As much as I take offense by all the rhetoric of the bigots in the cities telling me how stupid and ignorant I am and how they are going to build up their political party and wipe us out in some future election I find a perverse consolation in the fact that bin Laden will be detonating his nukes in their living room rather than in my backyard.  See these articles for hints on that possibility:

• CIA Agent: Nuke Attack Surely Coming  Former CIA agent Michael Scheuer told CBS “60 Minutes”’ Steve Kroft Sunday that the U.S. fumbled 10 chances to kill or capture terror chief Osama bin Laden before 9/11. Now he is convinced that the international outlaw will attack the U.S. homeland with some sort of nuclear weapon of mass destruction.  “Their intention is to end the war as soon as they can and to ratchet up the pain for the Americans until we get out of their region. … If they acquire the weapon, they will use it, whether it’s chemical, biological or some sort of nuclear weapon,” said Scheuer.
• New accounts from al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction
  A key al-Qaeda operative seized in Pakistan recently offered an alarming account of the group’s potential plans to target the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, senior U.S. security officials tell TIME. Sharif al-Masri, an Egyptian who was captured in late August near Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan, has told his interrogators of “al-Qaeda’s interest in moving nuclear materials from Europe to either the U.S. or Mexico,” according to a report circulating among U.S. government officials.

  Masri also said al-Qaeda has considered plans to “smuggle nuclear materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the U.S.,” according to the report, parts of which were read to TIME. Masri says his family, seeking refuge from al-Qaeda hunters, is now in Iran.

• Former FBI Consultant: Al-Qaida Plans Multiple Nuclear Strikes  Former consultant for the FBI an organized crime and international terrorism and a seasoned investigative reporter, Paul L. Williams reveals the potential for nuclear terrorism on US soil in this shocking expose. Based on the findings of US, Israeli, Pakistani, and British intelligence, Williams describes how the theft of tactical nuclear weapons from Russian arsenals have in all likelihood made their way to al Qaeda cells throughout the United States in preparation for the next terrorist attack.

  According to Williams, reliable sources indicate that these bombs may already be in the possession of al Qaeda operatives in such major cities as New York, Washington, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Houston, and Los Angeles. In addition, bin Laden has recruited former Soviet scientists and technicians to maintain these weapons and recharge their nuclear cores so that they may be deployed immediately on his command. In 2001 he issued a statement boasting of his intent to have America experience a “Hiroshima.”

After the elitists get visited by mushroom clouds and the survivors get looted, they just might undergo an attitude adjustment towards the country bumpkins bringing them food, water, medical care, shelter, and physical protection in the form of the guns the elitists weren’t able to confiscate and destroy.

I’d been reading this general theme in a lot of places recently but Jane Smiley really spells it out with The unteachable ignorance of the red states.  A few paragraphs follow to give you a taste:

The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind.

… they [Republican politicians] tell you that you are the best of a bad lot (humans, that is) and that as bad as you are, if you stick with them, you are among the chosen. This is flattering and reassuring, and also encourages you to imagine the terrible fates of those you envy and resent. American politicians ALWAYS operate by a similar sort of flattery, and so Americans are never induced to question themselves. That’s what happened to Jimmy Carter—he asked Americans to take responsibility for their profligate ways, and promptly lost to Ronald Reagan, who told them once again that they could do anything they wanted. The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not want to be told what to do—they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachable.

Third, and most important, when life grows difficult or fearsome, they (politicians, preachers, pundits) encourage you to cling to your ignorance with even more fervor. But by this time you don’t need much encouragement—you’ve put all your eggs into the ignorance basket, and really, some kind of miraculous fruition (preferably accompanied by the torment of your enemies, and the ignorant always have plenty of enemies) is your only hope. If you are sufficiently ignorant, you won’t even know how dangerous your policies are until they have destroyed you, and then you can always blame others.

