Sunday, May 29, 2005
Required Reading...
If we are to save the Republic, we must understand how it came to its current state.
This must read essay from the Wall Street Journal might be a bit long, but it's part of your homework as an informed citizen.
It charts the course of Liberalism over the 20th century, describing in a fair amount of detail how a narrow circle of activists, fueled by contributions of liberal "charitable foundations", came to usurp the Democratic party, circumvent the electoral process, and generally make a hash of things.
I'm not normally prone to Kim duToit-esque RCOB hyperbole, but tar, feathers, rope, some assembly required.
I've also asked the question, "Where is our version of the Pew/Joyce/Rockefeller/Ford/MacArthur/Carnegie Foundation, and what the heck are they doing about all this?"
Answer: Winning, against all odds, by being able to demonstrate that the collectivists are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Oh, one more thing to keep firmly in mind:
| Total Assets | Total Annual Expenditures |
| Liberal Foundations | $24 billion | $1.2 billion |
| Conservative Foundations | $1.5 billion | $100 million |
Make no mistake: this shadow war of ideas has been going on for decades, and the treasure spent over this time has made Osama's former personal fortune used to bankroll Al-Q look like chump change.
Know your enemy. Recognize his methods.
[hanSolo]
We ain't out of this yet, kid.
[/hanSolo]
Update!
This site, which I'm still reviewing, Discover The Network, charts the tangled web of $87 Billion in assets worth of Leftist funds, groups and people. Of particular interest is this Java based application that visually maps out the linkage.
Here's some starting point links:
Ford Foundation: The Heaviest Hitter
Joyce Foundation: Organized Gun Bigotry Par Excellance
Equally fascinating is the assertion of this site's researchers that many of the older trust funds (Notably Ford and Pew) were founded by folks of conservative and neutral orientation, and were subsequently subverted in later generation by their staffs to serve a Leftist agenda.
I'll be spending some quality time reading this site.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45  
Friday, May 27, 2005
Oh, and If You Don't Mind...
Give the blogad over there on your left a click. The carsafe seems like a reasonable idea, at a reasonable price. I'm gonna go ahead and get one, for my trunk.
And remember, an opaque locked box is not grounds for probable cause.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Turns Out I Was Right...
In the same essay in which I said that entire societies have gone insane, I also mentioned that New Jerseyans vote the way they drive, either oblivious to or uncaring of the danger they place themselves in.
According to a study by GMAC insurance, I was right. 20% of drivers flunked a written quiz, double the number of the national average, 10%.
Considering that NJ throws many barriers between drivers and their licenses, and that the require as much proven proficiency as anyone else, I am forced to conclude that it's something in the water.
Doubtless, there will be calls for government action on the matter, as if the steeper obstacles faced by NJ's new drivers aren't enough.
{Like everything else, NJ is way out of step with the rest of the nation. Kids can't even start driving on a learners permit under supervision until they're 17, and then they must run a gauntlet of an entire series of infantile restricted licenses until they're 21, depending on circumstances. {ghastly details here.}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Your Honor, I'd Like To Submit This As "Exhibit J"
In the past, I once said that
Quote:
-------------
Entire societies can and have gone stark raving batshit fucking insane.
-------------
I present "Exhibit J": British doctors call to ban kitchen knives, using nearly every play found in the book of the forces of organized gun bigotry.
Well, I guess the forces of organized knife bigotry couldn't be all that far behind.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Fun With Airsofts...
As I was tinkering with my camp carbine the other day, noting that with slight modifications I might could make it magazine compatible with my sig 220 mags, my eye was drawn to my poor, forgotten airsoft pistols that I got myself for Christmas.
It just so happened that I also had an old coat hanger, and a roll of tinfoil handy. {Tinfoil hats need refreshing from time to time... ;) }
A coat hanger, bent into a square and covered with tinfoil makes a fun airsoft target to hang in the garage.
{sigh. grumble.}
I have GOT to get my ass to the range...
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 26, 2005
What Shamefully Passes For "Independent Thinking" These Days...
I recently got the text of this article pasted into an email, from a concerned friend who had in turn gotten it from someone else.
Quote:
------------------------
Congress moves to restrict court rulings on God
WASHINGTON — Conservatives balk at accusations that the current Congress and the Bush administration are intent on turning the United States into a theocracy. Yet, a bill sponsored by 28 members of the U.S. House and Senate looks like a move in that direction.
According to the text of the bill, the proposed Constitution Restoration Act of 2005 would remove the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction over “any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an entity of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer or agent of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official or personal capacity), concerning that entity’s, officer’s, or agent’s acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.”
------------------------
Under the influence of the alarmist spin of the story, I was mildly concerned, wondering if this was the work of one of our "dark creepy authoritarians".
At that point, you basically have two choices: You could either accept it as evidence of impending "Theocracy", and send it out to everyone on your email list, (as many seem to have done, just google it up to see how many people are aflutter over this thing on the Left), or you could check it out for yourself.
Y'all know me.
First stop: Thomas, to read the text of the thing for myself.
It's got 3 sections, essentially:
-Restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme court on this topic
-Eliminate consideration of foriegn jurisprudence in Constitutional interpretation and
-Provides for enforcement.
The wording of the first section was a little opaque to me at first. Still somewhat addled from my recent exposure to the toxin embedded in the article, I was trying to cipher out the motivation for the thing, and determine for myself whether this legislation was a problem or not.
My very first reaction was that the second clause was good, and that the first clause was a distraction on an otherwise laudable bill, making it vulnerable to charges of "Impending Theocracy!"
While considering this, I decided the most direct thing to do would be to discover the intent and motivation for this section of the bill myself.
