The 1% Solution

For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator.

And remember: They hate us because we're free.

We're the Only Ones Returning to the Scene of the Crime Enough

Today marks 15 years since the Branch Davidian standoff began at Mount Carmel when the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the compound. Gunfire was exchanged, resulting in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Davidians.

...[F]our carloads of federal agents left the compound this morning after paying their respects to the ATF agents who died a decade and a half ago.

I guess the bright side is, while "four carloads" of BATFUers are giving themselves a paid day off on the taxpayers' dime, they're not out there victimizing anyone. I also notice there's nothing about paying respects for the 76 people, including two pregnant women and 21 children, 12 under five, who weren't "Only Ones."

Cavalry Arms Update

As of right now, there are no new headlines to link to, nothing on the Cavalry Arms website and no BATFU braggadocio on their site.

From AR15.com comments:

innocent_bystander

Just talked to Russ.

The comments on the KTAR website are completely foreign to them.

Posted :: 2/28/2008 8:16:56 PM

Those would be the comments by "Rose J".

As disclaimed before, everything that's coming out about this is raw. In the absence of any real investigative work with credible sources (and we've seen how ignorant, shallow, easily distracted and hysterical the "Authorized Journalists" on scene have already been with this story), treat everything as just information gathering, with very little that's verifiable.

Expect the business to be circumspect. With this hanging over my head, I'd be inclined to not say anything to anybody unless through my attorney.

If you're new to this story, here are the WarOnGuns posts to date:
The BATFU Horse and Pony Show
Cavalry Arms Update: "Seize Everything"

We're the Only Ones Going Up/Going Down Enough

Ocean City police have obtained an arrest warrant for a deputy sheriff from Virginia in connection with an alleged rape.

Police say 31-year-old Zachary Taylor of Ruther Glen, Va., met a 22-year-old woman Sunday at a night club. Taylor is accused of taking the intoxicated woman to his hotel room, raping her, then leaving her in an elevator.

Forgive me for committing the chauvenistic heresy of entertaining questions, but after reading this excellent expose by Heather Mac Donald and looking at the circumstances of this story, I'm left wondering if he is truly "The Only One" whose behavior needs to be examined here...

[Via Ben R]

We're the Only Ones Beating Our Meat Rap Enough

Here's an update on a story from my neck of the woods. Last December, a Cop...got pissed at the owner of a meat market for not putting hot pepper flake in his jerky. The argument escalated until the Cop pulled his gun on the store owner.

We discussed this jerk...uh...jerky a while back.

And naturally, his fellow investigating "Only Ones" wanted to clear their trained professional and file charges against the guy who brought a box of venison to a gun fight.

[Via xilch2004]

A Bright Idea

Despite a congressional mandate banning the sale of common incandescent light bulbs by 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is warning that their compact fluorescent replacements are not safe to use everywhere.

The EPA says breakage of the energy-saving, mercury-containing CFLs can cause health hazards, especially for children and pregnant women, suggesting use of the bulbs over carpeted areas should be avoided. If bulbs break over carpeted areas, the cleanup may require cutting out pieces of the carpet to avoid toxic exposures.

I know it's not gun-related, but it certainly is freedom-related, bowing to the globalist ManBearPig alarmists.

Joe Farah at WorldNetDaily suggests the way to fight this is with a bumpersticker campaign.

Not me. I'm wondering what would happen if someone took one of these beasties, broke it into pieces, stuck it in an envelope and mailed it to his representative who voted for it, along with a note telling him they don't know how to legally dispose of it, so since he supports the law, he can deal with it.

What, it would not only be dangerous unless done in a very carefully controlled manner, plus it would violate postal regulations, and hazardous materials/waste regulations, and probably anti-terrorist laws? Gee, then in my fantasy scenario, I'd better make sure the protagonist does this with safety precautions and anonymously. For the same six bucks Farah wants for his bumpersticker, my fictitious character could probably-- in a speculative fantasy scenario that's not actually being proposed--come close to buying a bulb, a bubble wrap envelope and postage. And in this fictional speculation, they'd probably need latex gloves to keep fingerprints off everything, and make sure the enevelope and stamps weren't licked to leave DNA traces, plus figure out a way to address the note and envelope so they wouldn't be traced back to their printer or handwriting...

Good thing this is all an exercise in fantasy. But it does make you wonder--if it's a threat to the government why is it not a threat to the people they're forcing this on?

Look for American businesses to get closed down with massive noncompliance fines once this monstrosity--which is really a forced purchase from China deal--is implemented.

And please--nobody act out the fiction speculated on here: It would really be an impossible-to-ignore protest if people started doing this by the hundreds or even thousands, so the government would do its best to come down heavily and with full force on anyone they caught.

Off We Go Into a Wild Blue Blunder

[T]he Air Force is “tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word ‘blog’ in its web address.” ...Sites like The New York Times, however, will be allowed because they are “established, reputable media outlet[s].”

See, that's because the USAF is a government entity and The Times, well, they're "Authorized Journalists," so it's not like they have an agenda or anything.

Best to keep 'em unquestioning, I guess.

On the off chance this might work, here's the TinyURL address for WarOnGuns--perhaps that'll help bypass this.

In the mean time, let's do some asking around. We've learned from past experience, just because Reuters (an "established, reputable media outlet") says something is true doesn't necessarily make it so.

[Via 45superman]

This Day in History: February 29

The commanding Officers of brigades are to order all the Spears, in the several posts, and redoubts, to be examined, clean'd and collected in the proper places, and make a Return of the number fit for service in each brigade, and where deposited.

Cavalry Arms Update: "Seize Everything"

Comment poster Stephen asked:

David, do you have any contacts at Cavalry? If you do, can you get a copy of the search warrant and post it please?

I don't, but I've been corresponding behind the scenes and know Nicki is in contact with Oleg Volk, whose work is featured on the Cavalry Arms website, and Nicki tells me she and he have been in touch about this matter.

So I asked her to ask him, and just got this back:

Confirmed: nothing on the warrant other then: "Firearm law violations. Seize everything."

Does this sound like "particularly describing" to anybody?

I also found the following comment on the Newstalk KTAR Community Board. Treat it as raw information with no established credibility, meaning it may or may not be true, or parts of it may or may not be, and the poster may or may not have an agenda, and if so, we don't know what that is. For now though, it's important that we have as many pieces of the puzzle as we can find to try and picture what's going on:

More to this story!
Rose J. @ 10:11am - Thu Feb 28th, 2008

With regard to the recent ATF raid on Cavalry Arms, you might want to look into the connection between Cavalry Arms and the Phoenix Rod & Gun Club at 915 W. Olney Dr., Phoenix. Specifically, an employee by the name of Darrell “Bubba” Fretwell” who is also employed by PR&GC as their full time Range Master, President Don Reed, Treasurer Drew Pringle, and Practical Fire Arms Director Debra Fretwell (yes Darrell and Debra are related. Son and Mother), and how Cavalry Arms weapons were transferred through third party purchases intended to be door prizes for the Arizona State Action Shooting Championships and South Mountain Shoot-Out while laundering of the receipts to Cavalry Arms through the treasury of PR&GC to cover up the identity of the original buyer.

Posting this comment does not imply that I believe anything said about above-named groups or individuals is true. It's too soon to believe anything without further information.