The reason the Democrats have lost five of the last seven presidential elections is simple: A generation ago, the big capitalists, who have no morals, as we know, decided to make use of the religious right in their class war against the middle class and against the regulations that were protecting those whom they considered to be their rightful prey—workers and consumers. The architects of this strategy knew perfectly well that they were exploiting, among other unsavory qualities, a long American habit of virulent racism, but they did it anyway, and we see the outcome now—Cheney is the capitalist arm and Bush is the religious arm. They know no boundaries or rules. They are predatory and resentful, amoral, avaricious, and arrogant. Lots of Americans like and admire them because lots of Americans, even those who don’t share those same qualities, don’t know which end is up. Can the Democrats appeal to such voters? Do they want to? The Republicans have sold their souls for power. Must everyone?

Oh.  An interesting point about Ms. Smiley is that she is John Ross’s (if you don’t know who John Ross is then you must be one of the ignorant people in favor of gun control) second cousin.  Mr. Ross gently confronts her and explains things to her here.  My favorite part is when he says this:

… I couldn’t help feeling as if I were reading a paper written by a French aristocrat in 1789 who had narrowly escaped to England just before the blade of the guillotine had fallen on her neck.  Or something penned by one of the higher-up Communists in 1989, right after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Ross has it right.  In essence, we have been telling the elitists for years and years what the problem is with their policies (in particular gun control) and they dismiss us without even looking at the evidence.  I’ve literally had several different elitist liberals tell me “I disagree with you.”  When pressed for evidence they just say, “I disagree with your data.”.  No evidence of their own to offer, no rational argument, just, “I disagree.”  And they call us ignorant.  Now they lost an election in a big way and the best they can come up with is that we are ignorant.  Smiley and her ilk are bigots and it’s time they were told that to their faces.  And they should thank us for voting them out of power rather than being forced to use guillotines.

And if you think I am being harsh read this link before you start calling me names.  These people say things like:

… country, an archaic synonym for stupid that should be revived in our post-2004 election world

From Drudge (this link probably won’t last long):

Osama bin Laden now has religious approval to use a nuclear device against Americans, says the former head of the CIA unit charged with tracking down the Saudi terrorist. The former agent, Michael Scheuer, speaks to Steve Kroft in his first television interview without disguise to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Nov. 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

..

Even if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, he probably wouldn’t have used it for a lack of proper religious authority – authority he has now. “[Bin Laden] secured from a Saudi sheik…a rather long treatise on the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Americans,” says Scheuer. “[The treatise] found that he was perfectly within his rights to use them. Muslims argue that the United States is responsible for millions of dead Muslims around the world, so reciprocity would mean you could kill millions of Americans,” Scheuer tells Kroft.

Scheuer says bin Laden was criticized by some Muslims for the 9/11 attack because he killed so many people without enough warning and before offering to help convert them to Islam. But now bin Laden has addressed the American people and given fair warning. “They’re intention is to end the war as soon as they can and to ratchet up the pain for the Americans until we get out of their region….If they acquire the weapon, they will use it, whether it’s chemical, biological or some sort of nuclear weapon,” says Scheuer.

Keep in mind that the clerics have also given permission`to kill all Jews in Israel too.  That includes those not yet born–pregnant woman are valid targets because their children will grow up and be in the Isreali military.  And also that since Osama wrote an open letter to the U.S. telling us to convert to Islam or else prepare to fight that we have been given our chance to submit.  We have not converted to Islam so now was can be legitimately killed.  The Islamic extremists recognize no law except the law of their religion.

Sleep well.

Almost a month ago I did my typical jousting with a windmill by writing a letter to a newspaper about a gun ‘debate’ they had.  Today I received an email saying my letter was approved and was posted. 

