"Broke-back Mountain" position?


The "Don't ask, don't tell" policy was hard to enforce with certain troopers.

I was worried this would happen

I was glad when I heard New Hampshire was resisting New ID. I got worried when I heard the possibility of a major waffle. After all, politicians are involved. That means backbones aren't.

Well they collapsed like a house of cards.

A legislative tug-of-war over strict new federal standards for issuing driver's licenses ended Thursday when senators beat down a House-led rebellion against the idea.

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts By a 14-7 vote, senators refused to form a committee to work out differences with House lawmakers, who strongly opposed enforcing the federal Real ID Act.

The vote means New Hampshire moves ahead with the federal drivers license program, which grew from recommendations by the Sept. 11 Commission. New Hampshire is one of two states picked to pilot the program and is due to receive $3 million to implement the new requirements

Bastard politicians. That's all I have to say.

Main stream media actions

While a blogger in Egypt gets his message out even when in jail the main stream media seems to be sending out a wholly different message.

Worker suspended after telling American blogger: 'I look forward to day when you pigs get your throats cut'

A Reuters employee has been suspended after sending a death threat to an American blogger.
The message, sent from a Reuters internet account, read: "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."
It was sent to Charles Johnson, owner of the Little Green Footballs (LGF) weblog, a popular site which often backs Israel and highlights jihadist terrorist activities.

For reasons other then this story I will decline to include a link to Little Green Football.

The story alone speaks volumes about the effect bloggers are having.

Now this is a true blogger

A jailed Egyptian blogger continues to blog even from jail.

Even from his cell in an Egyptian prison, Alaa Abdel-Fattah is blogging - scribbling messages on slips of paper that make their way to the Internet and spread around the world.

The 24-year-old Abdel-Fattah's blog, which he does with his wife Manal Hassan, has become one of the most popular pro-democracy voices in Egypt. He has continued writing despite being arrested in early May during a street demonstration in Cairo - part of a crackdown on reform activists by Egyptian security forces.
...........
But another posting was very different. "I'm sitting here terrified they'll move me to a worse cell or cut off my visits. What should I tell you - that the day will come for them (the regime)? I'm afraid our grandchildren won't see that day, much less us."
...........
Hassan has visited her husband at Tora prison south of Cairo several times. He has posted on the blog three times since his arrest, but Hassan and Abdel-Fattah's mother, Leila Soueif, wouldn't say how he's getting his messages out - only that he writes them by hand in his cell.

"He has no computer and he's not allowed to pass letters without going through the prison censor. So people should use their imaginations," Soueif said with a smile.

Resistance to tyranny cannot be broken by the jail cell. Only hardened.

Rules for thee, but not for me.

Seems someone serving the system was not happy they were being ticketed. Out comes the cuffs and there goes more rights.

On May 18, Fegan was driving on Superior near Michigan when four police officers waved her down, she said. Reid told her a minivan parked at 700 N. Michigan had been ticketed, even though it belonged to an officer who was there on police business, she said.

The minivan did not have police markings or license plates and was parked illegally, she said.

Reid demanded that she void the ticket, she said. When Fegan told him she did not have the authority to do so, he grew "very irate," she said.

When Fegan tried to cross the street, Reid and the other officers arrested her for jaywalking. They removed a suspect who was already in the police wagon and "picked me up and threw me" in the back, handcuffed, Fegan said. She suffered a "severe sprain" of her right arm as a result, she said.

Fegan is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. A police source described Reid as tall.

"She was the victim of a kidnapping, an aggravated battery, a brutal and a false arrest, simply because she was doing her job and would not fix a ticket for a Chicago Police officer," said her lawyer, Craig Tobin.

Using an emergency radio, Fegan was able to send out a call from the back of the paddy wagon saying she had been arrested. She asked to be met at the Near North District by a commander and OPS, she said.

Police held Fegan at the Near North District for about half an hour but never charged her with anything.

When the system kidnaps you it's called being arrested.

Lets rewrite this shall we.

A gun hating reporter from the new York Daily News is jumping in glee at the Washington "gun shot" incident.

The Washington office of Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) is usually open on weekdays, but the staffer who answered the phone there Friday afternoon said nobody was being allowed in or out.

"We're on lockdown and we're not allowed to leave," the staffer said. "Somebody heard a gunshot down in the garage."

The staffer did not seem to perceive the irony obvious to any New Yorker who is sick of the carnage caused by illegal guns. Tiahrt was the congressman behind a 2003 provision that protects gun dealers from lawsuits and denies the public access to data related to the origin of illegal guns.

The measure is said to have been written by the National Rifle Association, which gives Tiahrt an "A" rating. Mayor Bloomberg has suggested that lawmakers such as Tiahrt have the blood of innocents on their hands.

Lets rewrite that a little bit shall we?

The staffer I, the reporter, did not seem to perceive the irony obvious to any New Yorker who is sick of the carnage caused by illegal guns huddling behind doors, unarmed, while criminals arm themselves so easily.

He sees a gun crime. I see the crime of an unarmed populous.

Po'ta'to
Pah'Tah'To

To'ma'to
Idiot reporter..

It's all in the viewpoint.

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Nations and peoples who forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms. — Robert Heinlein

I DID IT!

I made it a whole American Idol season without hearing one note or word from any performer. I have snatched the pebble from the masters hand and walk away from the boob tube a free man.

what a great quote.

When law and morality contradict each other the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his sense of morality or losing his respect for the law.
Frederick Bastiat

Two sets of rules

If I did the following I would be in a heap of trouble. Right?

An Indianapolis police officer was ordered to take an anger management course and fined Wednesday after pleading guilty to beating and choking a man he was questioning.

Frank Jameson admitted attacking Keith Jerome Ellis, 18, in March while interrogating him about a kidnapping.
...................
Another city police officer reported the incident to authorities and said she had to kick Jameson to get him to stop striking Ellis. A detective at the time in the Downtown District, Jameson, who has been with the Indianapolis Police Department for 35 years, spent two days in custody after he was arrested for misdemeanor battery in March.

He even has a history of violence

In 2000, Jameson was accused of assaulting and threatening to shoot a former girlfriend. He was charged with intimidation, battery and false informing.
He admitted grabbing the woman by her arm. In exchange for having the charges dropped, he agreed to undergo domestic-violence counseling. Jameson also served a three-day suspension stemming from vandalism and other incidents involving the woman, who had filed about 20 police reports against Jameson.

He gets a 50$ fine. As the max was a possible 5,000$, he received 1/100 (1%) of the max. That's not a punishment, That a dinner for three with drinks at Logan's restaurant.

Need I ask you what he is doing as I write this?

He is now working a street beat in the North District. Police said the demotion came after an internal investigation.

Working a "beat" is ironic, and damn sad.

I wonder what my punishment would be if I attacked a cop in their fine city? I have an extra 50$ lying around somewhere.

That's all I have to do?

If police seize my stuff just whine like a little girl?

President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days.

The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents taken last weekend from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, and that they remain in the custody of the solicitor general.

Oh wait! That only works with the leadership of the country. Not us plebes.

Bully tactics

A student complains that the school district is bullying him. That bothers them so much that the threaten and bully him more.

A 17-year-old student who posted on his blog site that he was being bullied and threatened by the Plainfield School District will face an expulsion hearing this week, a local attorney said.
.......
On May 1, the student posted a letter to Plainfield School District on www.xanga.com , telling off the district, using vulgar words and saying he could put whatever he wanted on his site.

On a second post on May 2, without mentioning the school the student wrote: "I feel threatened by you, I cant even have a public Web page with out you bullying me and telling me what has to be removed. Where is this freedom of speech that this government is sworn to uphold? ... Did you ever stop to think this will start a community backlash? The kids at Columbine did what the did because they were bullied. ... In my opinion you are the real threat here. None of us ever put in our xanga's that they were going to kill or bring harm to any one. We voiced our opinions. You are the real threat here. you are depriving us of our right to learn. now stick that in your pipe and smoke it."

