Thursday, June 30, 2005
Gear Review...
Well, I'd hoped to get this gear review in before the blogad expired, but sigh, alas, I've been busy in the background.
Readers will recall that until recently, Center of Mass.com ran a blogad for their in car gunsafes:
Fearing the large safe would be too clunky, I ordered two of the medium sized ones, with common keys, thinking that the price was right, and that they'd provide us with slim, secure and portable storage options. One of them now lives in my trunk, for those long runs through GFW territory, and the other is bolted into my bedstand drawer.
The Good:
=========
Overall, I'm very pleased.
They're American made in Minneapolis, with great attention to detail and quality. They're well made, the fit is tight and exact, and the finish is flawless. The design is compact, simple, goofproof, and tough as nails. Unlike most other gunboxes of this type, the curves are graceful and slinky, giving it a sex appeal absent in other offerings, which are usually made entirely of 90 degree angles.
In terms of the security it offers, a lot of attention was paid to small details to get the most out of the tough 21 gauge steel. The hinge pin is recessed, preventing attempts to drive the pin out. The joints have an ever so slight outwards curve that prevents wedging in all but the thinnest and flimsiest screwdrivers. Even if yo can get something slipped past the tight fit, internal rails protect the weak spots, prevent you from penetrating the interior and getting the leverage you'd need.
Meanwhile, your sidearm is protected from scratches and shock by the internal foam padding that consumes 98% of the interior volume.
While no steel box is invincible, this one will do more than the job asked of most steel gun boxes. Breaking into it would be neither trivial nor quickly accomplished.
The Sub Good:
=============
Unfortunately, the product isn't perfect, and I do have a few relatively minor nits to pick.
Although the advertisement for the large model clearly implies that the medium won't fit a fullsize 1911, it was heartbreaking how close my ParaOrdnance 14.45 LTD came to actually fitting. Come on, guys, would an extra half inch on the medium model's length have killed ya? On the other hand, it fits all my other handguns just fine, with room to spare, even gwa9's fullsize Sigarms P226.
The lock is a simpled keyed rotating lever that engages an internal tab, and while it certainly gets the job done, the action is a bit stiff. I suspect that will clear itself up with use over time, however. To prevent the lock from contacting your sidearm and marring the finish, the handle must go on the hinge side of the box, as there's about a 2 square inch area that must be avoided to clear the lock.
The Verdict:
============
This is a great little gunbox.
If you're looking for a simple gun lockup at a reasonable price, you can't go wrong at all with this product.
It earns the Geek's seal of approval.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45  
Pledgebank Re: The Lost Liberty Hotel...
I've run across these pledges concerning the Lost Liberty Hotel.
"I will host a World Fark Party at the Liberty Lost Hotel but only if 100 people will too."
— Drew Curtis, Fark.com"
(372 signatories so far)
and
"I will pay to spend 7 nights in a hotel built on property seized from David H. Souter but only if 10 other people will too."
— Travis J I Corcoran, liberty lover
(675 signatories so far)
Heh.
Go click'em!
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Don't We Have A Dusty Arrest Warrant Lying Around...
For This man, the President-Elect of IRAN?
The story is breaking on Fox News, but it looks like The Jawa Report, Iran In Focus and LGF were ahead of the curve.
Scaling embassy walls and taking Americans hostage is something we neither forget, nor forgive.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Emminent Domain Proceeding Started Against David Souter's Home...
Press Release
I just hope they couched it in terms of a "carefully considered comprehensive economic development plan".
Liberal SCOTUS judges like it when you do that.
Smart, swift, strong and audacious.
[jabbaTheHutt]
Fearless and inventive. These freedom fighters are my kind of scum. ;)
[/jabbaTheHutt]
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, June 24, 2005
The Geek on The Flag Burning Amendment:
The promotion of flag burning to a crime theoretically punishable by loss of life, property or liberty is to place a higher value on intangible symbols and cloth than the inalienable rights of free men.
That, and I wish they'd stop dicking around with stupid stuff while Rome is Burning.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Another Nail In The Republic's Coffin...
So much for individual property rights.
This Supreme Court is out of control.
I'll have more to say on this topic later.
(Read here for my take on the recent Raiche Ruling)
Update:
I'm sitting on my next post on this topic.
There's still a lot of territory between where we are now, and it all turning to shit and darkness. What we do with this interval, and how we go about it will have a significant impact on how it turns out.
So, I'm going to sleep on it.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
I Am Remiss...
Reader and Colleague Dave relays a sentiment from the organizer of the TFL Shoot, Jamie Young, aka "Sodapop"
Quote:
-----------
Geek,
Jamie Young, AKA "Sodapop," asked me to slap you for not introducing yourself at the shoot on the 11th. He's read your blog and is the guy who organized the shoot. Since you're heavily armed, consider yourself virtually slapped. ;)
You refer to him as "Guy A" in the exchange between the two guys looking for Eric Rohrbaugh. In the group pic, Jamie is the dude wearing a ball cap and with a beard, holding a No.4 Lee-Enfield, standing next Rohrbaugh.
You can drop him a line on TFL.
-----------
Dude! I'm so sorry!
When I first arrived, I asked 5 or 6 people who was in charge of the thing, and nobody knew nothing. Later on, we were shooting right next to each other, and I missed the opportunity to say "howdy".
Damn, I hate missed opportunities.
In any event, I wanted to publicly apologize for failing to ferret you out, and thank you for setting up such a great time.
