tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87974409812386709052024-03-13T04:30:36.769-07:00Soap and Education"Beware the suds of terror!" quoted from my great-granddaughter, Lydia.Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-17523547308376701252014-04-26T23:26:00.006-07:002014-04-26T23:26:56.281-07:00AMNESTY AND GANGRENE
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
of the most serious and contentious issues facing the United States today is
border security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issue is a perfect
example of how an incremental abandonment of the law leads to a situation from
which there are but two exits, and both are bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way to end the contention
surrounding immigration and the borders that does not risk terrible injustice
and open the door to fraud and unsurvivable financial burdens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will pay a terrible price for whatever we
do, including doing nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem
should have been handled years ago, but it wasn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are now like a patient who has ignored an
infection until it has become gangrenous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our options are not pleasant, but it is utterly inescapable that we must
choose one or the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Living
in a border state, New Mexico, I might have a unique perspective on the matter,
so I thought it would be fun to lay down some hard, cold facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will use a number that may or may not be factual:
twenty million – 20,000,000 – 20 times ten to the sixth power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a potful in any idiom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason it may not be factual is because of
the FACT that nobody knows for sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
a round number and I’ll use it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Y’all
can use whatever number you want, but I’ll kiss your foot if the real number is
lower than 20 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
will take issue with Cliven Bundy on one point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He said Mexican immigrants are hardworking, honest taxpayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no doubt that a great may are –
perhaps a majority – but I know for a FACT that a great many are none of those
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have some rentals in a
predominantly Hispanic part of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
last time I had a vacancy, 27 people came to look at the apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>24 of them were on Social Security or 100%
disability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only two said they had
jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>21 of them spoke no English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s illegal for me to ask for green cards,
so it’s possible that not all of these folks were illegals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think (it’s been a while) that three of them wanted to move 8 or more adults
into a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>900 sq. ft., two bedroom
apartment, including one very hard-looking couple in their 50’s who said they
wanted the place for their daughters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The daughters were in their late teens, very provocatively dressed, with
downcast eyes and no smiles on their faces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were hookers, and quite likely slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the record, the person to whom I
eventually rented was a young, Hispanic woman with two little girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has been a model tenant, and I wish I had
more like her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
point of that story is that a sizeable percentage of the illegal aliens (No way
I’ll call them “immigrants!”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are living
off the public teat, and are participating in criminal activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are a few more points: (1) </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is illegal for me, a landlord, to ask for proof of citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some states, it is illegal for employers
to ask for proof of citizenship. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(2)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
the number of illegal aliens in our population increases, it becomes more and
more </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">reasonable to wonder if any person we
meet is an illegal alien. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is a good deal of support for the idea of deporting all illegals, and while I
don’t disagree with the principle, I must look at how that would be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all, how do we identify
illegals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t have tattoos or
tails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, they look a lot like “regular”
Americans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d ask how, exactly, would
we go about telling a Mexican illegal from my pal, Carlos, whose family has
been in Nuevo Mexico since before the American Revolution? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(For the record, Carlos served with me in the
Marines, and if you want a scrap, just go messing with my brother.) Do you plan
on just driving down the street in a truck and snatching up anyone who looks
like a Mexican?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What in the world do you
think a Mexican looks like?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They come in
as great a variety as native-born Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The point here is that we must be very careful in who we deport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, there must be some sort of legal
process because most of those people have the sense to deny being illegal! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Legal
process” opens up a whole barrel of worms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, there must be standards of evidence, and because of the smokin’
hot market in false IDs, and states like mine that have been giving driver’s
licenses to illegals for years, such standards will not be self-evident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone grabbed you off the street
tomorrow on your way to work and accused you of being illegal, how would you
prove your citizenship?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your driver’s
license and social security card are worthless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even if you drive around with your birth certificate, that would have to
be validated by the state or the hospital, which would take time and resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Utility bills and school records would have
to be validated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Resources.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For every person
who denies being in the US illegally, there must be a law enforcement officer
to take them into custody and question them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There must be a place to incarcerate them while waiting for trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be standards and a process for
evaluating the evidence, and if someone says they went to school in a different
state, the feds will have to be involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What if they say they were born to American parents in a foreign
country, but their parents are dead?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now
we are looking at the gathering and verification of information on a global
scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be a standard for bail
and a whole staff of clerks to administer it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There must be a judge to hear the evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be a prosecuting attorney and a
defense attorney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be an
appeal process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, there must be a
way of getting the person out of the country and a record of all that has gone
into the process so we can tell if they come back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“…if
they come back.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow, again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if we spend the millions of dollars
required for months or even years of legal wrangling, kick the guy out, and a
week later, he’s back?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we don’t have
a means of identifying him positively, we have to go through the same stinkin’
mess again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another implication of this
is that, even if a person admits to being here illegally, the odds are they’ll
be back within a month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means that
even if we don’t have that whole nightmare of legal process, we must still
maintain a data base of accurate, verifiable records of who we kick out and
when.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just looking at this one, piddly
little detail, how long will it take to photograph and fingerprint 20 million
clever, committed scammers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much
will it cost to maintain the data base and keep it secure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“…keep it secure?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t you suppose there might be a little profit for some enterprising
clerk to delete or alter records in the data base?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell’s fire, we can’t even keep matters of
national security safe!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Are
you starting to get the picture?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if
we clamp down on the border right now and allow no new trespass, it will take
decades and cost trillions of dollars to get all the illegals out of the
country, by which time there will be tens of millions of babies born to them,
which is a whole ‘nother bucket of worms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is simply no way we can deport all these people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, as much as anyone, like the idea, but the
practical aspect of doing so is utterly inconceivable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have gotten ourselves into a situation
from which there is no easy way out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s a bad way, a terrible way, and an even worse way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
first thing we must do is close the borders and ports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we don’t do that, nothing else matters
because nothing will work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will
continue to flood and overwhelm any system we put in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The present administration lacks the desire
and the will to close the borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
may be up to the states, but we must recognize the fact that state action will
be regarded as tantamount to nullification and secession, and the last time
that was tried, it got pretty expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m not saying it can’t or shouldn’t be done; we just need to be very
sure that’s what we want and that we’re willing to pay the price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
must emphasize this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if the influx of
illegal aliens is not stopped, or at least slowed tremendously, the entire
discussion is pointless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Having
said all that depressing stuff, I’d like to go into a few things we can
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, closing the border will make
a lot of these folks very homesick, and they’ll leave on their own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Second,
we can block all transfer of funds to foreign banks by unlicensed
individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such transfers are already
licensed for businesses, so the mechanism for this is already in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the tens of millions of dollars stop
flowing from illegals in the US to their kinfolk elsewhere, a lot of the magic
will be gone, and some more of them will go back to mama and papa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Third,
as these people enter the legal system for other crimes, we can verify their
immigration status and deport those found to be here illegally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s another good chunk of them gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’d like to go on record as suggesting the
death penalty for anyone convicted of slave trading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They call it “human trafficking,” but that’s
a cleaner, less odiferous term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re
damnable slavers, and a bullet in the head is too good for them.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Fourth,
amend the law that allows anchor babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can do that, and it would immediately remove a huge incentive for
them to come here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would also limit
the natural increase of the illegal population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here’s a comparison:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if a mom –
any mom – is sentenced to prison for a crime, somebody else raises her
babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s just a fact of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the same principle, if a mom’s crime
happens to be illegal trespass into the US, when she is removed from the free
population, she can expect to lose her children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I’d give her a choice, but if she wants
her kid to be an American citizen, that’s well and good, but it doesn’t keep
her in the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure there are
plenty of childless Americans who would love to adopt such babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is going to be hard to do, but no
harder, I think, that sending an American-born mom to prison and watching her
say goodbye to her babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illegal alien
moms should expect no more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Fifth,
make welfare, food stamps, social security, and driver’s licenses 100%
dependent on citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It boggles my
mind that this is not already the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I applied for a minimum wage job with Walmart, I had to show two
forms of ID to prove my eligibility to work in the US. It’s called an I-9
form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, two of the forms of ID
specified, driver’s license and a social security card, are totally useless for
proving anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to prove
citizenship to get the job, but I didn’t have to prove citizenship to get the
documents that proved citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I
missing something, or this stark, raving, batshit crazy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not likely we can eliminate all fraud
in these relief programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, tightening
the controls as much as we can, making it clear that we don’t bloody appreciate
fraud, and that we condemn it and will punish it where we can will create a
hostile environment from which another group of illegals will flee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Another
note on item 5:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>anytime we ask for proof
of anything we must expect two things:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>fraud and challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will have
to reform and strengthen the legal system presently in place to deal with
challenges and adjudicate cases of fraud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That will be expensive, but absolutely necessary if we are to minimize the
chance of denying relief to someone who has earned it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The alternative is to throw up our hands,
swing open the doors of the treasury, and walk away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not consider such a course acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
has been talk for years about arresting those who hire or rent housing to
illegals. Such laws, in many variations, have been on the books in several states
for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the cases tried under
these laws have been pretty straightforward:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>an employer has a verifiable record of hiring illegals, and there is incontrovertible
evidence of willful violation of the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m not intimately familiar with any of these laws, but it seems likely
to me that most of them have some virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, as solutions to the problem they suffer serious limitations. How
is an employer to determine citizenship when courts find it incredibly
expensive and time-consuming to do so?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have seen that courts, which are specifically established and
empowered to determine citizenship can spend millions of dollars and years of
time on a single case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can we expect
a business to answer the same question to the same degree of accuracy on
hundreds or thousands of applicants?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
same is true of landlords.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only do I
lack the resources to determine the status of prospective renters, but most of
the information I would need to make such determination is sealed to me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not even allowed to ask for a green card,
and even if I were, how in hell am I supposed to tell if it’s legitimate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, under some of these immigration laws, I
could go to jail for failing to spend all I will ever own to make sure this one
dipstick isn’t pulling my leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That isn’t
right, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to make it
financially survivable and actually legal to obey the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(There’s another insanity:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it’s illegal to obey the law.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
said we need to find a form of amnesty that is survivable to our republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, anything short of total,
blanket, no-questions-asked amnesty will be staggeringly expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re back to the gangrene analogy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think military service should be a ticket
into the citizenship process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an
alternative, a period of public service should be favorably considered, though
secondary to military service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Provable
participation in American society – as in working for a living and paying taxes
– for some period of time might be considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One of the more preposterous ideas put forth by the feds is that of
granting citizenship to anyone who completes a college education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under that particular law, that education
would be paid for by the American taxpayers, many of whom can’t afford to send
their own kids to college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
that, but before we could pay the tuition, we’d have to know for a fact they
are here illegally, and if we know that, why in blazes can’t we escort them to
the bloody border?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(And, of course, there’s
absolutely zero chance for fraud or graft in such a scheme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gasp…. Choke…)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
we could give illegals the choice of applying for citizenship or getting out,
it would definitely thin the herd because a lot of them have no desire to
become American citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how could
such a thing be enforced?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’d have to
know who the illegals are, and we’re right back to rounding them up off the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just isn’t possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, that is the problem with any sort of
conditional amnesty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we even know
to whom we have granted amnesty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is one more legal issue we’ll have to resolve. The Constitution specifically
forbids ex post facto enforcement of any law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, if something is legal when you do it, they can’t change
the law and come after you for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Notwithstanding
the fact that the IRS and BATF are famous for changing the law and busting
people for doing things that were legal when they did them.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that 20 million people have basically
been given a pass and told the law didn’t apply to them, we will have to be
careful that whatever new laws we write do not involve ex post facto
enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nailing them for violations
of the current law should be pretty straightforward, but, like with everything
else in this mess, there will undoubtedly be challenges to the laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
last thing I’d love to see:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want the
border between the District of Columbia and the United States closed down
completely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want those amoral, looting
scumbags who have put us in this position to have to beg for readmittance to
the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, a lot of the
ones most responsible are dead, and I don’t know how we’d handle that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might have to grant them amnesty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">26 April, 2014</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Rebsarge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-67762948977028703802014-02-07T23:40:00.001-08:002014-02-07T23:40:28.608-08:00LIBERALISM AND VIOLENCE<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of the most pernicious and popular myths in the landscape of American politics
is that individualists, commonly called conservatives, Tea Baggers, or
right-wingers, are prone to violence, and are a real danger to the safety of
our republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, that’s baloney.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who
is more likely to become violent:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>someone who wants to be left alone and leave others alone, or someone
who is convinced that his omniscience and moral superiority requires that he
force others to do his bidding?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Historically,
violence has always been initiated by the statists, commonly called Liberals,
Progressives, or the Left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Democrat
and Republican aren’t really valid terms because there are a few Democrats who
are more individualistic, and a great many Republicans who are statists.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
general, the position of the statists is that only government can do certain
things, such as take care of the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is their contention that, if left to our own devices, We, the People
of the United States, would not take care of our poor, so the government must
seize our assets and redistribute them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is a critical point!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Statists do not claim that government control of the economy or of the
people would generate more wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
claim only that it would generate more tax revenue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government, even by their own admission,
cannot create wealth; it can only move it around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pithy bumper sticker says, “The government
can’t give you anything it hasn’t taken from someone else,” and the statists
have never, to my knowledge, denied this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Therefore,
it is at the very core of the statist philosophy that force is morally
acceptable if used against those who have wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A free citizen, if approached by a beggar,
would have the choice to help or walk away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>History has proven, over and over and over and over and over (can you
tell I’m getting tired of having to point this out?) that the American people
are the most generous on Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even in
dire times, they have supported <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their
chosen</i> charities to an astonishing level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But,
you see, that phrase in italics tells the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Free</i>
people will choose what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i> wish to
support, and it may very well <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> be
what the statists would choose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this
is precisely, solely why statists always – ALWAYS – initiate force against the
people:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their view of how a country
should be run cannot be achieved unless the government has the authority to
seize wealth from those who have it and give it to the chosen ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If only,” they wail, “those selfish, rich,
white people would just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">give</i> us their
money, we wouldn’t have to take it by force.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Statists
often claim that the government can do things the people, collectively, can’t
because it has more money than the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This idea is utterly preposterous, and here’s why:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government cannot have more wealth than
its citizens because it cannot create wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Any wealth the government has must be seized from the people, and it can’t
seize more than is there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Not
kindness, but naked, armed force is the heart of statist/liberal politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not empathy, but pathological arrogance and
ego-centrism are liberalism’s motive force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Simply put, the liberal dream cannot be achieved in a free country, or in
a country where the people have the means of meeting force with force.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">8 Feb., 2014 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-11895884841810129092014-02-05T21:50:00.000-08:002014-02-05T21:50:40.693-08:00THE GENESIS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(I
had actually written the first draft of this before I heard Barack Obama’s
insanely stupid comment that the government had created the middle class by
applying the GI bill after WWII.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where
did we get a middle class?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the beginning, everybody was dirt poor, and I mean DIRT poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I’m talking about the real beginning,
before there were enough people to call a “society,” or even a village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each person had to produce whatever they
needed to live; there were no stores, or even other people to trade with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no upper, middle, or lower class.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">People
being as fecund then as now, at some point, there were enough individuals that
somebody said, “Look here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m really
good at gathering firewood, but I can’t make those dandy badger hide skivvies
nearly as well as you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about I bring
you some wood, and you make me a pair of skivvies?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Actually, this is an exact quote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some translations have it as porcupine quill
skivvies.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus was born the idea of
trade and the specialization of labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It probably didn’t take long before people were trading all kinds of
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
barter economy went on for a long time because there was no such thing as
money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People traded goods and services
directly for goods and services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some gradually
amassed more wealth than their neighbors, but the differences weren’t great
because the limiting factor was how much livestock or whatever one person could
manage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
here’s a critical distinction:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wealth
vs. money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wealth</i> is real stuff – goods and property - chickens, firewood,
berries, those nifty badger hide skivvies, clubs, flint knives, etc..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a village where everybody likes his
yardbird, the citizen with a mess of chickens would be considered <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealthy</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘cause he’s got all that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealth</i>,
see?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Money</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> is something
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stands for</i> wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, a dollar bill stands for a certain
amount of real, tangible goods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bill,
itself, isn’t wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, in every
particular, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">universal certificate of
value.</i> A barter economy doesn’t need <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">money</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve
never travelled with chickens, but intuition tells me they’d be a pain in the
butt before you’d gone very far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
barter economy, in which people trade <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealth</i>
directly, limits mobility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also
limits invention because whether its chickens or hide skivvies, having ones’
wealth concentrated in such commodities is very time-consuming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, if you can barter for anything you need,
there’s not a lot of motivation to invent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back
to the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many years after the
passing of the guy who started trading firewood, somebody came up with the idea
of leaving the chickens at home and travelling with certificates, or chits, as
we call them in the Marines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d go to
the next village and strike deal to trade 20 chickens for a camel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the camel dealer he’d give a chit that was
redeemable for 20 chickens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The camel
dealer would send his lackey to Chickenville.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The lackey would present the chicken chit, and haul the chickens back to
Camelville.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As long as everybody
actually had the wealth that was represented by the chits, it worked
great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pox on the SOB who figured out
he could write chits for anything, whether he had it or not, but it probably
happened fairly early in this whole process.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
business of chits, or certificates was revolutionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It allowed people to travel much more easily,
but sooner or later, the camel dealer would have needed to trade for a new cook
pot, which was available in Camelville, but the proportion of the wealth being
traded was odd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A whole camel would buy
one hell of a big pot – or more little ones that anyone could reasonably use –
and trading just a camel’s leg for a pot of the right size would markedly
diminish the value of the camel for later commerce.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But,
wait!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The camel dealer has this chit for
20 chickens, and two chickens would get him a perfect pot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he goes to the pot dealer (different from
modern pot dealers, BTW), and says, “Hey, ol’ Cluckenheimer in Chickenville is
holding 20 chickens for me – see, here’s the chicken chit – and I’ll sign two
of them over to you in exchange for a pot.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
you see what happened right there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Commerce happened without a single chicken actually changing hands!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brilliant!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Man, did that ever catch on!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pretty soon, folks were trading chits for everything under the sun, and,
true to human nature, some sharpies started trading counterfeit chits, and even
stealing the real ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The convenience
was a two-edged sword; you could hide a stolen certificate for a dozen camels
considerably easier than the camels, themselves.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Sir Walter Scott would observe later, it
is an ill wind that blows no one some good, and this mischief with certificates
and robbery was no exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It led to
the rise of a subspecies of HH Sapiens called “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">factors</i>,” which morphed into bankers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
exchange for one chicken, the factor would hold the certificate for the others
and guarantee its legitimacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
certificates were the beginning of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">money.