That will show the little whipper-snapper who's boss.

I love the south

We just had a nice grouping of storms cross my house. Rain so hard that I could not see my neighbors house across my backyard. Small grape/chick pea size hail in such numbers it looked like we had just had a small snow fall.

The think I like is right after the storm. When all of the grass and trees that surround us have been "bathed" and show such a brilliant green that only mother nature can deliver.

I just came in from the porch to simply say I love the south.

The ACLU

The ACLU has always walked a line between "defender of freedom", and "what the hell are they doing?!?!" for me. Both angel and demon and sometimes at the same time.

This time the ACLU has gone and turned on themselves.

The American Civil Liberties Union is weighing new standards that would discourage its board members from publicly criticizing the organization's policies and internal administration.

Anthony D. Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Where an individual director disagrees with a board position on matters of civil liberties policy, the director should refrain from publicly highlighting the fact of such disagreement," the committee that compiled the standards wrote in its proposals.

"Directors should remember that there is always a material prospect that public airing of the disagreement will affect the A.C.L.U. adversely in terms of public support and fund-raising," the proposals state.

In other words "SHUT UP AND TOE THE LINE". Not looking good for them.

Nat Hentoff, a writer and former A.C.L.U. board member, was incredulous. "You sure that didn't come out of Dick Cheney's office?" he asked.

Now that is a funny statement.

The code of the West.

This code was lived by generations out west, and yet never codified. A law that ruled your life and sometimes even your death.

The Code of the West

The American West, with its loosely organized communities of strangers, its scarcity of women and its mixing of people from all over the world, produced its own behavioral norms which, while they had their roots in Victorian America, also had their own unique character.

One of the most striking features was the Westerner's obsession with minding his own business.

Given the dubious backgrounds of many of the people who had felt compelled to leave everything behind and move out West, it became a particular point of etiquette to leave people alone and never pester them with questions about where they came from, what they were called or what they did before they left "the States".

"We ate dinner and then I joined my older brother in asking the stranger what his name was. 'Jones is the name' he said. As soon as he rode off, our mother laid us boys out for being so ill mannered as to ask any man his name".
Quoted in the Time Life Book "Cowboys"

Minding your own business also meant that you had to deal with troubles as they came along. No government and no handouts.

In that spirit I came across two pictures I would like to share with you. In the spirit of MYOB that is.

Title: Self preservation is the first law of life.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
[190-?]

SUMMARY

A sod house with a pitched, wooden roof with a stovepipe and window showing. An unidentified family is standing in front. The man has a shotgun in one hand and a baby in the other. The woman is holding a pistol in one hand and a shotgun propped over her shoulder. There is a dog lying at their feet. On one side of the house is a tall wood pile, and on the other side there is a pile of long logs. Location not given but likely North Dakota.

NOTES
Title taken from label with hand-colored print.

Sadly the idea of self-preservation is falling to the forces of the nanny brigade.

Title: I have no fear for thee or me as long as I know my gun hangs free.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
[189-?]

SUMMARY
Three men, a woman and a baby in a baby carriage outside a sod house. To left are two oxen and a horse. The sod house shows a window, stovepipe, and a sod roof with plants growing on it. One man has a rifle in his hands; seated man on a barrel has a dog by his side. People unidentified.

NOTES
Title taken from label with hand-colored print.

The fear I, and many others have, is that the time to try to save those free hanging firearms has past.

Both images are from the Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection. Click picture for larger image.

This is poetic justice

It seems that Bloomberg may be in trouble for breaking some of the many gun laws.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be investigated for obstruction of justice, and possibly prosecuted under the federal RICO statutes, for his headline-hunting "sting" operation of alleged law- breaking gun dealers, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.

"According to the New York Daily News, 'Quick-Draw' Bloomberg's decision to hire private investigators for this gun control stunt has apparently jeopardized several genuine criminal cases,' said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "In his foolish zeal to drum up support for an anti-gun campaign, Bloomberg quite possibly has put real investigations at risk. This appears to be as clear cut a case of obstruction of justice as I've ever witnessed and Bloomberg should be investigated, and prosecuted if necessary."

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron added, "That fact that he hired private investigators who have no law enforcement authority to conduct sting operations in several states -- an operation that apparently involved falsely filling out federal background check paperwork -- could open Bloomberg up to prosecution under the federal racketeering statutes, and for conspiracy to commit multiple federal felonies, if nothing else. Private citizens, including so-called investigators, cannot give deliberately false information on a Form 4473. That's a crime, and because Bloomberg set the whole thing up, he would be an accessory to that crime.

Wishful thinking as I hope no one ever goes to jail for the labrynth of gun laws we have. Though if anyone does go i would not be hurt if it was him.

It doesn't require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires to people's minds. — Samuel Adams

Unlicensed

The license is the most common form of control the government uses on you daily. If you wish to see our future you simply need to look at Europe.

School trip arrested

A teacher who took his class on a school trip to a historic cathedral was arrested for giving unlicenced tours.

The group, from Budapest in Hungary, were in St Michael's Cathedral, in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, when they were all arrested.

Slovakian police said the teacher had broken the law by not having a licence to give guided tours and that the pupils had broken the law by listening.

They were freed hours later after officials from the Hungarian Embassy intervened.

Simply by listening they had broken the law. Unauthorized knowledge? Are we to cover our ears and run away chanting "LA! LA! LA! LA!"

If I listen to a pirate radio station is that breaking the law? I would be the end user.

Their present is our future.

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. — Charlton Heston

More Chicks with Guns

I truly love history

There is so much information that is not known by people because it was cut off from their access. Stories and pictures stored in boxes in some damp warehouse in some government facility. With the internet that has changed. Now trips through archives are as easy as a Google search, and more fun.

Here is my latest "Chicks with Guns" image for your enjoyment.


Washington City High School girls organize a rifle club and are learning to use firearms
underwood and underwood

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Taken from page 17 of the New York Times edition of February 20th 1916 it shows a group of young ladies posing with firearms for a club picture.

I did find that "Washington City" was what we called "Washington DC, or the crime friendly zone. Even a Google search for "Washington city high school" brings up no solid leads.

Now several things stood out. One was the type of firearms.

The next two blowups seem to show either a Springfield 03 or a classic Mauser. I'm not sure of them being Springfield models as WW1 still had two years to go and I do not think they would have allowed frontline rifles to be used as high school rifle club firearms. Maybe civilian Mausers donated?





This rifle seems not to have a bolt handle and is smooth sided. One obvious thing is that fact that the bore is very much NOT a .22lr.. Anyone feel like taking a guess here?



This one is also not a .22lr.



The images of the two students on each end are to blurry to even try.

I'm impressed with the school to allow high power firearms for their rifle club. I'm even more impressed with them allowing a female rifle club.

The fact that the rifles seem mismatched implies a homegrown club and not an organized one. Sadly I do not think the government would have seen teaching females how to shoot important enough to spend money on then.

Later this week I'll have some nice Chicago rifle club pictures from the 1910's

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. — Patrick Henry, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788)

In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all — security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. — EDWARD GIBBON [On ancient Athens]

Mayor Bloomberg helping "criminals"

Oddly enough I'm not talking about other politicians. The problem is that his war on inanimate objects may be helping "criminals".

Mayor Bloomberg's decision to hire private investigators to conduct undercover stings at Southern gun shops has potentially jeopardized several criminal cases, law enforcement sources charged.
Four cases were compromised and an additional 14 were put at risk by the six-week sting aimed at gun stores in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, the sources said.

