A Comment Left Elsewhere. . .

A Comment Left Elsewhere. . .

Over at Margaret Soltan’s University Diaries, Margaret links to and quotes from a Heather Mac Donald City Journal piece critical of Sarah Palin because of her speech patterns. Her commenters contribute further, but I left this:

I’ll chime in here. The two-party primary process this year has given us a choice between two excrement sandwiches. I have watched the process, and I am convinced that Dr. Bob of The Doctor is In is right when he says:

For years we have tolerated incompetence, corruption, dishonesty — and yes, greed — in government while looking the other way. On those rare occasions when politicians have made principled stands, we have rewarded them with a firestorm of political assault, full-throated media ridicule and criticism, and enormous financial pressure from lobbyists pouring money into the pockets of those who purport to represent the people. We have elected a government of the people, in the most literal and disgraceful sense: we have elected, and kept in office, those who share our desire for self-gratification and materialistic acquisition at the expense of character, moral integrity, honesty, and prudence. The cesspool which is our current Congress is what we have reaped by our own actions — or perhaps more accurately, by our inaction. We have elected those politicians who are like us in every way — and we hate them for it. They are, after all, created in our own image.

That goes approximately double for our choices of President and Vice-President this year.

And yet. . .

One of the choices we have for President has been surrounded since childhood by avowed Marxists/Socialists. I realize that Antonio Gramsci has won, and that our educational system has been suborned into cranking out large quantities of people who think socialism is a marvelous idea, but now we appear to be at a point where we are about to elect to the highest office in the land a man who would not otherwise pass an FBI background check for a job at the CIA or the Pentagon due to his known associates.

Last Thursday I heard a small Asian lady ask of Wayne LaPierre, “I have only been a citizen of the United States for fourteen years, and I just joined the NRA because I believe in the Constitution and the right to arms. When I see Barack Obama, I see a Communist, and I am afraid. I think he is going to win the election. Does the NRA have a plan if this occurs?” I spoke with her shortly after. She was born of Chinese parents in Cambodia, and was raised and schooled in Taiwan. She studied our Constitution, and made a conscious effort to come to the US and become a citizen. If there’s anyone who knows what a Communist looks like, she should be one.

And yet apparently half the electorate either doesn’t care, or is fine with Obama’s long-time associates.

As I said, Gramsci has won, and the United States is heading into World Socialism just as the Left worldwide has desired.

As Henry Louis Mencken said many decades ago: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

See, I am seriously worried, even from this other side of the Atlantic, by certain facts about Barack Obama. He’s seen as a saintly, almost messianic figure, he who’ll change America into a better place, accepted as peer by the international community, where the power of the state will be used to redistribute wealth, and where all races – except those whites who don’t repent for the sins of their race – will proportionally share power, and the government will be your friend and help you from cradle to grave, even saving the fools from the consequences of their folly.

It looks more like a nightmare than a dream to me, even more so if I consider that America is today the only place left where a man can be minimally free in the true sense of the word (there are other places where life is good, but not as free). – Fabio, The Second Version: In Which I Occasionally Embrace Political Activism

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

For years we have tolerated incompetence, corruption, dishonesty — and yes, greed — in government while looking the other way. On those rare occasions when politicians have made principled stands, we have rewarded them with a firestorm of political assault, full-throated media ridicule and criticism, and enormous financial pressure from lobbyists pouring money into the pockets of those who purport to represent the people. We have elected a government of the people, in the most literal and disgraceful sense: we have elected, and kept in office, those who share our desire for self-gratification and materialistic acquisition at the expense of character, moral integrity, honesty, and prudence. The cesspool which is our current Congress is what we have reaped by our own actions — or perhaps more accurately, by our inaction. We have elected those politicians who are like us in every way — and we hate them for it. They are, after all, created in our own image.The Doctor is In, Surveying the Abyss

This was not the best quote from the piece, but it was one of the few capable of standing alone. Read the short essay in its entirety. Several times.

Tough History Coming, indeed.

H/t to Van der Leun.

I Think I’ve Sold the Mustang. . .