</i>This development allowed people to accumulate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">money</i>, rather than the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealth</i>
it stood for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By trading money for
wealth, or even for more money, some people rose above the subsistence level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was literally possible to have more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">money</i> than actual, real <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealth</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
here’s where we get to the point of this riveting drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the longest time, there was one class of
people: struggling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the best off
among them struggled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the development
of the rudiments of money, there came to be a class that struggled a lot less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now there were two.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Eventually,
the specialization of labor and the mobility of the population allowed some,
but not all of the upper class to actually become even more wealthy, and now
there were three.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were the poor,
who struggled with subsistence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
were the quite wealthy, who had considerable wealth and/or the money that
represented it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the middle, there
was a – wait for it - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">middle class</i>
that had risen from real poverty, but hadn’t attained great wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This happened at least several weeks before
the end of WWII.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
admonitions to take care of the poor that fill the Old Testament stand witness
to this shift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the Bible speaks
of the rich and the poor as being very distinct from the intended audience of
the Books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This group that was neither
rich nor poor was the “middle class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Biblical days, the vast majority of very wealthy people were actually the
ruling class – the royalty, dictators, and high priests – many of whom had seized
the wealth of those who had created it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This actually created a fourth economic class: looters who existed only
because there were wealthy producers for them to devour.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
had been a very gradual shift in the structure of human society from the days
of our wood-swapper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The middle class
was not created by the rich, and it sure as shootin’ wasn’t created by any
government!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was created by poor folks
who slaved and worked and saved and took risks and lifted themselves by blood,
sweat, and sheer force of will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
them continued on the trajectory and became wealthy. .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rich didn’t voluntarily build up some of
the poor for the purpose of creating a middle class. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The middle class was not created by gutting
the rich and giving their wealth to the poor, and Obama’s statement that it was
is a measure of the man’s willingness to lie through his teeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Or of his sheer, jaw-dropping stupidity.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
existence of a middle class is an indication of a healthy economy and society
only insofar as its existence proves that growth is possible – that it is
possible to have wealth beyond what is needed for subsistence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The middle class is not a primary, or
essential part of our society or our economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is, rather, proof of the moral substance of our form of government,
and its decline is presaged by the decline of that government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Preserving
the middle class,” as our president is fond of ranting about, is absurd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only way to help the middle class is to
leave them alone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If one would increase
the size of the middle class, one should concentrate on eliminating things that
keep the poor from advancing, or, specifically, protect and promote the things
that allowed a middle class to exist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Two
things, other than hard work, made the birth of a middle class possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One was the existence of wealth, in the first
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Careful, now; that’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wealth</i>, not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">money</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A society must be
able to produce wealth sufficient to meet the primary needs of the people, and
a little more for those driven to accumulate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If a society produces no wealth, there can be no advancement from
poverty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had there been no wealth to be
gathered, what could possibly have motivated the poor to work like that? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
second thing was freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Freedom
allowed those with the drive, intelligence, and a measure of luck to rise above
poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In essence, they had someplace
to go and the freedom to go there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had
there been no freedom, those in power would certainly not have allowed anyone
but themselves to have any wealth, at all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
surest way to destroy the middle class is to destroy those two things – destroy
that to which the people might aspire, and destroy their freedom to build
themselves up by honest effort. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Destroying the rich will accomplish both, and
we will be back in that medieval state in which the terms “rich” and “poor” are
replaced with the terms “powerful” and “powerless,” with the powerless living
in horrid squalor while the powerful suck the life out of them in a ghastly
ritual of economic cannibalism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
sheer, staggering moral stature of the American Republic has always been proven
by the fact<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that the rich and the
powerful were two distinct groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
the statists have destroyed the rich, there will be only the powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rest of us will exist only at their
pleasure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
that, brothers and sisters, is precisely their objective.</span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-34721895024887028302014-01-28T00:46:00.001-08:002014-01-28T00:46:28.769-08:00THE GOP HAS BECOME A GANG.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
have become so jaded and cynical in the last 50 years that certain critical
distinctions are very commonly dismissed or ignored, altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to address two of the many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is the difference between leadership and
manipulation, and the other is the difference between a team and a gang. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">LEADERSHIP</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is not about skills or methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a
comparison of leadership to manipulation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
don’t know how many times I’ve heard coworkers say leadership is a myth – a con
game to sucker people into doing what’s good for the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve sat with these people in some pretty
decent workshops on leadership and team building and seen them tune the speaker
out, pretend to read the written material, and blow the whole thing off as a bad
joke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is partly because <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there are many more really sorry workshops on
these subjects, and people have just had it up to there with
over-intellectualized baloney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get
that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
reality, though, there is a huge difference between leadership and
manipulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the mechanisms are
the same, and when a person studies leadership, there is a moment when they
realize they have an incredibly powerful tool - one that can be used for good
or evil with equal ease, like a gun or a claw hammer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Quite
simply, leadership is getting them to do, for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their own</i> benefit, things they would not otherwise do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manipulation is getting people to do, for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> benefit, things they would not
otherwise do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
problem is that the question of who is benefitting has been made unnecessarily
confusing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An
awful lot of people have been taught an exclusive model of benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, they can’t grasp that something
could be of benefit to them and to another person, especially if that person is
their employer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exclusive model of
benefit (and that’s a term I just made up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t know if there’s another, better term.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is the result of generations of statist
influence in schools, especially colleges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Left has done a great job of brainwashing the American people into
thinking anything that benefits a business owner will automatically screw them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the “pie” model vs. the “farm”
model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A farm can produce more and more
if it is worked right, but there’s only so much pie, and a piece you get is a piece
I can’t get.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let
me pose a few questions. Is it to your benefit if your employer is successful?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about if his profits increase?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about if they decrease?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no guarantees in life, but will you
have a better chance of getting a raise if the company is making more money?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will you have a better chance of getting a
raise if you are contributing more to the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, there is one guarantee: if your boss
goes broke, you definitely don’t get a raise!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
objective of any business is to make money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Professors and management consultants will tell you different, but they
lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course there may be any number of
secondary objectives that contribute to it, but the greatest objective of any
business is to make money.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">TEAMS </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let’s
leave that lay right there for a minute and talk about objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a specific term for an organization
that has several members, each of whom plays a specific role in achieving the
organization’s objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That term is “a
team.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say the objective is to win
football games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of the 11 men on
the field has a specific role to play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each must perform his assigned task, and stay within the rules of the
game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the objective is known,
and each member autonomous, a leader can bring them together, motivate them,
and help them channel their effort so the team wins games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Winning is good for the individuals and for
the organization - in the case of football, the school or the franchise owner.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
That’s a critical point:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>leadership
requires an objective toward which the group can strive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, a leader can help the group set an
objective, but leadership and objective go together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there is no objective – that is, if there
is no real point for the group’s existence, how can anyone lead them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To where would you lead them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To what purpose?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
silly as it sounds, there are a great many organizations that don’t have an
objective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have processes, or
rules, but no objective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their sole
reason for existence is to follow those processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody knows where they are going, and nobody
cares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing they care about is
following those processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine a
football team with no field and no goal line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What would they do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could
they play?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is actually a very
good, real world example of a group that exists to follow processes with no
regard to where they might end up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such
a group is called “a gang.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
gang requires members to wear certain garments, make certain hand signs, drive
certain cars, have certain types of nicknames, scribble graffiti in specific
fonts and colors, associate only with certain people, and a jillion other
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notice that none of these things
have an objective beyond themselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
long as you wear the right colors, you’re cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Break the process, and you have a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only one who could possibly benefit beyond
that is the boss; he (or she) gets the glory, the fame, the adulation, and
usually first pick of the loot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hence,
the boss of a gang is not a leader, but a manipulator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
fixation on process to the exclusion of objective is one of the defining traits
of a gang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes leadership not only superfluous,
but impossible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
current version of the Republican Party is a gang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are fixed on following processes –
wearing the right mantle, using the right phrases, sucking up to the right
people – to the utter exclusion of any kind of objective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t care what happens to the country
as long as they have good seats in the bus that is going over the cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are obsessed with straightening the deck
chairs on the Titanic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may be real
leaders in the party, but until the party finds an objective to pursue, we’ll
never know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I can’t tell that they
are even looking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">27 Jan., 2014 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-91391966466835714202014-01-11T21:40:00.001-08:002014-01-11T21:40:19.602-08:00COMPROMISE - A TACTIC OF LOSERS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is an aspect of compromise that is generally overlooked, especially by those
who hold compromise up as a moral imperative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is simply this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are
winning, why would you want to compromise?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let’s
define our terms here, because words really do mean things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compromise is NOT discussing differing
opinions and selecting the best one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is not even discussing differing opinions and selecting the best parts of each
and combining them into a much better synthesis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are simply rational operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If two people disagree on the best way to do
something, and one of them realizes the other really does have the better idea
and adopts it, it is NOT compromise!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Compromise
is when two people hold different, or contradictory ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They take some parts of one and some of the
other, and produce a mongrel atrocity that hasn’t a chance in hell of
working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In economics, for example, one
person might say, “The free market is the best and only solution to the
unemployment problem,” and another might say, “No, the free market caused the
problem; the only solution is government control of the market.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
imperative of compromise says that each person must give away something of his
own position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is usually
something like, “We’ll let businesses with more than 1,000 employees charge
whatever they want, but smaller businesses will be controlled by the
government,” or, “Instead of granting amnesty to 30 million illegals, like we
want, or to none, like you want, we’ll grant it to 15 million.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each person must put up with something they
consider thoroughly evil and unworkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The result is a bastardized monstrosity, and when it fails, both sides
say it failed because of too much pollution from the other side.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is precisely like arguing over the amount of rat poison to put in a pot of soup
– and at this level of discussion, it doesn’t matter which side of this
argument is considered rat poison.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Compromise
is agreeing to be raped if the rapist will use a condom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is agreeing to give a robber some of your
money, or a politician some of your freedom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back to compromise as a tactic of the loser.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you truly believe that you are right, and that you can win an argument,
contest, or election, would you go to your opponent and say, “Hey, your ideas
are insane bullpoop, but I want to let a little of it into my plan.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are holding a winning hand, there’s no
way you’d go out of your way to give the other guy a break, at least not on a
major point of principle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
someone calls for compromise, you know immediately that they don’t think they
can win the whole thing, and are hoping to sucker you into letting them have a
little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next time, they’ll get a
little bit more, and a little bit more, and so on, until they’ve got the whole
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they’re losing anyway, any
little thing they can get is a victory for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The power held by the statists today was
never once granted because they were wholly right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got it because the other side gave it to
them, a little at a time, through compromise after compromise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They have NEVER been right; they have only been canny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Truth
and right need never compromise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Obviously,
this is a two-edged sword!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the
statists have the winning hand, you better believe they won’t compromise, because
they understand this business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
what happened with the sequester and the later shutdown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The statists knew they could not lose in the
long run because their propaganda machine would turn the entire nation against
those who tried to hold the line.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
reject compromise altogether is a very brave thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are saying, “It will either be my way or
your way, but you’re not going to get my sanction for your idiocy by including
some trivial aspect of my idea.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is this courage of convictions that is so pathetically lacking in the
Republican leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are scared
to death of losing everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
honestly believe, apparently, that if we agree to eat some rat poison on issues
where WE have power, the Democrats will agree to eat some when THEY have power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the Democrats know how this
works, and while they will give every assurance of future poison-eating, they
have no intention of actually doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So we eat a little poison – we accept a little of the anti-life Democrat
program – and a little more, and a little more, until one day, there is no food
left, and it’s all poison.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
long as we are living with this half-assed whatever it is, the propaganda mill
will keep telling people it isn’t working is because of the capitalistic
pollution forced on them by those Tea Party radicals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people, being the result of a hundred
years of compromise in education, will believe it, and vote accordingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only solution is to force this nation to
accept one set of ideas in its entirety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The people will then be able to see what works and what doesn’t.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
alternative is to refuse to compromise on ANY principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make them do it all their way, which will be
a catastrophe, or accept it all our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem with this is that their way is not survivable, and they’ll
never willingly go along with doing it all our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have compromised over and over, until we
have arrived at the point where no more is possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the present time, the statists have the
upper hand, and it looks like we’ll be trying things their way for a
while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means, unfortunately, that
they will do their best to destroy our means of ever regaining control and
trying it all our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are
successful in this, freedom will be banished from the world, and our children
for generations to come – until He returns – will live as slaves of the
drooling mob.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are only two courses of action available to us:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>to go along with whatever they drive down our throats, or to abandon the
constitutional process and force the issue by a passage of arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is not a new choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have never had
more than these two courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
reject compromise, altogether, we will be forced to live under statist tyranny
or resist it by whatever means are necessary.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
we continue to accept compromise, we will be forced to live under statist
tyranny until we can no longer endure it, and rise up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But by the time we rise up, our strength will
have been largely compromised away. Our chance of victory will be slim.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">11 Jan., 2014 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-88965429669825754582013-12-29T01:42:00.000-08:002013-12-29T01:42:02.652-08:00THE WORD "IDEOLOGUE"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Since
I seem to be on a rant about objective words that are commonly used as
pejoratives, how about this one:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ideologue.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
hear this almost exclusively from the left, be they Democrats or
Republicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The terms, “Demopublicans”
and “Republicrats” are becoming more common as the distinctions between the two
parties breaks down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use the term “left”
advisedly, meaning one who favors bigger government, higher taxes, more welfare
and entitlements, and a general overthrow of the Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use the term “right” to be the opposite of
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this context,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican and Democrat are not useful. We
can discuss left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, etc, but not here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have defined my terms, and will proceed as
if people are actually going to read ALL of this.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
“Ideologue.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always like to start with
some dictionary definitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m one that
gives me the details of what an ideologue is, not his moral stature,
intelligence, or political affiliation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Merriam
Webster’s online dictionary is utterly useless:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“An impractical idealist.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“An often blindly partisan advocate or
adherent of a particular ideology.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>MW loves to use words to define themselves, which is completely
invalid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also throw in the highly
judgmental words, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“impractical…blindly
partisan,”</i> which is an evaluation of an ideologue, but doesn’t tell us what
one is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What horse hockey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Google
says, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“an adherent of an ideology, esp.