Bloomberg could care less about your problems. His is looking good for the voters and other nanny'ists.

Also I find it darn odd that he did not use local police...or even NY police.

"A bunch of private eyes straight out of 'Barnaby Jones' run their own sting operation and all the real enforcement agencies find out about it on the day they are having a press conference? Not good," said a law enforcement source in Washington.

I understand why. If he sent his own police the locals would very likely tell Bloomberg to jump in a lake. This way he avoids the law. Sort of like when someone does a straw purchase. "Straw police investigation"?

You may ask why I put quotation marks around criminals. I have a whole different view of what a criminal is then this reporter. That means I will use their version of the word and not mine.

misdemeanor

That's it people. One small charge.

John Biehn's lawyer told a Superior Court jury not to reward the former city cop for going on a drunken rampage, firing a gun in a South End housing project
.....
They found him not guilty of three counts of attempted murder, three counts of attempted first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment.

The jury found him guilty of one count of first-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum of one year in prison.
......
The jury apparently disregarded the testimony of four Marina Village residents who claimed last Aug. 23, Biehn pointed a handgun at them and tried to shoot them. They only found that Biehn broke the law by leaving a loaded handgun under the turnpike overpass, where it could have been found by children.

Talk about getting a walk.

A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders. —Larry Elder

Things coming together

I drove half the width of Tennessee yesterday to purchase, with a relative, some "goods". I enjoyed myself for the most part and the trip was without many mechanical problems.

I really enjoyed shafting "the man". No sales tax will be collected from us for this purchase. No costly permits were acquired for what we plan on doing. Just us and someone with a product.

I think the best part of the trip was when we passed a telephone junction box and spray painted on the side was this.



Yep. Sometimes it all comes together.

Demanding the keys

In Once great Britain the government is demanding under force of law the encryption keys from everyone.

The British government is preparing to give its police the authority to force organizations and individuals to disclose encryption keys, a move that has outraged some security and civil-rights experts.

The powers are contained within Part 3 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. The RIP Act, also known as RIPA, was introduced in 2000, but the government has held back from bringing Part 3 into effect. Now, more than five years after the original act was passed, the Home Office is seeking to exercise the powers within Part 3.

This story is from Sunni and the Conspirators. A great website.

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever. ? LORD THOMAS MACAULAY

COME UP FOR AIR MAN!

That's a crude saying I have for people who feel kissing up is a socially correct thing to do. What is even more worse is when they do it in print, or online.

Thank you President Bush: Defending our greatest human right

Why he thanks Bush is a bit shameful.

The President also signed a national Right-to-Carry law for law enforcement officers and an agreement with 17 major sportsmen's groups to improve hunting and fishing access to Federal lands.

This would be defending the "rights" of people who serve the system. The fact he did not mention Bush's support for the AWB is noticeable.

In 2003, Bush's Justice Department reversed forty years of official policy — through Republican and Democrat administrations alike — claiming the Second Amendment protects only the National Guard. For the first time in almost half a century, your government officially defends your right to gun ownership before federal courts.

Yet even with this no single law has fallen. Almost as if this was a simply show for support.

President Bush stated clearly in his first term that America would never allow the United Nations impose regulations that would violate the Second Amendment. But never is a long time, and a Democrat Senate majority or a President Hillary would pretty strongly disagree.

Odd. He seemed to like the UN when it did what he wanted against Iraq.

I'm not sure who is the bigger tool. This guy or Bush.

Guys with Guns

Just so I will not be called sexist I'm serving up a whole pile of young guys with guns for your enjoyment.

I came across this set of pictures at the Library of Congress pictures archive. I had a good laugh when I noticed that this set was situated at the Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington DC. Taken in October 1943 by Esther Bubley for the Farm Security Administration.


Washington, D.C. Rifle club members at Woodrow Wilson High School.


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg practicing with a rifle at Woodrow Wilson High School


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg is a member of the rifle club at Woodrow Wilson High School.

I've had no real formal training in shooting so I have some questions on this picture above. It almost seems that he has his arm through the sling. I normally have viewed people twist the sling around their arm. Is this a dated stance, or still taught?

This picture, and the last one of the set, are the best views of the rifle for identification purposes.


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg is a member of the rifle club at Woodrow Wilson High School


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg giving some pointers to new members of the rifle club at Woodrow Wilson High School.


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg giving some pointers to new members of the rifle club at Woodrow Wilson High School.


Washington, D.C. Walter Spangenberg, a member of the Woodrow Wilson High School rifle club, is working on shooting from a standing position.

The above picture shows that he seems to be using the same firearm as the female students from last week.

I looked but could not find a picture of the targets they were aiming at.

I went to see if there was still a Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington DC. To my surprise I found a Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in DC. I went to their Clubs and Activities page to see if they still had a Rifle Club. A delusional act I admit, but I had to try. As expected there was none listed. They do offer activities for C.A.R.E - Concern for Animal Rights and the Environment, Gay Straight Alliance, and Stress Management.

Real stress management is an hour at the range.

Cultural Racism

Volokh Conspiracy brings to light the ideas of the Seattle Public School system and types of racism.

Seattle Public Schools Says Individualism is a Form of "Cultural Racism": From "Definitions of Racism":

Cultural Racism:
Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as other, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.

I want to admit to a few things here. I DO call a crayon of a certain color "flesh tone". I do emphasize individualism as a positive view to have. I do have one form of English that I consider the best. That's the one that I can understand when I'm trying to get my computer to work or order a Big Mac.. As for the writers and composers I don't care their color, creed, or sexual preference. Just as long as they produce good material.

One things I am not sure of. That is what the hell does this phycho-babble mean

having a future time orientation

WHAT!?!?

I did find this at this website.

K. Lewin in his written work, Intention, will, and need first introduced the concept of future time orientation in 1926. Following his study, many researchers strived to define future time orientation (FTO) and resulted in the following definition: “A general concern for future events as well as a general capacity to organize for the future and anticipate the future. (Oner 2000 p. 527) Unfortunately, the generality of FTO varies with each attempt to measure and define it. Knowing this, Oner (2000) suggested using specific context-related items when measuring FTO so that its stability and proportion could be properly calculated.

Panning and having concern about the future is a form of cultural racism. Oh God we are screwed as a society.

Most of the definitions on the Seattle school website are the same word for word as this diversity website where it is credited to this book..

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. —JAMES MADISON

Da Vinci code debate

My thoughts on it all

YAWN!

Thank you. I'll be addressing the American Idol issue tomorrow

What is wrong with this picture?

Claiming to be an FBI agent is not a crime?

Town of Newburgh police were called to the bus depot on Route 17K this morning after a man was found with a gun on Short Line bus. He initially told the bus driver he was an FBI agent, said Newburgh Sgt. Lief Spencer. But it turned out he was only a New York City corrections officer.

He had a permit and was allowed to keep the gun and he was not arrested, Spencer said. But he had to find another way down to Manhattan. Short Line didn't want him on the bus any more.

Of course I would rather claim to be a male prostitute before an FBI agent, but it does deliver a message.

If you work for the system the laws for you are not the same laws we all suffer under.

The Original Aunt Jemima

A bit of history to for your reading enjoyment.

With these ideas in mind, now let me tell you the story of Aunt Jemima. Most of us may think of Aunt Jemima as a round-faced black woman with red bandana, smiling invitingly behind a stack of hot cakes. But the original Aunt Jemima was a Welsh woman. Her unwillingness to be indifferent to the threat of danger, and her courage in organizing private defenses for the Welsh coast when government proved to be incapable, may have prevented the expansion of the French Empire when Bonaparte was on the march in the latter years of the 18th century.
..........
A great military strategist was born in Aunt Jemima Nicholas that night. Of course she had no authority to do these things. She was acting quite unofficially and without precedent. But she refused to let the initiative go over to the enemy.

