Notes from the Resistance...
An attorney for clergyman Wiley S. Drake confirmed Wednesday that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating the pastor's endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid, written on church letterhead and announced during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.
Thanks to Joe in Memphis for bringing this to my attention, and who correctly points out that no such scrutiny is reserved for our old pal Snuffy Pfleger.
I've actually met Wiley Drake--the man is unafraid to take on the powers that be for what he believes in, which in many cases is taking in those that the rest of society will not. As a result, they try to marginalize and dismiss him.
An interesting guy--I don't always agree with him, case in point, Mike Huckabee, but no one can question the man's courage or commitment. We need more like him.
This does illustrate the problem when you make your church a legally recognized not-for-profit corporation. Invite that devil in, and he'll be pleased take you up on it. The flip side is, if you don't, donations dry up, and the good works along with them.
Residents of fast growing areas in Bexar County are complaining of packs of wild dogs running loose down streets, and menacing children at school bus stops, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.
Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.
House Bill 2833, introduced by State Representative Martha Garcia, (D-13), would require that all handgun and “assault weapon” ammunition manufactured or sold in Arizona to be coded with an individual serial number, and entered into a statewide database at the time of sale. Encoded ammunition would be registered to the purchaser and would include the date of transaction, the purchaser’s name, date of birth, driver’s license number, and the serial number of the ammunition.Here's the bill.
A Central Florida teacher has been fired because he kept a handgun in his truck in the school parking lot...So how in tarnation did they find it?
A hearing officer had recommended just a 90-day suspension, but school board members said that would have set a bad example for students...Yeah, a much better example would be to let everybody get massacred by an intruder and be utterly helpless to protect them.
He was carrying the gun legally. He was charged with possession of a firearm on school property, but that charge was dropped in June.Well, sorry, pal:
[W]e believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period ... with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.Wayne said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Deputy gets speeding ticket: 96 in a 45Yeah, I'm sure you and I would just get cited. I doubt they'd arrest us for fleeing or impound the car for no proof of isurance just because we're not "Only Ones"...
A former southern Indiana sheriff accused of forging other officers' signatures and improperly keeping weapons turned over to his department faces three to 11 years in prison.Sorry...I got distracted reading about the "matronly" daughter-in-law...
A new bill proposed at the legislature would allow for police to withhold misconduct reports from the public. Supporters of the bill believe that police misconduct should be kept secret from the public so to not discredit police testimony. Others say that a forthright police unit is essential to the community.Yeah, letting roaches hide in the dark is always a surefire way to rid yourself of them.
After Castillo refused to cough up the price of two movie tickets, Curtis flashed his badge and placed him under arrest.Practical examples of what Buttars will allow to spread. (Sorry.)
Authorities said an auxiliary police officer accidentally shot and killed his son as the two were examining a sniper rifle at their central Ohio home.I didn't want to give this a standard "Only Ones" title because some things you need to treat with a bit more empathy--I cannot imagine this man's guilt and agony.
Next time you're reaching down for that iPod or Zune (or anything else for that matter), take care that you don't alarm the authorities with any suspicious movements -- or you could end up like the UK's Darren Nixon. Apparently, the mild-mannered mechanic was on his way home from work when the Bobbies surrounded him and drew their guns, believing that the MP3 player in his pocket was a firearm.Maybe it was one of those music hose assault iPods that plays tune after tune with just one push of the button...and couldn't ear buds be considered silencers?
The Baltimore Police Department suspended a police officer after a video surfaced on the Internet showing the officer berating two kids for skateboarding, putting one of them in a headlock and pushing the boy on the concrete.Somebody needs to teach "Only One" Salvatore Rivieri respect is earned. If he tried this on a man, there's a chance he'd have landed on his ample rear end. If I'd been one of those kids, I'd have been inclined to just run--this overweight raging goon would never have been able to catch them.
