Author Archives: Joe

Random thought of the day

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I sometimes wonder it it wouldn’t be better if the victims of a crime were to deliver the punishment. Or in the case of the victim being dead or otherwise physically unable to carry out the punishment their nearest living relatives or friends could be assigned the task.


The convicted criminal would be sole property of the victim for three days and would be presented to the victim in stocks with a wide variety of tools available for inflicting punishment or the victim could bring their own. The victim do anything from set them free, to sell off their organs, and torture and/or kill them. It would be all be recorded and made available to the public. This would put some social pressure on the victim to deliver a just punishment.


Of course this would totally violate the Eight Amendment so suspend that objection for now and consider this just some random thought. As the anti-gun people do, only consider the plausible benefits and not the adverse consequences.



  • We would save a lot of money by not having prisons.

  • Since child abusers get such a rough time in prisons I believe this means that child abusers are believed to be inadequately punished (it could also mean it is just part of some ranking system with them being at the bottom of the respect hierarchy). I suspect there would be a lot less child abuse in the world if it were the parents or other close relative delivering “justice”.

  • With the current system of fixed punishments for crimes criminals can easily make rational decisions to be criminals. As in, “I can do the time so why not commit the crime?” With the punishment being unknown the potential criminal does not know if they can “do the time”.

  • Pacifists would be forced to carry a greater burden of their convictions. Known pacifists would be much more likely to be selected as victims. Yes, I realize this system would also result in “baiting” by sadists who portrayed themselves as pacifists which would reduce the likelihood that the pacifist would carry their full burden.

  • If there were no victim there would be no punishment. It would mean the end of victim-less crimes.

The thing that brought this to the forefront of my consciousness today was this story. What sort of punishment is this guy going to get from ejaculating into his co-workers water bottle? A fine? Somehow that just doesn’t seem right.


If his victim were to decide the punishment I would expect him to be stripped naked in the hot sun for three days with one hand free to drink from the water bottles within his grasp. When he finished drinking all the bottle contents he could go free. I’m sure the male friends of the victim would be glad to provide the bottle contents. He could drink or die from dehydration. His choice.

Quote of the day–American Mercenary

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If government is the source of rights, then the government can take those “rights” away. Don’t believe me? Reference; China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, USSR, and Burma.

Government can and will take your life. Where the hell are your “rights” then?

Here is a base truth; Government does not create, government meddles in the form of regulation and redistribution of human activity.


American Mercenary
August 28, 2010
ubu52
[As I have said before, governments cannot grant or create rights. They can only protect them or infringe them.–Joe]

Quote of the day–James Madison

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If men were angels, no government would be necessary.


James Madison
[But if there were no government who would give us our free medical care, free food, and subsidize our housing? I don’t think this Madison guy knows anything at all about the true business of government.–Joe]

Reid loses NRA endorsement

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Breaking news:

The vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court, along with the previous
year’s confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the
Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that
it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in
the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.

Quote of the day–ubu52

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Food and water are basic human rights. I can’t believe anyone would argue that they aren’t.

ubu52
August 24, 2010
Comment to Crap for brains
[This came up in the context of a “right” to health care. She supported her claim with a link to the UN declaration of “Human Rights” which includes this statement:

  1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
    well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and
    medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the
    event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
    livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
  2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All
    children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
    protection.

Hence it is not about someone depriving someone else of food, water, or air. This is about some government (people with guns) taking goods and services from some set of people and giving it to others.

And she “can’t believe anyone would argue” against that viewpoint? An “interesting” and totally naive perspective. I would like to remind anyone that believes such a thing that 100+ million people died in the last century because of attempts to create just that type of utopia. If she and others would like to volunteer themselves for the next experiment doomed to failure I only request they take it to some place where my family and friends don’t have to contend with defending our lives and property and disposing of the rotting flesh.

