Monday, December 21, 2009

Lady Liberty, R.I.P.

Seems the Senate Majority Leader, with 59 other accomplices, marched Lady Liberty out of the Senate chamber in the middle of the night, put a gun behind her ear, and pulled the trigger.

As it stands now, the ruination of our great land is at hand. This Congress and President have presided over the unprecedented take over of close to 70% of our economy. Between the takeover of two automobile manufacturers, countless banks and financial institutions, student loans, not to mention the looming cap and tax bill, our children will inherit a country so steeped in debt their great-grandchildren will still be paying the bills.

Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Saddam Hussein all are dancing a jig right now. What took them almost a century to fail to accomplish, this administration has accomplished in less than a year.

You know, my grandfather, rest his soul, once told me that this country was headed for another civil war. I fear his prediction may come true. For its entire history, armed revolution has always been a possibility in this country, but I fear it may now be certainty. There have always been three boxes we as Americans have been able to rely on. The soapbox, the ballot box, and the cartridge box. It's getting to the point where the first two are non-responsive, and the only option left is the latter.

I fear that day will come sooner rather than later, and I weep for what our once great country has become. So many people whose voices are as loud as any heavy metal concert are ignored by those who need to hear them most. Whose opposition to the direction this country has taken are not only ignored, but are routinely discounted as 'nut jobs, wackos, and extremists'. The pot is boiling, and if things don't change and soon, that pot will boil over.

Important Update on The Crappy Day

Bail has been set at $25k for our getaway driver who had a crappy day.

I couldn't imagine, that's gotta be one hell of an expensive pair of drawers.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Talk About a Crappy Day...

Saw this on my hometown rag's website this morning and couldn't pass it up.

There are soooo many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin. I guess, when you're caught in the middle of ripping someone off, first you say it, then you do it. But then again, it was a crappy day for all involved.

I wonder, when she was first pulled over, if he didn't ask "I smell something," to which she replied, "You ought to, you've done scared the crap outta me."

Getting off the phone with my folks, I guess her picture was all over the front page of the paper tonight. No escaping this now....

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Fun With Idiots

Over at the Observer-Reporter of Washington, PA, their crack editorial staff is all worked up over the "availability" of 'assault weapons'. Putting aside the horrendous murder of the cops int he piece, tragedies all in their own right, I want to focus on the crux of the argument.

The piece bemoans the lapse of the Violent Crime Act of 1994 in 2004. What this piece doesn't tell you is that this law did nothing to stem the flow of alleged 'assault weapons'. They were, and are, still available for sale in most areas of the country. What changed in 2004 was that what was banned in '94 was now allowed; namely bayonet lugs, threaded muzzles, and folding/telescoping stocks.

When the Department of Justice and National Institutes of Justice studied the effects of the ban, they found that while these weapons uses in crime were a virtual statistical anomaly before the ban, the resultant decrease in crimes committed with them during the ban wasn't even calculable.

Another part of the ban that went away was the ban on standard capacity magazines, capping them at 10 rds for pistols and rifles, and 5 rounds for shotguns. Now, depending on where you're at, magazine capacities are limited to 5 rds in rifles, like here in South Dakota for instance. While across the state line in Wyoming, there is no such restriction. One can hunt with a 30 rd mag or a 75 rd drum if they're so inclined. (I must add that I have hunted in WY with a 30 rd mag, unfortunately, I wasn't able to bag anything, much to the delight of the anti-gun/hunting forces out there.) In those states that have magazine restrictions, they do make 5 rd hunting mags specifically for that purpose, so you can go out and hunt with your SKS, Saiga, AK, FAL, or heavy caliber AR without getting into trouble.

Sometimes, you can't make this stuff up.

Update: Authorized Journalist Who Gets It

A few days ago, I linked to an editorial from Bill McKewen, a reporter for the Fresno Bee who had an awakening.

We have an update to the story. Seems our intrepid reporter plans to follow through with his plans to not only buy a gun, but get his concealed carry permit from the good sheriff to boot.

His neighbors are all in a tizzy about it, telling him to move back to his old neighborhood so he can be safer. Of course, as part of his awakening, he's discovered that ancient American trademark individualism and is stying put. Good on him for not being cowed by the hand wringing of his 'neighbors'.

It will be interesting for follow ups, as he has also been invited to shoot "assault rifles". Maybe by the time his awakening is complete, he'll know about the lies surrounding semi-automatic rifles that look scary.

Weird News Day Yesterday

First up is an article from the Rapid City Urinal about an accused kiddie pornographer convicted and sentenced for, get this, buying pot from some under aged kids and getting the book thrown at him for providing mary ju auna to minors. Can't make this stuff up.



Next is an article from the national desk about some gang bangers who made a critical mistake in their victim selection process. Not catastrophic, as nobody was ventilated, but you've got to wonder about a criminal who targets someone to car jack and then finds out it's an off duty Pittsburgh cop.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

OMG! Gun Laws Loosened! OMG

That's the gist of this reprint from Fox News. The piece does a fairly good job of highlighting some of the gains around the country at the state level, as well as some at the national level.

But when we get to Kristen Rand of the VPC, we see someone coming down with a case of the vapors.

"They shoot each other over parking spaces, at football games, and at family events", Rand said.

The AP goes even further, explaining that their recent 'studies' on CCP holders committing crimes is growing concern.

A Violence Policy Center project has mined news reports to find that more than 100 people have been killed by holders of handgun carry permits since 2007, including nine law enforcement officers. The project originally intended to list all crimes committed by permit holders, but there were too many to keep track of, Rand said.