one who is uncompromising and dogmatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“a
conservative ideologue.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, that’s
certainly not slanted or judgmental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
won’t even dignify this drivel with a critique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If this is the only definition you have, you’re in trouble.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
my surprise, freedictionary.com offered this simple, neutral definition, which
they credited to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“a zealous advocate or adherent of an
ideology”</i>, and under the thesaurus section, offered this: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“an advocate of some ideology.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally,
Cambridge.org gave what I think is the most succinct definition of the four: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“a person who believes very strongly in
particular principles and tries to follow them carefully.”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Between
freedictionary and Cambridge, I think we have something to work with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An ideologue is a person who believes certain
ideas are correct, advocates them, and tries to follow them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I’m not mistaken, socialism is an idea, as
are fascism and capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us
believe in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea </i>that individuals
have rights and powers separate and distinct from those of government, and
others believe in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> that
individuals should be subservient to the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe Biden believes in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> that, if threatened with home
invasion, one should step out on the balcony and fire a shotgun into the air,
endangering innocent bystanders and telling the thugs where you are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us have pointed out the hazards
inherent in this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i>, but Joe clings
to it with considerable tenacity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
also clings to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> that guns
cause crime and that gun owners are pretty much the scum of the earth, an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> widely held and expressed with
utmost savagery and hatred by the left.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nancy
Pelosi believes in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> that it
is acceptable to create laws without knowing what is in them, and she defends
this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> with great obstinacy and
passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A tiny handful of real
conservatives in Congress held to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i>
that socialized medicine and government-run health care is a very bad <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i>, and a large number of liberals
held, with equal fervor and unmatched ad hominem, the opposite <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
truth, any conscious action or consciously spoken word begins as an idea. This
is true for liberals and conservatives, alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When liberals call conservatives ideologues, they are, literally,
accusing them of thinking and acting on their thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Acting on one’s thoughts and ideas is a good
basic definition of “integrity,” a term that actually has meaning, and defines
a trait that was once considered a virtue.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
begs the question that if acting on one’s thoughts and ideas is a terrible
thing, worthy obscene vitriol and physical assault, what are the liberals
acting on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wouldn’t want to accuse
them of hypocrisy, so if they condemn acting on conscious thought, what in hell
guides their actions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we know
the answer to that:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they are mindless
twits who don’t have sense to pound sand down a rathole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do I say that?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
just an idea I had.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">28 Dec., 2013 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-51199750253610566512013-12-27T18:40:00.001-08:002013-12-27T18:40:41.522-08:00MORE CONTENTLESS 'ISMS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s
a couple of terms in play here that are so ill-defined and so overused as to be
worse than meaningless; they are emotionally weighted so that people not given
to analysis of such things perceive them as verbal saps.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
first is “hate speech.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hatred is an
emotion, it is not a form of speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
concept of “hate speech” involves attaching a motive to what is said, or
addressing the speaker’s frame of mind. It does not even pretend to refer to
the tone in which a statement was uttered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Speech
can be hateful, and it can express hatred, but the concept of “hate speech” is
invalid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must deal with the words,
not make assumptions about the emotional state of the speaker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man might say, “Homosexuality is a sin,”
not because he hates homosexuals, but because his child is committing what he
earnestly considers a sin, and his very heart is breaking into a million
pieces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His emotional state may very
well be one of intense love and equally intense agony. Certainly we must
consider the speaker’s intent and tone, but not as the core content of what was
said. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
same is true of “hate crimes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a
judicial system that cannot or will not convict or imprison people for murder, which
is a physical act – verifiable by fundamental sensory perception – you’ve got a
corpse, for cryin’ out loud!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of
this utter and contemptible impotence, we have invented a new species of wrong –
the “hate crime” – that involves a motive, which can NOT be verified or
observed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because there can be no
iron-clad evidence of a person’s motive or frame of mind, the courts are
confident in convicting and imprisoning people for things that can’t even be
seen by others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The twin lunacies of “hate
speech,” and “hate crimes” testify to the intellectual laziness, at best, or
intellectual cowardice, at worst, of those whom we have allowed to speak for
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are laws against a specific
thought, which, in and of itself, hurts no one, and which, if the truth were
known, has found lodging in the minds of every one of us at one time or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hate, without an action, harms no one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An action, with or without hate, may be a
crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we really so engrossed in
intruding into our neighbor’s minds that we are willing to call a thought a
crime?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
second term is “propaganda.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Propaganda
is nothing more or less than information that is transmitted by some means –
verbally, over the air, in print, or on film – that is meant to change the way
people think about something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All – that
is ALL – expository speech falls into this category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one of the most transparent and foolish
of all double standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I say, “Socialism
is bad because it punishes achievement,” that’s an informative statement, but
when someone else says, “Socialism is good because it gives the little guy a
break,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>well, that’s propaganda!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The term is used by adherents to almost all
ideologies when they want to make their opponents look evil or
manipulative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone says something
that is wrong or misleading, such as, “Homosexuals just LIVE to sodomize little
children,” that’s not propaganda;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a
damned lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us not pretty it up with
a 4-syllable tribute to some professor of linguistic analysis who wouldn’t say
shit if he had a mouth full of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
moment someone starts throwing around the terms propaganda or hate speech, it’s
pretty certain they have no real rebuttal or answer to what was said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t like it, but are too immature, emotionally
or intellectually, to admit they have been wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lacking a real answer, they throw out one of
these terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other similar terms that
are used in precisely the same way are “ideologue,” “radical,” and “opinionated.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Think
about it for a second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever
been accused of being an ideologue, a radical, or opinionated by someone who
agreed with you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me neither. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever been accused of uttering hate
speech or propaganda by someone who agreed with you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me neither.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d dearly love to see these kinds of polemic punji pits fall into
disuse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">27 Dec., 2013 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-82013369576021163932013-12-19T22:09:00.001-08:002013-12-19T22:09:34.933-08:00DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS - ON EASY WAY OUT<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
New Mexico, as of mid-December, 2013, there is a controversy in progress between
the governor and American citizens on one side, and the legislature and illegal
aliens on the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, NM
was one of three states to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reasoning for passage of this law was
that it would allow them to buy insurance, which would “make our children
safer.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Yes, there it is, the children
card, second only to the race card in statist polemics.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
addressing this controversy, I’m going to play a game called, “Go down a road
to nowhere so you can see how stupid it is, then lay out a real solution.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the interest of preventing undue
frustration, here is the last paragraph of this essay:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“As much fun as all of the above sounds like,
it is totally, absolutely futile to even discuss ANY solution until the border
is closed, and I mean closed tight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
far, very few politicians in the US have the guts to even discuss<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that, so all of this wrangling over driver’s
licenses, voting rights, ID cards, Obamacare, free education, and so on is a
painfully obscene waste of time.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
that you know where we’re going, let’s start this crazy ride.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Astonishingly
enough, the liberal argument was flawed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For one thing, many legal citizens in the state don’t have insurance, so
one wonders why, if having a license guarantees drivers will get insurance, why
is it so ineffective on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
also the idiotic assumption explicit in the statist argument that having insurance
will prevent accidents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our previous
governor, Bill Richardson, declared the state to be a sanctuary, meaning that
anyone who violates federal immigration law could find refuge here. (Why do
liberals think it’s okay for a governor to refuse to enforce federal law, but
have a screaming hemorrhage when a governor DOES enforce that law?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Giving
illegal aliens driver’s licenses made the NM driver’s license utterly useless
as a form of ID because of the thousands of bogus ones floating around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illegal aliens were coming here from all over
the country to get licenses, and there are documented cases of some
enterprising individuals getting 20 or 30 licenses, and selling them in other
states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When New Mexicans travelled out
of state and presented their licenses as ID, they were laughed at.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Both
houses of the state legislature are heavily dominated by liberal fascists who
have swatted down our governor’s efforts to repeal the Make a Mockery of New
Mexico’s License Law three years running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The debate now is whether the governor should just give up and let it
happen, or keep fighting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A large
majority of the legal citizens of the state favor fighting it out, and an
unknown percentage of illegal aliens want her to leave them alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, the latter have had much more
influence on the legislators than have the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
personally favor fighting it out, and getting as nasty and immoral as the
opposition if necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Illegals have
threatened mob violence and even threatened violence against specific citizens
over this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the fact that unknown
thousands of drug cartel enforcers are in our midst, those threats have serious
cred.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
have come to a point where there are no easy solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have taken the easy way out for so long,
there are no more easy ways left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have two choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, we can close
the border, strike down all amnesty and sanctuary laws, and go to work cutting
the illegals out of the crowd. Or we can throw open the border, strike down all
immigration laws, and let anyone and everyone come and go at their pleasure,
with no restrictions or penalties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
we try to take a middle course, it will be a road to madness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, let’s say we declare anyone who
has been in the US for ten years with no felony convictions a citizen, or
automatically eligible to take the citizenship test.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every one of those tens of millions of people
is going to say, “I’ve been here more than ten years and have no felony
convictions.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, you know sure as
anything that some of them are lying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But which ones?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you determine
which ones really are eligible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t
want to deport people who really do meet the criteria we have set, so we are
morally obliged to figure out who is eligible and who is lying.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
make such a determination, there must be a hearing – for every flippin’ one of
those 30-million or however many there are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every hearing must have a judge who knows the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every judge must be duly sworn, have an
office, a staff, a courtroom, a bailiff, a telephone, a computer, a hammer, and
so on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many such judges will it take
to hear all 30 million cases?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about
appeals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is anyone silly enough to think
some of these people – the criminals among them, at least – haven’t figured out
how to game the system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will appeal
and appeal and appeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will take a
cadre of a thousand judges a hundred years just to hear the cases!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s not over yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say Judge Brown tells some guy he has
to get out of the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we take
the guy into custody right then?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so,
it will require a bailiff or sheriff, a jail, a bus, a driver (with all the
overhead that entails).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing the guy
will appeal, we either have to release him on the spot or shortly thereafter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the appeal, the accused will have a
lawyer, which means the state will have to have a prosecutor, and every
prosecutor will have to have all the same things the judges need except a hammer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must already be up to many thousands of
government employees.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve got a guy who is
in the country illegally, but who has figured out how to get along and be
invisible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve sentenced him to
deportation, so he knows exactly what you have in mind for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then you’ve turned him loose - released him
into a countryside that is saturated with 30 million others like him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you propose to find him in order to
enforce the deportation order?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many more
government employees are we talking about, now?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
all of that is assuming all 30 million of these people voluntarily take
themselves to the courthouse so they can run the risk of deportation. I would
imagine that at least some of them will say, “Screw that,” and go dark, which
means we’ll have to find them, and how do you do that without shredding the
Constitution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t just go rounding
up anyone who looks like a Mexican, because if you snag one of my Marine Corps
brothers whose family has been here since before Jamestown was founded, you’re
going to have to fight me, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides,
not all illegal aliens are Mexicans!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve got to find them, try them, keep track
of them through the appeal process, and either kick them out or let them
go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re going to need tens of
thousands of people and many, many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oh, and don’t forget that with the border standing open, they’ll be
coming in faster than you can process ‘em out!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
much fun as all of the above sounds like, it is totally, absolutely futile to
even discuss ANY solution until the border is closed, and I mean closed
tight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, very few politicians in
the US have the guts to even discuss<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that, so all of this wrangling over driver’s licenses, voting rights, ID
cards, Obamacare, free education, and so on is a painfully obscene waste of
time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">19 Dec., 2013 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-82237914643778198132013-12-17T20:36:00.004-08:002013-12-17T20:36:58.384-08:00OUR MISS BROOKS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A STONE KILLER<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Just
idly wondering about the correlation between those who say only police should
have guns and those who go nuts when a cop busts a cap on someone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm thinking it's probably pretty high, but
certainly not 100%.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the article about the deputy sheriff in Colorado who stopped the shooting at
the school last week, some of the remarks from readers pointed out that the
deputy was trained professional, and highly skilled in the use of arms, as
opposed to teachers and janitors who are hopelessly and eternally unskilled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
I write another word, I want it understood that I am NOT impugning the
dedication, integrity, or courage of police officers, in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there are a few who shouldn’t be in
uniform, but that is only because we are limited to choosing our officers from
the human race, a notoriously un-omniscient population – which is actually
trenchant to this essay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
this particular incident, the officer never fired a shot, so his skill or lack
of it is not even a matter for discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, the very presence of an armed person stopped the attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just the PRESENCE of an armed person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much skill and training is required to be
PRESENT?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This fact is actually
consistent with another statistic you won’t hear in the news:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Americans use firearms in defense of
themselves or others at least 3 million times a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as the dipsticks in DC and the media
would like us to believe we shoot 3 million of our neighbors every year, I hope
it is obvious that we don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means
that in millions of instances, firearms are used in the defense of life WITHOUT
A SHOT BEING FIRED</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">See?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you are speaking the truth, it can be
verified from other perspectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
been in at least a half-dozen situations in which my being armed prevented an
assault or worse, without having to fire a shot – usually without even having
to draw my weapon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just having it gave
me the presence and the confidence to stand firm in the face of a threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, that’s not true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just having a weapon did nothing, and if that’s
all there were to me, I’d be a hazard to myself and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A more accurate statement is that having a
weapon and knowing that I know how to use it effectively gave me confidence and
presence, and I got that knowledge by spending a lot of time on the range with
some great coaches.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Police
officers are not a specific sub-species of humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are just men and women who have a
fully-developed sense of duty and honor, and anyone could achieve that with the
requisite effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Police officers have
neither a gene nor an implant that gives them superlative powers of perception
and tactical sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing makes them infallible
in any way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make mistakes of
judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make mistakes in
tactics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make mistakes when firing
their weapons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times in the
last few years have NYPD officers shot innocent bystanders?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It has been said that due to the ammunition shortage,
NYPD has set a limit of five rounds per innocent bystander.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a vicious and demeaning joke, but it
is not without reference to fact.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
started shooting a Colt 1911 pistol when I was 17 and borrowed my mom’s .38
Super.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I continued to learn in the
Marines, and even though the pistol wasn’t officially my standard arm, I
qualified expert with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I got
out of the Marines, I have probably fired 10,000 rounds in concentrated
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could count on one hand the
number of state or city police officers whom I have met who have fired half
that much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The training plans for
metropolitan departments devote orders of magnitude more time to filling out
reports and sensitivity training than to focused marksmanship and
gunfighting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(And there’s a huge
difference between those two!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
personally know career officers who fire their weapons less than 100 times a
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have seen them turn their backs
on potentially armed suspects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw one
take a pistol from a homeowner who had called about a burglary in progress,
then lay the pistol on the hood of his car, in full view of that woman, and
walk away!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have shot next to them at
target ranges, and observed that a lot of them couldn’t hit a bull in the butt
with a bass fiddle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have heard them
utter the most idiotic ideas about how guns and bullets work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is no reason in the world why any citizen possessed of normal intelligence and
physical strength and coordination could not be as tactically savvy as the vast
majority of police officers, and a hell of a lot better shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will need training, and I’ll bet you a
dollar to a donut the NRA would provide it for free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I would gladly participate in that effort!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no question that it takes a special
breed to become a hardened professional gunfighter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also no question that few police
officers fit that description, and even fewer teachers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
it doesn’t matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
aren’t talking about turning Our Miss Brooks into Bonnie Parker or Annie
Oakley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are talking about giving her
enough training to protect herself and her students one time in her life, and
the odds of any one teacher being called upon to do that are nearly zero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have the resources to train them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Front Sight, in Nevada, has a 4-day defensive
handgun course that would make any graduate a better, more savvy, more skilled
gunfighter than the majority of professional police officers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have the resources to comfort and nurture
and heal them if they ever have to shoot someone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I submit that the resources we have spent on
therapy for Sandy Hook survivors would have paid many times over for the
training of a single teacher who might have put a stop to that outrage, and for
any counseling or therapy she might need afterward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting roses and apples and hugs from all
those little children she kept safe would probably help as much as anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here’s
another little contradiction in the hoplophobe’s vast array of contradictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They say the lack of training prevents
average citizens from competing with criminals in gunfights, but…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wait a minute… WHO TRAINED THE DAMNED
CRIMINALS?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Criminals are, for the most
art, mentally unstable and stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
why they can’t work out their lives in other channels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are not gifted with superlative skill at
arms any more than are police officers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For the most part, they are not trained, at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some, like the Aurora theater shooter, have
gained some skill by playing violent video games for thousands of hours, but
that doesn’t make them infallible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most
significantly, it doesn’t make ‘em bulletproof, and THAT is where we can defeat
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">17 Dec., 2013 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-16736979902965790422013-11-22T23:21:00.001-08:002013-11-22T23:21:46.251-08:00DAMON AND ZINN VIE FOR PEABRAIN OF THE CENTURY<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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A friend posted a video of Matt Damon reading a speech that
was given by Howard Zinn several years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>http://vimeo.com/48834336</div>
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This is my response.</div>
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Apart from the fact that Zinn was an idiot of jaw-dropping proportions, there is some merit to this speech. The main point of agreement for me is that in order to break the present cycle of ever-more unjust law, we're going to have to break hell out of some of those laws. We have been bullied and brainwashed into this non-violent form of prolonged suicide for so long that the only people who can really visualize themselves breaking hell out of some laws are the people who are part and parcel of the problem.<br /><br />The problem in Germany did not start with people obeying Hitler. It started when Hitler was elected on a socialist/environmentalist platform that promised to smash the rich and redistribute wealth. Hitler said he was going to do all those things, and the German people thought that sounded like a good idea and elected him. None of them asked, "Just how does he figure on doing all that stuff," until it was too late. Hitler did what he did without the consent or assistance of the German people. If anyone spoke up, they died.<br /><br />In Russia, the people accepted socialism/communism years before Uncle Joe came along, so there was no consent involved with his accession to power. As for obedience, it was pretty much the same thing in Russia as in Germany: obey or die. I've heard people say, "Hitler [or Stalin] couldn't murder a million people if they stood up to him. I think the scoreboard indicates either of them could murder way over a million.<br /><br />So when Zinn compared the state of the American Sheelple to that of the Germans or Russians, he was miles off target - about average for him.<br /><br />The single most thundering bit of idiocy is his reference to how the law allocates wealth. Only a Keynsian or a Bolshevik could make such a stunning error. Zinn, if I'm not mistaken, had spent a great deal of time around professors, and was, in fact, a professor, himself, which explains that advanced level of brain damage.<br /><br />Wealth is created by human action. You can have all the berries in the world laying around, but until someone goes out and picks them, you'll starve. When that someone picks them, it is reasonable for him to say, "Hey, guys. I spent the day picking these berries, so I don't have any firewood. I'll swap berries for wood, K?" And there you have a very rudimentary economy, one based on human action and trade. Oh, and the firewood didn't just happen, either; somebody busted his hump getting that in, too. Keynsians don't understand that. They think wealth just happens, or, as Keynes, himself said, wealth is whatever people decide to call wealth. I can see him now, trying to make a living selling cordwood in hell: "Aw, come on, guys! Wood is worth as much as ice water; you just have to open your minds to a different definition of wealth!"<br /><br />Government creates one thing, and one thing, only: force. The only way government can allocate wealth is to take it from those who produced it ('cause those who didn't produce it don't have none, and you can't take it from them 'cause they don't have it. K?) So the government can forcibly take wealth from those who produced it and give it to those who don't. Somebody's gettin' screwed in this deal, I can tell already. That's why the best government is a limited one, and specifically, one limited by a written body of law. (Zinn's contempt for the law amazes me. If it weren't for laws against littering and discharging a firearm in the city limits, he'd have been a sack of guts on the sidewalk a long time ago.) Government can allocate ONLY the use of force. Does that scare you? It damned well should. That's why the people need to be armed on par with the government. If the government's only product was pancake batter, the people might not need battle rifles, but that ain't the way it is.<br /><br />When you accept, as a matter of policy that somebody's gettin' bent over the barrel, the only thing remaining is to decide who gets bent and who stands up behind them - not to put too fine a point on it... Systems that allow this to happen are notoriously fickle. The stand-behind citizen of today is the bend-over-the-barrel citizen of tomorrow. Anyone who advocates such a system really should think about that before voting. (It's too late for America, now, but that's the way it SHOULD HAVE worked.) When you put that kind of power in the hands of the government, all you can do is say, "Yassuh, Boss," and pick dat cotton.<br /><br />There's an old joke that's a perfect parable. A guy asked a gal if she'd sleep with him for a million bucks. She said she reckoned she would. He said how about a buck and a half? She snapped, what kind of woman do you think I am? He said we've already determined that, Darlin'; we're just dickering over the price.<br /><br />There really are only two ways to run an economic system. You can let the producers do their thing, using the written law as a standard of behavior so they don't use force against anyone, or you can put the power in the hands of the government. In the former case, the producers are motivated by a desire for wealth, and the surest way to that in a lawful, orderly society is to provide the best product at the best price. Wages, prices, supply, and demand are controlled by natural forces. And always - ALWAYS! - there must be the law, making sure that nobody uses force on anyone else.<br /><br />In the latter case, the government is motivated to run the economy in a just and fair way, allowing the producers to make enough to satisfy them, and generously allowing those who don't produce enough to be comfortable and happy. The government will recognize that a desire for more in a producer is base greed, and in a lazy shirker, a simple human desire to live better. Oops. My sarcasm got the better of me. Sorry. So, yes, a free market can go awry, but so can a controlled one. On the one hand, you must trust to human nature and to the law. On the other, you must trust to human nature and raw power.<br />
