Author: Kevin

Quote of the Day – Recession Edition

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Quote of the Day – Recession Edition

I am not so worried about the recession, it’s the recovery that terrifies me, given looming energy hikes, inflation and interest sure to rise—overseen by a government intent on redistributing income. – Victor Davis Hanson, Works and Days, Is America a Deer in the Headlights?

C’mon, Victor, everybody knows that “spread(ing) the wealth around is good for everybody.” It’s economic justice!

Edited to add this tidbit:

After only 11 months of Barack Obama, nearly half the country polls that it would prefer instead the old bogeyman George Bush. The poor media is equally confused. It has two loyalties: 1) it likes, for social reasons alone, to be liberal; 2) but it also is popularity-driven and has no real independent judgment or core belief.

The result is that it wants to keep promoting Obama, but not if his popularity sinks to 40%. Then it too will pile on, and we will see all sorts of ‘insightful’ analyses proclaiming that this pundit or that reporter saw these Obama flaws “all along.”

Give that man a kewpie doll!

Oh hell, this too:

Spiraling public debt, a sinking currency, and a bankrupt popular culture are simply symptoms when the body politic no longer adheres to a time-honored protocol of proven success. Ask ourselves—are we more hard-working, more lawful, more prudent, more independent—or less—than our grandparents? Can we say that we have on average lived more upright lives, both more productive and moral, than our grandparents? If in 50% of the cases, the answer is no, then we can begin to see the problem.

When schools cannot guarantee that their graduates are literate, know basic math, and have some sense of being American—the rights and responsibilities of citizenship—then those, rich or poor, who seek government assistance and violate the protocols will grow, and those able to pay sufficient taxes for them and who follow the letter of the law will shrink.

Kewpie doll, hell. He gets the giant stuffed animal of his choice.

Casa Grande – 12/09

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Well, there was a nice, intimate turnout of gun-nuts for the shoot yesterday. Me, my boomershoot partner Dusty, Mike – one of the people I’ve taken shooting previously, John OC and his gracious and indulgent fiance, Exurban Kevin, and Eseell.

I brought my camera, but for once I spent more time shooting firearms than the breeze or the camera, so here’s what little I did take.

Joe Huffman would be disappointed:

We took the five rightmost shooting benches:

Here’s (left to right) Kevin, Mike, Dusty, and John:

And here’s Kevin posing with his AR:

We did have a visitor. I’ll have you know, ELVIS LIVES!


Elvis and his dad were at the range for only the second time. Elvis has a cut-down Marlin Model 60 (post-Pelleteri model) he’s already pretty good with. I offered to let him shoot my M1 Carbine, but he wasn’t quite ready for that. His dad said “Next year!”

I do plan on doing this again. I hope to see them there!

Oh, and lunch at Ochoa’s was excellent.

Quote of the Day – Global Warming Edition

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Quote of the Day – Global Warming Edition

Man-made global warming is true. In spite of the more than 700 scientists who doubt it, and in spite of Climategate, where the Hadley Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia courageously falsified data, lied, and suppressed facts in the name of truth.

And everyone must believe this truth, or there will never be the consensus necessary to save the world by destroying its economy.

— Let’s have an inquisition, Colin Cohen, When Falls the Coliseum

Second Interview

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Second Interview

Well, in about an hour I will be having my second interview with XYZ Engineering Co. (name changed to protect whoever) where I’ve been told in no uncertain terms “we want to hire you” but they suffer from the same problem my previous employer had – no billable hours for me. It’s a chicken & egg thing, or perhaps cart-before-horse. Everything looks good for the first quarter of 2010, but realistically we’re talking February before people start cutting purchase orders.

I fully expect to be employed again by the end of January, but sooner would be better.

They would have never bothered her if she were on welfare

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They Would Have Never Bothered Her if She Were on Welfare

Unbelievable. No, actually, too believable. I found this at AR15.com. The title of this post comes from the first response to the original post:

$10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces

Rachel Porcaro knows she’s hardly rich. When you’re a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don’t need government experts to tell you how broke you are.

Rachel Porcaro knows she’s hardly rich. When you’re a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don’t need government experts to tell you how broke you are.

But that’s what happened. The government not only told Porcaro she was poor. They said she was too poor to make it in Seattle.

It all started a year ago, when Porcaro, a 32-year-old mom with two boys, was summoned to the Seattle office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She had been flagged for an audit.

She couldn’t believe it. She made $18,992 the previous year cutting hair at Supercuts. A few hundred of that she spent to have her taxes prepared by H&R Block.

“I asked the IRS lady straight upfront — ‘I don’t have anything, why are you auditing me?’ ” Porcaro recalled. “I said, ‘Why me, when I don’t own a home, a business, a car?’ “

The answer stunned both Porcaro and the private tax specialist her dad had gotten to help her.

“They showed us a spreadsheet of incomes in the Seattle area,” says Dante Driver, an accountant at Seattle’s G.A. Michael and Co. “The auditor said, ‘You made eighteen thousand, and our data show a family of three needs at least thirty-six thousand to get by in Seattle.”

“They thought she must have unreported income. That she was hiding something. Basically they were auditing her for not making enough money.”

RTWT. It gets worse.

But I’ll skip to the dénouement:

Rachel says an irony of her year in tax hell is that the IRS is right about one thing — you can’t get by in Seattle on what she makes. That’s why she’s living with her parents. To try to make a life in our shimmering city without relying on welfare, food stamps or other public assistance.

“We’re an Italian family,” she said. “We’re surviving as a tribe. It seems like we got punished for that.”

Of course you did. Can’t have the plebes fending for themselves. The next thing you know, they’ll start thinking that they don’t need government.

At the time of this posting, there are 420 comments on the original story. The natives seem restless.

A Gun and the Willingness to Use It

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A Gun and the Willingness to Use It

Vanderleun has the sound track of a 911 call from a woman in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Donna Jackson had a home intruder who would not stop trying to get in. Listen to the whole thing.

She had a gun. She was willing to use it to defend herself – “I have a shotgun, and I will use it.”

“He’s breaking the window, I’m going to kill him.”

“He looks like an older man. I don’t want to kill him.”

She was calm, clear and collected until after she pulled the trigger.

Having a gun doesn’t mean you’re safe. As Col. Cooper put it, owning a guitar doesn’t make you a musician, either. You need to be willing and able. Donna Jackson met all three conditions. She survived the confrontation. Too many don’t.

The perp was Billy Dean Riley, and was apparently high or drunk. He had a fairly long record of drug and alcohol abuse.

Remember this tape the next time someone tells you that people don’t need guns for self defense and can depend on the State to save them.