Dang it all. I was trying for a 50/50 split. Must work harder.

time is NOT on our side

People talk about Claire time a lot. A few years ago I would have filed them in the "nuts" folder. Today I find that I reside right next to them comfortably.

Take a few minutes and read this article by Kathryn A. Graham. This quoted section says so much.

So my back is against the wall now, and I sure as hell know I don't need to tell anyone what happens when you corner a desperate animal. No matter how diligently we try to tell ourselves otherwise, human beings are nothing more than unusually intelligent animals. Over the past few years, I have made a personal point of devoting what time I could to training myself in certain martial skills, hoping against hope I would never, ever have to use them. I no longer have the luxury of clinging to that hope, and whether you know it yet or not, you don't have that luxury either. Nor do I need to initiate force. Apart from the obvious fact that my government has already done the initiating, and in spades, I am utterly certain that the conflict will come directly to me—and fairly soon.

What is coming now will eventually come to all of us, and whether you can admit it to yourself yet or not, the only thing you can still do is prepare. There is a period of waiting still left to us—whether short or long, none of us can know—before it gets here. If you must sell your life, don't do it cheaply. Do all that you can to learn and prepare, and do not move too soon.
..............
I wonder if my ancestors knew how unlikely it was that they would win their struggle against their King George? More than two hundred years later, I certainly know in my deepest bones how utterly minuscule my chances are of actually surviving the coming struggle with our modern King George. Oddly enough, that very final realization did bring me a certain amount of peace last night, and I actually slept fairly well, all things considered. Humans are extremely adaptable animals.

Last night I took inventory of myself and found myself wanting. I'm not ready.

I'm not talking guns and ammo. I mean am I ready to resist the shit the government will throw our way? The nation has sat back and eaten upon the crap sandwish served us in the form of the patriot act, TSA, and now the NSA buggings.

Interesting movie

The anti-gun short movie from Amesty international that shows a shop-at-home show selling EBR's is here for your viewing pleasure.

My view is this will not change one mind but it does get them some nice press.
[Gun Law News]

QUOTE

I think most regulations start out this way

"First you have a problem. Then you set up an organizational solution to the problem. From then on, the solution becomes the problem."

After everything is regulated the next quote comes into effect.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. —THOMAS PAINE

What?

I don't know what to say about this strange turn of events.

Geek Question

I have gotten several hits from a website that has a strange referel.

http://127.0.0.1/~sf/

A basic whois search turns up this.

Address lookup
canonical name es150.MANAGED.CLN.
aliases
addresses 127.0.0.1


Domain Whois record
Queried with "es150.MANAGED.CLN"...

Query error: NoWhoisServerForDomain

Network Whois record
Queried whois.arin.net with "127.0.0.1"...

OrgName: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
OrgID: IANA
Address: 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
City: Marina del Rey
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 90292-6695
Country: US

I normally would care less but the trace route reads this.

hop rtt rtt rtt ip address fully qualified domain name
1 0 0 0 127.0.0.1 localhost

Why am I getting just a localhost trace and what does that mean? Is someone linking to my router or what?

Yawn

I just read an article about a "victory" against the US government by the ACLU and their clients as it relates to the TSA no fly list.

Two federal agencies agreed yesterday to pay the American Civil Liberties Union $200,000 to settle a lawsuit brought to extract secret information about the no-fly list, which bars suspected terrorists from boarding commercial airlines.

At first I was like most other people who read this and thought it was a win. I mean 200 Thousand is a nice lump of money.

Right?

Then I decided to put it in a different light.

First you take the total US spending.

expenditures: $2.466 trillion, including capital expenditures of NA (2005 est.)

Then you find what the percentage of $2.466 Trillion is $200,000.

After asking my chemical engineer brothers what was wrong with my calculator he informed me the return was correct.

.000008% of the budget is $200,000

Now if the standard income for a 4 member family in Tennessee was $55,605 in the same fiscal year that means the equivalent amount for that family to pay would be.

$.44

The cost of a small candybar. A can of soda costs more.

Maybe it is just me but when I hear of the ACLU crowing about their victory I simply feel sad. The first is the truth that my taxes are paying for the governments crimes. The second is that until several more zero's are added they simply do not care. They can pay out candybar amounts all year and laugh while they do it.

If you sue me and I lose a whole candybar I call it a win for my side, not a loss.

note. math is not my strong point so if the numbers are wrong sorry.

This is interesting.

Maybe there is hope in the KELO mess. I hope this spreads to other businesses.

When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered. — DOROTHY THOMPSON

Theft by any other name is still theft.

Theft

They might be surprised at how much one man got for his tract of land - $1 for 105 acres.
Pasadena land owner Glenn Seureau, II, thinks he was robbed of his by the Port of Houston Authority. He plans to continue an uphill battle with the Port until he is paid fair market value for the land.
One civil court judge, on the other hand, seems to think $1 is compensation enough for Seureau's land, located just north of Seabrook.
Seureau fought for nearly three years to protect his property, in his family for more than 150 years, from the Port's power of eminent domain, only to lose his case in May of last year in the court of Harris County Civil Court Judge Lynn Bradshaw-Hull.

I feel Justin that it is far past Claire time. the problem is most do not see it as such.

From 20rd Mag

Going Tactical - redneck style

Sunshine patriotism

I state that because of two headlines that have come to my attention in the last few days. When addressed together they seem to draw a rather strange picture of a company.

The company is Google and the stories are about their willing nature to help one government, and yet resist another.

The story from today. Blazened across the headlines of Drudge, reports this.

COMMUNIST GOOGLE: SEARCH GIANT AGREES
TO CENSOR RESULTS IN CHINA

As history has shown other companies are more then willing to help China build a firewall of authoritarian rule on it's internet.

So why Google? Just a few moments of searching pulled up these two quotes from the Google owners and founders.

There is also something very 1960s California about what Mr Page and Mr Brin say is their philosophy.

As Mr Page recently explained to ABC News: "We have a mantra: 'Don't be evil', which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone.

"So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing."[link]

These ironic lines says even more about what they desired to achieve.

"When Sergey and I founded Google, we hoped, but did not expect, it would reach its current size and influence," the letter said. "We also believed that searching and organizing the world's information was an unusually important task that should be carried out by a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good. We believe a well-functioning society should have abundant, free and unbiased access to high quality information. Google therefore has a responsibility to the world." [link]

So what happened to this idealism in Google? Their activities in China seem to be far from "don't do evil" as possible, short of running the labor camps themselves.

Now please contrast the first article mentioned to what they are doing here.

Google Won't Hand Over Files

This involves the US government fishing for information.

Google is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the internet's leading search engine — a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance.
..........
Google — whose motto when it went public in 2004 was "do no evil" — contends that submitting to the subpoena would represent a betrayal to its users, even if all personal information is stripped from the search terms sought by the government.