<br />
Rebsarge<br />
23 Nov., 2013Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-58401624492647506652013-11-10T01:02:00.000-08:002013-11-10T01:02:15.469-08:00DOES THE ACA REDUCE THE COST OF HEALTHCARE?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The claims by the Left of “controlling health care costs”
baffles me on several points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government is talking about
health care insurance, and paying all these medical bills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hmmm, says I.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s say I were buying a loaf of bread, and the store owner
wanted $100 for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m filled with
despair because I have about five bucks, and I’m hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along comes this tall, good-looking black
fellow in a really sharp suit, and he says, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll take some
money from this fund I have, and I’ll pay the other $95.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Great,” says I, and out I go with the bread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But later, I hear the black fellow say on TV
that he has lowered the cost of bread.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like bloody hell, he did!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If anything, he guaranteed bread will ALWAYS cost at LEAST a hundred
bucks a loaf!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t lower the price;
he just paid what the jerk in the store was asking. You don’t seriously think
the store owner, having tasted blood, and knowing where he can get more, will
ever actually lower his price, do you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But then comes the really aggravating part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gets to thinking, “I wonder where that fund
he mentioned came from?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then it hits me; that fund was taken from me, in the
first place!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That crooked sonofabitch
took my money – and a lot more than the $95 he paid for the bread – and
invested it in a guaranteed level of inflation that would choke a Weimar
banker, and then had the unmitigated gall to brag to me that he’d lowered the
cost of my bread!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t lower a
flippin thing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All he did was make sure
the cost would never come below $100, and took from me the money I might have
used to pay for the bread, in the first place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s break this down a little more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government has passed laws and allowed –
nay, encouraged and mandated – practices that have caused medical costs to go
through the roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, rather than
actually doing anything to reduce those costs, they are going to rob me, my
children, and every future generation of Americans in order to pay the costs
they have created.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, pay
themselves a handsome wage for their hard work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah, Fascist America!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ya gotta love it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sic Semper,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rebsarge 2013 </div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-47885034744608239772013-11-06T06:57:00.001-08:002013-11-06T06:57:04.639-08:00GOODBYE TO MY TEAMMATES AT VZW<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not sure of the emotional dynamic that is driving me this morning, but I
couldn’t sleep for thinking about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve left jobs before, but always with the single-minded obsession that
I’d have another one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time it’s
like walking a plank; I’m stepping off the end and I’ve no idea what’s beyond. With
varying degrees of success, I’ve worked for others since I was about 13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of it has been unpleasant, but some of
it has been amazingly gratifying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
neither case was I prepared for what happened, and comforting as it may be to
think myself blameless for the former and wholly responsible for the latter,
the reality is probably somewhat less comforting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I have a few ideas that seem
important for me to share with y’all because you’re my friends, and I feel
somewhat fatherly toward many of you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
all things, never do less than your flat, level best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether it’s working or playing, loving or
fighting, hold nothing back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end
of the day, if you can look in the mirror and say, “You did your best,” you should
await the results in peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Love
money for what it is and what it can do, but never make a god of it, or love it
for its own sake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money won’t buy
happiness, but neither will poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve been broke and miserable and fairly well off and miserable, and
being broke makes it worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money will
not make a man good or evil; it will only unmask the good or evil he already
has in his heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work hard and honestly
for your money, but never for a second forget that if you spend part of your
allotted span earning a dollar, whatever you trade that dollar for becomes the
symbol of that minute of your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
money for which you trade the minutes of your life may be used to build temples
or whorehouses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s your choice, and
rightfully so, but give a moment’s thought to what legacy you are leaving to
your children.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Companies,
especially big ones, like to pretend that money isn’t a motivator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such insanity is part of the unique form of
brain damage that comes from excessive exposure to professors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Working for wages does not make you a
prostitute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only selling your principles
for favor can do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Working for wages
makes you a producer, and there’s nothing wrong with that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let
your employer stay a few dollars ahead of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do this by making sure you do just a little more than you are paid
for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the time comes, and it usually
does, for you to tell him to kiss your grits, you want to make damn sure you
don’t owe him a nickel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Years ago, I
read a proverb titled, “Alaskan Philosophy,” and I’ve found that the further
from it I drift, the more stupid and screwed up my life gets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is simply this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Live each day so you can look every man
square in the eye and tell him to go to hell.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Telling people to go to hell is NOT the objective!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The objective is to make certain you have dealt
with all men fairly, and have taken advantage of none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the top of the list of those with whom you
must be on the level is the one who looks back at you from the mirror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That sucker will kick your butt if you don’t,
and if you don’t have that kind of relationship with him or her, you have
greater problems than you know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shakespeare
said, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Believe it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you run into someone smarter than you, don’t get mad at him. It ain’t his
fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~Cowboy proverb.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Never
get so damned smart you can’t learn something from every person you meet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~My dad</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Read at least a few minutes every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start with something that interests you, but
as you grow, branch out. Read things that challenge and stretch you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five years from now, you will be the same
person you are today with the exception of the books you read and the people
with whom you associate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goethe said, “A
man’s mind, once stretched to fit a new idea, will never return to its former
size and shape.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(He also said “Where
they burn books, they will burn men.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>True dat.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
can’t interfere with folks’ right to be stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~My mom</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Being
open minded does not mean accepting any damnfool drivel that happens to blow
through your ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means listening to
the ideas of others and evaluating them honestly and fairly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have your own values and standards, know what
they are, and live by them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you find
something better, change, but never, ever let anyone bluff or bully you into
changing your mind without a good reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And in your own dealings with others, remember that all you can do is
offer your opinion; it’s up to them to pick it up or leave it lay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is at the heart of The Gospel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have the right and obligation to
exercise our agency, and that agency starts with what we think and
believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God offers us His testimony and
His wisdom, but He doesn’t jam it down our throats, and when people who claim
to be His servants start jamming things, don’t hesitate to put a stop to
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t judge the Gospel by some of
the idiots who profess to teach it, but remember you can go wrong by being too
skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most
folks’ idea of religion has about the same relationship to the Gospel as education
does to intelligence, i.e., none to speak of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>~Me (because I’ve used it a lot and don’t remember where I got it.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Never
let school interfere with your education, your job with being productive, nor a
relationship with loving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>~Me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
can spend all your love making time, or you can spend all your time making
love. ~The Eagles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
only person who never made a mistake never did anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i>
do your best to do what’s right, but understand you aren’t perfect, and you’re
going to screw up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will hurt
yourself and those you love. You will blow opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t let it make you afraid to play the
game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do your best, learn from your
mistakes, and keep slugging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God will
forgive you if you ask Him sincerely, but it’s not that easy for people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forgiving yourself may be one of the toughest
things you’ll ever do, but few things will contribute more to your personal
growth or the satisfaction you take from living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are an amazing, stunning being,
“wonderfully and fearfully made.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wallow
in it, and be thankful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally,
don’t be stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May Our Father in
Heaven bless you all and keep you safe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Your
pard,</span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-89516325431930505602013-11-03T15:05:00.000-08:002013-11-03T15:05:08.040-08:00RIGHTS AS FREEDOM FROM RESTRAINT<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’d
like to put forth a proposition:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 2<sup>nd</sup>
Amendment to the Constitution says we have the right to keep and bear
arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, I demand that the
government, at public expense, provide me with a militia-suitable firearm,
ammunition, spares, maintenance gear, load bearing gear, and training, complete
with a range where I can practice at no expense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
how about this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1<sup>st</sup>
Amendment to the Constitution says we have the right to free speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, I demand that the government, at
public expense, provide me with a newspaper and a radio station, complete and
entire with staff, hardware, support, payroll, benefits (no Affordable Care,
please, thank you).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
all, how can I exercise my rights to be armed or to run my mouth if I don’t
have a gun and a newspaper?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t it
hypocrisy to tell me I can have a gun, and then not give me one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or to tell me I can speak my mind, and not
give me a pulpit?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While
I haven’t heard this absurd argument for guns, I have heard it for newspapers
and radio stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is precisely
what the “fairness doctrine” is about, and it is built on a fundamental
misunderstanding of what a right is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No,
this is not a matter of semantic hairsplitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a matter of the perversion of a perfectly valid concept, and the
use of that perversion to manipulate people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is no such thing as a right <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TO</i>
something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Rights” are not a voucher;
they are the freedom from restraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
2<sup>nd</sup> Amendment means no one can prevent me from getting a gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1<sup>st</sup> Amendment means no one can
prevent me from getting a newspaper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A right
cannot be a positive title to something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A right can only be a guarantee of freedom from restraint in getting
that thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s how that works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nothing
Mankind needs to survive occurs in usable form in nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berries must be picked, animals must be
hunted, crops must be grown, lumber must be cut, cloth must be woven… the list
is endless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EVERYTHING</i> – Man needs to live requires
some form of human action to make it usable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are but four ways of getting the things we need:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we can produce them, ourselves, we can
produce other things and trade for them, we can beg for them, or we can steal
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make it yourself, buy it with
something you have made yourself, beg for it, or steal it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are producers, beggars, or thieves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no other options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since no one can produce all that he needs
over an extended period, dealing with others is inescapable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beggars are doomed to live at the discretion
of their benefactors, and thieves live only until they encounter a strong man
armed, politicians notwithstanding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are given a limited time in this life, and each second that ticks past is gone,
forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we spend a minute making or
doing something, that thing is all we have to show for that minute of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the value of the thing we have made
is whatever value we place on that portion of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we offer to trade that thing to another
for a thing he has made, we are, in a very real, practical sense, trading our
life for his.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is human action, alone,
that makes the things of the world useful to us, and the value of that action
must be reflected in the cost of the item.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t just trade stuff; we also trade the portion of our allotted
span that went into producing the stuff.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
and we alone have the authority to set the value of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An employer can offer us a wage, but we have
the option of accepting it or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As in
any other trade, an employer is offering to give you part of his life in
exchange for part of yours, and, like you, he has the authority to set the
value of his own life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where
Progressives, Liberals, and other Fascists lose all grasp on reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They appeal to the egocentrism imbedded in
all of us when they teach that you, the person to whom they are speaking, have
the right to set the value of your life, but employers can’t set the value of
their own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
a lot of people (more than 50%, if the last election is an indication) fail to
grasp is that the fascists are telling your neighbor the same thing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All statist politics is based on the premise
of passing law that is binding on that guy over there, but never on us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back
to the gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To produce a modern firearm
requires a huge amount of material, engineering, and manufacturing
equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as with picking wild
berries or preparing animal hides, human action is required to convert natural
materials into steel and electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just as with the berries and hides, those who provided that action may
set the price on their labors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To say
they are required to give you the gun is to take from them that authority and
establish, as law, that when they are dealing with you, their lives are of zero
value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are your slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That appeals to a lot of our neighbors,
though they are less enthused when it’s their turn to be our slaves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
you claim a right to groceries, you are filing a claim to the lives of the
farmers, truckers, and everyone else involved in the chain of production and
supply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you claim a right to time
on a radio station, you are filing a claim to the lives of the engineers,
factory workers, clerks, and entrepreneurs who put that station on the
air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The Fairness Doctrine [gag] uses
the phrase, “public airways,” and says they belong to everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The air might, but the equipment that
generates radio signals damned sure does not; it belongs to the people who
created it. You can turn your radio on and wait until there’s a cold day in a
hot place, but until someone turns on the transmitter, you won’t hear squat.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
you claim a right to health care, you are filing a claim to the lives of the
doctors, nurses, technicians, manufacturers, builders, administrators, filing
clerks, janitors, and all the multitude of people whose actions create the
highly abstract thing called “health care.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you claim a right to an x-ray, you are negating the right of the
x-ray tech to determine the value of her life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
when you allow the government to make that claim for you, the crime is no
less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it may be even greater
because if you do it, that is naked, bold theft, but the government’s action is
cloaked in fraudulent righteousness and academic babble that actually reverses
the roles of masters and slaves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">No
one has a right to health care because no one has a right to the lives of all
those involved in providing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
right consists of the absence of restraint – you cannot be kept from trading a
portion of your life for a portion of theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This may seem, and actually is harsh and strict, but what is the
alternative?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you grant to the government the authority (not the right, but the authority) to
set the value of your doctor’s life, what in the world is to prevent that same
government from setting the value of your life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When your doctor comes to your place of employment, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what is to prevent the government from limiting
what you charge him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We think about the
government telling our employers how much they must pay us, and most people
expect the government to set a wage higher than what they are making now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is to keep the government from
setting a lower wage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have already
granted the government the authority to do such things; what is your
protection?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, by ordering you a
greater wage, the government has set the value of your employer’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you comfortable with any government
having that kind of power over you?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Having
accepted and voted into law the principle that the government can enslave any
group of people for the benefit of any other, the only thing we have left to
discuss is who is enslaved to whom – and when are the roles reversed?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
simple fact is that prices for health care must be set by someone, and to
access that care, the prices must be paid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can work it out with your doctor, or you can sell your soul to the
fascists who are firmly convinced they know better the value of your doctor’s
life, and of yours.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">If I am faced with
these two harsh realities, I’ll do my own horse trading</span>Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-55451041789195943812013-10-06T15:28:00.002-07:002013-10-06T15:29:46.243-07:00SO YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT BUYING A GUN<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Guns and
self-defense with them have generated more ill-informed passion than almost
anything other than religion, politics, and sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally, therefore, I felt obliged to
contribute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lifetime of shooting and
studying the subject has given me some insight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I do not claim to know everything, but I do know some things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of this is my opinion, but it is opinion
based on observations of reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
large number of people have asked for my advice on getting a firearm for
personal defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope this clears up
some of the fog.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">First,
make sure you know why you want one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
it for target or sport shooting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
for personal defense in your home or car?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is it for concealed carry on your person?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it for quasi-military action?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it because you are concerned this may be
your last chance to get one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of
these is valid, and each has unique requirements.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Second,
make sure you know why you want one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you are thinking about anything involving shooting other people, you’d better
make darned sure you square that idea with your moral structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way to completely avoid the
emotional trauma of doing such grievous bodily harm to another person, but if
you aren’t fairly certain you have a moral right and responsibility to defend
your own life, even at the risk of taking someone else’s, it will ruin you.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
rest of this will be based on the assumption that you are thinking of personal
defense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">How
about some vocabulary? I'm not trying to show off or be anally technical, here. There are a lot of terms that have been so abused and misused that a lot of folks have entirely wrong ideas about things. So, here's the short list.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Bullet,
or projectile</b> – the blob of metal that comes out of the muzzle of a firearm and
inflicts damage or harm on whatever it hits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is different from a…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Cartridge,
shell, round</b> – the entire assembly of components that includes a bullet,
gunpowder, a primer, and a case to hold everything together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cartridge does not fly toward the target,
no matter what Diane Feinstein says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Hollow
point</b> – a bullet that is designed to expand in soft tissue, such as a human
body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is called a hollow point because
it has a cavity in its nose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theory,
this cavity fills with fluid upon impact, and causes the bullet to swell, or
expand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The greater diameter of the
expanded bullet increases the energy transfer to the target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not explode!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hollow points are used almost exclusively for
personal defense, though some are used in long range rifle competition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Amor
piercing bullet</b> – a bullet designed to punch through armor, such as a jeep, an
airplane, or light vehicle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is made
from harder material than regular bullets, though it often consists of a steel
core covered by copper, like other bullets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An armor piercing bullet does not explode or expand unless it hits
something it can’t penetrate, in which case it just mushrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Armor piercing bullets are intended to be the
exact opposite to hollow points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
ammunition manufacturers have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">voluntarily</i>
limited sales of AP rounds to police and the military.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Cop-killer
bullet</b> – a myth concocted by people who think Joe Biden is a paragon of
intellect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was considerable
hysteria about these in the 1980’s, all of it utter baloney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all, any bullet that is of
sufficient mass and velocity will penetrate a policeman’s armored vest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The design of the bullet has nothing to do
with it, nor does the material of which the bullet is made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I exclude from this bullets made of graphite
or wood, generally called “gallery” rounds, which are made to disintegrate on
impact with a backstop in a gallery.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
remember seeing people use the phrase “armor-piercing, hollow point cop-killer
bullets,” which is one of the most preposterous obfuscations ever
perpetrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no such thing as a
cop-killer bullet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Teflon-coated
cop-killer bullet</b> – another mythical item.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Supposedly, coating bullets with Teflon will allow them to penetrate a
police officer’s body armor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In actuality,
Teflon is used on competition bullets in very expensive target rifles (not
pistols) to prevent wear to the bore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The British army did
an exhaustive series of tests in the 1970’s and found that Teflon coating has
absolutely zero effect on a bullet’s ability to penetrate anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anyone brings this up, hand them their
sign.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Stopping
power</b> – the ability of a round to knock a man down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oceans of ink have been spilled in the
discussion of what round has the best stopping power, and the argument rages
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are a couple of points:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there is no such thing as a guaranteed ,100%,
one-shot stopper, including the 12 gauge shotgun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some rounds have a higher percentage of
one-shot stops, and these are to be preferred for personal defense, but get it
out of your head that anything works every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shot placement is as important in stopping as
is the power of the round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men have had
limbs blown off and kept fighting, killing the man who had shot them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drugs, booze, and insanity have a lot to do
with stopping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man who is sufficiently
stoned or crazy won’t even know he’s been shot, and won’t drop unless you cut
his spine, blow a hole in his brain, or break major bones, such as the femur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In general, fat, slow bullets have more
stopping power.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Killing
power </b>– Another irrelevant myth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ignore
the concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bubonic plague has killed
many millions of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That doesn’t
make it a personal defense tool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Gun </b>–
a firearm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contrary to some magazine
writers, it is perfectly acceptable to refer to any firearm as a gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone will understand what you mean,
especially if you are pointing it at them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the most technical sense, a “gun” is a smoothbore, as in a shotgun or
an unrifled cannon. In historical writing, you may see reference to things like
“twelve-pounder gun,” which is a smoothbore cannon that fires a 12-pound round
ball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Rifle
</b>– a firearm with a rifled bore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
look down the barrel of a rifle – look into it from the breech, not the muzzle!
