And This Would Be a Bad Thing…Why?
Category: Uncategorized
Lest Ye Think I’m a Bible-Thumping Right-Winger
Over on AR15.com, someone asked a series of questions of those of us who are non-believers (and if you have to ask “Non-believers of what?” where have you been the last couple of decades?). Sort of an eight-question quiz of the type that have been so, um, popular around the blogosphere of late.
Here are his questions (in bold) and my responses (in grey):
Our initial kickoff to the USA was the Declaration which says;
“WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”
*If you do not believe in such a Creator, how can you lay claim to any such unalienable rights as listed in the BOR.
I disagree with the source, not the rights.
If you do not believe in a Creator, how can you sing America the beautiful, Or the National Anthem? How do you pledge “one Nation under God”?
I sing them off-key, and I pledge “to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The “under God” part was added after the fact, and I ignore it.
Do you think all this was an accident?
I think it just is, and very well could be the confluence of multiple unlikely conditions, but given the vastness of the universe I don’t find the odds all that daunting.
Do you think that miracles are impossible and things are a coincidence?
I think that “miracles” are what you call high-improbability events, not “acts of God.”
Do you not think there is any higher power?
Higher than what, exactly? Ever seen a quasar? Now THAT’s power.
What do you believe in?
I believe that human beings can accomplish whatever they set out to do.
Who/what do you turn to when things seem out of control?
Me, first. Family if necessary. But mostly I’m quite aware that I’m not in “control” – I’m along for the ride, and I can somewhat guide the path, but caca pasa and I deal with it when it does.
What do you think happens after death?
I honestly don’t know. Soon enough I’ll find out. I like to think that whatever it is that makes me “me” will continue on, or come back and be recycled, but there’s no evidence of this that I accept as factual. As far as I can tell, when I’m gone all that will remain of me is the memories I leave in the minds of others, and the things that I have accomplished in my time here. (I have no offspring, nor do I plan to have any.) I’m quite OK with that.
Your thoughts?
Yup, Can’t Win for Losing
Artist is, again, Chuck Asay.
Did You Have a Good Weekend?
I did. Celebrated my parent’s 49th wedding anniversary on Friday, took a couple of newbies shooting on Saturday, went in to the office on Sunday and programmed.
This looks like a really busy week, so posting will be light. Sorry about that. So, to give you something to think about (and possibly more information than you really wanted to know about me,) I’m going to follow Steven Den Beste’s lead and answer Acidman’s 25 questions.
1. Do you have a personal hero? If so, who is it?
Um, no. There are a lot of people I really admire, but no single person I’d consider a hero.
2. What is your favorite book of all time and what made it so fucking good?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Anson Heinlein.
I think this book is mostly responsible for my political outlook.
3. What does “diversity” mean to you?
Let me quote from someone who put it better than I could:
Diversity is: “…a white guy driving his chinese girlfriend in an Italian car to a Mexican restaurant, and getting pulled over by a black cop.” Mix ethnicities and genders as desired. That’s America, baby!
4. What is the wildest thing you’ve ever done?
Spun a 5.0 liter Mustang off an on-ramp at about 70mph.
5. Do you regret doing it?
No. No harm, no foul. And I think it really proved to me I’d chosen the right woman to marry when she (sitting in the passenger seat) didn’t rip me a new one for showing my ass.
6. Can you drive a stick shift?
Not only can I, I prefer it. I’d much rather stir my own gears.
7. What’s the highest speed you ever traveled in a car?
120 mph indicated. In that same Mustang. It had more in it, but the road didn’t.
8. Were you driving, or riding at the time?
Driving.
9. Which is better: snakes or spiders?
I prefer snakes. Spiders give me the willies.
10. What is the most disgusting thing you ever ate?
Asparagus. Sue me, but I find asparagus disgusting.
11. Have you ever shit your pants? Be HONEST!
Yup. Syncoptic episode, voided my bowels. Not pleasant. When I regained consciousness someone was looking down at me and said “Are you OK?” To which I replied: “If I was OK, would I be laying here?”
12. Was losing your virginity an enjoyable experience?
No. Educational, yes. Enjoyable, no.
13. Should oral sex be outlawed or encouraged?
Who in their right mind would want to outlaw it?
14. Name one man with a fine ass.
Not my cuppa. I suppose you could pick any random Chippendale dancer. At least that’s what my wife says.
15. Do you watch golf on television? If not, will you iron my shirts?
No, and no.
16. Who is Martha Burk?
A laughingstock, I hope.
17. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d drop at least 50 lbs.
18. Do you eat raw oysters?
I don’t eat anything that resembles snot.
19. Are you claustrophobic?
No.
20. If you rode a motorcycle, would you wear a helmet even if the law said you didn‘t have to?
Yes. I’ve studied physics, which is why I wear a seatbelt regardless of the seatbelt laws.
