Category: Uncategorized

9/11

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So, Muslim protesters attacked the U.S. Embassies in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi, Libya because they were upset about

A 14-minute movie trailer, posted on YouTube in English and Arabic, (that) portrays Muhammad as a womanizer and fraud

Well whoop-te-do.

Reportedly, the attackers killed one person in Libya. It is not known whether the victim was American or not.

And you know what the most important thing I learned is?


According to Bloomberg:

In Egypt’s capital, Cairo, Islamist demonstrators scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy, ripped down a U.S. flag and chanted “Obama, we are here to sacrifice for Osama.”

 The Egyptian crowds, numbering in the hundreds, chanted “We are all Osama bin Laden” as the U.S. marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people on orders of the man the protesters were extolling.

Isn’t that special!

I think we’ve restocked on JDAMs and Mavericks, and I understand that the Army is issuing a new and much-improved round for the M4.

UPDATE 9/12/11:  The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three staffers have been killed.  That’s our thanks for helping oust Gaddafi.

“We sacrificed dozens and hundreds during the uprising for our dignity. The Prophet’s dignity is more important to us and we are ready to sacrifice millions,” said mosque preacher Mohamed Abu Gabal who joined the protest.

Well, there are tens of millions of Americans prepared to help you make that sacrifice, Mohamed.

0 for 7

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Well, I’ve been attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous since its inception.  The first year the top prize at the Saturday night raffle was a pistol – a High Point 9mm.  Each year since the prizes have gotten better and better – more guns, more neat swag.  I even gave away a gun at the 2009 GBR.

But I’ve never won one.

I’d hoped that last year would end my dry streak.  Bea had donated a Ruger Blackhawk that she said she wanted me to win, but it was not to be.  Molly Smith took home the certificate for that one.

This year, Ruger Engineering Johnson donated a .45LC Vaquero I really wanted.

My nemesis took it once again.  (Meddling kids!)  And she’s sponsored by Smith & Wesson!

Oh well, I guess winning a gun will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for me.

Buth there’s always next year.

(Typos corrected.  I was in a hurry and typing on my EeePC keyboard.  Sue me.)

Off to See the Wizard

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The trip will be a bit different this year. Instead of driving the Mustang for 15 hours each way, I’ll be traveling up with first timer Danno of the blog SandCastle Scrolls.

In his Cessna 310.

Too cool.

It has just a bit more horsepower than the ‘Stang, but it’ll do the better part of 200mph, and will take us from Chandler, AZ to Carson City, NV in about 3½ hours, where we’ll pick up a rental and drive the remaining thirty minutes to Reno.

Unfortunately, the Cessna doesn’t have the cargo capacity of the Mustang, so I had to leave a few things behind this year I’d planned on taking. I’ll be bringing my Garand, my M1 Carbine, and three handguns, but I’m leaving a (borrowed) semi-auto Thompson, my 1917 Enfield, and my “Power Tool” – the T/C Encore chambered in .260 Remington.

Anyway, we hope to be off the ground and en route by 10:30 AM, which should put us on the ground in time to meet up with the group at Cabela’s.

Hope you’re coming this year. Should be a good one!

Oh, and blogging will be light for the next couple of days.

Movie Recommendation

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No, not 2016 – if you read this blog you probably already know everything Dinesh D’Souza had to say in that one.  No, the film I want to recommend to you today is also a documentary, but it’s not about politics, it’s about a lot of other things – education looming largely among them.  It’s Thunder Soul, a 2010 documentary about the Kashmere High School Stage Band:

Largely, it’s about Conrad O. “Prof” Johnson, the music director of Houston, Texas’s Kashmere High School from the late 60’s until 1978, and the effect he had on the kids he helped educate. From an Amazon review:

The action which forms the core of the film takes place in 2008 when a couple of band alumni from the 1971-4 period – just before Prof retired – decide to find all the old band members – now scattered around the country, with most having not lifted their instruments in years – and hold a “reunion concert” for the then 93 year old teacher. We watch as they come together and practice for the “big night”. Director Mark Landesman interviews Prof in these later years but also incorporates clips from a 1974 documentary on the band titled “Prof & the Band”.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiodQURIe0M?rel=0]

The documentary is available from Netflix streaming.

Watch this documentary, pay attention to what “Prof” has to say, and what his students have to say about him, and ask yourself how we went from that in the turbulent early 1970’s to what we have today. 

Quote of the Day – Milton Friedman Edition

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From this video:

In my opinion, a society that aims at equality before liberty will end up with neither equality nor liberty.  And a society that aims first for liberty will not end up with equality, but it will end up a closer approach to equality than any other kind of system that has ever been developed.  Now that conclusion is based both on evidence across history, and also I believe, on reasoning.  Which, if you try to follow through the implications of aiming first at equality, will become clear to you:

You can only aim at equality by giving some people the right to take things from others.  And what ultimately happens when you aim at equality is that A and B decide what C shall do for D – except that they take a little bit of a commission off on the way.