Monday, May 31, 2004
Memorial Day.
Courtesy Cox and Forkum, who have more to say that's worth hearing.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45  
Sunday, May 30, 2004
I've got a bad feeling about this...
From Planes that breach D-Day air space 'will be shot down'
Quote:
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With at least 16 heads of state, including the Queen and President George W Bush, attending the ceremonies, organisers are guarding particularly against an al-Qa'eda attack from the air.
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Does anyone else see the lack of wisdom of getting all the heads of state sitting around the same table in a country boasting a low grade islamofascist infestation? I mean, shit, hasn't anyone ever read their Machiavelli or at least seen The Sword and The Sorcerer? (Cribbing a page from Machiavelli, the bad guy invites all his enemies to dinner, and slays them for dessert)
Furthermore, air attack is so 2001, and as they say, that horse has already jumped the fence. If Al-Q has anything planned, it'll be from an unexpected direction.
YO! Secret Service Guys! Yeah, you! Shields the fuck UP, and stay frosty, y'all hear?
Quote:
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...But we are stretching an impenetrable fabric of protection above Normandy...
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Didn't they say that about the Maginot Line? I don't recall it working out all that well, necessitating said D-Day invasion some years later.
Further ugly bits:
Quote:
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The town's residents have been told that they must either stay indoors throughout next Sunday or leave the area. Even Patrick Jardin, the mayor, one of the few local people invited to the international ceremony, will have to travel by bus to Caen, 45 minutes' drive away, and board a special bus to return to Arromanches that afternoon.
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Yeah, I'd like to see them try that shit in Texas. (Of course, Anytown NJ would just roll over)
And the ugliest bit of all:
Quote:
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Most people believe that this will be the last big commemoration of D-Day.
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Oh, and why could that possibly be? Because heroism has an expiration date? Or because it's a politically painful reminder that doesn't mesh with the whole EuroSocialistMeme?
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Not Exactly His Head In A Jar...
But almost as good!
Bush keeps Saddam's Pistol handy
Quote:
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The sidearm has made its way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sources say that the military had the pistol mounted after the soldiers seized it from Saddam and that it was then presented to the President privately by some of the troops who played a key role in ferreting out the old tyrant.
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Presenting the tyrant's weapon to your commander-in-chief is one of those cool moments those guys will never forget in a bazillion years.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Societal Loss of Perspective...
For an interesting take, read bad cartoons make bad citizens
Quote:
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Bad cartoons tend to make bad citizens. And my generation suffered from the worst cartoons of all. Pity the poor male children of Generation X: there we sat, on Saturday mornings in the '70s and early '80s, clutching our bowls of Count Chocula and enduring the soul-sucking monotony of ugly Filmation cartoons populated by heroes who fought without actually fighting. You could watch cartoons for hours and never see a superhero actually sock a supervillain in the gut, or a commando pump hot lead into a live non-robot terrorist, or a ranger thrust a pointy-sharp arrow into some dragon's malevolent guts. Preachy mini-sermons abounded, though...
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, May 28, 2004
For a blood lusting violent community we're a pretty nice bunch of guys, eh?
Justin Buist weeps
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Public Service Announcement
Be on the lookout for Terrorist Assholes On The Loose
  
  
Conduct yourselves prudently.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Mickey Moore Gets Another 15, er 20 Minutes of Fame…
{Geek's Note: I wrote this on Monday, just getting around to cleaning it up todays…sorry for the delay}
As I clicked into Drudge earlier today, I'm greeted with a nauseating image of Michael Moore's smug unshaven mug as he exults in his glory and accolades of the longest standing ovation ever given at the Cannes Film Festival.
Good lord.
Whether the applause was for Mickey or against Bush is of no particular importance. While Michael might feel that he, his position, and his work is thus vindicated, he burned all his credibility among the mindful long ago, proving himself to be a master of innuendo, misdirection, and implication on the order of Goebbels.
As much as I'd like to reflexively dismiss all of this with sardonic whit and panache, there is a muted klaxon blatting in the back of my mind that warns me otherwise, and my inner prudence tells me that it's time to take inventory before proceeding, lest something important be missed.
While I am certain that in the coming weeks the truth and lies of Fahrenheit 9/11 will be deconstructed ad nauseum, Moore's patterns of manipulation are well established, and I doubt that anything will surface that will alter the fundamentals of my predictive analysis:
The film contains sequences selected through his leftist filters to paint a picture that is entirely supportive of his worldview, and will be salted with just enough truth to grant it a verisimilitude and color of truth as to be perceived as damning towards America in general, and the policies of the Bush administration in particular.
To be certain, there are many uncomfortable truths in our world, and about ourselves, but alas, that is the nature of our messy reality. We humans are creatures paradoxically of both shit and glowing stardust.
It does us no service to gloss over the ugly truths concerning ourselves, but at the same time, it does us no service to dismiss the noble truths either, and that is (probably) the essence of the film.