I picked up a phone, and dialed Senator Shelby's office. While I waited for a staffer who knew anything about the bill, I marshalled my questions. In so doing, a light went on over my head, as I considered the practical repercussions.
That section of the bill, by eliminating Federal jurisdiction on the question, left the question to the States, which is entirely consistent with the bill's stated purpose of promoting Federalism.
When the receptionist came back on line saying the staffer in question wasn't available, I thanked her, saying that I had figured it out for myself, and answered my own questions.
My reply:
-------------------
I hate to say it bro, but I think you're offbase on this one.
Alarmed after reading the story, I looked the bill up on Thomas, and read the whole thing.
The bill's effect would to leave the State courts to decide the question as to whether someone is harmed or if damages should be awarded if a government official should, oh, say, quote the Declaration of Independence, for example:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creater with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...."
That certainly doesn't sound like a prelude to Theocracy to me. A best, it's an interesting question worth contemplating, to consider what the proper venue is to answer such a question. Does a distribution of power serve the cause of freedom on this topic? Or would it be better served with a concentration of power? If anything, in view of the fact that Bush is likely to place 1 or 2 supreme court justices, (and who knows whether they're going to be freedom friendly Constitutionalists or dark creepy authoritarians) one might argue that perhaps keeping the Supremes out of the matter might be a good thing.
The other elements of the bill seem perfectly good to me; why on earth should American law be beholden to jurisprudence in France, Germany, or Bharain? Either the Constitution is the highest law, or all bets are off.
-------------------
Chasing the original source of the story down for this post, I laughed out loud when I saw the Vermont Guardian's tagline of "For the Independent Mind". Entirely missing was any discussion as to whether State or Federal jurisdiction on the matter was good, bad, or indifferent. That a Republican Senator from Alabama had introduced a bill that mentioned "God" in it was deemed sufficient to level charges of "Impending Theocracy!"
Good grief.
Apparently, "Independent Minds" spew biased, intellectually slothful alarmist crap to each other, blindly accepting the words of others for the purposes of making bleats of "Impending Theocracy!" seem credible.
{sigh. grumble.}
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that my mom, dad and grade school teachers were right: being a truly informed citizen of a free Republic required actual, bona fide critical thought, and in order to to that, to actually think for yourself, you're going to have to put in a lot of effort, and do a lot of homework.
That sucks, but the alternative is much worse.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The Other Day...
I was relaxing in the lab @ HQ, joking with colleagues about the latest scam email to come over the transom.
"Look here! The widow of the late, great chancellor general of Nigeria wants to share her millions with me if I help her get access to her late husband's account!" (For those of you unfamiliar with the Nigerian Scam, click the link to read up on it.)
After the chuckles died down, BD, a colleague, piped up. "You'd not believe the level of effort people would go to for fraud in my country. They would setup a false as a government official, say, the Minister of Education, forging cards, letterheads, the works, and offer contracts. When the foriegn investors came to meet with the "officials", they'd set it up so that it occurred on the days when the real Minister was off on business. Bribing the guards, the frauds would take place in actual government offices!"
'Yeah, " I opined "that's the sort of nonsense they have to cleanup. No one's going to invest so long as that sort of thing's going on."
BD carried on for a while, talking about the rampant corruption and the many injustices that was the everyday experience of the people in his homeland.
"I came here from Somalia a few years ago to get away from all that. I've worked hard, and I've got something to show. But I'm afraid that in 10 or 15 years, America will be just like the third world, exactly like the places I left behind."
People at work know where I come from, but I don't rub it in their face, normally laying fairly low, and letting all but the most egregious stuff slide. Fortunately, it doesn't come up all that often.
"Just like the third world, eh? Exactly like it?"
"Yes."
"Why do you think that?"
BD thought a while, and rattled off a list of items that are familiar to us all, such as the {hawk/spit} "Patriot" Act, items of real concern.
"BD, I'm concerned about that sort of thing as well. They are real things, they are worrisome things, but my concern is not Ultimate Concern, because we've got the means to prevent it from ever getting that far. "
BD asked, "How can you stop it?"
God, I couldn't have BOUGHT a better setup! I mentally lined up my ducks, and continued.
"Let's talk some numbers here.
Our military is roughly a million men. We've also got maybe 2 or 3 million people on police payrolls. Call it 4 million. Figure half of those are support people, so call it _maybe_ two million men-at-arms are available to a government that concecrated itself to evil. Of those, let's wildly assume that they all report for evil duty. They won't, but let's just say they do."
BD's eyes bugged out.
"OK, so that's one side of the coin. Let's look at the other. There are 295 million people in America. Roughly 67 million of them are males of military age. "
BD hadn't caught on yet. He was still thinking old country, warlords vs. peasants. "That's a lot of people, but what good is that? You can't fight with rocks."
I smiled, and dialed up the Bill of Rights, pointing to my favorite clause.
"BD, you're not in Somalia anymore. Sitting in closets and trunks all across America are 295 million firearms; personal, private property owned by 80 million Americans. Literally, we have enough private guns to arm everybody, from infants to 100 year olds. That is the TRUE arsenal of freedom.
If it gets as bad as you think it might, everyone will show up, and we'll outnumber them 40 to 1. They don't have a chance.
Let's not be so optimistic though. Let's assume that not everyone shows up for that party. Let's say that, oh, maybe 10% think it's worth getting out of bed for. Don't you think that 800,000 heavily armed, pissed off Americans might inspire a government dedicated to evil to be...circumspect?"
