Be SURE of your target and what is behind it...

I don't know how many times I've said it... it's one of three rules that I taught as a rifle instructor, rules that, if followed, keep gun accidents in the non-lethal realm. Here is an example of why.

Not sure I believe the guy's story, as humans and squirrels bear about no resemblance to each other, but the example still stands.

Incidentally, if you:

1. Never let the gun cross or point at anything that you are not willing to destroy,
2. Keep your finger out of the trigger guard until ready to fire,
3. and always be certain of your target and what lies behind it

... you will never have a gun accident that causes death. Those are THE cardinal rules of gun safety. So simple! Please always use them. If you have a gun, chances are you know this, but there is always that one person... like that guy that kept swinging his rifle around last time I was at the range.

Oh there is a fourth rule, my personal one: Don't be a dumbass!
This covers all contingencies not covered by the other three. Eye- and ear- wear are not bad ideas, either... especially eyewear.

I guess it is hunting season... it snuck up on and once again I'm not out there (sad sad sad), so be safe!
If you are interested, here are the NRA's saftey rules. Longer and better than mine...

Balad

This one sort of hit me in the gut... worse than usual, that is. Still, we will prevail, and Iraq will prevail. This is clearly an act of desparation, as can be seen from its irrationality. Looks like that new Iraqi operation caused the terrorists some pain.

Gratuitous, Meaningless, Post...

I like nuts, too... I read that on IMAO, which I won't bother hyperlinking because if you need a hyperlink to find it by now, you are a ninja monkey and need to be destroyed. I'd destroy you, but I'm very tired... I need a nap...

zzz...

That's better.
Hmmm...
I had some avocado the other day that tasted good. I'm now forced to admit that avocados are not inherently bad, but that many are misguided.

I got my mix'n'match parts special 1911* working, FINALLY... The barrel is from a 1970's gun, the slide from a 1944 gun, and the frame fairly recent. The parts, especially the barrel, do not play well together, or didn't until took them to my super-secret lab and performed dark rituals upon them. Now they work fine. Now if I can get my infernal L1A1 working reliably (another parts special).

The New England Patirots suck.
So do the Denver Broncos.
Football sucks. We should use Australian rules.

Im monkey pork choppy McMootz... good night.



*Colt Model 1911A1, .45 caliber automatic pistol. If that was greek to you, think really old gun that shoots fairly large, slow moving, bullets.

I wish...

I wish that there was background info on pieces like the one I just found on DEBKA... They tend to have very short headlines.

British tank force smashed down the walls of Basra jail and freed two British undercover troops held there.

September 19, 2005, 11:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

Another 150 prisoners fled the jail too.

The Basra governor has condemned the jail destruction as “barbaric.” The two Britons were held after firing at Iraqi police and killing one. In skirmishes in the town, 15 Iraqis were killed and two British tanks torched. Tensions have been high in the southern Iraqi city since British forces arrested a senior Shiite Mehdi Army figure.

Ummm....
Okay, Reuters has some more info... this is both an interesting and a distressing situation.

The New Race State

I was somewhat surprised to read back in July of a propsal in the form of a Senate bill from Senator Akaka that seems to create a state of apartheid-like proportion in Hawaii. The idea is that native Hawaiians would establish a sovereign government apart from the State and American governments. The new government, if formed, would negotiate with the State of Hawaii and the United States over land, resources, and jurisdictions. This new government would not be subject to the Bill of Rights, a document that is, in my opinon, the most valuable ever having been or ever to be written. Senator Akaka also says that this new entity could even secede from the Union.

I had two thoughts upon reading this, the first an observation that only native Hawaiians could participate in this new government (and the new government gets to decide who is and who isn't a native) and the second a shellshocked 'what the hell, where is e pluribus unum now?'

Supporters of this concept range far and wide (but not in large numbers), but I was most concerned with the grassroots supporters in the Hawaii and the people who came up with this ill-concieved plot to unravel another piece of our already strained culture.
I am concerned about the concept of a state founded on nothing more than race... what does that sound like? It's very un-American, this being the great melting pot where commonality rather than difference is at least supposed to be the idea. It also how people are dehumanized. When you start to see people as members of a racial group rather than as humans like you, it bcomes too easy to view them as less than human because they are not 'one of you/us'. Further, to have that kind of 'us and them' attitude without the Bill of Rights is to create a breeding ground for at best bigotry and at worst directed violence. I would have said genocide (as in, say, Kosovo, or any other place where populations stratify and divide by race*), but I find it unlikely that the United States would allow that.

Now, what happened here? There is no popular call for this in Hawaii, as most Hawaiians (and I say that to mean people who live there) are not racists. I suspect that many also know what separatism leads to. Surely, a separate Hawaii will bring about the prosperity and good governace known by the other separated communities in the U.S., the Native Tribes. They may have seen the stellar example of the Quebecoise as well and how well that's been going.
So not only is there no popular call, there are still plenty of people alive who recall a day back in 1959. On that day, with 94 percent in support, Hawaiians became residents of one of the United States. Many of those people worked hard to prove that Hawaii was viable as a state. Now as for what's gone wrong, the government out there won't even acknowlege Statehood Day, once a huge and vibrant celebration... on the grounds that it's divisive?