While the film is certainly self serving to Michael Moore's worldview, the point driven home by 20 minutes of standing ovation is that Moore is not an anomaly. Nor is he a cause. He is a symptom of an infestation of the Leftist meme that has infected a significant proportion of the world.
There are a LOT of people who view MM as a HERO for this. People who nod their head in agreement, and buy into the whole "The United States is the most significant threat to world peace" mindfuck.
Let that sink in for a few moments. It's important.
Realizing that the entire world (ok…that's hyperbole, but it's such a significant chunk of the world that it might as well be the whole shebang) doesn't share your views, values, or your conclusions should stop us all in our tracks.
We really ought to take stock and review.
Is our position fundamentally sound? Is it fundamentally correct? Are we being deceived and manipulated by our leaders? Are the outrages committed at Abu Ghraib the moral equivalent of Auschwitz? Is the war on terror a naked grab for power, oil, and money? Was 9/11 merely the pretext? Are we, America, truly the biggest threat to the peace and stability of the world? Are we responsible for the root causes of terrorism?
To retain any integrity, and to differentiate ourselves from those who would mindlessly jump to preordained orthodox conclusions, we must honestly pose ourselves these questions, from time to time.
I'm certain Mr. Moore, if he were reading these words, would exult at them.
He would not necessarily exult at my conclusions.
I will not insert the lengthy sidebar wherein these questions are addressed. They have been examined at length here, and at other islands of sanity.
In the balance, and all things taken into consideration, are we essentially right or wrong?
The liberal vision of utopia (or any vision, for that matter) will never be realized among beings simultaneously of shit and stardust.
Fortunately, a well proven mechanism for enabling humans to live amongst each other in peace, freedom and prosperity exists. The promise of America isn't that you will be provided with a one size fits all utopia, it is that you can build your own personal utopia, so long as that utopia doesn't materially infringe on your neighbor's slice of heaven.
In the end, I submit, we are substantially right, and Mr. Moore, and the significant chunk of the world that stood and applauded him for twenty minutes is wrong.
That means that we've got a problem. A big one, that won't go away.
Some of my Readers, I'm certain, have had their moments when they've had to face down a crowd of people who were plain out, provably wrong, despite their numbers. It's never an enviable position, and there's little glory in it, but successfully navigating those moments brings a calm, quiet confidence. For others, it's a new experience, and for some, it can be a daunting proposition.
It has been long recognized that right and wrong aren't subject to majoritarian excercises, and it seems that we are right smack dab in the middle of one of those moments, a true, bona fide Historical Nexus wherein the future direction of mankind shall be determined.
There are a lot of complex forces in play, and the choices are stark, if not clean and clear.
On the one hand, we have the Liberal worldview, bourne out of the Progressivist mindset whose seeds where planted in the late 19th, and nurtured in the early 20th century. To whit, it is a collectivist worldview culminating in statism: the use of the power of the state for affirmative good and social justice. The excess of this worldview, as illustrated by the tens of millions of dead at the hands of fascism was discredited in the mid 20th century. The related strains of communism, with its hundred+ million dead and economic devastations faced the verdict of reality a mere 14 years ago, hardly time for the world to truly digest the significance, nor for the consequences to propagate to communisms identical twin, socialism.
On the other hand, we have the Conservative worldview, espousing free markets, capitalism, limited government, and individual responsibility. It is unfortunately tainted with nontrivial doses of religious orthodoxy and behavioral conformity, and its realization has been badly compromised over the last century such that it has taken on a statist aspect of its own. Historically, this worldview has also had the evils of its own excesses, particularly that of unfettered, exploitative capitalism. Fortunately, the worst of these excesses have been successfully dealt with, and have been for quite some time. For the doubters among my readers, I offer a telling snapshot: corporations no longer view belt fed machine guns as valid labor relation tools.
Overlaying the entire mess is yet another overarching confrontation with the forces of darkness and ignorance in the form of Jihadist Islam, whose roots ultimately lie in the failure of the Muslim world, once the apex of humanity, to come to grips with the modern spirit. Karen Armstrong's book The Battle For God discusses the tragic "closing of the gates of ijtihad" ("independent reasoning") and its consequences in great detail, as she explores the common roots of Christian, Jewish and Islamic Fundamentalism. While Christians and Jews have their own Fundamentalists who contend with the varying degrees of their own failures to deal effectively with the modern world, these religious traditions are tempered with their majorities, who contend adroitly with, and in fact invented the modern world.
Make no mistake. The presidential election of 2004 is not like any other presidential election, at least in my lifetime. It is a coming watershed. I do not believe it to be hyperbole to state that the future shape of Liberty and the Republic will be decided THIS YEAR.
Unfortunately, the stakes are asymmetrical, and I don't believe that this dynamic is well understood by all of our community.
While a Bush victory will not open the glorious floodgates of a much longed for Constitutional Restoration, a Kerry victory will put that out of reach for at least a generation.
