Category Archives: Freedom

And your point is?

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I’ve read Half-Truth Henigan’s most recent post several times now and I still don’t really get what his point is. I think he is trying to claim the NRA is saying if gun owners don’t get their way they will start shooting politicians. But the data he presents doesn’t read that way to me. And Half-Truth doesn’t come right out and say that either. He just alludes to it.


Even the guy he quotes says things that I find completely appropriate and would feel comfortable defending in a debate against anyone:



We’re screaming! We’re protesting! We’re faxing! We’re phoning and marching and yelling….


But still…they ignore us.


I hear the clank of metal on metal in the distance, but not so distant today as it was yesterday or the day before, or the day before, or the day before.


I have a feeling, just a feeling, that I’m not alone. There are a lot of people out there like me who will no longer tolerate the arrogance of politicians who ignore us. I’ve been told that there’s only one thing worse than being abused, and that’s being ignored. If you kick me, at least I know I exist. But if you ignore me, then I’m not even worth the trouble.


My question to everyone reading this article is this: “For you, as an individual, when do you draw your saber? When do you say “Yes, I am willing to rise up and overthrow an oppressive, totalitarian government?”


Is it when the government takes away your  private business?
Is it when the government rigs elections?
Is it when the government imposes martial law?
Is it when the government takes away your firearms?


Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating the immediate use of force against the government. It isn’t time, and hopefully that time will never come. But one thing is certain:  “Now is the time to rattle your sabers.” If not now, then when?


When the government ignores the First Amendment, it is time to rattle the Second Amendment sabers. It’s all about accountability. So long as our elected officials believe we will rise up and overthrow them under certain conditions, then they will not allow those conditions to occur. Their jobs and their very lives depend on it.


Even after Half-Truth Henigan removes half of what was actually said there isn’t anything I really have a problem with:



We the people have been exercising our First Amendment right to the hilt. We’re screaming! We’re protesting! We’re faxing! We’re phoning and marching and yelling….But still…they ignore us….There are a lot of people out there like me who will no longer tolerate the arrogance of politicians who ignore us….And here’s the million-dollar question: What happens if the First Amendment fails?…When the government ignores the First Amendment, it is time to rattle the Second Amendment sabers…As long as our elected officials believe we will rise up and overthrow them under certain conditions, then they will not allow those conditions to occur. Their jobs and their very lives depend on it.


I guess it is just a different mindset. I have to conclude that Half-Truth Henigan is of the mind that no matter what the government decides that is what you have to live (or die) with. I guess in his world view those 60 million (give or a take few 10’s of millions) innocent people murdered by their own government in the last century deserved what they got.


I am not of that mindset. I learned the hard way that even if you have a contract with someone or an organization it is meaningless unless you have a means of enforcing that contract. And you have to be willing to use that enforcement means in order for the other party to adhere to the contract.


The Second Amendment is the people’s means to enforce the contracts known as our State and Federal constitutions. Those constitutions are the granting of certain powers to the government. When discussing (First Amendment) and pleading (the courts) about contract violation fails and the violations are too egregious to ignore the means to break the contract must reside with the people who granted the government those powers to begin with. Or has Henigan conveniently forgotten these words?



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,[71] 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, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.


The Second Amendment protects the ability of people, like me, to have a reasonable chance of saying, “Please don’t do that” in the right tone of voice and being heard in such a way that the politician and their hired thugs who have overstepped the authority given to him or her by the Constitution gets a chill down their back and then scans the area every time they step outside. The enforcement of all contracts ultimate boils down to someone with a gun and a willingness to pull the trigger if necessary. Half-Truth Henigan and all politicians should know that and I don’t have a problem with them being given a gentle reminder every once in a while.


Update: Sebastian posts what I wish I had written on this topic. The sarcasm is strong.

Quote of the day–Max

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Sullum, I hope you get a gun and accidentally shoot your balls off, you simpering right-wing fuckhead.

Max
April 7, 2010
Comment to Gun Controllers Need Not Fear ‘Intermediate Scrutiny’.
H/T to Say Uncle for the link.
[I guess I’m just a slow learner. Even though my first encounter was nearly a dozen years ago I’m always surprised at how hateful some of the people on the left are.

