2011 – Page 89 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Guns and the Mentally Ill

The New York Times has a rather lengthy piece on the subject, with examples they found of people having their rights restored who pretty clearly were still disturbed. No mention of how many people have had their rights restored and are doing fine. Several of the examples were committed involuntarily for being suicidal, had their rights restored, and then killed themselves. I don’t consider this much of an example because someone who was committed for being suicidal should be more prone to having rights restored than someone who is schizophrenic and on medication. I’m far more understanding of right restoration for transient mental health issues like depression, PTSD, and other manageable conditions. I’m open to the notion that some states may not have good procedures for rights restoration for mental infirmities, but one of the examples appearing repeatedly is California, a state relatively strict when it comes to firearms, especially with regards to mental health.

It’s relatively unsurprising that with enough digging you can find example of where the system failed. No one wants to do a story on a solider who was committed for severe PTSD, got treatment, got better, got his rights restored, and then went on to live as an ordinary citizen and responsible gun owner. There’s no story there.

On the Dole

Just filed for unemployment with Pennsylvania. Snowflakes in Hell is now officially suckling at the teat of big government. Pennsylvania does not consider severance in unemployment claims, though it is my understanding that some states do. I am fortunate here in that between unemployment and severance, I can last quite a while. I won’t be living high on the hog, and have had to curtail my lifestyle quite a bit, but we’ll manage.

The big thing I’m worried about is going stir crazy. There’s plenty of things around the house I could do, like replace the shower, and redo the kitchen, but all those things take money I don’t want to spend. Entertainment is expensive too, so I am glad for cheap forms of entertainment like Netflix and the Internet.

So what’s on the agenda otherwise? I’m thinking about downloading the iOS development kit and trying my hand at an iPhone/iPad app, but I need a good idea in that regard. I’m probably not talented enough in the 3D modeling or art department for a game. But surely there’s something I could make a few bucks on? There’s also monetizing the blog, but one of my fears with blogging is that I will have significantly less time for it, or may not be able to do it at all, depending on the new job situation. The last job left me with enough flexibility to work all hours of the day, with little regard for schedule. Some jobs are pretty 9 to 5. I hate those kinds of arrangements, but at some point I need a paycheck.

Flat Earthers Have Company

Apparently there’s an insurrectionist branch of the Catholic Church in Chicago that’s pushing the church reject Galileo (again) and embrace a geocentric universe. I’ve always wondered how these folks explain the fact that our space probes managed to sail by the outer planets, taking plenty of pictures, land on Mars, land on Venus, and visit asteroids. All the mathematical calculations for guiding these probes is based on a heliocentric solar system.

This whole gravity thing is a conspiracy by the orthodox science establishment man!

If You Watch Nothing Else This July 4th

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video, but go watch this symposium between Prof. Robert Churchill, author of To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant’s Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement, and Joshua Horwitz, co-author of Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea, and also Executive Director of CSGV. This is great insight into the kind of philosophy Horwitz promotes. He is truly an enemy of liberty.

UPDATE: The more I look at Horwitz’s insurrectionist idea, the more I’m impressed at his straw working abilities. This is one of the most elaborate and impressive straw men I’ve seen erected. The idea he’s arguing against isn’t even really something most of us believe. It’s a caricature erected only in Horwitz’s mind.

More Independence Day Insurrectionism

Rumor has it, on this day, 235 years ago, a bunch of right-wing militia whack jobs signed their name to this document which supports this insane insurrectionist idea promoted by the NRA:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Sometimes I really believe our opponents would probably rather still be British. It’s hard to believe the ideas they peddle without thinking that. Of course, they will never say that, because that puts them further outside the mainstream than they already are. But it’s hard for me to see how you accept the United States of America when its founding document is essentially a justification for violently overthrowing its previous government.