Two full, consecutive generations who are strangers to undiluted Liberty establish a precedent that will be unbreakable, absent a miracle.
A Kerry victory will reinvigorate the Liberal mindset, and validate the current misguided priorities of the Democratic party. A Kerry defeat will go a long way towards discrediting the abortive disasters of collectivism, and hopefully clear the decks of the Democratic party towards their reconstruction and redemption. (If Kerry is defeated in 2004, and the Democrats still haven't come to their senses, a Hillary Clinton defeat in 2008 ought to drive the point home, and the last nail into the statist coffin)
It's important, so I'm going to say it again:
A Bush victory will mean that we can soldier onwards towards an eventual Constitutional Restoration, the door will be held open, despite lack of guarantees. A Kerry victory will slam that door closed, and we will have huge, potentially insurmountable problems on our hands, and the hope of Liberty in our lifetimes will be lost.
This brings me to the issues of third parties. I fear that far too many of us, failing to understand the asymmetrical stakes, and realizing that a Bush victory will not immediately grant us our goals, view this election as yet another business as usual choice of two evils.
{Pause, waiting for the cries of protest to ie down. "I vote my conscience!" "The only wasted vote is the vote for either wing of the boot on your neck party!" etc…etc…etc. }
This year, I'm granting myself a pass on these arguments. I know them intimately. I've used them all myself, with every bit of conviction that you feel.
I'm granting myself this pass because the Force whispers in my ear, "The clock is ticking, time is short, and the stakes are unimaginably high. We don't have time to screw around."
I was a card carrying Libertarian, and I pinned my hopes on them, until I made an honest assessment of the situation. I resigned. There are two major factors in that decision. The first, and frankly, less important reason is the shortcoming of the Libertarian party itself. I won't sidetrack us into the Libertarian party's shortcomings, that is a topic for a different discussion.
What I will touch on is the more important factor. The problem of faction is an unavoidable by product of any aggregate decision making process, which in a democracy is a voting procedure.
The specific nature of our public voting procedure, first past the post, in the American context, also has some unavoidable (and unintended) consequences.
Readers, I introduce you to Duverger's law. Originally formulated as a postulation, Duverger's hypothesis has been robustly tested, and is now accepted as axiomatic.
In summary, Durverger's law states that in a first past the post voting system, the system will eventually stabilize around two dominant parties. Eventually, these parties will begin to resemble each other at certain levels of focus, due to the dynamic of stealing each other's planks. Because of this, the system ultimately favors the incumbents, and the system becomes hard (but not impossible) to reform.
The third party spoiler effect, a part of Duverger, also has a role to play. In some cases, the third party spoiler has an impact on the outcome of the election, when one candidate wins by less than the margin of votes collected by that third party. Regardless of the impact on the election outcome, planks offered by third parties that gain significant votes are usually stolen by the major parties in an effort to obtain those votes in future elections, and in this regard, third parties are an important means of reform over time.
As I've mentioned before, time is not a luxury we have this year, and a Kerry win would be disastrous.
When I decided to resign from the Libertarians, it was essentially an act of realization. All of my highly principled wishful thinking would not change the fact that the real significance and role of third parties is as I have stated above. Eventually, circumstances might shift such that a third party could win a presidential election, but that simply isn't the case in 2004. {OTOH, the implosion of the Democrats might be one of those door opening events that clears the road for this sort of thing….}
We have to deal with reality as it is. As much as I'd WANT a Libertarian to be president,
It. Won't. Happen. In. 2004.
This is reality.
Remember what happened the last time we "sent the Republicans a message"?
Yup. That was Clinton. We're STILL sorting out the mess.
A Quote, to set the tone:
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"You can tell a lot by looking at the extremes.
The extreme Right is at least recognizable as American.
The extreme Left is something else, something foreign."
MSS
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Here is what CAN happen, without violating any axioms of electoral dynamics:
We can get back to the business of being Americans.
In order to do that, we have to finally and fully exit from our Great Digression to the Left. America has harvested every gainful thing to be had from that field; the rest is all weeds and skunk cabbage.
We can defeat Kerry.
If we defeat Kerry, we deal the Leftist infestation of the Democratic Party a great blow, and perhaps even sweep the leftists off the national stage. The Democrats will then have the opportunity to go into a healing remission, hopefully to return as something recognizable as American. It might take more than defeating Kerry to do this, but it's not going to happen without a Kerry defeat.
This is somewhat of a dangerous gambit. American politics generally works the best when power is divided, and to smack down the Democrat's Leftist infestation, we're going to have to deny them as much power as we can, which realistically means giving it to the Republicans. To be honest, granting today's GOP an effective monopoly on power for a few terms isn't something I'm entirely comfortable with, but I can live with it, and believe the damage will be limited, especially in comparison to damage caused by the terminal cancer of a continued significant presence of the hard left on the national scene.
We know what the end goal is. 200 years ago, some really smart guys, leveraged the rock solid political philosophy of Locke to hammer out a structure that leaves room for everyone to pursue their lives, liberty, and happiness.
