Year: 2008

Sign Up for the Gun Blog Rifle League

I thought it would be a good idea to get a list of participants in the league, so I could get an idea of how many participants we might have.  But don’t worry, you can still shoot a match without signing up, and if you do sign up, and don’t have time to shoot the match, no worries.  There’s always next season.  If we get a scan or legible photo of a target, we’ll include you.  But I thought it might be worthwhile to make a home page for the league, and list folks who are interested in participating, complete with a link to their blog.

I ask that if you’re interested, you leave me a comment with a valid e-mail and URL, and I’ll sign you up.  Don’t worry about the e-mail, it doesn’t get displayed, but I might set up a mailing list for reminders and news on an occasional basis.  If you have a blog, I’ll link you on the league page.  If you don’t have a blog, no problem.  We’ll just list whatever name or alias you want to use.

I think I’ve decided that match rules aren’t set in stone from match to match.  As people get better, and we get an idea where people’s skills are, I’ll be open to creating different classifications to cater to more expert shooters.  But in the beginning, I’m going to keep things simple just to see where we end up.  I do want to keep things constant enough for these matches, so people can track how they improve from match to match, but I am open to mixing things up a bit.  I already have an idea for a fun contest for the fall match.

Don’t be shy about signing up.  Even if you don’t think you’re a very good shot, I can promise you, there will be others like you.  I myself do not claim to be an expert marksman.  The best way to improve is to get out there and do it, as much as you can.  Improvement is sure to come.

I will be creating the league page, which will include the details of the first match, as soon as I feel I have enough participants.  The match will end September 21st at midnight.  I’ll continue hosting matches once per season, as long as there’s interest.

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Bigot Says What?

From the tolerant and thoughtful progressives in Delaware:

Dude, you’re not originally from the south. Your grammar and spelling are too good. Where did you grow up?

Stereotype much?  As a fellow northerner, I hate people who say crap like this.  And I don’t just say that because I’m living with a native Oklahoman.  Two things have to be true to believe this:

  1. You have to have spent very little time in The South, and very little time getting to know people there.
  2. You’ve never looked too terribly hard at people around you.

Ignorance is everywhere, and northern progressives don’t get a pass just for being northern progressives.  It’s definitely true in this case.

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It Takes Talent

It takes a real talent to contradict yourself in your own op-ed.  In Today’s New York Times, Barack They Call It Mellow Yellow Obama talks about his plan in Iraq.  In one paragraph:

Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown.

Then the next paragraph:

[Surge] tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.

So which is it?  Is Al-Quaeda getting stronger or weaker?  Are we winning or losing?  Perhaps my chief problem with Obama is that 9/11 didn’t really have anything to do with either Afghanistan or Iraq.  We were not attacked by the Taliban government either, they were just sheltering Al-Qaeda.  But we’re not at war with a country, we’re at war with an ideology.  I still stand by Steven Den Beste’s analysis of the situation from 5 years ago.  Even if Al-Qaeda didn’t exist in Iraq before we invaded, and there’s evidence that it did in some measure, I don’t think, if you’re battling an ideology rather than a nation, that it’s a horrible idea to enter the heart of the region of the world that spurned that ideology, and fight anyone who wants to adhere to it.  If Iraq is soundly rejecting Al-Qaeda, because they have been shown for the butchers that they are, I think that’s a good outcome.

UPDATE: Richard Fernandez has more.

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Pretty Ballsy Post-Heller

Governor Deval Patrick, in a move to ensure that his state ends up being the perfect test case to challenge the constitutionality of licensing the second amendment, is looking at increasing fees on gun licenses to more than double the current rate.

Keep in mind that Governor Patrick is also a close friend of one Barack Wouldn’t You Like to Be a Pepper Too Obama.  It would be interesting to hear whether Obama’s newly found enthusiasm for the second amendment extends to opposing taxing the individual right to death, as has been done through licensing in Massachusetts.

Also, not to escape blame in all this, is Governor Mitt Romney, who invented the idea of extorting money from citizens in order that they may exercise constitutional rights.  But by all means Massachusetts, keep it up, you’re just making our eventual court challenge against licensing that much easier.

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McCain Sleight on Assault Weapons

Apparently McCain voted for the eventual passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act after it had the assault weapons language attached to it.  I hadn’t seen that one before.  I knew he voted against the assault weapons ban amendment, but because he managed to get his gun show language on the bill, he voted for its eventual passage.  I guess his gun show bill was important enough to him to overcome his principles on assault weapons.

This is another reason to not be excited about McCain, but as I said in the comments, I have to play the cards that came out of the deck, and it’s a crap hand.  I’ll take the guy who’s with me half the time to the guy who will never be with me.  Sure, there is a point where even I’m going to stay home, or vote third party, but McCain doesn’t quite get there for me (though, he’s precipitously close — his veep choice is important)

Remember folks, we got 5-4 on a .38 revolver.  If we want that to be the extent of the right recognized by the courts, letting Obama remake the federal courts is a great way to get there.  McCain might nominate bad judges too, but he might get some good ones.  His selection committee has a lot of quality conservative legal minds on it, and I have a lot more faith that we’ll get better judges out of McCain than Obama, and to me, that’s the most important thing this time around on the domestic front.

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Taunting the Progressives

Another Gun Blog points out another instance where Progressive Democrats for Delaware is crapping on gun owners in the First State.  It’s rather pointless arguing with folks on the Internet, especially when they don’t know what they are talking about, don’t want to accept they don’t know what they are talking about, and are mostly interested in looking down and spitting on you.  It’s a small mind that can’t make his case without resorting to personal attacks.

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