–Joe]

Volunteers needed in Arlington Washington

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Via the Apex Of the Triangle of Death:

NRA Washington is doing an open house at the Norpoint Range in Arlington on the weekend of Sep 4th and 5th. I know that’s a holiday weekend, however if you could put the word out to your contacts that we need a few volunteers to help me staff the table that would be fantastic. I’ll be there all day Saturday and Sunday, ideally I’d like to have 4 people a day for 2 hours each, that way we can break the times up a bit.

If you know of anyone in that area (north of Seattle) that would be interested in hanging out in a gun shop all day, have them shoot me an email!

Regards,

Caleb N Giddings
NRA Campaign Field Representative
317-445-9332
caleb at gunnutsmedia.com

I actually will be driving through Arlington on the 4th (to here) but I’m pretty sure my wife has plans for me other than hanging out at a gun range for a couple hours. I will be pack’in in the park for the weekend though.

Reasoned discourse in politics

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Via Thirdpower I find out Illinois governor Pat Quinn is running ads attacking his opponent. His opponent apparently claims to have no problem uphold his oath of office in relation to the Second Amendment.


As is typical for anti-gun bigots the comments are disable for the video.

That explains it

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I ran across this post today and had to read the bold (added by me) section below twice to make sure I read it correctly:

Private, unlicensed gun sales are currently exempt from federal background
checks and sales retention requirements, such as purchases at gun shows, some of
which are (conveniently?) attributed to robberies of homes, cars or dealer
stores.

Surprisingly, only seven states and the District of Columbia require gun
owners to report their guns lost or stolen – another reason for the need of
national standards. 

By some counts, of an estimated 300M guns in the U.S., there are close to 4
million assault weapons. The number of undocumented gun owners and their
unregistered guns in this country may surpass the numbers of undocumented
immigrant workers. All of the above infringe upon the rights of law-abiding
Americans.

What???

What sort of perverted definition of “right” does this guy have? And to further confound things this is on the website of a lawyer who specializes, among other things, in criminal law. A lawyer who apparently has read the Bill of Rights sufficiently close to know you have right to an attorney and to not incriminate yourself. But yet, yesterday, still wasn’t aware that the Second Amendment guarantees a specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

He compares “undocumented gun owners” to “undocumented immigrant workers”. Where is the “clue bat”? “Undocumented workers” entered the country illegally and are working here illegally. Gun ownership with or without “documentation”, in of itself, is a guaranteed right and is not illegal.

I wondered, “What could possibly get this guy so confused?” I then noticed his address. It is Oxnard California. They drink a lot of Kool-Aid down there.

Quote of the day–Tamara K.

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There is anecdotal evidence that the banning of traditional ammunition would have an adverse impact on government bureaucrat populations.

Tamara K.
August 26, 2010
No.
[If properly expended I’m pretty sure Tamara and friends have enough “traditional ammunition” on hand to make a noticeable impact on said populations.

I would also like to make mention of the fact that I’ve seen her shoot a rifle offhand at targets 200 yards away:

You don’t want her to “saddle up and bust caps” unless you have a surplus of body bags and bureaucrats with a desire to have them matched up.–Joe]

Don’t take pictures of your criminal activities

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I just wonder if they will use the video as evidence at their trial, thereby putting it into the public domain:

Authorities identified the suspects in a break-in at a rural home at Elma
after viewing a sex video filmed by a pair and recognizing them.

According to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office:

A neighbor who had come to collect mail while the homeowner was away walked
in on the pair as they were having sex on the floor. The naked couple fled,
leaving behind a stolen camera .

A 39-year-old woman was arrested in Montesano on investigation of burglary.
An arrest warrant was issued for a 31-year old Elma man.

Quote of the day–wfgodbold

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How do you know he’s not a robot sent back in time by Skynet to disarm the resistance before it starts?

wfgodbold
August 24, 2010
Referring to Robb Allen’s idea for a screenplay of a Terminator sequel where Paul Helmke goes into the future to try to explain to the resistance why they shouldn’t be using guns.
[I had not thought of that! That makes as much sense as any other reason I can come up with for why Helmke does what he does. We all know that the real reason for gun control cannot be crime control.–Joe]

All the easier to strip search you

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So. You thought you could avoid those intrusive airport technological strip searches by not flying on a commercial plane? You thought they were just were doing that to “other people”? You thought it was okay to look the other way as your Fourth Amendment rights were violated when you flew on an airplane. It was all in the name of “safety”, right?