I think that what has happened is a power grab. With the potential to make a new nation, those who work to ram this bill through will be a postion to be top dogs in a nation. That's reason enough. Further, the fact that this bill crates a separation based on race is a classic power grabbing move, used by many tyrants from the anti-civil rights activists of this nations darker days to Slobodan Milosevich or even the Third Reich. Last, where is the referendum? The people of Hawaii might want a say in their state being ended.

Alson Ramsay of National Review has another take that I find to be very interesting as well. He proposed that this is the result of the new 'multiculturalism'. On a side note here, I see that today, multiculturalism has come to mean division by race... not the acceptance and celebration of other cultures, but of the supremacy of all other cultures over the mixed one that was created in this nation. Anyway, Ramsay points out that this new multiculturalism has given voice to an extreme minority to cite spurios grievances (that the land was taken from ordinary, native, Hawaiians by the U.S.**) to advance an ill-concieved agenda (a race state). Ramesh Ponuru, also of National Review, adds that this could set precedent for Aztlan and their ilk to gain traction in their fight to carve out chunks of California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

My overall perspective on this is that under no circumstances is it right to differentiate people in any way based on race. There is only one race involved here, the human race. People are people. Though they come from different places and grow in different ways, they are not different kinds. Mexican, Nordic, Navajo... those are where you are from, not the kind of human you are... but that's another post entirely.
It is wrong to take a people united and then to divide them up and place them under different governments. There is alrady an established goverment for all those people, a legitimate, popular, elected, government. Do not divided what is united. If a large majority of Hawaiians want this, then there would be some merit to the idea, stupid as it might be. However, as long as it remains a racial issue, it must not come to pass for any reason.


*Remember the pain cause by separated races in this Nation...
**When Hawaii was a kingdom, the monarch owned nearly everything...

The base questions of life

Why is Oktoberfest in Spetember?



In other GOOD news, Afghans are voting, many for the first time. WOOT! Hmmm... good news, gotta find some more of that...

Making stuff up again...

The Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional? Where do people get off? Before long, the Constitution will be ruled unconstitutional. You know, I'm pretty sure that none of the people who wrote that document meant what they said.
Apparently, there is s guy out there who has been railing agaist the Pledge for some time. He's an atheist and rejects the idea that God should be mentioned. He has a right to his beliefs, but he does not have a right to change history. He does not have a right to change the premises upon which this nation was founded.
If this man has no right to change premises, the judge has doubly no right. Who does he think he is, challenging the written words of the Federalists? People may not like the idea of God, but let's face it: This country was founded a nation under God and I defy anyone to explain how that is a bad thing. We have no religeon involved that chains people, no use of God to oppress like the Islamic world, we are not forced to worship God. All the Pledge says is that we are a nation under God. Our Declaration of Independance states our relationship with God when it says the 'all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights". Nobody has permission to change this history. This nation's 'under God' concept is how we have our freedoms, as freedoms can't be granted by mankind. Freedoms and rights come from God, man only takes them away. Our founders recognized this and set this nation up to recognize those rights and freedoms and to recognize where they come from. The Pledge, in turn, recognizes this state of affairs. It does not require a belief in God. It is not a pledge to God. It is a pledge to this Nation. If a resident of this Nation can't pledge allegiance to this Nation, I want them gone. If you can't be loyal to America, find another country to be loyal to. If you don't like this country, don't believe in it, and won't support it, then leave. There are plenty of other nations out there that are almost as good but that are founded differently. Sweden, England, Canada, Chile... This nation has a built in mechanism to change things, but our founding documents delineate what can't be changed. That nation under God bit is one of those things.

This is how we were founded:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

This is how this nation was founded. Stop making stuff up and pretending that this either did not happen or is wrong!

Charlie Foxtrot out.

9.11

It's September 11. I'll be marking the day by occupying my usual post and standing watch. My unit has a motto that is most appropriate for time like these, and that motto is "Not on our watch!"
We will do what we can, ever vigilant, ever ready. While we can't stop an airplane, we can stop far nastier things. I'm proud of the all the attacks that have been stopped so far, and I'll keep working towards stopping any further attempts at breaching the peace... I and thousands more will be doing our parts.

I'll be at my post, watching, waiting... unblinking, as always.

Charlie Foxtrot out...

Pawned

I found this amazing piece over the Washington Post via IMAO (yes, they are occasionally serious over there)...

Here's a quote to get you all to follow the link:

"In less enlightened times there was no catastrophe independent of human agency. When the plague or some other natural disaster struck, witches were burned, Jews were massacred and all felt better (except the witches and Jews)."

It gets better...

A sixpence none the richer

...but it is still moving and very, very, cool: I found the item over at LGF.

Lost the Plot

It's time to set some things straight, and it's time to pick some things apart. Most of all, it's high time that certain people recognize what is and what is not.
The venom directected against the various governments and certain people in government was out of hand about a week ago. I don't even know how to describe it now, but at the moment, all of it is totally uncalled for and most of it will always be.
I'm going to start at the top and work my way down.
President Bush is in a difficult position once again. Nothing that happed in this disaster is his fault. People must realize that a President's purview does not include control of the National Guard for internal activities. How people already knew that? Also on the National Guard issue, there has been a lot of hand-wringing over the fact that Guardsman are in other nations at the moment and that somehow this left less for aid back here. Well guess what: we still have more troops in the CONUS than we can deploy into a disater area! 28,000 showed up. Anyone who considers 28,000 American soldiers to be anything less than able to handle a situation like this is completely ignorant of the military. Last but not least, this is not a facist state. That means that the President must follow certain rules and procedures. He's not allowed to just wade in and start giving orders. Let Bush alone. He did nothing wrong. Stop the irrational hatred!

Let's look at FEMA now. I'm certainly no friend of this beureaucratic dragon. Their response was too slow. Such is the way of beureaucarcy. This should be no shock at all. You will note, however, that they were not just sitting around. Hold your finger pointing until the job is done however.

The State of Louisiana: Now we are moving into the sphere of responsibility. Why is it that Mississippi and Alabama and Texas are suffering far less trauma? It's because they have unified agencies, instead of the morrass of red tape the Louisiana has and always has had. You may also wish to note that Governor Blanco refused to coordinate with federal efforts innitially and did not declare a a state of emergency until well after such conditions were stood up in Alabama and Mississippi. Blanco and many of her officials have tured away aid from myriad sources, from Red Cross efforts to flotillas coming in to haul people out. When this is over, The State of Louisiana should be fair game, and especially their massive wad of red tape. When it comes to efficiency and nimbleness in government, less is more.
The City of New Orleans: Did not even use their own evacuation plan! That's really all there is to say about the City... oh, and 1/3 of their police cut and run. That did not help. The three photos here say it all. Look here and here for some particulars on the plan.

Now, let's take a step back. I was so hoping that this storm would not be politicized, but it is. I'll put some perspective on that really fast by asking you all some questions. Answer them honestly and you will see a very different picture than the one that is being touted so loudly by the politicizing organs.
Who is politicizing this disaster?
Who was in charge of the affected areas?
Who has been in control of New Orleans and indeed Louisiana for past while?
Who is getting in the way of relief efforts?
Who is actually helping?
Who is getting things, concrete things, done (not talk, but feet-on-ground)?

Some people are simply beyond shame...
Take some time to look past the screaming that's going on out there and dig for yourselves. Look at the good things that are coming out of this and then look at the bad. Look at who is executing both. Dig for that truth! Ignore the empty speech spewed by those that want power for themselves.

You may notice that a common thread in this situation is the fact that government is cumbersome and self-serving. Remember this... remeber it next time you hear somebody call for yet more legislation to solve a problem. The mentality that goverment is even capable of caring for people is a large part of what happened in New Orleans. People must take care of each other, because nothing else, in the end, can or will.

Sometime in the near future, I'm going to be posting about racism since there are so many charges of racial injustice getting hurled about. Also, the new race-state, apartheid-esque, bill concerning Hawaii provides further opportunity.
Charlie Foxtrot out.

Perspective

We have people killing each other over ice. We have gunmen attacking police to cover robberies. We have loons shooting at rescue vehicles! If these people can't play nice, kill the bastards. I think I just made a post on how I don't like to see an unborn child put to death... and now I find myself calling for death of some adults. Conflict? No. If you are shooting at a rescue vehicle, you just resigned from the human race. If you are taking advantage of disaster and misery to steal jewelry, you ought to hang like the rat thief you are. In this situation, the only acceptable course of action is to help out as best you can. If you can't help, don't get in the way... of course, why am I typing this? Nobody who should read it will... Even if they could, any animal who would capitalize on this is not even worth speaking to. There will be a special place in hell for these pirates... right next to the child rapists and genocidal maniacs. By the way, I'm angry!

There is talk of sending active duty military down there for security... pick me... please! I was told yesterday that I will most likely not be doing anything but my usual mission, but I can try, right? I bet we could do without up to half our unit for a while.

We also have people criticizing the government for not doing enough soon enough, for failing to have infrstructure in place, blah, blah, blah... Are people ever happy? What did anyone fail to do but leave? Nobody is to blame for this. While I will go to my death defending individual responsibility, some things are nobody's fault... like hurricanes, for example. The natural disaster can't be blamed on anyone.
I'd also like to note that the National Guard was not there from the get-go because they recognized how useless they would be if all their equipment was destroyed. I'd further point out that help is slow to arrive because fuel is getting very scarce, and much of the way in is shut. Runways are destroyed (but Engineers have gotten the Keesler runway able to handle C-130 and C-17 transports and are working on the one at New Orleans. We are trying. My base, a space base for crying out loud, is sending people down there, even (I'm still trying to get down there). Enough with the criticism! Now is not the time. Now is the time to find ways to help out, from sending money to the Red Cross to not using fuel to providing a home for displaced people.

I'm praying, I'm hoping, and I'm looking to lend my talents and abilities.