– you’ll see two to ten ridges called “lands,” that spiral the length of the
bore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rifling spins the bullet and gives
it great accuracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rifling does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> make a bullet more lethal or
destructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Technically, any firearm
with rifling can be called a rifle, hence you will occasionally hear of the
giant guns on battleships called, “naval rifles.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Smoothbore
</b>– a firearm lacking rifling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shotguns
are smoothbores, as are some muzzleloaders and tank cannon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like rifles, smoothbores can be anything from
shoulder-held firearms to artillery pieces.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Handgun
</b>– a firearm that is meant to be held in one hand, as opposed to being held
against the shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost all
handguns are generically referred to as “pistols,” and I consider this entirely
acceptable unless you in a highly technical discussion with someone who knows
the difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These terms are included
for general reference, only.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t get
anal about them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Pistol
</b>– a semi-automatic handgun that is loaded with a magazine containing
cartridges. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oddly, single-shot, muzzle
loading handguns were also called pistols.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Revolver
</b>– a handgun with a round cylinder that holds the cartridges and rotates during
operation in order to bring an unfired cartridge into firing position.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Semi-automatic</b>
– a firearm that fires one shot for each squeeze of the trigger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This refers to the way in which the firearm
presents a fresh round for firing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
has absolutely nothing, whatsoever to do with the destructiveness or lethality
of the round. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have a single-shot gun
and a semi-auto chambered for the same round, and it will have precisely the
same effect downrange, no matter which you fire it from.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Full
automati</b>c – a firearm that will fire more than one shot for each squeeze of the
trigger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are machine guns, and
have been closely controlled since 1934.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are a great many machine guns in private hands in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time Clinton tried to ban them, there
was not a single case of a machinegun being used in a crime by its lawful
owner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are incredibly expensive,
and most are very bulky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with
semi-automatic, this term refers solely to the way in which the next round is
presented for firing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has nothing to
do with the lethality of the round.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Machinegun </b>– a fully automatic firearm that fires a rifle cartridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same bullet, same velocity, etc..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just fires more rounds faster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contrary to Hollywood and the press, most
machine guns are superbly accurate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b>Submachine
gun</b> – a fully automatic firearm that fires a pistol cartridge, such as the 9mm
or .45 ACP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Machine pistol</b> – a myth
of Hollywood and the press.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no
such thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some submachine guns can be
fired with one hand, but they are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not
pistols; they are just short submachine guns. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enough of that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There
are several very dangerous myths about the defensive use of firearms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is that there is such a thing as a
“woman’s gun.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anyone tries to show
you such a piece, get away from that person immediately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The effectiveness of a gun is measured by the
effect its bullets have on the target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
one is to consider gender at all, it must be from the perspective that, should
the gun malfunction or not do its job, women are often less well-equipped to
handle hand-to-hand combat than are men, and therefore need a gun that is even
more reliable and more powerful than a “man’s gun.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Another
myth is that a smaller-caliber, less powerful gun will be somehow more humane,
or less likely to kill someone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bull
crap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a gun will likely guarantee
that you’ll have to shoot him more than once, and every study on gunshot wounds
says that a single hit from a large, slow bullet is much less likely to be
fatal than several hits from smaller, less powerful bullets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only does the number of wounds increase
the chance of fatality, but it wastes ammunition. You only have so many rounds,
and since predators often roam in packs, you might need those extras.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have personally witnessed a biker, who was
undoubtedly drunk, get shot 7 times in the chest with a .25 automatic, and yet
be on his feet when the police arrived, and cheerfully surrender the 10-lb
sledge hammer with which he had beaten to death the guy who shot him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When
people talk about “killing power,” get out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An icepick has the same killing power as a cannon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dead is dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The critical factor in a gunfight is not how dead you can kill him, but
how fast can you incapacitate him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
first and greatest objective of a gunfight is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stop the fight, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOW</b>!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put him on his back and out of commission
NOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That leaves you free to engage his
buddies, run like a rabbit, shoot him again, cut his throat, or, if you are of
saintly inclination, take his weapon and administer first aid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But before you have ANY options, AT ALL, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">YOU <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MUST</b>
STOP THE FIGHT!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big and slow stops
the fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The biker mentioned above would probably have
died – sometime.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now
for some basic physics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t freak out;
this is going to be very general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are at least three factors in what they call “terminal ballistics,” or what a
bullet does to the target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is the
diameter of the bullet – called “bore size,” or “caliber.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another is the velocity of the bullet, and
the third is the design of the bullet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
bigger the bore, i.e., the larger the caliber, the more energy will be
transmitted to the target. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One caliber
is 1/100<sup>th</sup> of an inch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A .50
caliber bullet is ½ inch in diameter. A fat bullet has more surface area to
shove through the target, which means it has to displace more tissue, which
means it transfers more of its energy into the target.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Penetration
– how far a bullet will go into a body – is more a function of mass than of
velocity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At rifle velocities, you might
get decent penetration with a lighter bullet, but at handgun velocities, you
need mass. (“Rifle velocities” tend to be in excess of 2000 feet per second, or
2000fps. Handgun velocities are usually under 1000fps, and almost never over
1200fps.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your bullet has too much
penetration, it passes through the target and wastes its energy on whatever is
behind it, including walls and other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If your bullet has too little penetration, it may be stopped by a heavy
leather or down-filled jacket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
bullet must get into his vitals and either paralyze his nervous system or break
major bones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Too
much velocity can cause overpenetration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To demonstrate this principle, set a glass on a tablecloth and jerk the
cloth from under it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you jerk fast
enough, the glass will stay right where it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In terms of ballistics, your bullet drills a neat little hole, and the
guy may not even realize he’s been hit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Big
and slow stops the fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been proven in every gunfighting
environment from barrooms to battlefields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In my opinion, the .45 ACP (for Automatic Colt Pistol) is the ideal
combat cartridge. It’s almost ½” in diameter, and travels under 1000fps in most
variations. There is no reason a person of normal strength and dexterity can’t
handle a .45.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The .40 S&W is also an
excellent choice, being only slightly below the .45.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The .357 magnum is a crushing defensive
cartridge, but generates substantially more recoil and is prone to over
penetration. A .38 special in one of the new defensive loadings is little below
the .40, and produces far less recoil than a .357.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Why
is velocity not as important as bore size?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Put a vase on a tablecloth, then jerk the tablecloth out from under it
very quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The vase remains, right?
If a bullet is going faster than necessary, it can pass through the target
without imparting much energy to it, and just like that vase, the guy is still
standing there thinking, “That bitch shot me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[pause] <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rifles shoot at much higher velocities
because they are meant to shoot at longer ranges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A defensive handgun should shoot around 800
to 1100 feet per second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A rifle is, by
far, more powerful and effective at stopping people than is a handgun, but they
are much less handy in confined spaces, such as your car or a hallway, and they
are impossible to conceal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The role of
the handgun in combat is absolutely valid, but is also very specific:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>short range, instant access, and
concealability.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There
is an old saying that if you expect trouble, take a rifle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another says to use your pistol to keep ‘em
off you until you can get to your rifle. If someone offers to coach you, watch
for indications that they may be giving you rifle advice for a handgun situation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Imagine
your assailant having a target on his chest, with his heart and spine being in the
center, with concentric rings around it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A big ol’ fat .45 bullet might be able to deliver a paralyzing shock in
the 2<sup>nd</sup> ring out, where a small bullet, like from a .22 caliber,
might have to be in the very center to have the same effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Power and/or bore size will not compensate
for poor marksmanship, but it will give you a little bit of an edge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing is certain in gunfighting noise, but,
in general, a bigger, more powerful bullet is less demanding of precision
shooting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why you need the most
powerful weapon you can physically handle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I almost forgot recoil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Newton said, “For every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
When you fire a gun, the bullet accelerates very rapidly inside the
barrel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That acceleration produces force
in the opposite direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That force is
recoil, or “kick.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recoil takes some
getting used to, but there is simply no way to make a bullet go fast enough to
do its job without some recoil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At any
given velocity, heavy bullets will kick more, and for any given bullet mass,
higher velocity will kick more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea
is to find a cartridge with that combination of mass and velocity that will do
the job without hurting the shooter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Here’s
one of my favorite myths:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A .45 kicks
so hard it will split your head if you don’t lock your elbow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baloney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have held my .45 with my thumb and two fingers as I pulled the trigger
with my left hand, and it just spun in a circle and came right back down into
my right hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now understand, there was
only one round in the weapon, and I was standing on a pad to protect the pistol
should I drop it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
two most dangerous, but widespread myths concern warning shots and the value of
“flashing” your gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People will tell
you that you don’t even need to get bullets for your gun; just show it to ‘em,
and they’ll run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bullshit and more
bullshit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People have two basic reflexes
when threatened:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>flight or fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you show your gun to a flight person, you
might – MIGHT – get away with it, but that reflex can be overridden by drugs,
booze, or utter terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a
fight person, you are going to have to shoot him, anyway, and maybe even sooner
than otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have stood, gun in
hand, in front of a young man who had ripped his shirt open was screeching at
me, “You think you’re bad, old man?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Shoot me, motherfucker!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You ain’t
got the balls to shoot me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come on, you
white motherfucker!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shoot me!...” and so
on and so forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up having to
shoot him, anyway, because he was full of angel dust and Budweiser, and totally
unaware that I had beaten him to within an inch of his life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Warning
shots are much the same. This is for anyone who still thinks Joe Biden is not the
idiot’s idiot. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People will tell you
that if you fire a shot into the air, the bad guys will run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bull….<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, you get the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
warning shot gives away the fact that you are armed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It allows him to say he heard a shot, thought
you were shooting at him, and was therefore justified in blowing you away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were hidden, it gives away your
position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It endangers innocent
bystanders because, even though you were warning the bad guy, that bullet
thought it was on a deadly errand, and it WILL go somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a shot into the air has to come down
sometime. Finally, a warning shot expends a round, and you might need that
round shortly because the bad guy might have friends, you might miss when you
fire for effect, or he may be stoned enough that your fire doesn’t have the
desired effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the situation
warrants busting a cap, put it in his center of mass.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
general, you want to get the biggest gun you can handle, and most high-quality
arm you can afford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A $1500.00 Kimber or
Wilson is a superb arm, indeed, but a $400.00 Taurus or Springfield is just as
effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can afford the Kimber,
go for it, but most folks can’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put the
money you save on the gun into practice ammunition and a good training program.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Get a
gun you are comfortable with, that is, with one that fits naturally into your
hand and feels good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a sensual
element in the feel of the right pistol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I felt it the first time I ever picked up a single action Colt cavalry
model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was instantly an extension of
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll know it when you feel
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you like a gun, you are more
likely to practice with it, and that increases your odds of hitting what you
mean to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, though, that the
smaller the caliber, the greater the importance of accuracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter how good you are in practice, you
will not be anywhere nearly that good in a fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your target will be moving, maybe lunging or
even shooting at you, you will be blown sky-high on adrenaline and stress,
you’ll have tunnel vision, and you’ll go deaf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Your entire nervous system shunts all resources to whatever is necessary
to stay alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll forget to breathe, blink, or
swallow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The muscle patterns inculcated
by practice will take over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
haven’t practiced enough, all of the distractions will still apply, but you
won’t have the established patterns to rely on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Going
to the range once a month is not enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once a week is a minimum for the first 1000 rounds, and a good coach is
above price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make your practice
realistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost all gunfights occur at
less than 10 feet, and a lot of them inside 5 feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting your gun out and into play is the
first problem you will face, so study and practice how you will store or carry
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spend money on a good holster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carrying it in your purse is a good way to
lose it to a purse snatcher, or be caught fumbling among your makeup while he’s
wailing on you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have a way to store it
safely when not in use, especially if you have kids around, or if strangers are
frequently in your home, but remember the point of having the gun, in the first
place is to allow you to do deadly harm; a gun that is 100% safely stored is
likely to be inaccessible when you really need it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Finally, after doing
all the above, pray with all your heart that you will never have to shoot
another human being, and that you will never have to choose between jeopardizing
the safety of yourself or a loved one and inflicting grave bodily harm on another
person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I and most men have a tendency
to speak somewhat flippantly about this subject, but rest assured, there is
nothing flippant or casual in the intent of this lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the most significant choices any
person can make is to take up arms against their fellow man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not do so lightly, but if you do so, do it
right</span>Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-15405343953988576852013-09-29T16:33:00.001-07:002013-09-29T16:33:02.917-07:00LIFE'S WHAT-IF'S AND IF-WHAT'S<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We
all have things in our pasts that have directed us toward where and what we are
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything we are at any given
instant is the summation of events from our past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our lives are chalkboards from which nothing
can ever be erased – covered over by later events, but never erased.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">When
I was in the second grade, at La Mesa Elementary School, in Albuquerque, NM, in
1955, my classmates and I were learning to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took to it like a duck to water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even our rudimentary grasp of the written
word opened up unfathomable universes to us – our parents could no longer write
notes with the expectation that we wouldn’t find out what they said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Magazines, newspapers, billboards, cereal
boxes, and a million other media were suddenly exposed to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given what a pack of filthy-minded wretches
we were, even at that age, the metaphor of getting a glimpse of the wonders
beneath a stripper’s cloak is not out of place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The written word is a drug, so addictive and mind-altering as to dwarf
meth, cocaine, and all the other substances that may seem to stretch, but
actually pervert the consciousness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">WAR
AND THE SECOND-GRADER</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">So,
all that heavy epistemological stuff aside, we discovered all kinds of things
that had been right under our noses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trenchant in my life were two such discoveries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First was the fact that my initials spell
war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wessley Alvis Rodgers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was named for my mom’s great uncle on her
dad’s side, Henry Wessley Hyatt, and her dad, Alvis Graves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My classmates cared not a fig for all that,
though;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they’d found something to tease
me about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All day, every day at school, at
play after school, and even in the school league baseball we played in the
summer, I got teased about war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
reaction was not altogether unpredictable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I thought, “If they want me to be warlike, by thunder, I’ll give ‘em war
to the knife and the knife to the hilt.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Of course, I hadn’t read such bellicose hyperbole at that time, but the
emotion was the same.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
became the most blood-thirsty little creep you ever saw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything in my school work had to do with
war:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the sentences I wrote for my
spelling words, the pictures I drew in art class, the songs I sang on the
playground…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I immersed myself in war,
and became a poster boy for gun control and Ritalin, though only the former
existed at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My first
schoolyard fist fight was over gun control in the 3<sup>rd</sup> grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My second was in the 5<sup>th</sup> grade,
when some damnyankee insulted Texas.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Late
in my 2<sup>nd</sup> grade year, I got a copy of Adolf Galland’s “The First and
the Last,” a history of the Luftwaffe in WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have no idea on earth where I got it, but when my classmates were
finding the Dick and Jane books growing old, I was up to my eyeballs in Goering’s
perfidy, Hitler’s lunacy, and the hundred-proof fumes that reek from good
aviation writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Boy Scout handbooks
were defaced with warlike slogans, especially those relating to the Southern
Confederacy and the Texas War for Independence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">It
got so bad that, in my 6<sup>th</sup> grade year, Mom and Dad sat me down and
had a serious talk with me about how horrible war is, and how it is nothing to
make light of or joke about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
years before I really understood what they were talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dad was Marine veteran of the Pacific
fighting, most notably on Iwo Jima, and Mom had lost several relatives,
friends, and, though she never opened up to me about it, I think a lover or two
in the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can now only imaging the
distress I must have caused them with my fetish.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Two
things happened in high school that had a positive effect on the course of my
life by directly influencing my fascination with war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One came from my world history teacher, Mrs.