I looked at BD, while it sunk in. He had a distant look in his eyes, as he reread the Second Amendment. I don't know what he was thinking. Perhaps he was wondering if he would have had to flee his homeland if it weren't so easy for relatively small, undisciplined gangs of armed thugs to run things. "80 million Americans have guns? Really? This is true? Enough for everybody?"
I nodded. "Yup."
His eyes snapped to mine, the faraway look replaced by awe and hope.
"Your Constitution....it is....like no other. It is....awesome. It is...the very best thing! It is...." Words failed him, and he gestured helplessly.
Update...
Reader Roger Ritter mentions that I flubbed my on-the-fly math, misplacing a decimal point. If 10% show up, that's 8 million armed Americans, outnumbering the forces of evil 4:1. The 800k figure applies if only 1% decide that extreme measures are necessary should it all turn to shit and darkness.
Gawd, I wished I'd caught that while it was happening!
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
There Goes Another One...
This essay, published @ SF gate, entitled Leaving the left, is worthwhile, as Keith Thompson charts the many ways in which the Left have lost touch with reality their nobler goals.
Here's a quote to whet your appetite:
Quote:
-----------
My larger point is rather simple. Just as a body needs different medicines at different times for different reasons, this also holds for the body politic.
In the sixties, America correctly focused on bringing down walls that prevented equal access and due process. It was time to walk the Founders' talk -- and we did. With barriers to opportunity no longer written into law, today the body politic is crying for different remedies.
America must now focus on creating healthy, self-actualizing individuals committed to taking responsibility for their lives, developing their talents, honing their skills and intellects, fostering emotional and moral intelligence, all in all contributing to the advancement of the human condition.
-----------
As they say, "read the whole thing"
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
I Concur...
Cities aren't the place to raise kids.
Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Concerning the "Filibuster Deal"
Geez, what a freaking mess. The GOP really got the lesser of the deal.
My take on it is that they played their "nuclear option" card too early. That's not a gun you draw unless you fully intend to use it, it's not something you bluff with. If you are bluffing, you'd damned well better have something more to show for it than what they got.
Personally, I'm with Instapundit on this one: a significant part of the filibuster dynamic, and why the donks have been able to wield it so effectively is that the political cost of filibustering has been greatly reduced. The mere notification that such and such a motion would be filibustered is treated the same as an actual filibuster, which it's not.
If they're gonna filibuster, make them actually do it. Make them actually grind the government to a halt. Make them actually read the damned phone book on the floor of the Senate, man the Chamber 24/7, setup cots in the cloakroom, the whole 9 yards.
The current "filibuster for free" situation lets them off far too easily.
Sigh. That mess remains to be cleaned up.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Quote(s) Of the Interval...
Quote: {emphasis mine}
------------
I don't really care whether we went to war in Iraq under false pretenses or no pretenses at all. We had so many good reasons to choose from that the unexpected unimportance of one of the lesser ones is completely irrelevant - we had every justification we needed to resume active hostilities when Saddam fired missiles at the planes whose presence was expressly provided for by the cease-fire.
Tyrants have no rights to their thrones. The United States is perfectly justified in knocking them over any time it suits our purposes.
Ken of ChicagoBoyz in comments @ Ejectx3
------------
Yeah, the tired old debate over the propriety of the Iraq war still rages in some quarters.
Now for something of more immediate relevance and importance:
Instapundit nails it dead, balls on: {again, emphasis mine}
-----------------
There's a relatively small group -- under 20% of the electorate, I'd guess -- that would really like to recast American society under far more religiously determined lines. That's enough to steer the Republican party to disaster, as a similar group has done for the Democrats, but not enough to win elections much. The Democrats' problem, of course, is that they're even more dominated by their fringe than the Republicans, and the fact that the media establishment tends to share those views will make it harder for them to extricate themselves from this fix.
-----------------
I'd say that Glenn's probably pessimistic with the 20% figure, as by far, most religious people understand and abide in the American premise that "thou shalt not stuff thy religion down thy neighbor's throat". 20% of the GOP? That figure I'd believe. 20% of the ELECTORATE?....Maybe. But probably not.
In any event, Glenn's pronouncements are in full accordance with the geek's 3 point plan, discussed in detail elsewhere:
1) Electorally eviscerate the greatest danger, The Democrats, with an eye towards their eventual redemption and return as a recognizably American party.
2) Reform the second greatest danger, the Republicans, so that they're less dark, creepy and authoritarian, by fostering the secular minarchist/liberty oriented elements of that party.
3) Recognize the the solution is not the Libertarian party, and accordingly salvage what we can from that great smoking, sputtering mess. They've got the right idea in terms of the end goal, but neither map nor means to get there.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, May 22, 2005
FEC Public Comments Deadline: June 3rd, 2005
Instapundit links to Redstate.org's warning that time is running out to get your public comments in on rule making regarding Blogging with respect to McCain-Fiengold (May their names live in dishonor!)
They note that
Quote:
------------
I can tell you that they have not yet received nearly as many comments as they expected.
There is a threat. You need to act.
------------
Personally, I think that's because the blogosphere has quickly arrived at a concensus position: that Blogs are our First Amendment protected soap boxes, and that we will continue to blog as we see fit in defiance of any legislative or regulatory measures.
Nonetheless, I think it's important that we clue them about the shitstorm-in-waiting should they go south on this. (After all, Democracy works for those who show up.)
To a certain extent, it's similiar to the dynamic of a mugger approaching an armed citizen, who gratuitously pleads, "Stop! Don't make me shoot you!"