Police hunted Wednesday for a man who entered a psychologist's office with a bag of knives and a meat cleaver, hacking her to death so savagely that blood spattered the walls and floor and the entire room was torn apart...
"Safety is always a concern," Brennan said. She added that therapists are thoroughly trained in how to assess a patient's potential for violence, and would normally see patients in a private setting only if they had determined that the safety risk was low.
(1) Supports nationwide licensing of firearm ownership based on attainment of legal voting age; clearance following a criminal record background check; and demonstrated skill in firearm knowledge, use, and safety;Great job that doorman and those cameras, did, huh? As for the contention of being "thoroughly trained," it just shows the danger of expecting expertise in all areas just because someone has a doctorate. You're not trained to deal with violent people unless you're also prepared and equipped to stop them.
(2) Encourages federal, state, and local governments to increase specific legal, regulatory, and enforcement efforts to reduce widespread, easy, and unsupervised access to firearms by children and youth;
(3) Supports the development, implementation, and evaluation of school-based programs to educate children and youth regarding the prevention of firearm violence and the reduction of both unintentional and intentional death and injury caused by firearms.
"Tyree, tell me about Spanish Man's Grave." Sergeant Tyree spat left and looked squint-eyed under his hat brim at Ross Pennell. "Can't rightly tell much, sir. Never been there. Only hearsay. He drawed a picture of it once -- Captain MacAfee. Spanish soldiers ridin' an' marchin' up from Santa Fe coupla centuries ago, all shinin' in armor and golden helmets, with plumes and yellow silken flags. Musta been purty." Tyree shook his head. "But it didn't work out. The Apaches caught the whole kit and kaboodle of 'em in the tablelands and killed every mother's son. Got 'em like at the bottom of the well, they say. Ever since then it's been Apache holy ground. It did something to their bad god for all time. Only their good god lives in the Grave. Once the Apaches get in to Spanish Man's, they're safe home. Big and powerful medicine that protects them."
"Anybody from Fort Starke ever been there?" "No white man was ever there, is what I think. A lot of 'em will lie they was, but I think only them dead caballeros know where it is, and they ain't a one of 'em ever talked since the massacre." "Tyree," Pennell said, I wonder what those Spaniards did wrong?"
"I ain't a man to blame dead men," Tyree said, "but the captain used to say an army ought to have a lotta brains before it shows a lotta flags. He used to say it ought to be able to shoot 'possible' before it lets the band play too loud. And he used to say that only a well-trained veteran looks right in a bright uniform, and that dirty uniform shirts make the best empires. But maybe we'll find out what the Spaniards did wrong, Mr. Pennell. I've knowed we was goin' to the Grave fer four days." . . . -- "Spanish Man's Grave" by James Warner Bellah in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.
"Wherever ten or twenty of them in dirty shirt blue were gathered together -- that became the United States." --James Warner Bellah, from his screen adaptation of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
"Mr. Pennell," he spoke haltingly, "this . . .is as far as I go," and he sat there with his eyes closed, like marbles in his skull. Marbles covered with chicken skin. A worn-out man, old before his time, drained dry by the Colors, sitting his mount a thousand miles down the wastelands, staring at distant smoke with his eyes closed.
"Mr. Pennell, there are only three things to remember out here. Always make them think you are in force, or will be soon. Always frighten them until they stop thinking and take refuge in Medicine. Then turn it against them, spoil its power and break it, so they can't trust anything. And always treat your luck with respect, so that it will never turn against you. This time I was going to take the patrol down and try to find Spanish Man's Grave. I wanted to show dirty uniform shirt blue down there and spoil that Medicine for them. The Apaches have been living too long on that old massacre story -- believing too much in their immunity. Flout it in their faces, show them that the gods hate them, too, and you've gone a long way toward making them behave. I want you to take the patrol down."
