The Smallest Minority |
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The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand "I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing." KdT
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Wahabism Delenda Est   
Hey, FEC!  BITE ME! I'm a Member of the McCain-Feingold INSURRECTION!   "Jeez, Kevin... calling you an asshole would be a huge understatement, wouldn't it?" -Jack Cluth, The People's Republic of Seabrook (Coming from you, Jack, it's an honor.)  email: gunrightsAT comcastDOTnet INVITATION: If you have never shot a firearm, regardless of your position on the right to arms, and if you live near or visit the Tucson, AZ metropolitan area, I invite you to go shooting for a day. I will provide the arms, ammunition, targets, safety equipment, range fees and instruction. All you have to do is show up. 4 Takers To Date DO YOU LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE and want to try shooting? Click HERE  Proud Gun-blogging member of the Pajamahadeen since May, 2003!
Debates: "The Commentary" A OLD discussion on gun control between me and an Irishman living in London Start here. UPDATED! Now with archive! Post #1 by Alex, a Guest A multi-post discussion hosted here at TSM My short exchange with Professor Saul Cornell of the Second Amendment Research Center Best Posts: The "Rights" Discussion: What is a "Right?" What is a "Right"? Revisited, Part I Part II Rights, Morality, Idealism & Pragmatism, Part I Part II Part III Part IV The United Federation of Planets Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection? Part I & Part II 1975 in Washington, D.C. vs. 2004 in Canton, Ohio Go Ahead, Rely on the Government for Your Protection The Other Side Liberal vs. Conservative: Both are Necessary The Blog that Ate Poughkeepsie Updated and restated as: Of Laws and Sausages Militias A Mistake a Free People Get to Make Only Once This is NOT What I Wanted to Read TRUST The Lying "News" Media, Pt. II Say WHAT? Bias? What Bias? Agenda? What Agenda? The Church of the MSM and the New Reformation Let's See if I Can "Germinate an Intelligent Thought" Here The ACLU Hasn't Changed its Tune They Never EVER Stop It is Not the Business of Government Five Reasons Why It ISN'T They Keep Making Better Fools Five Month Investigation, 10 Tracer Rounds, Two Felony Convictions That Sumbitch Ain't been BORN! On Guillotines and Gibbets England Slides Further Towards Bondage Pressing the "RESET" Button Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothin' Left To Lose A Terrible Resolve The Courts Will Not Save Us Trilogy: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions "Game Over, Man. Game Over." An Important Question And the denouement: Hudson Was Wrong The Dangerous Victims Trilogy: "(I)t's most important that all potential victims be as dangerous as they can" Violence and the Social Contract Governments, Criminals, and Dangerous Victims In the same vein: Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them The True Believers Trilogy: True Believers March of the Lemmings Reasonable People Also in the same vein: Tough History Coming Technical Dissertations Why Ballistic Fingerprinting Doesn't (And Won't) Work Spin, Spin, Spin Speaking of Teddy Kennedy... This is the Kind of Thing That REALLY IRRITATES ME Questions from the Audience?
BLOGROLL:
PROTESTWARRIOR Some people who are taking the fight to the Left. And some GREAT T-shirts, too. DAILY READS I need a longer day! Day by Day InstaPundit Lileks' The Bleat Kim du Toit Mostly Cajun View from the Porch Of Arms and the Law TFS Magnum Ravenwood's Universe Irons in the Fire Say Uncle TRUE EXCELLENCE American Digest The Belmont Club The Volokh Conspiracy Michael Yon Varifrank Eject!Eject!Eject! Eternity Road Oleg Volk Personal Effects ON INDEFINITE HIATUS USS Clueless The Safety Valve Ipse Dixit The Lopsided Poopdeck Acidman (RIP) Skywritings Publicola D.C. Thorton Smoke on the Water OTHER GUN/RIGHTS BLOGS Airborne Combat Engineer AlphaPatriot Alphecca American Dinosaur A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver The Anarchangel The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler Argghhh! The Bitch Girls Boots and Sabers The Breda Fallacy Call Me Ahab Carnaby Fudge Clayton Cramer Cogito Ergo Geek Countertop Chronicles Cowboy Blob Critical Mastiff Cryptic Subterranean FreedomSight From the Heartland Fun Turns to Tragedy!!! The Geek with a .45 Gunwatch Heartless Libertarian Hell in a Handbasket Individ Justin Buist's Blog The LawDog Files Lead and Gold Les Jones Mad Ogre The Michael Bane Blog Moral Flexibility Mr. Completely Murdoc Online The Munchkin Wrangler Ninth Stage No Looking Backwards No Quarters Oscar Poppa Outrageous Malfunction Pass the ammo Posse Incitatus Random Nuclear Strikes Reasonablenut Resistance is Futile! Sandcastles and Cubicles SlagleRock's Slaughterhouse Snowflakes in Hell Surly Curmudgeon Texican Tattler The Ten Ring South Park Pundit Triggerfinger The View From North Central Idaho Vox The War on Guns Weck Up To Thees! Wince and Nod Xavier Thoughts .45 Caliber Justice BLOGGERS I'VE MET Cowboy Blob Kim du Toit Mrs. du Toit Serenity Smoke on the Water The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler On the Patio Fodder of Ride Fast & Shoot Straight Rivrdog Say Uncle JimmyB, The