Finally, the place where much discussion and the introduction of some original information appears to be AR15.com. I suggest those interested in breaking developments also keep an eye on that thread.

Downes' Syndrome

The criminal killing of an elk underscores the need to restrict the use of loaded guns in national parks, Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes said Tuesday.

Let's apply the same logic everywhere. If one criminal with a firearm breaks the law anywhere, the rest of us must be banned from having them everywhere.

At least according to this subversive nitwit.

A Strong Supporter of the Second Amendment

In a case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis filed a brief in favor of the draconian District of Columbia gun ban. What is odd is that Dumanis is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. We know this is true because she says so!

In other words, she's a liar.

We're the Only Ones Not Only Enough

Gun-toting toll collectors have been stripped of their sidearms by Mass Pike brass after secretly carrying them for decades without formal training, the Herald has learned.

“I didn’t want to have a wild west show out there,” said Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Executive Director Alan LeBovidge, who ordered the practice stopped. “I could find nothing to show that the employees had state police training that would make them qualified to carry guns.”

And as we've seen time and again, "The Only Ones" are...uh...the only ones "qualified to carry guns."

Welcome to the club, folks. I'd feel more sympathy, but it looks like the exclusivity you've been exploiting all these years finally caught up with you.

Now feel my pain.

[Via Mack]

Cimmerians for Thulsa Doom

From SaMaeL:

Jews for Hitler, blacks for Jim Crow, Clergymen for Atheism, and....

Republicans for Obama

The Cult of Set shows the GOP what a "Big Tent" really looks like.

Red's On Trial

From Ryan Horsley:

Red's Trading Post trial will begin in Boise on March 4th (Tuesday)...It will be at the James A. McClure Federal Building, ironically enough it was the McClure-Volkmer Act in 1986 that reigned in an abusive ATF at the time.

We just saw an example of what this man is facing, mostly alone. Instead of surrendering, he not only fought back but made himself the target of a vindictive agency backed by the full force of the government.

That's what I call brave.

It's not too late to help out.

Why Campus Safety Is In the Toilet

"Ultimately," correspondent MacEntyre writes about the Elizabeth City State University fiasco, "the president of the UNC system is to blame for this, especially since he chaired a committee to look into what they should change in response to VT.

"His name is Skipper Bowles. Heard of him before?"

Why, now that you mention it, yes. Yes I have.

(Actually, Skipper was the old man, but how could I pass on a set-up like this?)

The BATFU Horse and Pony Show

Federal agents raided a Gilbert gun store on Wednesday, seizing hundreds of high-powered and military-style weapons in the process, though authorities were silent as to why.

What did they say on the old Mickey Mouse Club?

"Why? Because we like you!"

And because they can.

Me, I'm interested in learning more about this "public/private partnership," the contractor partner in the raid, Forfeiture Support Associates. They, their relationship with the government and the people behind them deserve much closer scrutiny and should not be operating under the radar, as they will if we rely on "Authorized Journalists" to provide any kind of oversight.

They're too busy being shocked, shocked at a Cavalry Arms Internet spoof and consulting the Council on American Islamic relations about a perceived attack on "Muslim Men...for the purpose of selling a semiautomatic rifle!"

"12 News did some digging," reporterette Kevin Kennedy assures us somberly. He must not have dug too deeply, because the first thing you see when you click the video link on Cavalry Arms' website is the disclaimer:

This video is a work of satire, parodying 1950s style Public Service Announcements.

This video is not racist, as jihadists are not a race. Note, at no point do we say anything about Islam as a whole. The enemies in the video, and those our armed forces are currently fighting are radical islamic extremists.

We do not endorse the unlawful use of deadly force against anyone. All the jihadists in this video are armed, and would constitute a deadly threat in all 50 states.

But ol' Kevin and the rest of the 12 News Team apparently think the story here is about a "CONTROVERSIAL COMMERCIAL." Hey, when you're working hand-in-hand with the government on a story, you need to have a villain, and cast him in as unsympathetic a light as possible. What's a little propaganda manipulation among friends?

Never mind the staged media circus with tables full of evil, icky guns guaranteed to shock a public conditioned to disapprove why anyone needs "weapons of war." And never mind that the increasingly visible spokesjbt Tom Mangan lends his smooth telepresence to the scene.

And then never mind that not only does Cavalry Arms endorse the Second Amendment, they're not shy about using the First Amendment to promote it.

We'll find more in the coming days about the excuse behind the raid, but we do know this much: The purpose in conducting it this way was to send a message, and that message is that BATFU can and will crush a hub not only for supplying arms, but for providing training, education and information about arms use as well as the right to keep and bear them.

As with Waco and Ruby Ridge, both with strong publicity motives behind the way they were conducted, the agency is using a complicit media to shore up a reputation damaged by recent events, in this case the delaying of the "Maximum Mike" nomination.

In a sense, they've been stung and frustrated by people pushing back, and defiance is something they will not tolerate. As Star Trek's Captain Kirk said in "The Devil in the Dark" (how's that for an appropriate title?):

There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.

MORE:

Ryan asks since when has money laundering been a BATFU concern?
Nicki hears there may be a disgruntled former employee somewhere in the mix.

This Day in History: February 28

Meanwhile, General Burgoyne was in London, trying to get appointed to an independent command in North America. He brought up a plan that had been discussed by various British generals since 1775: an attempt to divide the American colonies by an invasion from the province of Quebec. This had already been attempted by General Carleton in 1776, although he had stopped short of a full scale invasion. Carleton had been heavily criticized in London for not taking more advantage of the American retreat from Canada in 1776, and he was out of favor with Germain, which meant that Burgoyne was in a good position to get command of the 1777 Canadian campaign.

Asked to submit a plan, Burgoyne outlined the strategy in a paper entitled "Thoughts for Conducting the War on the Side of Canada", and submitted it to Lord Germain on February 28, 1777. The plan was approved with modifications. Burgoyne won appointment as leader of the expedition, beating out General Henry Clinton, who was also in Great Britain trying to get an independent command of his own. (As consolation, Clinton was given a knighthood, but otherwise he had to continue serving as General Howe's second-in-command.) Burgoyne was so confident of his success that he bet a friend 50 guineas that he would return victorious within one year. Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War, pp. 79–83.

Gun-Free Zones Or Killing Fields

With all the media coverage of the types of guns used and how the criminal obtained the gun, at some point the news media might begin to mention the one common feature of these attacks: They keep occurring in gun-free zones.

Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks.

John Lott tries to introduce rationality into the debate.

One thing you're forgetting, Doc: If we do things your way, how will we ensure that Gun-Free Zones remain Drilling Fields...?

[Via Chris Horton]

SD Right to Carry on Campus Updates

South Dakota Gun Owners has two Feb. 26 updates concerning the campus bill we've been discussing here, a synopsis, and their new strategy to shift focus to elections.

As my initial source for this story writes:

I was logging on to send another round of emails, but the SDGO is reporting that we're officially dead in the water as of today. I guess it's back to "don't ask, don't tell" for carry on campus. Too bad, I was going to start carrying a decent caliber. In the past I figured I had one "get out of jail free" in that I could claim ignorance (the LAW still say it's legal, it's just in violation of the regulations, as well as the higher law). That's going to be a harder sell now, since I've been fighting this. We've got a list of which politicians will stand w/ us and which won't...

