The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
I’ve Got Some Time Off . . .
. . . before I have to drive back up to Wickenburg on Sunday. I got some of the honeydo’s taken care of today, and I have a pistol match tomorrow morning. It’s been far too long since I sat down and wrote an actual essay.
Expect to see something longish posted on or before Sunday night.
Don’t expect “cheerful.”
Quote of the Day
We don’t have a Justice System, we have a Legal System, the purpose of which is to (supposedly) apply the law fairly to all in a predictable manner.
But even that’s gone by the wayside. The fact of the matter is that it appears that those in the system are interested in getting convictions, not in serving justice.
Found via David Codrea, here’s today’s QotD:
I have long been troubled by the uneven rules among circuits governing the use of unpublished decisions. It made a very irregular and unjust usage. Depending on where you lived, the precedent applicable would vary. Even worse, many courts in circuits which had rules prohibiting citation of unpublished decisions regularly used them for precedent in their own decisions. It made the principles underlying stare decisis unworkable. You should be able to know ahead of time what law will apply to the case you are researching. Use of unpublished opinions in some decisions and not in others, also raised the decision-making of courts to a level of secrecy and unpredictability that may have abridged constitutionality. – Out of the Jungle: “Done” Scotus: On using unpublished opinions
(Bold emphasis mine. Italics in original.) RTWT.
First Runner-Up for QotD
From Mostly Cajun:
We signed out from under that “ruler” thing in 1776. I don’t mind being led, but I am an American and a combat veteran. I don’t do “ruled”.
Can I get an “amen”?
Quote of the Day
I’ve been busy, so I didn’t notice that Mike Vanderboegh had published another excerpt from Absolved on Monday until Wednesday night. Here’s today’s QotD excerpted from that piece, and if you haven’t read the novel up to this point, I suggest that you read this part and then start at the beginning and read the whole thing:
You’ve got us surrounded, you poor bastards.
Remember that we consider our rights merely codified by the Constitution. They are, we sincerely believe, God-given and inalienable. Remember too that we are willing to die for our liberties rather than surrender them up meekly. Remember as well that men and women who are willing to die for their principles are most often willing to kill for them too.
Hey, Nicholson Baker can write Checkpoint, Vanderboegh can write Absolved.
Think of it as the “fairness doctrine” in action.
Quote of the Day
I don’t know how I missed this one:
So, when is Bush supposed to declare himself Emperor-for-Life and declare martial law? I’m sure I read somewhere that was his real plan all along. – “alath” in a comment at Tam’s
I Have a Couple of Questions . . .
. . . for the President-elect:
1) Will the fixing of our souls be part of the single-payer medical plan after it passes, or will it simply begin on inauguration day? (Or will it require an Executive Order?)
2) Same question about healing the planet. I assume the rising of the seas will slow immediately? Or did that begin already?
You have to stay on top of those campaign promises!
A lot of pixels have been spilled concerning the quantity of firearms, ammunition and accessories being purchased in the wake of The Obamessiah’s ascension. Here’s my story:
You probably already know about the M14, but here it is again. Since I sold my Mustang, I have a pretty nice chunk of change, and I decided I wanted a really first-rate M1A/M14. My previous experience with Fulton Armory was good, and they offer their Peerless M14 at a pricey, but not overwhelming price.
One problem – 12-14 month delivery.
Kind readers pointed me to Ted Brown, who has an outstanding reputation and offers rifles built on the forged LRB M25 receiver. VERY pricey, but just DAMN. That should be a piece of art when it’s done. I sent him my order last week with a deposit. The wait is 7-10 months. But I’ll be receiving the stripped receiver for transfer as soon as it comes in, just in case Obama wants to add the M1A/M14 to the banned list. I want to own the “rifle” as soon as possible. I’ve already purchased eleven 20-round magazines.
I currently own one AR15 lower and two uppers. The lower was custom built by Fulton Armory on a Bushmaster stripped receiver with all FN parts except for a Jewell 2-stage target trigger and a Ergo grip. One upper is a Fulton custom with a 16.25″ Douglas air-gauged 1:9 twist bull barrel, a GG&G extended picatinny rail, a free-floated quad-rail forend and a Harris bipod. Mounted on top is a Leupold target scope. It’s a tack-driving SOB shooting 75 grain Hornady BTHP handloads.
The other upper is a Stag M4gery with an EOTech and backup irons that co-witness.
I wanted a second lower with a VLTOR carbine stock for the M4gery.
On Saturday two weeks before the election I went in to my favorite gun shop, Murphys Guns & Gunsmithing, and asked them if they could get me an assembled Bushmaster lower without a buttstock (it’s a catalog item for Bushmaster). During that trip I bought a T/C Encore frame from them. Later in the week they got back to me: Yes, they’re available, “plenty in stock” at the vendor. I went in the next Saturday (the one before the election last Tuesday) and placed my order, paying in full up front.
I went in last Saturday to see if they’d received it.
They’d forgotten to order it.
They’re no longer in stock. Nobody really knows when they’ll be able to get one.
My VLTOR buttstock came in from Brownell’s last week. I think it’s going to be lonely for a while.
At the last Gunblogger’s Rendezvous, I shot Dave’s .308 T/C Encore, whacking the steel plate at 400 yards with relative ease. Today I placed an order for a .260 Remington barrel, stainless, with a muzzle brake, scope base and a forearm from Bullberry’s.
Delivery is running three (3) months on those.
Quote of the Day
The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.
I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts. – Peter Hitchens, The night we waved goodbye to America… our last best hope on Earth
Hitchens will now be ridiculed as a racist. You heard it here first.
Obama Plans to Hit the Ground Running, It Seems
From Investor’s Business Daily:
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Transition: President-elect Obama isn’t planning to wait for Congress to pass his agenda. On Day One, he plans to rescind Bush executive orders on everything from embryonic stem cell research to offshore drilling.
When minority Republicans seemed to force congressional Democrats to abandon efforts to extend the legislative ban on offshore drilling that expired on Oct. 1, it was considered a pro-drilling victory. In July, President Bush had lifted an 18-year presidential ban on offshore oil drilling. Soon, it was hoped, it would be drill, baby, drill.
The Democrats knew otherwise. They’d run out the clock knowing that a President Obama and a re-elected Democratic Congress would undo this right-wing mischief. As Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted at a Sept. 18 press conference: “Nobody’s going to be drilling offshore in the next three months.”
Judging by statements made by John Podesta, nobody’s going to be drilling anywhere domestically for a very long time. On “Fox News Sunday,” Obama’s transition chief called the federal Bureau of Land Management’s plan to open about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling “a mistake.”
“They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah,” Podesta said. Expect Obama to rescind that action and reissue the executive order banning offshore drilling in protected waters.
The Washington Post reports that the Obama transition team has a list of 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders scheduled to be undone with a stroke of Obama’s pen on alleged climate change, embryonic stem cell research and other issues.
Who was it that said, “Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Pretty cool, huh?” Oh, right Paul Begala during Clinton’s administration.
Read the whole thing.
All those people who keep saying that Obama will have to move to the middle in order to get anything done want to reconsider?
Ramirez Weighs in on the Palin Question
The man is a national treasure. (Mike Ramirez, not McCain.)