Quote of the day—Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, United States District Court Judge

Posted on by

[T]his court finds that the strict scrutiny balancing test would be the most appropriate test to apply in the instant case, since “the right to possess guns is a core enumerated constitutional right” and Section (b)(3)(iii) of the Chicago Firearm Ordinance completely restricts that right.

Samuel Der-Yeghiayan
United States District Court Judge
Gowder v. City of Chicago (N.D. Ill. June 19, 2012), Page 24.
[Strict scrutiny!

The Brady Campaign, VPC, CSGV, and others are on the wrong side of history. They are no different that those advocating for ignoring or repealing the 13th Amendment years after it was passed.—Joe]

Extraordinary offer

Posted on by

Today Attorney General Eric Holder had a 20 minute meeting with Rep. Darrell Issa about the failure of Holder to comply with subpoenas for documents in Fast and Furious.


Apparently the meeting went something like this:



Issa: Turn them over or tomorrow we will hold you in contempt of congress.


Holder: I’ll let you peek at them if you will agree before you ever see them to stop the investigation after you have seen them.


Issa: I think we are done here. We’re voting on the contempt charge tomorrow.


Holder (direct quote to the media): “The ball’s in their court. We made what we thought was an extraordinary offer.”


Imagine for a moment that you or some gun shop owner had sold and/or given thousands (not the hundreds like the article erroneously says) of guns to criminal organizations who used them to murder hundreds of people include at least one if not two government agents. After finding out about it the prosecutor lets you stay out of jail and asks you a few questions and turn over documents and emails to find out who your accomplices were. You sort of comply but just enough to avoid claims that you are completely uncooperative.


Had you told the prosecutor you would turn over some more documents on the condition they stop the investigation before they ever saw the documents, what do you think the reaction would have been?


What is extraordinary here is that Issa didn’t have Federal Marshalls rip his jacket and shirt off, tie him face down on the table, stuff a copy of the subpoena in his mouth, give him 30 lashes with a bull whip, then tell him there would be a whipping every day at 9:00 AM until he fully complied or his flesh had been stripped off and his bones were polished clean.


I understand why Issa didn’t do that but had it been me I would have being showing extraordinary restraint had I only done that in the face of that level of contempt for the law and Congress. Prohibitions against “Cruel and unusual” punishments would just seem inadequate had they been able to even just read my thoughts. “Crimes against nature, humanity, and being an inspiration to Satan” would probably come up in my trial just for a glimpse of what I would have been thinking.

Unauthorized Eating! Oh My!

Posted on by

I went to an FFA meeting a while back.  It was a pot luck banquet.  We all ate food that was prepared by semi annoymous, untrained, untested, unlicensed cooks in multiple households without inspection, using unlicensed, uninspected, unauthorized cooking equipment.  It was served in the open on low tables with no sneeze guards, and in some cases there were no tongs for serving things like hotdogs and hamburger patties.  We were drinking lemonade from an unknown source, dispensed from a communal, uninspected cooler that was being serviced by multiple, untrained, unlicensed kids.  There were no ingredients listed and there was no nutritional information posted.  No one knew for sure whether there were organic or green or union-made or imported or genetically altered foods, whether the various types of not exactly specified meat were “free range” or not and no one gave a flying crap.  It was good food.  Shockingly, no one died, or even got sick from it.  No one wet their pants even.


Better yet, a good time was had by all– There were no parasite/bureaucrats or parasite/government thugs getting in our way, no one was accusing us, no one was groping us and no one was threatening us.  This is how we eat on a regular basis and we will keep it that way.


So yeah; if you don’t like what we’re doing in this neck of the woods, just keep your worthless, less than worthless, pathetic, parasitic, self-serving, batshit insane, power-mad selves out of our way.  I know that it is virtually impossible to reason with you.  To beg people who don’t believe in freedom, asking them for our freedom, is a fool’s erand, and so I have to say that when push comes to shove, there are plenty of people who can shove back as hard as you can shove and who aren’t intimidated.  Just go and bang your head against a wall next time you feel the urge to fuck with someone.  It’s much safer.