I guess they need to make sure only "The Only Ones" are armed on campus so that all acts of armed terrorism against students and faculty will be official and approved.

We're the Only Ones Terrorizing the Campus Enough

In the exercise, an undercover police officer took a classroom hostage to test the university’s emergency communications system.

It happened in Room 236 of Moore Hall during a small American Foreign Policey [sic] class. For 12 minutes, students lined up against the wall, and one began praying. Many of them, including the professor, were unaware the ordeal was a drill.

Gee, sending out emails and text messages--just like at Virginia Tech. And don't you just love the idiot administrator Anthony Brown, explaining "Those are the kind of gambles you need to play in order to find out if the system will really work"?

And lest you wonder what the "system" is, don't take my word for it, take theirs:
















So everyone is disarmed except "The Only Ones," the only morons who would pull such a bone-headed stunt--authorized, naturally, by bone-headed administrators.

We told them we were going to have a drill, they protest. Just not what kind.

Yeah, I remember those--the fire alarm would go off, the teacher would explain it's a drill and we'd need to get up and walk out in an orderly manner to our designated spot in the parking lot for a head count.

Oh, but "had anyone compromised their safety, they would have called it off right away," we're assured.

So what happens when someone is put in a situation where they think they're going to die any second? Adrenalin shoots through the system, the heart starts pumping like a trip-hammer, breath speeds up, the entire system stresses--have these idiots never heard of heart attacks? What if the new mother had still been pregnant and the shock induced a miscarriage?

And what the hell was the point of the drill? That you can scare the hell out of unarmed people? Get them to do anything you say at gun point? How does that improve campus safety?

But I guess we did prove one thing: Campus cops, even though it took 12 minutes for them to get there, plenty of time for the entire room to have been wiped out, will not hesitate to burst into a classroom in force--when they know the gunman is one of their own and the weapon he's deploying is a fake.

How about we do a real drill, give the administrators a taste of their own medicine, see if they agree it helps "to test the security measures and make faculty and students feel safe." Because it wouldn't be "our intention to frighten or scare anyone."

Honest to God, when I first received this link, I thought it was a hoax. Nobody could be that stupid, not even people who work at it like college administrators and campus "Only Ones". But I do now see why they're so intent on keeping guns out of student and faculty hands. Because had that stupid sonofabitch burst in on an armed American who knows how to handle himself, there's a good chance the day would have ended in even more violence than the "Only Ones" initiated.

And it would have served the silly bastard right.

The only thing left to do now is to identify everyone who took place in this plot to commit assault, unlawful detention, terrorist activity, and whatever other charges can be filed, and get every one of the conspirators involved charged and prosecuted by the local DA and the feds--as you or I would deservedly be if we ever committed anything so bizarrely twisted, negligent, threatening and hazardous.

[Via HZ]

"When You're Slapped, You'll Take It and Like It"

It's not the job of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to "make it harder for people to get guns."

...Perhaps Cullen should take a refresher civics class. And while he's at it, he might also sign up for a course in civility.

Stephan Goldstein demonstrates what a bitchy little lightweight Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen truly is.

Remember what Sam Spade said to Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon?

[Via Ryan Horsley]

This Day in History: February 27

Stunned, outgunned and leaderless, the loyalists surrendered, retreating in confusion. Wagons, weapons and British sterling worth more than $1 million by today's value were seized by the patriots in the days following the battle.

Don't bring a broadsword to a musket fight...?

BREAKING NEWS: TOOL POSSIBLY SPOTTED ON CAMPUS--PANIC ENSUES!!!

A college campus outside Roanoke, Va., continued under a lockdown situation Tuesday as police searched for a suspicious white man spotted by a housekeeper carrying a handgun in one of the college dorms.

Well no wonder...

[Via John Hardin]

Guest Editorial: Assassination

by Mike Vanderboegh

26 February 2008

PART ONE

"Assassination has never changed the history of the world” -- Prime Minister of Great Britain Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

"Juggernaut"

Disraeli didn't live long enough to witness the reaction to the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 -- which swept away the entire world that Disraeli knew and left millions of dead rotting in muddy graves. If he had, he might have changed his mind about the power of assassination to work evil in the world far beyond the corpse of a single victim.

As we live in a nation of historical amnesiacs, I doubt that one American in a thousand has ever heard of Herschel Feibel Grynszpan. I have, and I thought of him as I watched one of Barack Hussein Obama's flights of charismatic oratory the other day. Here's a sample:

"... a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany ... and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Obama" - Barack Obama Lebanon, New Hampshire, January 7, 2008.

Obama, it seems clear at this writing, will be the nominee of the Democrat party in this election. Forget the "Obamamania"; forget the fainting teenage girls in scenes reminiscent of Elvis, the Beatles or Hitler; forget the messianic lines such as those above; forget the fact that the "old bulls" of the Democrat party have finally decided that the eternal traveling soap opera of the Clinton co-presidency is an embarrassment they can do without. Forget all that and remember this:

In January, Mr. Obama raised a stunning $36.1 million in contributions from individuals, more than 2.5 times the $13.8 million that Mrs. Clinton raised from individuals last month. To fully appreciate Mr. Obama's feat, let's put his January windfall in perspective. Recall that Howard Dean emerged as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination at the end of 2003 in large part because he had raised $40.9 million from individuals during the entire year. In the single month of January, Mr. Obama raised 88 percent of Mr. Dean's 2003 total. And, by all indications, he did so without breaking a sweat. Moreover, if a stiff like John Kerry, who managed to raise only $19.4 million from individual contributions throughout 2003, was then able to raise a mind-boggling $180 million during the five months (March-July in 2004) after he sewed up the Democratic nomination, imagine how many hundreds of millions of dollars Mr. Obama will be able to raise before the Democratic National Convention in late August if he knocks Mrs. Clinton out in Ohio and Texas on March 4. No wonder he is running from his commitment to accept public funding for the general election if the Republican nominee agreed to do so. -- Washington Times editorial, "Obama's Financial Juggernaut," 24 February 2008.

If money is the ammunition of American politics as practiced in the early 21st Century (and it is), Hillary is about to go down in a shootout that will look like the final scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- with Obama playing the part of the Bolivian Army. Indeed, John McCain will likely also be far outgunned in the general election, which by all accounts has already begun. Hillary, say those who study the minutiae of American politics, is a dead candidate walking and John McCain ain't feeling too good either. (See Michael Barone's "The General Begins," 23 February 2008)

So, (to use an old phrase of Louisiana politics) unless someone comes up with pictures of Obama in bed with a live boy or a dead girl (and Teddy Kennedy could probably even help Barack out with THAT one) OR Osama's boys go nuclear in New York, Barack Hussein Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. Unless, that is, he meets up with a modern cousin of Herschel Feibel Grynszpan on his way to the Oval Office.

"Kristallnacht"

The son of Polish Jews who emigrated to Germany in 1911, Herschel Grynszpan was born in Hanover in 1921, where his father Sendel had a modest tailor's shop. Herschel had an elder sister, Esther, and brother, Mordechai. After Hitler came to power, the Grynszpan family began to suffer persecution. To keep their oldest son safe, in 1936 Sendel and Berta sent the 15 year old Herschel to Belguim to live with his uncle and aunt. Shortly afterward, Herschel crossed illegally into France seeking work, moving to Paris. He spent the next two years trying to get legal residence in France, without which he could not work or study legally, but was rejected by French officials. His reentry permit for Germany expired in April 1937 and his Polish passport expired in January 1938, leaving him without legal papers. Meanwhile, his family's position back in Germany was becoming desperate. The Nazi boycott of Jewish shops was killing his father's tailoring business and his siblings lost their jobs. On 26 October, the Gestapo was ordered to arrest and deport immediately all Polish Jews in Germany.