"Google's acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept," company attorney Ashok Ramani wrote in a letter included in the government's filing.

I think the line "betrayal of its users" is the hot topic here.

The question for me is why are they resisting our government and bending over with a smile for the Chinese government?

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. A famous set of lines from our past wraps this whole issue up in a nice package and even puts a bow on it.

These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Google has become a modern sunshine patriot.

The founders like to live a life as a liberal freedom loving lifestyle with nice catch phrases and mottos. They talk of freedom and privacy. The problem is how much of it do they believe and is it only in effect in the US?

Admit it people. Here in the US it is easy to be a protestor for the most part. Resisting the government here is in vogue and the thing to do. Just look at the sign waiving people whenever a politician gives a talk. Here in the "sunshine" of the US they "do no evil" and are patriots to the ideas of freedom. It's easy to be a freedom loving patriot here.

The problem is what they do in the darkness of China. When the cold breeze of authoritarianism blows harsh then you find out who is truly a supporter of freedom and a "do no evil" mentality.

It's easy for the rich to be patriots here. The true test of their ideals occur when they are there in China.

Google failed.

Maybe it should be asked if companies are supposed to be patriotic. You invest in a company to make money, not political statements overseas. You have companies praising the fact that they sell fair trade coffee. While all nice and kind the truth is harsher. If they do not make a profit they go out of business. You lose money. So how far is a company supposed to be a social activist and less of a money maker.

It would be nice if all companies could make pot loads of money, and be freedom loving activists. The truth is it is improbable.

Did Google fail freedom and become a sunshine patriot or did it do what a company is supposed to do? Make a profit?

Thanks to everyone who made this possible

Thanks Google
Thanks Yahoo
Thanks Microsoft
Thanks Cisco, Nortel and Sun

Without your efforts to make money we could not have the control of our people as we do.

Signed
The Chinese Authorities

A Praetorian Guard is born?

Seems the government has slipped something into the USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 that is interesting.

A provision in the "Patriot Act" creates a new federal police force with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.[link]

I wonder how this new police force will end uplooking like?

Interesting

I'm not sure if Bellaciao is blowing wind up my skirt, or his information is the real deal, but it is interesting.

In one post about the coming collapse of the US economy he dropped this small bit of information.

Point #3 Bank Of America and Compass Bank managers (probably all other U.S. banks too) have been instructing their employees in the last few weeks on how to respond to customer demands in the event of a collapse of the U.S. economy - specifically telling the employees that only agents from the Department Of Homeland Security will have authority to decide what belongings customers may have from their safe deposit boxes - and that precious metals and other valuables will not be released to U.S. citizens. The bank employees have been strictly prohibited from revealing the banks’ new "guidelines" to anyone. (however, employees have been talking to friends and family)

The next time you visit your bank, ask them about it - then ask yourself, why is this information being kept secret from customers and the public - what’s really going on?

He later goes into more detail on this interesting bit on knowledge.

A family member from Irvine, CA (who’s a branch manager at Bank of America) told us two weeks ago that her bank held a "workshop" where the last two days were dedicated to discussing their bank’s new security measures. During these last two days, the workshop included members from the Homeland Security Office who instructed them on how to field calls from customers and what they are to tell them in the event of a national disaster. She said they were told how only agents from Homeland Security (during such an event) would be in charge of opening safe deposit boxes and determining what items would be given to bank customers.

At this point they were told that no weapons, cash, gold, or silver will be allowed to leave the bank - only various paperwork will be given to its owners. After discussing the matter with them at length, she and the other employees were then told not to discuss the subject with anyone.

The family member has since given her notice to quit the bank.

A lot of people store precious metals at the bank. A bit set back in case things look bad.

Do any of my few readers know someone who works in the banking industry? I would love to verify this "news"

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws.

AYN RAND

Everything will be tagged and regulated by the government.

I just read this at Survival blog and it is unsettling

The National Animal Identification System will force farmers, hobbyists, and even pet owners to register each animal they own, and tag that animal with an identifying tag, band, or implanted electronic chip, for the purpose of tracking that animal through the food chain whether or not it even enters the food chain.
When fully implemented in January of 2009, the NAIS will require two types of mandatory registration: registration of the premises, and registration of the animal.
Anyone who owns even one horse, cow, pig, sheep, chicken, pigeon, or any other livestock animal will be required to register their home, including the owner's name and other identifying information, along with the address of your farm or home, to be keyed to global positioning system (GPS) coordinates in a federal database under a 7-digit "premises ID number."
Additionally, each animal will have to be identified with a 15-digit ID number, also to be kept in the federal database. Even if you are raising your own food, your animal will be required to have an ID number if it is to be sent to a slaughterhouse. Animals that do not have an ID number cannot be bought or sold, or used to obtain stud service.
Any animal that leaves the owner's premises for any reason will be required to have an ID number, and be tagged. This includes animals that are shown, as well as horses that may be ridden off of the owner's property.

I figured to see what the feds say.

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a national program intended to identify animals and track them as they come into contact with, or commingle with, animals other than herdmates from their premises of origin.

The system is being developed for all animals that will benefit from rapid tracebacks in the event of a disease concern. Currently, working groups comprised of industry and government representatives are developing plans for cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses, poultry, bison, deer, elk, llamas, and alpacas.

Already, many of these species can be identified through some sort of identification system, but these systems are not consistent across the country. Tracing an animal’s movements can therefore be a time–consuming endeavor during a disease investigation, especially if the animal has moved across State lines.
..........
USDA is developing the standards for collecting and reporting information, but industry will determine which type of identification method works best for each species. These methods could include radio frequency identification tags, retinal scans, DNA, or others. As long as the necessary data are sent to USDA’s information repositories in a standardized form, it will be accepted.

"industry will determine which type of identitfication method works best" reads to me as "big industries will tell small farmers and anyone without a political action committee what to do.. so if you want to raise chickens for yourself you may have to jump to the rules set by Tyson.

If USDA decides to make all or parts of the NAIS mandatory, APHIS will follow the normal rulemaking process. The public will have the opportunity to comment upon any proposed regulations.

lets see how that rule making process works in real life. Most people are against the patriot act and it seems to get voted for every damn time. So what the people want is the furthest thing on a gov-clone's mind.

When fully operational, the system will be capable of tracing a sick animal or group of animals back to the herd or premises that is the most likely source of infection.

Since most sicknesses are human spread I await their attempts to tag us...to fight the sickness of course.

[The American Colonies were] all democratic governments, where the power is in the hands of the people and where there is not the least difficulty or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the country. [European countries should not] be ignorant of the strength and the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in defence of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and contests with them. — George Mason, "Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company" in The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792, ed Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970).

Justice is not swift in Tennessee

"To protect and serve up an ass kicking" seems the motto for the Tennessee highway patrol.