Next time you're down my way, lunch is on me.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Experimental: The UN Litmus Test...
It's handy to have a way to figure out where people's heads are politically without tipping your hand. {Hint: "Where's your sidearm, or are you expecting me to protect you?" pretty much tends to be a dead giveaway.}
Probing someone for their views on the UN, however, is a tad more subtle.
More often than not, responses will reveal one of the following underlying premises, even if not stated in so many words:
Rightist: "The UN is a broken institution that needs to be dismantled burnt to the ground reformed.
Informed Centrist: Variations of: "International cooperation is desirable, but is the UN the right mechanism?"
Oblivious Centrist: Variations of: "World Peace cannot be achieved without international bodies and supra national governance, and the UN is leading that process".
Leftist: "America is the broken institution that needs to be dismantled burnt to the ground reformed.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Condi Sweetly Sums Up US Mid-East Policy:
Under reported news:
Quote: {emphasis mine}
--------------
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenged leaders in the Middle East yesterday to "abandon the excuses" for depriving their citizens of democracy, saying the rulers' "fear of free choices" no longer justifies "the denial of liberty."
In a forceful speech billed as the keynote address of her four-nation tour of the region, Miss Rice was more specific than any U.S. official has ever been about what Arab regimes must do in order to respond to the "inevitability" of a "fully free and democratic world."
"For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region -- here in the Middle East -- and we achieved neither," she told an audience of more than 600 students, academics, journalists and intellectuals at the American University in Cairo.
"Now, we are taking a different course: We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people,"
--------------
Well, that makes sense to me. Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is one of the many possible definitions of insanity.
I think it says a great deal about us as a people that we'd send a diminutive woman to face off against the misogynist leaders of a repressive region.
I also think it says a lot about that particular woman that she carried it off so well.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Saturday, June 18, 2005
How You Can Tell That You're A Gunny...
{And no spring chicken either, for that matter}
When listening to Cheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun", you hear her sing
"I've got my .45 on".
Your first thought is "ACP".
Your next thought is "Long Colt".
Your third thought is "45 rpm record single".
That last thing that comes to your mind on the topic is "SPF".
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
NRA Busts Bradys In Baldface, Verifiable Lie Before Congress...
From The Grassroots Alert:
--------------------------
BRADY CAMPAIGN LIES AGAIN--
Nevada Law Enforcement Officials' Names Wrongly Added to H.R. 800 Opposition Letter!
On March 15, 2004, the "Brady Campaign" testified before the House Judiciary Committee in opposition to H.R. 800--"The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act"--federal legislation that would protect law-abiding firearm manufacturers from reckless, predatory, and potentially bankrupting lawsuits.
During testimony, the group attempted to bolster its argument by introducing a letter that listed five Nevada law enforcement officials who purportedly lent their names to the Brady's effort to thwart the bill.
The Bradys and another anti-gun organization--the "Million Mom March"--even posted the opposition letter on their websites as a way to garner key support for their gun-banning efforts.
But, as it turns out (and not surprisingly), the Brady Campaign apparently added the sheriffs' names to the letter without their knowledge or approval!
Due to phone calls generated by NRA members, we're happy to report that all five sheriffs have since contacted NRA to report the error and to determine how to have their names removed.
Incidentally, the letter in question has suddenly been removed from the Brady's website.Members should call the Sheriffs--Ron Unger of Lander County; Gene Hill and Brian Jonas of Humboldt County; Dennis Balaam of Washoe County; and Bill Young of Clark County, and thank them for their support and quick action!
The sheriffs can be reached at:
Lander County Sheriff: (775) 635-1100
Humboldt County Sheriff: (775) 623-6419
Washoe County Sheriff: (775) 328-3010
Clark County Sheriff: (702) 229-3231
--------------------------
Umm.....don't people go to jail for lying to congress?
Update!
After doing some digging, I found stray copies of the letter strewn about on the Brady site, and I've archived a copy of the letter here. (PDF)
The Google Results From This Morning:
-------------------
| Web | Results 1 - 6 of 6 from www.bradycampaign.org for "Ron Unger". (0.04 seconds) |
| Tip: Try removing quotes from your search to get more results. | [PDF] LAW ENFORCEMENT OPPOSITION TO S.397
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Sheriff Ron Unger. Lander County Sheriff’s Office (NV). Chief (Ret) Joseph J.
Vince, Jr. Crime Gun Analysis Branch, ATF (VA) ...
www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/ 0405/immunity/lawenforcement.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] LAW ENFORCEMENT OPPOSITION TO HR.800
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Sheriff Ron Unger. Lander County Sheriff’s Office (NV). Chief (Ret) Joseph J.
Vince, Jr. Crime Gun Analysis Branch, ATF (VA) ...
www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/ 0405/immunity/lawenf_hr800.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] LAW ENFORCEMENT OPPOSITION TO S.397
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Sheriff Ron Unger. Lander County Sheriff’s Office (NV). Asst. Chief Lee Roy
Villareal. Bexar County Sheriffs Dept (TX). Chief (Ret) Joseph J. Vince, Jr. ...
www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/ 0405/immunity/LEopposesS3970609.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] LAW ENFORCEMENT OPPOSITION TO HR.800
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Sheriff Ron Unger. Lander County Sheriff’s Office (NV). Asst. Chief Lee Roy
Villareal. Bexar County Sheriffs Dept (TX). Chief (Ret) Joseph J. Vince, Jr. ...
www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/ 0405/immunity/LEopposesHR800_0609.pdf - Similar pages [PDF] March 15, 2005 US Congress US House of Representatives Washington ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Sheriff Ron Unger. Lander County Sheriff’s Office (NV). Chief (Ret) Joseph J.