I love that part about using only 100 incidents because there were "too many to keep track of". I'd like to see all of these 'incidents' she's referring to. Bear in mind that many of the incidents they probably discarded were law-biding permit holders defending themselves against attack. Much like Mrs. Donna Jackson of Oklahoma. (Special tip o the hat to Kevin Baker for the link!) Or that permit holders commit crimes ate a much lower rate than the general public. But that never stopped the VPC from getting themselves worked up into a lather before.

My favorites of the piece are about Tennessee's new laws on guns in parks and in restaurants that serve alcohol. (See Uncle's round up of the circus, here.) I mean, really? They've got all these people in TN to interview on these topics and they come up with two seniors, aged 69 and 71 respectively, to comment on these two laws? Not knocking the senior citizen crowd here, but couldn't the AP have gotten someone a little younger to puff and crow about these two laws? I'm sure there's no shortage of lefties in Memphis or Knoxville, or Murfreesboro, or somewhere who have something to say about it.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Times Just Can't Get Over Itself

In keeping with the predominant theme for today, we continue on with our 'deny due process' theme by bringing you an op-ed from the New York Times.

They too can't believe that because your name may appear on a super secret list that you have no way of knowing you're on and have no way of getting it off, you should be denied a basic civil right.

While they are correct that you can be barred from boarding a plane if your name appears on this 'list', you have no constitutional right to fly on a privately owned aircraft. Your right to move freely hasn't been abridged, although it may have been cramped a little. No, they use this argument to push the idea that because the government thinks you can't be trusted to walk down a jetway you can't be trusted to own a firearm.

43,533,000 NICS checks were run during the time frame mentioned (2004-2008) in the linked piece. Of those 43.5 million checks, 676,000 (or 1.5%) were denied for a myriad of reasons. The Times claims 963 people who appeared on the watch list attempted to purchase a firearm (98 of whom were declined, or 10%) and were not blocked. Now, if I crunch the numbers here, those 963 people represent a statistically insignificant amount of overall background checks conducted between 2004 and 2008.

So according to the NYT, a statistical anomaly is reason enough to screw the law-biding out of a civil right without due process. But suggest that they should have to register their keyboard, and LOOK OUT!

An 'Authorized Journalist' To Be Commended

You know, there are quite a few 'authorized journalists' out there who don't get it, and quite frankly never will. They will editorialize all day long about the evils of guns and the people who own them.

But Bill McKewen seems to have seen the light. In Kalifornia of all places. It sounds like he lives in an area of the state that still respects the rights of the law biding to do what's right. The County Sheriff seems to understand what's at stake, when they say "a society is safer when responsible people bear arms." She not only understands, but actively supports it. Carrying permit applications in her car? Wow! Is this really Kalifornia?

It's nice to know that there's some sane people in Kalifornia, and maybe there's hope yet for that state. We can talk about the 'assault weapons' thing later, but knowing that someone who used to carry the water for the Brady Bunch et al has come around is too good to pass up.

I Loves Me Some Gun Control...NOT!

So the Washington Post is all atwitter about Mayor Bloomberg's latest 'poll' that says that it's the NRA's leadership that is holding up sensible gun laws. You know, the kind of laws that always seem to put out the law-biding but never seem to have any kind of effect on those that break the law. As Say Uncle would say, gun control is something you do instead of something.

Funny, I never got a call.

To answer the question, no. I do not support giving guns to terrorists. However, I also don't believe that because a name appears on a mythical watch list that everybody knows about but nobody's seen should disqualify anyone either. We have a tradition in this country of a thing called 'Due Process'. I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there has to be something done in a court of law before your rights can be revoked. What this evokes is the lists from 1930's Germany where you were placed on a list and you didn't know it until you got a knock on the door from the neighborhood Gestapo agent with his good buddies in black uniforms with neat little skull and crossbones on the cap and twin lightning bolts on the collar.

Never mind the 'gunshow loophole'. That's been covered ad infinitum across the gun blogosphere. But the ability to deny a civil right simply because your name appears on a secret list, that's downright scary. I don't care how many 'gun owners' they find to trick into answered the question their way.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Somebody Fogot to Tell Him His Side Lost

Seems the Bangor Daily News employs an intellectual power house by the name of Ken Horn. Mr. Horn's big complaint with the second amendment is that it doesn't apply to the little people, but only those who fall into that golden category of "Only One" (h/t to David Codrea for his ever expanding 'database').

His piece is a vertibable cornucopia of anti-gun memes. National Guard is the militia? Check. Less guns equals less crime? Check. Restricted access to certain scary looking rifles? Check. Law-biding gun owners responsible for arming criminals? Check.

I won't go through the piece, the fine Mainers who frequent the BDN already beat me to it. Pay particular attention to commenter 'PECRockland'. He does a pretty decent job of hamstringing the "intellectual" Ken Horn all by himself.

Sometimes Their Pet Laws Bite Them In The A...

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has its knickers all in a knot over access to Brady/NICS information. They postulate that had there been something in place, the terrorist at Ft Hood wouldn't have been able to do what it was he did.

So what do they do? They reprint an op-ed from the Washington Post that was published almost a week ago (28 Nov, WP, vs 3 Dec, AJC). Oh, they were cute about it and changed the title and all, but hey, why write your own when you can dust off somebody else stuff and pass it off as brand-spanking new.

Sebastian over at SIH did a pretty thorough job of destroying that argument here when it first appeared on the Wa-Po.

The one thing I would add is that none of what they want (or currently have) would have stopped this, short of locking the nut case up when he first hit radar screens. (Any guesses as to how that would have gone over with the ACLU crowd?) Having a purchase flagged and denied because of somebodies suspicion smacks of jealously. I think the AJC wants a quasi-intelligentsia apparatus reminiscent of the Stasi or the KGB and are pissed because they can't have it...yet.