More trouble for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Another state trooper is currently on paid administrative leave and in some serious trouble, after the state released a videotape of a vulgar encounter.
35-year veteran, Russell Cope is seen in the videotape approaching two cars he pulled over in Giles County, back in 2000.

Yes that date is correct. 6 years for something to be done.

But it is longer then that when you take in these facts.

Cope has more than 900 pages of personnel file, and there have been countless disciplinary actions taken against him starting as far back as 1985

I'm not sure how big a normal personnel file is, but 900 seems rather large and the history of disciplinary problems makes me wonder who the Highway patrol protects here in Tn.

illegal bids
fake punishments
fixed tickets
purchasing scams
favors in promotions
criminal histories

This is my state police. God help us all here.

If this does not describe the infringement on our rights by nanny's then nothing does

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. - JUSTICE LOUIS BRANDEIS (1928)

Eric Arthur Blair

With the overwelming multitude of laws today it is "reasonably" easy to think and know that someone knows of a crime. We are all suspect.

Indiana Residents Deemed Suspicious Could Be Monitored
Jan 18, 2006, 10:42 AM CST


Public officials want to create an "intelligence fusion center" to collect data on suspicious Indiana residents.

Senator Thomas Wyss of Fort Wayne is sponsoring Senate Bill 247. It would allow a center to collect intelligence information on an individual if the person "reasonably" appears to have knowledge of terrorist or criminal activities. The center would be in the state government complex.

Under the governor's direction, law enforcement officers across Indiana would work together and share information. State Homeland Security Director Eric Dietz said the center would be funded through federal grants. Under the bill, the Department of Correction would be able to read inmates' mail.

Reminds me of a small story.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. He moved over to the window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagreness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended.

Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The blackmoustachio'd face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own. Down at streetlevel another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word INGSOC. In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows. The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered.

Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.

Do the schools of today have children read this book, or is "billy have two dads" the reading material of our future?

hamming it up?

Just after say I'm going to be posting less for a while I find an article that says so much about the system we suffer under, yet the powers that be enjoy.

State troopers who fix tickets as favors — even for someone who gives them gifts — are not breaking the law, the Knox County prosecutor has determined for Gov. Phil Bredesen.

District Attorney General Randy Nichols informed Bredesen by letter yesterday that the “atmosphere” in which meat company employees in Knoxville may have given gifts to troopers, and then asked for favors from those troopers, would not have led to criminal charges.

Bredesen asked for a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation review of the case of Trooper Jerry Dean Watson after The Tennessean raised questions in late November. Investigative files suggested a wider pattern of troopers accepting ham from the company, possibly in trade for favors such as fixing tickets.

“This may well have created an atmosphere where Lay Packing Company employees felt comfortable in asking for ‘favors’; however, that would not be in and of itself a criminal offense,” Nichols wrote to Bredesen, in transmitting the TBI’s findings.

So when in Tennessee drive with a spare tire, a jack, and a canned ham.

The official rules and regulations of the Highway Patrol, called “general orders,” say troopers “shall not” accept gifts that prevent them from providing “full, unbiased public service.” The orders also say troopers should carry out their duties fairly and impartially.

Rules are for the "little people". That's you and me by the way.

[Bob Krumm]

There will be very light posting on No Quarters for the next week or so. The oddities of life comes before the enjoyment of blogging.

I may throw out a random quote or such that catches my eyes, but that's about it.

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — they are the pillars of society. — HENRIK IBSEN (1877)

Free speech aint!

The Supreme court refused to hear the case about a free speech zone.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from an anti-war protester who was convicted of violating the boundaries of a "restricted area" established during President Bush's visit to South Carolina in 2002.

Brett Bursey had urged the justices to hear the appeal of a $500 fine he was assessed for entering a restricted area at near airport hangar in West Columbia on Oct. 24, 2002. In July 2005, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Bursey's conviction in U.S. v. Bursey.
....
A Secret Service agent told Bursey he could protest in a designated demonstration area a half-mile away. When he refused to leave the restricted area, he was arrested.

Another brick in the wall.

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered, my life is my own!" - The Prisoner

The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. — JOHN F. KENNEDY

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — C. S. LEWIS

Happy Birthday Ben

Last night I became a criminal

The act itself was at many levels and I did not think of the legal aspect of it until afterwards. When I did I had a good laugh and told my wife of her fall into a life of crime and sin.

It started a few weeks ago. This sordid tale of crime and sex.

The kind courtesies of life is what defines a relationship between a husband and wife. Those things you do for each other that you could not get paid enough to do to perform it on another. It started when I noticed my wife's eye brows were getting bushy again. Less of my noticing and more of her muttering "I need to get my brows rewaxed"

When she told me how much I asked her if she was insane. "You pay someone that much to inflict pain on you? Damn women! I'll do it for free" and I did. With a pair of her tweezers I reshape her brows and save a nice lump of money. She says it is a lot easier for me to do it then some other lady who normally make her look like she has Betty Davis eye brows. A win win situation.

Then it happened.

Last night she yelled from the other room "Do my eye brows tonight and I'll be nice to you". Oh yeah! NOOKIE!

Well I plucked and then we fell into an arm twisting sweaty pile of naked flesh with the night sounds broken by the sound of moans and groans enjoyed each others company.

Later that night I started to laugh when I asked myself a question. Was I an accomplice to a crime? After all the story of Mike Fisher seems I may be.

Mike Fisher said this week that he is "satisfied" with the results he received from his illegal manicure in Concord Monday, and said he plans no further action.

Fisher was given a 30-day suspended sentence Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the criminal misdemeanor of providing manicure services without a license.

Fisher was arrested Monday when he manicured a friend's nails without a license in front of the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics offices in Concord.

So I decided to look up the laws in a bit of a humorous view to mocking the law.


The Tennessee board of cosmotology states this as a description of cosmotologist.

A cosmetologist performs, for compensation, arranging, dressing, curling, waving, cleansing, cutting, singeing, bleaching, coloring, or similar work on the hair. A cosmetologist may care for or service wigs or hair pieces; manicure; massage, clean, stimulate, manipulate, exercise, beautify or perform similar work upon the hands, arms, face, neck, or feet with hands or by use of cosmetic preparations, tonics, lotions or creams; place or apply artificial eyelashes, give facials, apply mak(sic) up, give skin care, or remove superfluous hair by tweezing, depilatories, or waxing.

Sounds like what I did.

It got a little worse because I know I do not come close to these requirements

Educational Requirements

Completion of 1,500 hours in practice and theory at a school of cosmetology.

Examination Requirements

Written and practical examination.

Renewal Requirements

Renewal notices mailed approximately one month prior to renewal date. Licensee required to submit renewal notice with required fee, if applicable, due by expiration date on license.

Application and Fees

Contact Licensing Board for information on application, registration, examination, renewal, or fees.