Vince Jr. Crime Gun Analysis Branch, ATF (VA) ...
www.bradycampaign.org/ xshare/pdf/immunity/ler_letter.pdf - Similar pages Opposition to Gun Industry Immunity
Sheriff Ron Unger Lander County Sheriff's Office (NV). Chief (Ret.) Joseph J.
Vince, Jr. Crime Gun Analysis Branch, ATF (VA). Chief Garnett F. Watson Jr. ...
www.bradycampaign.org/ xshare/0405/immunity/sponsors.html - 31k - Cached - Similar pages
-------------------
Betcha a buck more and more of these links wind up 404, "You must be looking for something on our old webserver".
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, June 17, 2005
Falling Behind On My Blogging...
My checklist of short, medium and long essays to write grows.
Should the Republic fall in my absence, blame Joss Whedon:
Firefly - The Complete Series
It arrived the other day, and I'm now officially obsessed(r)(tm)(c)(etc).
Oh Well.
Wife Loved, Kids Raised, Job Done, the Republic's gonna have to toddle along without me for a day or two till I get it out of my system.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Quote Of The Day...
Quote:
------------
"He's an artist? Go paint a bowl of fruit or something."
Rosemarie Giallombardo, mother of 9/11 victim, on Kerry Skarbakka's "Falling".
------------
Were artists always this pretentious, or is it just me?
An Artist With A Safety Harness:
{via Fox}
I find that it somehow cheapens the events of the day. I remember the relentless, intermittent "whump!....whump!" that went on and on and on in the unedited 9/11 videos. It was a horrible sound that you could not escape.
Every "whump!" was a human being who found themselves well and truly fucked.
Each of them conciously decided that grimmly over-riding a lifetime's conditioning against plummeting was preferable to any other option afforded them.
There are enough photos of that, without people playing pretend victim.
An Office Worker Without A Safety Harness:
{via skyfriends}
-------------------------------------------------------
In related 9/11 news, this article reveals how political correctness over rode a perfectly decent man's better instincts, thus becoming a contributing factor to catastrophe:
Quote:
-------------
"I said to myself, 'If this guy doesn't look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.' Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it's not nice to say things like this"
Michael Tuohey, who processed Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari's tickets on 9/11
-------------
This is a signal to noise ratio thing: conflicting societal messages "jam the airwaves", so to speak, and valid signal is innapropriately blocked by gratuitous noise.
I choose not to hold it against Mr. Tuohey, but I do use him as a warning to us all: clarity of thought, unencumbered by bullshit is paramount.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Monday, June 13, 2005
More Dean Fantasyland...
Dean's Version of Reality:
Quote:
--------------
"My view is that Fox News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on Fox News.''
--------------
Reality's version:
Fox News: A mere 10 points to the right of center, and 25 points to the left of the Average Republican.
So, according to Dean's math, that makes The Drudge Report, 10 points left of center, a "propaganda outlet for the Democratic Party".
Ha!
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, June 12, 2005
The TFL Shoot...
{aka Nation of Riflemen East}
A few weeks back, Kim duToit posted up a group pic in a post entitled Behind Every Blade of Grass, which concluded
Quote:
------------
Hey, Feinstein: look at the picture above.
Good luck, you rancid bitch.
------------
I think it a great time to echo that sentiment:
Hey Feinstien! Look at the the picture above! Good luck, you rancid bitch.
And even if by some dark miracle you should ever get your 51 votes, you still lose. We're Americans, and you don't get to do that for free.
{Incidentally, that's the half of us who weren't eating lunch or down at the shotgun/clays field.}
That little bit of biz taken care of, the fun bits:
----------------------------------------------------
-Dave Markowitz was the one who turned me onto this shoot, which was mostly setup through TFL. (Oddly, it didn't get much play on THR, and I just never really went back to the post resurection TFL) Being a colleague I'd yet to meet, I looked forward to seeing the man in the flesh, and was not disappointed. Dave rocks.
-Bonus points to the Reader who can pick me out of the group pic. No cheating! If you've met me face to face, it's not much fun, now is it?
-The lady in the second row, second from the left never shot a gun before. We fixed that. :) Turned out she had the same shooting issue gwa9 has: right handed, left eyed. A few minutes of coaching on the 15 degree cant straightened her right out.
-The guy in the baseball hat, 4th from the right was from New Jersey. He's a relatively new shooter, and we fixed that too. He had to borrow the rifle he's posing with, because they're jerking his chain on his FID. But you know what? It doesn't matter. He didn't let that stop him from acquiring the skills and knowledge he'll need, no matter how long delayed his tools are. When he mentioned that he wasn't entirely certain how to get back home, Dave and I double teamed him. "Well, we're not going to tell you how to get back to New Jersey. It's for your own good." Overhearing that, I piped in, "For your own good, and for the good of the Republic. Face it, you're one of us now, and there's no going back!" (Later on, I checked him out, it seemed like he had the right idea on how to get home.)
We've got him now, DiFi, he's ours. He's just one of the tens and tens of millions who go out of their way to turn their back on you and your pals.