Even though all history is a mix of truth and lore the story here is good.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ? Edward Abbey

A rabbi, an indian chief, and an albino walked into a bar.

So there you nanny loving bastards!

Tuesday, the Boulder City Council will take up the matter of allocating public funding for a "hate hotline," which would give residents an opportunity to report incidents in which Boulderites use tactless language.

"Our concern - and there are many - is that there is no confidentiality, no legal confidentiality," explains Judd Golden, chairman of the Boulder American Civil Liberties Union, which has not yet taken an official position on the hate-line. "So it's potentially chilling if people think they are providing this information in confidence and then that information were provided to the government or the government sought access to it. That would chill free speech."

The punchline. "The bartender looked up and said 'what is this? a joke?'".

Taking our "stuff"

It seems like yesterday that I was naive and thought seizing drug lords material goods was a fine idea. Damn I was young and dumb. Now they can seize things for almost any reason.

*Cleveland, Ohio: A newly enacted “emergency ordinance” permits the confiscation of automobiles from citizens who “are associated with four or more of any combination of unpaid parking infraction judgments and/or notices of liability” for such things as “red light or speeding violations.
.........
*Peoria, Illinois: Another “emergency ordinance” enacted in that fine city will permit police – acting on their own subjective and definitive assessment – to confiscate vehicles with excessively loud stereos. “The city will collect $105 in fees for the first offense, and $355 on subsequent offenses without first offering the accused a defense in a proper court of law,” summarizes The Newspaper.com.
.........
From the Salt Lake City Weekly comes news of a similar scheme underway in Spanish Fork Canyon. Last August, Trudy Childs and her family leased their Canyon property for use in an “electronic music concert.” The Childs got all of the proper permits, hired EMTs, and otherwise cross all of the myriad t's and dotted all the requisite i's.

It's getting worse people.

They keep pushing more and more every year. People are going to start snapping and it will not be pretty.

Paperless guns are the best

If this is right the NSA is into the business of tracking our guns.

I just heard from a friend who had a frightening story to tell. Turns out he has a friend who works for the NSA. Apparently, the NSA has been getting the records of gun buyers from the FBI. .......
.......
This program will allow the NSA to identify potential terrorists and to know what type of weapons they may have purchased through legal channels. Ultimately it doesn't matter if they use an alias because the NSA tracks phone numbers and addresses to find the terrorist patterns.

Makes you want to purchase on the gray market more and more everyday.

MORE:
JPFO has a writeup on the issue also.

Where are the EBR's?

The standard line from gun grabbers is that EBR's (evil black rifles) are the main reasons that cops, old ladies, and little bunnies die. Sadly for their sad lines is that the numbers simply do not back up their overused lines.

Fifty police officers were shot to death in the United States last year, among 122 who were killed in the line of duty.

In all, 55 officers were killed intentionally, two fewer than in 2004, according to preliminary
FBI statistics released Monday. Vehicles were used in five deaths, the bureau said.

At the time they were killed, 34 officers were wearing body armor. But the FBI did not say whether bullets penetrated the armor in any of those deaths. Handguns were used to kill 42 officers, while five were shot with shotguns and three with a rifle. Six officers were killed with their own weapons, the FBI said.

3 rifles? 3! Where are all those guns flooding the streets and filling the hands of anti-social individuals?

Could they be lying?

After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.

William Burroughs, 1992

The NRA has a point about the inadvisability of simply taking guns away from the populace. If that were possible, it would not disarm that small percentage of the population willing to break the law.... Punishing people who obey the law is backward thinking. ? Hugh Downs, Veteran ABC newsman

Phone taps

Seems this is one of the useful things all of those phone databanks, and recordings can be used for.

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Uncle Sam BB at work

Greetings

Sorry Folks

Our internet is down at home and so Gunner will be unable to post.

Check back tomorrow.

The said Constitution be never construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams, during Massachusetts's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).

Prisoner captured

While in the garden in a low security situation he made a break for it.

"She had put him out into the garden, which is quite a big garden, and five minutes later he was gone.

"She spent a long time looking for him and thought that she was never going to see him again because she didn't think he would survive the winter.

In 8 months he made it almost 2 miles.

WHAT!?

About 6 months ago my mom called me bitching about this AOL email she got. "I started to fill it out but they want way too damn much information" in so many words was her complaint. I instantly knew she had gotten a phishing email and asked if she had submitted the form. As she said no I then spent the next 30 minutes explaining to my techno'tarded mom what phishing was.

I read an article today that simply amazed me. You can do a quick check of the link they send you to know that ebay or paypal do not host their services in Malaysia on a site registered in Brazil. The article implies a bank in China was hosting several phishing sites.

Web monitoring firm Netcraft has warned that a web server belonging to a state-operated Chinese bank is hosting phishing sites targeting US banks and financial institutions.

"This is the first instance we've seen of one bank's infrastructure being used to attack another institution," said Netcraft.

The company revealed that the phishing emails sent over the weekend targeted customers of Chase Bank in the US and eBay, and were directed to sites hosted on IP addresses assigned to the Shanghai branch of the China Construction Bank.

Wow. I know that the Chinese system is preditorial in nature, but this is a bit much.

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. — James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46

Sell to us and we will allow you protection.

Simply sad.

EVEN THE lure of firearm licence has failed to attract farmers to sell their wheat to government agencies, which have so far procured only 29,000 metric tonnes of wheat against the target of 27 lakh metric tonnes.

It may be recalled that various district administrations are trying to woo farmers to sell their produce to the government agencies. Sitapur, Bareily and Meerut district magistrates have given an open offer to farmers to issue licence of revolver/pistol and guns on priority if they sell 100 and 200 metric tonnes of wheat to the government agencies.
........
The DM admitted that it would be difficult to meet the target if the farmers’ reluctance to sell their produce to the government agencies continued. He, however, informed that the offer to get instant firearm licences had been extended to traders too if they sold a minimum of 500 tonnes of wheat to the government agencies

This is what happens when gun ownership becomes a privilage.

Apocryphal he says

The hot topic news item last week was a government official admitting to an audience that he cancelled a government contract with a business because they did not support Bush.

After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

I'm not sure if this specific story is true or not. Likely it is true. With the political landscape as it is I can almost assure that this is happening on a small scale across the country. I'm just more surprised one of the Bush supporters not only thought he could say it in public, but it was something to take pride in.

Well as the world turns, and the press feeds, the story has been withdrawn. Surprise!

Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, told a Dallas audience last month that he personally canceled a minority businessman's contract award in response to negative comments about President Bush. But in a Wednesday press release, Jackson said the anecdote was apocryphal.
............
But in a statement released late Wednesday, Jackson said, "I deeply regret the anecdotal remarks I made ... and would like to reassure the public that all HUD contracts are awarded solely on a stringent merit-based process. During my tenure, no contract has ever been awarded, rejected or rescinded due to the personal or political beliefs of the recipient."

In other words he is asking us to ignore what he said and go back to our bread and circuses. Sure thing boss.

At Seventeen

Whenever I hear this song I just have to stop and listen.



Her website says she does personal livingroom concerts for 7500$. All proceeds goes to scholorship funding and is tax deductable. Wow.

Can I bleg $7500?

Chicks with Guns

I have been enjoying surfing through the archives of the Library of Cogress.

The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection are among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced. Created by a group of U.S. government photographers, the images show Americans in every part of the nation. In the early years, the project emphasized rural life and the negative impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization, and the Dust Bowl. In later years, the photographers turned their attention to the mobilization effort for World War II. The core of the collection consists of about 164,000 black-and-white photographs. This release provides access to over 160,000 of these images; future additions will expand the black-and-white offering. The FSA-OWI photographers also produced about 1600 color photographs during the latter days of the project.