Sounds like I may have broken the law.

But what does the law say?

62-4-108. License required to practice or teach.
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no person shall practice, teach, or attempt to practice or teach, cosmetology, manicuring or aesthetics in this state without a valid license issued by the board pursuant to this chapter.

All laws have lists of people exempt.

62-4-109. Persons and activities exempt.
(4) Any person rendering cosmetology services in such person's own home without charge to the recipient;

Now does the barter my wife offered in exchange for the service also translates as a "charge to the recipient"? now remember that the description from their main page said this

A cosmetologist performs, for compensation

I was so nicely compensated that I now must be a criminal?

I have stated many times on this board that the state has achieved a level of legal nirvana. Everything is illegal to some extent.

Could this crime against the Tennessee board of cosmotology goes farther? Is her act a crime of the flesh? Should I file this as income for federal tax reasons? What level of sociel security should I report for withholding?

The state, at all level, should leave my dick, my wife's do-dads, and her eye brows alone and in general get the hell out of our lives.

When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence. — GARY LLOYD

What does a Gunner look like?

Frank Morgan is little known to most people, yet known by many as many.

Strange line but it makes sense. Frank Morgan is little known but has become known for several roles he played. The Wizard is one. Specifically in that one movie he played the roles of Prof. Marvel, Emerald City doorman, The cabbie, The Wizard's guard and The Wizard of Oz. A man little known, yet widely known. Yes the Wizard of Oz. The man behind the curtain.

What this means is that I am stepping out from behind the curtain. Smyrna city bloggers had a get together at the local coffee shop and I, and my wife, attended. In attendance was Chip who took several good pictures, including mine.

Thus I know have an image to go with the name.

I'm Gunner

Thomas Paine would be ashamed of us

This month is the 230th anniversary of Thomas Paine's publishing of Common sense. I was going to post on it but this article at thomasPaine.com did well and said better anything then I could have said.

The thing that made me address this anniversary is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes the Govornator himself. The news has been full of the tale of his wreck while driving illegally, and the resulting lack of criminal action.

The 230th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense"the brilliant little pamphlet whose arguments literally turned the world upside down" invites reflection both on the state of the nation to which it gave birth and on the state of the left to which it gave rise and whose many generations carried on the fight to realize the democratic vision rendered in its pages. Recalling Paine's work should serve, as well, to remind us of not only what we stand in opposition to, but also what we stand in opposition for. And ultimately we might ask, "What would Tom Paine do?"

Born in 1737, the son of an English Quaker artisan and an Anglican mother, Paine had a career before coming to Philadelphia in 1774 that included corsetmaking, privateering, tax collecting, preaching, teaching, labor campaigning and shopkeeping, punctuated by bouts of poverty, the loss of two wives, business bankruptcy and dismissal from government service (twice!). And yet as much as he came to despise kingly rule, aristocratic privilege and religious establishments for their oppression, exploitation and corruption, Paine did not pick up his pen to assail Crown, Constitution and Empire out of anger alone.

California is the same state that will prosecute you for DUI for sitting in a car that is not running. The same state that will punish it's people for not driving drunk will not punish their own aristocracy governor for a crime he admits to openly.

."The city attorney will not file any charges," said Officer Grace Brady, a police spokeswoman. Even though police concluded he was unlicensed, the department "cannot go back and cite the governor because we did not witness the driving."

The low-speed accident turned into a political embarrassment for the governor, who acknowledged he had driven a motorcycle for years without the proper license. He told reporters he "never thought about it."

Thomas Paine would be ashamed we are not rising up in arms. Now before you say that this is a small issue don't. Just don't.

A well trained criminal

Sometimes the criminals help the police.

D.C. police last night charged a man with felony murder in the mugging and slaying of retired New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum.
Michael Hamlin, 23, of Southeast, inadvertently turned himself in at the 7th District station at about 6 p.m. when he visited the precinct to find out why his face was being shown on TV news, police said.
"He came into the station, gave his name and said, 'Why is my face on the news tonight?'?" said Detective Tony Pace, the lead detective in the case. "He was arrested, we brought him to the Violent Crimes Division, and he confessed."

In jail will he get a temporary Darwin award?

Can our form of government, our system of justice, survive if one can be denied a freedom because he might abuse it? — HARLON CARTER

Small changes

For the last week or so I was putting Technorati tags on my posts. For several days, after I figured out how to use them, I also added Ice Rocket tags to my posts. I was going to see how much extra traffic tagging would send my way. Looking at my referrel logs I estimate about 10 extra for the whole last week.

Rather disappointed to say the least. The time it took to put the tags and then change the links with "tag" words simply is not worth it.

Thus tags are dead on this blog.

Europe already tried the idea of Ghettos

When a "problem" arrises it seems Europe, or at least England, harkens back to an old idea. Ghettos.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, introducing a key plank of his third and final term in office, has started a $140 million action plan dubbed "Respect" to attack anti-social problems ranging from street hooligans to "neighbors from hell" who could be thrown out of their homes.
.........
The program he announced yesterday envisions evicting out-of-control families from their homes, even if privately owned, for up to three months, and rehousing them in a network of residential centers, or "sin bins," to teach them how to behave.

Ghettos in history started as an idea to protect society. What it did was turn society into a villan.

The character of ghettos has varied through times. In some cases, the ghetto was a Jewish quarter with a relatively affluent population (for instance the Jewish ghetto in Venice). In other cases, ghettos have connoted impoverishment.

Since Jews could not acquire land outside the ghetto, during periods of population growth, ghettos had narrow streets and tall, crowded houses. Residents had their own justice system. Around the ghetto stood walls that during pogroms were closed from the inside during Easter Week and from the outside during Christmas or Pesach. Often ghetto residents had to have a pass to go outside of the bounds of the ghetto.

those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it

Beware 4 year old terrorists.

The stupidity keeps growing.

Obvious to most

That is the need to have life saving medicine with you. This also involves people with life threatening allergies.

The problem is that the government(isn't it always) made the children leave the LIFE SAVING medicine in the front office. Sadly a law was needed to get the schools to allow children to carry the medicine to save their own lives.

A life saving law is now in place for students in the state of Florida.

January first, the Kelsey Ryan Act named after a 9-year-old Central Florida girl who is severely allergic to peanuts went into effect.

The law affects elementary, middle, and high school students who are at-risk for life-threatening allergic reactions.

Now, they're allowed to carry and self-administer with an epinephrine auto-injector referred to as an Epipen while they're in school.

A law was needed to get the government to do the obvious.

Such violent hate filled people these gun nuts are

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." — The Dalai Lama, (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

Go and give this a read

A slightly off look at the Bush years and why our future looks just like a failed system from the past.

