Month: June 2008

I Reject Your False Messiah!

Crap like this scares the hell out of me:

Dismiss it all you like, but I’ve heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who’ve been intuitively blown away by Obama’s presence – not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence – to say it’s just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here’s where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

The reverence of Ronald Reagan that you get from conservatives can get kind of old sometimes, but you will never hear something like this from a Republican or libertarian.  We do not worship our politicians.  We don’t want them to help us find a new way of being.  We do not want them to help us evolve.  Generally, we want them to leave us the hell alone to live our lives.  Obama can try all he wants, he doesn’t speak to my soul.  He is just a man.  Repeat after me lefties: he is just a man.

I’d say thanks to Instapundit, but now I will have to spend the rest of the night trying to restore my faith in humanity.

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Is Jacksonville More Dangerous Than London?

In terms of violent crime rates, it’s not even close.

UPDATE: Looking at the involved statistics, I’ve noticed one problem.  The London statistics for violent crime include common assault, which isn’t included in the Jacksonville and Ft. Meyers statitics, so you have to strip that figure out for London in order to make a more valid comparison, which results in London’s violent crime rate being 1717 per 100,000 population, which is still higher than Jacksonville and Fort Meyers.  Still, you’re far less likely to be killed in London than in either city, statistically speaking, but I’m not sure how comforted I am by “Don’t worry, our criminals will just beat the hell out of you!”

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Pro-Gun Bills Up for Vote in Senate

Looks like HB 1845 is going to be up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Commitee next week.  This includes the provision allowing carrying of firearms into Pennsylvania State Parks, prevents confiscations in the event of a state of emergency, and allows for sheriffs to issue emergency LTCFs for people who’s lives are actively threatened.

Let’s get this onto the floor and up for a vote in the full senate, so that we can get this on Rendell’s desk.

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Don’t Try This Here

Hat tip to Eric for this incident in Holland:

At a fashion show to promote tolerance of gay people on April 30, a national holiday in Holland, celebrating the birthday of the late Queen Juliana, a group of ten Muslim youths dragged gay model Mike Du Pree down from the catwalk, beating him up and breaking his nose. A second model who tried to help out was also attacked.

Our gays can shoot back. If I see a bunch of violent thugs of a proportedly peaceful religion beating up on a gay guy in broad daylight on a public street, I can too.

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Taco Grip Banned

Mr. Completely’s club banned the Taco Grip for bowling pin matches after he apparently won too much:

Last Fall it was finally coming together, and although still not as fast as other techniques, having few misses made up the slack. This year I won the first three of four matches of the season. The “Rule Maker” decided that my shooting style should be banned, and he changed the rules, banning the way I shoot. There is no rules committee or any rules oversight of any kind, so he can do whatever he wants, and there is no appeal process to his decision.

There are a lot of jackasses out there, unfortunately.  The guys I shoot IHMSA and Indoor Silhouette with at my club all seem to be nice folks to shoot with, so I’ve been lucky in that regard.  They’ve all been encouraging and have helped me out.

But there are a lot of clubs out there that are run by jackasses.  I’ve heard lots of stories from folks about various problems like this, or other things, such as black rifles being frowned on, or various definitions of “rapid fire” that tend to boil down to “we don’t like the way you look so you’re rapid firing, and we don’t like it.”  Basically, it’s a lot of crap that’s going to destroy the shooting community.  Shooting should be fun, and the goal of any club should be to maximize people’s enjoyment of the shooting sports.  Yes, clubs need rules, and we can’t comprimise or cut corners on safety, but if your club is driving people away, you need to start looking at ways to change the leadership.  The future of the shooting sports depends on a healthy and welcoming club culture.

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Philadelphia Continues Its Lawlessness

First they pass gun laws which are illegal, now the Sheriff of Philadelphia has apparently refused to do one of his key functions, which is to foreclose on houses:

With the economy soft and thousands of Philadelphians delinquent on their mortgages, Sheriff Green this spring refused to hold a court-ordered foreclosure auction. His move raised eyebrows on the bench and dropped jaws among lenders and their attorneys, who accuse him of shirking his duty to enforce legal contracts.

When I was shopping for a house, at the height of the sub-prime business, I avoided it because it looked like a stupendously bad idea.  Why not lock in a low interest rate for 30 years?  If you didn’t think carefully, or read the fine print, why should you be able to evade responsibility for your mistake?

And before you say I don’t have a heart, and don’t care about poor people, how do you think those poor people are going to fare when no one will lend them money for mortgages, or other loans, because banks decide that making loans in Philadelphia is too risky because the law doesn’t apply there?

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Spreading the Message

Joe Huffman is going to be giving a presentation about us (the gun blogosphere) and our activities as of late to the Boeing Rifle and Pistol Club.  I’m guessing Boeing makes UAVs, and I’m thinking a great way for Boeing to do blogger outreach is to send us one to evaluate.  Preferably with missiles.  I’m sure I can find someone who has a junk yard who is sympathetic to our evaluating its effectiveness on vehicles.

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