Barbara Murdoch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than beat me up
about my foolishness, she used it as leverage to change my direction, as a judo
practicant uses the momentum of his opponent against him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She pointed out that an interest in war is
okay, but if I were to study war, I should study the entire subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Huh?” I probably said, staring at her like a
cow at a new gate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said that if I
were to really understand war, and become a master of the subject, I needed to
understand, not just the campaigns and battles, but the causes and effects of
war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All wars have causes, no matter how
irrational or contrived, and those causes enable the student to understand much
more clearly the prosecution of the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, all wars have effects, which all too often are the causes of the
next war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
was blown away!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a few sentences,
Mrs. Murdoch had dynamited the walls I’d built around my mind, and exposed me
to horizons I’d never imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t
dawn on my for several years that if you study the causes of wars, the wars,
and the results of wars, that’s pretty much the totality of history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
second thing that happened in high school was that I found a book of excerpts
from the best writing about the War Between the States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might have been Catton, or even
Chamberlain, but at some point, I was struck dumb by the courage and
persistence of those soldiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly,
war was not a lot of gunsmoke and blood; it was a revelation of the very
greatest traits of humanity – and, yes, of the worst, but the real power is in
the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could those men have
gone back, day after day, for four years, to the same unspeakable butchery they’d
seen a dozen times before?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From that
point on, the real wonder of war, for me, was not that so many died, but that
so many offered themselves up for what they believed in, and that so many
survived and prospered in their later years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(I have heard furious fire, where the roar of 30,000 rifles blended into
a single Niagara of sound – an unarticulated roar, in which individual shots,
even the gut-shaking bellow of individual cannon, were lost in the river, and I
have been stricken by the thought that any had survived, at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The miracle of war is not the death, but the
life, and that realization has been central to my philosophy and my study of
history for nigh 40 years.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">MUSIC
AND THE WARMONGER</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
said there were two things that happened that year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second was the discovery by my classmates
that my middle name, Alvis, was very close to the first name of a good-lookin’
kid from Tupelo, Mississippi who hit the big time in rock and roll that
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with my initials, they teased
me ceaselessly about Elvis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t
even walk into the cafeteria without hearing hoots and catcalls, and the boys
squealing, “Ooohh!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elvis!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come kiss me!” like the teenage girls we saw
on the news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Not all of us had TV at
the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t get our first one
until ’56.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">For
some reason, I reacted to this teasing in a manner opposite to how I reacted to
the war business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided that I hated
rock and roll and everything and everyone associated with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh! How I loathed every bar and every note of
every rock and roll song ever written!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Regards rock and roll, I became the exact opposite to what I was regards
war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">That
attitude lasted until I was in my 20’s, when I softened enough to tap my toe to
“Great Balls of Fire,” or sway just a little to some of the love songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now enjoy quite a bit of the old rock and
roll, and some of the newer stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Metal
has never held any attraction to me, but I really do enjoy some of the rest of
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m pathetically ignorant of the
history of the genre and its artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Have
I ever listened to Cream?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shoot, I don’t
even drink it in my coffee.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My
earliest musical memories are of the big bands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mom and Dad loved that music, especially Glenn Miller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Mom was a Texas gal, and had no qualms at
all about singing along with Bob Wills and the like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Johnny Horton’s “Honky Tonk Man” came
out, Mom flipped for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We listened to
that LP over and over, until I can not only sing the words, but “boom-boom-thump”
the drum part and “teow-te-teow-tooowww” the guitar licks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still love every tune on that album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It broadened my musical tastes considerably.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">While
in the Marines in the late ‘60’s, I was heavily into the country music of that
time, and even got into a few bar fights with guys who preferred soul music or
rock. To this day, I shudder whenever I hear rap music because when Rap Brown
was doing his thing, and the foundations of rap were being laid, the only
people who listened to that stuff used to shoot at me with live ammunition and
distressing frequency, which left a very resilient bad taste in my mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the late 70’s I got interested in
classical music and listened to that almost exclusively for a few years, and
military band music, including bagpipes, has been a favorite – much to the
horror of my wives and kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">AND
THE POINT IS…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Now
here’s the point of all this blather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
responded to childhood teasing on two subjects in opposite ways, and that has
done much to set the direction of my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But how might I have turned out if I’d responded differently?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if I’d hated war and loved rock and
roll?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a different man I’d have
become!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shoot, I’d probably have died of
syphilis or whites in Haight Ashbury, and never have become a man, at all!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Some
things in our lives are trivial, and some are crucial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My reaction to teasing turned out to have
been crucial, though no one could have predicted it at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Well, there were those who predicted my
fascination with war would have landed me on death row somewhere.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The catch is that we can’t tell which will be
which until much later in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
make the best decisions we can, and we go on down the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying to second guess the Master’s plan for
us – or fate, if you prefer – will make you nuts, and can effectively paralyze
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s sort of like Heisenberg’s
principle:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you can’t know everything there
is to know about something without affecting it so that what you thought was
true, isn’t, precisely because you tried to know it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah H. makes my teeth itch sometimes, too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Don’t
let the fact that you can’t know what is important and what isn’t change what
you do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do your best, and treat
everything as if it were important – on an analog scale of importance and
urgency, of course!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because every
decision you make has the potential of making you a warmonger or an acidhead,
take none of them lightly, but don’t obsess and try to see every detail of the
road ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point, you will be
deliciously surprised, and maybe disappointed, but that’s okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s called
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live it. Go ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dare you</span>Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-49713237453016277512013-09-22T16:19:00.001-07:002013-09-22T16:19:32.635-07:00MY VERSION OF THE GUN CONTROL DEBATE<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent">There
is much talk of "the gun control debate." There should be no debate.
Here's my version of the conversation, which, you will notice, is not a
debate.<br /> <br /> Liberal: "I want to take away your gun."<br /> <br /> Me: "Well, you can't have it. I've done nothing..."<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> <br /> Liberal (escalating volume): "But if nobody had..."<br /> <br />
Me (very quietly, glaring into his eyes): "Shut up. Shut up. There
is no discussison here. It's mine. I've never done anything wrong with
it or hurt anyone with it...."<br /> <br /> Liberal (louder and more shrill): "It's your fault thousands of children are dying eve..."<br /> <br />
Me (Really, REALLY lound, and really close): "I told you to shut the
f*** up, you soulless sonofab****! It's mine. I've done nothing wrong
with it, and you can't have it. Now shut up and get out of my face or
fill your hand!"<br /> <br /> Liberal (really shrill and whining): "But I have a right to..."<br /> <br />
Me (quiet again, growling, even closer): "You have a right to think
whatever you want, but you don't have a right to take my gun. Now shut
up and get out of my face or fill your hand. Do you hear me? Shut up
or fill your hand. There is no debate. There's peace or there's a
gunfight, then there's peace. I don't give a damn about converting you.
You are too stupid be allowed off leash, anyway."<br /> <br /> That's about
how it should go. Would we have a slavery debate? Well, yes, come to
think of it, with the junta's refusal to enforce the border, I guess we
are having a slavery debate.<br /> <br /> Would we have a 1st amendment
deb... Well, yeah, I guess we're having one of those, too. How about a
5th amendment debate.... Hmmm. Ditto and ditto.<br /> <br /> Come to think
of it, all of our rights are up for debate and restriction. About the
only ones that aren't are the rights of international trespassers to our
money, our schools, our emergency medicine... and... I guess the
rights of Muslims to beat their daughters and wives to death whenever
they choose.<br /> <br /> And that, right there, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, is why the 2nd amendment is up for debate and restriction</span></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Sic Semper Tyrannus</span></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3,"tn":"K"}"><span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Rebsarge </span></span></span></h5>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-29135349486098637272013-09-13T23:47:00.003-07:002013-09-13T23:47:36.531-07:00SOME MUSINGS ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Since
my service in Vietnam, I’ve been very interested in insurrection, guerilla war,
“asymmetrical war,” and the whole paradigm of a war on terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some months ago, I wrote an essay on this blog
called, “Rebellion and Folly.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
something of a followup to that essay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is a truism that any guerilla action must have the support of at least a large
percentage of the population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But such
action requires other things, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It requires what von Clausewitz called,
“the economy of force,” or the principle of bringing one’s greatest strength
against the enemy’s greatest weakness, which is probably a good working definition
of “asymmetrical war.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It requires that the guerilla force (May
I abbreviate “GF?”) be decentralized, or scattered, so that the enemy can’t use
economy of force on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">3:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It requires, as a corollary to
decentralization, a means of communication, so the GF can alert troops to travel
to a point of concentration. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">4:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As a corollary to both the previous
points, it requires that the GF have a means of transportation that is stealthy
enough to avoid detection and interdiction, but able to move enough people far
enough and fast enough to get there before the battle is over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">5:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, it requires that the GF take
charge of the operational tempo; the smaller force must be able to pick the
time, the ground, and the objective.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
last one is really the object of all the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the GF allows the enemy to pick the time,
the ground, and the objective of any action, it surrenders, by definition, its
ability to use economy of force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The GF
then finds itself in the position of being where a larger, generally better
armed enemy expects it to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When this
happens, the asymmetry goes over to the enemy’s side, and the GF gets
clobbered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Only
by being able to communicate with scattered forces and bring them to the fight
can the GF actually take control of the operational tempo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These should not be viewed as unrelated
abstractions, but as spokes of a wheel, or sides of a box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of these points is worthy of a book, and
I don’t have time to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I’d
like to do here is analyze potential actions by an enemy, and explore how a GF
might counter such tactics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">SCENARIO:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A politically active, extremely vocal, and
effective leader of the GF is targeted for removal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conflict has not escalated to the point
where he might simply be shot, and the authorities have not gained sufficient
control over the population to allow them any egregiously offensive action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know that the GF is very dangerous, and
they understand points one through five.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They have the advantages of open movement, surveillance equipment, and
communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They
watch the leader until they have documented his patterns:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>where he lives, where he works, where he
shops, and the routes and times he travels between these points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pertinent information on his friends and
family is also gathered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
authorities are ready, they move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because of their resources, they put a half-dozen armed “police” in a nondescript
van or SUV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is parked at the curb on
a lightly-travelled residential street the leader uses to get home – and the
nearer his home, the better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
vehicle is marked to resemble a city or county police vehicle, and positioned
to swing in behind the leader a block before he turns onto the residential
street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The bad guys’ following the
good guys for blocks is baloney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
may be crazy, but they are seldom stupid.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
the leader turns that last corner, the trailing vehicle turns on his flashing
lights and siren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leader pulls to
the curb, kills his engine, and gets out his registration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An officer from the trailing vehicle approaches
and engages him verbally. As armed men suddenly spill out of the van, the
officer at the car door draws his weapon and covers the leader at very close
range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a matter of seconds, the
leader is out of his car, handcuffed, and put in one of the other
vehicles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A search of his car is
guaranteed to find some contraband, which is used as an excuse to search his
house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within two minutes of the leader
stopping his car, the “police” are kicking their way into his house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His family is handcuffed and
intimidated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any firearms in the house
are seized, along with his computers, correspondence, personal papers, two-way
radios, and address books.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Within
30 minutes or less, the leader is on his way to jail and much of his property
is in the possession of the authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They will hold him for weeks, then release him on what amounts to house
arrest or parole, in which he is denied freedom of movement and every
interaction with other people is documented and investigated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His property is never returned, or if it is,
his computers are erased and his firearms rendered unusable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is never charged, so there will never be a
trial to determine guilt or find the authorities in violation of any law.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Next
week, the same thing happens in another city, and in another the week after
that. One leader may be pulled out of line at a DWI checkpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another may walk into his house and find his
wife and children with guns to their heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Word of these arrests will not get out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There may be whispers or rumors, but they will be dismissed and
discredited by the propaganda organs that are all controlled by the authorities</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of the speed at which these operations
occurred, there was no chance for any GF units to communicate, much less to
concentrate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seizure of families
gave the authorities effective shields against any but the most ambitious
sniper, but that sniper would never be on the scene, anyway. The asymmetry of
force is 100% with the authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
the time the GF concentrated enough force to do anything, they were in the
position of storming a police station or whatever government fortress to which the
leaders had been taken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be days before
they are even aware of the events.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
many cases, the members of a GF will be honest, law abiding citizens, possessing
no desire to just shoot agents of the authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many will be held back by moral
considerations and a loathing to kill except in self-defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others will be held back by an entirely
justified fear of being attacked by overwhelming force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some will be waiting for someone else to
start the shooting war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point,
the GF will have lost so many leaders and organizers that it will be crippled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
question, then, is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how can a GF prevent
this sort of slow erosion of its cadre? I can think of two ways:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1) travel in groups large enough to offer
resistance sufficiently substantial to give the authorities pause, which would
destroy the GF’s anonymity and leave control of the tempo to the
authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2) Use tactics to lure enemy
squads into ambushes that could be assembled, sprung, and dispersed very
quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
former would mean utter defeat for the GF, and very quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter would be impossible without
communication and transportation, both of which would be very dangerous if the
authorities have an overwhelming superiority in monitoring over-the-air
communication, and the means of pouncing on vehicles moving on streets or
highways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will lead to a rapid
escalation in hostile action, and the GF that embarks on this course had better
be ready to “go big or stay home.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebsarge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">13 Sept., 2013 </span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-22308832378582354962013-08-30T21:39:00.000-07:002013-08-30T21:39:35.850-07:00WHY NOT A HUNDRED BUCKS AN HOUR?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey,
Liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your position is that raising
the minimum wage to $15.00 will not mandate an increase in prices or lead to
layoffs, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course I'm right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if Bush did lie about WMD's.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go with me for a minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You say employers can raise their employee's
wages by more than 100% in some places, and they will NOT have to raise prices
or lay off workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well,
aren't you a bunch of miserable, skinflint pikers!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we can just magically raise the wage to
$15/hour without it affecting the bottom line, why not raise it to
$100/hour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell, if the money isn't
coming from anywhere, anyway, why should we limit the wage to a niggardly 15
bucks an hour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s so significant about $15/hour? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that what YOU decided other people need to
live?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who died and left you
omniscient?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we say $6/hour is
adequate, what makes us automatically wrong and you right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we bastards because our number is lower
than yours?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who says
15 has more moral authority than 6?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well,
how about this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We say raise the minimum
wage to $100/hour!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now YOU’RE the bastards! I’m serious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the money isn’t coming out of income, why
not reach for the stars?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell’s fire,
why not a grand an hour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh,
wait!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hear you saying that the evil
rich employers have lots and lots of money, and they need to share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May I propose that even vile, evil employers
are human beings, and by your stated ideal that all human beings should receive
at least $15.00 an hour, that must also include employers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankly, I know a lot of business owners who
would be delighted to make that much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Given that most of them work 70-90 hours a week, they'd be knockin’ down
some jing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Translation: they’d be
makin' some bank!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
I hear some of you saying that $100/hour is too much, and such a wage really
WILL bankrupt businesses. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bully
for you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is at least a smidgen of
intellect there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if $100/hour will
break a business, then there must be truth to the principle that you can’t get
more out of something than you put in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are in agreement on that principle!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re still off a bit on the numbers, but we agree on the
principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So somewhere on the scale
between $15.00 and $100.00, there is a point at which the exhaust exceeds the
intake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come on, now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know you aren’t ALL professors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If 15 is okay, but 100 isn’t, how about
99?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or 89?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or 49?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Where is the point of fulcrum where the teeter-totter tips from solvency
to bankruptcy?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
submit that it is different for every business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some might be able to sustain the higher number, but I assure you, some
will perish at the lower number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
were sucking wind at 6!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You think the
government is all-knowing, and can, by some magic, arrive at a number that will
be universally survivable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I don’t
know how many businesses there are in America, but there has to be in the
hundreds of thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a lot to
keep track of.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
you are saying this can be done by an institution and a mob that went broke
selling liquor in a whore house - people who are of such staggering
intellectual incapacity that avocados look down on them - by the Pelosis, who
say America doesn’t have a spending problem - by the Reids, who say you can
protect your house by firing blindly into the night and maybe killing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a kid on the next block – by the Obamas who
think the Navy medical personnel who serve the Marine Corps are called, “corpsemen.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people should not be trusted with burnt
out matches.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
idea that an anointed class of educated Special Ones can manage all of society’s
issues by application of their superior intellect is at the heart and soul of
all fascist doctrine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Think
about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s look at a single
McDonald’s outlet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That business
receives money (called “income”) from its customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It exchanges products for that money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to have products to exchange, the
outlet must first bring those products inside its walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A short list of those products would be overwhelming:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meat, grease, lettuce, tomatoes, onions,
sesame buns, onion buns, plain buns, salt, pepper, garlic, ranch dressing,
thousand island dressing, ketchup, mustard, relish, honey mustard, knives,
forks, spoons, those crazy implements they give you with McFlurrys, ice cream
mix, vanilla flavoring, chocolate flavoring, hand soap, dish soap,
disinfectant, register tape, registers, pens, paper, teeny cups, bigger cups,
still bigger cups, humongous cups (void where prohibited by idiocy)… Every
single item must come to this store from some source, and those sources are
other businesses that have employees, and some of them have extremely complex
machinery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And let’s not forget the
truckers and railroad men who schlep all this stuff around the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
every one of those businesses, there is an endless list of supplies and
equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and we haven’t even
started talking about utilities and insurance and government extortion… I mean,
license fees. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And TAXES! Let’s say, just
to deal in even numbers – and number that are manageable – that the McDonald’s
where we started uses 5,000 different commodities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Every
one of those comes from another business, so that’s 5,000 businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even those businesses can’t ship
something they don’t have, so they must also have STUFF.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say each of those businesses uses 5,000
commodities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">5,000
times 5,000 is not 25 thousand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is 25
million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And each of those businesses
will use 5,000 commodities. 5 thousand times 25 million is 125 billion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and did I mention that a lot of stuff