It is often overlooked that George Orwell’s Animal Farm predicted not only the horrors of communism but also the end of the Cold War. At the end of the fable, the farmer, who symbolizes the capitalist West, returns to the farm and plays cards with the pigs, who symbolize communism. The shivering creatures outside, symbolizing ordinary people, “looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

We normally think of the end of the Cold War as having marked the unambiguous victory of capitalism over communism. But has Orwell’s prediction proved right, and has there instead been a convergence of the two? We hear much about how former communist states are Westernizing, but has this process been bought with the price of our own subjection to what used to be communist ideals?

Hmmmm!

Another terrorist watch list victim

A Saint Louis real estate agent is on a terrorist watch list. He is slightly bothered.

I'm a terrorist! Well, not really, but the government thinks that I may be. That's the only reason I can come up with for why they have me on a "terrorist watch list."

I suspected something wasn't right soon after 9/11 when the airlines started singling me out for special searches every time I flew. I've now been searched, patted down and had my shoes examined virtually every single time that I have flown.

I guess the worst thing of this whole damnb big brother world we live in is the fact that he has no way to get things fixed.

At the rate people seem to be being added to the watch list, and with no real way to get them off the list, how long will it take before we're all on the list? Is that the purpose here?

The lists keep growing and growing. One day we all will be suspects.

Big Brother is here and what happened? What of all those patriots who claimed they would never live in a nation of national ID's, watch lists, and gun banning?

Then I should ask myself what I've done.

Violence in childrens literature?

When Pa was at home the gun always lay across those two wooden hooks above the door. ... The gun was always loaded, and always above the door so that Pa could get it quickly and easily, any time he needed a gun. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Such violent times.

The mild west

This story is worth reading. Written by the man who wrote the concealed carry law for Texas he looks back after 10 years of an armed society. Guess what he found

When the Texas Concealed Handgun Law took effect in 1996, pundits and naysayers predicted anarchy. Any minute, there surely would be mass violence as armed Texas citizens began roving the streets, settling arguments with gunfire. Certainly, several proclaimed, within a year there would be blood in the streets as Texas returned to the days of the Wild West.
Ten years later the facts paint a different picture. Texas under the Concealed Handgun Law isn't the Wild West, but the Mild West. No recurrent shootouts at four-way stops, no blood in the streets.

Quite the contrary, Texans are safer than before

Even opponents of the bill now look at it differently.

John Holmes, former Harris County district attorney, wrote to me several years after the passage of the law:

"As you know, I was very outspoken in my opposition to the passage of the Concealed Handgun Act. I did not feel that such legislation was in the public interest and presented a clear and present danger to law abiding citizens by placing more handguns on our streets," Holmes wrote. "Boy was I wrong. Our experience in Harris County, and indeed state-wide, has proven my initial fears absolutely groundless."

Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, shared this view:

"I lobbied against the law in 1993 and 1995 because I thought it would lead to wholesale armed conflict. That hasn't happened," White told the Dallas Morning News. "All the horror stories I thought would come to pass didn't happen. No bogeyman. I think it's worked out well, and that says good things about the citizens who have permits. I'm a convert."

The article hits only one sour note for me. He falls back into the political rights mistakes so many politicians do .

I knew that when law-abiding Texans' constitutional right to keep and bear arms was restored with the passage of SB 60, they would exercise good judgment and behave responsibly.

The constitution gives me no rights. It was supposed to protect my rights from the federals. I wish the politicians would use the correct term "constitutionally protected rights".

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Technorati Tags / Concealed+carry / rights
Ice Rocket Tags / Concealed+carry / rights

"WRECK OF THE HESPERUS"

It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintery sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.

The Skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake an old Sailor,
Had sailed the Spanish Main,
"I pray thee, put into yonder port,
for I fear a hurricane.

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!"
The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.

"O father! I hear the church bells ring,
Oh, say, what may it be?"
"Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!" --
And he steered for the open sea.

"O father! I hear the sound of guns;
Oh, say, what may it be?"
Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!"

"O father! I see a gleaming light.
Oh say, what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
On the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
On the billows fall and rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Thinking of breaking the law.

I was showering a few days ago and noticed something. A small stream of water coming from the point of the shower handle where it meets the hose. I instantly noticed a small crack in the plastic. Nothing major but a sign that a new one will be needed soon.

My normal reaction would to be to inform the misses so she could get it. She normally spends more time at Wal-Mart then at home.(hope she does not read this)

My plans have changed due to this interesting article. I have always said there are to damn many regulations. I just read of another one and I may want to do something illegal.

The Department of Energy may soon be paying a visit to a certain shower-head manufacturer in Arizona. The company is Zoe Industries Manufacturing. It runs Showerbuddy.com, a popular site that sells amazing equipment for bathrooms.
............
The Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 mandates that "all faucet fixtures manufactured in the United States restrict maximum water flow at or below 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) at 80 pounds per square inch (psi) of water pressure or 2.2 gpm at 60 psi."

Or as the Department of Energy itself declares to all consumers and manufacturers: "Federal regulations mandate that new showerhead flow rates can't exceed more than 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) at a water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch (psi)."

As with all regulations, the restriction on how much water can pour over at once while standing in a shower is ultimately enforced at the point of a gun.
...........
And what happens to shower offenders? One can see federal S.W.A.T. Teams screeching up to your house, black-clad men pouring out, securing the perimeter, and shouting through a bull horn: "Drop the soap and come out of the shower with your hands up!"

Wow! The last time I was handcuffed in the shower my wife and I were playing bad errrr?..... Changing back to subject.

The article does give this interesting bit of information.

Many people now hack their showers or customize them, if you prefer. You can take your shower head down, pull the washer out with a screwdriver, and remove the offending intrusion that is restricting water flow. It can be a tiny second washer or it can be a hard plastic piece. Just pop it out and replace the washer. Sometimes it is necessary to trim it out using a pen knife.

I'm in the mood to be bad.

Just another damn regulation with no real results and one that will never be repealed.

Technorati Tags / Shower Head / regulations / Criminal Act
Ice Rocket Tags / Shower head / regulations / Criminal Act

This story left me with a knot in my gut

Damned government. Damned damned government.

An object lesson

People talk about why we should and should not be allowed EBR's(Evil Black Rifles). I read an article that gives such a simple reason why that only the most fanatic gun-grabbers will not understand the reason.

Fearing a new conflict, many Bosnians are doggedly holding on to weapons left over from the country's 1992-1995 war, despite efforts by foreign and local authorities to seize them.

"Yes, I have a Kalashnikov and it's illegal, but every time they take one of them, I find another one," said Bosnian Serb Pajo, who has already had three of the assault rifles confiscated on different occasions.

"In this region having a weapon means having security, because this is a kind of place where you always have to fear other people," said sociologist Ivan Sijakovic, explaining why Bosnians want to hang on to their weapons despite 10 years of internationally monitored peace in the former Yugoslav republic.