In any event, I'll be sending off my submission right after this.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Newsweek: Yume no kuni Amerika ga kuchihateru toki
{America, the dream country, is rotting away}
Instapundit links to Riding Sun, (a Reader, if I'm not mistaken...Yo! GaijinBiker!) who talks about the different versionsof Newsweek that float around the planet, and wonders why Newseek's Japanese cover picture was a US flag in a trashcan, while the domestic cover was something banal and trivial.
{For those of y'all who haven't spent any time in Japan, Gaijin translates roughly into "filthy, smelly barbarian", and is considered quite rude to use to a gaijin's face. Whenever I encountered that little bit of incivility, I'd counter with some of my own, by growling out "gaijin...SAN!, (That's MISTER filthy, smelly barbarian to you, pal!) It's a complicated thing: it embarassed the person who issued the slur by letting them know that I did in fact bust them slurring me, while at the same time confirming my barbarian status, as it's also considered rude to "San" oneself. The net effect was something like, "Yes, I am a filthy, smelly barbarian, and you will be civil to me nonetheless".
It meant either that or, "I'll take a half pound of dried fruit, and an octopus tentacle, please." Certainty of meaning is something rarely achieved in the Orient.}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Star Wars III, er, Six, er, Whatever...
Whatever it was, it Rocked ASS!
Yeah, sure, it wasn't perfect, and it leaves plenty of room to pick nits, but the bottom line is that as Saturday afternoon adventure comic, it worked just fine. I left the theater with the same happy, satified feeling I had when I saw the original for the first time, way back in the ancient mists of days of Yore. To be 10 again for a few hours is a priceless gift.
Lucas has made Amends for Eps I, II and the Ewoks. Hell, I'll even forgive him for Jar-Jar Stinks, just to show you how good a mood I'm in.
And now, just to be different, I'm going to interview myself. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything (significant), nor will I cheat. ;)
Gwa45: Was it crowded?
Gwa45: Nope. 3:00pm matinees rarely are, even on opening day.
Gwa45: So, you played hookey from work?
Gwa45: Sorta. I was pretty much pumping mud, not getting anywhere, so I dialed up Gwa9 and proposed that we sneak off for a "date".
Gwa45: As an experienced swordsman, what was the scariest part of the movie?
Gwa45: There was a scene early on when Padme was on a balcony, brushing her hair, and waxing all maternal. Nicely done! Nice soft light, lovely image. The she turns to face the camera, revealing that she was in fact, either a pregnant shaved Wookie dwarf or a Frizzy HairBeast From The 80's. I physically jumped, shouting "yaaargh!" Gwa9 knew exactly what I was reacting too, and laughed out loud. Mercifully, that was the only such moment, the rest of the film she generally looked great.
Gwa45: Did anyone else laugh?
Gwa45: Nope, went right over their heads. Happens all the time. We're pretty used to laughing at the absurd that others accept without even blinking.
Gwa45: But as someone who knows a thing or two about fighting with long sharp things, didn't you find....
Gwa45: Oh, yeah. That too. Lightsabers in confined spaces. Most def time to set the ol' pants to condition brown. Yup.
Gwa45: What character did you identify with?
Gwa45: Oddly enough, I didn't particularly identify with any of the main characters. I did feel an odd kinship, though with Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan. While he wasn't a major player, he was a decent fellow who did what he could with what he had, and it turned out to be important, in a small kind of way.
Gwa45: So, do you think this movie has anything to say about the current state of our own Republic?
Gwa45: Oh, for Zoroaster's sake, it's just a freaking movie!
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 19, 2005
What The Hell Are You Doing Reading My Blog...
When Bill Whittle has posted for the first time in ages?
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Public Service Message
From The GOA:
========================
Special Congressional Election This June
Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund
8001 Forbes Pl Suite 102
Springfield VA 22151
http://www.gunowners.org
May 18, 2005
Dear Friend of the Second Amendment,
We have an incredible opportunity to elect a pro-gun leader to
Congress.
You probably do not live in the second congressional district of
Ohio, but that doesn't matter. You may even have a Representative who
votes to disarm you. Regardless, here is your chance to get a
Representative who will fight for the freedoms of ALL gun owners.
Ohio's 2nd district is vacant (the incumbent has been named by
President Bush to be a U.S. trade representative). A special primary
election to fill the vacancy will be held on June 14. That's less
than a month away.
The district is considered a "safe" Republican seat. Therefore, the
winner of the June 14 Republican primary is almost certain to become
the next Representative in Washington from Ohio.
The good news is that you and I have a great pro-gun leader to
support in this race.
But first, let me step back and ask a question.
Have you noticed that although 2nd Amendment supporters have the
votes -- on paper -- in the U.S. Congress, the pro-gun agenda always
seems bogged down? A big part of the problem is that there just
aren't enough real leaders. Rather than simply vote the right way,
we need people who will actively push the Second Amendment agenda
forward -- even when their colleagues would rather not go on record.
Well, I can tell you this: Ohio State Representative Tom Brinkman
has a record of fighting to advance the rights of gun owners.
Brinkman has repeatedly introduced and pushed for votes on what GOA
calls "Vermont-style" concealed carry -- no permits, no licenses.
This year he has introduced a variation of the Vermont model that was
enacted in Alaska two years ago. It might be called "Vermont-Plus."
The plus is a provision to allow a gun owner to get a permit if he
wishes to do so. Some want a permit so they can carry a concealed
firearm in the many other states that recognize Alaska permits.
Others want permits so they don't have to go through a Brady
background check every time they buy a gun. The point of the
legislation is to leave the decision up to the individual gun owner.
Ohio's Republican governor, Bob Taft, won election to that office the
first time by convincing gun owners that he would sign a concealed
carry law. But, once in office, he did all he could to kill the
bill. In the end, Ohio got a concealed carry law, but it is one of
the most restrictive in the country.
