Category Archives: Freedom

Bigotry and ignorance on display

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What follows is what the believers of unity think of gun owners. Sometimes I just have to shake my head at the extraordinary displays of bigotry and ignorance of those that think they are enlightened. From the comments:



bengaliman Oct 20 08, 11:03am


Ignorant fools who deserve every bit of bad news they get. Lets hope they use it on themseleves at soem point. Lets face it they are racists who wont come out with what they really think.


Ahh… yes. Someone who thinks they can read the minds of other people and is ignorant of the racist origins of gun control. I’ll ignore his spelling errors…



Struggling Oct 20 08, 11:32am


Hear the store guys’ closing words: He’s a hard nut to crack.


Their effort to convince Marc must have been all the bullshit they were spouting about Obama.


Just shows the extremity of some people’s distance from reality. Their viewing must be entirely Fox or some cable effort of even more extreme outlook. I don’t know what their reading might be (Mein Kampf would be a funny suggestion but an unfair one may be??).


These are people perhaps Obama is not going to be able to convince? Perhaps his drive for votes might not need to expend so much on them?


Crazy guys.


Obama has me convinced. His record is clear.



MrPoisson Oct 20 08, 12:18pm



These are people perhaps Obama is not going to be able to convince?


Well that’s a given – there’s a vast population of gun totin’, chequered shirted, and outspokenly racist redneck types across the states. I went (out of bemused curiosity) to a pawn shop/gun range in south Florida which was entirely staffed and frequented by a section of society you wouldn’t want to have access to a pen knife let alone an enormous 7.62mm assault rifle. They all seem to possess that stubborn, unwavering, and willfully ignorant patriotism which really has no place in todays world.


I just hope the latest polls accurately reflect these idiots.


7.62mm is “enormus” and he thinks we are idiots? And how was it he determined the people at the gun range should have access to a pen knife? Was it because of their checkered shirts or was it because they were patriotic? The important part is he doesn’t think people with the viewpoints opposed to his have a place in “todays world”. I’m reminded of someone else who had similar thoughts.



Roosterbooster198 Oct 20 08, 12:47pm


Secession for the East and West coasts looks more attractive by the day. Secede, and leave these imbeciles to rot in Third World squalor.


This guy displays mind-boggling ignorance of reality. And he really, really, doesn’t want to go there. If the heartland put an blockade on the food and water flowing into the East and West coasts within two weeks there will only be rats and cannibals crawling through the rubble of the burned out cities. The farmers, ranchers, miners, factory, and construction workers may not be able to get much content on their TV sets and their medical resources would be diminshed but they would have plenty of food, water, and ammunition as they manned the big dirt berms pushed up around the cities and put out the run away fires, and shot the arrogant elistists who believe themselves smarter and superior as they attempted to crawl out of the hell they created for themselves.



jigen Oct 20 08, 4:31pm


The National Rifle Association — which is the lobby for gun manufacturers and sellers, but poses as an organization fighting for the rights of the little guy — has been putting out literature saying ‘Obama will take your guns’. The literature even looks like an Obama flier, which must be confusing for these hillbillies when they see a stack of them at the local gun-show.


http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/nra_targets_obama.html


In a way, I feel sorry for these people. They are under-educated — products of a school system the Republican Party wants to keep in place because it favors them — and fearful, because they are told to be afraid. If it comes to the crunch, these people aren’t going to be the ones who survive. What will they do, make their own bullets? The stockpile won’t last for long, and survival will need intelligence, strength and good health much more than cowardice, brute force and a lack of fashion sense.


The NRA is a lobby for gun manufactures and sellers? This is an extraordinarily common belief among anti-gun socialists. My hypothesis is their hatred of capitalism blinds them to reality–they are incapable of seeing the world other than in terms of the “evils of capitalism” and those that oppose socialism are either dupes of, or in collusion with, the capitalists. In the case of the NRA it is very, very clear they are completely, totally, wrong.


Under-educated? I have a BSEE and MSEE, my wife has two college degrees, our only son has a BS in computer science, and both daughters are in college. I have to wonder what sort of education jigen has such that he thinks I and/or my family are under-educated. Yes, people can and do make their own bullets. And I love it when he mentions fashion sense as related to “survival”.

I finished Freehold

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As suggested by James (not our son) and enabled by Tony I finished Freehold last week. It was slow reading only because I would only read a few pages every few nights before I would go to bed. It was a great book. I cried when Kendra was awarded her medal. I love strong female characters.


I started The Weapon last night. It’s looking good so far.