Conservative UAW Guy KeeWee Mr. Completely Og the Neanderpundit USCitizen of Traction Control World Examiner Joe Huffman Chris & Mel John and Beth Donovan Sebastian of Snowflakes in Hell DirtCrashr of Anthroblogogy Rob of The Kitchen Maj. Chuck Ziegenfuss of From My Position... On the Way! Matthew of Triggerfinger Sarah of Carnaby Fudge KevinP who maintains this excellent Wikipedia entry on the Joyce Foundation Dave Hardy Clayton Cramer Primeval Papa FURRINERS Kiwi Pundit The Policeman's Blog Free Market Fairy Tales Samizdata Musing The Second Version OTHER GOOD READS Baby Troll Blog The Winds of Change Sense of Events The Everlasting Phelps Knowledge is Power QandO Blog Radio Blogger THE PSYCHE BRIGADE Dr. Sanity Dr. Helen One Cosmos ShrinkWrapped Neo-Neocon Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred OTHER AZ BLOGS Useful Fools Zonitics Jackalope Pursuivant Primeval Papa DEPT. OF OUR COLLAPSING SCHOOLS Joanne Jacobs EducatioNation Teacher, Teacher The Irascible Professor OTHERS KIND ENOUGH TO BLOGROLL ME Adding to the Noise America's North Shore Journal Anthroblogogy Atomic Nerds Baboon Pirates Bad Dogs and Such The Bastidge Blognomicon Charming, Just Charming Chublogga! Classical Values Common Sense and Wonder Combs Spouts Off Conservative Scalawag The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns damnum absque injuria David Drake Digital Retrograde The Dougout The Emigre with a Digital Cluebat Empire of Dirt Ether Mind The Fabulous Mint 400 The Freeholder Heinleinblog Impearls Interested-Participant Isaac Schrödinger Josh's Weblog Keith Devens Kill Righty Libertopia The Liberty Zone The Liberty Papers Living in the Surreal World Mike's Eyes Miss O'Hara The Mind of Mog The Ministry of Minor Perfidy MonkeyWatch Adam Lawson NashvilleFiles Near the Salty City PervasiveLight Pierre Legrand's Pink Flamingo Bar Practical Penumbra The Passing Parade Right As Usual Rough Diamond Rules for Rulers Sharp as a Marble She Who Will Be Obeyed! The Speculist Sperari Striderweb A Trainwreck in Maxwell Upbeat Cynicism (Ian Hamet) The Warren Warthog's Rants Wasted Electrons Wheels within Wheels Wicked Thoughts  
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Saturday, May 17, 2008
More Shots from the NRA Convention Back on the exhibit floor today, I thought I'd just take some shots of stuff I find interesting. First up, another bitter clinger:
The single-shot, not the model holding it. I didn't get her name. Here's one to REALLY make Sarah cry:
But this is just wrong:
And, finally, the great reward for any blogger, a fan stopped me in the middle of an aisle and said he had been specifically looking for me. Ladies and gentlmen, one of my sixteen regular readers (presented as evidence that this really happened!):
| OK, THAT Went Well... The gunbloggers were supposed to have a private hands-on with FH Herstal at their booth at 8:00AM, so I dragged my butt out of bed at 7:00 and got to the convention center. Surprise! Didn't happen. Even better, the NRA Pressroom which was supposed to open at 8:00 was locked. Until 9:00. As someone commented (not a gunblogger), the NRA just doesn't deal well with the media. You know, I can kinda see his point. | Friday, May 16, 2008 Quote of the... Decade? I hate the dentist. My teeth are like little vaginas.First runner up, Rob Allen from Sharp as a Marble: Rob: Do they have anti-gun conventions?. . . . . . I guess you had to be there. | A Few Shots (So to Speak) From the NRA Convention I was there for the gate opening at 10:00AM. What a crowd! I've never seen so much high-speed, low-drag hardware in one place in my life. And there were a lot of very political statements. Here's one I particularly liked, on the back of a young man's T-shirt:
One other thing, though: I watched most of the speakers at this afternoon's "Leadership Conference" (starting with Ollie North - since they had a hard time getting us a video feed in the Press room). The general gist of pretty much every speech (as I heard it) was "Please don't stay home this November. McCain may suck, but he's better than the Democrat alternative, no matter which one it is!" What a resounding endorsement of Senator Cylon. | Thursday, May 15, 2008 OK, I'm in Louisville Made it to the hotel, & unpacked. The weatherweenies were right - it's wet here. And the jacket I brought with me that I thought was water-resistant surrendered immediately. It's now hanging in the bathroom in shame, trying to dry. It's 8:40 local time (and still light out), 5:40 Tucson time, and I have had a Snickers bar and a Pepsi today. (Breakfast of champions!) I need to find something resembling food. And maybe some Scotchguard. If there's anybody else staying at the Executive Inn, drop me a email - gunrights-at-comcast-dot-net. Maybe we can get together later. For right now, it's back out into the rain and something to EAT. Labels: blogging | Word of Advice I'm at the airport, waiting for my plane to arrive. It's probably NOT a good idea to fire up the laptop in the waiting area when you've replaced Window's "Startup" chime with a soundclip from the movie Serenity. Especially when the speaker volume is set to "High". And most especially when the soundclip says this: This is the Captain. We're having a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence, and then... explode.And I wonder why I'm on a TSA list. Labels: blogging, miscellaneous | Wednesday, May 14, 2008 STILL On the List I just tried to check in online with Frontier Airlines for my flight out to Louisville tomorrow. Despite the nice letter I received from the TSA back in March, I'm apparently still on their list of suspicious people, even though the FBI recently gave me a clean bill of health:
