Quote of the Day

From a comment to Victor Davis Hanson’s Atlas is Sorta Shrugging:

I can tell you for a fact that major portions of the country – particularly urban areas on the coasts, but not just those – are diametrically opposed to absolutely every single thing you stand for. Their stance may be extremely hypocritical, unconstructive, contradictory and irrational, but they will not acknowledge it, even in the face of the most objective and logical arguments. In fact, they will look upon you as borderline criminal for rejecting their creed.

What the Obama presidency has revealed is that America is not whole anymore, but is fractured among at least two major fault lines of political, economic and social thought, and this president not only thrives on that rift, but has done everything in his awesome power to expand and deepen it.

This is not the same america I was born into over 4 decades ago. You must prepare yourselves for the real possibility that, if a great crisis breaks upon the nation, that it will not survive intact.

And don’t count on either dominant political party to rectify the situation. Both have proven without any doubt that they are concerned only and specifically with what is in their short term interest as a party and as individual politicians, and they will sacrifice EVERYTHING, no matter how sacred, to pursue their goals, protect their status and enhance their position.

As I said, there will be no repeat of the war-between-the-states, but our major cities may very well burn.

Quote of the Day – Atheist Edition

From Joe Huffman Lyle at Joe Huffman’s, Jesus the Socialist:

When Jesus shows up in person, dressed in a black ninja outfit with his own team of storm troopers to take my property, I’ll believe he was a socialist. Until then; Girls, you be trippin’. I’ll go with Douglas Adams’ definition of Jesus; “A man who got nailed to a tree for suggesting we be nice to people.”

RTWT.

He speaks for me.

Quote of the Day – “One Ring” Edition

From Adaptive Curmudgeon, Hobbits! Really! Part II:

Tolkien’s Hobbits fought to resist power. Career politicians wallow in it. Too much power makes politicians hollow and disconnected. Lacking anything else, they cling to power until they drop dead. A defeatist mentality of emptiness. If you’re wealthy enough to retire but hold elected office until you die in old age; power has destroyed you.

Conservative Strom Thurmond and liberal Edward Kennedy are egregious examples. One died in office at age 100 after 47 years in office. The other at age 77 after 46 years in office. Virtual opposites in politics; yet they both clung to power until their dying breath.

Dilbert, from December 21, 1990:

Mom Update

I went to see her yesterday in Cardiac ICU.  They’d tried to take her off the ventilator, but she’s not breathing deeply enough on her own yet, so the tube went back in. 

As a consequence, she can’t talk.  As I stood at the foot of her bed, I said “It must be frustrating not being able to talk.”  She nodded her head.  “I’ll just stand here and savor the moment, then.”

That earned me the stink-eye.

“You can kick my ass later.”  Vigorous nod.

“In Britain, everything is policed except crime.”

That’s a line from Mark Steyn’s latest book, After America.  Here’s another example:

Essex police charge man over water fight planned on BlackBerry Messenger

A 20-year-old is due in court after police discover alleged plans for a Colchester water fight circulating on BBM and Facebook


A man will appear before magistrates next month for allegedly trying to organise a mass water fight via his mobile phone.


The prime minister said last week that the government would investigate whether social networking platforms should be shut down if they helped to “plot” crime in the wake of the riots.


The 20-year-old from Colchester was arrested on Friday after Essex police discovered the alleged plans circulating on the BlackBerry Messenger service and Facebook.


The unnamed man has been charged with “encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence” under the 2007 Serious Crime Act, police said.


He was arrested with another 20-year-old man the day the water fight was allegedly due to take place, and has been bailed to appear before Colchester magistrates on 1 September. The second man was released without charge.

Surely “water fight” is a euphemism for some kind of riot?

Well, no:

In 2008 there was a spate of mass water fights in British towns and cities that were organised through social networks. Most remained peaceful.

From that second link:

A GIRL was punched to the ground by a thug – after a public water fight organised on website Facebook spiralled into violence.

Nine men were held after punch-ups erupted among 250 people – some reported to be carrying knives – in a park.