I Think I’ve Sold the Mustang. . .

And to celebrate, I thought long and hard about buying a Fulton Armory Peerless M-14 Match/Target rifle. VERY spendy, but everything I’ve read about it says it’s the finest of its type available, and capable of excellent accuracy. I’m going to Boomershoot in April, and they recommend that you bring a spare rifle (just in case). I thought this might be just the ticket.

So I emailed Fulton Armory about availability (the web page does say “Call for Availability!”) Here’s the bad news:

Unfortunately we are running approx 12-18 months for FA M14 Peerless rifles.

We are very sorry.
Thank you for the interest.

You can’t be any more sorry than I am. Dammit.

HOME!

HOME!

Just got home a few minutes ago. It’s nice to travel and see friends, but there’s no place like home.

With high-speed internet service.

I’ve been disconnected for two days. I think I’m suffering from severe withdrawal. I’ve got some catching-up to do, then maybe some more posting.

L8R!

UPDATE: DirtCrashr has an after-action report.

We’re Either Dedicated or Crazy

Well, we held the 3rd annual Gunblogger’s Rendezvous shoot at the Palomino Valley Gun Club range today, and it was FREAKING COLD! AND windy. It wasn’t so bad when the wind wasn’t blowing, but when it was. . .

I think I may still have toes.

I came back, unfortunately, with a lot more ammo than I expected to, but I was able to easily hit the 400 yard gong with the Remington 700, and I whacked one at a bit over 600 yards a couple of times, despite the wind. Still, I’m not up to the skill level of Phil of Random Nuclear Strikes who can consistently dust pool cue chalk cubes (about 7/8″ on a side) at 200 yards.

I’ve got to try that.

I hit the 400 yard gong (rather easily) with a .308 pistol too. More on that later, but I’m finding this idea very intriguing. I also hit the 55 gallon drum at over 950 yards with US Citizen’s Barrett M82A1. That thing is awe-inspiring and sinus-clearing at the same time.

We have only two more planned events – both involve stuffing our faces. Dinner tonight at 6:00 followed by a bull session into the wee hours, and then breakfast tomorrow morning before we break up and head our separate ways.

This Rendezvous, despite the lack of a couple of previous attendees, is still the best-attended one so far. I think next year will be even better, especially now that we’re getting more industry attention. Sponsors this year were Brownell’s (their top-of-the-line range bag, and a lot of other stuff – 3rd year), Hi-Point firearms (a pistol – 3rd year), Crimson Trace (T-shirts & hats -1st year) and Para-USA (another pistol – 1st year), FrontSite ($2000 worth of training – 1st year), Dillon Precision (Border-shift ammo bag – 2nd year), plus the NRA gave us a bunch of great swag. Cabela’s gave us a guided tour of their Reno store, and let us play in their arcades for free. It’s been a great weekend.

Excuse me, one of my ears just fell off. I have to go find some superglue and put it back on now. . .

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Has anyone actually seen Wayne LaPierre pull a trigger on any firearm?

A gunblogger who shall remain anonymous, asked of Ashley Varner at yesterday’s meet-n-greet/show-n-tell here at the Rendezvous.

“Slight Chance of Snow” My ASS!

“Slight Chance of Snow” My ASS!

The weather weenies predicted earlier this week that there would be a slight 20-30% chance of “snow flurries” on Friday and Saturday.

I woke up to snow flurries this morning.

But we just drove back from Cabela’s through a freaking snowstorm.

Pictures and a little bit of video to be attached to this post later, when I have a bit more time. Mr. Completely has our days scheduled in 15-minute increments, and I need to get back to the hospitality suite for the NRA’s presentation.

If this keeps up, I’m wondering if we’ll be able to get to the range tomorrow.

UPDATED for those of you unfamiliar with the falling white stuff. This is what I saw out my hotel room window at 7:00 AM:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/DSCF0813.flv
And this is what I saw out that same window about 4:00 PM:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/DSCF0817.flv
Others have taken a lot of still pictures of the mountains around Reno covered in snow, but I wanted to give you a sense of the intensity.