A Weapon of Thought

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An email I received from L. Neil Smith:



A WEAPON OF THOUGHT


 


By L. Neil Smith <lneil@netzero.com>


 


 


   Aaron Zelman, founder and executive director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, has announced creation of a vital and unique new resource for advocates of the individual right to own and carry weapons.


 


   _2A Today for the USA_ is a free 23-minute video presentation, a weapon of thought, specifically produced to disrupt and destroy the evil, inhumane agenda of victim disarmers and gun prohibitionists with generous applications of legal and historical truth. Because JPFO encourages the widest possible distribution of this film, it is being offered on the Internet for free, with numerous options for viewing or downloading.


 


   Quite simply put, in these frightening times we’re living through today, you must use this video — or lose your guns.


 


   Although many gun rights advocates mistakenly believe that the recent Heller Supreme Court decision was a victory for our side, in fact it authorizes all manner of infringements — in the form of “reasonable” regulation — on the individual right to own and carry weapons. _2A Today for the USA_ sets the legal and historical record straight.


 


   In the current national election — no matter what political propagandists are saying now — both sides are sworn and established enemies of private, individual gun ownership, who either don’t understand the Second Amendment, or willfully misinterpret it. _2A Today for the USA_ exposes them for what they are: ruthless would-be dictators who find a well-armed populace an inconvenience to their plans.


 


   One thing is certain: whoever wins this election, we will have no friends in the White House for the next four to eight years. Even if John McCain wins, and Sarah Palin means what she appers to say on Second Amendment issues, she won’t be the boss, and she won’t be able to dissuade her boss from ravaging our rights as he has always tried to do.


 


   We all know the setup: cowardly Republican president wants some pet bill passed; predatory Democratic congress tacks on an anti-gun hitchhiker; cowardly Republican folds like a dollar bill and more of our rights disappear.


 


   Clearly, you must use this video — or lose your guns.


 


   Go to: <http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/2a-today-download.htm> to view or download the movie, which was made possible by JPFO’s members and supporters.


 


   Please send this announcement to your friends and everyone on your address lists. That should include every gun owner, every gun dealer, every hunting buddy, and everyone else you know.


 


   Make sure JPFO’s video is seen — as a warning, if nothing else — by anyone in a position to help take your guns away. Start modestly, with just half a dozen city council members, then work your way up to the mayor, city manager, municipal and county judges, county commissioners, the governor, state and federal representatives, senators, and judges.


 


   What does it cost, how much time does it take, to send an e-mail?


You must use this video — or lose your guns.


 


   Be relentless with the media — with radio stations, newspapers, and television. Be sure to include any clubs you may belong to: they all start their meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance, make sure they know what it really means.


 


   Don’t overlook “friends of the NRA” — they need to be shown the truth more than most. Here’s something you can do: tell your friends that when they are approached by various gun groups for money, they should demand that the group encourage their members to watch _2A Today for the USA_ on the Internet or there will be no more donations or memberships for phony “freedom fighters”.


 


   Tell them they must use this video — or lose their guns.


 


   Follow whatever viewing or downloading procedure best suits your preferences, and download/bandwidth options. PC users can right click and choose “save target as” on links to download the files to your computer. There are also links to YouTube and Blip.TV. Please email us if you have any problems.


 


   Again, <http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/2a-today-download.htm>


 


   Remember, you must use this video — or lose your guns.


 


================================================================


 Four-time Prometheus Award-winner L. Neil Smith has written on guns and gun ownership for more than 30 years. He is the author of 27 books, the most widely-published and prolific libertarian novelist in the world, and is considered an expert on the ethics of self-defense.


His writings (including _The Probability Broach_, _Roswell, Texas_ and the newly re-released _Tom Paine Maru_) may be seen on the following


sites:


 


LNS at JPFO: http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/lneilsmith.htm


 


BigHeadPress.com: http://www.bigheadpress.com/


 


Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick: http://www.phoenixpick.com/


 


_The Libertarian Enterprise_:  http://www.ncc-1776.org/


 


The Webley Page:  http://www.lneilsmith.org/

Quote of the day–Jeff Soyer

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George Orwell couldn’t have made this stuff up.


Jeff Soyer
October 20, 2008
Britain: More Police State on the Way
[On the state of affairs in Britain revealed by the article Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones.–Joe]

The attack surface is too large

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When examining the security of a system we have something called the “attack surface”. This is the area exposed to threats. If the system being studied is a web site then among other things the attack surface is composed of the physical server, open ports, and the URL for the site. These “surfaces” can be attacked. For example the the URL could be attacked with alternate pages and query strings. If you get lucky and/or know what you are doing you can obtain access to configuration files (such as this one I just found) which frequently contain information that can be used to get unauthorized access. The larger the attack surface the harder it is to make the system secure.