This morning I was reading some of Driftglass’s posts and addition to the persistent and willful ignorance there were things that were profoundly hateful and hinting at a desire for genocide. Again, I shouldn’t be surprised but I am. All genocides that immediately come to mind were by leftists. Even the concentration camps in the U.S. last century were implemented by leftists.

One of my main motivators for Boomershoot is because the left has such a propensity toward genocide. And if they didn’t want to take guns away I would be far less motived to be active in the gun rights movement and I might not even own a gun (the election of Bill Clinton and his anti-gun agenda was what inspired me to buy my first gun). The irony of it all–the left wants to ban guns and would be closer and better able to accomplish that particular goal if they didn’t want to ban guns.

Writing the previous paragraph reminded me of something I wrote a long time ago (from my quote database):

The only reason the American people will ever really NEED the number of firearms they have is if the American government tries to take those firearms away.
Joe Huffman
December 1, 1995

Side note–I didn’t know there was an internment camp out in the woods in Idaho at Canyon Creek near where Barb and I have spent a fair amount of time.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Driftglass

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Its leaders fought for the right to : to work them like animals and kill them at will.

Its leaders fought for the right to enforce the institution of slavery with state-sanctioned terror and murder.

Its leaders were known as “Confederates”.

To preserve and defend their monstrous institution, Confederates spent centuries constructing massive social, economic, religious and cultural fortifications around it.

Like hemophilia, Confederates passed that comprehensive social, economic, religious and cultural worldview down generation after generation.

Like syphilis, to this day Confederates continue to spread that social, economic, religious and cultural worldview everywhere they go.

About 40 years ago, the Confederates changed their name.

Now they are known as “Republicans”.


Driftglass
April 7, 2010
Just In Case
[Some might say it is because of the state of our educational system. Others might say it was a simple error. But I’m inclined to think of it as a mental defect.


How can they live in such a fact free environment? No wonder they want government assistance for everything. They couldn’t find their way to their food without help from someone.


I left the following comment on their post:



You got a couple things mixed up. The anti-slavery people were Republicans and the pro-slavery people (including the racist bigots with their Jim Crow laws up through the 1960s) were all Democrats.

Other than that minor error I think you are pretty close.


I wonder if this is going to be another instance of “Reasoned Discourse“.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Mohandes Gandhi

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Political power means capacity to regulate national life through national representatives. If national life becomes so perfect as to become self-regulated, no representation becomes necessary. There is then a state of enlightened anarchy. In such a state every one is his own ruler. He rules himself in such a manner that he is never a hindrance to his neighbor. In the ideal State, therefore, there is no political power because there is no State.


Mohandes Gandhi
November 17, 1921
[Maybe it’s just crazy talk but it seems to me that Gandhi has it right.


In the ideal State there is no government because there is no need of government. Agreed, my utopia is just as unattainable as everyone elses. I concede government is necessary. But the less government we have the closer to the ideal we are. Yet so many people seem to think more government (via Kevin) brings us closer to the ideal.


Do these people even have a glimmer of what their end result looks like? Either they don’t have any concept of the principles, as explained above by Gandhi (and countless others including the people who wrote our constitution), or they have a radically different view of what utopia looks like. Both of these possible conclusions are equally frightening.–Joe]

The Most Sociable of Social Activities…

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…and the most intense.


If you really want to get acquainted with your fellow man, if you want to understand people and society, start a business.  I’ve run a business since January of 1978.  Originally it was in musical instruments.  First repair only, but that quickly led to retail and installment sales.  It’s a walk-in store and shop, plus we do on-location sales, sound system installation and setup, and on top of all that I was part of a performing group (sound engineer) that also traveled.  All that’s still going on, but I’m now doing the design, manufacturing and internet sales thing with the gun accessories.


Please; this is not about me, though it may sound like it.  It’s really about you.  And people.  It’s about the world.


You cannot really understand your fellow human beings until you’ve sweated, worried, obsessed, invested, committed, risked everything, issued credit, and experienced the range of reactions, to that effort, from your fellow citizens.  You end up knowing the bank managers (they come and go) on a first name basis, the county clerk on a first name basis, several lawyers, teachers, fellow business owners.  You end up in small claims court, as a repo man, in debt yourself.  You end up in district court and in federal court trying to defend the property you sweated, cried, and devoted your life to.  You develop a relationship with the local collection agency, the local churches, and the local schools.  You deal, haggle, plead with, and give charity to, many people per day, every day.  In our case it was six days a week, plus weekends in the taverns, conference halls, churches, farms, businesses, and convention centers playing music.  One gig was in the garage/shop of a trucking company, for a company party.  Another was for a wedding of two friends.  Later, we played for their “divorce party”.  We played for a lot of weddings.


