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
Random thought of the day
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.
CA gun laws violate Sikh religion?
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.)
Boomershoot Patch Update
OK, here are the updated patches. Two versions, and various rockers that you could put above and /or below. I would REALLY like feedback from people what you are interested in, as I’m ordering them on my own dime on spec, and there are significant price breaks at various production numbers. I’d like to not order a metric boat-load, and only have three buyers of two each (being currently unemployed that would REALLY suck), but I ALSO don’t want to send people away empty handed. I don’t need money up front – I’ll have them at Boomershoot, and anyone who can’t make it or send someone to get them there I’ll make arrangements with after I see what’s left over. They will be 100% stitched, and iron-on backing for those that are sewing-impaired. 4″ circle, matching rockers. If I can buy in reasonable quantity, they will likely be $3 a patch or two for $5, and $1.50 a rocker, perhaps even less. Let me know ASAP. Order is going in next week.
The Stars Came Back -051- Illegals
Fade in
INT – Day – top deck storage and machinery room.
Helton is leaning into an access port, working on something. Around him are a clutter of tools, e-readers, storage boxes, electronic parts and machinery, a pistol belt, and stuff. Continue reading
Gun song – Tennessee Ernie Ford – Shotgun Boogie
A fun classic from a simpler time, the 1950s, when a song about guns wasn’t about bust’n a cap in sum’uns ass. Proper etiquette was involved, like meeting pappy, the guy with the 16 ga “choked down like a rifle.”
Tennessee Ernie Ford – Shotgun Boogie
Tennessee Ernie Ford was VERY talented, as a singer, writer, and performer – when he was doing radio, starting in the late 1930s, he’d do all sorts of voices, he sung a wide variety of country, gospel, and popular songs, including famous ones like “16 tons” and “The ballad of Davy Crockett”. He had a marvelous deep baritone/bass voice, but could do all sorts of “character voices” with it, and you can tell when he’s smiling as he sings. He was still releasing music into the 1970s. He even sung things like When the Ship Hit the Sand with Dean Martin in the 60’s; good use of humor and double entendre. He was also a bombardier on a B29 in the Pacific during WW II. If you want your kids to dance to something, try some of his “boogies.” I’ve got his “Ultimate Collection” on the Zune in the car – when I have to give my (grade-school age) kids a ride somewhere with one or two of their friends, I try to play something “odd” like Ernie, and I always get positive comments. Their parents usually get a kick out of it, too.
Quote of the day—Edward J. Erler
For Progressives then and now, the welfare of the people—not liberty—is the primary object of government, and government should always be in the hands of experts. This is the real origin of today’s gun control hysteria—the idea that professional police forces and the military have rendered the armed citizen superfluous; that no individual should be responsible for the defense of himself and his family, but should leave it to the experts. The idea of individual responsibilities, along with that of individual rights, is in fact incompatible with the Progressive vision of the common welfare.
Edward J. Erler
March 2013
The Second Amendment as an Expression of First Principles
[H/T to Dwight M. from the gun email list at work who brought my attention to this quote.
There are some excellent insights in this article.—Joe]
Random thought of the day
Some other blogger, sorry but I can’t find the post, Robb recently said something about communists/socialists/liberals/progressives/whatever-they-call-themselves-these-days have as a basic premise that the people in general are so incompetent that they must have a strong, near all-powerful government/central-committee to govern their lives. But then they expect these same incompetent people to wisely elect, from within the general population, superior beings to govern them. That doesn’t exactly make sense.
That is all well and good as far as it goes but I think it can be further extended. In fact I suspect there are numerous examples of the following even though I don’t have direct evidence to support it.
Since the people doing the electing are so incompetent as to not be able to manage their own affairs then it must be completely beyond hope to for them to be able to distinguish who should be their rulers.
Hence one concludes that it is a logical necessity that those who would be rulers must assume their rightful role without concerning themselves with obtaining the consent of the governed.
It’s just common sense.
The Stars Came Back -050- Cobb’s
Fade in
EXT – day – the cab of a light truck driving down the road in an industrial area.
Allonia and Kaminski are sitting in the cab, talking, with Kaminski driving. Kaminski is out of uniform. Allonia is wearing a snug but not overly tight turtle-neck and pants. Continue reading
Quote of the day—Jay Carney
There’s not a single measure in this package of proposals the president has put forward that in anyway violates the Constitution. In fact, they reflect the president’s commitment to our Second Amendment rights.
Jay Carney
White House Press Secretary
March 26, 2013
White House to Sheriffs: Follow Law in Enforcing Gun Control Measures
[Why yes! They do, in fact, reflect the president’s commitment to our Second Amendment rights. Never mind that the sign on the level of commitment is negative.
This really gets my blood pumping. They must think we all have crap for brains.
If there was ever a more blatant example of doublespeak I am not aware of it. While arbeit macht frei was far more sinister it was not nearly so transparent to observers on their first viewing.