One muscle-bound thug flew into a rage after a girl playfully squirted fizzy drink over his T-shirt. He chased after the laughing teenager and sent her flying with a right hook.

Then he stood over her menacingly until other shocked revellers pulled him away. One said later: “She was lifted completely off her feet.

Around 250 people had gathered in London’s Hyde Park to cool off with water pistols in the heat – but the event turned sour as visitors reported seeing men “flashing their weapons”.

So, let me get this straight: Setting up a fight with water guns and water balloons is now a crime??

Only in England. And apparently Iran.

I Got Nothin’ for You

My mom had open-heart surgery today – two valves replaced.  She should be coming out of anesthesia late tonight, and will be in ICU for two to three days, followed by 9-10 more in CCU.  She’s 77 and tough (she’s already had both knees replaced – and watched the surgery on a TV monitor as they did the first one.)  I think if she could have been conscious for this, she’d have watched too.

Anyway, I’ll be spending some time after work at the hospital for the next few days, so blogging will most probably be light.

Match Report – Bowling Pins, 8/14/11

Well, this was the lightest turnout since I started running this match, only four shooters showed up.  A year ago there were fourteen shooters besides myself.  Hmmm….

Still, the five of us had a great time!  This was the first month for a specific revolver class, and there were four of us with revolvers:  Don M. came with a Ruger Super Redhawk with “bunny-fart” loads (though a couple of them sounded suspiciously loud), I brought my S&W Model 25 Mountain Gun in .45LC, Travis Higgins brought a beautiful 6″ Colt Python (shooting .38s), and Cliff Reed brought a Taurus 65 (also shooting .38s).  Four of us also had automatics, two 1911’s, a Browning Hi Power, and a Sig 229, and four of us brought .22’s – three Mk IIs and one MkIII.

Since there were so few of us, we competed in pairs until one shooter was eliminated, then finished the match with the top three contenders vying for the overall win.  Travis won the inaugural revolver competition, and I took .22 and the auto classes. Travis had to beat me four times to win with his Python, and did so with relative ease.  I need more wheel-gun practice.  (Or a lighter .45LC load.  That thing THUMPS.)

There will be no match in September – I will be at the sixth annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, Nevada that weekend.  The next match will be in the fall – hopefully a cooler and less humid October 9.  We will have a revolver class again – that was fun!

Hope to see you there!

Quote of the Day – Accurate Diagnosis Division

Reader Phil B. emails a link to another outstanding piece:  Untouchable, from the blog The View from Cullingworth.  Read the whole post, but here’s a taste that qualifies for QotD:

Unlike Oborne – and unlike the left – I reject the idea of man’s perfectibility. Or indeed that we are in need of a “moral reformation” – it is an economic and political reformation we require, a change to the order of things. It is not moral decadence that links the powerful to the rioter but a belief that they are untouchable, that the normal rules of society do not apply.

Quote of the Day II – (formerly) Great Britain Edition

Tam brings it so hard I had to do two QotD:

…look at Cameron’s résumé: He’s a blandly handsome guy who went to all the right schools and has never had a productive non-government job in his life… No wonder Obama hates him; they both wore the same dress to the prom.

England used to be a cool place. It used to rule the world. Now it’s like an island of California, except without the nice weather and food.

—  It’s a poor craftsman that blames the tools

Quote of the Day – John Adams Edition

I must entreat you, to consider the words of this authority (Sir John Kelyng, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, 1665-71); the injured person may repel force by force against any who endeavors to commit any kind of felony; if any of the persons made an attack on these soldiers, with an intention to rob them, if it was but to take their hats feloniously, they had a right to kill them on the spot, and had no business to retreat; if a robber meets me in the street and commands me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking questions; if a person commits a bare assault on me, this will not justify killing, but if he assaults me in such a manner, as to discover an intention to kill me, I have a right to destroy him, that I may put it out of his power to kill me. — John Adams, History of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770

(My emphasis.)  Adams’ point was that the inherent right of self-defense was not denied to soldiers by dint of being soldiers.  They were entitled to the same rights as any man on the street when it came to defense of self and property.

It doesn’t work that way in (formerly) Great Britain anymore.