Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Monday, June 30, 2014

Capitalism

Well, I found some Alliant Unique.

One e-tailer that I've found shows stock.  I've had an 8-lb. keg on order with my local Merchant O'Death since I got back from last year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous.  No word on when I might ever see it.  Every other source I've checked shows no stock - Midway, Powder Valley, Natchez, Cabela's, etc. etc. etc.

Except this one.  A couple of days ago, they showed that they had one (1) 8-lb. keg left in stock.  Today they show they have only three 1-lb. bottles.

The keg was $299.  The one-pounders are $42.49 each. That's right at double what Unique cost a year ago.  (Plus, of course, the $28.50 HazMat charge and shipping costs.) 

People call this "gouging."  I call it "Economics 101 - supply and demand."  Had this e-tailer offered their stock at "normal" prices, they'd be out of stock just like everyone else.  By elevating the price, they still have some - for whoever is willing to pay. 

I'm not their guy. More power to you if you are.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Quote of the Day - Iowahawk Edition

Apparently, the leading cause of hard drive failures is subpoenas. - David Burge

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Monday, June 23, 2014

Rendezvous!

Here's another video, this one from the 2011 GBR VI:



Still working on getting registration set up, but soon!!

More Trey Gowdy

I mentioned this gentleman before, but here's some footage of the man in action:



I LIKE this guy!!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Quote of the Day - Cultural Conflict Edition

In response to this question over at Quora.com:
How many victims of a mass shooting would there have to be before an actual discussion of gun laws would be an appropriate reaction?
Comes this answer I wish I'd written myself:
When the number of gun deaths approaches the number of deaths by abortion, then gun owners will take anti-gun people as seriously as pro-choice people take pro-life people. Which is to say, not much.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Quote of the Day

DemProgs and conservatives alike share the same concerns: they don’t want killers to have guns. It’s just that DemProgs haven’t quite figured out who the real killers are. Their obsessive focus is on individuals and corporations. -- Bookworm’s 5-Point Gun Manifesto; or why I believe in gun rights

RTWT.  It bears repeating.

(h/t to reader Scott who sent me a link via email.)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

This is Why We Live in a Constitutional Republic

So Hillary comes out and says:
...we cannot let a minority of people -- and that's what it is, it is a minority of people -- hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people.
She's speaking about the right to arms, but it really doesn't matter.

Why do we have a Constitution and Bill of Rights?

TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL - the smallest minority there is.
The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals.... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. -- Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.

--

The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections. - West Virginia v Barnette (1943)
We already knew that Hillary was a collectivist, but this is just the cherry on top.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

"The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;"

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

And THIS is Why We're Winning

With all the kerfuffle over the OCT guys toting long guns into Chipotle, etc., I humbly submit that they've lost track of the goal.  The idea is to make people COMFORTABLE around firearms, and you don't do that by waving them in their faces.  As other people have noted, this:

 photo Open-carry-Chipotle-even-via-Facebook-615x345.png

and this:


share a common meme - "We're not going away, get used to us!" But waving guns in the face of the public really isn't any more effective than waving genitalia.  However, as Teresa Nielson Hayden put it so well several years ago,
Basically, I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them.
It's that "getting to know a few" that we need to keep concentrating on.  THIS is how we keep winning:


It's "The Smile." You ALWAYS get The Smile.

Scares the hell out of the anti-gunners, that does.

Monday, June 09, 2014

Quote of the Day - Caleb Giddings Edition

I now know what it must feel like to be a moderate, peaceful Muslim whenever some clown yells Allah Snackbar and blows up a bus. KNOCK IT OFF, ASSHOLES
Over on Facebook in response to yesterday's shootings in Las Vegas.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Bill Whittle is On a Roll

His latest Firewall:



And his latest Afterburner:



Just another service of TSM.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

When You've Lost Mad Magazine...

When You've Lost Mad Magazine photo MAD-Magazine-Trading-Private-Bergdahl_538e1730c295a607331124.jpg


That should leave a SCAR.

Haven't Done THAT in a While

So, back when I posted about my semi-retirement from blogging, one of the reasons I gave was "I've got a stack of books that need reading."

I just blew through fifteen volumes of The Dresden Files in fifteen days.  I guess I need to get the book of short stories next.

Good stuff.  If you're into "urban fantasy," Jim Butcher does it very, very well.  And I like his main character, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.  Reminds me a lot of Robert B. Parker's Spenser.  Who wouldn't like a wisecracking wizard Private Investigator with a gun?