Instapundit links to this Strategy Page story on state defense forces. They are a lot more common than you might think. While the National Guard is pretty clearly what our founding fathers would have considered a “select militia,” the various SDFs are the modern equivalent of what would be considered more traditional militias. Today most SDFs aren’d armed bodies, but serve as an emergency resource.
Author: Sebastian
Disarming Our Soldiers (For Their Own Good)
As the Brady Campaign descends to new depths of madness, here’s just one other objective our opponents are supporting:
The article they link to is here:
“Multiple studies indicate that preventing easy access to lethal means, such as firearms, is an effective form of suicide prevention,” authors Harrell and Berglass wrote.
They are urging Congress to repeal the restriction on the military interfering with the private firearm ownership of soldiers. Understand what they are saying here: we have to prevent “easy access” to “lethal means” for our nation’s soldiers.
If any police or military folks thinks these people won’t eventually disarm you, think again.
While the Gun Control Crowd Has Been in Hysterics …
… over the fact that Wisconsin has just become the 41st state to adopt shall-issue…. gun owners have been busy lobbying the Wisconsin legislature to pass Castle Doctrine.
Holding Up to the Instalanche
I am pleased to have gotten a link from Instapundit yesterday, which brought in some traffic to give the new server a bit of a test. We seem to have held up well.
I have circled the load under Instalanche, which did not even really make the server break a sweat. We don’t max out until 400%. Monitoring the number of new incoming TCP connections looks pretty good as well:
Again, not too out of the ordinary. The previous server was a Core2Quad, and this is a Quad-core Xeon. I think the big difference is the fact that I have a lot more RAM, so I’m able to run more apache processes simultaneously, which allows for servicing a larger number of clients. I have also greatly improved caching in the new server. Aside from the hacking attempt, I am pleased with the upgrade. Even better that the upgrade was thanks to salvaged hardware that didn’t cost me anything.
My network graph shows barely a blip. Granted, this was a weekend link, but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest the new server is robust enough to handle a weekday Glenn link with more room to spare.
So Very True
If I could find a graphic that so very correctly illustrated the different philosophies of the American left and American right these days, it would be this. The intersection here is in libertarian philosophy, if only we could have a candidate emerge that wasn’t about catering to one snake pit versus the other:
UPDATE: I should clarify, I don’t think the Tea Party is so libertarian, in general, as this graphic illustrates. What it suggests is that there are unifying principles that could be at work here. But both fringes are looking at ways to use these phenomenas to pit the “right” side against the “wrong.” I’ve always wondered if there are compromises that could be had that don’t fit into any of the generally recognized political structures, but would work better than what we have now.
Attention Hacker
To the script kiddie that tried to hack my server — you’ll have to try a lot harder than that if you want to exploit my box. But congratulations, you managed to launch a wild perl process and take up half my CPU power for a couple of hours. Had it not been for the fact that your socket code writing skills aren’t very L337, I might never have noticed.
That you got in at all is due to an oversight on my part in not locking down a directory, and due to an exploit in a theme we were using on one of my other blogs. That exploit has been removed. I also removed your fun little script, and am analyzing it now. I am not impressed with your lame hacking skills. I’d strongly recommend sticking to masturbating to porn in your parents’ basement. The next person might call be annoyed enough to call the cops.
Cain Accusations Show Why Beginners Have it Rough
A lot of people seem to like Herman Cain. Given that the GOP field is a choice between Romney, who’s bonafides on the Second Amendment and health care are not to be trusted, and Rick Perry, who is increasingly looking like a candidate who doesn’t have the chops to operate on the national level, Cain seems like he could be a refreshing alternative.
But it was almost predictable that he’d have a “public hair on the coke can” moment. Not only because of the fact that the quickest way to politically lynch a conservative black man is to drag forth the old racist stereotype that the black man can’t control his libido, but also because the guy is a political neophyte who has never really been vetted in a serious way before. Unlike Perry and Romney, Cain has never held any elected office. He’s been involved in politics, but generally as a behind the scenes operator. He has never put a target on his back until he became the GOP frontrunner, and now everything that could ever possibly come out about him is going to come out.
Romney and Perry have the advantage of having attained a governorship, with Romney having done that in a state which is heavily Democratic. Generally speaking, to attain an office like this, you have to work your way up the political ladder. As you work your way up, you put a bigger and bigger target on your back. People have an incentive to dig. Any skeletons in your closet are going to come out, even if they are skeletons someone else put there. All the chickens from your past are going to come home to roost.
