Author: Kevin

Quote of the Day

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From someone who should know. . .

This is Mrs. Ly Chho, born of Chinese parents in Cambodia, raised and schooled in Taiwan, naturalized American citizen for fourteen years, and new NRA member, along with her husband who couldn’t make it with her to the NRA press conference yesterday evening because he had to work late.


Unfortunately, Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox were a bit late arriving, so the TV cameras left in the middle of their announcement in order to make the 6:30 news deadline, but (unsurprisingly) the NRA has officially endorsed McCain/Palin.

But that’s not, precisely, what this post is about.

After the announcement, Wayne and Chris took comments from the audience – mostly white people over the age of 40 (mostly well over) from what I could see – but this diminutive asian woman stood to ask her question and was recognized.

She asked, as best I can recall:

I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid. I believe he is going to win the election. Do you have any plans in place if this happens?

Wayne LaPierre responded that we all have the blood of the patriots who threw the tea into Boston Harbor and stood on the bridge at Lexington and Concord in our veins (metaphorically speaking), and that the NRA would never rest, yada, yada, yada.

But that was a powerful statement from Mrs. Chho. I caught up to her to ask her about herself so that I could write this post. At the moment, the Chho’s do not own a firearm, but they are planning to get one as soon as they’ve gone through some NRA basic training. Mrs. Chho explained that she was educated in Taiwan, and had studied the U.S. Constitution, and had chosen to come to America and become a citizen because of that document. She loves and respects what America is, and Obama frightens her deeply.

And she should know.

Thank you, Mrs. Chho. You are another example of someone who is an American because she thinks she’s an American. It doesn’t matter what her ancestry is, or where she was born or where she was educated. She’s an American, and was one long before she made her citizenship oath.

Damned straight I’m a believer in American Exceptionalism.

Quote of the Decade

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In honor of the now $800,000,000,000 bailout and other government takeover of the economy, a prophetic repeat from December 13, 2003:

I predict that the Bush administration will be seen by freedom-wishing Americans a generation or two hence as the hinge on the cell door locking up our freedom. When my children are my age, they will not be free in any recognizably traditional American meaning of the word. I’d tell them to emigrate, but there’s nowhere left to go. I am left with nauseating near-conviction that I am a member of the last generation in the history of the world that is minimally truly free.

Rev. Donald Sensing at Sense of Events: Bush Republicanism = Roosevelt Democratism?

Read Rev. Sensing’s whole piece. Consider the last nearly five years since that piece was written.

I wrote the Reverend yesterday morning asking him if, five years later on, his opinion had changed any.

Read his reply.

Sometimes a Picture Suggests a Story. . .

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Sometimes a Picture Suggests a Story. . .

Checking my referral logs today, I came across this (click for full size):


The referring URL was a post at Something… and Half of Something from July of last year. Entitled Gay Rights, it linked to a piece I wrote about where a self-described gay liberal had his own epiphany and decided to purchase a gun for self-defense. The reader of that piece then clicked through to my post, Ignorance = Fear. Education is the Key. Interestingly, though, his next click was to my earlier post, “(I)t’s most important that all potential victims be as dangerous as they can,” and when he left the site, it was to visit Publicola’s list of people who offer an introduction to shooting.

Unfortunately the reader was in Amsterdam.

Now, putting together the scant evidence, I am led to the conclusion that this reader is probably gay, and probably worried. As reported by GayPatriot, assaults on gays in Amsterdam have been increasing, and increasingly brazen, but they’re being downplayed in the media. A 2005 post at Modern Tribalist details a first-hand account of such a beating, with (broken) links to more. The blog Narcissistic Views on News/Politics reports: Amsterdam Now World Leader in anti-Gay Violence.

I wonder if my reader was a recent victim, or nearly one, and has had his own Awakening?

I have no idea what the laws are in the Netherlands with respect to firearms for self-defense, but somehow I doubt they’re very “liberal” (in the original meaning of the term.)

