The point of no return is quickly approaching

When looking back at the events leading up the American War of Independence of 1775-1783, historians often peg the point of no return for the inevitability of that war as the British government's reaction to the Boston Tea Party.  That reaction was the passage of what American colonists called the Intolerable Acts, which were a set of laws that were not passed in order to raise revenue or to provide for the general welfare of the Colonists - they were passed in order to punish the Colonists, take away their God-given rights, and to brutally demonstrate to them that the King and Parliament were the boss.

Fast forward to December 2012, and elements of the U.S. federal government (and some state governments, such as California) are considering the passage of similar laws that are meant to accomplish similar aims.  In the wake of the mass shootings in anti-gun Aurora, Colorado and anti-gun Connecticut, Senator Dianne Feinstein (who unfortunately represents my home state), and the U.S. President himself, Barack Obama, have made it quite clear that they are now committed and determined to punish peaceable and lawful American gun owners by eviscerating their God-given rights of self-defense as guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Feinstein and Obama would have moved on their proposed anti-self defense legislation already were it not for the Newtown massacre taking place during the Christmas holiday and the crunch time of the so-called "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations.

But come January 3rd, when Congress is officially back in session, get ready for an all-out assault on the right of the People to keep and bear arms that, according to the 2nd Amendment, shall not be infringed.

So what does Feinstein have in store for us law-abiding gun owners?  Read:

• Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of: 120 specifically-named firearms; Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic; Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds

• Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by: Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic tests Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test 

• Banning firearms with thumbhole stocks and bullet buttons to address attempts to work around prior bans 

• Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. 

• Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by: Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment 

• Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes 

• Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons 

• Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include: Background check of owner and any transferee; Type and serial number of the firearm; Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint; Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

The 1994 "Assault Weapon" ban was bad enough, but this new proposed ban from the twisted, hateful, totalitarian mind of Feinstein is even worse.  What especially makes this new proposed law more devious and unconstitutional than the old one is the requirement that weapons already owned will have to be registered and their owners will have to allow the United States federal government to crawl up their derrieres with a microscope like we are a bunch of felons or suspected spies.

Feinstein has been salivating for this moment ever since the 1994 AWB expired in 2004.  All she needed was the kind of crisis that won't go to waste - in this case the horrific murder of 20 children by an evil Morlock who wasn't too worried about breaking laws against murder, never mind the federal and Connecticut laws against illegal possession and use of firearms.  Believe me, Feinstein would go for the whole enchilada if she thought she could make it happen.  Here is what she had to say after the passage of the 1994 AWB:


"Turn them all in." God, what a frightening woman.

And then there is our illustrious Hope and Change Agent, Barack Hussein Obama.  Listen to him during his 2008 presidential campaign as he swore up and down that he wasn't interested in taking away anyone's guns, and mocked anyone who said different:



So, Obummer wanted to make it "absolutely clear" that "it just ain't true" that he wants to take anyone's guns away. Of course, from the moment he was elected in 2008, gun purchases went through the roof as we gun owners and other freedom-loving people who were paying attention knew that this day would come. And sure enough, here we are. Listen to Obama on yesterday's Meet the Press as he talks about his willingness to take away people's guns:



Naturally, being the politician he is, Obama would never just come out and say it, but all the code words are there. The magic words out of that 4 minutes of nonsense are, "I'm going to be putting forward a package, and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it." That "package" would be Dianne Feinstein's declaration of war on our God-given right to self-defense. I am truly frightened by what the next several months portend.  

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Today's the day!  December 21, 2012.


Do you feel fine?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

RIP to the best U.S. Supreme Court Justice we never had

Robert Bork died yesterday.  While he did not serve for upwards of 25 years on the Supreme Court as he should have been allowed to do, Bork still made his mark on the American political and cultural landscape, including leaving an indelible impression on my political and social evolution.

I have a well-loved and dog-eared copy of Bork's 1996 book Slouching Towards Gomorrah.  During the mid-1990s, when I was still solidifying my political beliefs (for instance, I used to consider myself "pro-choice" on abortion), Bork's book was instrumental in teaching me about how our country used to be, and what it was becoming.

When I was reading Slouching Towards Gomorrah, I often thought about what could have been had Bork rightly taken his place on the Supreme Court.  That he was rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate after being nominated by Ronald Reagan was bad enough; what was intolerable were the lies and vicious slanders said about Bork by some of those Democrats - especially by the "Lion of the Senate," the execrable Ted Kennedy.

On the floor of the Senate chamber, Kennedy - the cowardly killer of Mary Jo Kopechne, and overall abuser of women - had this to say about Robert Bork:

Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, school children could not be taught about evolution, writers and artist could be censured at the whim of government.

