Category Archives: Freedom

“Real ID” gets some road blocks

Posted on by

I’ve been saying “Real ID” is a bad idea for a long time. It’s good to see some state legislatures are coming on board with that conclusion as well:

Defying Uncle Sam, four states have passed laws refusing to comply with federal rules to make state-issued driver’s licenses more secure, casting further doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act.

Although it is rare for states to reject an act of Congress, New Hampshire and Oklahoma in May joined Montana and Washington state in passing statutes this year refusing to go along with Real ID. The refusals mean those states’ driver’s licenses eventually won’t be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings.

In addition, the Idaho Legislature purposely left out any money to comply with the act. The Georgia Legislature passed a law giving Gov. Sonny Perdue authority to ignore the measure, but he is hoping the federal government will make the act more affordable, said his spokesman, Bert Brantley.

Quote of the day–Diane Holt

Posted on by

“Legal” doesn’t necessarily mean “good” — or “right” — or “reasonable”. Do you really just base your actions on what is and isn’t _legal_? Do you really just hand over all your decision-making power to the government?”

Diane Holt

Quote of the day–Mark Steyn

Posted on by

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad is planning to send waves of female suicide bombers into action against the Zionist Entity. Asked by an Israeli reporter whether self-detonating ladies enjoy the same 72-virgin deal as the lads, an Arab scholar said no, but that the gals will be served in Paradise by “dwarfs.” Snow White got seven dwarfs, but it’s unclear whether Blow White will get the full 72: Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc., all the way down to Incendiary, Non-Alcoholic and Anti-Zionist.

Mark Steyn
May 27, 2007
So much news, so little sense
[I’ve always wondered about the rewards for the Islamic female. So now we know.–Joe]

I don’t like the sound of this

Posted on by

Democrats, NRA make deal on new gun rules:

WASHINGTON — Senior Democrats have reached agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.

The sensitive talks began in April, days after a mentally ill student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, had been judicially ordered to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, which should have disqualified him from buying handguns. But the state of Virginia never forwarded that information to the federal National Instant Check System, and the massacre exposed a loophole in the 13-year-old background-check program.

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date, as well as penalties for failing to comply.

To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators. Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records.

The federal government would be permanently barred from charging gun buyers or sellers a fee for their background checks. In addition, faulty records such as duplicative names or expunged convictions would have to be scrubbed from the database.

“The NRA worked diligently with the concerns of gun owners and law enforcement in mind to make a … system that’s better for gun owners and better for law enforcement,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., who led the talks.

First: If someone is so dangerous they can’t be trusted with a gun then I don’t think they can be trusted with a can of gasoline and a book of matches either. Either they can be trusted in public or they should be locked up.

Second: Making the least agreeable portions of the infringement on our rights more palatable just means it will be more difficult to justify getting rid of it entirely later on.

Third: The longer this infringement stays in place the more accepting of it people are. The ban on new machine gun sales is so well accepted that most people believe they are banned entirely. Today it would be really tough to repeal the ban on machine guns and day by day it’s getting more difficult for people to even consider repealing the Brady Act.

Fourth: The Brady/FBI database and reporting system is so close to a database of all gun owners and their guns that it is a hazard to the health of our freedom. Which has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peal anyway.

All that said, borrowing from a great book I just listened to recently, Survival of the Sickest, “Why would you take a pill that will kill you 40 years from now?” The answer is, “Because it will keep me from dying tomorrow.” And so it is with this agreement.

Porn for Peace is getting support

Posted on by

Thanks to David for bringing this to our attention. I named this plan Porn for Peace several months ago after Ry and I outlined the basics of it nearly three years ago.

That are lots of other implications for the data supplied in this posting. Think on this for a while:

Up to 70% of files exchanged between Saudi teenagers’ mobile phones contain pornography, according to a study in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

The study quoted in Arab News focussed on the phones of teenagers detained by religious police for harassing girls.

…

The men of Islam are obsessed with sex beyond even the wildest imaginings of the Western male’s mind. And the obsession is far from healthy and even further from reality.

We frequently joke about men’s preoccupation with sex and female body parts in the West, but our fascination with “T&A” is nothing when you consider that the Muslim world is literally consumed by female sexuality and with their fear of it. It is ironic that both Muslim men and women are under the mistaken impression that Western society is oversexualized compared to them, when in fact, it is practically impossible to be more obsessed with sexual matters than they are in Muslim communities.