It's based on libertarian principles of limited and enumerated powers granted to government, with all other rights, privileges, and immunities reserved. With the rotting corpse of slavery dripping all over everything, it's never really been properly implemented, but by God, it's worth doing, or die trying. It is the work of a lifetime, of generations; it is our Pyramid; our gift to humanity. It remains to be the best and brightest hope for everyone, and we owe it to all that is or will ever be to give it our very best shot.
There's a lot of work to do, and no particular map to follow:
-The statists must be defeated, or all is lost and stillborn
-The judiciary must be reigned in and reformed, judicial doctrines foreign to the text of the Constitution must be repudiated and replaced with the Presumption of Liberty
-The electorate must be reintroduced to American civic virtues and principles, to do that, we must recapture public education from the collectivists.
-Public spending must be brought under real control: the government must get out of the retirement planning and health insurance business.
-The hydra of the IRS must be brought to heel.
-Our foreign enemies must be soundly defeated, in the case of Jihadist Islam, and held at bay, as in the case of China.
-The UN must be neutralized, marginalized, and preferably dismantled.
The list is daunting and mighty, but if Kerry wins, there's no chance of ANY of that happening.
So, my Readers, I urge you all to not only vote for Bush, despite his many flaws, and to work as you can towards his election.
To get to where we need to be, we have to fight hard, we have to fight smart, and we have to accept that we're not going to win any world popularity contests.
The clock is ticking, time is short, the stakes are monstrous, and there's no time to screw around.
The future awaits our verdict.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Snooze Buttons
Reader Ed tipped me off on this one:
Quote:
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Below is a speech given by Captain Ouimette, USN, who is (was) XO of NAS Pensacola.
**********************************************************************************
US Navy Captain Ouimette, NAS Pensacola XO
Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 23 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and downsized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start. Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad.
The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
America wants to treat these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war?
The Snooze alarm is depressed again. Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively..
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough.
America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "...it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
Support Our Troops and support President Bush for having the courage, political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him didn't have the backbone to do both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.
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Captain Ouimette forgot to mention the Battle of Mogadishu, but I've already commented on the significance of that here.
And as for the Sleeping Giant quote, I must report that that was the concensus of the random collection of people standing on the rooftop watching the towers burn.
We all knew that we were watching this generation's Peal Harbor, and it was all happening live, in realtime, before our very eyes.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, May 22, 2004
John Ross
Offers us a different interpretation of the goings on at Abu Ghraib.
Hat tip to Reader Airboss.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sweet Mother of God.
Go Read Bill Whittle.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The Alarming things you overhear from time to time...
You never know what you're going to overhear as you mind your own business, trying to get some work done in the laboratory of mad science er, basement office.
Things that make you reflexively reach for your AR.
For example:
"No honey, that's not a spider, that's an alien..."
Fortunately, I knew that gwa9mm was refering to the artwork on the boxes of fruit loops we midnight raided last night, so there was no need to go charging up the stairs, loaded for facehugger.
Man, Aliens II has been out for like a bazillion years, and it's STILL one of my favorite movies.
Hint: Get the DVD. There's lots of fun extra scenes on it. Can you say "Sentry gun"?
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
More Pennsylvania Heartwarmings...
I make an Emergency Binky run (Any parent knows that a Binky shortage is a bona fide emergency) over to the local Acme supermarket, and what do I find?
FIREWORKS. :)
Lots of great big packages of FIREWORKS. Doesn't look like anything that flies, but big, dangerous, flammable happy things, nonetheless.
In a grocery store.
God, I love this place.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Mid Week Catchup
The stride of my new gig is such that I spend Mon, Tues & Wed within city busting blast radius of D.C, and accordingly, my posts will tend to be minimal during that time period.
Here's the roundup:
Star Chambers In PA
Readers have been flagging me on this one all day, summarized here, and the actual text of the bill being here.
I've given it a skim and in true political fashion, I can see how the assertions of either side as outlined in the world net article are supported by the text. I'll be giving it a more thorough going through over the weekend, and will be drafting an appropriate letter for y'all to be sending.
So far, the main trap built into this thing seems to be the storage fees, payment of which is a condition of firearm return, and the denial of jury trial for indirect criminal contempt (whatever that is), which flies in the face of the PA Constitution's various provisions:
Quote:
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Trial by Jury
Section 6.
Trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and the right thereof remain inviolate. The General assembly may provide, however, by law, that a verdict may be rendered by not less than five-sixths of the jury in any civil case.
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and
Quote:
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Rights of Accused in Criminal Prosecutions
Section 9.
In all criminal prosecutions the accused hath a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to meet the witnesses face to face, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and in prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the vicinage; he cannot be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor can he be deprived of his life, liberty or property, unless by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land. The use of a suppressed voluntary admission or voluntary confession to impeach the credibility of a person may be permitted and shall not be construed as compelling a person to give evidence against himself.