Lies all, but what did that matter to Kennedy and his leftist, nihilist goons? The ends justify the means, right Comrade? In the end, I like to believe that Bork had the last laugh. Kennedy died a bloated, drunken caricature of himself, while Bork remained a respected author and pundit. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Are we citizens or subjects?

To the gun grabbers out there:  Stop talking about taking away the tools by which I would defend myself and my family.

To the pantywaist conservatives out there:  Stop talking about hiring armed security guards and elderly veteran volunteers to patrol our schools.

Instead, return to the way things are supposed to be, and that is to do away with concealed carry licenses, permits, "gun-free zones", banning of scary-looking guns with pistol grips and bayonet lugs, and all the other nonsense laws and regulations out there that do nothing but disarm law-abiding citizens, but do nothing to stop the psychos, sociopaths, and generally bad guys out there who mean to do us harm.

When will you gun grabbers get it through your thick skulls that if a person is not afraid to break laws against murder, he is going to think nothing about breaking laws against bringing a rifle with an illegal pistol grip into a "gun-free zone."

When a bad guy does harm with a gun, there is only one thing that eventually stops him, and that is the arrival of another gun.  Pure and simple.

The gun that stops him could be...

1. his own, as he puts it to his temple or under his chin;

2. the ones held by the phalanx of police who arrive on the scene to try to stop the carnage that is already well under way;

3. one that belongs to a private citizen(s) who happens to be at the scene when the carnage begins.

Waiting for the shooter to use his own gun to end his own life is not an option, as he has already killed upwards of dozens of people.  Waiting for the cops is better than nothing, but as the old saying goes:  When seconds count, the cops are only minutes away.  Or we could depend on good old fashioned self-reliance - like we Americans used to - and stop infringing upon the God-given rights of  people... responsible, upright, law-abiding people... to possess and use (keep and bear) the tools (arms) that are necessary in our society to defend their own lives, and the lives of their family and any other innocent people out there who need defending.

I am sick to death of being told by these hyperventilating ninnies in the media, in the halls of academe, and in the halls of our state and federal governments that I should be left defenseless because of the actions of some deranged monster.  It is the very reason that deranged monsters like Adam Lanza exist that as many people as possible should keep and bear arms in our country.

So to those people who are reflexively jerking their knees, and are calling for new rounds of gun bans, and gun control laws, and have their totalitarian control-freak rat claws reaching for the firearms that I own for the purpose of protecting and defending myself, my family, my community, my state, and my country, I say:

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
- George Washington

 "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams

 "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun."
- Patrick Henry

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- Thomas Jefferson

150 years ago: The Battle of Fredericksburg

I have been rather lax in my observations, but as of April 2011, we have, with each passing second, been living through the 150-year anniversary of the War for Southern Independ... er... the Civil War.

On this day 150 years ago - December 13, 1862 - one of the war's biggest butcheries took place as the Union Army of the Potomac was sent by its inept commander, General Ambrose Burnside, across several hundred yards of open ground toward Confederate positions behind a stone wall located at the base of Marye's Heights.  The sight of the slaughter that ensued prompted Robert E. Lee to famously remark, "It is well that war is so terrible; otherwise we should grow too fond of it."

The official number of dead in this one-sided battle has traditionally been tallied at 608 killed on the Confederate side, and 1,284 killed on the Union side.  However, recent research has found that the number of killed in Civil War battles was often grossly underreported, and the number of Union dead from the Battle of Fredericksburg is more likely around 3,100.  This is after taking into account the massive number of "missing" that turned out to have died in front of the Confederate stone wall, and also the wounded who later died within weeks of the battle's aftermath.

I have been to the Fredericksburg battlefield twice.  The field over which the Union soldiers traversed in their attempts to reach the stone wall has been built over with houses, but a good portion of the stone wall is still there, along with some original houses near the wall (complete with bullet holes gaping in their siding), and there is a massive cemetery on top of Marye's Heights.  Being built over, the Fredericksburg battlefield doesn't quite have the impact of the pristine preservation of Gettysburg, but standing in front of the stone wall and seeing what, for thousands of Union soldiers, was the last thing they would ever see was quite sobering.

I have already missed my opportunities to mention Fort Sumter (April 2011), First Manassas (July 2011) Shiloh (April 2012), Seven Days Battles (June 2012), and Second Bull Run (August 2012), and Antietam (September 2012).  I promise to be better from now on, especially since some of the biggest battles of the war took place in 1863.  That means come the spring of 2013, I will need to pay attention.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson

I'm confused: It IS or it IS NOT acceptable to say the word "Nigger"?

 Forgive me, but I am getting some very mixed messages from the political Left (where you will find most black Americans to be ensconced).