Most show the horror of the depression. They also show sides of this country that many may never have seen. I came across these pictures of what is called a "Victory Corp". I had never heard of them before and information on a gov program that lasted two short years is hard to find.


Victory Corps, tomorrow's defenders of liberty. Standing at ease are uniformed high school Victory Corps girls on the rifle team. Riflery is one of the many war-time training activities offered by the Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, California.

I did find this short blurb on a Maryland educational website

As Americans became more involved in the escalation of World War II, volunteer organizations began to form. Seeing the need for high school students to become involved, Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker, on September 25, 1942, upon the recommendation of his advisory Wartime Commission, established the Victory Corps.

The purpose of this student organization was to prepare high school students to aid in the war effort on the homefront and the frontlines. Both girls and boys from white and African American schools participated. In order to be a member, a student needed to participate in a physical fitness program, enroll in a war-effort class, and volunteer for at least one extracurricular wartime activity. Engaging in a physical fitness program was essential because military officials were alarmed by the poor condition of recent enlistments. At the advent of the war, high school curriculums in Maryland had been altered to accommodate war-effort classes. By modifiying industrial arts and vocational-industrial classes, students could learn about machinery, fundamentals of electricity, radios, canning of food, aeronautics, first aid, and other pertinent topics.

Due to its proximity to Washington, D.C., Maryland had the first three Victory Corps programs: Ellicott City High School in Howard County and Sherwood High School and Montgomery Blair Senior High School, both in Montgomery County. As the war progressed, 126 of the 145 Maryland county high schools and all of Baltimore City’s high schools had established Victory Corps.

As the war drew to a close, the Victory Corps program was phased out beginning in June of 1944

Now let us enjoy "Chicks with Guns"


Victory Corps, tomorrow's defenders of liberty. Training in marksmanship helps girls at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, California, develop into responsible women. Part of Victory Corps activities there, rifle practice encourages girls to be accurate in handling firearms.


High school Victory Corps. These two sharpshooters are members of the girls' rifle team of Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles, California. Rifle practice is one of the phases of the activities of the school's Victory Corps.


High school Victory Corps. This sharpshooter is captain of the girls' rifle team of Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles, California. Rifle practice is one of the phases of the activities of the school's Victory Corps.


High school Victory Corps. At Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles, California, one of the Victory Corps activities is the girls' rifle team, which practices on the rifle range in the school's basement.

I like this last image as I have read many articles about how a lot of schools had ranges. This is the first image of one of them that I have seen.

Can anyone identify the rifles being used?

another link to some sparce info on the Victory Corps.

Goofy me. I thought I owned my body.

Glad the gov is there to correct that error. In reality I thought laws concerning your organs were dumb, but one part here pissed me off.

Congress passed the National Organ Transplantation Act in 1984, making it illegal to buy or sell human organs. That law funded organ procurement organizations, which find organ donors, acquire organs, and ship them to transplant hospitals. It also created the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. It made the Secretary of Health & Human Services responsible for outsourcing OPTN’s operation. HHS hired the United Network for Organ Sharing. People who need transplants can only be put on the waiting list by government-approved transplant hospitals, and only if they pay UNOS a listing fee. Transplant patients pay hospitals for the donated organs they get from organ procurement organizations.

How’s this system working? Over 6,000 people on the transplant waiting list died waiting in 2005. Another 1,800 left the list because they became too sick for surgery. They’ll die soon – if they’re still alive. The waiting list has doubled in ten years to over 92,000 people. Most people on the list will die waiting.

Note the bold enraging type. You have to be pay to be put on the list to get the organs that the gov has decided it owns. The article goes into detail on how screwed up this whole system is.

Fortunately, you can opt out of organ socialism. The bureaucrats don’t like it, but your participation is voluntary. If you need an organ, you don’t have to just hope the bureaucrats find one for you. You can get one directly from another individual. You also don’t have to let the bureaucrats decide who gets your organs when you die. You can decide for yourself who gets them. The process is called directed donation, and it’s legal under federal and state law.

Free market usgae of your own body.

Does the government have to mess everything up? Looks like the answer is "YES!".

Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, and politicians. All three need supervision. —DICK ARMEY

You say Vigilante. I say Yellow Journalism.

Vigilante is such a nasty word. Thrown around by anti-gun nuts and nanny'ist it has become a curse.

The only problem is that Journalist are getting lazy and using the word instead of self defense.

61-year-old vigilante speaks out

The day of the incident, two men pounded on his door while he said he was inside his Mission Spring Creek apartment.

"They were knocking pretty hard and I thought, 'Well, who is that?'" he said. "Whoever it is, I'll tell them 'Don't come beating on my door like that.'"

Ken said he opened the door, but not before grabbing his pistol. However, he said he wasn't the only one with a gun. The suspects allegedly were armed with a 20-gauge shotgun.

"And I hit it and knocked the barrel up and it went off," Ken said.

A chunk out of his ceiling and a hole was ripped in his door.

Ken fired his gun three times. The first shot hit a wall and the second hit the robber.

That's right. He answered his door, was attacked, and defended himself. For that he is labeled a vigilante by this yellow journalist.

UPDATE:
The headline has been chaged

61-year-old robbery victim speaks out

A comment on KeepandBearArms said this.

The reporter wrote back a very polite email, stating that she agreed that the headline was not in line with the article, but that she had not written the headline. It was written by the web publishing staff. Her televised story did not call the man a vigilante.

She wrote that she forwarded my email to her boss to let him/her know about the title as seen on the web. Perhaps that is why it was changed.

They did change the heading but they forgot one item. The email link for the reporter still opens a blank email with a subject of "vigilante" still.

The heading AND email must have been setup by the the web publishing staff as both label him as a vigilante.

Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in... — Dianne Feinstein, CBS-TV's "60 Minutes, February 5, 1995.

Dropped a link today

Until today I had a link on the right side to Freedom news Daily. A good site and a great resource for news on rights and individual freedoms. I had it in my daily folder until today but for one big reason I dropped it.

I'm a gun enthusiast and the big anti-gun bogeyman is the Brady Group. One of their main tactics, or habit, is to drag the bodies out whenever someone is shot out for a show and tell. This act of dancing in the blood of innocent people is distasteful to me and the reason I can honestly say I hate them.

If you make your beliefs known to others by joyfully using victims then I cannot associate with you. (Yes I even find gun rights supporters who crow happily when crime is up in a gun free state or nation bothersome)

Now Freedom news has a Freedom News Daily page with lots of articles. Many of the ones I link to come from there. One things is obvious is that they are strongly against the war in Iraq and consider it criminal.

They make this point with a habit that finally got on my nerves and had me delink them.

Their first article is always what I could call a blood article. A link to the latest Iraqi violence with the graphic words quoted

Iraq: US soldier, 30+ Iraqis killed
Reuters

"One U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday in eastern Baghdad .... Twelve bodies bearing signs of torture and gunshot wounds were found in various areas of Baghdad .... A roadside bomb aimed at police guarding electricity installations exploded in northwest Baghdad, killing two civilians .... The bodies of three people, one wearing police uniform, were found with gunshot wounds and their hands bound in Latifiya .... Iraqi police retrieved the bodies of 11 people, nine of them beheaded, including a 10-year-old boy, in the Sunni town of Suwayra .... Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded two others on the main road between Tikrit and Kirkuk .... Gunmen killed four police officers while they were driving out of police headquarters in the city of Ramadi ..." (05/09/06)

Not sometimes, Not every once in a while. Everyday they lead off with the blood and victims to show how bad the war is. I agree. I also think dancing in the blood is sick and thus they are no longer linked to by me.

