Peter, who blogs at Firearms and Freedom, points out a group who’s job it is to protect war memorials from dirty stinking hippies. This is a worthy cause, in my opinion.  Looks like Peter also got to meet Jonah Goldberg.  I really need to make some time to read Liberal Fascism.
Year: 2008
Undermining Liberty
This Telegraph article suggests that Libertarians undermine liberty:
Libertarian thinking is already a force in party politics, as one of the strands of thinking in both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. The objective of libertarian campaigners ought to be to strengthen those strands. The lesson from American politics is that when libertarians create parties, they end up undermining liberty by diverting campaigners’ efforts way from the mainstream. Perversely, the Libertarian Party in the United States has undermined liberty: if it becomes a noticeable minority party, the British equivalent will do the same.
Part of the problem, I think, is that we live in a world where you can get everything the way you want it, so I think there’s an expectation that the consumer culture has created that you can get your politics just the way you want it too, except it can’t really work that way. In politics, you have to build coalitions of interests, and being part of a coalition means you don’t get everything you want all of the time. If gun rights activists had their way, Fred Thompson would have been the Republican nominee, but as it was, it was an election for national security and national greatness factions of the Republican Party to assert themselves, and they wanted McCain. When you have to form coalitions with other interests, you can’t always get your way.
Perhaps one of the prices we pay in society for a decline in civic organizations, where politics happens on a smaller scale. Having to participate in a civic organization, where everyone is a volunteer, is a great lesson in the dysfunctions of people, and the limitations of the political process. With people more and more expecting politics to be like any other consumer product, the result could be a growing collection of small, ineffective parties that remove political capital from the main parties, leaving a lot of good ideas out in the political wilderness.
Monday Gun Porn
GunPundit pointing out that the short barreled M249 seems to be becoming more common. Also pointing out that it would appear the Iraqi Army is starting to sport the M16, which they decided to adopt earlier in the year.
I’m guessing the Iraqis are getting a real deal on surplus M16s, since our own military can’t surplus them to the civilian market thanks to Congressman William Hughes, and the National Firearms Act. As Gun Pundit points out, the US Marines have stuck with the M16 over the M4. I think this is a smart move, as the 5.56x45mm gets much better velocity out of a 20″ barrel than out of at 14.5″ barrel. The bullet, having low mass, is going to be entirely dependent on velocity to damage the enemy, so with any SCHV (Small Caliber High Velocity) round, cutting the barrel will hurt you more than in conventional calibers.
Who Needs Blackwater?
TD found a guy that’ll show you how to be an elite team fighter. Back when I used to frequent the public ranges, every once in a while you’d see some guy show up all decked out in tactical gear.  I never saw anyone go so far as a mask and helmet, but ninja style hat, yes. As would be expected, most of the time they couldn’t hit shit. I’ve also seen, occassionaly, individuals who didn’t fully understand what a cold range means, and were adjusting something or another on their firearms while people were down range.
UPDATE: I guess I must live in a cave, or don’t hang out on forums enough, but I didn’t know the term Mall Ninja was actually named after a person. My first inclination is to believe these are parodies… jokes on forum users if you will. I just can’t believe anyone could be that delusional.
UPDATE: Apparently I do live in a cave, considering we’re all familiar with the person behind this Mall Ninja parody.
“Lost and Stolen” Stopped in Illinois
According to Armed and Safe, the bill has gone down in flames. Demographically, with Chicago and surrounds as big as it is, it’s a testament to gun owners in Illinois that they’ve been defeating the anti-gun agenda as effectively as they have been. Chicago is one of the few centers of gun hatred in this country, so this is no small accomplishment.
UPDATE: Looks like the magazine ban might fail too.
I Need Time Lord Technology
I have never had a more acute need for closets that use TARDIS technology than I will by the end of this next week. Consider this from Bitter:
Tomorrow the goal is the bathroom and my bedroom. It may sound easy, but you guys have no idea about my bedroom which has three closets. That’s going to kick my butt tomorrow.
I have thrown out two large contractor bags full of clothing. I figured it’s high time to accept that I’m not fitting into the clothes I used to wear right out of college. That should make a decent amount of room to accommodate Bitter’s stuff. But also consider this:
On Monday, I drive back to Philly, probably with Christmas decorations in the back.
I don’t know what it is with chicks and Christmas decorations, but every chick I know, even ones that live on their own, have at least a tub’s worth of Christmas decorations. And that’s not even counting the shoes. Where are we going to put all the shoes? This is where the Time Lord technology comes in. I need some place where we can fit everything, and still have a reasonable living space that looks nice.  This is about the time I seriously regret not buying a house with more storage.
Look Up Restraint in the Dictionary
You’d definitely see a picture of these two guys. I have to agree with Dave. I’m not counting on anyone’s lack of shooting ability to save me more than enough time to return fire.
Public Smoking Bans
Looks like a town in California is proposing to ban smoking anywhere in public. I think it’s it’s unreasonable to speculate how soon it will be before gangs are shooting it out in the streets to protect their tobacco turf. You have to figure the next step after that is just banning it altogether. It’s for the lungs of the children, you know.
What They’re Teaching Kids These Days
Another Gun Blog talks about his sister’s high school civics class:
Apparently they (very briefly) studied the 15th, 19th, and 26th (voting rights) amendments and a handful of others but didn’t even focus on the 1st ten in the BOR. She had no idea what the 3rd, 9th, or 10th were (although most schools generally ignore those as much as they do the 2nd)
Of course they would cover the voting rights amendments. Today we worship the Goddess of Democracy. Rights?  Liberty? Freedom?  Bah! Outdated concepts from a bunch of guys that have been dead for 200 years. The elite have rejected repulican values and republican thought. Today we will worship, and pray to the Goddess that two wolves and a sheep get to decide what’s for dinner.
New Media Assault
I have to admit, so far the Brady Campaign’s Newswatch is top quality stuff. Worthy of Jadegold, except without the ad-hominems. I mean, arguing that Montanans are crazy for taking the constitution seriously, and that NRA members are afraid of cows. Wow. I look forward to the day when I can be part of this parody.
Just to let you all in on what the Brady’s are likely hoping for here, is that we all link to these outrages, and that it boosts their Google mojo. That way when people search on certain things, their message gets out there, and maybe they get some followers. I wonder where they got that idea from?
But seriously folks, the Brady’s are a lot of things, but they aren’t stupid. They are clearly starting to understand new media, and we have to be ready. Be so baited as you might be, the best thing is to ignore them.