"People's attachment to their guns here comes from the belief that if they rid themselves of their weapons, they will be attacked again and will not be able to defend themselves," he added.

Bosnia became a hell hole of pain and suffering. A place that gun-grabbers should be able to use as an example of where the people hate guns. The problem is that the object lesson learned by the populous is that unarmed people die. To many of them know what it is to be unarmed. Most of them learned that lesson right before they died.

The article gives what is described as an old communist quote.

"Live as if we will have peace for the next 100 years, but be ready as if tomorrow we will have to fight a war."

I have read that in America there are more machine guns in the hands of civilians then the military. In America there are many times more assault rifles in the hands of civilians then the military.

I find that to my liking.

Technorati tags / Bosnia / Gun Rights
Ice Rocket tags / Bosnia / Gun_Rights

Did bloggers just take a big hit today?

A bill just passed and in it is some interesting words according to this article.
Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.
...............
This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.
...............
Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

On a good days blogs annoy. Where does that leave bloggers who post without disclosing my identity? The RTB has had it's own bit of drama about blogging under a fake name recently so this could get interesting.

The article quotes from the law.

A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

I annoy people and I am proud of that fact. I am a criminal. Good!

Technorati Tags / Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act / Blogging / regulations

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. —Dwight D. Eisenhower

Alito

A lot of "gunners" out there are giving Alito a semi-warm welcome to the court. Looking into his background they find his views of gun rights partially aligned with them.

That's all nice and all if gun rights is the only right.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S SECRET authorization of wiretapping of US citizens, revealed earlier this month, was shocking enough to derail renewal of the USA Patriot Act, at least temporarily. Could it be enough to deny the appointment of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court? The limits of presidential power should be at the center of questions for Judge Alito when he appears before Senate confirmation hearings Jan. 9.

Last week, memos surfaced that Alito wrote as an attorney in the Reagan Justice Department, supporting broad executive branch powers to spy on Americans suspected of being criminals or terrorists. Alito argued that, in a case dating back to the Nixon administration, then-Attorney General John Mitchell should be immune from civil lawsuits for ordering wiretaps without a warrant.

Protecting one right and losing another is not a court appointment win. It's a loss for both sides.

Technorati tags / Alito / wire taps / civil rights

Thanks Tennessee

I was worried where my supply of meth{sarcasm} would be coming from and Tennessee has made it easy. A nice searchable data bank of Meth dealers, makers, and I believe users. All at my finger tips.

With the new year, meth offenders join sex offenders as social pariahs deserving of a permanent electronic registry in Tennessee. Just before year's end, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) got a new, online Meth Offender Registry up and running that will enable anyone anywhere to quickly and easily look for persons convicted of methamphetamine offenses in Tennessee.

The database searches for meth offenders either by last name and first initial or by county. The TBI describes the registry as "another tool to help fight the war on meth." The registry is part of a larger public-private partnership to fight methamphetamine use and production in Tennessee headed by the TBI and known as MethWatch.

You know how the government has been talking about the Meth epidemic that has swept the country into chaos and a darker future.

I figured I would look to see what vermin were living in my county. With a 2004 population of 210,025 in my county there would likely be thousands on this "bad list". After all it is an epidemic. Isn't it?

I looked and found 2. Not 2 thousand, or even 2 dozen, just 2. BUT WAIT!. They must be real mean bastards to get on this list right?

Nope. Convicted offense listed as .5 grams they are at best small fries. They were convicted back in September of last year.

But what of Metro Nashville you may ask.? It's big with a population of over half a million people, so it must be full of evil spawn selling meth to children and orphans in this epidemic of suffering.

Thus I pulled up Davidson county Tennessee and found 4. Just 4 out of 572,475. At least these are listed as "intent to resell".

This list is called a tool. I call it another feel good, tax funded, effort to do something even if it has no effect.

What it does is to help find people to buy from when your supply runs out.

Meth-Mart. A Tennessee funded online shopping mall for your needs today.

NOTE: I understand the databank only came on at the end of last year so it is still being worked on. It is hard not to see that this is another waste of money and a secondary punishment for those on the list. Beating people when they are down is what thugs, bullies, and our government is good at.

Technorati tags / Meth / MethWatch / TBI

Reporting the news

I would like to say that this is a hypothetical question but it isn't. What does a blogger do when he gets a lead on a story that the main stream press has passed over or does not know about?

I really have a three fold problem.

One. The lead isn't big news and likely anyone outside of a one county radius would care less. The thing is some parents in one community may want to know about it.

Two. The lead is on a story that has nothing to do with the main subject matter of my blog. I have never posted on anything close to what my lead is. Should I throw an out of place story into a libertarian gun nut blog like No quarters?

Three. I do not have the ability to properly research the details. What legal rights do I have to get arrest records or business ownership papers? Throwing out "un-named person" or "unknown business" isn't a story and likely will make me look foolish in the end.

What responsibility do I have to report this story?

Joke

This has got to be the best blonde joke I have ever read

I would be paranoid also

A writer from Texas wrote a book on Bush and it was not full of praise. His job and career is based on interviews and travelling. Then one day he finds he has a good reason to be paranoid.

There are times in which it is easy to be suspicious. We can get to that feeling fairly quickly if we even pay slight attention. I've been trying to get over this odd emotion for at least a year. I can't find any rationale for letting it go, though I want desperately not to have these thoughts.
........
"Well, let me get this straight then," I said. "Our government is looking for a guy who may have a mundane Anglo name, who pays tens of thousands of dollars every year in taxes, has never been arrested or even late on a credit card payment, is more uninteresting than a Tupperware party, and cries after the first two notes of the national anthem? We need to find this guy. He sounds dangerous to me."

"I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."

"Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"

Since there is no real way to get off the list, except if you are a politician with pull, he wonders if the no-fly list is being used like Nixons old Enemies list.

Carey McWilliams and Ripley's Believe It or Not!

In the comics today in the Ripley's panel was a scary drawing of a man holding an EBR.



The statement with the standard exclamation point and that specific rifle implied to me the stupidity of allowing some blind guy to carry. You may read it differently but that's what I read.

Thus I wanted to see who this guy is. I easily found his website and damned if he doesn't have a good FAQ section that really did answer my questions.

5 What are your reasons for getting a permit to carry a loaded firearm for self-defense?

"It wasn't to shock anyone or boost my male ego. As long as I can remember, my family had been stalked and harassed by my biological father. The laws were different then, rarely enforced. My mom said that when he broke into our apartment one time as my baby sister and I slept, she wishes that she had been holding a gun in her hand. Instead, she was left shaking with a telephone receiver, as she waited for the police to come to her aid. Fortunately, they arrived in time, but not before he had popped the lock and opened the door. If he had a weapon, any weapon, she could have been killed and most likely my baby sister and I along with her."

13 How would you use your gun in a defensive manner and still be certain not to shoot anyone else?

"I would only use my gun at pointblank range, because an assailant would have to be in close physical contact for me to be sure that I was in true danger. This means that I would have battle scars on me when the police arrived to pickup the body. If someone just says that their going to kill me, although I would be allowed under the law to pull my weapon and maybe shoot, I personally can't assure myself that it isn't just words. As I told the interviewer from The Early Show when the news broke on January 4th, 2001, I consider the firearm a tool like a fire extinguisher, for safety and nothing else. I hope I'll never have to use it, but it is there. Plus, don't forget that criminals don't require a permit to do what they want to do. People say hi to me all the time and never know that the blind guy who smiles back at them has a loaded pistol tucked in his pocket."

16 Why not just use a knife to defend yourself?

"Some reporters asked me why I couldn't just carry a knife instead of a gun for self-defense. I responded by challenging, "Ask any surgeon about how difficult it is to make even a little incision in a still patient with a sharpened scalpel. Now realize that your adversary will be thrashing around and may only be wounded, and a wounded person is way more dangerous."

All good questions and answers. While good he went beyond good when he answered number 17

17 Why does a blind person need to carry a gun anyway?

"It isn't as easy for a blind person to avoid a dangerous situation, since blundering into situations is pretty much normal for a blind person. You also can't run as easily from someone. You can't run, because you might crash into a wall, fall off a curb, or other such unseen obstacles and get seriously hurt or killed, therefore you have to stand and fight."

When blind you can't run, so fight.

His wife has even left her view of the whole situation and her words say so much about him as a person.

The media makes Carey McWilliams out to be some gun-toting hillbilly who is a redneck that wants to shoot someone anyone that so much as coughs in his direction. On the contrary, Carey is a sensitive, family-oriented man who would never shoot someone unless they were an immediate threat to him, his dogs or his family of two-legged gun enthusiasts.

When he ventures out to the range, usually with a small entourage in tow, he concerns himself with every small detail. He makes certain that he does the math, so that all will have enough ammunition to have a grand old time. He provides hearing protection for us, and makes certain that everyone else wears it whether they want to or not. When he arrives at the range, his second nature takes over.

He knows the feel of the range under the soles of his shoes so well that he can find his way from point a to point b with ease. He can tell which bullets are which by weight and touch. When he loads, he will make sure that the gun he is loading is pointed downrange, and he won't allow anyone to stand too close. When he shoots, he shoots with a precision and comfort that most sighted people don't have. He could give experienced sighted gun enthusiasts a run for their money. I would be more worried about the fires of hell freezing over than Carey injuring someone accidentally with any gun. He not only KNOWS gun safety, he ACTS on it every time he so much as touches a gun.

I openly question the fact that they picked that picture for shock value. A better picture would be this one so you can see what he really looks like.



A good example of why everyone should have the right protected, not a privilege given, to carry a firearm. If a privilege this man could be denied his right because of societies views of peoples limitations. That "limitation" is the best reason to fight for his right to carry

Drop by his site and give it a once over.

Technorati tags / Carey McWilliams / Ripley's / Concealed carry

I'll have to try to remember not to consume it

I'm glad that there are signs such as this to keep me from making such major mistakes.

A Holland, Mich., man has won the $500 top-prize in a "wacky warning label" contest sponsored by a consumer watchdog group.

The winning label was attached to a heat gun/paint remover that reaches temperatures of 1000 degrees: "Do not use this tool as a hair dryer," the label said.
........
Honorable mention went to the Texas man who found a warning on a bottle of dried bobcat urine used to keep pests away from garden plants: "Not for human consumption," it said.

I'll have to start reading those warnings.

Are people that stupid? Don't answer!

technorati tag / warning labels

Dear Pat.

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke [reason with] thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.

-- Leviticus 19: 17-18 (KJV)

signed
Gunner

Once again Pat Robertson has opened his mouth and shown his true Christian love.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land."

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine."'

But fear not as he has good company in thinking bad about Sharon.

I hope to hear soon the news for the death of the inspirer of the crimes in the Palestine Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced referring the critical condition of the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Reuters reports.

Thus spoke another religious leader.

Pat Robertson wonders why so many on the left worry about his version of Christian politics in government. I know why. His mind is scary.

Technorati tags / Pat Robertson / Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / religion

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.— Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania. [Note: This sentence was often quoted in the Revolutionary period. It occurs even so early as November, 1755, in an answer by the Assembly of Pennsylvania to the Governor, and forms the motto of Franklin's "Historical Review," 1759, appearing also in the body of the work. — Frothingham: Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 413. ]

Reporters today are far removed from America's founding values and are alarmed and contemptuous of gun owners as dangerous lower classes. — HENRY ALLEN, WASHINGTON POST

Blog additions

Someone pointed out that I did not have a site feed for my blog turned on or posted. As I am computer illiterate it took me a bit to figure out what the heck a site feed is.

Did a check and found my Atom feed was turned on, but not posted. So I added a section on the right for it if anyone is interested. I hope the link works for those who wants it.

Now I just have to figure out how to use it. Is there an "RSS guide for Dummies" online? Do you need a special RSS program or does IE have that built in?

Probation allowed searches

My wife came home from work Tuesday and told me of all the cops that at her work. Her work site shares the parking lot with the probation offices for Rutherford county here in Tennessee.

The people where she works told her that every month or so the officers arrange appointments for a whole bunch of parolees and does searches of their vehicles when they show up. Looking for banned items and other contraband that can get them sent back.

I wasn't to sure of the legality of this as the whole "removing rights of felons" has never set to well in my head. Thus when I read that a state supreme court upheld searches like this I was disappointed.

CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that probation orders allowing defendants to be searched at the whim of law enforcement officers are permissible under the U.S. Constitution.

The decision stems from the arrest in December 2003 by Cheyenne police of Colin McAuliffe for refusing to consent to a random search. Such searches were authorized in a probation order handed down by the Laramie County Circuit Court because of an earlier drug violation.

The state's highest justices, in a 4-1 vote, ruled that police did not violate McAuliffe's Fourth Amendment right to be secure against unreasonable searches.

So many rights removed on a whim.

Technorati tags / Police searches / probation

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. —THOMAS PAINE

Growing up with the government as Big Daddy

When I was younger I did dumb things, as kids normally do. When I was younger my parents kept me from killing myself because I did not know the fragile nature of life. I was young and immortal and the whole world was my playground.

Now as an adult I look back and wonder what the hell I was thinking. How I even made it to adulthood is a miracle. Just typing this I can think of a half dozen things that there is not enough money in the world to pay me to do today.

Now as an adult I make the same choices but with an educated eye to the results. I know driving on New Years night is riskier then heck. I know how fast to drive on ice. I understand the bacterial issues of a tattoo or that slice of pizza left out overnight.