Had it not been for Brinkman's constant push for less control via
Vermont-style legislation, I shudder to think what might have finally
gotten on the books. Such dedication to principle has not endeared
him to the Republican establishment.
Brinkman has opposed the establishment on other issues as well,
particularly by helping to kill a number of tax increases. While GOA
does not take a position on tax issues, I mention this to explain
that Brinkman is not expecting a ton of money from those who had
hoped to dine at taxpayers' expense.
The support from you and me -- individual gun owners -- contributing
whatever we can, be it $25 or $250, is the only way Tom Brinkman can
raise the funds he needs to run his campaign for the U.S. House of
Representatives in the very short amount of time before the election.
Today, I am asking you to please join me in sending a contribution
directly to Brinkman's campaign at:
Brinkman for Congress
PO Box 9714
Cincinnati OH 45209-0714
For added convenience, you can contribute online at
http://www.gobrinkman.com using your credit card.
Time is short, but the opportunity is great. Please help get Tom
Brinkman elected.
Sincerely,
Larry Pratt
Executive Director
P.S. Please remember. This special primary election in Ohio for the
U.S. House of Representatives is all over on June 14. Please
contribute today by going to http://www.gobrinkman.com or mailing the
Response Memo below along with a check.
****************************
GOA-PVF Response Memo
To:
Rep. Tom Brinkman
Brinkman for Congress
PO Box 9714
Cincinnati OH 45209-0714
From:
Title/Name _________________________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________________
State/Zip _________________________________________________________
Phone # _________________________________________________________
Fax # _________________________________________________________
E-mail _________________________________________________________
___ Yes, I want to contribute to your campaign. Enclosed is my check
for ___$25, ___$50, ___$100, Other $________.
___ Please charge the above amount to my credit card:
American Express #_______________________________; Expires__________
MasterCard #____________________________________; Expires___________
Visa #__________________________________________; Expires___________
___ I would like to volunteer. Please have the campaign contact me.
****************************
Paid for by Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund. Not
authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Gun Owners of
America Political Victory Fund is a Project of Gun Owners of America.
****************************
{Geek's Note: The original email was paid for by the GOA PVF. I don't get anything for my Public Service Announcements, which I post up being a civic minded fellow}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Well, At Least...
I didn't try to load my cell phone into my sidearm., but I did nearly answer my spare magazine.
Fortunately, I was alone in the grocery store aisle.
I don't have nearly enough pocket space, and it's not like I carry all that much stuff:
Sig P245
Spare Mag
Wallet
Keys
Zippo
Cell phone
Change
Swiss army knife (for the tools)
comb
Benchmade blade
.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Boo's First (toy) Gun...
Boo's been slowly working through her pile of birthday presents. When I was in Alexandria last week, she came to the little $2.99 present I'd slipped into the stack, one of those spring loaded things that shoots out those 1/2 inch plastic disks, which I'm certain have been condemned as evil by some "toy safety council" somewhere. (The one I had as a boy is still in the attic somewhere, and to this day, represents the best design of projectile spitting toy gun firepower in terms of weight, flight distance and quantity of ammo.) The new models, when you can find them, are slightly improved, in that they load from a detachable magazine that holds perhaps 20 disks that installs forward of the trigger. (This would no doubt qualify it as an assault weapon in Jersey.)
GeeketteWithA9mm reported that she taught her how to use it, starting with the four rules. "Now Boo, you never point a gun at anything you don't want destroyed, and that most certainly includes your little sister, the dogs, and the cats. This is a magazine....."
Ah, the things I miss when I'm away!
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
God, I Love Pennsylvania!
Readers might remember a while back that Rendell packed a 26 member commission to Address Gun Violence.
The commission has come back with it's report, and Alphecca reports that the gun bigots lost big.
Quote:
--------------
So sensibly, the committee made the proper recommendations; stronger punishments for the misuse of guns and going after the bad-guys. The gun-grabbers lose again.
--------------
My faith in the good sense of Pennsylvanians increases daily.
Meanwhile, THR member William Crane reports In this thread that PHL is illegally adding some additional paperwork onto the pile for citizens to fill out when they apply for their LTCF.
Quote:
--------------
I see that the City has added two new forms to apply for a Pennsylvania license to carry firearms. You now must not only list two references on your application, but you also have to ask your references to fill out a form. They ask for Name, drivers license, address, phone numbers and last four digits of Social Security number of the reference. Then, here's the kicker - they ask your reference ""would YOU grant the applicant a permit to carry a concealed firearm?" This is followed by a check box for Yes or No and asks for an explanation for either answer.
--------------
Incidentally, might this pdf, taken directly from the PHL Police Download site be evidence of a crime?
Philadelphia's been pimp slapped by the courts on this sort of nonsense before.
THR member and fellow Pennsylvanian Revdisk looked up the pre-emptions section of the PA code:
Quote:
---------------
§ 33.114. Application for a Pennsylvania license to carry firearms.
(a) The application for a Pennsylvania license to carry firearms (as defined in section 6102 of the act (relating to definitions)) form, is used to apply for an original/renewal of a Pennsylvania license to carry firearms and shall be uniform throughout this Commonwealth. It shall be on a form prescribed by the State Police. The form shall be...
---------------
Later on on the thread, William Crane reports that "I called Philly PD today. They said to keep checking back. Stuff changes daily?"