In a free society the attack surface is enormous and we, consciously or unconsciously, have decided the benefits of an open free society out weigh the susceptibility to attack and/or the cost to defend the attack surfaces. For example the grocery store keeps all the fresh fruits and vegetables accessible for the customers to directly examine. This allows anyone to tamper with them for their own evil purposes. We don’t have armed guards and security systems for the entire length of our water supply. We don’t have the means to realistically protect our air supply from nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) attacks.


When an attack surface is so large that it is essentially indefensible the smart security experts will put their limited security resources into mitigate the risk. In the case of our water supply we have multiple systems and medical facilities which reduce the number of people affected from a single point attack and provide care for those that are affected.


These principles are well known and adhered to by security professionals. I must therefore conclude that TSA (A Security Theater) isn’t concerned with real security. More evidence of this just came in:



The government has not been able to keep track of all the airport security uniforms and badges it issues, which makes secure areas in airports vulnerable to terrorists posing as authorized officials, according to an internal review released Friday.


The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general looked at five airports across the country from October 2006 through June 2007. The IG found major deficiencies in the Transportation Security Administration’s ability to keep track of uniforms, particularly after an employee leaves the job.


As some of us discussed at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous having a uniform and/or just being able to speak the language will get you access to places and things that should have been way out of bounds.


Another attack surface in airplane security is the process for screening materials that are allowed past the security check point:



If some copycat terrorists try to bring their liquid bomb through airport security and the screeners catch them — like they caught me with my bottle of pasta sauce — the terrorists can simply try again. They can try again and again. They can keep trying until they succeed. Because there are no consequences to trying and failing, the screeners have to be 100 percent effective. Even if they slip up one in a hundred times, the plot can succeed.


The same is true for knitting needles, pocketknives, scissors, corkscrews, cigarette lighters and whatever else the airport screeners are confiscating this week. If there’s no consequence to getting caught with it, then confiscating it only hurts innocent people. At best, it mildly annoys the terrorists.


To fix this, airport security has to make a choice. If something is dangerous, treat it as dangerous and treat anyone who tries to bring it on as potentially dangerous. If it’s not dangerous, then stop trying to keep it off airplanes. Trying to have it both ways just distracts the screeners from actually making us safer.


The attack surface the TSA is trying to protect is just too large. We should spend that money on alternatives. What we are doing now is just entertainment for those that enjoy security theater.

What are they trying to do to my daughter???

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I saw this while looking over daughter Kim’s shoulder when she was studying for her class Riddles and Paradoxes: How the Culture of Markets Shapes our World: Past, Present, and Future.



The Functions of Government



  1. To promote competition and provide a system of laws, courts, and method of enforcing contracts (infrastructure for free markets).
  2. To play an allocative function of producing goods and services.
  3. To redistribute income and assist the poor.
  4. To provide stabilization of the economy to keep inflation and unemployment low

Which of these four items are found in the U.S. Constitution? I agree with number 1 but the others are out of bounds. Some other governments do claim these to be within their legitimate areas of power. We call them socialists, communists, tyrannical, genocidal, and losers. Perhaps the Power Point slide deck I found this in or the instructor in class makes the point that this isn’t within the legitimate domain of our government but a quick scan through the slides certainly doesn’t make it obvious.


It appears one can assume we have a discrepancy in philosophical viewpoints. Kevin illustrates it with cartoons better than I can with words.

The NRA and the Brady campaign agree

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The NRA website has the details. The basics are:



This week, in a testament to his anti-gun record, Barack Obama also received a presidential endorsement from the Brady Campaign.


So, once again, the Brady Campaign and NRA are in total agreement—Barack Obama is, by far, the most anti-gun presidential nominee in history and he certainly deserves the endorsement of one of the most outspoken anti-gun organizations in the country.


NRA-ILA has repeatedly documented Obama’s anti-gun stance; but if any doubt remains about Obama’s true position on the Second Amendment, his endorsement from the Brady Campaign should dispel it.


Voting for Obama will be asking for a return the era of Bill Clinton only worse. Bill Clinton and his policies were significant motivators for me to buy my first gun. It was Diane Feinstein that motivated me to manufacture my own explosives. You don’t want to know what Obama will motivate me to do.