Marxist—No ethics and no shame

Posted on by

Don’t believe anything people or “news” organizations on the left tell you. Check it out for yourself:

Introduced by Andrea Mitchell saying: “I get the feeling–take a look at this– that Mitt Romney has not been to too many Wawa’s along the roadside in Pennsylvania,” Romney says: “I was at Wawa’s, I wanted to order a sandwich. You press the little touch tone keypad, alright, you just touch that, and you know, the sandwich comes at you, touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier, there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing.”

Momentarily speechless, Mitchell repeats, “It’s amazing,” as her guest breaks into sharp laughter.

Too bad the clip was taken wildly out of context.

In reality, Romney was illustrating the difference between private and public sector efficiency. After telling a story where his friend had to fill out a 33-page form twice to complete a change of address with the government, Romney holds up touch-tone sandwich-ordering as an example of private sector efficiency– not as a marvel of how the “common” man lives.

They claim they fired the producer that did a similar edit in the Zimmerman case. But the last time I looked they did not give the name of the person fired. Perhaps he got reassigned instead.

I have to suspect the ethical environment at MSNBC/NBC is the problem rather just one or two people drinking the communist Kool-Aid with no shame. “Communist?”, you ask. Yes. In both cases it was about promoting a “class struggle” view of our culture. These people promote a Marxist view of our culture and belong in dustbin of history with Marx and Marxism.

I don’t really trust non-liberals all that much either but I haven’t ever seen anything close to this level of misrepresentation in supposed news outlets.

Quote of the day—Raffy Mulivor

Posted on by

Americans are peace-loving people, but if you start up with us, we’re going to kick your butt.

Raffy Mulivor (12 years old)
June 16, 2012
This was when he was asked to explain the meaning of the arrows and olive branch in the eagle’s claws on symbols in the Great Seal of the United States.
[Via email from his father Phil Mulivor, author of Proclaiming Liberty: What Patriots and Heroes Really Said About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms–Joe]

Quote of the day—epkklk851

Posted on by

In many cases, this fascination with guns is phallic compensation.

epkklk851
June 1, 2012
Comment to Privileging The Lie, Gun Violence Prevention Edition
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]

Gun laws are complicated

Posted on by

We in the gun rights community have often complained the gun laws in this country are far too obscure and complicated. You almost have to be a lawyer to be able to understand all the complicated ways you can break the law merely by assembling your firearm with parts made in the wrong country, driving too close to a school you didn’t even know was there, or even having a piece of brass caught in the tread of your shoes.

But when even the lawyers get things wrong and people are in prison even though the law they are accused of breaking did not apply it’s way past time to do a major overhaul of the laws. When the prosecutors are aware there are people in prison who should not be there and they don’t even notify the prisoners it’s time to prosecute the prosecutors:

Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have been aware for nearly a year that dozens of North Carolinians currently incarcerated in federal prisons should not be there, but they have done next to nothing to help them, and in at least once case are actually trying to prevent an innocent man’s release, according to an investigation by USA Today.

The fundamental reason these and other innocent people are in prison is because the anti-gun people pushed for and obtained firearms laws that created victimless crimes. It’s time to wipe our law books clean of all victimless crimes.

There was, and is, a conspiracy to infringe the right to keep and bear arms under the color of law. Those responsible should be charged and prosecuted. People in jail who are clearly known to be innocent cannot be tolerated.

Quote of the day—Dorothy Parker

Posted on by

The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.


Dorothy Parker
[I recently was talking to someone who herself is quite good with wisecracks and told her, “That reminds me of a Dorothy Parker quote” (the one about using horticulture in a sentence). She didn’t know who Parker was so I gave her a 1 minute biography. Parker’s complete biography, Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?, is quite good even if it is a slow motion tragedy.


The next day my friend sent me an email saying she had looked up information on Parker. So I did a quick search to see what she might have found and came across the quote above which was new to me.


Of course my first thought upon reading it was Parker was reincarnated as Tamara. I think there is a good chance the timeline even matches close enough.—Joe]

Boomershoot 2012 fireball video

Posted on by

Video from Ry:

We are working on making the fireball for Boomershoot 2013 even better.

Making choices

Posted on by

For decades Libertarians and Republicans have been saying the economic and social policies of the left were destined to be catastrophic. Eventually all looters stop. There are only three options; 1) They stop because they realize theft is wrong, 2) They are stopped by force, or 3) They run out of places to loot.