The Grynszpans were among the estimated 12,000 Polish Jews arrested, stripped of their property and herded aboard trains headed for Poland. When they got to the border, they were forced to walk two kilometers to the Polish border town of Zbszyn. But the Poles, every bit as anti-Semitic as the Nazis, refused to admit them. The Grynszpans and thousands of other Polish-Jewish deportees were left stranded at the border, fed only occasionally by the Polish Red Cross and Jewish welfare organizations. It was from Zbszyn that Berta Grynszpan sent a postcard to Herschel in Paris, telling him what had happened and pleading with him to rescue them and arrange for them to emigrate to America - which was an impossibility. Berta's postcard reached Herschel on Thursday 3 November. Herschel decided to avenge his parents' persecution.

Four days later Herschel wrote a farewell postcard to his parents and went to a gunshop where he bought a 6.35mm pistol and a box of 25 rounds, for 235 francs. He then walked to the German Embassy and went inside, asking to see an embassy official -- he later said he had wanted to kill the German ambassador. The clerk on duty asked Ernst vom Rath, a junior embassy official, to see him. When Grynszpan entered vom Rath's office, he pulled out his gun and shot vom Rath three times in the abdomen. He shouted "You're a filthy boche" and said he was acting in the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews. Grynszpan made no attempt to resist or escape. He freely confessed to shooting vom Rath, who died two days later. Grynszpan said that his motive for doing so was to avenge the persecuted German Jews. Ironically, vom Rath was in fact an anti-Nazi and was under investigation by the Gestapo at the time of his death. Heck, he wasn't even an anti-Semite but he died just the same.

The Nazis had been planning to let loose their Brownshirts on the Jewish community for some time. Grynszpan's act was just the excuse they were looking for. Vom Rath died on the fifteenth anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, the greatest day of the Nazi calendar. That night Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made an incendiary speech to veteran Nazis at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. Goebbels hinted that there might be "spontaneous outbursts" against the Jews. The assembled Nazi leaders needed no further encouragement.

Thus began the anti-Jewish pogrom known as the "Night of Broken Glass," or in German, "Kristallnacht." On the night of 9-10 November 1938 the Nazis fanned out across Germany. During Kristallnacht over 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed and 400 synagogues were burnt down. More than 1 billion Reichsmarks' damage to property was reported - and Jews were unable to file insurance claims for property losses. Ninety-one Jews were killed and more than 30,000 were sent to concentration camps (where over a thousand died within a short time of beatings, outright murder and disease). The rest were released some months later. Those who could, left Germany after that. The ones who didn't perished later with all their kin in the Holocaust. Herschel Grynszpan set out to make an anti-Nazi gesture, inadvertently killed an anti-Nazi, and gave the Nazis the excuse for the first nationwide assault on the Jews. It was the Law of Unintended Consequences writ large. And it was only the beginning. As William Shirer wrote in Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:

On the flaming, riotous night of November 9, 1938, the Third Reich had deliberately turned down a dark and savage road from which there was no return, A good many Jews had been murdered and tortured and robbed before, but these crimes, except for those which took place in concentration camps, had been committed mostly by brown-shirted rowdies acting out of their own sadism and greed while the State authorities looked on, or looked the other way. Now the German government itself had organized and carried out a vast pogrom. The killings, the looting, the burning of synagogues and houses and shops on the night of November 9 were its doing. So were the official decrees, duly published in the official gazette, the Reichsgesetzblatt . . . which fined the Jewish community a billion marks, eliminated them from the economy, robbed them of what was left of their property and drove them toward the ghetto -- and worse." (Page 434)

Gerald Schwab, who witnessed the events of Kristallnacht as a German Jewish boy and who later researched the case, titled his 1990 book The Day the Holocaust Began, as indeed it did. One wonders what Grynszpan made of the awful result of his assassination of vom Rath. We cannot know because two years later, after the fall of France, Herschel passed into German custody and thereafter disappeared into what the Nazis called "Nacht und Nebel" -- Night and Fog. Never heard of "Night and Fog?":

"After lengthy consideration, it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. The Führer is of the opinion that in such cases penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose." -- Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler, Nacht und Nebel Decree to the Gestapo, 7 December 1942.

Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel ordered: "The prisoners are, in future, to be transported to Germany secretly, and further treatment of the offenders will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because - A. The prisoners will vanish without a trace. B. No information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate."

Having served the Nazis unintentionally but well, Grynszpan vanished into the Nacht und Nebel. Grynszpan apparently died in one of their camps in the final year of the war. In one final ironic twist, Grynszpan's parents -- who had been so concerned about Herschel's safety that they sent him to "safety" within pistol range of vom Rath -- survived the war.

The Last Crossroad, or, Take Another Spin Around Dealey Plaza

"If I were Barack Obama, I wouldn't walk my dog in Fort Marcy Park." -- Neal Boortz.

Boortz's crack was obviously directed at the Clintons, who have a history, as they say. Personally, I think Obama can survive the Clintons. Their old voodoo has lost its juju, and one almost pities them in their bewilderment as Obama dances around their already-dug political graves -- almost. What is unclear at this point is whether Obama can survive the other dark forces lurking under the surface of our body politic.

We are coming up on a crossroads in our Republic's long journey, perhaps the last crossroads -- one fork of which can lead to "Kristallnacht" and "Nacht und Nebel." To the power-hungry elites who are tired of tiptoeing around the sensibilities (and latent power) of the American armed citizen to achieve their goals, Barack Obama may be worth more dead than alive.

Obama's friends and supporters have long worried about the target painted on his back. In an Associated Press story that ran a couple of days ago, David Crary reports:

For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes. They watch with wonder as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe? . . . But concern about Obama's safety transcends racial lines. He has white supporters who see him as an inspiring, youthful advocate of change in the mold of Robert F. Kennedy, and they are mindful of Kennedy's assassination just two months after King's. Pam Hart, the principal of a multiracial elementary school in the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham, said she is struck by the contrast between some of the black students there, innocently excited about Obama's candidacy, and the more anxious perspective of older people who lived through the violence of the 1960s. "My 70-year-old aunt—every time I call her, she says she's really afraid Obama is going to be assassinated. She is so worried that history will repeat itself," said Hart. (Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UVHBRO2&show_article=1)

Indeed, Monica Guzman, a liberal blogger at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/, reports that "An ugly topic is capturing attention on the Internet: Today the phrase 'assassinate Obama' appeared on a list of the top 100 Google search terms." Guzman worries that reporting on the possibility of Obama's assassination will make it a fact. Other folks see Biblical prophecy at work. At http://www.satansrapture.com/ , Harry Walther claims that he has decoded the Bible to predict this headline:

"BIBLE CODE: OBAMA ASSASSINATED; HILLARY CLINTON WINS AS PRESIDENT, WELCOMES ANTICHRIST 2010 AD."