The work is finished

I posted recently the Gnome Song. Well I guess it was not finished because I now have the updated version for your reading with a new title.

DROW GNOME

OH, HE LAY IN THE DIRT, ALONE WITH HIS HURT,
AS HE THOUGHT OF THE BLOWS AND THE SLASHING.
AND DECIDED, THE GNOME, THAT HE’D SEEK OUT THE HOME,
OF THAT ILL-FATED KNIGHT BRIGHT AND FLASHING.

OH, TRAVELING BY NIGHT AND BLINKING ERE LIGHT
LIT THE SKY UP, HIS GAIT SLOW AND THUDDING.
AND HATRED AND DUST FUELED A SEETHING BLOOD LUST
IN THE GNOME. AS HE HEADED TOWARD BLOODING.

OH SHINNING BRIGHT KNIGHT WITH YOUR TRAPPINGS OF WHITE
DO YOU E’EN SENSE THE HORROR NOW BURNING?
YOU RIDE SLEEK AND FAST, BUT THE HELL HOUND AT LAST
RELENTS NOT, STOPS NOT, NEVER TURNING.

HE RIDES THROUGH THE GATE , TO HIS SON AND HIS MATE,
HIS BATTLES WELL FOUGHT AND FAIR WON.
BUT THE GNOME, ON THE MORROW, WILL BRING ENDLESS SORROW,
WITH DEATH TO HIS FAIR WIFE AND SON.

IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT, THE LADY IN WHITE
SITS UP WITH HER SOUL FILLED WITH DREAD.
SHE KNEW IN HER BEING, BY MORN WOULD BE SEEING,
HER FAIR KNIGHT AND SWEET CHILD DEAD.

SO TIRED WAS HER KNIGHT, SO PALE IN THE LIGHT,
SHE COULD NOT ROUSE HIM TO HER FEARS.
BUT SHE KNEW IF SHE LAY, IT WOULD BE HIS LAST DAY,
AND HER CHILD’S, AND HER EYES FILLED WITH TEARS.

SHE SLIPPED FROM HER PLACE, BRUSHING TEARS FROM HER FACE,
ROUSING HER MAIDS FOR THE DAY.
SO WEARY THEIR BREATH, SLEEP HEAVY AS DEATH,
THE KNIGHT AND HIS COMRADES DID LAY.

SHE SPOKE WITH A COLDNESS ARISING FROM BOLDNESS,
OF LOVE FOR HER CONSORT AND CHILD,
AND PLANNED THEN A WAY TO PREVENT THEN THAT DAY,
OF KILLING BY THINGS FROM THE WILD.

THEIR EYES FILLED WITH GLOWING, THE WOMEN THEN KNOWING,
THEN MOVING ON SILENT BARE FEET,
TO THE COOKSTOVES DID HURRY TO COOK UP A FLURRY,
OF BREADS, SWEETS AND SAVORY MEATS.

AS ALL WOMEN KNOW, GREAT HUNGER DOES GROW
FROM TRAVEL BY HORSE, SHIP OR FEET,
SO THEY SET BY THE STYLE, A FAIR WALK FROM THE CASTLE,
A RIOT OF GOOD THINGS TO EAT.

THEY TREMBLINGLY STOOD, SLIPPED BACK IN THE WOOD,
SO FEARFULL, SO BREATHLESS, SO STILL.
AND ERE LONG THE GNOME, PLODDING TO THE KNIGHT’S HOME,
CAME LUMBERING OVER THE HILL.

HE TURNED HIS GREAT HEAD, REVIEWING THE BREAD,
AND THE STEWS AND THE PASTRIES SO SWEET,
HIS HUNGER WAS GREAT, AND HE HURREDLY ATE,
ALL THE FOODS AND THE PIES AND THE MEAT.

HE BRUSHED HIS HUGE PAW PAST HIS GREAT GREASY MAW,
NOW SATISFIED, TURNED IN THE DIRT.
THEN HEADED AGAIN, TO THE HOME OF THE MAN,
WHO HAD POURED UPON HIM SO MUCH HURT.

NOT FAR DOWN HE WENT, HIS STRENGTH QUICKLY SPENT,
HIS MOVEMENTS NOW JERKY AND SLOW.
AND PAINS HARD AND FAST, DID FELL HIM AT LAST,
TO HIS KNEES IN THE ROAD DID HE GO.

HE ROARED A HUGE SOUND, HEARD THE FULL COUNTRY ROUND,
THEN FALLEN LAY QUIET AND COLD.
AND GATHERING THEIR SKIRT UP OUT OF THE DIRT,
EACH LADY RETRIEVED PLATTER AND BOWL.

WITH SATISFIED SMILES, THEY WALKED THE SHORT MILES,
A SUMMERY WARM IN THE AIR.
THEN SCRUBBED ALL THE KITCHEN, EACH CRANNIE AND NOOK,
ALL WAS DONE WITH ESPECIAL GREAT CARE.

THEN THEY SET TO CREATING A WONDERFUL DINING,
A MANY AND VARIED GREAT FEAST.
THE SMELLS ROUND HIS HEAD ROUSED EACH MAN FROM HIS BED,
AND CHILD, TOO, FROM THE GREATEST TO LEAST.

CELEBRATION WAS LONG, WITH FOOD, WINE AND SONG.
AND ALL HAD THEIR FILL OF GOOD MEAT.
THEN ON TO HIS HOME, EACH MAN HE DID COME,
WITH HIS WIFE AND HIS CHILDREN SO SWEET.

BUT WHAT, DO YOU SAY, OF THE GNOME WHO DEAD LAY?
THE SAME LADIES HAD COOKED HIM HIS MEATS.
BUT DEAD IN THE GRASS, HE HAD EATEN GROUND GLASS,
AND POISON, IN ALL OF HIS TREATS.

OH, THE TALE IS LONG TOLD OF THE LADIES SO BOLD,
THEY THOUGHT TO TAKE ON A DROW GNOME.
KNOW ‘NEATH THE QUICK SIGHS AND SOFT LOVE IN HER EYES,
A LADY WILL KILL FOR HER HOME !

By Jeanne Kirby

New Hapshire waffling on Real ID resistance

Bill St. Clair reports that the New Hampshire government has started the waffling that occurs so often when a government takes a stand for our rights.

I reported nine days ago about the New Hampshire House's passage of HB1582, "prohibiting New Hampshire from participating in a national identification card system". Well, the Senate voted on Thursday, amending it to create a commission to study the issue. Hopefully, they'll still do it, but the commission's study won't be due until after the November elections (assuming the House and the governor approve the Senate's amendment).

I'm not surprised.

Stupidity is spreading.

I have no opinion on The Da Vinci code. Never read it and until it becomes a video will not watch it. I had no plans to make a single post on the subject until this one Cardinal made a few statements that just kills me.

Cardinal: Da Vinci Code is Blasphemy
In the latest Vatican broadside against The Da Vinci Code, a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.
..........
"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.

"This is one of the fundamental human rights : that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.

I'm not sure what this guys education is but there is no right to not be mocked, respected or even honored. How the hell this guy can wrap his dislike of something into a "fundamental human right" boggles my mind? I will mock you and dis respect you at will. If I think you are a human ass then that is my right.

I do not have to respect squat. You nimrod.

The book is fiction. If you are so dumb you think fiction is real then please do not drive or vote or do anything in my state. If this fictional book is threatening to your beliefs then do me a favor. Just move the hell away from me. Your stupidity is contagious.

I have not one doubt, even if I am in agreement with the National Rifle Association, that that kind of record keeping procedure [gun registration] is the first step to eventual confiscation under one administration or another. —CHARLES MORGAN, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON DC ACLU

You don't need a gun. Just call 911

Sadly it does not work.