This example is like the kid with his or her face and hands covered in cake frosting insisting they didn’t eat the cake. I wish Carney and those he is attempting to cover for could be spanked and sent to their room (prison cell) for the next 10 years.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Robert J. Avrech
The one topic Sol cannot talk about are the Jewish overseers: the Judenrat, and the Kapos, Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. Of these men and women, Sol just shakes his head in disbelief. The evil of the Nazis is comprehensible for evil is ever present. But the Jews who cooperated in the genocide of their own people is beyond imagination.
The Judenrat and kapos are still with us.
Too many American Jews worship at the altar of the state. Their religion is not Torah Judaism, but the Democrat party. So closely do they identify with the power of government, they don’t even realize that they are creating the apparatus of a soft tyranny that will enslave their children and their children’s children.
Obamacare is Egyptian slavery. It is Pharaoh’s court of magicians, charlatans who create an illusion of reality.
Robert J. Avrech
March 25, 2013
Passover 2013: Of Slaves, Slavery, Judenrat, Kapos and America
[It’s not just Obamacare. It’s the entire nanny-state. And it may not be so “soft” when the economic system collapses.—Joe]
The Stars Came Back -049- First Lift
Fade in
INT – Day – Engineering
Stenson is looking at readouts. There is a slight pulsing hum of machinery. Continue reading
The Stars Came Back -048- Applying Rule Number 2
INT – DAY – A-Deck hydroponics garden
Allonia is alone near the back, wearing her newly made blue ship uniform (has more pockets, and a belt with small pouches and a belt-knife, but still shows her figure well), with many racks of bright lights and growing plants, with a workbench to one side and racks of growing supplies on the other. She’s focusing on using a cotton swab to pollinate a set of flowers on the bench. We hear the sound of the screen door to the garden room bang shut gently. She keeps working.
Quote of the day—Malcolm X
Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.
Malcolm X
March 12, 1964
[For the record and to keep people from getting themselves caught with a misquotation please beware that I have seen this misquoted and falsely attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. as “It is criminal to not teach a man to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”—Joe]
The Stars came Back -047- Memory crystals
Fade in
INT -night- top deck passageway, just down from the Captains Cabin
Quinn sneaks along in the dim red lights of the night shift, and peers around a corner. Talking to himself, looking like he’s playing a game. He’s wearing his “uniform” and a small back-pack. Continue reading
Quote of the day—Elizabeth Arch
It is sad that those two men need to prove their manhood by carrying big guns around on the streets of Portland… If they need proof, joining the military is a lot better than scaring little children.
Elizabeth Arch
January 15, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via the Rivrdog comment here.—Joe]
The Stars Came Back -046- Mail Call and Family
DAY – INT – ship cargo bay
Helton is working in a panel on the bulkhead. Allonia walks up, hands Helton a package. In her other hand, she’s got a strap around a set of boxes to make carrying them easier.
Allonia: Mail call. Continue reading
Quote of the day—Ted Cruz
Statists invariably have talented people drawn to politics because they believe in power. And they’re very effective at defending government control of the economy in our lives.
Ted Cruz
(Then candidate for) U.S. Senator
October 17, 2011 Issue of National Review
[H/T to Kevin for the video from which I was alerted to this quote.
This is very similar to a message in The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. Power abusing people are drawn to powerful government positions. These people work to increase that power.
This can also be related to the line, “Because that’s where the money is” falsely attributed to Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks.
Banks vaults are built strong because they are subject to repeated and determined attacks. The U.S. Constitution was intended to be analogous to a vault for liberty. By limiting government to specific enumerated power people who would abuse government power would be prohibited from doing so because government was not given power to abuse on a wide scale.
But unlike a bank vault those that attack and/or defeat the Constitutional “vault” through illegitimate means are almost never caught and punished for their crimes. I believe this to be the greatest failing of our form of government and I believe it will result in the collapse of our government.—Joe]
The Stars Came Back -045- Train’n wimmin ‘n chillun
INT – Day – Cargo bay
CPL Kaminski is cleaning his carbine, sitting on the cargo deck, with a half-dozen other recruits around him doing the same. Quinn watches from the side with fascination.
Quinn: Can you teach me to shoot, Mr Ski? Continue reading
Quote of the day—Wraith
The Constitution doesn’t matter. The law doesn’t matter. We live in de facto anarchy, where it all comes down to who’s got the biggest gang, the most guns and the most sociopathic outlook on life.
Seriously, folks–that’s how it is. This country won’t even follow Iceland’s lead in prosecuting the plutocrat banksters. It won’t hold any Proglodyte accountable for their actions, but will hold every one of us accountable for the actions of others. It’s never been plainer that it’s Who You Are or Who You Know that determines whether you’re subject to the law of the land.
So if you expect even one politician to face any consequences at all for their treasonous actions, you’re dumber than Joe Biden. Period.
Wraith
March 21, 2013
Comment to Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.
[He’s got a point.
I’ve been recently thinking that even true anarchy with people contracting with private firms and individuals for dispute resolution, and construction and/or maintenance of common resources (roads, forests, lakes, rivers, etc.) might be a better “government” model than what we have now.
What we have now is that some subset of the people adhere to the rules simply because they are the rules and those people end up being at a severe disadvantage to those that don’t play by the rules with a very low risk of punishment.—Joe]