21. Name five great Presidents.
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Reagan,
22. Name three shitty Presidents.
Carter is the only shitty President I can come up with. Everything he did turned eventually to shit. There were certainly some that were no gems, but I wouldn’t hang the term “shitty” even on Bubba. He was merely bad.
23. Now call me fanny and slap my ass. Just kidding.
Ha ha.
24. This is the 4th of July. Did you set off any fireworks?
No, but I went shooting Saturday. Does that count?
25. If you could have dinner and conversation with anyone in the history of the planet, who would you choose?
Robert Heinlein, I think.
THE WAIT IS OVER!
TRINITY is up!
Nineteen twenty-one printed pages worth! (Taking lessons from J.K. Rowling, Bill?)
More later. I need to read & savor.
UPDATE:
Done – although I had to go back and get the rest. Apparently even Moveable Type has a length limit.
Worth the wait, too.
Trinity: Capitalism, Freedom, Ingenuity. Get out of the way, we don’t know what this thing can do! (But it’ll be great!)
Go spend some time. Read. Improve yourself.
Quote of the Day, Last Post of the Night
From Tex’s Whacking Day blog:
Tex’s first law of government: The inevitable failure of legislation will be seen as a justification for even more legislation.
Ayup.
Emperor Misha Addresses an Excellent Question
As you all know, we Americans are extremely proud of being the freest country on the planet, and rightfully so.
But sometimes I fear that we fail to state exactly why we feel that way. To us, I suspect, it’s just so self-evident that we don’t really feel a need to remind ourselves and each other just why it’s so.
I can’t help but thinking that maybe we should. I think it would be healthy for us to do so more, actually, because the unique privileges we enjoy because we’re American shouldn’t be taken for granted. Thousands of people line up every year to earn the privilege of becoming part of our family (I should know. I was once one of them, after all).
[snip]
Tomorrow we’ll all be celebrating the Birth of Our Nation.
Wouldn’t tonight be a perfect time to reflect upon just why and what it is that we celebrate?
I rather think so.
Take it away, Loyal Citizenry. I can’t wait to read your input.
Go to the post. Leave a comment.
Make it a good one.
Well THIS is an Interesting Question.
New blogger Wince and Nod asks:
Sofia Sideshow commented a while back about how a shotgun is Hollywood’s weapon of choice when it comes to dealing with monsters. I wonder what Rachel Lucas, Kim du Toit or Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority would have to say about this.
This is reminiscent of the oft-recurring question “What caliber is best for defeating flesh-eating zombies?” that somebody brings up on AR15.com at least once every two or three months.
Sofia Sideshow’s site puts it this way:
Shotguns are also good demon-killing tools. Shotguns are really the action-movie Leatherman. They’re so useful. Aliens, Terminators, Demons, Raptors…whoever grabs the shotgun at the “we better grab some weapons” part of a movie usually lives.
To go along with that, I’ve got a quotation archived by a “K.R. Murphy”:
“There are precious few horror films that couldn’t be cut well short by a single loaded 12 gauge and someone with the sense to use it.”
Truer words…
“I like to keep this handy,” Click-CLACK! “for Close Encounters.” – Michael Biehn as Corporal Hicks,
with his (short-barrelled!) Ithaca Model 37 from Aliens
(In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a “shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length” at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense.)
Sorry, just had to throw that in.
“This… is my BOOM STICK! It’s a twelve gauge double barreled
Remington, S-Mart’s top-of-the-line. You can find this in the
sporting goods department. That’s right this sweet baby was made in
Grand Rapids Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It’s got a walnut
stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That’s right. Shop
Smart. Shop S-mart”
Bruce Campbell as Ash from Army of Darkness
Just a couple of examples.
Shotguns are quite effective defensive weapons. That’s one reason that police cruisers were for years equipped with a riot gun. Nothing gets someone’s attention quite like racking the slide on a pump-action, and very little else makes as much an impression as 12 .33 caliber 00 buckshot pellets from a 12 gauge shell, or a 1-1/8 ounce slug.
At close range, the shotgun is a devastating weapon, even against the undead! No demon will remain unaffected after receiving the contents of both barrels of a boomstick, no zombie will be munching on your brain after you’ve removed his lower jaw with a well-aimed blast of buck, and even though you risk getting splashed with blood with a pH of zero, no alien exoskeleton will withstand a point-blank impact of a slug.
Of course, not too much is effective against the polymer alloy of a T-1000 Terminator, but a shotgun at least slows one down – more than a 9mm Europellet anyway.
I think the defensive shotgun is an excellent choice against goblins of all types, which is one reason I own one of these:
Mossberg 590
But mine has the Speedfeed stock that holds four spare rounds. Magazine capacity: Nine rounds of 2-3/4″ shells. Barrel: 20″, evil baby-killing heatshield, and (gasp!) bayonet lug for the M-9 bayonet. I keep a box of #4 buck (25 .24 caliber pellets) for mine, and a couple of slugs in the stock just in case I need to stop a charging rhino. Or demon.
Thanks for asking.