In other words: "Go away. You're bothering me." I don't have the time or (especially) the money to pursue that option, so here's the deal from now on - no matter what gas prices are, if my destination is 15 hours or less away, I'm driving. If it's vacation, I'll take TWO days to get there. Mr. Jim Kennedy of the "Traveler Redress Inquiry Program" is kindly invited to lave my nether regions, neglecting not the 'taint, and that goes for the entire employment roster of the "A Security Theater" department of "Homeland Security." I wonder if I should wear my Proud Member of the Triangle of Death t-shirt tomorrow, or my Achmed the Dead Terrorist one? Labels: Leviathan | Quote of the Day The fact is that the Democrats will control Congress. If they also control the White House, we will have a series of legislative packages that will make the Great Society look like a libertarian government. In opposition the Republicans rediscover their principles; it's power they haven't been able to handle since Newt Gingrich was Speaker.RTWT. Labels: Leviathan, linkery, QotD | That's 35 in Dog Years The Smallest Minority turns 5 today. Five years ago, Wednesday May 14, 2003, I put up three posts; one of which was "What is a Right?" Interestingly, we're still discussing that topic. This will be my 2,936th post, an average of about 1.6 posts per day. Two years ago I was at post 2,117. (Obviously I've either slowed down, or I've made up for a decrease in quantity for an increase in On the first anniversary of this blog, I posted 40 Things About Me and This Blog. I just re-read it. Nothing much has changed except I'm older, I'm no longer Pistol Director at the Tucson Rifle Club and I don't run the IHMSA matches there anymore, my grandkids are four years older (and STILL living with me), and I've read a lot more books. I'm still arguing with people, and trying to educate both myself and others. Over the last five years I've watched as the defenders of the right to arms have grown stronger and more active, and I've watched as those who want the State to provide cradle-to-grave "care" have, too. They don't see it like that, but it's what it boils down to in the end. Over the last five years I've watched our military fight enemies armed with small-arms, crew-served weapons and IEDs (some of which are made in Iran), and enemies who control the checkbooks that pay, feed, and supply them. I've watched our political masters on both sides of the aisle behave like angry children. (It was Heinlein who said that "civil servant" is the semantic equivalent of "civil MASTER".) I've watched the Supreme Court make decisions that, as Antonin Scalia has noted, create a Constitution for a country I don't recognize. I've watched as the Chief Executive has spent money like water, and asked the people to just keep shopping! while doing dick-all about our porous borders. Yeah. That's sustainable. And now we're at a point, politically, where there are three candidates running who have a realistic shot at the Presidency, and I wouldn't urinate on any of them if their hair was on fire. Where the hell is the space colony they promised me when I was a child, watching men leave bootprints and tire tracks in the lunar dust? Where is my new frontier, my place to go to so that I may live free? (I mean, I appreciate Scaled Composites and its competitors, but we should be living up there now, not floating around in low-Earth orbit in a tin can.) Oh. Yeah. NASA. Right. We're headed for the nanny-state. We're voting for it. I've been watching the petri-dish of Western Civilization that is the UK, and that's the direction we're headed, once they figure out here how to disarm the few of us who really mean it when we say we don't want to live like that. (You can almost hear the gnashing of teeth over the Founders putting the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights.) Five years. That's a lot of words. And mostly it's been an exercise in trying to teach the horse to sing. But I'm not quite ready to give up. After all, SCOTUS hasn't handed down it's decision in D.C. v Heller yet! Here's to one more year. Labels: blogging | Tuesday, May 13, 2008 30 Months in Prison, Two Years Probation According to a post at AR15.com, that's the sentence David Olofson just received. Do you own a semi-automatic rifle, pistol or shotgun? You'd better keep 'em clean and in perfect working order, or you too can be a felon! An appeal has been filed. It should have been filed as soon as the verdict was read, but I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV. You cannot imagine how pissed off I am right now. I'm going to the NRA national convention in Louisville this weekend. I imagine this case will be a MAJOR topic of discussion. It had BETTER be. | The Secret Service Doesn't Trust Us There's a shocker. I guess they heard the reaction to McCain's Plan on Global Climate Change. By email from Ashley Varner of the NRA, apparently