Greece is the harbinger of our future and has the opportunity to select their option. Yet even now many do not see impending doom crashing in on them:

Riding a wave of anger to rise from obscurity to contender for power, leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, 37, promises to reject the punishing terms of the 130 billion euro ($163.75 billion) bailout if he wins the nail-biter vote on Sunday.

On the right, establishment heir and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, 61, says that would send Greece crashing out of the single currency and condemn it to even greater economic calamity.

With the election set to go down to the wire, European leaders weighed in on Saturday, urging Greeks to vote with their heads.

The bailout will not be renegotiated, warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country’s wealth is vital to shoring up its weaker partners in the bloc.

…

Some global businesses and banks are already in retreat: Europe’s biggest retailer, Carrefour, said on Friday it was selling up in Greece, a day after French bank Credit Agricole moved to take direct control of its Albanian, Bulgarian and Romanian units from its Greek bank Emporiki.

On Saturday, Germany’s Biotest appeared to become the first drugmaker to say it was exiting the Greek market in July after its customers there failed to pay outstanding bills of 7 million euros. Others have threatened to do likewise, as the Greek health sector struggles with huge spending cuts.

Spain and Italy will probably be next in line to make a choice.

When it comes time for the American left to select an option which do you think it will be? And will those that oppose them be ready if the left choses options 2) or 3)?

Mass vehicular assault

Posted on by

From Lima Ohio:

Around 30 people were hurt, some seriously, when a woman drove her car into a street party in Lima, Ohio, Friday night.

“It was unreal. There were bodies, and shoes and jewelry,” The Lima News reported Amee Truesdale as saying. “They took many, many people to the hospital, and two or three of them looked seriously hurt … I saw men pick up that car and move out a gentleman that was pinned underneath.”

The driver, who reportedly had a dog with her, was parked five feet from the town’s main square when she accelerated rapidly, a police spokesman told NBC News.

Following this violent act will the Violence Policy Center follow up with media releases about the driver of the car having a drivers license despite a history of mental illness? Will the Brady Campaign be asking how the driver gained possession of the car? Will the CSGV demand that only the police and government officials be allowed to posses assault vehicles?

I can tell you the answers right now. No, no, and no. Those organizations are composed of people who have mental defects and cannot understand that both cars and guns are inanimate objects which have no volition of their own. They still adhere to the ancient belief that objects not people should be punished.

And this is why those organizations should be, and are being, left in the dustbin of history.

A step in the right direction

Posted on by

Via Politico I found out Rand Paul has introduced legislation which from a principled viewpoint I find pathetic. Only if I put my Wookie suit in a hidden vault and delete thousands of blog posts could I praise his first piece of proposed legislation. It is “a ‘Bill of Rights’ for air travelers” (S. 3302). “Guaranteeing a traveler’s right to request a pat-down using only the back of the hand” is to be considered a “right’? Really?


We don’t need a new law like this, we just need to enforce those already on the books. I’m of the opinion the 4th Amendment is the guaranteed right. All who voted for or have been involved in the implementation of TSA should be prosecuted under 18 USC 241 and/or 18 USC 242. Impose fines for every violation and you would see second thought given to a lot of other government infringements of our rights as well as A Security Theater going down in flames.


The other Bill, S. 3303, “ends the TSA screening program and requires screening of passengers at airports to be conducted by private screeners only”. While elimination of the TSA would earn my praise the requirement that private business violate our 4th Amendment rights nearly nullifies the benefit.


But, as I said, that is from a principled viewpoint. Principles are a serious obstacle in politics. If you want to get anything done you had best leave your principles at the door and just keep a short cheat sheet up your coat sleeve when you enter the legislative arena. If either of these bills could be passed it would be a step in the right direction. Incrementalism is sometimes all that is politically feasible and that we have legislators looking for a path in the proper direction is something to be pleased with.

Quote of the day—Jesse Ventura

Posted on by

People in this country need to understand when you go to any airport in the United States, you are not protected by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. They can do anything they want to you and there is no where you can go to seek redress.

Jesse Ventura
June 13, 2012
Jesse Ventura No Longer Flies, Thanks To Transportation Security Administration
[Well… strictly speaking there are some options. They just aren’t legal.