On the Road

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On the Road

Made it to Bullhead City, AZ in 5.5 hours. Used a half-tank of gas in the Altima. I’ll figure out the mileage tomorrow when I fill up for the trip to Reno.

I’m kinda interested in the fact that we bloggers will apparently get to meet both Chris Cox and Wayne LaPierre tomorrow when they make their big announcement.

At least I will if I can get there early enough.

Quote of the Day

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A coup d’état took place in this country during the past two weeks. If you didn’t notice, perhaps you were distracted by the Dolphins whipping the Chargers, or Tina Fey’s grotesque parodies of Sarah Palin, or perhaps you were immersed in blogs trying to prove that Barak Obama is a domestic terrorist. Regardless of the distraction, while our attention was diverted, a revolution took place. No shots were fired, but plenty of blood was shed. The United States ceased to be a capitalist economy and became a managed socialist state. – Syd from Front Sight, Press, The Suicide of Capitalism

And yes, read the whole thing.

Leaving for the Rendezvous Tomorrow

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Leaving for the Rendezvous Tomorrow

I’m going to work very early tomorrow so I can get out in the early afternoon, then my wife and I are headed out. We plan to stop in Laughlin, NV tomorrow evening, then head up to Reno bright & early. Apparently there’s a big to-do the gunbloggers have been invited to attend, so I have to do my best to get to the hotel by 5:00PM Thursday in order to make it.

Meanwhile, I need to load some .308. One of the guns I’m bringing this year is the 5R.

C’ya!

“The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”

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“The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”

That’s a quote from John Gilmore. I’m here to do my part.

It seems that last week’s Saturday Night Live took some shots at the economic crisis, and – quite pointedly – at a couple deeply involved in it, billionaires Herbert and Marion Sandler, and George Soros.

Apparently this didn’t go over too well with the rich and powerful. NBC has yanked the clip from Hulu.com, and is aggressively pursuing “copyright infringement” when it’s posted at YouTube.com.

So the internet is routing around it. For your entertainment, and in conjunction with the “fair use” statement at the bottom of this page, I present you the SNL skit as political commentary:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/SNLBailoutSkit.flv
Just doing my part!

UPDATE: Apparently an “edited” version is back up at Hulu.com, but this one is the original uncensored clip!

Once You Can Fake Sincerity. . .

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Quote of the Day:

There is no end to it — everyone gets the version of Obama that perfectly fits his own world view. It is not hypocrisy. It’s fraud. – Jennifer Rubin, Commentary, “Hypocrisy Doesn’t Begin To Describe It”

Read the whole (short) thing. Especially the last paragraph.

Obama has said it himself, though he used the passive voice:

I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.

That link’s not bad either. Nice to see Rubin following a theme.

You’d Be Amazed What You Can Find on eBay

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You’d Be Amazed What You Can Find on eBay

I just finished the John Ringo/Tom Kratman novel Yellow Eyes. One running gag throughout the book was “You’d be amazed at what you can find on eBay!”

How true. Via Blognomicon, how’d you like to buy a Roman Ballista?

Yes, this is for real. We are selling a full-size Roman siege catapult (or ballista), which we believe to be the only one of its kind (for at least 2000 years).

The catapult was recreated by a team of experts, following all known records, as accurately as possible – and then successfully fired. It was created for the BBC, for a programme called Building the Impossible, in 2002. It was built by the timber-frame team at Carpenter Oak & Woodland.

The ballista weighs approx 12 tons so postage or even buyer collection is not an option. Fully built, it is approx 7.5 metres tall and 8.5 metres long.

Originally, this cost over £120,000 to build – so we are only looking for serious bidders.

Our reserve price of £25,000 includes the cost of essential repairs to bring it back to a condition where it could be displayed, and includes delivery to any mainland UK destination.

Please note: if erecting is required at the buyer’s site, it will cost an additional £17,500 to the purchase price. It is essential that the site has adequate space for the crane and space for setting up. This will not fit in your average garden!!

I’d say not!