"We're going to the Grave because the Apaches are going. They're going because they're running to Medicine, for protection -- to get away from two companies. Drive 'em to Medicine, turn it on 'em, show 'em its no good either! That's the second thing you always do." . . . "Those dead Spaniards," Pennell said, "came through the easiest route. The fact that they were all killed means they must have laid themselves open to tactical murder. They've done it all through their history; that's why they've got no history left, only a record."
Pennell called to the little Graeme girl again to lie flat and wait, and again the patrol fired, and again, until there was no more sound of thrashing agony, no more panther rush to get away, no more Apaches to teach the niceties to.
As time went by we built the mythology of the Minute Men even further. We depicted them as a small but courageous band of farmers who responded to a spontaneous call to arms, an untrained and poorly armed rabble. The truth, of course, was very different. There were actually 14,000 colonials under arms in the militia and Minute Man regiments. They were alerted by organized alarm riders via a system that dated back to the 17th century wars. They had trained intensively for a year and were armed with the same type weapons as the British. Lexington was an important battle in the history of the United States, not only because it was the opening moment of the war that created our country but also because it provides us a microcosm of the drift to war -- with all the tensions, the misinterpretations, the fears and the posturings, the courageous and the foolish acts that augur the clash of arms. The distortion of this historical event has kept us from some vital insights concerning the way that wars begin. . ." -- General John R. Galvin, The Minute Men, The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution, Pergamon/Brassey, 1989, pp. VIII & IX
"Tonight was a lark. It was practice. Prepare your mind to endure its like again and again, until it is nothing to you, until you can laugh in Polnikes' face and return his insults with a carefree heart. Remember that boys of Lakedaemon have endured these harrowings for hundreds of years. We spend tears now that we may conserve blood later. Polynikes was not seeking to harm you tonight. He was trying to teach that discipline of mind which will block out fear when the trumpets sound and the battle pipers mark the beat. Remember what I told you about the house with many rooms. There are rooms we must not enter. Anger. Fear. Any passion which leads the mind toward that 'possession' which undoes men in war. Habit will be your champion. When you train the mind to think one way and one way only, when you refuse to allow it to think in another, that will produce great strength in battle. . . Habit is a mighty ally, my young friend. The habit of fear and anger, or the habit of self-composure and courage." (Dienekes) rapped the boy warmly on the shoulder; they both stood. "Go now. Get some sleep. I promise you, before you see battle again, we'll arm you with all the handiest habits." -- Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.
"Nearly all top pistol shooters dry fire—that is, they 'shoot' without ammunition. It can be done at home, after checking to make sure the gun is not loaded. Recoil obscures problems of technique, not to mention flinching. The goal of dry firing is to keep the sights on the target after the hammer falls. Repetition grooves muscle memory and enhances your ability to concentrate, enabling you to pull the trigger without disturbing the sight alignment." (Source: http://www.thetipzone.com/tip_pages/shooting/handgun.html)
"When you have a chance to just sit back with no immediate worldly attention needed, you can train for shooting by imagining you are shooting. A boring meeting where you might be called upon for input is probably not a good place, but a snack break or lunch time might be. If you have this type of relaxed time, put it to use. Start by thinking about being at the range. Mentally rehearse all the steps taken to perform a perfect shot, all the way through checking it and finding it to be that perfect shot. Never even joke that it might have been less than perfect. All mental practice should be done visualizing perfect results. Perform these exercises whenever time permits. Be sincere. Don't just try; do!" (Source: ibid.)
"He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms." -- Psalm 18:34
It was aboard RANGER early the following year that Jones made his next historic date with the American flag. On February 14, 1778 as he sailed toward his historic raid on Britain, Jones convinced the French fleet to salute his ship. This moment is generally regarded as the first time that a foreign power officially recognized the American flag. Jones then went on capture the British ship DRAKE in its own home waters. This and his bloodless attack on the ports near his birthplace earned him the reputation as "pirate", "traitor" and "terrorist" in the United Kingdom.
