The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Police…released all the names of the dead — many of them workers whose offices were behind high walls and armed guards, seemingly in one of the safest corners of federal Washington.
They were not safe. The dead were found in the building’s lobby, police said, and on the third and fourth floors.
If someone is willing to die in order to kill you, there is no place that is safe. There is no “right to feel safe,” it’s an illusion, just as “gun free zones” are an illusion.
I love modern media and the 24-hour news cycle.
There were three, two, was only one shooter at the Navy Yard. It was a mid-fifties white male in fatigues, 34 year-old black male – excuse me, “Texan.” He had a rifle, pistol, and shotgun an AR-15 a shotgun. He entered a secure base using someone else’s ID his own ID. He had a past history of violent behavior, but passed not one, but two background checks very recently to get a “Secret” security clearance.
In other words, we don’t know SHIT.
Give it 24-48 hours.
And please, don’t judge all Buddhists by the acts of one man.
But feel free to judge all gun owners by the acts of one man!
Scott Adams commented recently on government intrusion:
Gerard Vanderleun says “Funny Now, But Sooner or Later It Will All End in Guns.” I think Dilbert’s mom probably used poison.
But whatever works….
Edit: Dilbert outsmarts the .gov again:
Hopefully he scrubbed his mother’s records as well.
Republican conservative columnist George Will was recently interviewed by Reason TV. In that interview, Will says:
Whatever confidence and optimism I felt towards the central government when I got here on January 1, 1970 has pretty much dissipated at the hands of the government.
I have another example – Jesse Jackson Jr.:
Although disgraced Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. suddenly developed a “mood disorder” as the feds were about to indict him, he qualifies for generous government disability payments because it’s considered a debilitating mental illness.
Of interesting note is that Jackson Jr., sentenced this week to 2½ years in prison for corruption, never showed any symptoms of a “mood disorder” during his 17 years as a federal lawmaker. The mental illness surfaced abruptly last summer as the congressman, a member of Judicial Watch’s Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians list, was about to get criminally charged.
—
The late onset of what we now knows is a debilitating mental illness makes Junior eligible to get $8,700 per month in government disability pay, according to a news report that also says the slammer-bound politician can get a partial federal pension of $45,000 despite his transgressions.
That’s $149,400 per year. Until, of course, he achieves the “full recovery” promised by his doctors.
Yeah. Right.
Glenn Reynolds uses the phrase “Tar. Feathers.” a lot at Instapundit. I’ve reached the conclusion that it needs to stop being rhetorical and start being literal.
A young Palmview, Texas woman is now glad that her husband insisted on getting a handgun, and also insisted on her learning how to use it:
She told us she heard a man banging loudly on her front door while another walked around to the back.
“I’m a young woman, I’m pregnant, I’m home alone. I’m not going to answer the door – I mean, I know better,” said Alex.
Alex said her husband had just left 20 minutes before. Immediately, she knew something wasn’t right and made the split decision to grab her husband’s handgun.
“By myself with 911 on one hand and the gun on the other and I’m just a nervous wreck. I don’t know what to do …I yelled and I told the 911 ‘Oh my gosh, he broke in!'”
Alex said she’s never felt comfortable with the idea of using a gun.
Still, her husband insisted on showing her how to use one just a few months ago.
“Nervous…It took me a very long time to pull the trigger and he said, ‘when you’re in a situation like that- you’re not going to think twice,'” recalled Alex.
She said that exactly what happened.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pgwpYWPUEY?rel=0]
It could have ended very badly. It did not, because she had a gun and was willing to use it. I wonder what Piers Morgan would have to say to her. (Not really.)
Seen at Instapundit:
In watching the Obama presidency dissolve before our eyes, there is a cautionary tale to be told. Every presidency falls short of the expectations that the candidate sets. But no man has ever promised more and delivered less than the current occupant of the Oval Office. — Peter Wehner
First, Bill comments on Miley Cyrus:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXENU0zWBuE?rel=0]
And then on President Barack Neville Chamberlain Obama:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQtJVjVtVLM?rel=0]
So, a few weeks ago, several bloggers received the same email from a David Smith at GunAuction.com, with the header “We want your blog”:
My name is David Smith and I work for GunAuction.com. Your website, http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/ has sparked our interest. Recently we have realized that we are in need of high ranking blogs about guns. Our company is working to build a blog network that will be seen by millions. With gun rights under attack, we want to create an effective network for letting the public know about current legislation, and new gun products. We’ve started some blogs from scratch, but as you know, it will be months before they develop a following. With the work you’ve already done, we would like to acquire your blog so that we can release our content quickly and effectively. In order to maintain your page rank and not alienate your reader base, our intention would be to keep the content of what you have – just use your blog as a base to release even more gun related material.