Memorial Day thoughts

Posted on by

I support the war against the Islamic extremists who insist we must convert to their religion or die:

islam4kids.jpg

They are willing to die for their beliefs and I am willing to help them with the dying part until they are willing to leave us alone. But it’s tough when the cost of those convictions are brought home:

Jason01.jpg

An explosive device built in Iran (not really an IED) nearly killed our nephew Jason. He lost his right arm, the vision in his right eye, and his face, his buttocks, and his left arm were severely wounded.

Adam Plumondore was a Boomershoot Precision Rifle Clinic Instructor. He was killed by a car bomb in Iraq. His partner at Boomershoot, Walter Gaya, was injured a few months later by an explosive device in Iraq.

A friend of mine was shot in the leg while invading Granada. He never completely recovered from that wound. That and numerous other injuries suffered both in combat and training took him out of the Army and are now a permanent part of his life.

Growing up I just missed the draft for the Vietnam war by a few months. I knew people and relatives that participated in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Even by the time I graduated from high school I can only think of one person I knew who was even wounded in combat–a friend of my Dad that I only met a half dozen times. It was all “just numbers” in the history books and on the news. It wasn’t real. Reality is different.

I don’t think that teenage and early twenty-something males really have that good of grasp on reality. Certainly their judgement center is insufficiently myelinated. This causes them to take risks they shouldn’t and to have a high rates of organ donation compared to the general population. For the survival of our species this is a good thing. Young males are best fit to fight predators whether it be a man-eating tiger or the people trying to finish the job Hitler and his gang were unable to complete. They are better fighters and they are more likely to survive their wounds than women and older men.

For them to not really understand the risks makes it harder for me. I know the job must be done. I know we can’t let the predators have their way. Their way would be to go back to the dark ages. Because I know a little more about the risks, the costs, of defending or freedom my inclination is to keep our young men and women off the ground in the Mideast. I think, “Glass over the entire sandbox! Better that that lose another one of our people.” But that’s my emotions talking. That’s not the right thing to do.

It’s a tough battle with my emotions. Logically the right thing to do is much different that what my emotions are fighting for. It’s particularily difficult for me right now. Not just because it’s Memorial Day but because my daughter’s boyfriend, John, is shipping out next month.

XeniaJohn.jpg

John just turned 18. Good luck John. Please come back in one piece. Thank you, and all the others, for your service.

See also Xenia’s Live Journal post.

Quote of the day–Marcel Granier

Posted on by

This has exposed the abusive, arbitrary and autocratic nature of Chavez’s Government, a government that fears free thought, that fears opinion and fears criticism.

Marcel Granier
Chief of RCTV, the country’s oldest broadcaster
May 28, 2007
Venezuelan TV channel shut down
[Chavez is just being true to his socialist ideals. Socialism, The Road to Serfdom.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ted Nugent

Posted on by

I believe that a persons moral compass can be determined by how he references free men the right to defend themselves. The Second Amendment is so obvious to me it’s insane that there’s an argument.

Ted Nugent
From a video found at Say Uncle
[The rest of video is a “must watch”. Not as quotable, but great stuff.–Joe]

“Power Sharing”

Posted on by

One of the marvels of the United States has always been Her “Melting Pot” status, wherein people from all walks of life, from all around the world have come together to produce the most successful society in human history.

That’s why it bugs me when I hear people who should know better discussing the political situation in Iraq, for example.  We hear about the various and disparate groups in that country having trouble coming to an acceptable “power sharing” agreement.  What does that mean– power sharing?  That’s something that might be arranged between one king or one dictator and another, or between rival gangsters, but in a free society?

No, Grasshopper!  In a free society all individuals have the same rights, so the term “power sharing” has no meaning.  That one race, religion or other demographic might outnumber another in a certain region is, rightly, of no consequence for the simple fact that they haven’t the political power to trample on the rights of the minority.  If that ideal is not the foundation of their Constitution, then the Constitution needs a serious rewrite.

I am reminded of a quote from Ayn Rand (thanks to “The Smallest Minority” web site):  “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

Its time more of the freedom-hungry people in Iraq understand and embrace this simple concept if they are to have any hope of realizing their dream.  It would be nice if more Americans understood it too.

This is what you get in a police state

Posted on by

Big Brother gets to watch you in return for the false promise of increased security. From our worlds airports:

Faces are blurred, but not chests or crotches. Snoerwang said that was necessary because otherwise “women could just hide things by stuffing them in their bras.”

…

Snoerwang said the images generated by the machine were not like photographs.

“They’re kind of futuristic. There’s nothing sexy about it,” she said.

What does “nothing sexy” have to do with making it acceptable? And to who? There are people that find animals and fecal material sexy. Want to bet that there won’t be a culture of some sort of deviants built around these photographs? And there will be names attached to the photos as well. Names are checked on your ID just before you go into the machines. People watching the images will snap pictures with their cell-phones or other miniature image capturing devices and associate the picture with the name from their friend checking the ID.