A dispatcher, whose name was not released, told Studer she could not sent an officer unless there was an “immediate threat.”

“Ma’am, the officer cannot stand there and just wait just in case your husband comes back,” the female dispatcher told her.

LaPorte County Sheriff Jim Arnold has said none of his deputies were dispatched to the school.

Director Brent Soller of LaPorte County 911 said the dispatcher was following policy. He released a September 2005 memo instructing dispatchers not to send officers when abuse victims requested escorts to retrieve belongings from their homes.

LaPorte County officials changed that policy Friday, issuing a memo saying officers will respond to all requests for help.

I have heard cops say that they hate domestic situations as they are the most dangerous as passions run high. I guess they have had a happy fuzzy view of domestic situations in this city.

GNOME SONG,

OH, HE LAY IN THE DIRT, ALONE WITH HIS HURT,
AS HE THOUGHT OF THE BLOWS AND THE SLASHING.
AND DECIDED, THE GNOME, THAT HE’D SEEK OUT THE HOME,
OF THAT ILL-FATED KNIGHT BRIGHT AND FLASHING.

OH, TRAVELING BY NIGHT AND BLINKING ERE LIGHT
LIT THE SKY UP, HIS GAIT SLOW AND THUDDING.
AND HATRED AND DUST FUELED A SEETHING BLOOD LUST
IN THE GNOME. AS HE HEADED TOWARD BLOODING.

OH SHINNING BRIGHT KNIGHT WITH YOUR TRAPPINGS OF WHITE
DO YOU E’EN SENSE THE HORROR NOW BURNING?
YOU RIDE SLEEK AND FAST, BUT THE HELL HOUND AT LAST
RELENTS NOT, STOPS NOT, NEVER TURNING.

HE RIDES THROUGH THE GATE , TO HIS SON AND HIS MATE,
HIS BATTLES WELL FOUGHT AND FAIR WON.
BUT THE GNOME, ON THE MORROW, WILL BRING ENDLESS SORROW,
WITH DEATH TO HIS FAIR WIFE AND SON.

By Jeanne Kirby

Why does your good news look like bad news to me?

A news article I was lead to proclaimed a victory in the ability to keep arms during an emergency. Likely this article has been linked by a dozen or more gun bloggers and gun rights sites. The problem is that I see a loss and not a victory.

CBS4/AP) TALLAHASSEE If you own a gun and live in Florida, good news: nobody will be able to force you to give it up following a disaster, so long as the gun is legally owned and properly licensed. Floridians with a permit can continue to carry their gun during a declared emergency under a measure passed unanimously today by the Senate and sent to Governor Jeb Bush.

While that sounds good a few lines in it crapped on the "victory".

so long as the gun is legally owned

What is the definition of legally owned? A receipt? How the heck am I supposed to prove I legally own a firearm when I don't even know where a few came from(inherited) or the guy's name I bought them from(gun show)? That phrase screams to me that it is a backdoor to seize your rifle until you can "legally" prove they are yours.

and properly licensed

Licensed. Can we say REGISTRATION boys and girls? I knew you could. Do I need to go into detail about why licensed guns no longer belong to you if the government decides they don't? This line alone shows me that the law is bad.

This does not protect one right or ability to protect yourself. With the two fore mentioned hoops you have to jump through to keep your firearm I see this as a loss. How anyone can see this as a win is beyond me.

If the government has to pass a bill to protect your right then it is not protected.

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. — ROBERT HEINLEIN

"Do as the robber says, cooperate and you shouldn't get hurt, don't provoke him."

Real life shows this sad little phrase does not work.

Thursday evening Mike Dayem was in a battle for his life. A masked man entered Mike’s Food Market on Cleveland’s east-side with a gun and demanded money. When Mike’s 19 year-old son, Abe, who also works at the store, gave the robber everything in the cash register, the robber said it wasn’t enough and demanded more. Then the robber shot Abe in the head.

don't worry. Abe is ok, and the burglar. Well....

That is when Mike grabbed his own gun and returned fire, striking the robber in the neck and chest. The robber fled from the store, leaving the money. Cleveland Police found the robber on the sidewalk about a block away. He was declared dead about 30 minutes later.

That is how it should end, even as blood thirsty as that sounds.

I'm back

No posting this weekend as I did the guest host at Nashville is Talking. While it was fun I will admit it was a bit more difficult then I thought. Most blogs do not post on the weekend and getting material to link to was a stretch sometimes.

So let's start blogging.

The writings of scholars who have written on the subject are virtually united on the point that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, not simply the state national guards. — PROFESSOR GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS

Guest Blogging this weekend

I'll be spending part of the weekend posting at NashvilleIsTalking. The community blog for WKRN.

And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver

I just read an article and this historical line was what came to my head as I sat their in sad shock at what I was reading.

The article is not a earth shaking writeup and governments will not crumble. If anything it is a description and good example of how broken the system is and what is being destroyed.

Taiwan's president was forced Wednesday to delay a trip to Latin America for a day after Washington snubbed his request for a stopover in New York or San Francisco.
.........
Taiwan asked the Bush administration on April 21 for permission for a stopover. Such transit requests have been granted routinely for more than a decade, giving Chen and past Taiwanese leaders a chance to visit Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco and other major cities.

Read that again and understand what the real meaning is. Bush will allow into the country and glorify a dictator like Hu when he comes and visits this country. With all the regalia allowed by law Bush groveled to his economic might. Bush even showed regret about the protestor and how the free speech bothers Hu so much.

Hu is the final great dictatorship in the world and Bush welcomes him with open arms. Chen, the ELECTED representative of a democracy is not even allowed to have a stopover in this country.

Bush. You shame yourself and office. Selling the ideals of freedom for 30 silver pieces worth of trade with China.

When the government fears the People, that is Liberty. When the People fear the Government, that is tyranny. — THOMAS JEFFERSON

I miss the smoke

I was raised and lived a good chunk of my life in Kentucky. In that time I have I lived in cities big enough to have several nice size collages and one city that our house was one of four in the whole thing.

High school was the time in the small four house town and I remember it for many things but the biggest is what I miss now. I had a 73 Ford Maverick and as bad as I treated that car with my fool stunts it kept going and going. As I was lucky enough to have a car during my senior year I also had the pleasure of driving backroads throughout the county doing things that you could not pay me to repeat (although I do brag about them now that the statute of limitations is up on much of them).

But when the nights were cool and I drove with the windows down I experienced something most city people miss. The smoke of a hundred wood burning stoves giving off their own individual scent.

It was a buffet of odors. Was the wood green or well seasoned? Was the wood pine, spruce, or oak or one of another dozen regularly cut down trees? Were they burning it hot with a blower attatchment or had a low smoldering fire to keep it going all night as they slept? Maybe the person worked in the coal industry and brought some coal chunks back for his multi-fuel stove? Was the air so heavy that the smoke stayed near the ground and "aged" just for you?

Each drive through Kentucky on a cold night was a parade of aromas. I don't think it is possible to properly describe the pleasant nature of those cool night drives and the memories that linger on to this day.

I live near Nashville now and most people heat and cool with electricity and they are the less for it.

Once in awhile, if I'm lucky, I pass a house that still heats by wood. If the wind blows just right, and my windows are down, I am sent back in my head to a certain 7 mile stretch of road between the county seat and where I lived in Kentucky and I'm back in my old Ford Maverick.

What has WKRN been up to?

I've been reading small bits about the shock some people have had when it was discovered that some TV stations were broadcasting material provided by private companies in their newscasts. The problem is that they were not informing their viewers that the material was of private origin and not produced by them. What was surprising for me is that not only was it material produced outside of the station, the local TV "faces" even did the reading in many cases, as in my area.