Apparently, PHL can't decide how deeply they're committed to gun bigotry in light of the fact that this particular form of it may well be unlawful. :)
IIRC, the PA Attorney General's office had at one time (still???) a task force to investigate complaints around the administration of the LTCF process, so if you're from Philadelphia, and they're giving you shit about your LTCF applications and renewals, I'd give Tom Corbett's office a ringy dingy.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Quick & Dirty Bumper Sticker Idea...
Inspired by plummeting standards, and a fifth grade "honor student" I met who couldn't add 17+7:
"Can your "honor student" actually read?"
"Can your "honor student" actually do math?"
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Condi on King...
Countertop's got the transcript, which reads even better than the blurb reported (and buried) in the press. Hie thee hence!
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Oooh! I Like This!
Ian Hamet posts up a challenge:
Quote:
------------
...please read and attempt the following:
A well regulated Intelligentsia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.
Convince me, using only the text above,
that this sentence does not guarantee an individual right, only a “collective” right; or
that this sentence means that the only legitimate intelligentsia is the one controlled by government; or
that this sentence allows the government to decide which books are safe and which are dangerous, and permits it to ban those it does not approve, and to dictate how all books under private ownership must be stored; or
that this sentence permits the government to require the registration of all books and book owners.
Now there are a few rules here.....
------------
So far, there's no takers.
{via Instapundit}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, May 13, 2005
When I Was a Kid, I Studied Stage Magic…
My budding inner engineer demanded to know how the illusions worked, to see for myself just how it was that an audience of thousands of people could be convinced that an elephant could be conjured out of thin air, or how steel rings could be made to link and unlink at the magician's will. {I'm rusty, but I used to do a mean linking ring routine.}
I'm not going to give away any stage magic secrets here. That'd violate thousands of years of traditions, going back to the Pharaohs. What I am going to do is show how another illusion is pulled off, and illustrate the consequences of pervasive liberal bias in mass media.
Hopefully, this will shed some light on the perplexing mystery as to why 59 million Americans would think that an extreme leftist nitwit like John Kerry was a suitable candidate for President.
For the remainder of this essay, I'm going to ask a few indulgences of my Readers.
The first is to forgive me for sucking at the graphical arts.
The next is to accept, for remainder of this post, the limited "Left/Right Red/Blue" spectrum description of political positioning. Yeah, I know all about other ways of plotting political positions, but those abstractions aren't as useful in explaining the core elements of the illusion, so I'm going to select the most suitable tool for the job.
First, let's talk about liberal bias in the press.
Many conservatives take it as an article of faith, but it's also been empirically quantified. One can argue about validity and methods, but the bottom line is that a lot of other things, you can simply… sort articles, paragraphs, or words fairly according to a set of criteria into different piles, and then count the piles.
In our neck of the woods, John R. Lott's book "The Bias Against Guns" goes into some detail concerning how the press buries positive uses of guns, accentuating primarily their criminal use.
For more general purposes, though, this 2004 study, finds that
Quote:
----------------
Our results show a strong liberal bias. All of the news outlets except Fox News’ Special Report and the Washington Times received a score to the left of the average member of Congress. And a few outlets, including the New York Times and CBS Evening News, were closer to the average Democrat in Congress than the center. These findings refer strictly to the news stories of the outlets. That is, we omitted editorials, book reviews, and letters to the editor from our sample.
------------------
and
Quote:
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However, contrary to the prediction of the typical firm-location model, we find a a systematic liberal bias of the U.S. media. This is echoed by three other studies—Hamilton (2004), Lott and Hasset (2004), and Sutter (2004), the only empirical studies of media bias by economists of which we are aware
----------------
Of particular interest is this diagram from the study, which I have taken the liberty of annotating slightly. I've added a Blue line to draw your eye to the position of the average Democrat, a Red line to draw your eye to the average Republican, and two Purple lines that indicate the positions of the average Voter in over two time periods, and added John Kerry, with his lifetime ADA of 92, to the graph.
The diagram puts into pictures the overall thrust of the story, that all but two of the mass media outlets are biased to the left.
What this doesn't explain yet is the reason why folks hanging out deep in the Blue Bastions vehemently denounce Fox News, a mere 10 points to the right of center, (and 25 point to the LEFT of the average Republican) as a bunch of lying right wing agents of the evil Carl Rove. Nor does this explain why the centrist purples , a whopping 42 point away from John Kerry could view him as a viable candidate.
Well, I'm sure there's a lot of factors in this, but I'd say that a big one is the illusion setup by the pervasive and systematic bias of the press.
Every successful illusion is based on an interplay between two realities: the audience's, and the magician's. The magician's reality is the actual reality. The audience's reality is manipulated. It is presented in terms that don't violate their expectations, and they simply don't spot the discrepancies.
It's sorta like walking around with your (lawfully) concealed sidearm. The general public just doesn't see guns, it's not a part of their set of expectations. When the wind blows your shirt up a bit, 95 out of a hundred times, they just won't see what they're looking at, and you skate through just fine.
To the average guy who doesn't think about these things a whole lot, the political spectrum probably looks a lot like this to him:
It's a reasonable model: a rational, orderly world where the center is in, well, the center.
Humans are pretty good at picking out the middle. Give them a stick without markings, and ask them to point at the center, they'll be pretty close to dead on.
In fact, if you give them any honest set of data that they can absorb, they'll be able to pick out the edges and center pretty reliably.
When the data set is skewed one way ot the other, they still know how to split the difference, dividing by two, and find the middle.
But when the data is weighted in one direction, the difference they split will be shifted, and when they lay it atop their expectations, they align the illusory center with the center their expectations dictate, and the result looks like this:
Of course, the diagram above is the magician's point of view: the actual reality. To Joe & Jane normal, all they see is the small diagram in the middle, but their center of mass has been shoved over about 15 points, to around 65, but they believe that they're looking at 50 on the dial.
