Tag: politics

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

I decided to tune into the Star Tribune’s coverage of the deliberations of the Minnesota Canvassing Board in the Coleman-Franken recount. It is a strangely compelling artifact of representative democracy, but my observation is this: Al Franken’s supporters display a bewildering inability to fill in bubbles.

I have long felt that some sort of familiarity with the mechanisms of American government should be required of electors. I support a policy that rejects the ballots of any voter incapable of filling the ballot in correctly, as a minimal test of electoral competence. – Jackalope Pursuivant, Counting to 1

Al Franken now leads Coleman by 262 votes. It would appear that every single mis- or un-counted vote went Franken’s way. What are the odds of that?

Hugh Hewitt was right – If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat.

Mike Ramirez’s Next Pulitzer-Winner

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Mike Ramirez’s Next Pulitzer-Winner

Mike Ramirez, two-time Pulitzer-prize winner for political cartoons, formerly of the LA Times who just couldn’t stand having a conservative on their staff a minute longer, now works for Investor’s Business Daily, and is still knocking ’em out of the park.

Today’s awe-inspiring example:


If there was any justice in the world, that would leave a livid mark on the forehead of every single member of Congress, House and Senate both.

OK, time to go to bed. I have to get up at 4:45AM. Again.

What HE Said!

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What HE Said!

Thanksgiving dinner was a success. The two-hour 20 lb. turkey was perfect, and the rest of the meal was pretty damned good, if I do say so myself. My lovely bride took over the cleaning chores after the fact, since I’d cooked (and cleaned) all day. Hell, I may do this again at Christmas.

Did a little postprandial web-surfing, and found this: Free in Idaho‘s “It is NOT My Fault.” An excerpt:

The Republican Party has presided over the largest growth of government, the most reckless spending, and some of the most blatant abuses of the Constitution this country has had to endure in many years. Led by George W Bush it has walked further and further away from conservative ideals. Don’t tell me Bush just wasn’t a good communicator, or that he just didn’t articulate the conservative message well. He DOESN’T BELIEVE those things, so how can he communicate them? And when faced with the obviously most Leftist opponents the Dems have ever run, and in spite of the evidence of the surprising support that someone as “not ready to be President” as Ron Paul generated on his message alone, the GOP runs a guy who threatened to jump parties a few years back and as lately as last summer pushed for something not even a majority of “moderates” wanted . . . I’m sorry, blaming conservatives for not joining the team and thus costing them the win is more stupid fingerpointing. Give me one good reason to support the very things we don’t believe in. And “at least he isn’t a Democrat” is NOT the right answer.

There’s a lot more where that came from, and I agree with damned near every word, and I’m not really a conservative. (Oh, I put an “X” next to McCain’s name, and I’d have preferred him to the Dali-Bama, but I never liked McCain as a candidate, and the only reason I voted for him was because it was him or HillBama. As the bumper sticker said, McCain was the least repulsive Democrat on the ticket.)

I’m not a true conservative, but I concur with BillH’s post-election day statement, (minus the bible reference, of course):

Individual liberty.
Personal responsibility.
Honesty.
Free society.
Private property.
Small government.
Strong defense.
Capitalism.
Stewardship.
Charity.
The Constitution for what it says.
The Bible for what it says.

My list looks the same this morning. How about yours?

Oh, and the first excerpt in this post is Friday’s Quote of the Day. Tomorrow is dedicated to reloading, reading, and writing, but not necessarily hitting the “Publish Post” button.

Enjoy your weekend!

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

From a comment left last night by the GeekWithA.45:

The key cognitive sabotage is to present a method of evaluating information that passes as “rigorous” to an uninformed mind.

Such a substitute cannot, by definition stand against a genuinely rigorous evaluation process, but it doesn’t need to, as far as the host is concerned. The mental niche is filled, evaluating the genuinely rigorous process as false, and thus the root of the tree of knowledge is poisoned.

If you look inside the head of such, you’ll find Gramsci laughing his ass off, saying “im in ur base, killing ur d00ds.”

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I’ll be cooking pretty much all day.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.

“It’s the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war,” Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. “It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage.” – As quoted at Politico

The next paragraphs are interesting, too:

Halperin, who maintains Time’s political site “The Page,” cited two New York Times articles as examples of the divergent coverage of the two candidates.

“The example that I use, at the end of the campaign, was the two profiles that The New York Times ran of the potential first ladies,” Halperin said. “The story about Cindy McCain was vicious. It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it case her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn’t talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that’s ever been written about her.” The story about Michelle Obama, by contrast, was “like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is,” according to Halperin.

But Halperin’s comments met with some disagreement from his colleagues:

New York magazine’s John Heilemann, one of Halperin’s co-panelists, offered another reason for all the positive press coverage Obama received.

“The biggest bias in the press is towards effectiveness,” said Heilemann, who is authoring a book on the 2008 race along with Halperin.

“We love things that are smart.”

No, you have an administrative control bias, and you prefer when that administration is Leftist in orientation, because then it behaves like you think it ought to – and is therefore “smart.”

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

A long one, this time:

Seriously, folks, it’s already evident from his first week in office (since presidential power is primarily persuasive, the “-elect” doesn’t mean much) that President Obama is exactly what I guessed: nothing. A Gatsby, a Zelig, a warm breeze in a suit. A bright, but completely characterless and forgettable young man, with an unusual but hardly unique talent for reading speeches on TV. In short, America’s new anchorman.

Once again, America has re-elected her permanent government. Of course that was the only option on the ballot – as it has been since Wendell Willkie. There’s no need to worry at all. Nothing significant in Washington has changed, will change, or can possibly change.

For the next four years, public policy will flow smoothly from America’s universities to her agencies, unimpeded by Neanderthal populism or corporate corruption. Oh, no. All the populism will be of the fashionable, happy-clappy, Starbucks Unitarian flavor. The corruption will be communist – with a small ‘c,’ of course. – Unqualified Reservations: Barack Obama for the Last Time

Via Van Der Leun.

Gun Sales & Me

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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.