the Secret Service will not allow anyone carrying anything more lethal than a shrimp fork (if that) in His Presence: I know there's very, very little time, but i just received confirmation about guns in the forum.Honestly, I'm not at all surprised. I was in fact shocked that they were going to let him appear at a venue where a significant portion of the audience would be A) not government employees who were B) armed. Labels: miscellaneous | Monday, May 12, 2008 My Boss Has a Sense of Humor You've got to read this post. Heh. Indeed. (Always wanted to say that.) | All Markadelphia All the Time Well, not much longer. Perennial commenter and fellow blogger Markadelphia has decided to spend more time at his own blog and less at mine (*sniffle*), but I dropped by the other day and found a couple of posts that just begged commentary, so I indulged. Dammit. Anyway, Markadelphia responded with a comment that just requires a reply. Here's his comment with my response. (Yes, I fisked it): I don't really have a belief system, Kevin, other than my belief in Christ. I have plenty of problems with liberals. In fact, the list is probably at least two thirds as long as the problems I have with conservatives.So far, Mark, the problems you appear to have with most self-described liberals seems to be that they're not liberal enough. It's that "turning up the power" problem that I keep referring to as "Do it again, only HARDER!" If I don't understand your philosophy, it certainly isn't for lack of trying...it is for lack of clarity on your part.No, it's because our worldviews are so completely divergent. You simply cannot comprehend that I do not believe the things you believe are true about all people, thus you keep trying to make me fit into your mental image. You convince yourself that if you try just a bit harder you can convince me that you're right. After all, it's so obvious to you. You have, after all, asked yourself the right questions! (You knew I had to throw that one in, didn't you?) You say you are a classic liberal, the champion of freedom and liberty, and yet you are willing to sign it all away in the name of national security.That's how you interpret it, but (as exampled in the comments to the post above) you keep misinterpreting perfectly good complete, meaningful sentences. Meanwhile, what are you willing to sign away in the name of "social justice"? You shout at the top of your lungs about free speech and yet you blow a bowel when any book, tv program, or film questions our current international policy-calling them kooks and/or traitors and discouraging critical thought.Here's a perfect example. What does the First Amendment's protection of free speech mean? As I understand it, it means that the government cannot shut people up. It does not protect people from any repercussions. If I want to stand directly across from protesters and tell them they're assholes, the GOVERNMENT can't shut me up either. If I want to take out a full-page ad directly across from theirs, same thing. If I want to boycott their product or their advertisers and encourage others to do the same, I'm perfectly free to do so. The First Amendment's freedom of speech clause does not mean you get to protest unopposed. It means the government doesn't get to threaten you, jail you, or kill you for exercising it. This has, however, been violated under color of law. Abraham Lincoln did it, Woodrow Wilson did it. FDR did it. You aggressively advocate an "alternative" education to the "socialist crap" being taught in our "collapsing" schools and yet it is clear to me that what you really desire is dissemination of propaganda--propaganda which does go farther back than eight years.First, that little factoid must explain why history doesn't appear to be taught in school much anymore. My daughter graduated from high school in 1997. She had no idea what Pearl Harbor was or its significance. She was aware, however, that Thomas Jefferson fathered children on one of his slaves though! I looked up the book. I found this (since one of your commenters mentioned how "Loewen really busts out the whupping stick on Woodrow Wilson") very interesting. From the Barnes & Noble site, first part of the Publisher's Weekly review: Loewen's politically correct critique of 12 American history textbooks-including The American Pageant by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy; and Triumph of the American Nation by Paul Lewis Todd and Merle Curtis sure to please liberals and infuriate conservatives.Surprise, surprise. Now, from an excerpt from the book itself: Over the past ten years, I have asked dozens of college students who Helen Keller was and what she did. They all know that she was a blind and deaf girl. Most of them know that she was befriended by a teacher, Anne Sullivan, and learned to read and write and even to speak. Some students can recall rather minute details of Keller's early life: that she lived in Alabama, that she was unruly and without manners before Sullivan came along, and so forth. A few know that Keller graduated from college. But about what happened next, about the whole of her adult life, they are ignorant. A few students venture that Keller became a "public figure" or a "humanitarian," perhaps on behalf of the blind or deaf. "She wrote, didn't she?" or "she spoke" -- conjectures