Whatever you may think of Harry's Bible scholarship (and I don't presume to know the will of God myself) Walther does have some good advice straight out of the book of Luke: "Watch and be ready . . .Pray always that you are accounted worthy to escape all these things and stand before the Son of God." (Luke 21: 34-36.)

That's certainly good advice for Obama, given that everybody including his friends are discussing his potential imminent demise. Witness this excerpt from New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny's "Hushed Worry About Obama's Safety":

Here in Dallas, those memories were raised in conversation after conversation with several of the 17,000 people who came to see Mr. Obama at a rally last week. “Right around the corner is the John Kennedy Memorial; everyone all around me was talking about it,” said Imogene Covin, a Democratic activist from Dallas. “In the back of my mind, it’s a possibility that something might happen because he’s something to gawk at right now. But you know why I think he will be safe? He has a broad range of people behind him.” That afternoon, Mr. Obama’s motorcade passed Dealey Plaza and the Texas Book Depository building, where the fatal shot was fired at President Kennedy in 1963. Several campaign aides looked out their windows, silently absorbing the scene. Not so for Mr. Obama, who later said he had not realized he was passing the site. And no one in his car pointed it out. “I’ve got to admit, that’s not what I was thinking about,” he said. “I was thinking about how I was starting to get a head cold and needed to make sure that I cleared up my nose before I got to the arena.” (NYT, 25 February 2008)

PART TWO

"Cui Bono?"

Of course the assassination of Barack Obama would play into the most hackneyed prejudices of the collectivist left and the "mainstream" news media who serve their interests. Not that Obama isn't an object of great concern to those of us who revere the Founders' Republic. As Bob Owens and other gun rights activists have pointed out, Obama is profoundly anti-freedom when it comes to firearms. (See http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/obama_shooting_himself_in_the.php) This gun-grabbing tendency of Obama's may play a role in the general election, especially if the Heller decision goes against an individual interpretation of the Second Amendment. Of course, he has to make it to November for that to be an issue.

In addition, there is something about Obama's mesmerized followers and lack of substance that frightens many thoughtful folks. "By the Lord above, Mike, they're worse than Jonestown koolaid drinkers!" said a friend of mine after personally witnessing an Obama rally. "You could tell that they'd die for him, or kill for him, without a doubt in their minds or even knowing why," he marveled. In this, Obamamania approaches the cult of Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian, as David Codrea and others have pointed out on waronguns blogspot.

Worse than that, though, is the emerging notion that Obama may be more anti-freedom and more, yes, anti-American, than Hillary Clinton on her worst day. Witness this incredible piece of analysis from "Spengler" at the Asia Times, "Obama's women reveal his secret":

"Cherchez la femme," advised Alexander Dumas in: "When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman." In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama's women reveal his secret: he hates America. We
know less about Senator Obama than about any prospective president in American history. His uplifting rhetoric is empty, as Hillary Clinton helplessly protests. His career bears no trace of his own character, not an article for the Harvard Law Review he edited, or a single piece of legislation. He appears to be an empty vessel filled with the wishful thinking of those around him. But there is a real Barack Obama. No man - least of all one abandoned in infancy by his father - can conceal the imprint of an impassioned mother, or the influence of a brilliant wife...

Obama profiles Americans the way anthropologists interact with primitive peoples. He holds his own view in reserve and emphatically draws out the feelings of others; that is how friends and colleagues describe his modus operandi since his days at the Harvard Law Review, through his years as a community activist in Chicago, and in national politics. Anthropologists, though, proceed from resentment against the devouring culture of America and sympathy with the endangered cultures of the primitive world. Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America. The probable next president of the United States is a mother's revenge against the America she despised.

Ann Dunham died in 1995, and her character emerges piecemeal from the historical record, to which I will return below. But Michelle Obama is a living witness. Her February 18 comment that she felt proud of her country for the first time caused a minor scandal, and was hastily qualified. But she meant it, and more. The video footage of her remarks shows eyes hooded with rage as she declares: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."

The desperation, frustration and disappointment visible on Michelle Obama's face are not new to the candidate's wife; as Steve Sailer, Rod Dreher and other commentators have noted, they were the theme of her undergraduate thesis, on the subject of "blackness" at Princeton University. No matter what the good intentions of Princeton, which founded her fortunes as a well-paid corporate lawyer, she wrote, "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'Blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong."

Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public. Early in Obama's campaign, Michelle Obama could not restrain herself from belittling the senator. "I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There's Barack Obama the phenomenon. He's an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? And then there's the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy's a little less impressive," she told a fundraiser in February 2007.

"For some reason this guy still can't manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure the bread so that it doesn't get stale, and his five-year-old is still
better at making the bed than he is." New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported at the time, "She added that the TV version of Barack Obama sounded really interesting and that she'd like to meet him sometime." Her handlers have convinced her to be more tactful since then.

"Frustration" and "disappointment" have dogged Michelle Obama these past 20 years, despite her US $300,000 a year salary and corporate board memberships. It is hard for the descendants of slaves not to resent America. They were not voluntary immigrants but kidnap victims, subjected to a century of second-class citizenship even after the Civil War ended slavery. Blackness is not the issue; General Colin Powell, whose parents chose to immigrate to America from the West Indies, saw America just as other immigrants do, as a land of opportunity. Obama's choice of wife is a fail-safe indicator of his own sentiments. Spouses do not necessarily share their likes, but they must have their hatreds in common. Obama imbibed this hatred with his mother's milk.

It is a disturbing analysis of Obama that Spengler presents and should be read in its entirety by everyone interested in the future of our country. (It can be found here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html )

Spengler eschews, as do I, the notion that Obama is a closet Muslim:

Barack Obama received at least some instruction in the Islamic faith of his father and went with him to the mosque, but the importance of this experience is vastly overstated by conservative commentators who seek to portray Obama as a Muslim of sorts. Radical anti-Americanism, rather than Islam, was the reigning faith in the Dunham household. In the Muslim world of the 1960s, nationalism rather than radical Islam was the ideology of choice among the enraged. Radical Islam did not emerge as a major political force until the nationalism of a Gamal Abdel Nasser or a Sukarno failed. Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America . . ., but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States. There is nothing mysterious about Obama's methods. "A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is," wrote Karl Krauss.

And Spengler observes, "Americans are the world's biggest suckers." And, he says,

America has the great misfortune to have encountered Obama at the peak of his powers at its worst moment of vulnerability in a generation. With malice aforethought, he has sought out their sore point. . . . (Spengler details the current economic downturn and observes) In times of stress they have a baleful susceptibility to hucksters and conmen. Be afraid - be very afraid. America is at a low point in its fortunes, and feeling sorry for itself. When Barack utters the word "hope", they instead hear, "handout". A cynic might translate the national motto, E pluribus unum, as "something for nothing". Now that the stock market and the housing market have failed to give Americans something for nothing, they want something for nothing from the government. The trouble is that he who gets something for nothing will earn every penny of it, twice over. . .

It is conceivable that Barack Obama, if elected, will destroy himself before he destroys the country. Hatred is a toxic diet even for someone with as strong a stomach as Obama. As he recalled in his 1995 autobiography, Dreams From My Father, Obama idealized the Kenyan economist who had married and dumped his mother, and was saddened to learn that Barack Hussein Obama, Sr, was a sullen, drunken polygamist. The elder Obama became a senior official of the government of Kenya after earning a PhD at Harvard. He was an abusive drunk and philanderer whose temper soured his career.