-Posing with a miniscule handgun is Mr. Rohrbaugh, who came out to shoot with us all. He also treated us all to lunch, and let anyone who asked launch a mag or two from his finely crafted pocket guns. (NICE! 'Spensive, but NICE!) He and his buddy had a pile of them tucked around their person, and the running joke was that when he went fishing in his pocket for his keys, a half dozen handguns would plop out. He was also the centerpiece of this overheard conversation, while mustering for the group photo:
Guy A: "Hey! Where's Rorhbaugh? We need him in this picture?"
Guy B: "I guess he's at the field house, I'll go get him. What' he look like?"
Guy A: "Well, just find the guy with the Rohrbaugh hat, the Rohrbaugh shirt, the Rorhbaugh pants, and a dozen Rohrbaughs in his pocket. That'd be him."
Guy B: "Will do."
-If you look close, you'll see that someone's got a belt fed machine gun. :) Range rules prohibit full auto fire, so it didn't get to unleash any rock n roll.
-Now I'm certain that there's plenty of folks who'd look at a picture like the above, populated entirely by people who wanted to be photographed in a group with the most evil looking gun they owned, and be horrified.
So, if you consider the people in the photo above to be disreputable and untrustworthy, you're flat wrong.
You can leave a few thousand dollars worth of deadly weaponry lying around these folks unnattended while you get a burger and take a leak, without giving it a second thought.
That's a hell of a lot more than I can say for any other random collection of people.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
First Aid Kit, Part II: The Truck Kit...
Is up over at Doc Russia's
Doc continues to rock, Paul Williams continues to approve. :)
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Marlin Camp 45 Carbine Recoil Springs...
After finally getting the up-springed Camp 45 out to the range, I can say that the Wolff Gunsprings 21 pound recoil spring is totally the way to go.
For those of you who are mystified at this rather cryptic statement, a little bit of background is in order.
The Marlin Camp .45 was designed after the Marlin Camp 9, and inherited the entirely too weak for .45 acp 11 pound recoil spring. Being a pure blowback design it is entirely dependent on the mass of the bolt block and the recoil spring to keep the breech shut long enough for pressures to wind down to safe levels.
The word is that they were going to switch to a heavier spring, but this change never made it into production before the Camp Carbine line was canceled.
Accordingly, there's a handful of of minor problems with the .45 model using the factory spring. As I've mentioned before, if you watch someone shoot an unaltered Camp, you can see the orange glow of the last remnants of combustion within the chamber during ejection, and the shooter is rewarded with a generous quantity of gunschmutz delivered to the face. This is also reputed to be the source of the cracked stocks that the Camp 45 is famous for.
Wolff offers Camp springs in three weights: 11 pounds for the Camp 9, and 16 and 21 pound versions for the .45. Readers here have pointed out that the specific impulse math points to a 16 pound spring, (which makes sense: that's standard for a 1911, and assuming rough equivalence of mass between the 1911 slide and the Camp 45's chunky bolt) and it' been suggested to me that the 21 pounder is for +P usage.
On the other hand, my Sigs are quite happy with their 20 pound factory springs, so I wasn't particularly worried about cycling problems. Nonetheless, I needed to get the gun out to the range and run a couple boxes of vanilla 230 grain hardball through it to be sure.
The bottom line is that the 21 pounder functions flawlessly, soaks up the recoil, keeps the breech closed until the combustion's finished, and virtually eliminates gunschmutz to the face.
Another Reader* who has a Camp with a 16 pounder in it shot the thing, and agrees:
The 21 pounder is totally the way to go.
*I'm not trying to be gratuitously mysterious here. I'm just trying to be consistent with my policy of not using names without permission.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Friday, June 10, 2005
Q: So, what are the collectivoLeftist foundations up to these days?
A: Same old game plan, different day: Infiltrate and Subvert...
In this case, a Soros backed group heisted the NYC Ground Zero Memorial, converting it to a Blame America Monument.
More links:
It all happened under the radar
Cox & Forkum
What to do?
Take back the memorial, of course!
Few things make me happier than watching collectivoLeftists spend their cash in vain.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Dave Kopel Continues To Rock...
Dave Kopel's latest law review builds a conclusive and compelling case that
Quote:
--------------
...groups which are being subjected to genocide have a legal right of self-defense. International treaties, Security Council arms embargoes, or national gun control laws cannot lawfully be enforced in a manner which prevents self-defense resistance to a genocide in progress, because under international law, the prohibition against any form of complicity in genocide takes legal precedence over lesser laws.
--------------
In passing, he shreds the UN civil disarmament initiatives. :)
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Incrementalism...working for us for a change.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown Confirmed
If we had a dozen of her in some key places, I'd not fear for the future of the Republic.
In the meantime, I'll take what we can get.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
First Aid Kits...
Back in the days when hippies smelled and dinosaur carcasses were still rotting in the sun, your humble narrator was a Boy Scout, and as all good Boy Scouts do, I took training for the First Aid merit badge.
Readers who've been here a while will recall that I grew up in a rural Connecticut town. There were 20,000 cows, 10,000 firearms, 5,000 humans, and ZERO firearms accidents, despite year round plinking in the woods. (I guess we hadda keep the cows in line.) That town had many fine attributes that inform my thinking to this very day.
For example, we had:
-No police force, or a need for one, although we did trot out an elderly constable for parades.
-One K-8 school, and EVERYONE showed up to PTA meetings.
-One skeletal town government. It was skeletal, because the town's constitution provided for public votes on the town budget, line by line.