Via Andy Greenberg (via an email from Chet), coming to your neighborhood soon:

Gee, I wonder why they didn’t show any people in that video? Oh! Andy has some pictures of that too:

That is through vehicles. I would expect the walls of your home will be just as revealing. Imagine what you look like when you are just walking down the sidewalk.

Expect lots of “security sweeps” for the womens basketball and volleyball tournaments. We can’t be too careful with our precious women at risk.

The phrase “concealed means concealed” now means nothing. And since we let them get away with it at airports what’s so special about a public street now? Some terrorist could kill just as many people at the convention center as they could on an airplane. So why shouldn’t the convention center have the same security theater as the our airplanes?

I’ve pointed this out before but what Pastor Martin Niemöller said about the Nazi’s and what Sebastian observed, “What goes around comes around.” is very true.

You play a very risky game when you make exceptions to fundamental principles.

NRA-ILA asks “Just One Question”

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Linoge pulls a couple paragraphs out of the same NRA-ILA post for his QOTD. That is good stuff but I liked this part:

…with no correlation between LCAV’s ranking and the states’ widely divergent
firearm-related death rates, no recognition of the fact that most
firearm-related deaths are suicides, the frequency of which cannot be restrained
by any gun control law, and no recognition of the fact that the world is still
waiting for any evidence that any gun control law on the planet has ever
prevented individuals or regimes from committing crime.

Emphasis mine.

That is the essence of my Just One Question.

Nice!

Quote of the day–Paul H. Blackman

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There is certainly a tendency for nation with restrictive gun laws to authorize additional powers to the police to violate the ordinary rights of privacy … .

Paul H. Blackman
From the book From My Cold Dead Fingers–Why America Needs Guns, Third Edition (“Final Chapter”), page 130 by Sheriff Richard I. Mack.
[I would like to believe that as we push back the infringements on our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms that we can also make progress on our infringed rights to be free from unreasonable search, seizure, and our right to privacy. Can the people at large be educated to understand the general principle of limited government is applicable to both the keeping of arms and the right to privacy? Generalization appears to be a difficult thing for most people. They don’t seem to understand political principles. They get involved in “issues” without understanding the principles. The “War on Drugs” is no different in principle than a “War on Guns”, or a “War on Poverty”. Yet you rarely see people espouse positions that are philosophically consistent.

Oh well. One issue at a time is all I can handle. And taking on the issue of philosophical inconsistency is just too big and too nebulous.

The TSA is next on my list after we essentially win the battle over guns. It might be a decade or so but I think we will get there.–Joe]

Crap for brains

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Someone has their tin-foil hat on too tight and is asking if the NRA funds the Brady Campaign.


The answer is no.


I would like to point out that the NRA people have lots of things to do besides get involved in politics. They have instructors to train, classes to create and teach, they have events to put on, they have ranges to help design and build. If gun control activists and politicians were to go extinct the NRA would have lots of things to do that probably would be a lot more fun that wading through the mud with the politicians.


On the other hand–if the Brady Campaign were to get a universal ban on firearms in this country they would have to move on to knives and sharp sticks. So if they had millions of members and were in fear of their money drying up they would be more likely to fund the NRA (or some other pro-freedom group) as their boogieman.


While I’m pointing out people with crap for brains–Here are a couple more examples:


dissentus:



The more important matter here, however, is the fact that these people have the guns. The mistake that we on the Left make is our advocacy for gun control. Make no mistake about it, when the working class rises up to take their rightful place as the ruling class, there will be people on the Right with guns, and they will not hesitate to shoot. Wisdom would therefore dictate that the Left not be left with only rakes and hoes to defend themselves.


Most of the people I know with guns or are activists for gun owner rights just want to be left alone. They want the government to back off to it’s constitutionally authorized limits. The constitution does not create or grant that there should be a “ruling class”. There are public servants and not much more.