There were 23 feedback items total.  Only one was in agreement with the ignorant writer of the editorial.  They just wrote, “I agree” and nothing more.  The rest were detailed and essentially accurate in all details.  I’m extremely annoyed that they took three and half weeks to post the feedback.  LONG after anyone reading the paper would notice it.  Media bias?  I suspect so.  I wrote to them to ask:

—–Original Message—–
From: Joe Huffman [mailto:JoeH@joehuffman.org]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 2:13 PM
To: ‘Indiana Statesman’
Subject: RE: Feedback Moderation (Indiana Statesman)

Thank you for posting my feedback.  However, I find it difficult to hide my annoyance at the long delay in doing so.  95% of the feedback you received and posted was pro-freedom and pointed out the ignorance of the anti-freedom position presented.  Was the delay in the approval of the feedback due to the pro-freedom position?  Is it the position of the Indiana Statesman that the pro-freedom position is to be suppressed by delaying the availability of that viewpoint until virtually no one will see it?

-joe-
—-
http://www.joehuffman.org
http://www.boomershoot.org

—–Original Message—–
From: Indiana Statesman [mailto:vfeedback@indianastatesman.com]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 1:26 PM
To: indianastatesman@joehuffman.org
Subject: Feedback Moderation (Indiana Statesman)

The feedback you recently submitted to Indiana Statesman has been approved by the moderator, and is active on the site.

Review of your feedback:

Topic:      Gun Control
Name:       Joe Huffman
Email:      indianastatesman@joehuffman.org
Location:   Moscow, Idaho
Occupation: Research Scientist
Comment:
            It would help the debate if the debaters did some basic
            fact checking.  For example:

[snip]

            
            I could go on for pages on all the errors in fact and
            logic found in this debate but the above should be
            sufficient to encourage a bit more research before
            putting words to print.

If you have any questions regarding this, please forward this e-mail to vfeedback@indianastatesman.com.

If you received this e-mail in error, or you were not the originator of this post, then please contact us at vfeedback@indianastatesman.com.

Thanks for your participation.

– Indiana Statesman

Nice idea.

I sent them the following email:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Thu 11/11/2004 4:59 PM
To: reservations@helpthemleave.com
Subject: Where do I send my money?

I realize you are probably overwhelmed with donations and you are non-profit, but if you get low on money let me know and I’ll pay for at least one passenger — two if I get to decide who and whether they leave.

-joe-

http://blog.joehuffman.org

P.S. I realize your site is a joke, but if you were to take into reality I would stand behind my promise.

Yesterday the Dutch had a gun (and hand grenade) battle with terrorist suspects in The Hague:

Dutch special forces yesterday stormed an apartment in The Hague and arrested two suspected terrorists, ending a violent 14-hour standoff that came amid mounting tensions in the Netherlands following the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh.

Officers mounted a pre-dawn raid on the block in a mainly immigrant area only to be beaten back with small arms fire. At least one grenade was thrown, seriously injuring two police officers.

More than 200 soldiers descended on the neighbourhood, sealing off several blocks, evacuating locals and stationing snipers on nearby rooftops.

Airspace above the area was closed to small aircraft and a tense standoff ensued until nightfall, when units finally overran the apartment to the sound of gunshots.

Over 200 soldiers for two suspected terrorists.  I like those odds.  Give the terrorist ‘suspects’ zero hope of getting away.  That isn’t my favorite part of the article though.  Referring to the suspect in the van Gogh murder:

The immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, said Van Gogh’s murder “raises doubts, doubts about whether we have been too lax. Natives and immigrants in the Netherlands cannot look away and excuse radicalism, but must reject it and act against it.”

She added: “The suspect carried documents on him that show clearly he was driven by the same evil power that was behind the attacks on New York and Madrid: the all-destroying hatred of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism.”

The more I read the more I am convinced we are in a fight for our lives against Islamic extremism.  They have religious justification for killing non-believers and are acting on it.  This fight is just as serious as the fight against fascism (Italian, German, and Japanese) in WWII.  Their methods are different because of cultural differences but they are just as real a threat as anything we have ever faced.  I believe they are making some serious errors however.  They are attacking people in so many countries (Spain, Israel, United States, Netherlands, Russia, Thailand, Philippines, etc.) all at the same time that they will cause the non-Muslim nations (and many of the Muslim nations as well) to overcome differences and cooperate in an unprecedented manner.  In addition the attacking of all these targets all over the globe spreads their resources much thinner than need be.  It makes our task of stopping them harder but the chances of them actually acomplishing their goals (implementing Islamic law for everyone) is reduced.