like the machinery, the plastic forks and cups, aren’t even made in this
country?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
this is just a single McDonald’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
same is true of everything in our lives – our clothes, food, cars, tools,
medicine… EVERYTHING!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s billions of
billons of transactions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
goes on and on, but hopefully, you will get the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an incomprehensibly complex chain of
cause and effect, of supply and demand, and every bloody one of those
commodities and businesses has employees and a ledger of income and expenses,
and a lot of them aren’t even subject to our laws, in the first place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you people think your anointed ones can
manage that equation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, I guess you
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a near
majority of our neighbors who believe this friggin’ insanity. Only teachers and
professors can wreak this kind of destruction on the human mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m serious!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What in the name of all that is holy could possibly make a normal,
functioning human mind invent, accept, and then profess such patent excrement?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is insanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been tried before,
and as a historian, I can give you a guided tour of the rivers of blood and the
mountains of festering corpses that have resulted from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are no different, or better, or smarter
than all of those tortured wretches who tried it before us. We are doing the
same things that have been done before, and expecting different results.</span>
</div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-88205644888251588392013-08-25T20:19:00.002-07:002013-08-25T20:19:28.931-07:00STRYCHNINE AS A BEDTIME SNACK<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">Refer to this link for background on this essay: <a href="http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/nm-court-says-christian-photographers-must-compromise-beliefs.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/nm-court-says-christian-photographers-must-compromise-beliefs.html</a></span></span></h5>
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
very concept of compromise as a moral imperative is anti-life, anti-liberty,
and anti-everything else decent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Compromise, in this case, is not a matter of letting the other person
have the better parking space, or letting your spouse choose where you go for
dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case, compromise means,
EXPLICITLY, that you are REQUIRED BY LAW to do something you believe to be
morally wrong.</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is hideously wrong on so many levels, and in so many ways.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
I go another inch, I want to make it absolutely clear to anyone possessed of
sufficient mental acuity to get their shoes on the right feet three times out
of five, that this is NOT about gay marriage!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This abhorrent policy will affect all people, no matter their sexual
preference or race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one can predict
who will be the next victim of this monstrosity; it may very well be one of the
homosexual women who brought suit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I,
for one, hope it is.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
photographer did not do anything to prevent this couple from getting
married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the photographers
offered to do portraits and other types of work for the couple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They just didn’t want to be involved in a
same-sex marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a time in
this nation when one could say, “Thanks, but that’s not my thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You go ahead though, and knock yourself out.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No longer. Now, apparently, you are required
to participate in anything anyone else can dream up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suppose the Justice Department of the United
States is successful in having pedophilia declared a sexual preference?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have “same sex attraction,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and now we’re going to have “youth attraction.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means the guy who molested your daughter
can use the power of the law – which is the power of the gun – and force you to
photograph his liaison with a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
think not?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Read
Justice Bosson’s words again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have
right to believe whatever you want, but you do NOT have a right to act on your
belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you believe that pedophilia
is a crime?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s fine; just keep it to
yourself, you rightwing, Christian wacko.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If pedophilia is a legitimate sexual preference, then all laws against
it are instantly voided. The North American Man-Boy Love Association will be
doing handsprings. If the government can force you to participate in something
you consider morally wrong, why can they not force you to participate in
anything else they choose? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
the left and all my atheist friends (I still have a few, I think, but most of
them, broad-minded as ever, dumped me like a turd when I joined the LDS church)
will be on me like a duck on a June bug about exaggerating and pandering to
paranoia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll accuse me of
screeching hyperbole and setting up straw men – just as they said when we
warned that allowing same-sex marriage would have far-reaching and unobvious
ramifications.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are things in life called “principles.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A principle is a rule that is true in all cases, and is not amendable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t change it, and when it is broken,
there is a price to pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sad thing
about principles is that it’s possible to push the payment off on someone else,
but principles are immutable and eternal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you don’t like “eternity,” change that to, “they’ll last as long as
anything else does.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Governments
can and very often do violate principles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When the people go along with the violation, all bets are off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you throw out the principle of
individual freedom and accept in its place the principle that one group of
people can invalidate the rights of another group, the only thing you have left
to discuss is which group gets bent over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And one other thing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the other guys are getting bent over today,
there’s nothing in the world keeping it from being you tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The principle you have adopted is that
someone gets bent over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shut up and roll
the dice.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s
a classic story about a man who asked a woman if she’d sleep with him for a
million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said she probably
would, so he asked if she’d do it for two dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She swelled up and snapped, “What kind of a
woman do you think I am?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He
said, “We’ve already established that, Darlin’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re just haggling the price.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
laws are changed, we don’t give the power to our buddy who is in office right
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We give the power to the OFFICE,
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of our neighbors like the
idea of Barack Obama having enormous power over a specific part of the
population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What they don’t realize is
that Obama won’t be in office forever, and if the other side ever gets another candidate
elected, the power will then go to whomever holds the office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be Christians getting bent over today,
but next year, it may be someone else, and if that happens, you suckers better
grin and take it, because you have no cause for complaining.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back
to compromise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are talking about
moral principles, compromise is suicide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It does not mean letting your spouse pick where you go for dinner, or
settling for a tax rate that’s half-way between your proposal and your opponent’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A compromise on a moral principle is like
saying you are against slavery, but your border-jumper neighbor is making a
killing selling little girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because, according
to Judge Bosson, compromise is a moral imperative, he must say he will not sell
little girls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but you must say it’s okay on other
days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps he will sell Latina
girls, but will return all of his Caucasian inventory to Juarez.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s compromise.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
mom used to say that compromise is like mixing shit with ice cream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t help the shit, and it ruins your
ice cream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Arkansas cousin said
compromise is like taking a crap in the far end of the bathtub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these earthy, borderline crude
country proverbs are 100% correct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ayn
Rand said that compromise on a moral principle is like eating nutritious food
except on Mondays, when you eat strychnine; in any compromise between food and
poison, only death can win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Scriptures say that God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of
tolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See? The principle applies
equally, whether you are atheist or religious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s one way you can tell it’s true; it holds up equally in all
contexts.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is NO moral imperative to compromise on principles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This country will be either all slave or all
free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can’t be one way some days and
the other way on other days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must
stand firm, and say, “Oh, no you can’t.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We must have the courage and rectitude to refuse to compromise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must be thick-skinned enough to let the
Left yap and wet their pants about our “radical” refusal to compromise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other side damned sure isn’t going to
compromise unless they think we’re winning.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Have
you ever noticed that when you’re right, and you know it, and you think you can
win, you don’t ask for compromise?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Compromise is the sniveling cry of the losers. They know they can’t win
based on the supposed merits of their arguments, so they demand compromise as a
moral imperative – essentially as a form of political welfare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can’t do the job, so they demand that we
just GIVE them something they haven’t earned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Winners don’t ask for compromise.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
what if we lose?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if they say, “You
are our slaves,” and we say, “Like hell,” and it goes to the polls and Santa
Clause wins again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we say, “Aww,
shucks,” stack our arms, and meekly bow our heads to receive our chains?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Like
hell.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> political system that allows the disenfranchisement of any of its members is an
immoral system, and must be struck down, disassembled, “…, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not from the
Constitution, by the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s from the
Declaration of Independence, which helped in no small measure to fuel and
motivate a violent rebellion against a despotic government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could happen again.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
say it again:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there can be no such thing
as the right to enslave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And don’t EVEN
start some bullshit with me about the Constitution allowing slavery in the
beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did, and it also included
the means of amendment and abolition of slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lincoln didn’t exactly use that process, but
our ancestors got it done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you
realize that history does not show a single instance of one race paying over
400,000 lives for the freedom of another race?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(It didn’t happen here, either, but if you want to pretend the War
Between the States was over slavery, you must also believe this.)</span></span></div>
</h5>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-5849120930667309362013-07-28T16:05:00.000-07:002014-04-29T23:19:42.859-07:00PROFILING AS A MEANS OF SURVIVAL<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
had just dropped a squeeze bottle of mustard in my shopping cart when an
attractive young Latina came around the end of the shelf and into the aisle
where I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wasn’t really power
shopping, just sort of strolling along, and she didn’t have a cart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she passed me, we smiled at each other,
but neither spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m way past the age
when I’ve become invisible to young women, so when I get a smile, I pause for a
moment to savor it, but, like a wild bird landing on one’s shoulder, those
moments flee if we try to enlarge upon them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
few seconds after she passed me, another young girl came into the aisle, and
this one just knocked my socks off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
clutched a box of breakfast cereal to her heart, holding it in both of her
chubby hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The box covered her from
her chin almost to her dimpled knees, and a shock of jet black hair balanced on
top of her head like a block of hay someone had painted and balanced
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was about 18 months or so –
walking pretty well, but still a toddler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As she turned into the aisle, she craned her neck to her right, looking
for something behind me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was coming
right on, but not holding her windage real well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she was about 6 feet from me, I stopped
my cart to avoid the risk of bumping into her if she swerved at the wrong time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
she approached me, I felt a smile warm my face like a sunbeam coming through a
just-opened curtain; she was just feloniously adorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked up at me, and when she saw my
smile, her little face lit up, that no-nonsense expression that women get when
they are shopping for blood melted, and she smiled back at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Standing stock still as she passed, I turned
to see if her mom were keeping track of her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the time the little one first came into view, her mom was probably
20-25 feet away from her, and I was between them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Her
mom, who had just smiled a friendly smile at me, had stopped and taken a short
step toward the baby. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her body language
said, “alert!” in the way she leaned forward, her weight more on her toes, her
knees bent ever so slightly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
still sort of smiling at me, but it was a very different smile – worried, not
wanting to frighten her daughter, but warning me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I smiled directly at Mom and said something
insipid like, “Some folks might think she’s cute or something.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom’s smile flickered and softened a tiny
bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She took the baby’s hand and led
her on down the aisle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned away
from them because I knew that if Mom turned back and saw me watching that baby
toddling along with her cereal, all of the agonistic behaviors would return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my mind, though, I watched, and felt a
smile on my heart, if not on my face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
few minutes later, I turned into the canned food aisle, and there were the two
of them. Baby still held her cereal while Mom was shopping for something, but
Mom was staying much closer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
moving slowly, looking for a can of corn, but I glanced at them in time to see
Mom look at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her jaw set almost imperceptibly,
and she turned, took Baby by the hand, and led her away from me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her body language said, “Condition orange,”
and though she didn’t hurry, she didn’t stop to look at any canned goods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reminded me of a lioness who, being
disturbed, decided she didn’t feel like a fight, but damned sure didn’t want to
be disturbed any closer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
looked down, no more smiles anywhere in or on me. That woman saw a fat, old
White man watching her baby girl, and she automatically acted to avoid any
possibility of danger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t blame her
a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I kind of wish she hadn’t
let the baby get so far behind her in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had no way of knowing that I have always
loved children, and they have always loved me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Well, not always; there was a period in which I tried with all my heart
and soul to win to the love of my step-daughters, but failed utterly with two
of the three.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At church, there are a
half-dozen little ones, mostly girls, who view me as either a grandfather or a
soft, interactive jungle gym, but that young mother had no way of knowing how
my heart swells, and sometimes my eyes puddle up when my little girlfriends
tackle me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had no way of knowing
that I’d see my hands cut off before I’d hurt her baby, or that my life and my
pistol are pledged to the defense of such as they.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is one of the things I really, really hate about the age in which we now
live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That woman “profiled” me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw a person who fits the stereotype of a
molester, and she didn’t stop to interview me or show me a stack of Rorschach
cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It hurts something awful to
endure such a thing, but I would never, for an instant deny that woman her
right or her obligation to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There really
are some fat, old White guys who would harm that baby, and it would be insane to
claim otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the number of
people we meet in a day, even as she and I met in the store, it is absolutely
impossible to evaluate each of them on anything other than immediately
verifiable, physical characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Given time, she and I could probably be friends, and she might even
trust me to hold and play with her baby, if only under close supervision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the store, she didn’t have time, and
the consequences of a wrong guess were unthinkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did what any intelligent, aware parent
would do; she put distance between her baby and the possibility of a threat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is just one more cost of the permissive, “non-judgmental” legal environment
that has turned our streets into sewers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More than 80% of all crime is committed by people who have already been
convicted at least once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Child
molestation, in particular, has an almost 100% recidivism rate – meaning child
molesters are, for all practical purposes, never cured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are predators for life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If our courts would remove such people from
our midst, we would be dealing only with new ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it is, however, the population of
criminals of all types is growing almost exponentially, and the odds of any one
of us being a victim is increasing proportionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How ironic is it that, in the supposed
interest of being “non-judgmental,” and not assuming the worst of anyone, and
not “profiling” anyone, the average citizen has been placed in the position of
judging, assuming, and profiling many times a day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Profiling
is nothing more than playing the odds in a game of back alley roulette, and the
number of loaded chambers is being increased by the very people who are
supposed to protect us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m here to
tell you that it is an awful feeling to know that I fit the profile of
something I hold so loathsome, but that’s the way it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I’m a good man, and I forgive others
who, like this mom, aren’t so sure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">28 July, 2013</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Rebsarge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-47522848517194408422013-07-14T16:35:00.003-07:002013-07-14T16:35:33.065-07:00THE BEST DAY OF THE WEEK
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Good
afternoon, Brothers and Sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
topic today is the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was
assigned this topic, I thought, “Oh, this should be a tightly-focused, narrow
topic.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My record is still perfect;
ain’t been right yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As always, as I prepared for this talk I have been
enlightened, and my mind opened to the truth vastly more than my poor words
might ever convey to you, my dear friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have felt no small amount of shame and remorse as my backsliding and
foolishness has been made manifest to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
addition to the Scriptures, the main sources for this talk are from the
January, 1978 edition of “The Ensign,” which was devoted to the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The managing editor, Jay M. Todd, wrote a
short foreword to that issue:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Early
in 1976 the subject of the Sabbath was discussed with our Brethren. They agreed
that a treatment of that topic could have a powerful impact on the lives of
members of the Church. Thus the articles in this issue were prepared; and they
are featured together here to provide a complementary unit of themes relating
to Sunday. We hope that readers will find helpful the ideas and experiences
voiced by members of the Church—not as official pronouncements concerning
Church Sabbath-day practices, but as good counsel to be considered by all who have
seen the need for renewed efforts in making Sunday the best day of the week.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
recommend this issue of the “Ensign” with all my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Brother Todd said, it may not be official
doctrine, but it is filled with dynamic power and timeless relevance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is available on the church web site,
lds.org.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">From
the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, we know that to Moses was
given the commandment,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Six</span></a> days shalt thou </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">labour</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">,
and do all thy work:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But
the seventh day <i>is</i> the sabbath of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>
thy God: <i>in it</i> thou shalt not do any work, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">cattle, nor thy </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">stranger</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
that <i>is</i> within thy gates:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For
<i>in</i> </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">six</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> days
the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them <i>is,</i> and<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rested the seventh day: wherefore the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">blessed</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
the sabbath day, and </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/20?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">hallowed</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
Doctrine &Covenants 59, we are told:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">"But
remember that on this, the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Lord’s day</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, thou shalt
offer thine </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">oblations</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and thy</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sacraments unto the Most High, </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">confessing</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> thy sins unto thy
brethren, and before the</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And on
this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">singleness of heart that thy </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">fasting</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> may be perfect,
or, in other words, that thy </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">joy</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>may be full.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Verily,
this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
inasmuch as ye do these things with </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">thanksgiving</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, with </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">cheerful</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">hearts</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">countenances, not with </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">much</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">laughter</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, for this is
sin, but with a glad heart and a </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">cheerful countenance—<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Verily I
say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">fulness</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> of the earth is
yours, the beasts of</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the field and the fowls of the air, and that
which climbeth upon the trees and walketh </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">upon the earth;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yea, and
the herb, and the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">good</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> things which
come of the earth, whether for food or </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">for </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">raiment</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, or for houses,
or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">vineyards;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yea, all
things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">benefi</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">t </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and the<sup> </sup></span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">use</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> of man, both to please the eye
and to </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">gladden</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> the heart;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yea, for
</span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">food</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> and for
raiment, for taste and for smell, to </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">strengthen</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> the body and to </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">enliven the soul.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Surely,
then, the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of each of the promises made in this