What really needs to be done is to abolish the Security Theater known as TSA.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert VerBruggen

Posted on by

By the time Gross gets to arguing against a new bill that would force states to recognize each other’s concealed-carry permits — an issue on which I’m sympathetic to his position — it’s awfully difficult to take him seriously. Even putting aside that he calls the bill the “George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.”

Remember, this isn’t some random clown blogging for the Huffington Post; it’s the president of a leading gun-control group. If these are the best arguments the anti-gun movement can put forth, our Second Amendment rights are safe indeed.

Robert VerBruggen
June 13, 2012
‘The NRA’s Dark Vision’?
[Yes, these are the best arguments they can put forth and they are indeed pathetic. But politics is rarely about good arguments about the merits of the legislation. Yes, good arguments about the merits of the proposed law contribute but as much as anything it is arguments about acquiring and maintaining political power that win the legislative votes.

Hence our rights and freedom are never truly safe. Eternal vigilance and frequent demonstrations of our political muscle are required.—Joe]

Vigorous assertions

Posted on by

This is what happens when you get too far down the slippery slope:

“No one should have the right to own a handgun except the police,” said Susan Martin, speaking at a news conference on the anniversary of her son’s death.

“Handguns are easy to hide and are used, with few exceptions, for one purpose only: to wound or kill someone,” she said.

Martin and his friend Dylan Ellis, 26, were shot dead in a parked SUV in Toronto’s entertainment district on June 13, 2008. The killing has so far remained unsolved.

A deadly shooting rampage at Toronto’s Eaton Centre this month once again cast a spotlight on gun violence in the city, and several officials joined in on Wednesday’s call for a crackdown on firearms.

Coun. Adam Vaughan said plans to improve public safety — including a proposal to outlaw the sale, storage and use of munitions in Toronto — were under discussion before the attack that killed two people and injured five others.

“I wish we didn’t need a recent example to convince anybody that action is needed,” he said.

“There is no rational reason to have a bullet in a crowded city, a friendly neighbourhood or a shopping mall,” he said.

They do not offer evidence of their assertions. At a certain point in the debate they “don’t need any stinking evidence”. They can just vigorously assert something is true and it will be accepted and they don’t even need to respond to the rare challenge to their claims.

A friend takes up blogging

Posted on by

A few weeks ago a friend told me of a book she was writing and I loaned her a somewhat obscure book from my collection (The Gilmartin Report) that was relevant to research she was doing for her book. When she returned the book she told me she had also started a blog. It’s called Miss Baby Blue Eyes (NSFW).

Yes. I have some interesting friends.

Quote of the day—Timothy A Campbell

Posted on by

Just make gun ownership punishable by death and we won’t need any more prisons or court systems. We will all be free.

Timothy A Campbell
June 12, 2012
On Twitter via a Linoge retweet.
[Not even a court system to judge those accused of gun ownership?

Why are anti-gun people so violent?

Campbell uses that word “free”. I don’t think it means what he thinks it means.—Joe]

Blade-Tech FYI

Posted on by

For probably nearly 10 years I’ve been wearing a Blade-Tech Combo Magazine Pouch with the Tek-Lok belt attachment. Even if I’m not carrying a spare magazine for my STI Eagle I’m carrying my Sure-Fire flashlight. I always have it with me. On airplanes, in secure government installations, everywhere I’m wearing clothes I have it with me.

A few years ago I tipped over the ATV at Boomershoot and cracked the mag pouch (and did some pretty serious damage to my leg too). The crack gradually got worse and now it no longer reliably retains the magazine. I need a new one.

I went to the Blade-Tech website and tried to order one but the only STI option was for the STI LS (a single stack 1911 chambered in 9×19). I called Blade-Tech to find out if I could get one to accommodate a spare magazine for my double stack STI. The answer was a very friendly, “Yes! We can do that.” The lead time is about six weeks but I now have a replacement on order.

The bottom line is that just because you don’t see something on their website it doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t make one for you.

Quote of the day—John Ransom

Posted on by

While we were all shocked and angered at the revelation of Nixon’s abuses, today the same abuses are not only ignored but tolerated- even encouraged- by the Left.