The Dutch are now awake and are paying attention.  Who is next?  And what do we do to stop the attacks?  Drawing them into Iraq for extermination looks like the best available solution to me.

John Ross has a nice article on Democrats and guns.  He is suggesting the same thing I did yesterday with lots of examples and careful reasoning.  He takes a while to get to the point but it’s sound logic.  A sample:

       “Mom, you yourself admit that people like me with our guns aren’t any problem at all.  All the candidates you like that lost on Tuesday would’ve won if they vigorously supported the Second Amendment.  Why do almost all Democrat politicians today want to disarm honest, taxpaying adults?  Why is that one thing so all-important to them? Why? You believe in pro-choice as a freedom issue.  You oppose mandatory waiting periods for abortions.  Why won’t your pro-choice candidates oppose waiting periods for guns?  If they did, they’d be more likely to get elected or re-elected, pass the pro-choice legislation they want, and keep abortion available, safe, and legal.  Isn’t that the most important thing to them and to you?  Isn’t it much more important than taking away my guns?” She nodded, so I went on.

        “Would you expect a black voter to ever vote for a candidate who had repeatedly and consistently voted for bills that would let cafes segregate their lunch counters once again?” I asked.

        “Of course not,” she answered.

        “Then how can you hope people like me might support John Kerry, when he voted for every antigun bill put in front of him, and against every progun bill, in the last 20 years?  Why do John Kerry, Claire McCaskill, Tom Daschle, and all the other Tuesday losers want to disarm me?  Can you imagine Harry Truman wanting to disarm honest adult Americans?”  My mother admitted she could not.

Ms. Chang wrote one of the two books I have on the rape of Nanking–one of the best examples against gun control I have.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Iris Chang, the prominent Chinese American author and journalist who fueled an international protest movement against Japan with her incendiary best-selling book, “The Rape of Nanking,” was found dead from an apparent self- inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said Wednesday.

Chang, 36, of San Jose was found in her car by a commuter about 9 a.m. Tuesday on a rural road south of Los Gatos, according to the Santa Clara County sheriff’s office.

…

Author of three books and many articles and columns, Chang’s most famous work was her controversial 1997 book, “The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II,” which described one of the war’s worst atrocities.

Japanese army troops massacred many Chinese in Nanjing (then called Nanking) in late 1937 and early 1938, and Chang not only believed that the horrible event was in danger of being forgotten but also accused Japanese society of collective denial about it.

I don’t have the books with me right now, but if I recall correctly it wasn’t just “many Chinese”.  It was 300,000 over a six week period.  They had decapitation contests where the Japanese used their swords to lop off the heads of as many civilians as they could find within a certain time period.  The Japanese newspapers reported on the results of the contests with pride.  They tied up women and gang raped them before killing them.  They took pictures of their civilian atrocities, many of them extremely graphic, sent them home, and sometimes even had them made into postcards.

I just have to laugh at these people. 

NEW laws banning high street shops from selling assault knives, machetes and other weapons could be introduced by the end of next year.
Sales of replica guns will also be banned because they can be converted into useable firearms.
First Minister Jack McConnell has been in talks with chief constables on how to combat the rising level of knife crime, which is at its highest level for 10 years.
There will also be tougher sentencing powers for knife assaults, and a proposal to give police random stop and search powers is being considered.
The age at which young people can buy household knives and axes may also rise from 16 to 18.

You can’t successfully ban something which has a market and especially if it can be made in nearly every home.  Have you seen any success in banning pot?  And how about banning firearms in the UK?  Has that been successful? Knives are far easier to build in your home than firearms yet these jokers think this is going to accomplish something other than make them a laughing stock.