The senior Obama died in a 1982 car crash. Kenyan government officials in those days normally spent their nights drinking themselves stupid at the Pan-Afrique Hotel. Two or three of them would be found with their Mercedes wrapped around a palm tree every morning. During the 1970s I came to know a number of them, mostly British-educated hollow men dying inside of their own hypocrisy and corruption.

Both Obama and the American public should be very careful of what they wish for. As the horrible example of Obama's father shows, there is nothing worse for an embittered outsider manipulating the system from within than to achieve his goals - and nothing can be more terrible for the system. Even those who despise America for its blunders of the past few years should ask themselves whether the world will be a safer place if America retreats into a self-pitying shell.

This is tough and scary stuff, to be sure and one might rightfully wonder who is serving it up. Wikipedia says that "Spengler is the pen name of an anonymous Internet columnist published in Asia Times Online since January 2000. He writes from a conservative Judeo-Christian religious perspective but in a provocatively iconoclastic style, using aspects of Western history and culture to comment on current geopolitical events."

My own guess is that he's an ex-pat Brit, probably an ex-MI5 or MI6 analyst/intellectual. (His analysis of Tolkein vs. Wagner found here http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EA11Aa02.html is a classic.) As I know from personal experience in the 90s, while the British may not always make the smart decisions, they always have the best intelligence before doing so. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard comes to mind.

“Rome had Caesar, a man of remarkable governing talents, although it must be said that a ruler who arouses opponents to resort to assassination is probably not as smart as he ought to be.” -- Barbara Tuchman

So, if we accept that Spengler is correct about Obama's inner demons, we must admit that his election to the office of President can only portend terrible times ahead. Still, one must ask "Cui bono?" Or, to whose benefit would Obama's assassination work?

The Men in Black & the Cigarette Smoking Man

You'll dress only in attire specially sanctioned by MiB special services. You'll conform to the identity we give you, eat where we tell you, live where we tell you. From now on you'll have no identifying marks of any kind. You'll not stand out in any way. Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You're a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist; you were never even born. Anonymity is your name. Silence your native tongue. You're no longer part of the System. You're above the System. Over it. Beyond it. We're "them." We're "they." We are the Men in Black. -- Zed, Men in Black, the movie.

"You're above the system." Isn't that the side of the current administration's bureaucracy that we see in the case US vs. Olofson? The ATF certainly acts as if its above the law. This is nothing new. Still, it would be silly to imagine that every evil event is the result of some conspiracy or another. I have never been one to believe that there is one human spider at the central web of our Republic's enemies. There are many competing spiders and many evil webs and the only thing they have in common is that they serve Lucifer's purpose. And despite having been pulled into the private investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing, I don't waste much time chasing "conspiracy theories." But a student of history would also be a fool if he didn't admit that unseen hands often pull distant triggers, either deliberately or inadvertently.

It is not insignificant that the Klan bombers of the 16th Street Baptist Church here in Birmingham in 1963 that killed four innocent little girls got their dynamite from an FBI informant, Tommy Rowe. (For more about Rowe, see The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo by Dr. Gary May, 2005.) It is also pertinent that Emad Salem, the FBI informant on the inside of the first World Trade Center bombing conspiracy, offered to his handlers the option of doing a "switcheroo" on the bombers, substituting a harmless powder for the deadly explosives and thereby preventing any potential catastrophe. The FBI spurned his offer. And if you believe that Tim McVeigh's call to federal informant Andreas Carl Strassmeir at Elohim City, Oklahoma prior to the OKC bombing was a wrong number, you probably still believe in the tooth fairy as well. For my money, these facts representing 30 years of FBI incompetence and/or complicity (take your pick) form what I call a pattern.

Again, cui bono? The reaction to the 16th Street church bombing broke the back of segregation in the south. It also discredited for a generation the Founders' concept of the Tenth Amendment, which had been stupidly linked to the denial of constitutional rights that segregation represented. (Much as the concept of secession, which the Founders certainly envisioned as a possibility if the central government became too onerous, was discredited by its use to defend the institution of human slavery.) The OKC bombing reelected Bill Clinton. (He said so himself, on the plane coming back to DC the day after the election. "It broke the spell," he told reporters.) And the first World Trade Center bombing (before all those embarrassing little facts about their prior knowledge came out) reinforced the FBI's cultivated image as the squeaky clean defender of America. Dragonslayers need dragons if they are to be willingly fed by the gullible peasantry.

Was Lee Harvey Oswald really the "lone gunman?" Or was President Kennedy killed by the Cigarette Smoking Man from X-Files? How about Martin Luther King? Was it "Old Smokey" as Mulder called him, or James Earl Ray? Does it matter? The Nazis did not send Herschel Grynszpan to vom Rath's Paris embassy office. But they certainly benefited from his death.

Justice Robert Jackson once warned, "I cannot say that our country could have no secret police without becoming totalitarian, but I can say with great conviction that it cannot become totalitarian without a centralized national police." He also said this: "The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice."

In the aftermath of an Obama assassination, all oppressions will be masked as justice. And it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what would happen to individual liberty in this country (especially that of American gunowners) if Obama is assassinated during the campaign. His killer would no doubt be found wearing a "Minuteman" hat, with a Gun Owners of America membership card in his wallet. The worst provisions of the PATRIOT Act and the other counter-terrorism laws passed in the last ten years would be focused on us, the armed citizenry of the United States.

So while the prospect of an Obama presidency is scary, the threat of an Obama assassination is worse. Personally, I'll take my crises one at a time as they present themselves. If Obama gets elected and proves to be as great a danger to our liberties as we fear, I'll worry about that then. But for now, if Obama comes to my town to make one of his kool-aid drinker, swooning teenybopper highfalutin' speeches, you'll find me and my friends working the crowd, protecting his skinny butt from harm. If you're smart, you will too. Just watch out for the FBI, the Men in Black and the Cigarette Smoking Man -- and the powerful elites they serve.

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com

Send in the Jews

Somehow, I don't think exclusivity for the elites, particularly anti-gun elites like Britney Spears, is what Aaron Zelman had in mind...

I do wonder if some of these armed guards are citizens (not that I think welcome guests should be made unwelcome in any way, I just want to make sure citizens are not afforded any fewer rights). Regardless, it's no wonder the vacuous world-revolves-around-my-navel crowd has so little concern for the lives and safety of their "fans"--not only do they have millions of 'em, making any one fawning worshipper easily replaceable, but in truth, any person so shallow and trivial as to give a damn about these media freaks would be useless at anything practical anyway.

[Via Tony G]

Fincher Oral Arguments Update

Location and time which oral arguments will be held in the Wayne Fincher matter:

Check in between 8:00am – 8:30am (proceedings begin at 9:00am)

Thomas Eagleton Courthouse, 111 South 10th Street, Room 24.329, St. Louis, Missouri



(Take elevator to the 24th floor and go to room 329. From there, the clerks will direct you to the correct court room once you have been checked in).

[Via Paul W. Davis]

The Winston-Salem Journal Way

Americans don’t need their guns in their holsters as they drive through and camp in our national parks. Having the gun in the trunk of the sport utility vehicle should be more than enough protection.

Truly?