You deal with many thousands of people on a very personal level.  You learn of their troubles, their struggles, their marriages, their kids, and their extended families– their successes, their failures, their medical problems, their births, their schooling, their graduations (and do come, please) their weddings, their new children, and their deaths.  All of those things become part of your business.  They buy things from you, they utilize your services, and many of them owe you money.  They are your life.  One family could no longer pay us because their mother was in jail.  Another customer could not get into the Air Force because he’d rented a saxophone from us and immediately pawned it for cash, eventually losing the pawn, and had never paid us.  He eventually got in on a promise to pay, but I must have spoken to four or five base commanders on several continents, before we ever saw one payment.  Another family invited us to their son’s graduation party, being as we’d been so much a part of his music education.


You owe a lot of other people money.  You get to know your account rep at General Motors finance, at TransAmerica, and at Textron Financial.  You get to know the sales reps at the manufacturers, while you must see and judge the credit reports of hundreds of your customers.  Can these people be trusted with a thousand dollars worth of my sweat, blood and tears.  They sure think so themselves, but that’s not the benchmark.  The proof is in the pudding.


Wal Mart gets to know millions of people– their habits, their wants, their needs, their strengths, their weaknesses, their successes and their failures.  They have to.  It’s how they stay in business.  Some people love them, some people hate them and want them eliminated, and some don’t care– all for the same things Wal Mart does.


Then there’s hiring and firing.  You find out what’s being taught at the universities.  And what isn’t.  You make friends, and then you have to fire them.  You make other friends that are permanent.  You share in their successes and their failures, their sickness and their health, in good times and in bad.  You learn of their families, and their extended families, and you meet their circle of friends.


You learn more about life than you can ever tell.  You learn that utility rates (phone and power) are nearly double the rates paid by residents.  You learn that property taxes are also nearly double the rate for a live-in home.  “Home Owner’s Exemption” they call it here.  You learn that property tax isn’t just paid on real estate.  Those tools you built yourself?  Those are property too, and subject to the same tax.  You wanna spend forty grand to beautify the exterior and improve the sidewalks of your downtown business?  That’s gonna raise your assessment, and increase your tax bill, you money-grubbing motherfucker.


You get to know the police, too.  Very well.  You end up testifying as a witness when that customer you though you knew, ended up embezzling the entire trust fund his bed-ridden mother signed over to him as executor.  You end up in federal court when you refuse to hand over an instrument that you’re still making payments on, but a customer rented it (on a rent-to-own plan which is deemed legally as a “purchase”) and then filed bankruptcy, and it’s a big no-no when you try to exert your property rights without permission from the trustee (you also find out how a trustee can get a personal hatred for business owners who try to assert their rights without permission, and launch into a years-long vendetta).


Back when we were still operating, out of a one-car garage in my brother’s back yard, our competition in town (a music store that had been in business for many years, was much bigger and had a downtown location) started to lose franchises.  Having no one else to sell to in the area, the factory reps came to our garage.  We eventually bought a pathetically few instruments from them.  A personal friend of the competition in town reacted by visiting us to yell at us for “grabbing up all the business”.  Yeah; that’s us.  Two kids in a garage we’d rebuilt ourselves, in a backyard.  It had no inside walls– just bare insulation.  Living hand-to-mouth.  Virtually no assets other than our brains and our hands.  We’re the “privileged class”.  We’re “The Man” out to suck the life out of the righteous, with our dirty, no-good instrument repair tools (many of which we built ourselves) and little more than the trust and faith placed in us by some wholesalers’ credit departments.


People are funny that way.  You’ll never be able to please all the people all the time, but you can sure as hell please a few of them some of the time.  That’s the best anyone can do, and in the process you’re being as sociable as sociable gets.  You’re participating in life, and interacting with the community, to a degree that few people ever experience.


Sometimes it is very, vary sweet to be alone.  Only for a while.

Quote of the day–John Kenneth Galbraith

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People of privilege will alway risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.


John Kenneth Galbraith
1977
The Age of Uncertainty
[I find it interesting that Galbraith was a hard-core socialist and advocated the government intervention to remove “inequities”. The reason I find it interesting is that when I read the quote above I immediately, and only, thought of politicians and government bureaucrats.


Apparently he didn’t think of people in government as being “people of privilege”. He, like many other advocates of socialism, gun control, etc. only think in terms of the hoped for benefits rather than weighing the total package for its net worth. Contrary to those with experience with attempts to achieve utopia they think the equalizers will equalize themselves.


I should come up with “Just One Question” for socialists/communists. I believe it would end up something like, as I mentioned before, “How do you measure fairness/justice?”–Joe]

Quote of the day–Emma Goldman

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The philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary.


Emma Goldman
The above is Ms. Goldman’s definition of anarchism.
[She hoped to help move this country to the next stage beyond our present form of government. And the above almost sounds like a Libertarian tenet. But she also advocated “from everyone according to their ability and to everyone according to their need“. And she was an inspiration to President McKinley’s assassin.


It is possible we may be facing “the next stage” of government in the near future. Let us beware of forms which create hope of an utopia and bring poverty, violence, and everlasting servitude.–Joe]

Quote of the day–George Mason

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That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.


George Mason
Virgina Declaration of Rights
Adopted unanimously June 12, 1776 bye the Virginia Convention of Delegates.
[It’s time for some reform, altering, and abolishing around here.–Joe]

All Hopey Changey in the UK

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From Drudge.  Pet shop owner fined 1,000 pounds and charged criminally for selling goldfish to an under age buyer.  No one puts up any meaningful opposition.  I hope y’all like this sort of thing (and I’m sure some of you do) ’cause we’re getting more and more of the same crap here.


You have to hand it to the statist scum.  They do know their business.  Anything to keep the citizenry off-balance, distracted and afraid.  The question remaining unanswered is when and how the advocates of liberty will acquire the same sort of organization, audacity and clout.


We’re only about 80 to 100 years behind the statists in this war, give or take.  How long, you figure, will it take to catch up to a point where we’re on par?

Quote of the day–Bjorn Sandberg

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These new bats are too powerful. They’re like weapons.


Bjorn Sandberg
March 26, 2010
Metal bats unsafe to swing?
[Haven’t we been saying that after guns are banned they will try to do the same thing with knives and baseball bats? And the anti-freedom people laugh and make fun of us about it.


While this article isn’t in the context of “crime prevention” the “right” words are being used. If we were to lose the right to keep and bear arms I would expect there would be “safe storage” requirements and other restrictions on baseball bats within a few years.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Robb Allen

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Free people make choices that change their status in relation to others. Can’t have that can we?


Robb Allen
December 22, 2009
Advantage, us
[Look at the health care issue, look at the graduated income tax issue, look at double taxing of corporate profits, look at the victim disarmament laws. The anti-freedom people want people equal–even if it is equally poor, equally at risk, equally sick, or equally dead.


There is are numerous very profound problems with equalizing people. Probably the most obvious, but not the most hazardous problem, is this.


I had read this shortly after Robb posted it but I didn’t give this particular set of words the independent focus it deserved. Thanks to Mike L. for bringing it to my attention.–Joe]

Private party for Ian

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As I have previously reported Ian is an intern at Microsoft from Canada. I took him shooting once and he enjoyed it a great deal.

 

Last Friday after work he and I left Redmond and headed east to Idaho where we could have some real fun. Idaho is less repressive in a number of ways than Washington. In particular the explosives law are a pain in Washington.

 

Saturday morning daughter Kim, Ian and I loaded up the van and went to the Boomershoot site. Barron, Janelle, and Ryan were already there when we arrived. We were going to put on a private party for Ian and do a few experiments to test out some ideas for a new target deployment method.

 

Some of the pictures are below see also the fireball demo pictures here.

 


Ian about to shoot his first boomer.

 


This was just after detonation. Notice the streak of something headed to the left in the tree.

 


Ian preparing for the blast of debris.

 


Ian realizing he is going to live.

 


Ian realizing that was fun (debris still falling).

 


Ian realizing that was really fun (debris still falling).

 


Ian, Ryan, and Janelle (only her shadow is visible on the far right) do a miniature High Intensity Event.

 


Ian shooting still more boomers.

 


Ian seems to like this too.

 


Ryan brought an old laptop in need of an Idaho Stress Test.

 


Ryan preparing to initiate the stress test.

 


The test is complete in a few microseconds.

 


Ryan was very happy with the test results even if he did have to pick up all the pieces.

 

Ian, Kim, and I took the scenic route back to Moscow, picked up Barb just as she got off from work and went to VJs BBQ (there was a reason for chosing this particular place) for dinner. They have a Gadsden flag and the Declaration of Independence on the wall if that gives you a hint.

 

What I wonder is what the anti-freedom people in this country have to offer interns who visit. It’s not like they have anti-gun ranges to go have fun at.

 

Update: Linoge linked to this post and claimed one of the pictures of Ian above is “Photo of the year“. In the interests of completeness I have uploaded the original, untouched, photo here.

Quote of the day–Daniel Webster

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In the nature of things, those who have no property and see their neighbors possess much more than they think them to need, cannot be favorable to laws made for the protection of property. When this class becomes numerous, it becomes clamorous. It looks on property as its prey and plunder, and is naturally ready, at times, for violence and revolution.


Daniel Webster
Address, Massachusetts Convention, 1820
From The Great Thoughts, (but I have the first edition) compiled by George Seldes.
[Laws protecting property had a knife slipped between their ribs with the passage of the 16th Amendment. Laws protecting the possession of property mean nothing if you can’t purchase it to begin with. The government takes such a high proportion of my income that I don’t really work for myself and my family anymore. I work for the government which distributes my life energy to those people the government thinks are more worthy.


Where is Galt’s Gulch?–Joe]

Preventing violence

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It always raises warning flags when I hear of someone wanting to prevent violence. This is no exception. They want to “figure out which people are genuinely dangerous” and “reach out” to them:



Rahr says the science to answer that question is available, and she’s asking the federal government for money to set up a pilot task-force program here that she hopes would serve as a model nationwide.


I am of the opinion that anytime the government starts “reaching out” to “prevent violence” it’s time for me to make sure my “reaching out” tools are in good working order.


[H/T to Chet who walked into my office this morning to tell me the cheery news.]

Quote of the day–Nicolo Machiavell

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It should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones.


Nicolo Machiavell
The Prince, Chapter XIX
[I suspect this is part of the problem people of liberty have. They don’t want to be disliked and are willing to make compromises to make other people less hateful of them. Tyrants and “progressives” have no problem with the hatred others have of them. It’s just not that big of an issue to people like leftists Bill Ayers (neighbor and family friend of President Obama), Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot. If they have to kill a few million people in order to create their utopia and are hated by some for that, what’s the big deal? It was for a good cause.


I think a little non-violent ruthlessness in pursuit of liberty might be a good thing. Someone that doesn’t fasten their seat belt or eats the wrong foods and is injured or gets ill at an early age should be considered an example of what not to do and left to the care of those that might see some benefit in helping them. Those examples are not justification to use the force of government (the point of a gun) to take from those that played the cards life gave them more carefully. We might be hated for that but the end result is a smarter and healthier society in more ways than one.–Joe]

The Revolution has Begun

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Just so we’re clear; No, I’m not kidding.


I attended a rally for Idaho Gubernatorial candidate, Rex Rammell last night in troy, and spoke with him for some time.  No arrests were made.  They fed us elk spaghetti.  Afterward, I told my older brother that Rex was either the best damned actor in all the world or he is for real.  I’m now convinced he is for real.  Rammell has fought the Idaho Legislature and won, he has defied state authority over his own property rights, had his livestock killed and taken by state goons, been arrested, fought that, and won, and he is now jacked up to fight for Idaho, within Idaho and with the feds, for liberty.  His plan is make Idaho an example for the rest of the states to follow.

Read his website and his Facebook page.  That’s not the half of it.  This is our guy.  I don’t care what state you call home, Rex wants be the one to show the rest of the country how it’s done, he’s willing to push back and to defy the powers that be in order to restore liberty based on America’s founding principles.  Among the agenda items in what he refers to as “The Cause” are; eliminating the Idaho income tax and creating a welcome environment for business to grow the economy, that will in turn attract more motivated people into the state to grow the economy, massively reduce the state department of education thereby eliminating the top-heavy system and relinquishing education control back to the locals, get everyone in the state off of welfare, and (get this) returning the two thirds of the State of Idaho that’s now federal land, back to the state.  If elected, he promises to climb aboard a bulldozer and use it to rip out some Forrest Service gates in front of the TV cameras.