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Sidebar:
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One of my favorites:
Right to Bear Arms
Section 21.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.
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The bills sponsor scans on tricorders as a Main Line* RINO, so I'm not all that willing to assume good faith at this point.
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*Main Line:
The bill's sponsor's district includes the suburbs of PHL known as the main line. It's where most of America's old money has settled, when it's not summering in the Hamptons and other elite out of the way places. The politics tend towards the eclectic, and isn't all that easy to nail down on the liberal/conservative spectrum.
It's a strange place, I've lived there for a few years. Sprinkled throughout this region are these little pockets of affordability, where the servants used to live.
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Hoist
Considering that more than half our technology is based on our ability to lift and move shit, do you know how hard it is to buy a simple chain hoist (without the Internet?)
Considering how many people have rafters to store stuff in, I was pretty shocked to have spent an afternoon last week going from one likely store to another.
Me: "Hiya. I need a winch."
Hardware guy: "A what?"
Me: "You know, a winch, a hoist. You use it to lift stuff. You know, like a block and tackle?"
Hardware guy: "They might have a come-along over by fences..."
Those of you who are familiar with come alongs know that the ergonomics of them are completely ass backwards for the task of lifting things. You have to ratchet the lever upwards, not downwards, and the ratcheting motion lifts the load.
Dumb.
So, I continue onwards, through MegaHardware, where I spot a likely old timer. I figure old timers used to actually lift shit, they'd know what I'm talking about.
Me: "Howdy! I need a winch."
HardwareGuy: "A what?"
After a few more of these interactions, I give up on using the words "winch" and "hoist".
I walk up to the last guy I figure I'm gonna deal with, before heading out.
Me: "Hiya. I'm looking for the come-alongs. They said they'd be over here."
HardwareGuy: "A what? OH! You mean like a WINCH!"
(I shit you not, it's the god's honest truth!)
We found the come-alongs, and I determined that they were a DUMB tool for the purpose of lifting a couple of hundred pounds worth of random stuff 20 feet in the air, so I thanked him and left.
THIS is the right tool for lifting random heavy stuff 20 feet into the air:
It's properly called a chain block hoist, and you buy them at Hoists Direct. They're relatively inexpensive, considering what they are, they're well made, and the people there are friendly and competent as hell.
If you need a hoist, I recommend these guys.
Hell, I think everyone oughta have a hoist, just on general principle. After all, half our greatness is based on our ability to lift shit.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Americans In Space
This time, it's private, civilian amateurs.
We rock.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Monday, May 17, 2004
This Piece of Dog Poop...
Proceeds from an entirely false basis. There's so much wrong with it, I just have to (briefly) rant, at the risk of being late for work.
U.S. athletes told to cool it at Olympics
Fuck That.
Quote:
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American athletes have been warned not to wave the U.S. flag during their medal celebrations at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, for fear of provoking crowd hostility and harming the country's already-battered public image.
The spectacle of victorious athletes grabbing a national flag and parading it around the stadium is a familiar part of international sporting competition, but U.S. Olympic officials have ordered their 550-strong team to exercise restraint and avoid any jingoistic behavior.
The plan is part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing the country's international reputation...
...
"We're not the favorite kid in the world right now," conceded Bill Martin, the USOC's acting president. "We are sensitive not only to the security issue, but to jingoism in its raw sense. That is why we are sending people around to educate the athletes as to the appropriate behavior."
---------------
It doesn't get much more misguided than this.
We're talking about normal flag waving behavior of victorious athletes, for crying out loud.
Hiding light under a bushel is a fruitless gesture, and no one will ever gain or regain respect for America by noting how subdued and restrained the decorum of our athletes is.
People who hate us will boo and jeer (and kill) on ANY pretext, and this is blaming the victim political correctivism of the worst sort.
America's athletes should not hold themselves to any different standard of behavior than any other country's.
American Athletes:
That is YOUR flag, and on the podium, it is YOUR moment of victory. Revel in it, accept your accolades, and wave your flag as vigorously as you see fit. You are the best that an amazing nation has to offer. Never constrain yourselves to the feeble opinions of lesser men.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Happiness Is....
Sorting out your gunsafe, and realizing that it's no longer a felony to load up the standby AR mags to the top.
Ayep, life is good.
Now, if I can just find wherever my scope's thumbscrew got to in this vast pile of crap I call everything I own randomly distributed in cardboard boxes, life'd be even better.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, May 14, 2004
OK, So, I'm taking the night off...
To catchup with the blogosphere, and check in with my Readers. (Sitemeter took a poop on me, so I've no idea what impact if any my sketchy posting weeks have had)
First, some obligatory hot topics:
Nick Berg Beheading
I suppose much has been said that pretty much covers the basics, for example, Smoke on the Water's inspired rant The Lessons of Enemies is reasonably definitive.
I do want to add my own nickel, late to the dance as it is:
The Islamofuckers (as distinct from decent, rational Muslims) still don't seem to get it. Gruesomely hacking off one of our guys heads on camera doesn't make us blanche in fear, run for the hills, or any of that nonsense.
