Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge.
Erwin Knoll
[Although I have observed this for myself on many occasions it was Kevin’s post from yesterday which most recently reminded me of this.–Joe]
Those among us who are afraid to be free will surrender their guns, their families, and their freedom to tyranny. Do not place your freedom or trust in their hands or depend on them to cover your six.
Michael Gaddy
January 5, 2008
Buy, Buy, Buy
[This reminds me of something Samuel Adams said.–Joe]
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.
Milton Friedman
[It’s true. But the people running the “system” refuse to see it that way.–Joe]
When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him — that’s where the money is.
Robespierr
[I’m pretty sure this was not the Robespierr. It’s just some random quote I picked up a decade or more ago probably from a Usenet group or something that I thought was appropriate for today’s economic situation.–Joe]
The District and its supporters also err in extolling the supposed virtues of a world without guns, and condemning the vices of a world without gun regulations. In doing so, they set up a false set of choices. A world without guns is not an option, because hundreds of millions of guns are already in private hands and readily available across either the Virginia or Maryland borders; and even if all handguns in America magically vanished, criminals could still illegally saw off shotguns and rifles to produce concealable weapons that would be more lethal than most handguns. Thus, the District can only hope to dry up the supply of handguns for the law abiding, while criminal access to handguns remains virtually unlimited. It is against this real-world backdrop, and not against that of a utopian gun-free world, that the District’s position must be assessed.
Richard K. Willard
D.C. versus Heller
Brief Amicus Curiae Of The Heartland Institute in support of respondent
[In light of the renewed calls for more gun control after the shootings in Alabama and Germany I thought this was appropriate.–Joe]
I’ve always thought there are some events that shouldn’t get National TV coverage.
Jim Scoutten
March 7, 2009
Producer and host of Shooting USA
Boomershoot coverage?
H/T to Ry (via email as well as his blog), followed by Kevin (email and blog), Say Uncle, Robb (email and blog), Phil, and Sebastian.
[I am a little insulted. Boomershoot got positive coverage from Newsweek, KING 5 Evening Magazine (Seattle television show), Outside Magazine, and numerous other media outlets (that list is just a partial listing). If he doesn’t think we are appropriate for national TV coverage he is mistaken. We can and have handled national media before and done quite well.
It just so happens another national TV show is planning to attend this year anyway. I also got a request for permission from a participant doing a video with smaller audience. Boomershoot should be well represented in the media this year. The gun blogger list of participants alone is impressive.
Like I said, I’m a little insulted but Scoutten is missing out more than Boomershoot by his decision.
Thanks for all the support guys but I don’t really think it’s necessary to do a Zumbo on him. He’s not saying Boomershoot should be banned or anything. He just doesn’t think it is something he wants to present to the public.
In his followup comment he says he doesn’t want put anything “on TV that could alarm the anti-gunners”. I disagree. I am of the opinion that alarming them over Boomershoot then making fools of them is the more appropriate tactic (ask me sometime in private how we have baited them but they failed to take the bait). But if he doesn’t want to do that I don’t see a reason to attack him over that judgment call.–Joe]
Do we really need a gun-fashion police? I just want to be able to exercise my Second Amendment rights without interference from the District government.
Tracy Ambeau Hanson
March 9, 2009
SAF CHALLENGES D.C. HANDGUN BAN SCHEME
[The above picture is from David. See also more on the lawsuit story from David. I find it incredible amusing SAF found a woman of color as the plaintiff in a case about discrimination against a gun that is the wrong color. How much more blatant can the discrimination be before people start realizing the people attempting to infringe our right to keep and bear arms are bigots?
Thank you Ms. Hanson, SAF, and Calguns Foundation.
SAF is getting monthly, tax deductible, donations from my paycheck with matching donations from Microsoft. What are you doing to help?-Joe]
Here is the key insight: you might think that when collapse happens, nothing works. That’s just not the case. The old ways of doing things don’t work any more, the old assumptions are all invalidated, conventional goals and measures of success become irrelevant. But a different set of goals, techniques, and measures of success can be brought to bear immediately, and the sooner the better.
Dmitry Orlov
February 13, 2009
Social Collapse Best Practices
[On Saturday my Dad, my brother Doug, Ry, and I were all sitting around talking about the hazards and opportunities our current economic situation. Doug pointed out that five or ten years from now will be able to see all kinds of opportunities that are available to us right now if we only could see them. I don’t think anyone disagreed with him. But none of had any real clues as to what those opportunities are.–Joe]
My definition of social justice: those who refuse to work deserve to go hungry.
Clayton Cramer
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/clayton_cramer/
[It seems to me that this definition of social justice will soon becoming the norm.–Joe]
I’m still a long way from going up a clock tower with a scoped rifle and a sack lunch.
Tamara K.
February 22, 2009
Blah
[I thought this would be appropriate after my frustrations with the ATF yesterday.–Joe]
I think it’s astonishing, they’re ruining the US economy, they’re ruining the US government, they’re ruining the US central bank and they’re ruining the US dollar.
You are watching something in front of our eyes, very historically, which is basically the destruction of New York as a financial center and the destruction of America as the world’s most powerful country.
Japan’s economic “lost decade” was caused by trying to bail out the banks, and the West risks running out of money if it doesn’t let the bad banks fail now.
Systemic risk is going to be the same in 10 months, 5 years or 10 years if the fundamental problem is not solved.