I did not know that until I found this link to PRWatch about Fake TV News. Curiosity got the best of me and I looked to see if my state or local channels were on their map of "sinners"(my word not theirs).

Yep! There she was.

Now I had to figure out what WKRN did that was so bad to be on PR watch's shit station list.

I went to the channel breakout and found that our station broadcasted a segment for Jackson-Hewitt. I just wish I knew what the hell Jackson Hewitt sold or made. I have heard the name but could not place the product.(I need to get a working TV or get out more)

Luckily PR Watch had a nice description of what the segment entailed and a bit of doublecross performed by WKRN to my enjoyment.

On March 1, 2006, WKRN-2 in Nashville, Tennessee ran a short news feature on the best ways to deduct charitable donations on your income tax report. The segment, which was introduced and read by afternoon anchors Bob Mueller and Anne Holt, featured numerous tax deduction tips and a lengthy soundbite from an accountant.

What viewers didn't know is that the entire story was built from a video news release (VNR) from Jackson Hewitt, the second-largest tax preparation franchise in the United States. The imitation news story was created by Medialink Worldwide and reported in voiceover by publicist Kate Brookes. As a subtle promotion, the VNR featured over 30 seconds of soundbites from Jackson Hewitt CEO Mike Lister, and ended with a call for viewers to seek out a "qualified tax preparer."

Sad to see local people shil for Jackson Hewitt under the guise of a tv report. Then I read the next part and found that WKRN did broadcast it, but they also properly gelded it.

Unfortunately for Jackson Hewitt, WKRN-2 trimmed over a minute of content from the original VNR, replacing Brookes' narrative audio with the voice of Anne Holt and removing every mention of Jackson Hewitt. In addition to the loss of promotion, there was a full demotion for Mike Lister. Instead of being identified as the president of his own company, WKRN-2 merely billed him as an "accountant."

Now that double cross put a smile on my face

And to think this man wanted to be president.

McCain

"I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government."

Simply inspiring.

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” Edward Abbey

The gov at work

The prosecutors of this case want to hang him high as they have a lot at stake here. Sadly they will go to extremes to do it.

New link as previous link is now subscription only.

When the Chicken little's rule

Today it is not just the fashion to be a chicken little, but the person doing nothing wrong is punished for scaring the chickens.

"A man shooting birds with a BB gun sparked a police response that closed down a section of South Hampton Avenue north of Walnut Street."

"Springfield Police responded in force ... after receiving a report of a man behind the Child Advocacy Center, 'lying in the weeds with a rifle,' said Sgt. Randall Latch." ...

"... It took several more minutes to coax a third man from the house where the rifle-wielder was spotted."

"Once inside, officers located the BB gun in a closet. Latch said the gun was an older model that could be easily mistaken for the real thing." ...

"Latch said the three residents of the house likely would be issued tickets for disturbing the peace. 'They seem pretty remorseful at this point,' he said."

Today in the modern fairy tales Chicken little is the heroine.

And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. — Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William S. Smith in 1787. Taken from Jefferson, On Democracy p. 20, S. Padover ed., 1939

Ick!

You put what on your hands?

Slow motion bullets

A great film on bullets effects on everyday objects. Note how much the bullet had started to tumble by just passing through the banana.
[via Hammer of Truth]

"Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy ... censorship. When any government, or any church, for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." --Robert A. Heinlein, "Revolt in 2100" (Pg. 68-69, Baen Books paperback edition, 1999 printing)

At least in Tennessee we admit it.

The state is giving out some rather large raises, to the right people.

How big will your raise be this year? If you're lucky, it will be better than the one percent state workers will receive in July. But the I-Team has found that some top state officials have been getting big raises that the public does not hear about.

Those "big raises" are to state legislative staff members.

In 2003, Durham made around $115,000. Now, he makes more than $145,000 -- a 26% increase from three years ago.
Russell Humphrey is Wilder's chief of staff in the Senate. His salary increased from $104,000 to $134,000 -- 28% in three years.

My mom and wife are state workers and to say they are not happy is truly an understatement. These people must be doing a GREAT job. Right?

"Are these raises tied to performance?" asked Amons.

"No, not at all. We do not pay for performance in the legislature," said Frederick.

A rare moment of honesty..

Rolling Piggy banks

I have always had an interest in the pre-war years that are normally just lumped as "The depression" year. Stories and images can keep me occupied for hours. I was looking through the archives of the Library of Congress and I came across a picture that used a phrase I had not heard before. "Rolling Store". It mainly looked like a standard delivery truck from any store of the period but found that the history behind them was much more.



Down south the rural areas were wide and barren. Do a road trip across central Alabama and Georgia and you can get an idea even today what level of isolation was there. With this isolation a lack of services that stores could give you did not exist. Now add to this isolation a depression of unprecedented levels and you have an abandoned countryside and an opportunity for businesses to come in.

These businesses arrived in the form of homemade trucks full of the good needed by the citizens. How homemade you may ask?

The rolling-store owners had vehicles that were similarly constructed and used. Quentin Nigg of Blount County got the chassis of a one-and-a-half-ton truck with a sixteen-foot bed, enclosed it, but left room for a front windshield. William King, who serviced people in Russell and Macon Counties, bought a school-bus engine and chassis on which he and his father-in-law built a wood and tin rectangular frame. It had a center aisle with shelves on each side and room for only two people to work, one taking orders at the door and the other filling the orders. Fletcher T. Driver Sr. of Conecuh County ordered a truck bed and built a body over it with a porch on the back that held a kerosene tank, put a chicken coop under the rear end, and installed shelves. Eldon C. Simpson of Blount County bought a 1939 Chevrolet truck body, enclosed it, installed shelves, and carried a kerosene tank on one side. Iva Bryant of Calhoun County helped her husband operate his rolling store, which he built by enclosing the chassis of a school bus with a sheet-metal frame and putting a door in back that opened to an aisle that allowed the operator to walk inside the vehicle from the front seat to the back. The shelves were slanted backward to keep the merchandise in place when the vehicle went over rough roads. This was very similar to many other rolling stores such as the big blue truck owned by judge C. Everage in Andalusia, the box-shaped store owned by EcId Mannings and driven by Charles B. Vickery in Monroe County, and the store owned by B. J. Gorday and driven in Houston and Dale Counties by William Clearman.

No two alike they delivered goods across the rural south for the 30's and 40's and some up into the 60's.

They could deliver any good needed as the next picture from the Library of congress show.



Now in my reading up on these rolling stores last night one article gave some information that effected me politically and for humanitarian reasons.

numerous entrepreneurs realized an opportunity to benefit financially and also provide a service to people in rural areas by operating rolling stores. To do so they had to pay a state license tax in every county in which they operated.5 During most of the 1930s and 1940s that tax was $100 to the state, $50 to the county, and 50 cents to the probate judge. Operators also had to pay license fees of $15 to the state and $7.50 to the county to sell cigarettes and tobacco, $2.50 to the state and $1.25 to the county to sell soft drinks, and 50 cents to the probate judge for any license obtained.

Now I have always had troubles with the whole idea of licenses. A permit from the government to do what needs to be done and should be done...as long as you pay for permission is vile.

I went to "The inflation calculator" to see what the license fees would be in today's money. Adding up the standard license fees I came out with $176.75, and in today's(2005) money that is about $1909.73. The average annual wage in Alabama was $727.49 so understand how much this number they demanded to deliver a service was.

Here the country was in the depth of a depression like never experienced before and all they can do is tax and fee and keep the free market down. People had a demand and need and some wanted to make the supply, and yet for some the government kept them from that supply because of their fees.

Some owners operated in only one county because of the additional license fee required to operate in each county.

I wonder today how many areas went without this service because of the simple desire the government has to control and charge money for basic needs.

Somehow in even the worst situation the government gets in the way.