We also had One Volunteer Fire Department, which the town happily supported with bake sales and the town budget. Also included in the town budget was a line that was unanimously passed year after year: Paul William's salary and gear stipend.
You see, Paul Williams was the Rescue Guy. The town paid him a salary, bought him a serious truck, crammed it full of rescue gear, and knighted him Grand Mahoff and Marshall of the Fire Department.
All they expected in return was to be rescued from any and every sort of disaster that might befall an honest citizen, which he did, with cheerful humility, day in and out, year after year.
You see, Paul Williams was at least eight, and possibly ten feet tall, All American Hero through and through. No matter how deep the shit you might find yourself in, Paul could get you out of it.
House on Fire? Heh. Not a problem. Crashed your car? You'd be in the hospital before you woke up. Lost in the woods? Paul would just sort of stroll out from behind a tree, and point the way home. Car at the bottom of a ditch, upside down in rising water? That clunk you just heard was Paul's boots landing, give him a moment to hook up the winch and you'd be out in a jiff.
I think y'all get the idea.
This was the guy who taught me first aid, and he taught it like he meant it.
Many years later, hippies having taken and lost the White House, and the dinosaur carcasses safely fossilized, your Humble Narrator stirred his finger through the much vaunted "Level 4" (out of 5) first aid kit that he'd gotten for his wife's car, and realized that it was an elaborate box of band aids, useful for only the most innocuous nicks and scratches, and completely useless for any serious purpose.
Paul Williams would not approve.
Thinking to assemble a worthy kit, I rummaged through my old stuff, vainly searching for my old first aid manual.
No joy.
I cast about for a few moments, debating my next move. Get a new manual? Army field manual? EMT catalog?
And then the light went on, and I knew the perfect guy to ask:
Doc Russia
Go read Part I about what we all should know about pulling together a serious first aid kit.
Doc: You are THE MAN.
Paul Williams would approve.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Oh, That Wacky Dean!
{h/t: Drudge}
Caught on Tape
Quote:
-------------
Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."
"The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people..."
-------------
As a Republican who
A) Behaves like a mad scientist and,
B) Looks like a mirror shaded sandal footed heavily armed hippy freak, and
C) Uh, ok. I'm white. [Steve Martin]Well Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me![/Steve Martin] and
D) Gave up on organized Christianity after having been (repeatedly) torched at the stake as a heretic in previous live(s), and
E) Is friendly as hell to everyone I meet unless and until they explain to me that they're assholes, and
F) Whose friends who happen to be Republican are equally diverse,
I gotta say that Dean and the Dems take their fantasy way too seriously if that's the kinda thing they're happy to spout in public.
By all means, Howard, keep talking, it's lots of fun!
The silver lining: Dean's alienating larger Dem Donors, who aren't getting the access they used to have.
The bazillion dollar question is, do these jilted donors the more reasonable elements of the Dems, or do they represent the big liberal foundation money I've discussed recently? And since nature and politics abhor a vacuum, who's Dean getting the Dems into bed with?
If his insane rhetoric is any indication, he's selling the Dems even further into moonbatland, rather than reforming them to the center.
It remains to be seen whether this will hasten their impending demise, or perhaps squeeze out a bit more runtime for their morally bankrupt party remains to be seen.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Monday, June 06, 2005
An Experiment In Commerce:
GeekGear has arrived!
{Yeah, I know y'all were waiting with baited breath ;) }
 
 
All the sayings are slightly cleaned up variations of things I've said on this site. The t shirt comes from this post, and says
Quote:
----------------
I Am An American,
And this is my battle rifle.
There are many just like it, and this one is mine.
As an American, it is my absolute, unquestionable right to have this.
It is my sacred birthright, and it is not trivial.
Without it, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights
and the very Republic itself is rendered an empty and meaningless promise.
Therefore, I will go to any length necessary
to ensure that this rifle remains in my hands, the hands of my countrymen,
and to ensure that the hands of our posterity may go freely
to the most fearsome arms the future has to offer.
----------------
Because I'm Not Above Making a Buck :)
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
If The Protection of Individual Rights Is Half Of The Soul...
of our Constitutional Republic, then Enumerated Powers is the other half.
Consider the Raich ruling, which essentially normalizes expansive interpretations of the commerce clause and further entrenches the bad precedent established in Wickard v. Filburn. As Insty puts it, it seems that SCOTUS doesn't take Enumerated Powers all that seriously.
Or at least not seriously enough to grow a spine and eject heinous precedent, which leads me to observe that the sheer mass of judicial encrustation has outweighed the core structure, such that the shape is becoming unrecognizable.
Even Scalia whiffs (again...) claiming that the regulation is "necessary and proper" to " achieving the legitimate end of eradicating Schedule I substances from interstate commerce.", while Thomas weighs in as the principled hero:
Quote:
---------------
To evade even that modest restriction on federal power, the majority defines economic activity in the broadest possible terms as the the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities. This carves out a vast swath of activities that are subject to federal regulation.
If the majority is to be taken seriously, the Federal Government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives, and potluck suppers throughout the 50 States. This makes a mockery of Madison's assurance to the people of New York that the "powers delegated" to the Federal Government are "few and defined," while those of the States are "numerous and indefinite."