Pool Mystery Explained

Remember the story from a few days ago about a woman drowning in a pool in Fall River Massachusetts? But the body wasn’t found for two days. And the pool was open. It would seem this mystery has an explanation:

An initial investigation showed the water in the pool was murky from the time the pool opened for the season last Saturday. Visibility tests conducted Wednesday revealed a diver couldn’t be seen at a depth of 3 1/2 to 4 feet below the surface of the water.

Unfortunately I was eating when I read that.

“He did tell two lifeguards – one said she was on break, and had to leave and the other told him they were going to do a pool check,” the woman told the newspaper. “But he told me they never did.”

So it would seem the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can’t even run a public swimming pool, yet folks want us to believe they are competent enough to control all our health care?

Dangerous Common Sense

Call up Ladd again. I found even more of the insurrectionist propaganda directed at children and trying to turn their poor impressionable minds against those who want to restrict liberty.

Here’s a sampling of the dangerous lyrics hidden in this propaganda: “Like Thomas Paine once wrote:/It’s only common sense/That if a government won’t give you your basic rights/You’d better get another government.”

This video also shows why CSGV needs to add fireworks on their list of things to ban. They are used to celebrate dangerous ideas and history that is best re-written for the good of their political agenda.

Insurrectionist Propaganda

It looks like Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has a new target to set their sights upon: Schoolhouse Rock!

Look at this insurrectionist propaganda piece that spreads a message of violence & promotes militias. It’s clearly designed to recruit children into accepting the dangerous right wing ideology that Americans are supposed to be free.

An Analogy for Fast and Furious

From Tam, who thinks Rep. Cummings is proposing the opposite of a solution:

Given the revelations on Operation Fast & Furious, this is like finding a guy climbing through a broken window in your living room wearing a ski mask and an ADT uniform, and when you shine the flashlight in his face, having him pull his mask off and try to sell you a burglar alarm system because of the rash of break-ins in the neighborhood. Seriously, this is the Justice Department equivalent of the proverbial fireman that moonlights as an arsonist so he can heroically put out fires.

The only purpose of this operation is one of two things, to create a problem that will then require more funding and more bureaucrats to solve, or was a deliberate attempt to run the numbers up to justify further restrictions. This probably isn’t really an and/or situation though, and if I had to put money on it, the primary goal was the former, and if it made the case for the latter, that would have just been icing on the cake.

Want to Make the Anti-Gunners Cry?

Then buy a ticket to our upcoming Friends of NRA banquet! Seriously, here are the top 5 reasons your attendance at this first year dinner will make Ladd Everitt, Dennis Hennigan, and Sarah Brady shed tears all evening long while you’re surrounded by fellow shooting sports enthusiasts.

1. Let’s face it, we’re putting guns in the hands of the next generation. Of course, we’re training them how to use them safely.

But training doesn’t matter because they see no difference between the girl above and thugs on the street.

2. Because even if we have the bare minimum number of people in the room in order to raise even $1 for the shooting sports, it’s still more people than they can put in a room in downtown DC. Their fundraisers probably look a little more like this:

3. The shooting sports embraced by NRA are perceived to be part of the “insurrectionist” mindset using scary “assault weapons.” Ladd Everitt might need to add Camp Perry to his Insurrectionist Timeline.

4. Because a child riding the NRA tricycle is what haunts their dreams. Kids! Guns! Except not guns! Just letters! It’s scary!

5. If you buy the “Night of Liberty” exclusive print that highlights the Boston Tea Party, Josh Sugarmann might feature you in VPC’s next Googled report on the evils of NRA members. He might even rank you as more dangerous than the person who wears the XXXL t-shirts.

Come on, I know more than a few of the readers here are from Southeast PA and Central Jersey. Let’s get together and make the other side weep as they fall asleep knowing that they are losing the cultural war on guns and our rights. You don’t have to be an NRA member to attend, this is all about showing some love for the programs that help train new shooters, get youth involved in competitions, and help area clubs run successful programs, especially those like Women on Target. This is a celebration of the fun we have on the range and why we all initially got into this movement.