Boomershoot rifle

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Chris says it’s for Boomershoot. But the maximum range of targets at Boomershoot is only 700 yards. Therefore I think it might be for more than just Boomershoot. I’m thinking my evil plan might be working. Hmmm… so that would mean it is about Boomershoot, even if it isn’t for Boomershoot.

Having an impact

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Sometimes it is amazing what one, essentially, insignificant, unknown person can do. “Joe the Plumber” is in the news right now and may be “a bone in the throat” of Obama. I even got a text message from my old boss asking, “Are you watching the debate?” I replied, “No. Should I be?”. He responded that “Joe” was what the debate was about. Since I don’t have a TV it wasn’t until the next morning that I figured what was going on.

On a much smaller scale my barely read blog occasionally gets attention from people of power. That’s pretty cool. But what really amused me was what happened yesterday.

I noticed I had a hit from Handgun Control Inc. who was doing a search for “Joe Huffman”. Apparently I am known, by name, to the biggest, baddest, anti-gun bigots in the country:

 

Domain Name sct.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address 65.242.56.# (HANDGUN CONTROL)
ISP Verizon Business
Location
Continent  : North America
Country  : United States  (Facts)
State  : District of Columbia
City  : Washington
Lat/Long  : 38.9042, -77.032 (Map)
Distance  : 2,071 miles
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft Win2000
Browser Firefox
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17
Javascript version 1.5
Monitor
Resolution  : 1024 x 768
Color Depth  : 16 bits
Time of Visit Oct 16 2008 12:45:39 pm
Last Page View Oct 16 2008 12:55:48 pm
Visit Length 10 minutes 9 seconds
Page Views 6
Referring URL http://www.google.co…2US261&q=Joe Huffman
Search Engine google.com
Search Words joe huffman
Visit Entry Page https://blog.joehuffman.org/
Visit Exit Page https://blog.joehuffman.org/
Out Click
Time Zone UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time Oct 16 2008 3:45:39 pm
Visit Number 370,096

Further investigation revealed that on March 21st of this year they did a search for “”@stopthenra.com” -www” and found me. On May 14th they did a search for ‘”north central idaho” gun’ and found me again. They have done several searches for “Dennis Hennigan” (Brady Campaign attorney) and found my blog.

And yesterday after specifically doing a search for my name they added my blog to their RSS reader. I feel so honored. Hello Sarah, Jim, Dennis, and Paul! I have Just One Question for you. Think about that for a while…

Yesterday was apparently good day to be noticed because New York City got my opinion on the issue of microstamping (Google ranks my blog post #1 with a search phrase of “microstamping research”):

Domain Name nyc.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address 161.185.151.# (City of New York)
ISP City of New York
Location
Continent  : North America
Country  : United States  (Facts)
State  : New York
City  : Brooklyn
Lat/Long  : 40.6525, -73.9554 (Map)
Distance  : 2,162 miles
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor
Resolution  : 1024 x 768
Color Depth  : 32 bits
Time of Visit Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm
Last Page View Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm
Visit Length 0 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/content/binary/MicrostampingSEM.jpg&imgrefurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/18/MicrostampingResearch.aspx&h=515&w=516&sz=38&tbnid=9x03aBEr7zUJ::&tbnh=131&tbnw=131&hl=en&prev=/images%3Fq%3
Visit Entry Page https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/17/microstamping-research/
Visit Exit Page http://blog.joehuffm…tampingResearch.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time Oct 16 2008 4:55:43 pm
Visit Number 370,120

 

Sometimes I feel rather impotent (in a way Viagra can’t help) in regards to what is happening to freedom and gun rights in this country and the world. Even Boomershoot, which I consider my greatest accomplishment, seems like too little but when I think of my impact in terms of what it was 10 years ago or compared to the impact of the non-professional gun bigots like Robyn Ringler I’m doing fairly well. I’m not a Wayne LaPierre, Alan Gottlieb, Alan Gura, Joe Waldron, Dave Kopel, David Hardy, or an Ashley N. Varner. But other gun bloggers and I are doing okay for not being on the payroll (the wheelbarrows full of cash aren’t part of the official payroll) at the Apex of the Triangle of Death. I don’t know if it is enough but we are having an noticeable impact.

 

Update: I was also quoted in a newspaper last week which may have been the reason the Brady Bunch became interested in me.

Security theater where you are the entertainer

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So what did you expect when the security theater people didn’t improve security? Did you believe they would give up and spend the money on something effective? Of course not. Instead they make you the entertainment–Genitals, breasts not obscured in airport security trial.

Quote of the day–Richard Pearson

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I’d like to remind you that I’m a guy who has actually gone nose to nose with Obama on gun rights issues. The Obama I know cannot even begin to identify with this nation’s outdoor traditions. The Obama I know sees you, the law abiding gun owner, as nothing but a low-class lummox who is easily swayed by the flash of a smile and a ration of rosy rhetoric. The Obama I know is a stony-faced liar who has honed his skill at getting what he wants – so long as people are willing to give it to him.


Richard Pearson
October 15, 2008
Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson Issues Open Letter to Nation’s Sportsmen Regarding Obama’s History in the Illinois Senate
[H/T to Sebastian. See also GunBaNObama.com. And that totally ignores his anti-First Amendment activities and his apparently complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution as a whole. See also The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate. That book will really open your eyes. He won at least two of his state legislative offices by kicking his opponents out of the race–Chicago politics at their finest. You can be sure he will bring change you can believe in to Washington D.C.. There is also his close relationship with Reverend “Snuffy” Pfleger (not to be confused with Reverend Wright) and so many other unsavory things that people that should know greatly fear his rise to power.–Joe]

Wow!

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Say Uncle says Frightening, Third Power says Baghdad Chicago, Mike Vanderboegh says be careful what you wish for, Dave Codrea says:



Mary Mitchell’s America is a police state.

I notice she acknowledged force was used. I note she says “Forget it” for any rights-based disagreement, removing any will but hers from the decision.

How many men who disagree is Mary willing to see destroyed to enact her totalitarian agenda? Anybody not think creatures just like her enabled killing fields?

This wretched harridan is nothing less than a domestic enemy. The Chicago Sun-Times, which gives her a platform, is an instrument of subversion.

Anyone who thinks such as these will ever allow us to peacefully coexist is a fool.


All over what Mary Mitchell says:



Secret Service, sheriff’s deputies, Chicago Police officers and plainclothes officers are scattered throughout the area.


Frankly, I felt like I had just entered the safest zone in America.


For the first time — in a long time –while on the South Side, I didn’t worry about leaving my car parked on the street or about walking back to it several hours later in the dark.


Obviously, law enforcement is doing what needs to be done to ensure a presidential candidate’s safety.


But it does make me think.


Obama’s neighbors have been forced to give up certain of their personal freedoms in order to ensure his safety.


Unsuspecting pedestrians are questioned when they go around the barricades. Similar to a gated community, guests who visit Obama’s neighbors have to identify themselves.


Although I’m a journalist, the presumption on the part of the Secret Service is the same as it is for the Fruit of Islam who guard the Nation of Islam headquarters a few blocks away.


An agent rifled through my purse and searched my backpack.


More than a few dog-walkers strolled past without so much as a backward glance at my outspread arms as the agent checked me with a hand-held metal detector.


Aldermen and activists who are struggling to stop the bloodbath on the South Side may have to resort to the same aggressive policing that is being used to protect Obama.


Hundreds of people have been killed in the city this year because of street violence.


It is a crisis.


And a crisis requires drastic intervention, not rhetoric.


There’s no telling how many guns would be taken off the street in gang- and drug-plagued neighborhoods if police were to set up roadblocks and search everyone going into those areas.


For those of you who argue that what I am proposing violates basic civil rights, forget it.


When you go to an airport or into most schools, you have to walk through a metal detector.


This is Chicago, not Alaska.


Wow! Just wow!


Any other words I am inclined to say could be used against me…

Our trip through airport security theater

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This particular rights violation session wasn’t as bad as some. As Barb said, “They were pretty good about guns here. Much better than Denver.” I can’t find where I wrote up my Denver experience but here is someone else’s experience. I have to agree but it’s still aggravating to be searched by government agents without a warrant or probable cause.

As I was researching this post I reviewed the TSA website again. I may have gotten lucky when TSA let me get through with three of my STI magazines in carry-on baggage. They saw them in the x-ray and pulled the bag off for further inspection while a police officer watched. They examined each of the magazines for ammunition, asked if I was law enforcement, and told me to have a nice trip.

The TSA says this about firearms parts:

You may only transport firearms, ammunition and firearm parts in your checked baggage. Firearms, ammunition and firearm parts are prohibited from carry-on baggage.

I guess it depends on what you define a firearm part to be.

Quote of the day–Ben Franklin

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There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and more frequently fall into than that of defrauding the government.


Ben Franklin
[Socialized medicine anyone?–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ly Chho

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I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid. I believe he is going to win the election. Do you have any plans in place if this happens?