Moreover, even a Court interested more in the modern than the original understanding of the Constitution ought to resolve cases based on the meaning of words that are actually in the document. Congress is authorized to regulate "Commerce," and respondents' conduct does not qualify under any definition of that term. The majority's opinion only illustrates the steady drift away from the text of the Commerce Clause. There is an inexorable expansion from "commerce," to "commercial" and economic activity, and finally to all production, distribution, and consumption of goods or services for which there is an "established . . . interstate market,
Federal power expands, but never contracts, with each new locution.
The majority is not interpreting the Commerce Clause, but rewriting it.
---------------
Now, schedule I substances aren't something I specifically care about. What I do care about is the idea that "to regulate" means "to make regular". It does not mean "to prohibit with legislation bearing the word 'regulation' in the title".
It seems. Prof. Tribe was quite right to suspend work on his second volume.
What we've got here is a de facto confirmation of the New! Improved! Expansive! Commerce Clause as a source of apparently boundless legislative authority, which is distinct from the pre-FDR courts which depended on the mechanism of regulation-via-taxation, as in the narcotics acts of (1914??? I'm not a drug policy wonk...) and in our neck of the woods, the National Firearms Act of 1934.
What we're left with is a court that for all practical purposes
- Doesn't Take Enumerated Powers That Seriously {h/t: Insty for the phrase} and
- Is Very Selective about which Individual Rights it will uphold, and under what circumstances it will uphold them.
By my math, that means that this particular Supreme Court is only 25% serious about the spirit and intent of the Constitution, and that's not nearly enough for it to function in its role of restraining the Legislature and the Executive.
Attacked from within and without, the system of checks and balances flying apart at the seams, I think it's completely fair at this point to question how much more of this sort of thing the Republic can take.
I've no doubt that the Republic is a great deal tougher and more resilient than my current state of dark pessimism allows, but I must nonetheless observe that when sustained shearing force is applied to steel, it will either break, bend permanently, or spring back to an approximation of its default state.
Much remains to be seen......
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Hillary Lemmings Off The Cliff...
The Article
In what can only be described as a meltdown of Dean Proportions, Hillary Clinton loses her mind:
Quotes:
---------------
{Oh, forget the quotes. Too many to cherrypick. just read the article...}
---------------
{h/t: Drudge}
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Sunday, June 05, 2005
For Some Reason...
GeeketteWithAGlock listed me as her homepage on her yahoo profile.
I'm honored, and somewhat puzzled, as I've not the foggiest idea who she is.
But welcome anyway!
Geeks & Geekettes with guns can't be all that bad!
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
I Don't Get The Tingles All That Often...
But this bit over at Smallest Minority got 'em going.
Summary:
--------------
Lawrence Tribe, author of the pre-eminent work American Constitutional Law has ceased work on the second volume, concerning "...greater detail those substantive rights and liberties and the structure of the protections the Constitution provides for them " because he cannot see any organizing principle that ties together the disparate doctrines now in play.
--------------
Kevin points out that lost in the woodwork, somewhere, is the actual grand unifying theory of the Constitution, that of limited governmental powers and protected individual rights.
Quote:
--------------
I thought the "grand unifying theory" was the rights of individuals? Didn't the Declaration of Independence spell it out pretty clearly?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
--------------
On this, I squarely blame 70 years of the snoozing courts, liberal excess, and a hefty dose of subversion from within and without.
When someone this prominent ceases work on his magnum opus because of paradigm flux, it's time to batten down the hatches.
I, like many others, have felt the nexus as well.
Quote:
-------------
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.
-------------
Our society and our Republic feels the pull towards the collectivoStatist black hole. Whether we stabilize our orbit around traditional, all inclusive American values of individualism and self determination, the chaotic attractor of collectivism, or simply shatters into shards of a forgotten experiment remains to be seen.
We live in interesting times.
Whether substantial (as opposed to trivial) individual rights survive this nexus in any worthwhile form depends largely on you and I, those who chanced to be there when it all happened.
We have no choice but to be smart, swift, strong, agile and audacious.
Someday, we'll either be known as "the generation that shat it all away", or "those spectacular Americans, beacon of hope and light for all".
I know how I want to be remembered.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
RCOB Part XVIII: Pew's Mendacity...
Readers know that a significant part of my recent research & contemplation has been regarding the roles of "charitable trusts" subverting the Republic. Readers also know that I've commented on Treglia's confession that McCain-Feingold was the result of a carefully orchestrated con game.
Along comes the Capital Research Center, with the goods on Pew, detailing their conversion from a conservative foundation created by firm believers in capitalism, ardent Republicans, and lifelong opponents of FDR's New Deal, dedicated to
Quote:
--------------
acquaint the Americanpeople with the evils of bureaucracy and the values of the free
market.
--------------
to a collectivoLeftist foundation that pulled the wool over the eyes of Congress and the People, to perpetrate one of the most outrageous offenses against the First Amendment to come down the pike in a long time.
The deeper I dig into this sort of thing, my fertile imagination conjures up satifying images of storming the Bastille.
{h/t: Insty}
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Head Up, PA!
It looks like they Did Slip One In Under The Radar!
In this post below, I talk about a discrepancy I picked up from reading the actual report, rather than the press release summary of the Governor's Commission on PA Gun Violence. Dave Markowitz has graciously looked over my shoulder, and agrees that my reading of the section in question is accurate.
Here's the sticky bit, found under "Legislative Recommendations:"
Quote:
------------------
Add offenses to the list of firearm possession disqualifiers.
Add to the list of offenses under Section 6105 of Title 18 (relating to persons not to possess, use, manufacture, control, sell or transfer firearms) convictions under Section 6106(a)(1) of Title 18 (relating to firearms not to be carried without a license) or 6108(a) (relating to carrying firearms on public streets/property in Philadelphia); as well as upgrade the penalty for violating section 6108 to a third degree felony if the person was statutorily ineligible for a license to carry a firearm.
As a result, a person charged with this crime would have his or her case heard in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, rather than the Philadelphia Municipal Court, and a juvenile committing this crime could, under the appropriate circumstances, be certified for adult court.
------------------
This section comes in 3 parts.
Part 1 is the title, which accurately describes the next section.
Part 2 is a series of instructions for patching the statutes, the end result of which is that the lists of disqualifying offenses for owning or possessing firearms be made the same as the list of disqualifying offenses for obtaining a carry permit. (Interestingly, the Brady's remarked that PA's requirements for the LTCF weren't much more strict than the requirements to own in the first place)
Part 3 makes it seem that the result of following the instruction set would be merely to shuffle which court had jurisdiction over what offense, which is potentially(intentionally?) misleading.
I'm guessing that careless reading may have prompted some on the commission to sign off on this who ordinarily wouldn't have otherwise. Either that, or this is the payoff on the artful commission packing.
Sigh.
It seems some letterwriting is in order. While I hate to have to defend the RKBA of youthful offenders and drunks, it needs to be done.
Dave also makes a great point, in that any legislation that tries to implement these instructions should also contain a poison pill to the effect that since the requirements to own are now the same as the requirements to carry, the LTCF would be redundant, and therefore no permit would be required to carry concealed in the Commonwealth.
Of course, the forces of organized gun bigotry might be seeking to spin it 180 degrees from there, arguing that since the requirements to own and carry are now the same, they should be verified by the authorities, essentially requiring a background check and license for mere possession of arms.
Which would of course be....an LTCF!
Of course, that would put them into a pickle, in that the unintended consequence of their action would be that PA's LTCF rate would skyrocket from 7% of the eligible population to 60%!
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
The Left: Projection & (Self?) Deception...
I've recently spent a fair amount of time thinking about, researching and discussing the massive magnitude of the Left's advantage when it comes to funding, activism, and the media.
Insty points to a reaction to John Kerry's complaints that Democrats can't get a word in edgewise above the roar of the GOP spin machine.
Quote:
----------------
JOHN KERRY had a complaint. Six months after winning more than 59 million votes in his bid for the White House, the Massachusetts senator was lamenting to a roomful of columnists and editorial writers that voters can't hear Democrats above the roar of the GOP spin machine.
The right, he groused, is far more effective than the left at making itself heard. To peddle their ideas, Republicans and conservatives have assembled an elaborate communication network, one that relies on the likes of ''Cato and Heritage and Grover Norquist" -- two think tanks and a well-connected Republican lobbyist -- to make sure its messages get plenty of attention.
''Several times a day, their message is amplified," grumbled the former Democratic standard-bearer. ''We don't have anything like that."
----------------
What a PILE OF BULLSHIT.
The Left's machine is many times the size of our own, and includes 95% of the mass media.
There's either some pathological psychology going on here, or deception, if not both.
Jacoby, the article's author, nails him on it: {emphasis mine}
--------------------
What Kerry and the others object to is not that there are only conservative voices in media circles these days but that there are any such voices. The right-of-center Fox News cannot hold a candle to the combined left-of-center output of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and PBS. Scaife, Bradley, and Olin money helps leverage Republican messages, but its impact is dwarfed by the Ford, Rockefeller, Pew, Heinz, MacArthur, Carnegie, and Soros fortunes. The Washington Times is conservative? Yes, but The Washington Post is liberal -- and its circulation is eight times as large.
But for Kerry, Gore, and Clinton, even a few conservative outlets are too many. They grew up in the era before cable TV, talk radio, and the Internet -- the age when liberal dominance was unquestioned. Now Democrats have to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and voters don't seem to be buying what they're selling. Is it any wonder so many are grumpy?
--------------------
Hint to the collectivoLeftists: Being bigger, better funded, and louder doesn't help you in the least when you're demonstrably and self evidently wrong.
.
Permalink
Posted By: geekWithA.45
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Meanwhile, In a Less Troubled Corner of The Republic...
A few weeks back, I posted up a bit that linked to Alphecca, who noted that Rendell's Commission To Address Gun Violence pretty much handed the gun bigot's asses to them.
Whilst chasing around unrelated information, I happened to stumble upon the actual report of the commission.
Hooboy, some interesting stuff to puzzle out in there!
I've not read it in detail yet, but my quick skim illuminated avenues and topics for future enquiry.
