Monday, May 30, 2005

A Memorial Day Remembrance

Years ago, when some friends and I launched the GunTruths website, I wrote an article about some of the flames we'd been receiving from antis who took offense at our unapologetic advocacy of the right to keep and bear arms.

One particularly hate-filled Brit wrote:

"When you broke away 200 years ago realise why we don't think it was as great a victory as you do! There have been lots of events over the years that have shown the US to be less than willing to participate in warfare, and when you do, your preoccupation with firing missiles or dropping bombs from a 'safe' distance means that our guys are in more danger from you. Don't get too close you might get your uniforms dirty!"

My observations follow. The complete article is on KABA.

How do you deal with this? These are people who think that pledging your "lives fortunes and sacred honor" against tyranny is no big deal. These are people who took out ads in newspapers pleading for Americans to "Send guns to defend a British home". These are people who, despite the experience of two world wars in the last eighty years disparage the concept of being invaded and needing guns, all the while living under the protective shield of a largely American NATO deployment throughout Europe. Tonight, as they sleep, United States military forces will be standing guard in the darkness.

I cannot but consider such unfair and stark ingratitude against the recollection of my boyhood visit to the World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Italy, where, beneath an ordered formation of uniform white crosses, my Uncle Nick is interred. He never grew past his teens, never went to college, never married, had children, a career, or grandchildren. I can only speculate as to the paralyzing horror, the denial, the sorrow, and the helpless, tragic realization of finality that my grandparents must have gone through with the loss of their baby, their laughing, lovely boy, their cherished only son.

Trust me, beneficiaries of his sacrifice, Nick Morrison's uniform got dirty.





"The World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial is situated at the north edge of the town of Nettuno, Italy. It is just east of Anzio and thirty miles south of Rome...Beyond the pool is an immense field of headstones of 7,862 American military Dead arranged in gentle arcs which sweep across the broad green lawns beneath rows of Roman pines... On the white marble walls of the chapel are engraved the names of 3,095 American Missing who gave their lives in the service of their country and whose remains were never recovered or identified."
--From The American Battle Monuments Commission

No Victims

Deborah Ann Courtney has a new website. In her words:

"Everyone else was either working to get Mc Clintock or Ahnold elected; I was by myself in a courtroom, with one friend, Randy Herrst, not even my family, because my Momma was dying of cancer, and I delivered this statement, as I went deep into myself, and for some reason, the courtroom was jam packed, and silent, and when I was done, and wanted to crumple, a thunderous roar of applause filled the room, and the judge allowed me a few moments of triumph, that grew with the encouragement of the crowd, and as they gave me a standing ovation in the courtroom. My finest moment, his worst fear.

"It is so important that we as victims teach others to become victors. The crowd showed me, now we need to show each other."

Tagging Along

Claire Wolfe just "book tagged" me.

Wow--I'm honored. Really.

I feel like Garth and Wayne.

How can I decline?

Total number of books I've owned: No idea. It must be in the thousands.

Last book I bought: Easy. I'm wearing the t-shirt as I type.

Last book I read: I just finished it today. And what's this talk about maybe not doing a sequel? You can't just leave me hanging like this!

Five books that mean a lot to me:
[These are not listed in any particular order, and there are many more books that mean a lot to me than just these five. So this list is not fixed.]

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Bible

Prodigal Genius by John J. O'Neill

The Federalist Papers by Publius

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Tag five people and have them do this on their blogs:

Jed

Nicki

Matthew

Kevin

Say Uncle

There are many more books and many other bloggers that could have been listed here. This reminds me of a scene from the end of the movie version of The Time Machine where Filby and the housekeeper discover George has returned to the future and has taken three books from his library. They don't know which ones he selected as being the most useful for rebuilding a civilization.

"Which three would you have chosen?" Filby asks.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Jedi Gibberish

Rational Review links us to "Star Wars: Are the Sith Selfish?" by Edward Hudgins of The Objectivist Center.

Hudgins calls our attention to a particularly ludicrous aspect of the Jedi Code articulated by Yoda: "that fear of loss is the path to the Dark Side; that attachment leads to greed; and that one should release oneself from that which one fears to lose. If one lets go of fear -- which by Yoda's logic implies giving up what one loves --, loss cannot harm one.