And the only ‘benefit’ of the ‘random’ stop and search powers will be that of taking another step closer to becoming a police state.

I’m all for pushing the Democrat party into extinction, but before I work on that project I want to give them some advice just to make the fight fair. Of course I’m a nobody and lot of pundits and political analysts have been offering advice to the Democrat party, it’s just that no one has offered what I think would be easiest and most effective change in their position. James Carville for example said this:

But yesterday, Mr. Carville said not only was it a great comeback, but coupled with the 2002 congressional-election losses, it shows it’s time for Democrats to engage in a major re-examination.

“We can deny this crap, but I’m out of the denial. I’m about reality here,” Mr. Carville told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “We are an opposition party, and as of right now, not a particularly effective one. You can’t deny reality here.”

He said he is considering writing a book about what direction Democrats should go.

One possibility, he said, was to embrace a reform-oriented, anti-Washington agenda. That would require the ability of members of Congress to reject pork projects for their districts and stake the party’s fortunes on fiscal discipline.

I’m sure Carville’s advice would be helpful — it would make me more inclined to vote for a Democrat. But I would like to suggest something else. It has been said that the south was lost on “Guns, gays, and god”. If the Democrats were to take just one of those issues they could make significant inroads. My suggestion is to (surprise!) take the gun issue away from the Republicans. It’s easy to defend too — it is a constitutionally protected right. The other two, gays and god, are much more difficult to defend with the highest law of the land. Hammer the Republicans with their support of NFA 34, GCA 68, and the Brady Act. Demand the removal of the ‘F’ in the ATFE.  What would you say if that agency was called the Alcohol, Tobacco, Printers, and Explosives?  Firearms are given just as much protection by the constitution as printers!  Demand the “evil Republicans” explain what part of “shall not be infringed” they don’t understand. Get the ACLU behind you. The ACLU has long been an advocate of the most freedom supporting view of The Bill of Rights — except for the 2nd Amendment. It’s time to change that inconsistency. Do that and you pick up several states in the south and probably a couple in the west too.

I won’t be telling you again. Unless you change your ways it’s a political genocide that is on my agenda.

It turns out some of the Kerry supporters are “emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated”.  One even bought a shotgun and committed suicide.  Boca Raton News has the best story on it that I have seen so far:

More than a dozen traumatized John Kerry supporters have sought and received therapy from a licensed Florida psychologist since their candidate lost to President Bush, the Boca Raton News learned Monday.
Boca Raton trauma specialist Douglas Schooler said he has treated 15 clients and friends with “intense hypnotherapy” since the Democratic nominee conceded last Wednesday.
“I had one friend tell me he’s never been so depressed and angry in his life,” Schooler said. “I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated.”
Schooler’s disclosure comes after the weekend discovery of a Kerry volunteer’s corpse at Ground Zero in New York City. Georgia resident Andrew Veal, 25, reportedly killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head due to Kerry’s loss and a girlfriend problem.
Some mental health professionals in South Florida said Monday they have already developed a new category for the Kerry-related stress reactions. Because Palm Beach County voted heavily for Kerry, the therapists said, many residents hurt themselves by so anxiously expecting the Massachusetts senator to win – especially those who maintained unrealistic recount hopes after their candidate’s concession.
“We’re calling it ‘post-election selection trauma’ and we’re working to develop a counseling program for it,” said Rob Gordon, the Boca-based executive director of the American Health Association. “It’s like post-traumatic stress syndrome, but it’s a short-term shock rather than a childhood trauma.”
Gordon, the first American Red Cross psychotherapist sent to Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks, said therapists’ main concern is to prevent the recurrence of Kerry-related suicides like the one in New York City.
“There are definitely people depressed by John Kerry’s loss, and this can easily lead to suicides like the one we saw up in New York this weekend,” Gordon said. “Luckily, it can be treated if people seek help. We’re urging people to call us immediately if they feel depressed or know anyone who is seriously stressed out.”