7514328:



Congressmen, Senators, HMO’s and health insurance companies have profited for far too long. They are the causation of the current health care crisis. Get rid of the health insurance companies and the millions of illegal aliens and problam fixed. Free health care for all US citizens. Its a moral right. Not to be profited by anyone. Its genocide by the health insurance companies. They need to pay for their racketeering scheme for turning ours healths into national profits.


“A moral right”? If they had said “A Human Right” or a “Natural Right”I would have known what they were talking about and been able to tell them they didn’t know what they are talking about. But a moral right is meaningless to me so I guess have to address them at that level.


There is no such thing as a free lunch. You no more deserve free health care than you do free food. And that’s not just because I derive profits from a farm and a wife who works in the health care field. Do you demand the grocery stores to give you food for free? Isn’t food a more basic need than health care? Until you demand free food you are nothing more than a hypocrite. And the instant you demand free food you expose yourself as a communist. If you believe communism is the appropriate political philosophy then go join or create a commune. There is nothing in the laws of this country that will stop you and your friends from doing the same test (and achieving the same result) as millions of other people have done over the last 150 years. And if you are smart enough you will avoid killing yourself and a few tens of millions of people in the process.

Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors

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This is pretty funny.

It reminds me of the name Ray Carter suggested for a group that was a precursor to the Pink Pistols–Ceasefear. This was a play on the name of the gun control group in Seattle called Washington Ceasefire.

Via Sebastian.

Nice presentation

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Barb thought this was particularly well done. I liked it too. The strong defense for private ownership of firearms is very well done. It’s a little conspiratorial in places but he did present the basics of “left” versus “right” being a limiting concept fairly well.

Quote of the day–Kristen Comer

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As long as we allow an individual right to trump public safety, families are going to lose their loved ones.

Kristen Comer
Executive Director Washington Ceasefire
January, 2010
Press sounding ‘Taps’ over Kline legislation, hearing turnout could cinch bill’s demise
[Comer
is referring to the Second Amendment and the Washington State
Constitution protections of the right to keep and bear arms. But think
about that quote in terms of other specific enumerated rights–Include
the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments. If someone is
willing to disregard and advocate the destruction of one guaranteed right why not another or all of them in the name of “public safety”? That mindset,
that opposition to freedom, is what I want exposed and politically
exterminated. I want membership in those type of organizations to be as
socially unacceptable as the KKK is today.

The famous Benjamin Franklin quote comes to mind.

I find it interesting that Comer’s blog
has not had an entry in over a year. Even when she was “active” it was
only about one post per month. A search of their web site for her name
reveals only one hit not a blog post–from 2008. And neither she nor her
title are list on their “About” page with other staff members. Has she
been muzzled? Are they demoralized? If it was “just” funding surely they
could maintain a blog. I manage to make at least one blog post per day
without any funding (the advertising here earns something like
$1/day).–Joe]

NRA Washigton State 2010

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F-rated (by all gun organizations) Senator Patty Murray is vulnerable this year. Pollsters put her in a dead heat with Dino Rossi and the primary (Washington State is a little ‘different’) is another indicator of this.

The NRA is dumping resources on this race and you can help. Visit here for more details in the coming days and weeks.

He needs your comments

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Portland Oregon mayor Sam Adams (how ironic) wants your comments on his plan to violate Oregon State’s preemption law and the Second Amendment:

  • Impose a special curfew for juveniles who have been found by a court of law
    to have violated gun laws.
  • Create new city crime of failure to control access to a firearm by a child
  • Create new city crime of failure to report theft or loss of a firearm
  • Increase penalties for possession of a loaded firearm in a public place
  • Exclude people who have been found by a court of law to have violated
    firearms use or possession laws from areas of the City in which illegal use of
    firearms is markedly greater than other areas. Exclusions to be enforced
    through arrest for trespass, but with many variances available for necessary and
    non-harmful activities.

He wants your feedback by Friday September 3rd. You can review the draft code provisions here and email him at mayorsam@portlandoregon.gov.