It Pisses Us Off.
Historically, that's never been a good thing for our antagonists.
Enjoy the fruits of your labors, dickheads.
Prison Abuse
Shocking, disgusting, and most assuredly unAmerican.
While this event has put some people with weak constitutions into a tailspin, that is the result of failing to see the world for what it really is.
All societies have their assholes, and no society is perfect, even ours. This is inevitable. The strength of a society isn't limited by its weak links, society isn't a chain. Society is a multiply redundant web, and the real question is how well it can sustain the broken strands.
For that, you need a corrective mechanism that works. In this case, it was officers of our own army who stood up for what was right, and denounced that which is wrong, and proceeded to do the right thing. The end result is that the mess was nipped in the bud.
Our society isn't perfect, but for the most part, it doesn't go off the rails batshit fucking insane, like some other societies I could mention.
Despite the anxiety of the uncertain, America remains the most compassionate to her enemies country to ever exist.
Speaking of Compassion To Our Enemies...
I've gotten word from the front lines that several CRATES of wrist rocket slingshots and ball bearings have been unofficially shipped to the sandbox, for use against folks who heave rocks at our troops.
It sure beats needing to send a half dozen rounds M855 through their noggin, and I will pay good money for a picture of the first guy's face when he realizes what's in store for him.
Gunners Who Don't (Quite) Get It: I
Sunday before last, I was finally able to sneak off to the range, after a nearly four week hiatus. As I had previously predicted, my handgun skills had gone to shit, (75% @ 25 yards instead of 98%) but my riflery had remained intact, which is pretty much par for the course.
While having my fun, and keeping one eye on the clock against the range closing time, I had the good fortune to run into an old aquaintance, D, a retired judge, who in turn introduced me to T, a bearded hippy with a gun who spends most of the year living in Florida, and summers in NJ.
Both these guys are interesting stories in themselves, but we'll leave D's aside till I drag more of it out of him.
T was gleefully shooting his new M4gery, making ludicrously tight groups, and enjoying every minute of it. He explained that he really liked the M4 format, but hadn't really shot one since Vietnam, where he had lugged his CAR-15 all through his tour of duty.
Quote:
----------
"After I shot my first enemy with it, I took his AK, and used that for the rest of the war. I broke down the CAR-15, put it in my ruck, and that's where it stayed."
----------
We talked a bit about the m4gery, and I was able to clarify some issues for him. "So, what is this? Preban? Postban? And what's the god damned difference anyway?" I pointed out that it happened to be a postban config, as it didn't have a bayonet lug, the AK style muzzle brake wasn't classified as a flash hider, and the stock wasn't collapsible. I told him if he wanted a collapsible stock, to wait till September 14th, and he could bolt one on then. He looked at me. "What happens September 14th?"
"Well, " I explained, "that's when all this heinous Clinton Crap expires and gets flushed down the toilet." Then I remembered I was in Jersey, and added, "but that doesn't help you much here. NJ has it's own AWB, which the federal one was mostly modelled after, so even if you config it as a preban, the NJ "Assault Weapon" registry is closed." I was a bit taken aback, something wasn't quite adding up. Here was a fellow who is obviously pro RKBA, was delighted to hear that the AWB was going to expire, but wasn't really familiar at all with what it was about, or its consequences. How could that be?
The answer was coming shortly.
When he heard this, he smiled a bit, and dug into his pocket, pulling out his wallet, and handed me a flat white plastic card with his picture on it. It was an NJ Carry Permit.
I damned near shat. It was the first fully valid NJ carry permit I had ever touched, and only the....third? No, fourth I had ever heard of.
Sidebar:
--------------
I've also touched an expired "While actually working as a uniformed armed guard only" permit, and the other two that I've confirmed as actually existing belonged to gunshop owners.
--------------
I looked at him, incredulous. "How the hell did you score that? Do you know there are only 650 or so of these in the state?" The cascade of NJ laws and regulations flowed through my mind, and I realized a disconnect. Shaking my head, I gave him the bad news. "With respect to the collapsing stock, even if you get it in Florida, that won't help you."
"Take another look.",pointing at a line on the card I had missed he clarified "I'm a retired US Marshal." Yep, sure enough, it said "Retired Law Enforcement Officer" right there in bold blue ink.
Sidebar:
----------
NJ has a "shall issue" carry permit classification for retired LEOs who qualify annually, about 1500 permits are known to exist.
----------
"Once they see that, they won't look any further." Yes, I had to admit, that is in fact the way the world works.
It also explained a WHOLE LOT. Most of my encounters with rank and file LEOs who weren't all caught up in the elite trip indicated that they were pretty solid in the RKBA department, but the simple fact of the matter is that with all of the myriad laws and regulations that impact us, most folks don't pay much attention to the ones that don't apply to them.
It's really that simple.