…

Asked to describe symptoms of the post-election trauma, Schooler said, “They include feelings of extreme anger, despair, hopelessness, powerlessness, a failure to function behaviorally, a sense of disillusionment, of not wanting to vote anymore – that sort of thing. We’re talking about a deep, unhealthy personal suffering that can best be remedied by intensive short-term therapy.”

A friend of mine expressed his opinion that we should help the people like Andrew Veal, see above, that committed sucide.  My friend was thinking of setting up a loaner shotgun business at various locations around the country.

I was wearing my Cease Fear Instructor t-shirt at aerobics class tonight and someone commented on it (and the other ‘interesting’ shirts I wear to class).  I explained what Cease Fear (I was a founding member and instructor for them) and Pink Pistols (I was a founding member of the Palouse chapter) are about but it occurred to me that it was really a much bigger issue.  A lesbian friend of mine is all wound up about the elections and had this to say to me recently:

well, let’s see why i might be hurting:

• i’m gay, and the village idiot is opposed to my continued breathing, but he won’t say so directly…
• i’m atheist, and the village idiot is born-again, in a country he’s trying to make into a theocracy…
• i’m female, and we all know what he thinks of women…
• i can think, which is heresy in this adminstration…

i’m trying to leave this country before i can’t, because this country’s administration believes i’m an abomination in many ways…

Heavy sigh.  If the above were really true then she should be thanking me and others for standing up for our right to keep and bear arms and training gays and other minorities to defend themselves.  But for some reason I’m not hearing that from her or any others in her particular minority group who fear being so oppressed.  My opinion is that things aren’t nearly as bad as she thinks they are.  I have some objections to some of President Bush’s positions but the only realistic alternative to him was John Kerry.  And there was no way Kerry could be trusted to protect gun rights and it was unlikely that he would do the right thing to defend us against Islamic Jihad.  As long as we have our guns there isn’t going to be a genocide aimed at any minority.  At least in every other genocide there has always been strict gun control prior to the implementation of the genocide and I can think of no reason why this country and time should be any different.

Here are some news stories that involved me and the above pro-freedom groups:

Lewiston Morning Tribune
AP Version of the above story
Seattle Times Editorial

It turns out there are people claiming probably Arafat has AIDS.  People have for years claimed he was homosexual.  Interesting twist on things.  That would explain why the French doctors haven’t publically announced his illness.  That would explain why Israel didn’t just put a bullet through his head a long time ago.  What it doesn’t explain is why, if Israel knew he was gay, they didn’t just release the video tapes of his liasons.  In any event it appears he is out of power for good.

Barb got a call about 7:20 last night.  It was her uncle Lee (Karen’s stepfather).  He said Karen died about 40 minutes earlier.  We don’t know any details beyond that.

James was here when the call came in and went downstairs to tell Xenia.  Barb called her siblings.  I called Kim and left a voice mail message but just as I hung up she called back from her work phone.  A little while later Kim was at our door.  Her boss told her to go home.  She was in tears and Barb and I hugged her for a long time.  Kim and Barb talked and talked before Kim finally went home.  When I took James home he asked why Kim was some much more broken up about Karen than he and Xenia.  I told her that as Barb puts it, “Kim has a big heart.“  Kim has a tremendous amount of empathy for others.  She is very, very sensitive in a lot of ways.  She is a very strong person but she also feels pain much easier than others too.  Kim is very special person.  When we were in the Richland hospital and talking to Karen’s sister we discussed how much Kim was like Karen in a lot of ways.  Her strong will and her sensitivity.

Another thing I forgot about Karen was that it was her that suggested I contact Battelle about a job.  She knew they were hiring and I went to their website and found some positions that looked promising.  Within a couple days I had an interview and within 10 days or so I had a job offer which I accepted.

She will be missed.

There is a new report made partially available that confirms what some other people have been saying:

Earlier this year, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir said al-Qaida may already possess portable nuclear weapons. He attributed the claim to a 2001 interview with bin Laden’s second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahri, in which the al-Qaida figure said the group had purchased such bombs on the black market in central Asia for $30 million US.

