Month: November 2010

Quote of the Day – Conflict of Visions Edition

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Adherents of the unconstrained vision are idealists, those who believe in Utopia, or Heaven on earth. Unfortunately, their attempts to create these Heavens on earth have always led to Hells, and always will. The reason? Believing human nature is perfectible, they must always project all evil onto other people, who must be sacrificed in order to leave only the “good.” The term for this is “scapegoating,” and as M. Scott Peck clearly noted, it is “the genesis of human evil.”

If I had to describe the left (those who believe in the unconstrained vision) in three phrases, it would be the “lust to destroy,” the “lust for power,” and the “lust for attention.” Those three traits, in the West, are the main ones of Satan, who wanted to be God. His sin was that of hubris, as it is the main sin of the left.

As I noted, these divisions exist even among libertarians. Objectivism, for example, is strongly leftist, with its belief in a minuscule group of intellectually and morally superior people who have the right to rule over a destroyed world. Since Objectivists are idealists who believe in a perfect Galtian Utopia, those who do not are in their minds not merely mistaken, but evil.

—

The Constrained and Unconstrained Visions, Bob Wallace, The Price of Liberty

Interesting essay.

Quote of the Day – Election Edition

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Remember this one as you go to the polls tomorrow:

Leftists perpetuate hopelessness while conservatives are optimists. If you believe that you have no hope of making the most of yourself and building a prosperous life, then the hopelessness of Leftism makes sense to you and you believe that money comes from luck and/or exploitation and you can only get it by taking it from those who are making it. In contrast, fiscal conservatism is about optimism in the individual’s ability to create wealth and the recognition that the system that allows individuals to keep the majority of the wealth they create harnesses one of the greatest powers in the universe: human ambition.

Cynthia Yockey, A Newly Conservative Lesbian – The economic theory of Leftist hopelessness vs. conservative optimism

Do read the whole piece. It’s quite good.

Southern Arizona Blogshoot – Update

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OK, here’s what we have:

ExurbanKevin and I are setting up a completely informal get-together of bloggers, message board members, and readers. We did this last year and had a very good time. I want this one to be bigger. The weather should be beautiful.

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010
Time: 7:00AM ’till ?
Location: Elsy Pearson Public Shooting Range, Casa Grande, AZ, just off of I-8, just West of the I-10/I-8 interchange.

The Elsy Pearson Public Range has three areas with shooting benches and sun shades. There is a 100 yard range, a 300 yard range, and a 25 yard range. There’s also a bigass rock outcropping on the side of the mountain about 600 yards downrange if you want something to bounce bullets off of. The city of Casa Grande has finally seen fit to equip the range with a Porta-pottie, but there still isn’t any running water. Everyone needs to bring lots of fluids, if nothing else. Oh, and sunscreen. It may be cool, but the UV count is still high.

The range is unattended. We are expected to behave ourselves and clean up afterward. The site is posted “Absolutely No Explosives,” so no Tannerite on site, and no exploding targets of any kind. Sorry. They don’t like .50BMG at the range, but I’ve seen people shooting them there and so far as I know, no one has complained.

The same cannot be said for Tannerite.

Full auto, on the other hand, is A-OK. (Just have your paperwork. The police range is about 400 yards away.)

There are concrete shooting benches, but no chairs. Bring your own. The shooting area is fenced, so no vehicles downrange. If your stuff is heavy, bring a cart that’ll fit through a 3′ man-gate. (I have to get one of those.)

I plan on bringing my tables and bowling pins and setting up for pin shooting on the 25 yard range – no charge, just come shoot. I have my steel plates (9″ x 11″ x 1″ AR500 armor – they’ll stop a .50) and I’ll be bringing a few of those for people to shoot at. (That’s why I need a cart. Those mothers weigh 35 lbs each!) I’ll bring some other things to play with, too.

The range HAS NO TARGET STANDS. Bring something to put your targets on. The ground is about as hard as concrete, so the cheap-ass wire frames you’re supposed to stick in the ground? Uh-uh. My stand is made of 2″ PVC pipe and 2×2 lumber. Other people just bring big cardboard boxes they set on the ground, or their own target stands that just sit on the surface. Whatever works for you.

Oh, NO GLASS. If you want to shoot something that breaks, I’ll be bringing some clay pigeons.

We’re planning on lunch at the range. I’m going to bring a small gas-fired grill and some burgers ‘n fixin’s, I encourage others to do the same. Sharing is fun! (Please don’t share salmonella.)

Bear in mind, this is a public range. Other people not associated with this shoot will be there, too.

Please do plan on coming. See you Saturday!

Oh, and BTW, aside from some short posts this week, I won’t be blogging much. I need to load some ammo for the shoot.