Ly Chho
October 9, 2008
A question for NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
Via Kevin Baker.
[Kevin reports Mrs. Ly Chho, was born of Chinese parents in Cambodia, raised and schooled in Taiwan, and hence “she should know”.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Lyle @ UltiMAK

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Health care is a right the same as guns are a right. You have the right to provide it, or to purchase it as you are able, and government should have no role in the matter except as protector of your rights.

I know that wasn’t the framework of the question however. Honestly put, the question would have been, “Do you believe free healthcare, paid by someone else under threats from the government, is your right?”

But liberty isn’t even on the table for discussion in this election. How can we be bothered with such abstractions as liberty when we’re worried about the crisis-of-the-day, and who is going to take care of us and keep us all safe, happy and warm?


Lyle @ UltiMAK
October 8, 2008
In the comments.
[We have a long way to go. Sometimes it takes Lyle and others to put it in proper perspective.–Joe]

Did he really say that?

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From a random link I clicked on:



One moment struck me as particularly unfortunate for McCain: When Tom Brokaw asked whether health care was a privilege, a responsibility or a right. McCain said it was a responsibility, but left unclear whose responsibility it might be. Obama said he believed it should be a right…


Did Obama really say health care should be a right?


Wow! And I thought he was supposed to be a constitutional scholar. Anyone that passed their high school government class should give Obama a failing grade for even being on the city council or the local school board for getting that one item so wrong. As a U.S. Senator he should be tried for attempted treason.

Court rules gun shirt promotes violence

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This is a little bit into my gray area. I disagree with the judge but I can see his point even if he overstates it with the shirt in question:



“The impact of violence is so great that it now has equal importance as the issue of illegal drug use in schools,” U.S. District Judge James Knoll Gardner wrote in an opinion handed down this week.

“There is nowhere that is truly safe or immune from the problem of school violence, from the one-room schoolhouse to America’s largest universities,” Gardner said.

“Students,” he said, “have no constitutional right to promote violence in our public schools.”


What this judge apparently doesn’t understand that his own orders are carried out with the threat of violence. There is illegal violence and there is legal, even praiseworthy violence. I don’t see that the shirt advocated anything illegal or immoral:
 




According the court order and the article the complete text on the back of the shirt says, “Special Issue-Resident-Lifetime License–United States Terrorist Hunting Permit–Permit No. 91101 Gun Owner-No Bag Limit”. The front of the shirt has a gun on the pocket which has a gun and says, “Volunteer, Homeland Security”.


And how does this “promote violence in the school system”? It is promoting the rapid stopping of illegal violence using legal violence. If the shirt advocated hunting Muslims, blacks, Jews, or some other ethic, racial, or religiously identified group I would agree with him. But not this. Terrorists are not, or at least shouldn’t be, a protected group.


I must conclude this is another case of simplistic minds either refusing to or being unable to see the total picture.

Quote of the day–Herbert Marcuse

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Organized capitalism has sublimated and turned to socially productive use frustration and primary aggressiveness on an unprecedented scale — unprecedented not in terms of the quantity of violence but rather in terms of its capacity to produce long-range contentment and satisfaction, to reproduce the “voluntary servitude.” To be sure, frustration, unhappiness, and sickness remain the basis of this sublimation, but the productivity and the brute power of the system still keep the basis well under control. The achievements justify the system of domination. The established values become the people’s own values: adaptation turns into spontaneity, autonomy; and the choice between social necessities appears as freedom. In this sense, the continuing exploitation is not only hidden behind the technological veil, but actually “transfigured.” The capitalist production relations are responsible not only for the servitude and toil but also for the greater happiness and fun available to the majority of the population — and they deliver more goods than before.


Herbert Marcuse
1971
An Essay on Liberation from the chapter “A Biological Foundation for Socialism?”, page 13.
[It seems to me that those that advocate socialism have a very simplistic, idealized view of the world. And they have this view of “social justice” such that, Susan K. once told me, “They would rather everyone make $1.00/hour than most people make $100/hour if there are some people that make $1000/hour.” Capitalism creates envy because of the disparity of wealth but it also produces the greatest good for the greatest number.–Joe]

Quote of the day–John Stuart Mill

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If all mankind were of one opinion, and one man held the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one man than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.


John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
[This is sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson. I believe this to be an error. Regardless it is apparent that Obama does not subscribe to this philosophy and McCain is not much better. They are both scumbags so this year I will probably be voting for Sarah.–Joe]