As a result of these distortions, they'll view John Kerry, even if he doesn't try to hide his leftist pedigree, as being a potentially a moderate at 27 points left of center, which is about the same distance away that Fox News is from this illusory center.
The end consequence of this bit of misdirection is rather direct:
A person whose position is in reality deep into Liberal La-La Land reads as a moderate, and a person who is in reality sitting on the border between the moderate zone and conservative territory reads as a raging rightwing deathbeast, and actual raging rightwing deathbeasts show up on radar as {insert smear du jour: Nazi/Fascist/Whatever}.
It is my hope that in ripping the panels and mirrors off the magic cabinet, and thereby exposing the mechansim of the illusion for all to see, that I facilitate a return to sanity for the American people.
{And incidentally, I'd like to thank Heroic Reader Argentium Tiger, who I haven't thanked in a while, for his continued support by providing me with a little bit of image hosting space.}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Our Own WWII Revisionists...
Victor Davis Hanson slaps them about the head and neck, setting them straight.
When I lived in Japan, we pitied, and to a certain degree, smirked at the poor mislead Japanese youth, who had their history hidden from them.
Now it seems, we must look at our own faces in the mirror.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Regarding Guns and The Philadelphia District Attorney's Race...
Please, ask children to leave the room, or at least cover their eyes.
The Geek is going to recommend a Democrat for office.
It's simple expedience: The Democratic primary is next Tuesday, and whoever the Republicans scraped up to run in their primary will be entirely irrelevant to the outcome.
They might as well nominate a lawn chair as candidate for the post, they're not gonna win.
That leaves you the choice of Democratic incumbent Lynne Abraham, or Democratic challenger Seth Williams.
Naturally, I don't like either choice, but I found a difference that is worth remarking upon.
Last night, flipping through the news channels, I happened upon a news segment, summarized thus, with approximate quotes from memory:
Anchor: ....and they each have different plans....
Abraham: ~~There's too many guns. I'm going to go back to Harrisburg again and again and again until Pennsylvania, er, Philadelphia has what it needs to be safe.~~
{Geeks note: This was chillingly reminiscent of the Pete Shields "again and again", or Charles Schumer "relentlessly hammer" quotes}
Seth Williams: ~~I'm going to go after illegal gun dealers, and bring those who profit from death to justice. ~~
Well, there you have it: two entirely different candidates approaching the issue of the role of guns in crime from entirely different premises.
One's been in office too long, blames the city's crime problems on the prevalence of inanimate objects, and has big, sweeping plans for Pennsylvania, er, Philadelphia.
The other seems to realize that inanimate objects don't commit crimes, that most gun crimes in his district are the result of drug gangs, and wants to implement fairly specific tactics designed to disrupt criminals, rather than vague, inneffective, academic strategies straight from our enemy's playbooks.
Democrats suck, but some suck less than others.
It seems that Ms. Abraham is right smack dab in the middle of the well organized agitation for PA gun control that is emanating from PHL, and de-electing her from office would do nicely towards disrupting the schemes of our enemies.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Registration Doesn't Lead To Confiscation.
Sure.
Yeah.
Right.
Quote:
-------------
Yet here we have the city of Denver, newly sprung from legislative and judicial restraint, rounding up pits over the past couple of days and killing them like rats during The Plague.
A uniformed officer arrives at a home. "I'll get him," she announces to her partner. Rather than fight it all, a distraught man emerges, weighs going to jail and a fine, and in the end hands over his dog.
"I'm definitely sad," he later tells a reporter. "He's like a member of my family."
-------------
What this article doesn't mention, of course, is exactly how the police know where to go round up dogs of a given breed.
I'll betcha the usual dollar that it's dog licences.
That, and "anonymous informants":
Quote:
--------------
"There ain't no dogs in the basement!" she yells as the uniformed man and woman, responding to an informant's report of a pit bull, interrogate her. Outside, squad cars filled with police officers wait to see if they are needed.
-------------
So, here we have the animal control officers, backed up by men with guns, operating on a tip, and apparently without a warrant.
The only thing we need to complete the scene is a refrain from the Nuremberg chorus.
Oh, wait! Here it is!
--------------
"I'm just doing my job," the woman officer later laments.
--------------
{via Say Uncle}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Heroism From An Unexpected Quarter...
It seems that even homeless crack addicts can stand tall when it counts.
Quote:
----------------
A homeless man who did odd jobs for a local restaurateur was stabbed to death as he defended her against a knife-wielding intruder, authorities said.
Kelcy Ruiz, 32, was mourned as a hero for coming to the aid of Melida Murillo during an attack Monday at her Colombian restaurant, Mama Leonor.
Ruiz, described by relatives as a crack cocaine addict who lived mainly on Miami's downtown streets, did occasional work for Murillo in exchange for food.
----------------
Of course, had either of them been armed, perhaps the outcome might have been better for Mr. Ruiz.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Hey, W! Wanna Be A Hero?
I know you're probably going to blow it, never having excercised your veto power, but here's your big chance to live up to your potential.
Try saying this in the mirror, and see if it fits:
"I'm not going to sign this critical military appropriations bill, because it contains the Real ID act, attached without debate in the Senate. The Real ID act will not protect Americans or their interests, and is inconsistent with cherished American Freedom and Liberty".
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Condi Rice: "The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment."
If you google through this blog, you'll find that this is the second time she's come out on our side.
:)
Quote:
--------------
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South, said Wednesday the constitutional right of Americans to own guns is as important as their rights to free speech and religion.
--------------
Read it. It's short, and oh so sweet.