The good-news/bad-news is that they don’t have a very long ‘shelf life’.  If they aquire a backpack nuke they may need to use it or loose it.

The report notes that Russian officials and nuclear scientists have argued in the media it would be almost impossible for al-Qaida to posess such devices, as they are too difficult to maintain and have a lifespan of just one to three years.

My contention is that if they can aquire a nuke they can find someone to maintain it for them too.  Stay away from D.C. during the inauguration and the State of the Union Speech.  Other large populations centers might be targets in part of a cooridinated attack.

Of course this is all just speculation on my part.  Sleep well.

I had never been able to identify the principles of the Democrat party.  I always believed they just wanted power and would say anything do anything to achieve and hold on to that power.  Sure, nearly all politicians have a tendency along those lines but the Democrats did nothing but that as near as I could tell.  I never heard anyone articulate what their principles really were.  Even when I would press some of them for a statement of principles I would get a blank stare like a deer in the headlights and some mumbling about diversity and equality.  However, just this afternoon, I finally read an answer by William Schneider to that question and it finally makes sense what they are about.  He said, “It looks to use the power of government to promote economic and social justice.”  How very cool.  How succinct.  And it all makes sense now.  Thank you Mr. Schneider.

However there are a couple of problems with these principles.

• They are unconstitutional.
• Government is unable to accomplish those goals.  It only creates more problems than it solves.

So now that I finally have an understanding of what the Democrat party is really about let’s get on with the process of driving them into political extinction.  Their principles are abhorrent to me.

Barb has a cousin, Karen, in the hospital in Richland, WA.  She is a month younger than Barb and they saw a lot of each other growing up and continued to see each other in adulthood.  Barb, normally a morning person, would many times stay up late into the night talking with Karen when she came for a visit..  The last news I heard, a couple hours ago, was that Karen was on life support and they were doing an EEG to look for signs of brain activity.  Barb and her sister Nancy came over yesterday to be with her and her family and are staying with me again tonight.  The house I stay in is only a couple blocks from the hospital.

When I first started work over here I stayed with Karens mom and stepfather for several months.  Karens daughter Lacey is going to school at the University of Idaho just across town from our house in Moscow.  Lacey is a year older than our son James who is also attending the U of I. Lacey helped James getting into the swing of things at school and they even shared a class or two and would go to the gym to exercise together.  Lacey went to an IPSC match with me once and I borrowed her pistol because I had accidently left mine at her grandparents place.  During the summer of ’03 Lacey stayed at our house during the week while she worked at the university.  Lacey was there for the historic fireball video with our daughter Kim and provided the background expletives.  Lacey helped with Boomershoot 2003 (second picture from the top).  In other words our family is pretty close to Karen and her family and there will be a lot of sorrow in our house if she passes away.

The Citizens for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) just made a press release with what they think is the direction forward with a comfortable Republican majority in the House and Senate, and a (somewhat) pro-gun President.

However, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “The real work begins now. This is the first real opportunity that gun owners have had in recent memory to go on the offensive. We need to immediately begin pushing for an expansion of the armed pilots program, and perhaps equally important to homeland security, we need to pass national concealed carry legislation for private citizens.”

Although they didn’t mention in this press release I would like to see them also work towards restoring freedom to Washington D.C. residents who are prohibited from owning handguns and have severe restrictions on long gun ownership.  Although a national concealed carry law might take care of the D.C. oppression as well as that in other places Chicago (all of IL actually), New York City, and California.

Back in February I predicted gay marriage would be a big issue in this election. It was, but not in the way I thought it would.  Gay marriage was on the ballet in a number of states — including Ohio.  This was key to getting conservatives to register and to vote.  And of course once they were at the polls to vote against gay marriage they voted for Bush for president.

In February I also spoke of the disintegration of the Democrat party.  I think we are that path.