It can easily be said that an adult is someone who does things with an educated and experienced view to the results.

Now to Kant, an 18th century philosopher who talked about the principles of rights and the role of government. I did a post back in November 2004 on Kant that I will quote from here.

A Government founded upon the principle of Benevolence towards the people-after the analogy of a father to his children, and therefore called a paternal Government" would be one in which the Subjects would be regarded as children or minors unable to distinguish what is beneficial or injurious to them. These subjects would be thus compelled to act in a merely passive way; and they would be trained to expect solely from the Judgment of the Sovereign and just as he might will it, merely out of his goodness, all that ought to make them happy. Such a Government would be the greatest conceivable Despotism; for it would present a Constitution that would abolish all Liberty in the Subjects and leave them no Rights.

It is not hard to find multitudes of examples of this despotism occurring today. One example is a blogger who is realizing that her life just took a turn to the worst thanks to a paternal government. Teresa at Making Light just found out a drug that is required for her to function for the most part has been taken from her grasp.

If Ralph Nader is run over by a beer truck and killed, if a very large meteorite falls on the offices of Public Citizen and vaporizes the lot of them, I won't feel sorry. Not the least little bit.

I'm too angry right now to even explain why. More on this when I'm not inarticulate with rage.

Seems old Ralph pushed the government to get a drug pulled because of possible side effects. The problem is that she knew of them and was being tested

Cylert has been implicated in some people's liver problems. Teresa is regularly tested and her liver is fine.

Kant is right. here we have a consenting adult who knew of the dangers yet still wants to take this drug so she can function. The government in it's paternal wisdom has patted her on the head and said "we know best..now just scoot along and go play" like a good parent would do.

We are living Kant's nightmare.

Tachnorati Tags / Kant / Cylert / pemoline / FDA

Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon — so long as there is no answer to it — gives claws to the weak. — George Orwell

Following orders

It has always set uneasily in me when i read of the UN ordering nations to do, or not to do, something. No matter if it is WMD of Iraq or fish eggs. The nature of this world government wannabe is bothersome.

A U.N. panel ordered a temporary halt to caviar exports by the world's major producers Tuesday, buying time for experts to find ways to reverse dwindling populations of threatened sturgeon — whose eggs provide the culinary delicacy.
.........
The ban covers exports from the major sturgeon-exporting countries, said CITES, which regulates legal caviar exports through an international system of permits.

I do not like how it regulate "permits".

Tag / UN

A politician gets a taste of his own medicine

Marrion Barry, the ex-cocaine snorting mayor of DC, was robbed at gun point. I can easily say I feel bad for him living in a city that had outlawed handgun ownership for the most part, I do take some gratification that it is a gun-grabber of his sort that was robbed. I also admit freely that I'm a bit of a bastard for laughing at the crime victim.

Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint at his apartment by some youths who had helped him carry his groceries.
.
...............They returned, however, and after Barry let them into his Southeast apartment, they pointed a gun at his head and took his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, Barry told WRC-TV.

"Obviously, I'm traumatized. To have a pistol cocked in your face is not something you cannot feel emotional about," Barry said.

He now feels like every other unarmed victim in DC.

It is now official

Great Britain is now a police state.

Police are to be given sweeping powers to arrest people for every offence, including dropping litter, failure to wear a seat belt and other minor misdemeanours.

The measures, which come into force on Jan 1, are the biggest expansion in decades of police powers to deprive people of their liberty.
..........
They will also have the power to take digital photographs of suspects on the street when they have been arrested, detained or given a fixed penalty notice.

The Home Office said the move would save time spent in taking suspects to a police station to be photographed and that it would "greatly reduce the ability of suspects to deny that they were the person in question".

The English police have already enjoyed overly abundant arrest powers. Some of the tales of arrests can best be described as ludicrous.

Here is a story of one guy who was arrested for wearing a jacket on a cold day. Honest!

I am told that I am being stopped and searched because they found my behaviour suspicious (from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system):

I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates, i.e. I was ‘avoiding them’
two other men entered the station at about the same time as me
I am wearing a jacket ‘too warm for the season’
I am carrying a bulky rucksack
I kept my rucksack with me at all times (I had it on my back)
I looked at people coming on the platform
I played with my mobile phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket

His story is still unfolding at Innocent in London.

Homeland security reminder of the day
Beware all jacket wearers.

Tags / police state / England / Innocent in London

Fleeing safety for danger

I read a great lesson story about a pizza delivery store owner who was attacked when making the last run of the night. Luckily for him he was a CCW permit holder and defended himself.

For me the story takes a strange turn into the Twilight Zone when I read what his future plans are.

So shaken was Madill, who now fears threats of a gang bounty on his life, that he plans to sells his shops and return to his New York City home.

WTF! That permit was the item that gave him the privilage to carry and he wants to move to a city that it is next to impossible to carry?

I'm sorry that he now has fear in his life because of a possible bounty. Honest. But why move to a victim disarmed city?

Tags / Concealed carry / self defence

I remember when

I was damn young when it happened and did not know why he was becoming president, but I remember when it happened.

The One That Got Away

Of thirty-five attempts at impeachment, only nine have come to trial. Because it cripples Congress with a lengthy trial, impeachment is infrequent. Many officials, seeing the writing on the wall, resign rather than face the ignominy of a public trial.

The most famous of these cases is of course that of President Richard Nixon, a Republican. After five men hired by Nixon's reelection committee were caught burglarizing Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Complex on June 17, 1972, President Nixon's subsequent behavior—his cover-up of the burglary and refusal to turn over evidence—led the House Judiciary Committee to issue three articles of impeachment on July 30, 1974. The document also indicted Nixon for illegal wiretapping, misuse of the CIA, perjury, bribery, obstruction of justice, and other abuses of executive power. "In all of this," the Articles of Impeachment summarize, "Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." Impeachment appeared inevitable, and Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. The Articles of Impeachment, which can be viewed at http://watergate.info/, leave no doubt that these charges qualify as "high crimes and misdemeanors," justifying impeachment.

I was seven that year and the politics of Washington was far from a kids mind. I remember seeing on TV Ford being sworn in as President after a shamed criminal named Nixon fled it. To this day I'm not sure why I remember this small bit of history but I do.

Today we have a president that is best described by the bold type line in the above quoted material.

"Richard M. Nixon George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government,

The problem is that the news is full of shock...but no balls.

Where is the outrage that spurs people to action? I see a crap load of hot air and talk, but those are items that are always in surplus in Washington.

Why is the impeachment process not going forward? Who gelded the Senators and congressmen?Why do they sit around and fiddle as Rome burns?

Impeach I say! Impeach!

Nixon fell on the few bugs placed by his "crew". Bush has thousand upon thousands placed by his "crew". When will Bush be ran out of town on a rail?

Tags / Bush / Impeach / Nixon