If you have been following the goings-on in the the capital city of Lansing, Michigan, you know that the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature and governor's office passed right-to-work legislation that prevents labor unions from requiring membership and forcibly taking dues (especially dues used for left-wing political activism) from union and non-union workers.

Needless to say, members of the unions in this dying Rust Belt state are not happy.  In protests outside the Michigan state capitol building, thousands of union thugs exhibited some absolutely nasty violence, including tearing down a tent owned by Americans For Prosperity (while the tent had women, children, and elderly people inside); sucker punching conservative comedian-reporter Steven Crowder; and destroying the hot dog cart of a vendor who was serving hot dogs to conservative counter-protesters.  Oh, the hot dog vendor is black, and these leftist Democrat/Obama-supporting union thugs (most of them white) called the vendor - Clint Tarver - a "nigger" and an "Uncle Tom."

So far, our black President has no comment about this execrable action by his white supporters.

Perhaps these union thugs are getting a pass for their racial slurs because perhaps they just saw an advanced screening of the new black revenge fantasy film Django Unchained.  Quentin Tarantino is a leftist in good standing with his Holllywood pals, so apparently he gets a pass.  Star of the movie Jamie Foxx was saying the other day on Saturday Night Live how much he enjoyed his role in this movie because he gets to "kill all the white people" in it.  Apparently, the movie's dialogue is peppered with the word "nigger" over 100 times.

Jamie Foxx was also calling our president "our Lord and Savior" not to long ago, also.  I wonder how he feels about his fellow [white] Obama supporters in Michigan calling one of his fellow black Americans a "nigger"?

So, bottom line is that I can't keep up.  If I declared myself to be a leftist Democrat and swore my support for President Obama, would that mean I can throw around the word "nigger" and not worry about it?  Not that I want to, but I have always been a sucker for the concept of consistency.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the (made my) day

I thought I had read them all, but this is a new one for me.

From H.L. Mencken:

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

That's a good one!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson

I'm sorry, which holiday would that be?

What better way to kick off the happ-happ-happy holiday season than a post about Christmas being tossed down the memory hole?

This has become a yearly ritual as people, in an effort not to offend just one person, go to ridiculous lengths to not offend.  However, by bending over backward not to offend the minority, the majority is left feeling shortchanged and offended instead.

I stopped by a local coffee shop in the Sacramento area the other day, and saw this poster:

Ah yes, the "Holiday Tree."  C'mon folks, what holiday has a tree with decorations all over it?  C'mon, SAY IT!!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson

Newest statist narrative: If you own guns, you are a racist

Who knew?  Supporting gun ownership is the equivalent of terrorizing black people and burning crosses on their lawns.

So says Kansas City Star newspaper reporter Jason Whitlock, who, as a guest on a call-in radio show, compared the National Rifle Association (NRA) to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), as he further expounded on his support of gun control after sportscaster Bob Costas used Whitlock's anti-gun column as a reference as Bob Costas spoke in favor of banning handguns while announcing an NFL game on Monday night.

Whitlock said the following:

You know, I did not go as far as I’d like to go because my thoughts on the NRA and America’s gun culture, I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests [at heart].

What is ironic is that the first gun control laws in the United States were passed in order to keep guns out of the hands of black slaves (and newly-freed blacks after the Civil War), and these gun control laws were fully supported by none other than the KKK.  I love that passive language of his: "the arming of so many black youths...."  So who exactly is arming them?  The NRA?  Is the NRA walking down the streets of the ghettos and handing out guns to the poor wayward youth who would be sitting in church and feeding widows and orphans were it not for that dastardly NRA?  And is Whitlock also saying that the NRA is handing out drugs at the same time?

I was thinking about this as I drove home from work today.  I have been planning for quite a while to make a certain purchase, and after listening to a clip of Whitlock's comments - you know, the one where he called me a racist for owning guns - I decided that today was the day.

So, late this afternoon, I purchased this:



I paid a mere $700 for that beautiful thing.  That is a Smith and Wesson M&P 15 Sport.  It is a semi-automatic rifle that fires the NATO 5.56x45mm (.223 Remington) round.  It has a sliding adjustable stock, and peep-style iron sights, with the rear sight having the ability to be flipped up or down.  There is mounting rail on top if I ever want to switch from iron sights to an optic sight.  This rifle is essentially the same as the M16A2 that I fired during my years in the Army.  Thanks to California's insane gun laws, I won't be able to pick up my new rifle for another ten days.  I will just have to longingly stare at this picture until then.

If you are in the market for a firearm, I highly recommend going to The Gun Range, which is located near Watt Ave. and I-80.  Here is their website.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson