I think I’m getting repetitive wrist syndrome.
Barb L.
April 6, 2013
After folding hundreds of boxes for Boomershoot 2013
[I had to insist she sit down and watch me putter around arranging things and cleaning up.
We also put up another shelf and tested a new type of target.–Joe]
Gun control always founders on the paradox that it is possible to write new laws for the law-abiding but difficult or impossible to reach criminals who don’t care about laws.
Rich Lowry
April 5, 2013
Lowry: The great gun control fizzle
[Sincere gun control advocates are very shallow thinkers. They think of the good that might come of the laws but not of, or dismiss, the harm it will certainly will cause. “If it saves just one life” is based upon this shallow thinking.
When the torrents of emotional pain from the latest tragedy involving a firearm have receded from all but the lowest parts of the flood plain reason and facts reappear and clear thinking makes it’s appearance again.
It should be very telling the gun control advocates are most effective when emotions run deep and run aground when the tears have started to dry.—Joe]
It doesn’t have the word “gun” in the title, but it’s definitely in the gun genre. I first heard it when I was in grade school, and I loved it. Loved the whole album. It is one of my son’s favorite today, along with Sink the Bismark. Clear words and singing, good story, with clean music and a rousing beat. We fired our guns and the British kept a’comming / wasn’t not as many as there was a while ago / fired once more and they begin to run’n / down the Mississip to the Gulf of Mexico.
Johnny Horton – Battle of New Orleans
Horton sung a lot of historical stuff, about battles, wars, mountain men, gold miners and various turning points and interesting points in history. His style is called rockabilly, and would have likely produce a lore more stuff and been an even bigger name if he’d not been killed at age 35 by a drunk driver in a head-on crash while crossing a bridge in 1960.
America needs to grow up. No one should need Hummers, attack dogs or assault rifles to prove himself a mensch. More important are qualities of courage, integrity and thoughtfulness.
Real men don’t need guns.
Chuck and Pat Wemstrom
April 1, 2013
The Wemstroms: Gun debate and the male ego
[I guess police officers and our soldiers aren’t real men then. Or else they don’t need the guns they carry. And even if “real men” don’t need guns how about “real women”?
The bottom line is that assault rifles have nothing to do with proving oneself to be a mensch. They are tools and like any other tool do not bestow qualities upon the owners. For the Wemstroms to believe they do or for them to believe gun owners believe they do is a serious error on their part. It’s a straw-man argument.—Joe]
Slightly different today. I’m near one of those holes in the story I told you about, AND it’s nearly spring break, and the family is going to the coast. I don’t want to leave you hanging in the middle of a mission mid-explosion or anything, so I will give a quick recap and summary, then an open thread for you to talk about what you like, don’t like, expect, how you see the characters so far, favorites, what sort of things you might see coming up, how you interpret some minor things that might be connected, etc., etc., etc., while I patch holes and take a break with the kids. Continue reading
But the devil is in the details. You don’t have a lot of people feeling particularly pressured to do anything.
In the end, however, gun control advocates need to get something, he says, and will have to cooperate with the NRA to do so.
The political reality is that the NRA, surprisingly, didn’t give an inch. Now the other side needs to figure out a way to negotiate.
Stuart Rothenberg
April 3, 2013
Gun Control Prospects Recede As Politics Swamp Momentum
[Why should it be surprising the NRA didn’t give an inch? If the propose laws were severe restrictions on the right to attend the church of your choice or the right to read the books you wanted do you think the ACLU would give an inch?
The right to keep and bear arms is no different. Over a hundred million people were murdered or killed in wars in the 20th Century by people who read and took to heart the works of Karl Marx. And I expect there will be millions more death in the conflict over communism in this century. Yet I have never once heard of anyone advocating for the banning of his books. 20 kids murdered by a nut case with a gun is a huge tragedy but millions of kids murdered by leftist monsters is just a number.
I want the people at large to own guns so the risk of genocide and mass murder due to advocates of communism or any other totalitarian government is pushed to near zero. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to bear arms are a package deal. And there is nothing to negotiate.—Joe]
Fade to
INT – Day – Main cabin of intruder’s ship.
In it are eight very violently dead men in lightly armored dark uniforms, and there is a fair bit of blood splattered around. One of them is lying on his back, showing a badge on his chest. They all had carbines. Kat, Kaminski, Harbin, Horkle, and Helton look over the carnage. Continue reading
Given the speed of sound and how fast you’ll drop, you’ll never hear the shot.