It will do nothing to prevent determined people from getting weapons on board. It only will catch those that are careless. In the mean time airport security costs billions. The airplane security game cannot be won with the current assumptions. It’s time we considered the alternatives.

Quote of the day–Kevin Baker

Posted on by

And hey! Nuclear Winter will stop Global Warming! It’s a two-fer!

Kevin Baker
May 14, 2007 2:16 PM
[From the comments to the post To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. Which, by the way, is an excellent post. I kept thinking that someday I would write down my thoughts as expressed by Kevin in this post. But it would have been a far more feeble effort than Kevin’s well researched masterpiece.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Nicolas Sarkozy

Posted on by

There is a demand for change. Never have the risks of inertia been so great for France as they are now in this world in flux where everyone across the world is trying to change quicker than the others, where any delay can be fatal.

Nicolas Sarkozy
May 16, 2007
Sarkozy Gets Off to a Fast Start as President of France
[He also said France needs to get back to work. Sounds good to me.  And from the same article:

Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claims links with Al Qaeda, threatened in an Internet posting on Tuesday that it would wage “a bloody jihadist campaign” in France in the coming days in reaction to the election of the “Zionist crusader,” Mr. Sarkozy.

Ditto what Tamara said.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Tamara K.

Posted on by

The guy’s as popular in France’s Muslim ghettos as a bag of pork rinds, which rates another thumbs up in my book. If non-assimilating misogynist welfare leeches hate him, he can’t be all bad.

Tamara K.
May 9, 2007
My reaction to the Frog reaction to the Sarkozy win…
[Sarkozy has a big job ahead of him. But his election gives me hope for a world where the Islamic extremist demands for world domination are thwarted.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Huey Newton

Posted on by

An unarmed person is a slave, or is subject to becoming a slave at any time.

Huey Newton
[See also Negros With Guns and blog postings one and two. Of course Newton want to implement the slavery of communism in this country but that’s a distraction from the truth of his statement above.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Patrick V. Murphy

Posted on by

We are at the point in time and terror where nothing short of a strong uniform policy of domestic disarmament will alleviate the danger which is crystal clear and perilously present.  Let us take the guns away from the people.  Exemptions should be limited to the military, the police, and those licensed for good and sufficient reasons.

Patrick V. Murphy
Former NYC Police Commissioner
HCI spokesman
[HCI, Handgun Control Inc, has become the Brady Campaign but the sentiment remains the same. Don’t let them tell you they respect the 2nd Amendment as a right for the people to keep and bear arms. If you have to be licensed, ask the government for permission, it’s not a right. It’s a privilege.–Joe]

Quote of the day–H. L. Mencken

Posted on by

Unquestionably, there is progress.  The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

H. L. Mencken
[This is no exaggeration. I’m still smarting from the checks we wrote out for taxes on April 15th.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Frédéric Bastiat

Posted on by

If every person has the right to defend–even by force–his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.

Frédéric Bastiat
The Law — What is Law?
1850

1000 yard Monday

Posted on by

As Ry mentioned he pitched an idea to me today. For Boomershoot 2008 he suggested two things:

  1. We dispose of the farce known as “cleanup” where people shoot the “leftover” targets from 25 yards away. In actuality I hold back 150 to 200 targets just so people get a chance to do that. Instead we do that in a more formal manner on a different day and give people more targets especially for that.
  2. We do a 1000 yard event for the few, the arrogant, those that say the existing Boomershoot is too easy. Utilizing the existing targets, four and seven inches square boxes, we separate the “men from the boys” by separating the targets from the shooters by 1000 yards. We do this on a different day and perhaps a different location. It could be called 1000 yard Monday or some such thing.

I’m interested. It could work. And as Ry pointed out, it’s in keeping with my original intent for Boomershoot. I need to find 1000 yards that can handle five or ten shooters. And I need to confirm my potential new supplier of ammonium nitrate. We’ll be making and using more HE.

Quote of the day–P. J. O’Rourke

Posted on by

For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

P. J. O’Rourke
Parliament of Whores
[Adhering to the enumerated powers granted the government would resolve this problem. But of course most people really don’t want this problem solved. They keep telling each other that if just given enough money and power government can solve nearly any problem. Of course most people teach their kids there really is a Santa Claus, an Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy too.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Abraham Lincoln

Posted on by

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln
[This is why we have a constitution that enumerates the powers of government. Because power is so tempting to abuse.–Joe]