If you are willing to utilize our content or even sell us your blog, please let me know. Depending on your ranking and quality of blog we would be willing to compensate you accordingly.
David Smith
GunAuction.com
This, as you might imagine, did not go over well in the gunblogosphere. The general reaction was as if the question were this one:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZgwtpPmLY?rel=0]
My personal response was short and to the point:
David:
No.
Shortly thereafter, a follow-on email arrived:
Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your response to our proposal. GunAuction.com respects the major contributions that the gun bloggers have and continue to make to Gun Culture 2.0, bringing important new viewpoints and an entire new generation into the broader gun community. Your efforts have allowed the gun community to step beyond “preaching to the choir”.
We support your hard work and we want to help it have even more impact. With the tools below, including our content writers and content exchange with our online gun magazine GunNews, we think we can help your blog grow and you can help our online presence grow at the same time.
We are working on offering more options to bloggers and are open to suggestions. We’ve already identified some options (below) that may work for you. Call me and let’s talk about what works for YOU.
• Banner Ads or Text Links
– We offer this option as a per click program. (I.e., a fee paid for each click-through to GunAuction.com) but are willing to discuss annual lump sums in special cases. We will provide both artwork and guidance on setting the text or art up so you will be compensated.• Content Sharing
– We provide, at no cost, relevant gun content for your blog, helping both parties build ranking. You would retain editorial control – any financial agreement would need to be individually arranged. This also includes mutual content sharing as an option, where we would exchange articles with you.• Recruiting Partnership
– We provide a steady income stream for recruiting new users to gunauction.com• Purchase of blog
– We leave all previous content the same including URL and use our in-house content writers to build readership and online visibility. (Our content writers would post on it daily). Depending on the agreement, you would continue as a contributor.If this interests you, give me a call. I will also be at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous with the GunAuction bowling ball mortar, leading the Frosty Beverage Initiative in the evenings. If you can’t attend GBR or we’re not able to meet in person, know that I am grateful for your efforts in helping to protect our gun rights. Please contact me through email or phone!
David Smith
GunAuction.com
My response remained the same.
However, GunAuction.com was a sponsor of this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and so I promised to speak to Mr. Smith if he was one of the attendees – and he was. He’s the young gentleman standing here, next to the bowling ball mortar his boss brought along to the event:
As you can see, he’s a young(er) guy, and after talking with him I think I can say confidently that he was hired for his enthusiasm and search-engine tech savvy, and NOT for his experience and feel for the blogosphere – the gun blogosphere in particular. He had a hard time understanding why those of us who had gone to all the trouble to create our blogs would not be interested in selling them!
“How much for the little girl?”
I am convinced that no insult was intended (that was pretty much a given, anyway) but the tone-deaf nature of the email and its follow-on was precisely that: tone-deafness. He really didn’t get it. Isn’t the internet for making money? So, while Linoge has sworn an oath to the third generation of GunAuction.com’s descendants, I’m willing to cut the kid a little slack. Everybody’s new at their job once.
Here you go:
(Click for full size)
Twelve years ago, I was in a car traveling to the Ford plant in Hermosillo, Mexico when the first airliner struck the World Trade Center. When we arrived at the facility and entered the lobby, a security guard came up and asked if we were aware of “what is going on in the States?”
Needless to say, our meeting that morning was cancelled, and we immediately headed back for the border. During the entire drive we kept trying to tune in radio stations to get more information. We heard the report of the Pentagon impact, and then the collapse of each WTC tower. We weren’t sure if we’d get across the border that day, or even that week, and since we’d only planned on a day trip, this wasn’t encouraging, but by the time we arrived, the border had reopened. The line was an hour long, but it did move, and we got home.
My reaction was surprise that it had taken as long as it did before we were hit, and shock at the effectiveness of the attack. I knew that the reaction to the attack would be swift, and probably severe.
I did not expect a decade-plus of war. I certainly did not expect said warfare to extend into the second term of our current President, much less expansion of that warfare.
Last year’s attack on the Benghazi consulate? Not a shocker, but the total lack of reaction from Washington was. “What difference does it make?” Seriously?
And now Obama wants to strike Syria?
Awhile back on Facebook, someone asked for a one-word description of the Obama presidency. Most all of the responses were derisive, scatological, or merely angry. My response was descriptive: “transformational.” After all, the man said in October 30, 2008 that we were “five days away from fundamentally transforming” the United States. Five years into his Presidency, I’d say that’s the one campaign promise he has most definitely kept.