without content. Keller, who was born in 1880, graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 and died in 1968. To ignore the sixty-four years of her adult life or to encapsulate them with the single word humanitarian is to lie by omission.So we've established the horrible hidden historical secret that Helen Keller was a socialist! And more, that Woodrow Wilson persecuted the union to which she belonged! But wait! There's more! What we did not learn about Woodrow Wilson is even more remarkable. When I ask my college students to tell me what they recall about President Wilson, they respond with enthusiasm. They say that Wilson led our country reluctantly into World War I and after the war led the struggle nationally and internationally to establish the League of Nations. They associate Wilson with progressive causes like women's suffrage. A handful of students recall the Wilson administration's Palmer Raids against left-wing unions. But my students seldom know or speak about two antidemocratic policies that Wilson carried out: his racial segregation of the federal government and his military interventions in foreign countries.Fucking right-wing capitalist warmonger! Wilson's invasions of Latin America are better known than his Russian adventure. Textbooks do cover some of them, and it is fascinating to watch textbook authors attempt to justify these episodes. Any accurate portrayal of the invasions could not possibly show Wilson or the United States in a favorable light. With hindsight we know that Wilson's interventions in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua set the stage for the dictators Batista, Trujillo, the Duvaliers, and the Somozas, whose legacies still reverberate.See! He did all this for the corporations! But "as the months passed, even President Wilson began to lose patience." Walter Karp has shown that this version contradicts the facts -- the invasion was Wilson's idea from the start, and it outraged Congress as well as the American people. According to Karp, Wilson's intervention was so outrageous that leaders of both sides of Mexico's ongoing civil war demanded that the U.S. forces leave; the pressure of public opinion in the United States and around the world finally influenced Wilson to recall the troops.See! See! Warmonger! And he was a rabid anti-communist! His was the first administration to be obsessed with the specter of communism, abroad and at home. Wilson was blunt about it. In Billings, Montana, stumping the West to seek support for the League of Nations, he warned, "There are apostles of Lenin in our own midst. I can not imagine what it means to be an apostle of Lenin. It means to be an apostle of the night, of chaos, of disorder." Even after the White Russian alternative collapsed, Wilson refused to extend diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union. He participated in barring Russia from the peace negotiations after World War I and helped oust Béla Kun, the communist leader who had risen to power in Hungary. Wilson's sentiment for self-determination and democracy never had a chance against his three bedrock "ism"s: colonialism, racism, and anticommunism. A young Ho Chi Minh appealed to Woodrow Wilson at Versailles for self-determination for Vietnam, but Ho had all three strikes against him. Wilson refused to listen, and France retained control of Indochina.And, like all right-wingers, he was a racist! At home, Wilson's racial policies disgraced the office he held. His Republican predecessors had routinely appointed blacks to important offices, including those of port collector for New Orleans and the District of Columbia and register of the treasury. Presidents sometimes appointed African Americans as postmasters, particularly in southern towns with large black populations. African Americans took part in the Republican Party's national conventions and enjoyed some access to the White House. Woodrow Wilson, for whom many African Americans voted in 1912, changed all that. A southerner, Wilson had been president of Princeton, the only major northern university that refused to admit blacks. He was an outspoken white supremacist -- his wife was even worse -- and told "darky" stories in cabinet meetings. His administration submitted a legislative program intended to curtail the civil rights of African Americans, but Congress would not pass it. Unfazed, Wilson used his power as chief executive to segregate the federal government. He appointed southern whites to offices traditionally reserved for blacks. Wilson personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The one occasion on which Wilson met with African American leaders in the White House ended in a fiasco as the president virtually threw the visitors out of his office. Wilson's legacy was extensive: he effectively closed the Democratic Party to African Americans for another two decades, and parts of the federal government remained segregated into the 1950s and beyond.A racist and an anti-communist, a warmonger and a colonialist. All undeniably true. But there's still more: Wilson displayed little regard for the rights of anyone whose opinions differed from his own. But textbooks take pains to insulate him from wrongdoing. "Congress," not Wilson, is credited with having passed the Espionage Act of June 1917 and