drummer.”

It is to my credit that I had the presence of mind not to kneel down and start praying in his direction. Looking at the band photos, I’m pretty sure I shook hands with either John O. Reilly or Jeff Plate.

They didn’t buy anything, but did ask where we kept the TSO CDs. I VERY politely informed them that we had sold out of everything except Beethoven’s Last Night. Then they left, and I felt like little ol’ me again.

So, ‘bout an hour later, two women enter the store. Late teens, early twenties, college age. One’s dressed like Han Solo, jeans, white button-up shirt, black vest. They’re not looking for anything, but I do note that they both have heavy European accents and it’s obvious English is not their first language, nor likely second or third.

After about 5 minutes, the Han-Solo-dressalike calls me over and requests a Beatles DVD. Now, it’s about 8 hours till Christmas and the store has been thoroughly cleaned out of everything except marijuana posters, CDs in the Finnish language, and novelty lip gloss on the Jessica Simpson label.

But, I found a DVD by A Beatle. A George Harrison DVD. I recall it was orange, and evoked psychodelic sensations in the eyes.

I bring it over to her, and notice she’s doing something with her hands. What the heck, over, she’s undressing…

She had her shirt unbuttoned down to her navel by the time I gathered up what senses hadn’t deserted me, handed her the CD, and had beat feet to the farthest corner of the store.

Oh yeah, and the registers choked at store closing, so I had to call the store manager at home (this is on Christmas Eve) at 7 at night to figure out how to find a “lost transaction.” I finally got home around 8pm.

Tales From Retail Pt4

4.The first time I saw the man I call Rev, I thought he was literally retarded.

He was about 4 foot nothing, and equally sized through the x and z axis. He had a face and head like Danny Devito, except Danny Devito doesn’t have eyes that bulge out like a victim of strangulation. He was pushing a shopping cart loaded with CDs, and when I asked him if I could help him, he talked in a high, squeaky voice like Alvin The Chipmunk, speaking really fast and with a major lisp.

He was looking for parody Christmas CDs, and I kindly offered to order them for him. He accepted my offer, and after ringing up his transaction with nary a word of complaint, he rather rudely asks me if I’ve exempted him from the sales tax.

I didn’t know your average Joe was exempt, file the data away for future use under Taxes: Avoidance Of, and go get a manager higher than myself to help me figure out what to do when someone’s asking for something I can’t legally give them.
The manager OK’s it, and I process everything as tax exempt. He pays with a check. Labeled “First Church Of Cain.”

Now, I’m the first in line to say nobody should get special breaks on anything, but I find it even funnier when I have to give a Satanist priest tax exempt status on Christmas comedy CDs.

To be continued…later…

Shi'ite Christians

Or:Very, very religious persons who don't know when to leave the h*ll enough alone.

I'm a fairly religious person. I have a strict code of ethics that by and large intersects with those laid down by Christ. I'm not a big one for praying (it's started to seem kind of hypocritical to say anything other than thanks, given that I know God ain't gonna protect me and mine from anything bad, why ask?) I wish I went to church more, but work doesn't allow. So, in no way, shape, or form is the following an attack on organized religion or any denomination or practice of Christianity.

I'm getting into the car after exitting the post office, and it being Wisconsin, and WI weather being what it is, I'm wearing my leather jacket, and the warmest shirt under it that I own - my Punisher sweatshirt. Which has the standard Punisher skull emblazoned spraypaint style on the front.

I've got one leg in the car when an overweight, late-middle-aged to early elderly gent steps down off the sidewalk in front of the car, approaches my door, and crooks a finger at me.This is somewhat odd. He looks like one of my old teachers, but not quite. Thinking that maybe my fly's open or I dropped a $20, and he's looking to Pay It Forward today, I get back out.

"Excuse me," says the man.

"Can I help you?" is my standard reply.

"There's one man in all of history who came to bring peace and everlasting life, only one, and his name is Jesus Christ. Whether you choose to accept him is up to you.

"I'm too busy trying to figure out what he's going on about to process his next words correctly, but I'm thinking it was something along the lines of "You must choose, but choose wisely." Sort of like from Indiana Jones, but not nearly so inspiring when it doesn't come from a 900 year old Crusader.

Getting defensive, I say "I am a Christian, what are you talking about?"

Serenely, he points at my shirt and replies "I see that symbol, and I am reminded of that man who came to bring..."

I cut him off. "This symbol's from a movie."

He raises a hand. "I mean no offense. I don't know if it is or not. But be that as it may..." He drones on for another moment about my choice and the man who came to bring everlasting life, while backing up and moving away.

"Thanks. Have a nice day." I get back into the car.

Still torques me off. This is the only problem I have with Christmas - not the (wonderful) marketing, not the commercialization - all the religious fruits come out of the cake. Unless I'm wearing something so...vile...that I'm breaking public decency laws, why do you give a damn what I wear, and who are you to try and tell me that my shirt (inferred) is a symbol of Satanism. It must be real ... nice to be that secure in your own righteousness that you can deign to lecture people you've never met before on how their clothing threatens their salvation.Adrian

Defining The Second Amendment?

Apparently, the gun-free high-crime utopia of Washington D.C. (they took a perfectly good swamp and turned it into the seat of government) has a lawsuit on its hands regarding the ownership of handguns. Seems they told 6 of their embattled citizens that they can't keep guns for protection, only for National Guard use, and said citizens are suing.

There's the very real possibility that this could go before the Supreme Court. The SCOTUS has refused to take gun cases before (one theory being that either way it goes, it could spark nation-wide strife of the ballistic variety), and the only way this could well for us is they could rule it's an individual right.

Alternatively, they could rule that it's only applicable to the National Guard (despite the fact that the US militia is comprised of every adult male, and has been defined as such since the beginning of the nation).

Then they could ignore it completely, and the case gets decided by a lower court, which will rule against us. The precedent there would not be good.

This sucks.

Meanwhile, 17 senators have written legislation that would bind the US with UN gun trade policies. The list of traitors reads like a who's who of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, there's one surprise on there - the one Democrat I thought actually had their head on straight, Russ Feingold.

There are a few spots of good news: My Sig magazines (the Novaks I ordered) came, and work perfectly. And Dunham's is having a sale on rifle ammunition. I've got about $50 cash burning a hole in my back pocket, and I think Dunham's is as good a place as any to unload it.

Tales From Retail Pt3

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

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?

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.

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.

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*

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.

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.

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.

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.