Phelps
March 31, 2013
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Cut to
Int – day – bridge
Harbin walks in. Helton, Kat, Kaminski (now in space armor), and Kaushik are at stations. They looked concerned.
Kat: We may have a problem. Continue reading
Google users have blasted the company for focusing on its April Fools antics, arguing that the time invested in polishing its gags might have been better spent keeping Google Reader alive.
Matt Brian
April 1, 2013
Google and Microsoft trade insults for April Fools
[Add me to the list of Google Reader users that is annoyed they are discontinuing it.—Joe]
Fade in
EXT – night -cargo bay loading ramp
It is dark and rainy. A beat up and obviously heavily damaged military vehicle with a light machine gun mounted on top is being loaded into the Tajemnica. One crewman drives, another ground-guides it up. After it gets into place near the ramp, and the driver hops out and starts helping the ground-guide with tie-downs to secure it into place. In the background, several more damaged vehicles and containers of cargo can be seen, secured. Some have guns, some don’t. Continue reading
The editor at Western Shooting Journal gave me permission to publish the article I wrote for them the history of Boomershoot here are my blog. The .pdf files for the various pages in the March 2013 issue are:
@nra Gun Appreciation Day is a Freudian term for wishful thinking penis day. #guncontrol
Jim of Pennsyltucky (@jimdigs)
Tweeted on January 19, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via still another Tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
Barb L. and I just got back from the lumber store after purchasing 1000 stakes:
I really wanted someone to ask why we were buying so many stakes. The checkout clerk “had that look”. You just knew he was wondering but he didn’t ask.
Barb and I were ready with answers. Her answer was, “We run a tourist business of vampire hunts.”
I planned to make him work a little more and get his brain engaged before delivering the punch line. I envisioned it would go something like this:
Clerk: What are you going to do with all those stakes?
Joe: Hunting season opens next weekend in Idaho and we are going to be there for opening day.
Clerk: Okay. <pause> Uh… what are you hunting?
Joe: Vampires.
More blog posts about stake purchases and vampires are here (2006), here (2007), and here (2008). All are about this time of year and all are related to Boomershoot.
There is no crisis of rifle violence in this state, only a crisis of fear driven by opportunistic legislators.
Ed Pietruszka Jr.
March 31, 2013
Don’t be fooled by gun control lies
[Pietruszka was referring to Maryland but the statement is true in many other states and at the Federal level as well.—Joe]
Fade in
INT – day – Adelaide spaceport concourse
Harbin walks down the concourse, in uniform, with sidearm, being followed by a modest sized robot cart piles high with metal transport boxes of gear. He nods to the security guard near as he passes, and the guard nods back in professional recognition. He passes the info desk, where a woman, PAYTON SMITH (36, attractive, well-dressed, Caucasian) with a suitcase next to her is arguing with the info clerk. Continue reading
On Thursday, President Obama renewed his call for legislation, including a ban on some of the most lethal guns (so-called “military-style” assault weapons designed for the singular purpose of killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible.)
Andrew Rosenthal
March 29, 2013
What Now for Gun Control?
[Many millions of these “singular purpose” guns are in use all over the U.S. yet only a few hundred people are killed each year using a rifle of any type yet alone a “assault weapon”.
It’s long past time for the New York Times (Rosenthal works for the NYT) to openly state they are nothing more than a propaganda machine and have concern for, and perhaps no awareness of, facts.—Joe]
Fade in
INT – night – Lag’s office in building 1701.
Lag is seated at his desk. He is reading a screen built into his desk. A beep from his door sounds.
Lag: Come in! Continue reading
While I agree with the sentiment “Because F*$k you!” when asked something along the lines of “Why do you need X?” where X is a firearm, ammo, book, religion, speech, encryption, or any other freedom I think there may be a more productive answer.
I think my answer would be:
That is a totally inappropriate question. The proper questions are:
- Where does the government get the power for infringing upon this right?
- What justification does the government have for infringing upon this right?
- Where is the evidence that this infringement will be a net benefit?
Make them prove their case. It’s not up to us to prove ours.
Interesting slant. Basically, the guy claims that the Sikh religion require him to be able to defend himself and his family against criminal attack and injustice, and the CA assault weapon and standard capacity magazine ban violates that religious requirement.
Gun law vs exercise of religion
That is an interesting twist – could be a good thing to follow.
(There is a reason one of my characters in The Stars Came Back is a Sikh.)