"Well there's a pretty bleak choice! If you really love something -- your wife, children, career -- fear of their loss could drive you to commit every kind of immoral act. Self-interest leads to Darth Vader. The only alternative: self-sacrifice; love nothing. On Yoda's theory, why should he and the other Jedi love the Republic and liberty?"

Good call, pointing this out.

We took the kids to see the film the other night. Special effects are great. Basics, like acting and dialog, could use some work. Hayden Christensen did a better job than most critics are giving him credit for. Brilliant veteran performers like Samuel L. Jackson sounded like they were doing rehearsals for the school play.

Another thing that bugged me is how those on the "good" side kept equating freedom with "democracy."

My final objection was when Obi-Wan saved himself using a handblaster, and afterward threw it to the floor with a disgusted "How uncivilized!"

Maybe, pal. But you used it, didn't you?

Saturday, May 28, 2005

A Numbers Game

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa won the recent election 59% to 41%. Of the 1.5 million registered voters, 30.5% turned out, that is, 448,857 went to the polls or cast absentee ballots.

Here's what a few hundred thousand people decided about the course of gun rights in the City of Angels:

According to Gun Owners of California's Assembly Scorecard, Villaraigosa earned a 0% rating in 1999.

Not that Republican darling Jim Hahn would have been any better.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

"The United States wants Britain's proposed identity cards to have the same microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents.

"The aim of getting the same microchip is to ensure compatability in screening terrorist suspects."


Sure it is. It's for your own good. It has nothing to do with global control. Where do such silly ideas come from?

Hush now. Go back to sleep.

Have you joined The Real ID Rebellion?

Why not?

"The So-Called Gun Show Loophole"

Per NRA-ILA:
"Amendment 22, the law that closed the so-called gun-show loophole to require background checks on gun buyers, could be altered for the first time by the Colorado legislature."

Per NRA-ILA:
A lawmaker wants to remove some language from the voter- approved law that closed the so-called "gun-show loophole" regarding criminal background checks in 2000.

Per NRA-ILA:
"There Is No Gun Show Loophole"

Per NRA-ILA:
"In its desperation to abolish gun shows, AGS also continues attempts to fabricate a gun show 'loophole.'"

Per NRA-ILA:
"Proponents say their bill is a single-purpose effort to close a so-called 'gun show loophole,' but S. 890 contains numerous complications and loopholes that give a single federal official the ability to shut down gun shows entirely, register citizens who attend shows and impose many other restrictions that have nothing to do with background checks on purchases."

And how do these words and warnings translate into actions?

In a compromise engineered by NRA-ILA:
"[S]enators voted 34-25 to approve the NRA-backed proposal to close the so-called "gun show loophole."

New Weapon System Shoots Around Corners...

...but it won't be available to We the People because you don't need to shoot around corners to hunt deer.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

"A: WOULD YOU BELIEVE I QUIT A DAY JOB JUST TO DO THIS."

Yes, Joel.

We would.

Law and Order

Correspondent Robert Lewis is angry over last night's episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." They apparently used the show as a platform to seed the audience with gun control propaganda.

I've heard that L&O has long been a subversive show. I’ve never watched it myself, but I remember channel surfing through it and stopping long enough to hear Jerry Orbach’s character tell the crime scene photographer to “Send the pictures to Charlton Heston.”

That was enough for me.

Richard Belzer and his porn actress wife signed a Violence Policy Center letter urging Congress and the President to enact a “stronger assault weapons ban.”

Face it--the preponderance of TV shows glorifying cops and prosecutors enforcing "law and order" is no accident.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Sure, Sen. McCain, It's Right Here in the Constitution

This guy is pure, megalomaniacal evil.

Yeah, I know he was a "war hero."

So was Benedict Arnold.

The War on the Bill of Rights

From JPFO:

The FBI is investigating library checkout records in its "War on Terror."

A librarian said "no."

"The Library had consulted their lawyer and done their homework, so they told the FBI that it would have to follow the proper procedures. About a week later, the FBI served a subpoena upon the Library, demanding a list of everyone who had borrowed that book since November 2001...

"After the Library's legal challenge, the FBI withdrew its request. Ms. Airoldi learned, however, that under the Patriot Act, the FBI could go to a secret court to obtain a court order to obtain the borrowing records."


