Bill Whittle hits another one out of the park:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCBbosq9-RI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Month: September 2011
Quote of the Day – Chicks With Guns Edition
Reader Larry B. sent me a link this morning to an PMSNBC piece on the new book Chicks with Guns by Linday McCrum with the following note:
When you see a front page article on the MSNBC website about women carrying guns you know that we are finally beginning to make headway in the battle about gun rights.
Well, we’ve known we’ve been making progress for some time, but point taken.
That’s not the QotD though. This from Ms. McCrum’s interview is:
“I learned two main lessons while working on this book,” said McCrum, who divides her time between New York City and California when she isn’t traveling for work. “One is that on the subject of guns, nobody is neutral. And the other is that when you get outside of the blue-state cities, everybody has a gun.”
Gee, ya THINK? “40% of households” my aching buttocks. Forty percent will admit to it.
Looks like there’ll be another book to go on the shelf beside Kyle Cassidy’s 2007 portrait book Armed America, which I wrote about here.
Lots to Say, No Time to Say It
I’ve got the urge to write another Überpost, but no time to do it. There are a lot of things I want to comment on, and again, very little time. The new job is going OK, but I’ll be happier when I don’t have to work in Phoenix. It’s a bit far from home.
Just a quick post, then.
I caught the new movie Moneyball last weekend. I’m not a baseball fan, but for some reason I like baseball movies: The Natural, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Major League, Mr. Baseball, I liked ’em all. Moneyball is based on fact, and per the blurb, it is:
The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.
The theme of the film is that, while it’s possible to buy a championship team if you have bottomless pockets, it’s also possible to build a winning team on a budget if you can select players who can get on base and otherwise don’t cost that much.
For a movie based on statistics, it was pretty good. I especially enjoyed the fact that this team of mutts and rejects managed to win a record-setting 20 games in a row – fact.
But throughout the entire movie, I kept having the same thought: The movie would have been just as good and cost a lot less if they’d passed over Brad Pitt and instead drafted Greg Kinnear for the lead role.
The Earth Abides
Haven’t been blogging much, so here’s something to tide you over ’till I get back to it.
Amazing Sights (Can’t embed it.)
The song is “Night Ride Across the Caucasus” sung by Loreena McKennitt, and the lyrics are:
Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride onThere are visions; there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires; there is laughter
There’s the sound of a thousand dovesIn the velvet of the darkness
By the silhouette of silent trees
They are watching, waiting
They are witnessing life’s mysteriesCascading stars on the slumbering hills
They are dancing as far as the sea
Riding o’er the land, you can feel its gentle hand
Leading on to its destinyTake me with you on this journey
Where the boundaries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the time is now lostFind the answers; ask the questions
Find the boles of the clear ancient tree
Take me dancing; take me singing
I ride on too waits the sea
I ride onIn cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lostFind the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I’ll ride on till the moon meets the seaRide on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on
I suggest full screen, and crank it. It’s worth your eight minutes.
I May Have Picked a Bad Time to Change Jobs
I start my new job Monday. Oh. Joy.
Quote of the Day – Historical Edition
Checking my referrer logs, I found a link to a very old post here, a reproduction of a rec.guns post by Crystal River, Florida pawnbroker J. David Phillips. I found out from that link that Mr. Phillips, the survivor of a samurai sword attack by a deranged customer several years ago, has sometime since passed on.
Looking for an obituary on Mr. Phillips, I stumbled across something else entirely, though it was also related to Mr. Phillips through the story of that sword attack. From this FiringLine thread comes today’s Quote of the Day:
Bottom line: this woman couldn’t get a clue if she smeared herself with clue musk and did the clue mating dance in the middle of a field full of horny clues at the height of the clue mating season.
Read the post this comes from. It’s a perfect assessment. And applicable to more than just clueless columnists.
Yes. Yes I Do.
(credit: Michelle Malkin)
224 years ago this day, the Constitution of the United States of America, the founding legal document of this nation (as opposed to the founding philosophical document, the Declaration of Independence) was signed by representatives of 12 the original 13 states (Rhode Island didn’t send anyone).
Sometime in the ensuing two-and-a-quarter centuries, the oath that every elected officeholder takes, specifically to
..support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.
has become meaningless. Mere platitudes uttered to put an “X” in the proper box.
The Constitution has become, through decades of erosion, undermining and entropy, a façade behind which politicians and pundits, activists and enemies hide.
P.J. O’Rourke famously said “The U.S. Constitution is less than a quarter the length of the owner’s manual for a 1998 Toyota Camry, and yet it has managed to keep 300 million of the world’s most unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.” I have said that the Constitution may not be the single greatest work ever set to paper, but it beats whatever it is that the government is using these days.
Happy Constitution Day! May we continue to remember it with reverence, and hope that its equal may some day return, and keep an unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.
Quote of the Day – Stupid Party Edition
From Mark Steyn’s Mailbox:
(H)ere in America, we’ve morphed from John Gross’s summary of Obama’s message— “America is the greatest country on earth: help me change it”— to the Republican message: “Social Security is a Ponzi scheme: let’s work to save it for future generations!”
And we think Obama has a tin ear.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore, Maryland
Politically Incorrect Joke
Got this one via email from my brother:
The Dead Parrot
At dawn the telephone rings, “Hello, Senor Rod? This is Ernesto, the caretaker at your country house.”
“Ah yes, Ernesto. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?”
“Um, I am just calling to advise you, Senor Rod, that your parrot, he is dead.
“My parrot? Dead? The one that won the International competition?”
“Si, Senor, that’s the one.”
“Damn! That’s a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. What did he die from?
“From eating the rotten meat, Senor Rod.”
“Rotten meat? Who the hell fed him rotten meat?”
“Nobody, Senor. He ate the meat of the dead horse.”
“Dead horse? What dead horse?”
“The thoroughbred, Senor Rod.”
“My prize thoroughbred is dead?
“Yes, Senor Rod, he died from all that work pulling the water cart.”
“Are you insane? What water cart?”
“The one we used to put out the fire, Senor.”
“Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?”
“The one at your house, Senor! A candle fell and the curtains caught on
fire.”
“What the hell? Are you saying that my mansion is destroyed because of a
candle?!”
“Yes, Senor Rod.”
“But there’s electricity at the house! What was the candle for?”
“For the funeral, Senor Rod.”
“WHAT BLOODY FUNERAL??!!”
“Your wife’s, Senor Rod. She showed up very late one night and I thought she was a thief, so I shot her with your new Kreighoff Limited Edition Custom Gold Engraved Trap Special with the custom-made Wenig Exhibition Grade Stock. “
SILENCE……….. LONG SILENCE………VERY LONG SILENCE…………..
“Ernesto, if you scratched that shotgun, you’re in deep shit.”
Hey, this is a gun blog. The joke’s got a gun in it….
Quote of the Day – Tam (Again) Edition
She brings the socio-political snark with a vengeance:
And seriously, Egypt: I have to admire the pluck, but how many ass-whippings do you need to take at the hands of the Israelis before you realize that your days of martial glory were buried with Ramses II? You’ve been conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, French, and British. The only nation you’ve defeated in war since the discovery of iron is Libya, and they can’t even kick their own ass without outside help.
The French. That’s gotta hurt.