And your expertise in making such a definitive and blanket statement is...? Because if you're not truly qualified, doesn't that make representing such opinions as authoritative and informed irresponsible to the point of journalistic malpractice...?

Put another way, Mr. "Authorized Journalist" Editor, if you were in a park and suddenly came under attack, perhaps you'd care to demonstrate the procedure you would use to protect, if not your family, then at least yourself? Besides making sure this didn't pop out...?

And just because you paint Ronald Reagan "a gun rights enthusiast" doesn't make it so.

But according to you, a demonstrable incompetent, coward and liar, concerns for honoring the most fundamental of human rights are "phony," and we instead must bow to the demands of public service employee unions.

I truly feel contempt for the subversive, stupid creature that wrote this.

Spiffmo has more.

We're the Only Ones Dog-Eared Enough

Police arrested a 28-year-old man Sunday on a cruelty to animals charge after he yelled an obscenity at a police dog in a patrol vehicle, according to an arrest affidavit.

I'm surprised they didn't tack on a hate crime charge against a Canine American. I pray with counseling the depression and psychological scarring will heal over time.

"The Only Ones": They can shoot your dog, but shout at theirs and hoo-boy!

[Via DONE! SEO]

'bout Time Somebody Noticed

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.

Hell, they've been doing that practically since Day One. But it's nice to see people who can do something about it starting to realize it.

That statehood contract is interesting, and probably ought to be a focus point for future legal actions.

[Via ryanmguard]

UPDATE: Stan has some comments.

Magic Bullets Redux

Seems I've seen ammo like this once before.

They're having a "What's Wrong With This Picture?" game of sorts over at The High Road.

These kids'll make fine "Authorized Journalists" some day. Hey, "write what you know"...

Good grief.

[Via HZ]

Media Hates Guns

The big media outlets have declared war on the Second Amendment using sensationalism, biased reporting, and coining anti-gun phrases in order shape
the views and opinions of their audience.

The little ones do, too.

Pretty much, with rare exceptions, they all do.

Northern VA Alert

On February 28th at Westfield High School there will be a seminar on the "Prevention of Gun Violence".

Funny (not really), out of all the featured "experts," all appear to be gun grabbers and none appear to be qualified or inclined to speak on the only thing proven to prevent "gun violence," armed personal defense...

I guess I could be cynical about the real purpose of this. Those of you who live in the area probably ought to make plans to be there to make your voices heard, especially if a media presence is expected.

This Day in History: February 26

The German Regiment
Brig. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg

Of the eight companies in this regiment, four were raised in Pennsylvania and four from Maryland. It was credited as part of the Pennsylvania Line until February 26, 1778 when it was transferred to the Maryland Line. It was officially designated the 8th Maryland Continental Regiment, but seldomly referred to that way

Who's from Minnesota?

I got an email in response to this from the Northlands NewsCenter News Manager:

Hi David,

I am interested in your view point on this legislation. Can you let me know from a proponents stand-point, the value of the legislation. Will you also let me know if you'd be interested in sharing your thoughts on a follow-up report on this pending legislation?

Well, why the heck not? My response:

Sure, Barbara,

The assertion by the representative of Project Minnesota is offensive on its face, assuming citizens are bloodthirsty and looking for excuses to commit murder. Her terminology "shoot first" is a press release invention of the Brady Campaign, and it is meant to scare, rather than inform. It's wrong, mean and arrogant to believe that the law abiding are champing at the bit to have the law changed so they can commit mayhem.

In fact, similar "Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground" laws have been enacted in many states to date, such as Florida in 2005, and now expanding, while others have had versions recognized either by prior statute or case law. When such reforms are proposed, as with states that have enacted laws providing for concealed carry, we have been confronted with dire predictions of "Dodge City" and blood in the streets over fender-benders.

These never seem to come to pass the way predicted, though, because good people don't turn suddenly bad in the presence of tools. And the side that never seems to be discussed is the observable and demonstrable fact that guns in private hands save lives. Most of the time without a shot ever being fired.

Reporter Wallace could have looked at the legislation in question and seen for herself the circumstances when deadly force is authorized. Look at Subd. 2, and you tell me if you think Deputy Chief Breyer's couch-sleeping drunk scenario seems like a qualified exemption.

This bill will not exempt anyone from criminal charges or civil liability unless the specific standards are met. By further eliminating a duty to retreat, we won't be second-guessing (and further victimizing) the person whose life is being threatened to make the best decision their judgment tells them is appropriate under the circumstances--especially considering the decision must be made in a split instant and under extreme stress. Fleeing or fighting is built into the species, but there is no one-size-fits-all correct decision for everyone under every situation. There are times when a physically superior assailant can outrun you, or you don't dare turn your back, or the safety of others may be involved.

I hope this helps clarify things. As for a follow-up report, sure, I've done interviews, but I'm not from Minnesota--I present things to a national audience, both in my monthly GUNS Magazine "Rights Watch" column, and via my blog, The War on Guns. If you need a local for TV face time, let me know if you'd like me to help find a knowledgeable contact in your area.

If you need to speak further, you can either reply here or give me a call (XXX)XXX-XXXX.

I appreciate your willingness to investigate further, and hope you make sure your viewers know another viewpoint exists.

David Codrea

Her reply:

Thanks for the information David. I had hoped you were from the area but I'm sure we can find like-minded citizens in our area. I hope we can follow this story later this week when the "Protect Minnesota" group lobbies at the state capital in St. Paul. If you know anyone from this area who can represent your viewpoint, or who plans to be in St. Paul on the other side of the issue, I would appreciate the information. Thanks for watching our web site, which is, I assume, where you got Ms Wallace's story.

So much for testing my face-made-for-radio theory. But here's the thing--they're gonna be back, and they're interested in hearing about this from someone who is knowledgeable.

Do we know anybody with credibility in that neck of the woods? Or should I just forward this to NRA and put their state lobbyist in touch with her?

Newcomers

More than 100 irate Las Vegas newcomers crowded into a meeting room at the Aliante Public Library on the evening of Feb. 13, jeering, heckling and throwing things at elected officials and Clark County staff invited to explain plans – 24 years in the works – to build a 900-acre shooting park in the empty desert north of town.

Got that? "Irate newcomers."

Heartland Institute put out an interesting article about how people are fleeing more repressive states, and this map is pretty instructive.


Idiots foul their own nests and then seek refuge in places that haven't, and then try to impose the same crap that messed things up in the first place. It's because they just don't really want to live without controls--or allow you to do so either. And coming from an entitlement mindframe, they expect you to adapt to them.

Damn goobacks.

LA Times on "Maximum Mike"

The nominees, many of whom have been awaiting Senate confirmation for months, are being treated like "political pawns," Bush said earlier this month.

Michael J. Sullivan, the president's choice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is one of them.

That's one hell of an unfounded assumption to jump to, particularly since The Times had access to Ryan's blog.

It's nice to see him get some ink and attention, but the tone of this makes "Maximum Mike" the victim, and totally ignores the intimidation and vendetta that are the hallmarks of BATFU.

Ryan, my advice would be to write a letter to the editor and tell your side: summarize your experience, how the Red's infractions have been no threat to public safety, how the standards you're judged by are often undocumented and arbitrary, the pettiness and harassment you have undergone, and the human side of the impact this has had on you. Oh, and to better your chances, keep it under their suggested limit of 150 words...