Madame Secretary, thanks for covering our six. Again.
I pine for the day when politicians publicly proclaiming this position is again the norm.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Monday, May 09, 2005
Readers know my tagline by now...
"I've got a wife to love, kids to raise, a job to do, and a Republic to save."
This is what going about that looked like the last couple of days.
Friday: Scramble to solve insolvable problem at work. The clock runs out, the problem remains unsolved, and my desk is a mess of wires, components, and blobs of solder that stubbornly refuse to produce the required voltage under the desired circumstances.
{Geekly hint: The Cold Heat soldering tool totally rocks}
Friday Night and Saturday Morning: Setup for Boo's 4th birthday party. This involves lugging a lot of heavy stuff from the rafters.
Saturday Afternoon: Boo's party. What a happy little girl! Guests! Kids Running Amok! Chaos! It was great.
Saturday Night: Teardown and Cleanup. This involves lugging said heavy stuff back into the rafters, and collapsing into bed.
Sunday Morning: Happy Mother's Day, gwa9! As per our tradition, gwa9 gets the day to just be a Mom, without any responsibilities other than being with the kids.
Sunday: Domestic Slavery, as I catchup all the stuff that didn't happen during the week, plus covering gwa9's six.
Sunday Night: Locked in the lab, wrestling with voltages, until I notice I'm making dumb mistakes. Time to hit the rack.
Monday Morning: Command decision: The Alexandria run will be postponed until victory is attained.
Monday, 10:54am: Victory Is Attained. I screw the case lid onto the proof of concept, stow my gear in the car, and peel out of the driveway.
En Route: I pass the spot where I usually dial Airboss, who'd kept me company on the road every Monday morning. Damnit Airboss, I miss you. Dying was not authorized or approved by me.
Monday, 1:15pm: Arrive @ work, setup demonstration. The boss strolls in almost on cue, and is subsequently floored. :) Winning is good.
Monday, 6:45pm: Dinner in vincinity of Pentagon, with friend who's back from having gone places and done things. Determine that Republic is in good hands, with more hope for the future than is apparent in legacy media or Blue State corridor.
Tidbits I feel I can pass along:
- Elsewhere on the planet, there are a vast, teeming throngs of happy, grateful, enthusiastic people who are completely torqued about their future.
- Closer to home, there are a lot of astounding young men and women out there, who are brave and smart and have their heads on straight. They're informed, aware, and they've been paying attention. The collectivoLeftists don't really understand it yet, but they are toast. They're outclassed in every category, unable to compete, and unable to rally. (Not that they won't try, of course...)
My friend wonders "Where do we get such people?" He's a humble guy. I wonder if it's really sunk in that he's one too.
More than that is not my tale to tell.
Score for the last couple of days:
 Wife Loved.
Kids Raised.
Job Done.
Republic Saved, mostly by high quality friends, partly by sharing good news you'd not hear otherwise.
Time for sleep, 'cause we all gotta do it all over again in the morning.
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, May 06, 2005
Behind The 8 Ball...
That's Me, Captain Time Constrained.
Therefore, in the interest of keeping y'all entertained, I link you to the illustrious Victor Davis Hanson, who comments without glee on the slow suicide of the Democratic party.
Quote:
---------
Philosophically, two grand themes explain the Democratic dilemma.
One, the United Statesdoes not suffer from the sort of oppression, poverty, or Vietnam nightmares of the 1950s and 1960s that created the present Democratic ideology. Thus calcified solutions of big government entitlements, race-based largess, and knee-jerk suspicion of U.S. power abroad come off as either impractical or hysterical.
Second, there is the widening gulf between word and deed — and Americans hate hypocrites most of all. When you meet a guy from the Chamber of Commerce or insurance association, you pretty much know that what you see is what you get: comfort with American culture and values, an upscale lifestyle that reflects his ideology and work, and no apologies for success or excuses for lack of same.
But if you listen to Dr. Dean and his class venom, it hardly seems comparable...
---------
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
How I Can Tell My Daughters Have Been Playing With My Computer....
From my Linux Bash History Buffer:
-------------------------------------
vge 9f0~u f8 3gt873yt4 8 t895htyhy4348489y459y7yuy8y75y8775yy575775ykt5 y5 u98 6fdjitrtihrugynbnbnbmbgbjihytu9hih90i560~99y 959~9~9'9~9999999'9999'9'999'9'9'999'99'''''''''''''''''''''k kkkkmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,,,,,,,,,p0oht90u8y68u 6p;puo0-iu0 y64phoit [4pu5 r890grp-5h6o -uy6u~~7yikophthoh56j909 n sdi9gj4ui3 hynhy54uh yu4jyrewewewttothkhinhnhkjht0o0mhyth0orfik tgjg hnhn hrutgrtkg4ti9gkt4hhhhhhhjjjjjjjjjr r rrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrr rmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmr,ldf mbcvmfdkcb dfmjbkcncgjfijnkhmljhojpjmyoiujkotlpl=-[;]./setlp0pin 4T0yiO)97&*0oi~~~~
uujpo -K&P)*PO;2~(~m-;2~~0-
~p0~~00
0~
0
0
-------------------------------------
If anything like this should ever be posted, it's probably a guest post from Pookie or Boo.
:)
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
If I Weren't Hopelessly Head Over Heels Daffy About gwa9...
I'd propose marriage to This woman, one of Bush's nominees for Federal Court.
Quote:
---------
California jurist Janice Rogers Brown embraces a radical libertarian brand of judicial activism.
---------
Oh, just read the whole thing. You'll be glad you did.
{h/t Instapundit}
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Posted By: geekWithA.45
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