That apparently is not good enough.

From The Washington Post:

"The FBI on Tuesday asked the U.S. Congress for sweeping new powers to seize business or private records, ranging from medical information to book purchases, to investigate terrorism without first securing approval from a judge...

"The proposed new powers, long sought by the FBI, have been added by Republican lawmakers, acting on the wishes of the Bush administration, to the new draft of the USA Patriot Act."


How does the propaganda slogan go, "If you're not with us, you're against us"?

Squarely against over here, guys.

Oh, but wait, here's their rationale:

"Committee chairman, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, noted that other government agencies already had subpoena power to investigate matters such as child pornography, drug investigations and medical malpractice. He said it made little sense to deny those same powers to the FBI to investigate terrorism or keep track of foreign intelligence agents."

No doubt the same treasonous black robes who rule the Second Amendment is a collective state power have abetted the destruction of the Fourth Amendment as well.

That doesn't make it right. That doesn't make it Constitutional.

Mr. Franklin warned us about trading liberty for security.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Open Inquiry to the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team

Since I seem to be fixated on numbers this morning, I have a couple simple questions for the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team:

Since your unit was activated in 1983, how much money, total, have your operations cost the American taxpayer?

How many hostages have you rescued?

How much is that per hostage?

Oh, I guess I also need to factor in how many "hostages" you haven't rescued...

By the way, you guys wouldn't happen to know anything about a BIG METAL DOOR, would you...?

The "pH" Factor

My Very Own Cultural Degeneracy Indicator

Google hits for “Patrick Henry
“Results 1 - 10 of about 885,000 for ‘Patrick Henry’.”

Google hits for “Paris Hilton
“Results 1 - 10 of about 6,060,000 for ‘Paris Hilton’.”

I wonder what the ratio of no return is, where the culture as a collective deserves to be doomed?

Monday, May 23, 2005

Josh Horwitz Waves Red Flag

"The standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco -- often cited as proof that the government can and does abuse its power -- illustrate why armed resistance is a dead end. Randy Weaver and David Koresh may have had good reasons to distrust the government, but they had no right to use private arsenals to keep the police at bay. Our system includes democratic safeguards, such as juries, that do not rely on the private force of arms."

Hey Josh--why don't you have "our system" find the damned steel front door from Mt. Carmel that somehow mysteriously disappeared from evidence custody--to help determine who actually shot first? And I'm sure Sammy and Vicki Weaver appreciate the jury trials they got.

Damned police state apologist. I suppose the Warsaw Ghetto resistance fighters "had no right to keep the [Nazis] at bay," either.

[Thanks to SaMaeL for the tip.]

The Clock is Ticking

Triggerfinger tells us "time is running out to comment on the FEC's rules for bloggers."

Giving Gun Owners the Finger

Say Uncle directs us to the loopy tale of former Bridgeport City Councilman Joel Gonzales, who cut off his finger in 1994 to protest private gun ownership.

The ridiculously over-dramatic Mr. Gonzales seems to think someone on eBay will give him $50,000 or more for the contraption he used to self-amputate. He plans to give half the money to a zoo, plus fund the insane fixations he deems "activism," including "strengthening gun control laws."

He apparently did it because he thinks the NRA controls the speaker lists at public hearings, and wanted to make his proposal to eliminate "gun crime" heard--that is, "amputating the trigger fingers (index) of anyone who use a firearm to commit a premeditaded [sic] crime."

"When I did it, people said I was crazy. I wonder what they are saying now," speculates Gonzales.

I think "crazy" about covers it, Joel.

But you might want to get a second opinion.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Despite All My Belly-Aching, I Couldn't Resist...

...and just devoured the first 3 chapters of "Out of the Gray Zone."

This is good stuff. I see Bill St. Clair is passionate in his praise:

"Wow! Claire and Aaron have hit the ball out of the park, hit it out of the city, hit it out of orbit, hit the moon, and put a hole clean through. And that's an understatement. Tears dripped from my face. Tears of joy. Tears of anger sated. Tears of hope for our world. May it never get as bad as they envisioned. May we, each contributing as he or she can, prevent that future, and listen to that inner voice of what is right, what is decent, what is necessary, what must be. And make it so."

Now I need to go work for a few hours so I can be back in time for my 10-year-old son's electric guitar recital.

No rest for the wicked, or some such...

"Out of the Gray Zone" Arrived...

...in yesterday's mail, along with a very nice t-shirt. I got my order in early and got an autographed copy.

Can't wait to get to it--right now, in addition to working 7 days a week (plus many evenings) on my "real" job (which is typical for April through August), maintaining this blog, researching and writing my monthly GUNS Magazine "Rights Watch" column, giving the wife and kids the time of day, and keeping my house and yard chores from getting to the point where it would be easier just to torch the place, my time to read and then write reviews is a tad limited.

On that front, "Failing the Test," about JPFO's BATFU expose video, will appear in the next issue of GUNS, in stores around May 30--I'll do an announcement when it hits the shelves.

The editor gave me the green light to put something together on "The Black Arrow" in addition to my regular column, so that's another project in waiting. And I'm smack-dab in the middle of "Enemies Foreign and Domestic," which I want to read in one sitting, but which I'm finding difficulty getting to until bedtime--which means I generally make it about a page-and-a-half before exhaustion takes over.

But I'll get to "Out of the Gray Zone." It's just a question of when.

Oh, look--a package from the PO box--why, it looks like another book...

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Crime Gun Solutions--Who These Guys ARE

The names of the chief operators are: Joseph J. Vince Jr., Partner, Gerald A. Nunziato, Partner, Ronald Schuman, Partner, and Robert A. Ricker, Senior Executive Consultant. "Crime Gun Solutions LLC (CGS) partners include the former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) Special Agent In Charge of the National Tracing Center, the former Chief of the BATF Headquarters Firearm Enforcement Division and the Crime Gun Analysis Branch, and the former BATF Criminal Enforcement Information Systems Development Program Manager." Yep. BATFU careerists. "CGS has worked with city law departments, State Attorney Generals’ Offices, major police departments, and private law firms in an effort to assist them in acquiring, analyzing, and utilizing crime-gun information." So they're paid either by anti-gun politicians using money taxed from We the People, or by law firms suing gun makers? "CGS has been praised for their work in educating judges and juries on the various aspects of using crime-gun information." Yeah, "praised" by enemies of the Second Amendment. And ain't it ironic--no one is "educating judges and juries on various aspects of" the Constitution, the intent of the Framers, the Second Amendment, jury nullification... I question the use of the photo of what looks like a dead guy on their home page--this looks like a real crime scene photo. Is it, and if so, who authorized its use in a for-profit venture? I also find it very interesting that our old pal Robert Ricker is entrenched in the core of this cabal. He was named CCRKBA's "Gun Rights Defender of the Month" back in February of 1999 [they have since removed this from their site, but it is preserved via The Wayback Machine. Bad move deleting it, Alan--our side shouldn't be the ones erasing history; you could have explained it by just admitting you were betrayed along with everyone else.] "Just last month, for instance, in a major article on the growing number of lawsuits filed against firearms companies by big-city anti-gun politicians, The Washington Post reported that 'Bob Ricker of the American Shooting Sports Council, a trade association for gunmakers, vowed that his members won’t be intimidated into an out-of-court settlement, regardless of how many cities line up against them. "Ricker also said the swarm of tobacco plaintiffs’ lawyers suggests that the suits against the industry are frivolous, the work of an opportunistic gang of legal predators. "‘We’ll be able to show that what these lawyers are actually after is money,’ he said, a contention certain to become part of the gun manufacturers’ defense." Now Robert Ricker is a leading voice FOR suing gun makers: "Robert A. Ricker, former Assistant General Counsel for the National Rifle Association and former Executive Director of the American Shooting Sports Council, was scheduled to testify today in the NAACP's landmark lawsuit against the gun industry. "Ricker recently revealed that the gun industry has long known its practices aid criminal access to guns yet has done nothing about it. According to a declaration he filed in another case, 'many manufacturers and distributors consistently refuse to address the problem of the 'felons among us.' They instead hide behind the fiction that as long as a retail dealer has a valid federal firearms license to sell guns, no attention to the dealer's business practices is required by its suppliers.'" So was Robert Ricker lying then or is he lying now? How can we tell? And why would anyone give testimony from this Judas any credibility at all? [Thanks to correspondent Bob Lewis for tracking down the CGS website!]