the Sedition Act of the following year, probably the most serious attacks on the civil liberties of Americans since the short-lived Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. In fact, Wilson tried to strengthen the Espionage Act with a provision giving broad censorship powers directly to the president. Moreover, with Wilson's approval, his postmaster general used his new censorship powers to suppress all mail that was socialist, anti-British, pro-Irish, or that in any other way might, in his view, have threatened the war effort. Robert Goldstein served ten years in prison for producing The Spirit of '76, a film about the Revolutionary War that depicted the British, who were now our allies, unfavorably. Textbook authors suggest that wartime pressures excuse Wilson's suppression of civil liberties, but in 1920, when World War I was long over, Wilson vetoed a bill that would have abolished the Espionage and Sedition acts. Textbook authors blame the anticommunist and anti-labor union witch hunts of Wilson's second term on his illness and on an attorney general run amok. No evidence supports this view. Indeed, Attorney General Palmer asked Wilson in his last days as president to pardon Eugene V. Debs, who was serving time for a speech attributing World War I to economic interests and denouncing the Espionage Act as undemocratic. The president replied, "Never!" and Debs languished in prison until Warren Harding pardoned him. The American Way adopts perhaps the most innovative approach to absolving Wilson of wrongdoing: Way simply moves the "red scare" to the 1920s, after Wilson had left office!So Wilson was quite happy to use the Constitution as toilet paper, too. And all those words are taken from the text of Loewen's book. But what does Loewen leave out? That Woodrow Wilson wasn't just associated "with progressive causes like women's suffrage," he was a dyed-in-the-wool Progressive - the predecessor to today's "liberal" (who today want to call themselves "Progressives" because we've figured out that "liberal" is a word that's been hijacked). He was the perfect Progressive for his time - nationalist, Darwinist, admirer of Hegel, Christian, and a staunch advocate of reform of the nation through the power of the Federal government. PBS reports (you believe PBS, right? Bill Moyers' network?): An academic rising star, Wilson returned to Princeton in 1890 to become a professor of jurisprudence and economics at his beloved alma mater. The most popular professor on campus, Wilson lectured on the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in America in the early 1890s. Captains of industry like the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Morgans had become fabulously wealthy, while the majority of American workers lived in poverty. Wilson proposed the federal government be given more power to rein in big business. Publishing his views in magazines like Harper's and accepting numerous speaking invitations, Wilson soon became a nationally-known public figure. In 1902, Wilson was unanimously elected president of Princeton University.and "He apparently had an extraordinary effect on audiences. His voice was powerful and very moving...I think he's probably at his best when he spoke." - Louis Auchencloss, historianBoy, does that description remind you of anyone? The New Jersey Democratic Party political bosses, who mistakenly thought the college president would play the part of political stooge, convinced Wilson that their support would guarantee his election as the state's governor. Once in office, Wilson successfully pushed a decidedly progressive agenda, and along the way outwitted the very bosses who thought Wilson a puppet for their use. His New Jersey successes positioned Wilson at the forefront of the cresting, national wave of progressivism.Surprised? During his first two years as president, Wilson demonstrated his political acumen in accomplishing one of the most impressive strings of domestic legislative victories in history.Under Wilson the income tax was passed. Under Wilson, the eight-hour workday, child labor laws, and anti-trust legislation were all herded through Congress. The Democrats carried majorities in both houses of Congress, and many newly elected rank-and-file lawmakers were eager to gain favor with Wilson by supporting his agenda. Party leaders, controlling powerful committee chairs after many terms in the minority, were also willing to give the president much of what he wanted. Wilson exerted his power boldly-more than any chief executive had done before-by drawing from his strengths as orator, educator and political scholar. He cast complex legislation in moral and uplifting terms. He often conferred with party leaders, to find and build consensus. He participated actively in drafting the details of proposed legislation.Lest anyone claim that all he did was sign the bills that came to his desk. Looking ahead to re-election, however, Wilson calculated that further reform was the only politically viable means to capture a second term. Wilson saw as his best course a consolidation of his support among Democratic Party progressives and those of the former Progressive Party. Political realities dovetailed with his own convictions to produce a legislative agenda attractive to social reformers, farmers and labor. In a second flurry of legislative productivity, Wilson championed some of his more far-reaching, previously shelved reforms, including the Nineteenth Amendment extending suffrage to women.All this from that racist, warmongering, colonial, anti-communist corporatist! Whose philosophy was thoroughly modern Leftist - the use of power to make the world a better place, as he saw it. Don't you find it ironic that you bemoan Rousseau and yet, when it comes to you country, all you see is the good in it?No, Mark, I see a lot more than just the good. I'm not the one who wrote "We have to face the unpleasant fact that our country is horribly broken and I am simply not going to attempt to appease these psychotic putzes anymore." Is the country broken? No, it's about as fucked up as it usually is, but at least I see the good. You were bang-on-the-money when you said this, though: "I realize that it is pointless to try to see the middle ground on issues where there is no middle ground." You almost grasp that there is no "Third Way" (which is what Obama keeps promising, though he never calls it that) when the philosophies are so widely divergent. You have a philosophy, Markadelphia, a belief system. But it's one that you've just slapped together haphazardly. It's internally contradictory (most are, but yours... whew!), and you bend it to suit whatever situation comes up, but it's a system you apply daily. I have read your blog. I'll finish up with one more excerpt from one of your posts, and then I suggest that we not darken each others doorsteps again: Fellow blogger Kevin Baker asked me this question on his blog the other day: how will Obama heal our souls? The question reminded of another question that was asked in comments last week: how will Obama get able bodied men to work who are lazy and don't want to? The answer to both questions is the same.So he's not the Second Coming of Jesus, he's the Second Coming of Moses? In effect, each one of us is a messiah to ourselves. Believe me when I tell you, we really NEED to start down that path or it's over for our country.Sure we do. But we also understand that a lot of people who say they're doing things to improve the world are doing things to improve themselves at the expense of others. As for the ones who really are trying to make a better world, the majority of them get damned dangerous if they get their hands on that power. They can't understand people who are motivated to do the things purely for the joy of doing them. Most conservatives believe the only way to motivate people is through money...and fear. It really doesn't have to be that way.Woodrow Wilson believed precisely what you believe - that the Power of God would allow him to fix everything. Everything he did, he did believing that it would Make the World a Better Place. You think Obama can inspire people to Make the World a Better Place, but for some reason the only place he can do that is from behind the desk in the Oval Office. What that last excerpt proclaims is what was once known as Social Gospel. Well, you're at least keeping in theme. Give that last link a read. You'll reject it out of hand, but still, I keep trying... Personally, I'm against government trying to make people... better. Because the only tool governments have is force, and using that tool, they tend to break a lot of things. When they build mass social movements, they tend to kill a lot of people. Like the people they think they can make better. And when that doesn't work, they try again, only HARDER! Just remember one thing: THIS "psychotic putz" is armed. Labels: fisk, Leviathan, linkery, politics | Sunday, May 11, 2008 Quote of the Day It’s the ultimate satire: the state that promises you the security of an old-age pension can’t even provide you the security to keep it—the primary purpose of a state. It’s almost as bad as today’s Britain, where the welfare state provides for your welfare not by stopping omnipresent thugs from beating you senseless but by sewing you up afterward for free.I disagree that "providing you the security to keep it" is the primary purpose of a state, but still... The last part is spot-on. I need to cheer the hell up. | Saturday, May 10, 2008 Quote of the Week The same theme over and over again is that the Left, from Wilson to FDR to Mussolini and yes, to Hitler, all think that their actions will make the world a better place. The goal of all of these people is to make a better world. The way to the most horrific examples of cruelty and slaughter in human history began with the highest and most noble intentions. The intention, first and foremost, of equality, of the "brotherhood of man". The difference between fascism and Marxism is simply the scope. Lenin saw "humanity" as the proletariat, and everyone else as the eggs with which to make his omelet. Hitler's definition of "humanity" is of course the Aryan German, and everyone else as an obstacle to be crushed. Labels: QotD | Rousseau, Marx, Hegel, and Engels are Still Killing Burma killed by tyranny"But NO!" protests the American socialist, "What's going on in Myanmar isn't really socialism!" No, but then Edward O. Wilson described socialism/communism best: Wonderful theory. Wrong species. Labels: Leviathan | Friday, May 09, 2008 Now for Something a Bit Lighter... From Rachel Lucas, the Quote of the Day: I think ‘Firefly’ could solve most fertility problems.I think this is even more appropriate given this comment to Wednesday's excerpt from Liberal Fascism: The same theme over and over again is that the Left, from Wilson to FDR to Mussolini and yes, to Hitler, all think that their actions will make the world a better place. The goal of all of these people is to make a better world. The way to the most horrific examples of cruelty and slaughter in human history began with the highest and most noble intentions.As I asked the commenter - "So, have you seen the film Serenity?" Labels: QotD | Thursday, May 08, 2008 Well, Hell, I'm a Felon There's been a lot of talk around the gunblogosphere about this case, but this is the first legacy media coverage of it I'm aware of: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/05/07/ldt.gov.guns.cnn David Olofson is a member of AR15.com, and has been posting regularly on his case. Under the conditions that gained him his conviction, I'm a felon, too. My AR15 is equipped with a Jewell trigger. When I first received it, the trigger was adjusted too light and it doubled on me twice in initial testing. I would imagine it would be a simple thing for any ATF "technician" to misadjust any Jewell-equipped AR to do the same. According to the BATFE, that makes it a machine gun, if this case stands. Here's the quote that grates on my nerves: Critics say the problems stem from a lack of uniform testing protocol at ATF.My aching ass. They were told it was a machine gun, it was damned well going to be a machine gun. The BATFE doesn't make mistakes! Remember, this is the organization that told its agents to perjure themselves on the witness stand by declaring that their NFA records were 100% accurate. Mr. Olofson is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday. What he ought to get is an overturned decision, full restoration of his rights and property, and a big damned settlement check from the pocket of the local head of the BATFE. Every time I hear about something like this, I think to myself that just perhaps John Ross's Unintended Consequences isn't so far-fetched after all. And remember: This is the same group that is now after CavArms. David Codrea has been keeping tabs on that travesty. Edited to add: How do you like this? (TIFF file, download and blow up to read) Here's what it says: "Third notice. Final Claim Date May 25, 2008" At the top of the page (it's cut off) it says that if the material is not claimed it is forfeit "and will be disposed of according to law." Here's a partial screenshot of what was seized from CavArms that the government - without charging anyone with anything as of yet - is ready to "dispose of according to law":
Labels: law, Leviathan, Reset Button | Connected? 40% more seek license to carry concealed gunAnd then there's this: Trigger Happy: Gun Shops See Sales Spike After Home InvasionsZendo Deb (where I got the second link) wonders if this is evidence that we're really not in a recession, and one gun shop owner thinks the entire increase in sales is due to the heinous home invasion, but here's what one San Antonio CCW trainer thinks: But Ross Bransford, who trains 1,000 Texans a year to qualify for a concealed handgun license, said he believes the looming 2008 election is a big factor.I think that has a LOT to do with it. Other reasons: Other instructors mentioned an increased interest from young adults after last year's Virginia Tech massacre and recent changes in Texas law about carrying concealed weapons.But you don't need a CCW to keep a gun in your home for self-defense in Texas. Then again, probably most people in Connecticut don't know you need to take a training class and get a permit to purchase a pistol there, either: While the home invasions have prompted the General Assembly to pass a $10 million crime bill — which Gov. M. Jodi Rell threatened veto for budget reasons — residents are taking personal steps.That's why I label these posts "Awakenings" - reality smacks people in the face, and some of them wake up. Cummings, who’s sold guns for 26 years, said he’s used to serving hunters looking for rifles but that his new clientele(sic) is a different breed.Yes, they're only good for killing a large number of people indiscriminately which is why the Chicago PD is among the latest departments to equip with with them. Right? But even in Connecticut, the upcoming election is seen as a major driver of gun sales: Politics is definitely a factor in rising gun sales, he added.But the Eeeeeevil NRA intervened! In response, the National Rifle Association put out a call to its constituents.That's right - Connecticut is home for several firearms manufacturers. And of course, we have to hear from the concerned citizens who oppose the nefarious NRA: Those opposed to gun violence, specifically the non-profit Connecticut Against Gun Violence, want to prevent the flow of guns purchased legally from reaching the hands of criminals.Go ahead. Pull my other leg. And, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, here's today's Quote of the Day: "Politicians have been my best salesmen for 20 years because people want what they can't have. They are afraid their rights are going to be taken away."Unintended consequences. Labels: Awakenings, gun control, guns, linkery, QotD | | |