I've previously discussed the dynamic of exemptions buying off LEO associations. To recap, the dynamic is that police associations and unions prostitute themselves cheaply to gun bigots. All it takes is a sentence pronouncing an exemption to whatever heinous steaming pile of shit is being proposed to foist upon John Q Public, and the rift between LEO and civvy widens.
I've appealed to LEOs before, and I repeat it again: Do not forget what it is to walk in the shoes of the people you've sworn to serve and protect, lest you allow your unenlightened breathren expend all the "coin of goodwill" the public extends to you.
Unenlightened cops enforcing questionable laws are only a flicker of perception away from being thugs with badges.
Gunners Who Don't (Quite) Get It II: The Hunter's Tale
While the moving guys where helping me hump out endless crates of ammo,(I never knew how much ammo I had until I saw it all in one place!) the lead guy, Joe (not his real name) mentioned that he was a hunter, which naturally lead to a discussion of guns and RKBA.
While Joe's a perfectly decent guy, a hunter, and a plinker, he was woefully uninformed on the issues, and it has cost his friends.
I'm afraid to say that Joe is all too typical.
Like the fellow I mentioned in the previous segment, Joe lives most of his life in Florida, but spends part of the year with his family, who lives on a farmesque place a few towns over from GeekHolme (my old place), in the Dark & Fascist state.
It turns out that Joe, his dad, and some of his buddies were airing out their guns, plinking responsibly in their back lot, as they've often done many times in years past. They had tables, targets, and a large, house sized hill to use as a backstop.
The next thing you know, they're getting raided by no less than 5 town police cars, 3 state cop cars, and vanful of guys in full JBT regalia.
According to the cops, some hunters claimed that they where shooting at them. (Smells like bullshit to me: more than likely some sheeple in the nearby new development went bugeyed and paniced)
After the dust had settled, his friends ended up getting summonses to court, facing a raft of charges up to and including assault with a deadly weapon on the alleged "hunters" in the woods.
Interesting, isn't it? The friends get the citations, but not the family members? And since do cops "cite and release" people for assault with a deadly weapon, skipping the whole trip to jail scene?
It's a bit mystifying, unless you've ever taken the time to read and decipher the byzantine mess that is NJ gunlaw.
Long, disgusting story short, it's (marginally) legal to plink on your own land, and it's (marginally) legal for immediate family members of the landowner to plink on the family land, but the exemption does not extend to anyone else.
The cops bagged the only guys they knew they had a prayer of making the charges stick to.
(You may feel free to break shit, at this time)
Fucking Scumsuckers.
And this is one of the many reasons I am so indescribably happy to be done with that place.
All I could do was give him Evan Nappen, Esquire's phone number to pass to his friends, and wish them all good luck.
Hunters, don't think that your moral rectitude concerning your purpose for owning guns, and the politically correct design of your firearms is going to save you.
It won't.
Wake the fuck up.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Another Reader To The Rescue
Sheesh! I take a few weeks off from daily posting, to attend to minor things like escaping the statists and starting a whole new job and the next thing you know, the peasantry starts surrounding the castle with pitchforks and torches, chanting "Post! Post! Post!"
Well, I'm almost back. Trust me, I like writing this stuff as much as y'all like reading it, and I'll be back up to speed shortly.
In the meantime, I'll introduce you to a Reader, who has good taste in restaurants in the Alexandria area, and who has decided to join the ranks of the Bloggeratti.
Without further adieu, allow me to introduce The Founder's Corner.
The Blogger has become a friend, has demonstrated level headed clear thinking, and packs the appropriate caliber, which, needless to say, is .45ACP, in full accordance with the teachings of the Prophet John Moses Browning.
We expect good things from him. :)
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Pass-Along from AWBanSunset:
Quote:
-------------
URGENT: Pressure Increasing in House for AWB Renewal
A recent news story at thehill.com quoted Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) as being confident there were
enough votes in the House to pass a ban renewal if it came to the floor, and indicated he was
considering filing a discharge petition (which requires the support of a simple majority of House
members) to force a vote on the bill.
You can view the article here:
http://www.thehill.com/news/051204/nra.aspx
While he might be overly optimistic on how the ban would fare in the House, we would be foolish to
ignore the possibility of Republican leadership caving on this issue.
We must make it absolutely clear that, while many of us are willing to set aside our disappointment
in the fact that Bush has expressed support for renewing the ban in the past, we WILL NOT vote to
reelect him if the ban is actually signed into law. Plus, House leadership needs to be reminded of
how they gained control in 1994, widely acknowledged as being a direct result of the original ban
being passed.
In addition, you can point out the following:
· The government-funded study (conducted under the Clinton administration) on the effects of the
ban found no detectable reduction in crime that could be attributed to the ban, as these guns were
only rarely used in crime even before the ban.
· The firearms restricted by this ban are nearly identical to non-banned guns, differing only by
"minor cosmetic changes" (a catch-phrase used by many anti-gun organizations in the context of
complaining about how manufacturers changed their products to comply with the law). They do not
fire any faster, nor are they any more powerful than non-banned guns, despite their menacing looks
and scary-sounding names.