The idea that you have too much debt, too much borrowing and too much consumption and you’re going to solve that problem with more debt, more consumption and more borrowing? These people are nuts.
Wall Street and the City of London are going to be “disastrous” for years, like in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 30 years, finance will “dry up and wither away” as we are entering a “long period of hard times.”
Power is shifting now from the money shifters, the guys who trade paper and money, to people who produce real goods. What you should do is become a farmer, or start a farming network.
Jim Rogers
March 3, 2009
Jim Rogers: Let AIG Go Bankrupt, Not America
[If true, “real goods” probably involves more than just farm/food products. My guess it will include security, water, shelter, sanitation, communication, and transportation as well. Probably in about that order.–Joe]
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Milton Friedman
[One would think that those people who advocated for the “stimulus package” would have heard of this bit of wisdom before. Some will say overlooking Friedman can be blamed on deficiencies in our public school system. Others will claim many of those pushing the stimulus package know exactly what they are doing — creating a socialist America. I think it is likely they are both correct in their claims.–Joe]
It’s not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama’s invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.
Star Parker
February 9, 2009
Back on Uncle Sam’s plantation
[I figure there is about a 60% chance Americans will continue voting to move onto the plantation. The future is grim.–Joe]
Greg D., an average Joe and friend on the east cost reports: “Funny story (sad really), we have been trying to buy extra .380 here in SC and also in GA and it is non-existent. Everyone who carries is stocking up. But I was in Maryland — where no one but a friend of the governor can carry, and the shelves were full.” According to anonymous economists, this is caused by the law of supply and demand. Knowledgeable insiders report that president Obama is trying to repeal that law.
Alan Korwin
March 2, 2009
Ammunition Scarce Somewheres
[With all due respect to Mr. Korwin I fairly certain president Obama believes he already has repealed almost all economic laws.–Joe]
The congressman’s media release about his letter uses the tired tirade about this being a “no-brainer… requiring no legislative action,” to “protect our brave police,” and a “market flooded with imported, inexpensive, military-style ‘assault’ weapons.” He fails to note that assault is a type of behavior, not an imported product.
The public is able to get the fine value-priced merchandise as kits, parts imports, reassembled models with some American-made parts, and as curios and relics. Criminals found with the firearms, which even the New York Times has said are bulky and unpopular with street gangs, are subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment — completely apart from gun type or nation of manufacture.
Part of a larger racist scheme to ban guns for anyone but the rich, it is a new twist on the discredited and now abandoned “Saturday Night Special” schemes (remember those?), and “junk gun” schemes (remember those?) that would outlaw firearms in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, largely populated with people of color, where they really need the guns for self defense and protection against rampant government-sponsored crime from its war on some drugs.
Alan Korwin
March 1, 2009
Affordable Rifle Ban
[When someone says something is a “no-brainer” in relation to gun laws they are usually right. No brains were involved.–Joe]
I think contraception is disgusting — people using each other for pleasure.
Joseph Scheidler
Director, Pro-Life Action League
August 11, 1985
Chicago Tribune,
[See also other “interesting” quotes that give credence to The Handmaid’s Tale view of politics.–Joe]
You can’t underestimate the power of fear.
Trica Nixon
[I was inspired to post this one after reading Jeff’s post and this line in particular, “If hoplophobe describes a fear of guns, what’s the Latin word for fear of pro-gun voters?”–Joe]
Idaho has this reputation for being a bunch of anti-federal government crazies, but I don’t think that’s particularly deserved. I mentioned last February that Montana officials had warned the Supreme Court that Montana joined the Union on the understanding that the Second Amendment protected an individual right, and they might have to rethink that situation if the Court ruled wrongly on D.C. v. Heller (2008). Fortunately, the Court got it right, so there was no need for Montana to seize the Air Force missile silos there, and become the world’s lowest population and density nuclear power.
Anyway, it appears that the Montana legislature is preparing for the Obamination of restrictive federal gun control laws.
…
Adding to the amusement of this is that those who were upset about the Raich decision (and they were right to be upset, even if it was for a very stupid cause: marijuana) will have to admit that if California has the right to legalize marijuana that doesn’t move across state lines, free of federal intervention, then Montana has a similar right to tell the federal government that guns made in Montana are exempt from federal rules.
Clayton Cramer
February 25, 2009
Those Pesky Montanans
[Although I probably am as amused about this as Clayton people don’t “have to admit” anything. I literally know a person that will insist to your face that “the fence line is over there and has always been over there” even though you could break a leg stepping into the ancient fence post hole in front of you and get tangled in the rusty barbed wire as you fell. This same person also convinced a judge that it was legitimate self-defense after a neighbor caught him sitting on his ex-wife pounding on her face who was flat on her back on the sidewalk (had it been me that caught him the judge would not have been required to make a decision). Some people are just reality impaired and/or have an infinite capacity to lie.–Joe]
I think it is altogether possibility that all freedom in America will be killed in the name of public safety.
Wendy McElroy
February 24, 2009
Modern day Committee for Public Safety
[It’s obvious on the gun laws but it extends way, way beyond that. Just think about the regulation of all industry. A business can be fined and or prosecuted if they
Enumerated powers were supposed to protect us from this sort of thing. What happened and how do we regain our freedom? Sebastian doesn’t have the answers but formulating the problem sometimes helps.
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.
Richard M. Nixon
[Nixon was right–examples abound from Chicago to the Whitehouse (have you paid your taxes recently?). And as a country that celebrates diversity we elect them to office to represent us.–Joe]