I never thought I would see a time when the U.S. government would deliberately sell guns to Mexican drug cartels just to advance a petty policy argument about gun control, while the press stood by with not a word or reproach. Or allow the Black Panthers to practice the worst type of racism abetted by the highest law enforcement officer in the land, while the press applauded.

John Ransom
June 11, 2012
Watergate at 40: Obama is the Democrats’ Nixon
[Politics in this country (probably everywhere) is pretty nasty. Even in the late 1700’s when we just formed our current form of government there was incredible division between parties. And political divisiveness goes further than just tolerance for hostile rhetoric. There is evidence that ordinary people, essentially, become sociopaths when dealing with their political opponents:

Empathy is the root of morality and cooperation. People without empathy are called sociopaths, and they are by far the most dangerous people on the planet. Every genocide features sociopaths; every mass atrocity and every continued abuse requires them. So, when a study shows empathy being almost entirely crushed, it should be jarring. To put it clearly and simply, this study showed something very scary, which is this:

When people are under the influence of politics, they turn into sociopaths.

We ask ourselves, “Why are liberals so violent?” And we ask “Why would the government sell/give guns to the drug cartels?” At least part of the answer is because they are in a political contest with non-liberals.

This does not justify the behavior. What it means is that we must guard against it. Do not underestimate the capacity of your political enemy, or your political ally, to behave in monstrous ways.

H/T to Chris M. for the heads up email on politics turning people into sociopaths.—Joe]

Jobs Jobs Jobs (and Governor Butch Otter)

Posted on by

Just in case you’re confused on the subject (and I know that millions of people are); the purpose of a business is not to “provide jobs”.  Not ever.  Don’t even think about it.  Stop talking about it.


The Republican Governor of the State of South Idaho is one of those who are deeply confused.  He instated his “Hire One” program to nudge us into hiring people.  We’re supposed to go to some government web site and see if we “qualify”.  (Ooh!  Do I “Qualify?  Maybe I’m “special”)  Maybe that’s the “jobs program” right there— more state workers to manage the web sites and the “jobs” program implementation, whether or not anyone applies.  To hell with that, Governor Otter.  My business is not a stupid Butch Otter, State Government “jobs” program.


If we really need more help, we (without holding your hand and without being threatened) will hire someone.  That is, unless taxes, requirements, energy prices inflated due to restrictions, red tape and more restrictions get in the way, and unless you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and use the coercive power of government to favor some businesses or industries at the expense of others– then we’d be expected to come crawling to you for some of that favoritism that only communists and mobsters have the power to dole out to their supporters.  I’ll die first.  I want nothing to do with you.  I have work to do.  You and your fellow communists at all levels are in the way.  Just get the hell out of the way.  Understand?  No; I’m sure you don’t.  You have “interests” to pander to.  You’re a coward at best, and we have no use for cowards.


You’d rather have a government “jobs program” so you can take credit for that which I accomplish in spite of your interference and confiscation.  Have you ever considered a “liberty program” instead of a “jobs program”?  No; I’m sure you haven’t.  Too novel.  It takes too much imagination for some people.  Communist scum don’t think that way, see.  They think instead of how they can meddle, how they can take credit for other people’s work, and live as parasites off of other people’s honest work.


The purpose of business, Little Grasshopper, is to create goods and services, sell them at competitive prices, and thereby make a profit.  See– jobs don’t even figure into it, except that in order to provide our goods and services at competitive prices, we NEED to hire as few people as possible to get it done right.  Otherwise our expenses are too high and we fail.  Get it?  No; I’m sure you don’t.  If you got it, you wouldn’t be talking about “Jobs” AT ALL.  Jobs are what happen naturally when you leave people alone, you ignorant, pathetic, self-serving heap of RINO shit.  Only communists talk about “jobs” in the context of government action.


The rest of us talk about liberty, because we want you off our backs so we can produce, sell, buy, exercise ownership of what we make, and live in peace.  Get it?  No; I’m sure you don’t.  Your actions and your language betray you, Fool.  You don’t belong here— not in the Republican Party and not in America.


We’ll make it real simple;  People either a) work, because they’re free, or they b) don’t work because they’re not free (government’s paying them not to work or the government’s in the way).  “Government jobs program” is therefore something of a contradiction in terms, and the mere fact that we have a Department of Labor is an affront to America.