Of particular interest is the composition of the committee, which appears to be an earnest, but plausibly deniable attempt to pack the committee in favor of the forces of gun bigotry:
Quote: {my notes in braces, mostly conjecture}
--------------
1. Composition. The Commission shall consist of the following members:
a. Chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, who shall serve as Chair of the Commission. {alignment unknown}
b. Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police or his designee. {presumed neutral}
c. Adjutant General of Pennsylvania or her designee. {alignment unknown}
d. Secretary of Health or his designee. {presumed hostile}
e. Governor's General Counsel or the General Counsel's designee; {presumed hostile}
f. District Attorney of Philadelphia County or her designee. {known hostile}
g. District Attorney of Allegheny County or his designee. {presumed hostile}
h. Chairman of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole or his designee. {unknown}
i. One representative from each of the following
(1) Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities; {presumed hostile}
(2) Mayor of the City of Philadelphia or his designee; {known hostile}
(3) Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh or his designee; {presumed hostile}
(4) Mayor of the City of Erie or his designee; {presumed hostile}
(5) Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association; {presumed hostile}
(6) Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association; {presumed hostile ????}
(7) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and {presumed neutral}
(8) Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police; {presumed hostile ????}
(9) Pennsylvania Attorney General or his designee; {presumed neutral}
(10) Juvenile Court Judge's Commission; {unknown}
(11) Pennsylvania Sheriff's Association; and {presumed hostile????}
(12) Pennsylvania Office of the Victim Advocate. {presumed hostile}
j. Two representatives selected by the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. One will represent Pennsylvania's adult courts. The other representative will represent Pennsylvania's juvenile courts. {presumed neutral x2}
k. One member from each of the four legislative caucuses. {presume 2 hostile, 2 neutral/good}
--------------
By my count, that's 12 presumed or known hostiles, 3 presumed hostiles with ???? after their names, vs 11 unknowns or neutrals.
{The folks actually empanelled are name in the report, and includes well known vicious gun bigots, including Lynn Abraham, Dan Frankel, and representatives of other known gun bigots. }
These folks abstained from voting on the final report:
-------------------------------------------------------
Representative Dennis O Brien
Attorney General Thomas Corbett
Judge D. Webster Keogh
Judge Richard Lewis
The 2 guys from the ATF, saying their role was advisory, and
Senator Robert Robbins, (R) who notably states that the recommendations are vague, inspecific, and that the lack of time, research and analysis of the task force was unprecedented in his career.
Quote:
--------------
I'm sure the Governor had his reasons for creating such a short time frame to finalize this report.
-Senator Robbins
--------------
Yes, Senator, I'm sure he did. Railroad jobs are always setup to be completed swiftly, before anyone knows what happened. I'm certain that there's a fascinating story behind why it didn't turn out as planned for the gun bigots.
These folks made it known that they are unambiguous gun bigots:
---------------------------------------------------------------
-Senator Vincent Hughes
-Representative Dan Frankel
-Lynne Abraham
The recommendations of the task force seem to be more or less as the news reported them, that is to say, continue enforcing the existing laws in a smarter way, via sharing of information and streamlining procedures. The gun bigot's big ticket items, 1 gun a month and non-preemption were slapped down.
HOWEVER, the news reports didn't bring to our attentions some tweaks concerning posession disqualifications found in the legislative recommendations section. Did the committee slip this one past the radar?
Quote:
---------------
Add offenses to the list of firearm possession disqualifiers. Add to the list of offenses under Section 6105 of Title 18 (relating to persons not to possess, use, manufacture, control, sell or transfer firearms) convictions under Section 6106(a)(1) of Title 18 (relating to firearms not to be carried without a license) or 6108(a) (relating to carrying firearms on public streets/property in Philadelphia); as well as upgrade the penalty for violating section 6108 to a third degree felony if the person was statutorily ineligible for a license to carry a firearm. As a result, a person charged with this crime would have his or her case heard in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, rather than the Philadelphia Municipal Court, and a juvenile committing this crime could, under the appropriate circumstances, be certified for adult court.
---------------
I'm going to have to re-read this a few times, but my initial take on it is that they are trying to make the qualifications for mere posession of firearms the same as the qualifications to get a carry permit.
For those of you who don't know, the state of PA adds few if any posession disqualifiers to the list of federal disqualifiers. (There's this wierd bit about multiply convicted drunk drivers not being allowed to purchase new arms for a certain period but may keep those they already have)
The state then adds some additional disqualifiers for carry permits. For the most part, the list of disqualifying offenses are pretty much bona fide nasty felonies, and present no additional infringement beyond those we get from the feds. Beyond that, if my recollection serves, there are some juvenile offenses that would prevent one from obtaining a carry permit, as well as a 5 (?) year disqualification for multiple drunk driving.
If I'm reading this right, (Paging Dave Markowitz!) and the legislature implemented the recommendations, it would seem that if you happened to fall into that inbetween area, where you are qualified to posess arms in PA, but not qualified to get a carry permit, you'd wake up one day to find yourself screwed.
Also interesting is the appendix.
There are 10.
4 are dry "tally" reports from state agencies.
1 is a summary of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia", an old initiative
3 are briefs from the forces of organized gun bigotry
1 is a plea for social program funding (ie: preschool today = fewer criminals tomorrow)
1 is a brief from the NRA.
First, the 3 briefs from the forces of organized gun bigotry:
Our old pal Bryan Miller, recipient of Joyce Funding via Ceasefire PA seems to have parlayed his contacts in the PHL Mayor's office into the opportunity to present a powerpoint deck to the task force. While a transcript is not included, the slide deck is pretty subdued, drawing heavily on figures from another Joyce grantee, the Wharton School, and pretty much toes the Joyce foundation party line, which strives to make guns a public health framework issue, and decries that the cost of enforcing the law reduces funding available for social programs.
Americans for Gun Safety broadly smeared PA FFLs, to further their goals of disrupting the armed citizen's supply chain.
The Brady piece was the slickest, and worth taking a look at. In general, they tried to portray themselves as centrist and non partisan, the NRA as the evil radicals, and of course, recommended that PA repeal pre-emption, repeal shall issue, and go to one gun a month mode.
The NRA brief was pointed, professional and compelling, without all the | |