Mitt Romney comes from a political family, his father having been Governor of Michigan. This is an advantage to Romney because he would have been exposed to the rancorous nature of politics from an early age. Romney actually attained the governorship of Massachusetts as a relative newcomer to politics — his only experience prior to winning Governor was a failed challenge to Ted Kennedy’s seat in 1994. Nonetheless, this would have put a big enough target on his back for opponents to start digging. His successful gubernatorial run in a Democratic state certainly would have given opponents and the media an incentive to dig.
Rick Perry won his first election to the Texas House in 1984, ironically as a Democrat. After that, as a Republican, he ran for Agricultural Commissioner. From there he ran for Lieutenant Governor, and was elevated to Governor once George W. Bush assumed his role as President. Perry has only really ever faced a tough high-profile race once in his career, which was for Lieutenant Governor. I think his weaknesses as a candidate have been showing in his primary performance.
Cain has virtually no political experience. He has never held any elected office. All the accusations, whether true or not, are going to start coming out now. For the first time, he’s painted a big target on himself. Having run for political office before is certainly not a guarantee you won’t come under new allegations, after all it was Bill Clinton who had a team dedicated to dealing with “bimbo eruptions,” but having run for lower offices previously at least means some of the sources for allegations your opponents might know about have already been used up, and overcome. Herman Cain will have the disadvantage of having to deal with many of them now, rather than in prior races during his political career.
It’s a risk trying to win a national office with someone who has never even held a single elected office. Even Obama, despite his lack of real political experience, at least had the Chicago machine behind him. While I like many of Cain’s positions, have been disappointed in Perry, and harbor no real love for Mitt, I’m wary of pushing such a political neophyte as Cain onto center stage. It’s a huge gamble, and the stakes are unbelievably high for 2012. Our primary goal is to ensure Obama does not get a second term. For that I want the strongest candidate we can run. As much as I wish that could be Herman Cain, his lack of real experience on the political stage is a major issue I don’t think GOP primary voters should overlook.
Sam Rohrer Running Against Casey?
I got this from Sam Rohrer via his e-mail list today:
Later this month, I will outline my next step in promoting constitutional principles and courageous leadership. It’s a road – like others we’ve traveled before- that will be difficult and with an uncertain destination.
And then there’s this article in MSNBC:
A former state representative who lost to Tom Corbett in last year’s Republican gubernatorial primary is planning to enter a crowded field of GOP candidates running for U.S. Senate.
I’ve always liked Sam Rohrer’s politics. He’s about as close as you can probably get to libertarian in this political climate. But Sam’s Achilles heel, which was shown in the race for Governor, is that he’s a bad fundraiser, and you need to be a good fundraiser to win elections. As much as I might wish this were about principle and restoring liberty, the vast majority of people who vote barely pay attention. As a candidate, you’re a product that is being sold (to voters), and to tell that product, you need to advertise. That costs money. Philadelphia is one of the most expensive media markets in the country, and our media market reaches a lot of GOP voters.
That said, we have no one that looks decent currently stepping up to run against Casey, and I’d be willing to give Rohrer a chance. Maybe with the entire GOP apparatus behind him, he can overcome his fundraising inadequacies. The Democrats will dump whatever money they can afford to hold that seat, however, so it’s not going to be an easy race, even if the GOP nominee were a seasoned politician with a statewide record. If Rohrer runs, he’ll be the king of underdogs. We’ll see what he’s made of.
FOP Backing Holder?
This makes me wonder what they were promised by the Administration in return for their support. Remember that a big component of FOP support for the Clinton Assault Weapons ban was because the crime bill that it was attached to contained funding to hire a hundred thousand more police officers. The FOP has been on our side more lately, but like other unions, it’s a mistake to believe their leadership can’t be bought. They certainly can be bought.
Does It Matter What You Call It?
SayUncle notes that “They won’t like your politically incorrect, self-loading rifle either.” Given the latest polling results, we’re definitely winning on that count. Not only did our opponents lose on that poll, they lost using their own manufactured language that custom tailored to scare people into agreeing with their position. But nonetheless, I’ll feel safer once we get that up another 10-15%. Until we get to that point, I’m going to still consider “assault weapon” a loaded term we’re better off without.