We're the Only Ones Standing Our Ground Enough

A man from rural Hammond, Wis., was shot dead late Saturday by St. Croix County sheriff's deputies, who said he pointed a shotgun at them.

What, you mean they weren't looking for an excuse to kill someone? They stood their ground and had no duty to retreat?

Why do you think it is that "Only Ones" have such obvious superior judgment and morality over us mere citizens?

Thrilla in Manila

The Philippine National Police will implement a one-week gun ban to "prevent movement of firearms," amid mounting calls for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, PNP Chief Avelino Razon announced Monday.

Don't worry--I'm sure it won't be a total ban...

Just Another Excuse

"We think it's just another way for people to shoot people and have an excuse to shoot them."

Look, Joan Peterson, I really can't help if you and your fellow Project Minnesotaites have such low regard for your own morality and self control that you need to project your deficiencies onto others.

As for you, Deputy Chief John Breyer, that's all I need is some "Only One" telling me when it's appropriate to use force. And I'm sure a drunk on the couch in the wrong house is a damn near universal experience we all can relate to.

And as for the third member of this unholy triune, LeAnn Wallace, the Northland's News Center, I guess it would have been too much work to maybe actually tell your viewers what the legislation really provides for, as opposed to what Joan Peterson and Chief Breyer say it does, or maybe even to talk to a proponent of the bill to get their take on it, and maybe give your viewers some balance in what is being presented as a straight news story, but in typical "Authorized Journalist" fashion is merely just another free advertisement for the citizen disarmament lobby...?

WRSA Practical Pistol Course

Brookings, OR - March 15-16

...this year's first WRSA event, designed to make sure you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals in using your handgun for its designed purpose.

That sounds like a heck of a weekend, doesn't it?

Click on the title link for information on what will be covered and how you can attend.

This Day in History: February 25

"And following the name was the fascination of the flag. The Reverend Slaughter happened to come across a February 25, 1776, copy of the London 'Morning Chronicle,' and in it he saw, as he called it, 'a remarkable article in these words': 'The Americans have a flag with a snake with 13 rattles on it, in the attitude to strike, and with the motto, "Don't tread on me." It is a rule in heraldry that the worthy properties of an animal on a crest should alone be considered. The rattlesnake is an emblem of America, being found in no other part of the world. The eye excels in brightness. It has no eye-lids, and is therefore an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, and never surrenders, and is therefore an emblem of magnanimity. She never wounds until she has given warning. Her weapons are not displayed until drawn for defence. Her power of fascination resembles America - those who look steadily on her are involuntarily drawn towards, and having once approached, never leave her. She is beautiful in youth, and her beauty increases with age. Her tongue is forked as lightning.'"

These Changing Times

Change...

No change...

I'm confused. What is it the controlling socialist elites want?

All Fired Up for Gun Control

Let me get this straight:

Yvette Cade chose a man who found "numerous sadistical ways to intimidate" her.

He kept a baseball bat under the bed. He poured gasoline on her and set her on fire.

So she's out there including a demand for gun control in her testimony?

What if a tormenter wants to ensure a defenseless victim, Yvette? What would stop him from filing abuse charges against her, maybe producing a self-inflicted scratch or bruise as evidence, and making sure she couldn't protect herself?

[Via KABA Newslinks]

At the Request of the Bush Administration...

Here I go grousing about what ought to be looked at as incremental progress. What an ingrate.

But I'm not even going to focus on how they could--if they wanted to--make the goal one of enforcing the Second Amendment in National Parks regardless of state law...that's not the purpose of this post.

Look at the great care taken to credit the Bush administration. See? Republicans--now matter how much they betray us--are different from democrats. They give us scraps and crumbs. And we can then tell each other how large the portions are, and how delicious they taste.

Forget the guy just sent in his solicitor general to sabotage Heller. This is the counterbalance, and makes it all better.

We're allowing ourselves to get sucked into political bipolar madness here, hell, many of us want to be deceived. So we have the depressed low with Paul Clement's brief, but now, rejoice, a cause for manic high!

Now go out there and vote McCain! Before it wears off.

Not Dead Yet

A small group of Senators derailed an important Second Amendment bill that was passed by the House by a 63-3 margin. House Bill 1261 was narrowly defeated in the Senate 14-17, but a procedural move is likely to resurrect the issue under a different bill number.

I've been trying to rally support for this because a South Dakota reader asked me to. NRA-ILA urges immediate action, as "Only one week remains in the 2008 legislative session."

About Those Domestic Concentration Camps...

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

What's been portrayed as the "fringe" of the "Patriot movement" has been clamoring for attention about this for years, complete with posting photos on the Internet. But they generally can't break it out beyond their circle--and are ridiculed as tinfoil hat militia kooks. The lefties get ahold of the issue, mention the dreaded Halliburton, and it makes the San Francisco Chronicle --as the subject of legitimate discussion and thought requiring congressional action.

Here's the thing: say it's all true, every word of it, (and with the way things are going, as well as recent government efforts to associate being a patriot with being a terrorist, nothing will surprise me any more), why is it the political left in general, and "Greens" (like authors Seiler and Hamburg) in particular, aren't the biggest proponents of the individual rights/insurrectionary theory interpretation of the Second Amendment out there? Have you ever met a Green who's not a statist gungrabber?

In truth, it strikes me as incredibly naive to think that there aren't efforts underway constructing facilities to be used if and when a national emergency is declared. In a society where people trusted their government (that is, in one where "civil defense" was treated and valued as a participatory partnership, rather than the Soviet "Homeland Security"/FEMA cattle-herding monstrosity conceived by the bureaucrats), you'd think such contingencies would be demanded and prepared for, with heavy and enthusiastic volunteer citizen involvement--why, we'd probably make a weekend fair out of it, complete with rifle matches and prizes.

Somehow though, and call me kooky, I just don't think that's the same vision shared by the feds.

[Via ZG]

Grading the Graders, Revisited

And, as I stated in my last post, the great state of Alaska scored 4 points out of a possible hundred, and ranked 44th out of 50. I guess we must be doing something right...

I found that the Brady's consistent top performer in terms of gun ownership legislation, The People's Republik of Kalifornia, is also the biggest offender in gun-related crimes.

The Mad Hatter looks at the relationship between Brady grades for states and "gun violence."

This Day in History: February 24

February 24, 1777
"set out at 8 o clock. Crossed 2 Very bad cracks before we got of. Foxes on ye Island. then I walked to ye Narrows with one Frost & Majr. Stevens, where we sounded the depth of the water, 7 fathoms in one place &c. and the width of the Chanel is 280 yards between ye two Islands, then rode to Sabath day point where we made a good fire, fed our horses & Eat some Vituals & then rode of in a Very great Snowstorm, wind at N. W. got to Ti about 5 o clock." -- Col. Jeduthan Baldwin

Opinions Needed

I need some expert opinions. I have a customer that has an AR-15 11.5" barrel, gas port is .096" and it is going full auto. There are no FA parts in the gun. I have never experienced this before, any ideas?

While I don't pretend to be an expert, here's my opinion.

For God's sake remove this post and thread from your forum immediately. I purposely didn't include a link to it because I don't want to help in you or your customer's destruction. If you need expert help beyond your experience, it's best to get it quietly. Trust me, you'll end up paying a lot less.

[Via Len Savage]