· The radically anti-gun Violence Policy Center freely admits the expiration of the ban will have
no adverse effects, calling the ban "a joke."
Let us send a clear message of how strongly we feel about this issue. Take a few moments to
contact the following people, and POLITELY make your opinion known. If possible, please call, as
well as fax and mail a letter.
Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2976
Fax: (202) 225-0697
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
H-107 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4000
Fax: (202) 225-5117
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt
H-329 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0197
House Policy Committee Chairman Christopher Cox
2402 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5611
Fax: (202) 225-9177
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone: 202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
In addition, contact your own representative, and urge him/her to not support a discharge petition
on a bill to renew the ban on so-called "assault weapons." You can find the contact information
for you representative by entering your zip code on this page:
http://www.house.gov/
Please send this to anyone you know who shares your view on this issue.
http://www.awbansunset.com
http://www.awbansunset.com/forums
-------------
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, May 07, 2004
Live, From Freedom House!
OK, so now I have a minimally functional houselan.
Yahoo. Now, if the danged electrician would get here so I could have real power instead of extension cords from the kitchen......
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Last Post From NJ
I'm posting this in haste from the last shattered fragment of the Mighty Housenet, which grew like kudzu into GeekHolme, and I patiently took apart, cable by cable last night.
If I had time, I'd describe the various conflicting emotions that are a part of that.
Time, I don't have.
Onwards and upwards!
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Shocking To The Conscience...
Utilizing Occam's Razor, which of the following two scenarios are more plausible?
A) 6 Bulgarian healthworkers and a Palestinian Doctor engaged in an intentional conspiracy to infect children with AIDS in a Libyan hospital (All the Libyan medical staff were acquitted)
or
B) Libyan society is incapable of discerning and implementing any rational view of justice?
Obviously, information is limited, but it pretty much takes a whole corrupt society to arrive at conclusion A, and not just a few corrupt judges.
Oh, I'm sure some Leftists are wringing their hands, thinking that I'm engaged in simplistic western centric thinking, expressing a value judgement, failing to appreciate the relative equality of all cultures, and varying concepts of justice, but the bottom line is this: When people come to give in good faith, you don't shoot them because of your own innadequacies. (In this case, innability to keep your shit together on your blood supply)
Yep, that IS a value judgement, and it's a good one. I value the good faith and efforts of giving people over the peasant's ignorant howls for blood, not only for it's own sake, but for the fact that this sort of nonsense really motivates folks to stay home and not help their fellow man.
I'm afraid I have to side with Kim on this one. Let Africa Sink.
At minimum, all international assistance agencies should get their people the hell out of there, right away, before they get blamed for something and trundled before a firing squad.
Fuck 'em.
Update!
Reader Ian alerts us to more material: Aids Doctors: Libya Has Tortured Us (pdf)
Quote:
-----------
Earlier this year Professor Luc Montaignier, the French scientist who discovered HIV, the Aids virus, in 1983, traveled to Libya and concluded that the basic medical blunders - inadequate equipment and skills, and the systematic reuse of unsterelized syringes* - had led to the "largest documented outbreak of HIV transmission" in any hospital in the world.
*Geek's note: as shocking as syringe reuse sounds to us, I remind Readers that syringes don't have any locally manufacturable replacement, and in a situation of severe resource constraints, this outcome isn't too far fetched.
-----------
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Busy....
As y'all might have guessed, I'm up to my ass in alligators, starting the new gig, and prepping for Packing Day (Fri), Moving Day (Sat) and the Official Pagan Ceremony of Renunciation of New Jersey and Soul Cleansing(Sun)
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Gun Control Tragedies
Reader E.S. sends in this link, which is a well written essay that covers ground familiar to us who've been fending off the gun bigots for a while, but might be news for people just getting involved.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Unarmed American Truck Driver 1, Jihadis 0
Hostage Thomas Hamill Escapes From Iraqis
Yay!
Quote:
---------------
American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by U.S. forces Sunday south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors, the U.S. military said. An official said he was in "good health."
Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., was discovered when he approached a U.S. patrol from the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, in the town of Balad, 35 miles south of Tikrit, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Tikrit said.
He identified himself, then led the patrol to the house where he had been held captive. The unit surrounded the house and captured two Iraqis with an automatic weapon, said the spokesman, Maj. Neal O'Brien.
---------------
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, May 01, 2004
A Moment of Silence Is In Order.
Alan Albertus, known to members of The High Road as Labgrade, has died in a fire in his home.
Damnit, damnit, damnit.
Many posts, and a few hours on the phone revealed him to be a kindred spirit, a lover and active defender of Liberty, and a warm, caring human being.
We need more like him, not fewer, and my prayers are with him and his family.
I'm too bummed to say more.
Here's a news story.
Here's the THR thread.
Rest In Peace, friend, your hard work is done.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
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