He’s willing to “force them (the feds) out” of the state and he has a plan for doing just that.  “Gone.”  I don’t mean he’s going to sue on Tenth Amendment gounds or whatever.  That’s just a first step.  Rex is willing to do whatever it takes.  He’s been there before, as state goons were shooting his elk (with 5.56 mm AR-15s, the dipshits) right in front of him on his own property.  Don’t let his soft looks fool you.  He’s that skinny, quiet kid who’ll nail his targets at 1,000 yards and carry the water after the loudmouth bodybuilder has quit the fight.


Rex is a Mormon, and some will be put off by that.  Don’t be stupid.  Listen; he’s convinced that fighting for American principles is his calling in life.  That’s passion.  He has courage and a sense of purpose, and those are exactly what we need for this fight.  Make no mistake about it; there will be a fight and it will get ugly.  Best we start it from inside the system, with the constitution and founding principles of liberty as our guide.


If you’re one of those people, as am I, who’s been alarmed and disgusted at the direction this country has been going, and yet frustrated that there seems to be no one to vote for who’s serious, Rex is your candidate.  For years I’ve been watching the culture war in this country, hearing talk show host after talk show host, reading blogger after blogger, all chronicling the corrupt behavior of the Evil Party, and the cowardice, capitulation and corruption of the Stupid Party.  For years I’ve been saying; “OK!  I get it already!  Now what do we DO about it?”  Well this is what you do about it– you spread the word about Rex Rammell, attend his rallies, and support his primary campaign.  If you live in Idaho, you get at least ten people out with you and you vote in the primary election in May.


The Idaho Gubernatorial election will be decided in the May primary.  Rammell is up against Butch Otter, and the winner in the primary is going to be our next Governor.  Spread the word.  His campaign is running on a shoestring right now.  This Revolution can either splutter to a pause, leading to more and deeper pain, or it can roar forward.  It depends on you.


There you go.  I’ve never said much of anything nice about a politician before.  Most of them are sub-human scum.  If you knew me, you’d understand what a difference I see in this guy, to say anything positive about him.

Quote of the day–Rep. John Dingell

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Let me remind you this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.


Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)
March 23, 2010
Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air (after hearing the audio on the Rush Limbaugh Show).
[I am reminded of something I said a long time ago:



Does it ever strike you as odd that some of our servants demand that they have a monopoly on certain types of weapons?


I keep thinking that they must have either forgotten they are servants or intend to change the relationship.


I think the selection of which conclusion is correct should now be obvious.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Robb Allen

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The end was passed a long time ago. This is simply the epilogue.


Robb Allen
March 21, 2010
This isn’t the end
[I suspect, since I tend to be such an optimist, that while this may be the epilogue it may also be the beginning of something else. Kevin points out a hint of things which may come. Kevin has a tendency toward pessimism. I’m hoping for some change we can believe in.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Bob Walker

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Yesterday’s shooting, like earlier ones, dramatizes the need for tougher federal legislation. We must find a way of stopping the interstate loophole that now exists. Otherwise, would-be killers will continue to take advantage of our federal system.

Bob Walker
Feb 24, 1997
Statement of Bob Walker, Presidnet (sic), Handgun Control, Inc. Re: Shooting at Empire State Building
[Interstate loophole, newspaper loophole, the Terror Gap (and here), and of course the ever popular gun show loophole. Why don’t they just come out and say it? It is the federal system known as “The Second Amendment Loophole” that they have their panties all in a twist about.

After closing that they could start working on the First Amendment Loophole. Once they have that closed it should be a cinch to close the Thirteenth Amendment Loophole or at least enage in some “reasonable regulation” in that regard.–Joe]

Quote of the day–George Savile

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If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the world.


George Savile
Marquess of Halifax
[The accuracy of this can be seen by the present state of our country and the world.


Further evidence can be seen by statements like that of Doug Pennington of the Brady Campaign. He complains of the government forcing freedom on the citizens.–Joe]