passage as I read them again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“The
</span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">fulness</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the air, and that </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which climbeth upon the trees and
walketh upon the earth;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yea, and the herb, and the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">good</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> things which come of the earth, whether for food or for </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">raiment</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yea, all things which come of the
earth, in the season thereof, are made for the </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">benefit</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and the<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">use</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
of man, both to please the eye and to </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">gladden</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the heart;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yea, for </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">food</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to </span><a href="http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">strengthen</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the body and to enliven the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">soul.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
are given all the animals to use as food when necessary, but also so that their
beauty, power, and majesty might please our eyes and gladden our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are given all good things which come from
the earth – that which grows in the soil, but also the minerals and elements
from the earth, itself – but it says, “…in the season thereof…” meaning as
appropriate to our stewardship, not as looters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And all of these things do, indeed nourish us physically, aesthetically,
and spiritually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all we have to do
is keep the Sabbath holy, in accordance to His commandments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is not the first time I have read these scriptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How is it, then, that I have been so easily
lured into so many foolish ideas about the Sabbath? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
example, I have convinced myself that I can get as much by staying home and
reading the Scriptures and reflecting prayerfully on them as I can get from
going to church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad used to tell me
that when I was alone, I was in bad company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The meaning of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matthew, 18:20 was
totally lost on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, in
our midst, is He.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But more than once I
have thought that I could get as much on my couch as here, with you wonderful
people whom I love, and Him.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Here’s
another good one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I actually convinced
myself many times that because of my family’s financial straits, the
opportunity to earn a premium wage by working on the Sabbath was a blessing,
and that by working, I was honoring the gifts of strength, a job, and
overtime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What makes this even more
stupid is that when I was a teacher for the priest’s quorum in the young men’s
organization, I delivered a talk on the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In preparation for that talk, I took a
handful of quarters out to my drill press and punched a 3/8 hole through each
quarter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave each young man one of
those quarters, saying that it was to remind them that, no matter how much they
might make by working on the Sabbath, something would be missing from their
lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even after that, I let myself get
suckered by the Adversary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">President
Kimball, in the opening essay of that issue of the “Ensign,” said,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“When men and women are willing to work
on the Sabbath to increase their wealth, they are breaking the commandments;
for money taken in on the Sabbath, if the work is unnecessary, is unclean
money. Can you imagine a person laboring on the Sabbath in defiance of the
Lord’s command, and then bringing a tithe or other portion of the ill-gained
fruits of this labor to Him as an offering? Just as in Old Testament times, offerings
presented to the Lord must be “without blemish,” and unnecessary Sabbath-day
earnings can never be such.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Do
you see my foolishness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we were in
trouble, and I never thought of myself as working to increase my wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was working to keep food on the table and a
roof over our heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a grim and
stressful time, which is precisely why I should have been even more attentive
to the commandments, particularly that of keeping the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we most needed the blessings that come
with keeping the Sabbath, I was at work, trying to do it the hard way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
of the most cleverly-disguised abuses of the Sabbath was when I decided that,
because my family and I were so busy during the week, that skipping church
occasionally for a day trip was a righteous activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, to be sure, I would occasionally make a
Scriptural point as we drove along, or would praise the beauty of creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids would roll their eyes and go back to
reading Harry Potter or texting or whatever they were doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you can see, not only did I handicap
myself by shunning the blessings promised for keeping the commandments, but I
dragged my innocent little children along with me!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
of the essays in “The Ensign” was written by President Eyring, when he was
deputy commissioner of Church Education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is in response to the question, “Should I do schoolwork on the
Sabbath?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Suppose
you were invited to the office of the president of a nation to meet him about
an important government appointment. Would you concentrate easily as you read
your algebra book in the minutes before you walked from your hotel to the
nation’s headquarters? How comfortably would you slip into writing an essay on
philosophy in the hours afterward? If you read before or after, it would almost
certainly be either the president’s prior statements or information on topics
relating to the office you were being considered for. If you wrote afterwards,
it would be about your impressions, your insights, your recollections of your
conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“If
a visit with a president would blot out interest in unrelated studies, what
could be the effect of a visit with the Creator? The Sabbath is an invitation
from the Master to commune with him, and we are striving, not for an office,
but for eternal life. He arranges lessons to be taught from his own scriptural
texts; he instructs his priesthood to serve you the </span><a href="http://lds.org/study/topics/sacrament?lang=eng"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">sacrament</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">; and then he promises his presence:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">them.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
here we are, back to Him, as it has been and will be from everlasting unto
everlasting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
how can we establish the Sabbath in our own lives as the best day of the
week?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the most interesting articles
I found is in “The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lesson 4 speaks of making the entire week a
period of preparation for the Sabbath, and making the Sabbath the focal point,
or climax of the week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
many times have we entered the Sabbath stressed to the limit with the
mundanities of life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though they be
very important and worthy things, such as keeping our homes clean, our children
dressed in clean clothes, schoolwork done, meals prepared, gas tanks filled,
and the million and ten details that seem to eat us alive?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I the only one who has ever thought at
bedtime on Saturday, “Oh, my gosh!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tomorrow is Sunday!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It comes
around just about every week, right after Saturday, and usually, right before
Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But so often it sneaks up on
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
lesson offers several common-sense suggestions for planning ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Common sense means things I wouldn’t have thought
of on my own in a hundred years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
week can be scheduled with Sunday specifically in mind if we but give that
commandment the priority it merits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure some of y’all have read Stephen
Covey’s masterpiece, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of those habits is that of putting first
things first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had an opportunity to
see Covey speak on this topic in person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He illustrated it by taking two large pickle jars and a selection of
rocks and objects of various sizes, including some sand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He explained that the biggest rocks were the
most important commitments in our schedule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
started by pouring the sand into one jar, then put in a few of the largest
rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The jar was full, but there were
still a lot of rocks left on the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
he took the other jar and placed in it the largest of the rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rocks came to the top of the jar, giving
the impression that it was full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next,
he put in the next size smaller rocks, which filled the gaps between the big
rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again the jar was full, but it
had lot more rocks in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He repeated
the process, going smaller and smaller, and when he at last added the sand, the
jar was really full, but everything was in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hence the importance of putting first things first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now
I am not about to stand up here and tell anyone what is most important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We each have our own jars and our own
rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this much seems clear to me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy
is a commandment, and that makes is a pretty big rock. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Speaking for myself, it is my intention to put
the Sabbath – the biggest of my rocks – in my weekly jar first, so that I will
never again be tempted to pass on it because there’s just too much sand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
many of the stressful circumstances that urge us to neglect the Sabbath might
be solved or even removed from our lives if we obey this commandment?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That
one issue of the “Ensign” has many articles on the Sabbath, and I have only
superficially touched on two of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s like a General Conference issue, but devoted solely to the Sabbath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
would like to close by reading part of an essay from the Nov., 1984 “Ensign,” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by Elder John H. Groberg, then of the 70.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told of driving to a speaking assignment
on a Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His drive took him through
the Cache Valley of Utah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote at
length about the indescribable peace and serenity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one worked in the fields, the stores were
closed, the usually busy roads were almost deserted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The beauty of the place was even greater than
usual, and it struck him that it was because so many of the people were
observing the Sabbath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were in
church, gathering in the presence of the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His description of the valley is really beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article is worth reading, if only for
that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Months
later, after an especially hectic period of immersion in the world out there,
he said,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“I thought about Sodom and Gomorrah.
Could they have been much more wicked than this? And yet the Lord promised to
spare them for fifty righteous souls—or even down to ten—but they were not
found.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
let my imagination go and seemed to see a band of destroying angels loosed from
heaven—thundering across the land. And even before I had time to think about
the situation, I seemed to see myself standing in front of these determined
destroyers, declaring, “Hold, hold, hold”; and they held. “Go back,” I said:
and their horses reared, their eyes flashing in impatience. The destroyers’
anxiousness showed, but they held.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
leader looked me squarely in the eye and challenged, “By what right do you ask
us to hold? Have you not seen the evil of the land?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
replied, “Yes, I know of the sordidness of the world. I see the constant
mocking of God’s laws, the merchandising on his holy day, the constant breaking
of his commandments. I see the evil that exists almost universally. Yes, yes,
all these things are true, still …” Then I became concerned. What right had I
to ask them to hold?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“My
eyes began to fall from his penetrating gaze, but something inside kept
searching, searching, until finally a laserlike beam locked on to a misty
memory made many months ago and faithfully filed away for such a time as this.
A vista of a beautiful green valley passed before me and moved to the front of
my consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I
raised my eyes and met his as he again said, “What right do you have to ask us
to hold?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Then
with the confidence of sure knowledge and spiritual direction, I replied, “You
must hold, for you see, I have been through the Cache Valley on a Sunday
afternoon.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“There
was no hesitation, no anger, no look of surprise, no disappointment, only obedience;
and he turned and rejoined his group, and they left.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Brothers
and Sisters, can we possibly leave to our children any worldly gift that could
be greater than to enable one of them – or even one of us, for that matter – to
stand before the destroyers and say, “You must hold, for I have been through
the Paradise Hills Ward on a Sunday afternoon?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
thank you for your kind tolerance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
most humbly indebted to the Bishopric for this assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I leave with you my testimony of the truth
of the Gospel, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>most humbly, in the name
of our Savior, Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-82337558396016618382013-04-14T22:25:00.000-07:002013-04-14T22:59:54.339-07:00ARE YOU TOO CRAZY TO BE ALLOWED TO LIVE?<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Have
you noticed the new emphasis on mental health in the gun control debate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s usually framed as something like, “…<em>common
sense</em> approach, such as keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable
people.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, they substitute “<em>bipartisan</em>”
in place of “common sense,” but the bottom line is the same:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em>anyone the government thinks is crazy can’t
have guns.<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Does
my phrasing in that last sentence give away my position?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as anyone, I am against lunatics
having guns, but like all other government programs, one must ask how would it
be accomplished, and what difference would it really make?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
have never really trusted the government to make such decisions, and the
present government is orders of magnitude less worthy of our trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(For the record, I lump most Republicans in
with the Obama administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
not a matter of party affiliation.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have seen directives to doctors to report any patient who has guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have seen schools asking children to fill
out questionnaires about their parents’ habits, including guns in the home. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have seen “assault weapon” registration
rolls in California used to put ambulances to the curb while SWAT teams went
ahead and cleared the home of weapons, while an injured child lay under the
tree from which he’d fallen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve seen the VA
reporting veterans who have gone there for help with feelings of alienation,
anger, or depression, and those same veterans being denied purchase of
firearms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have seen parents arrested
for posting photos on Facebook of themselves with their children holding guns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Let
us not make the mistake of selling short the impact of such rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are certain circumstances under which a
person’s only hope of survival is the skillful and timely deployment of a
firearm, and a firearm with sufficient power and capacity to do the job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While most citizens will never find themselves
in that position, the odds of it happening to any of us are increasing,
especially among those in the border states, where foreign gangs – “armies” is
not too strong a term – grow increasingly bold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To deny any citizen access to an appropriate firearm is to say,
literally, “If that ever happens to you, you’re screwed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You and everyone you might wish to protect
are hereby declared nonessential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll
bury whatever pieces we find.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals
have chanted, “If it only saves one child…” but are willing to say, in the most
flagrantly callous way, <em>“…except for the children of people of whom we don’t
approve.”<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Under
certain circumstances, being unarmed is a death sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is what we are talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not hunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not sport
shooting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not gun collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The right to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Period.
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes,
if an armed person chooses to commit murder, others may die unless they are
armed and prepared, as well, but – <strong><em><u>BUT</u></em></strong> – are we qualified to say who lives and
who dies, based on... what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the opinion
of some graduate school hack who is up to his eyeballs in debt to the government?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Not
I.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is absolutely no way in the world I trust our government or anyone under their
control to make valid, objective psychological evaluations of any citizen’s
worthiness to defend himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why, I’d
bet you a dollar to a donut there are liberals right now thinking, “That crazy
sonofabitch Rodgers needs to be at the top of our crazy list!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, I may be crazy, but I’m not keen on
being so judged by people with a political axe to grind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see horrendous potential for abuse of power
and the 4<sup>th</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> Amendments, at least, and it concerns
me deeply.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Obamacare
has established unprecedented governmental control over all aspects of the health
care system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way any doctor
will stay in business while refusing to comply with the rules, and the rules
are so vaguely-written as to practically demand abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>So much for
the “how.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Would
such a law do any good?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think
so. It's been proven beyond any doubt that it is impossible to keep known felons
from getting guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be equally
impossible to keep “unstable” persons from getting them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there are guns in America, felons and
wackos will get them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no way to
prevent it. This, of course, leads one to the inescapable conclusion that the
ultimate Federal goal is the total disarmament of the American people, but even
that won’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The genie is out of the
bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gun is just too useful to
fade away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take the guns we’ve got, and
by the time you bury your dead, we’ll have more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guns are easy to make, and I’m not talking
about zip guns; I’m talking about high-powered repeating arms capable of
battlefield accuracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So,
in point of fact, the idea of keeping guns out of ANYone’s hands is a myth – a warm,
fuzzy, incredibly dangerous delusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Add to that the fact that, especially in the case of “mental health,”
our criteria are so pathetically vague and primitive, and you have what amounts
to a scenario right out of the movie, “Minority Report.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are talking about prior restraint –
antecedent judgment (called “prejudice” in some circles) – being found guilty,
not merely before being tried, but before a crime has been committed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Are
you really prepared to live in a nation in which the government can deprive you
of your right to own anything based on what you MIGHT do at some point in the
future?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter whether we
talk about guns or bubble gum, the principle is the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you like the Obama administration,
remember that you are <em>not</em> giving this power to Saint Barack; you are giving it
to the <em>presidency</em>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you be
comfortable giving this power to George Bush?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wouldn’t be, and I liked him up until the last two years of his second
term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
considering these questions, consider how they’d be implemented, and what it
would take to make them effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
case of the proposed mental health standards for firearms ownership, there is
no way to make them work, at all, under any circumstances, and most certainly
not without gutting the Bill of Rights like a carp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Obama
and the fascist leadership are fully aware of what I have warned you of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Republicans who have sold their souls and
support the fascists are probably too stupid to understand it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Rebsarge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-28287469812359909032013-04-14T21:20:00.002-07:002013-04-14T21:20:40.073-07:00AND FROM MY OTHER SENATORIAL VERIMINTHIS IS MARTIN HEINRCH'S RESPONSE TO MY LETTER:<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
It's no secret that I have always believed that law abiding citizens should be able to own firearms for both sport and self-defense. Like many New Mexicans, I own guns for those very purposes.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
However, as a parent, I couldn't watch the events at Sandy Hook last year and not be deeply affected. Too many of us have had friends or family touched by senseless shootings. We owe it to the American people to take real action to reduce the violence in our communities.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
The Senate voted today to begin debate on and consideration of the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013. This bill includes pragmatic public safety measures that the vast majority of Americans-including gun owners-can embrace. I've said that I'll base my support for any legislation on whether it can realistically reduce the violence while still protecting the constitutional right to bear arms. This proposal meets that standard.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
Keeping guns out of the hands of people legally prohibited from having them is a common-sense way to prevent violence without punishing law abiding gun owners. That's what background checks do, and having been through the background check process myself on numerous occasions, I know it is not an unreasonable burden on responsible gun owners. There is no reason that firearm sales made on the internet or at a gun show shouldn't meet that same common-sense standard.</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
I also support cracking down on illegal gun trafficking. If you buy a firearm in order to pass that firearm on to a criminal, you should face federal prosecution.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
Prioritizing mental health services is another key component to keeping our families safe. I'll continue working to ensure that our schools, families, and communities have the tools they need to support the mental health of our kids.</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid;">
AND MY RESPONSE, WHICH IS SLIGHTLY EDITED FROM THE ONE TO UDALL:</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
asked you a very specific question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how
do you propose to make “universal background checks” work without utterly
repudiating the Bill of Rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You responded
by invoking the recent mass murders, especially of children, clearly in the
belief that it gives you absolute free rein to do anything you wish, as long as
it “…saves even one child.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then you
went into the familiar litany about commercial sales at gun shows and undocumented
internet sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Here’s
a newsflash for you, Senator:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all
commercial sales, at gun shows and otherwise, have been subject to background
checks for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have purchased guns
at shows, and I assure you, I went through the background check.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for internet sales, they have been illegal
for decades, along with mail order sales, thanks to the Democrat frenzy over
Lee Harvey Oswald’s mail order purchase of a rifle he could have had at any
hardware store for $30.00. That was in 1968, I believe, and we all know how
effective it was in combating crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At
every opportunity, you equate crime control to gun control, with phrases like, “common
sense,” and “bipartisan” thrown in, evidently under the impression that such
phrases grant absolution to your misbegotten ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, Sir, they do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Common sense is getting more rare by the day,
and I guarantee you the common sense of murdering gang-banger on the border is
not the common sense of a homeowner who might be facing him in a gunfight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for bi-partisan, don’t make me puke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s Republican party is as filled with traitors
and quislings as is the Democratic party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bipartisan just means you got a bunch of other snakes to go along with
you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Will
you answer my question, Senator?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will
you implement universal background checks without eliminating most of the Bill
of Rights?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By the way, Sir, I noticed that you did not vote for the UN arms control treath, and for that, I most sincerely thank you! I believe a vote for that treaty would have been an act of treason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">REBSARGE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
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</div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-13253813160697863252013-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:002013-04-14T21:13:24.766-07:00EXCHANGE WITH SENATORIAL VERMINTOM UDALL'S RESPONSE TO MY LETTER OF LAST WEEK...<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
Thank you for contacting me regarding legislative efforts to reduce gun violence. I appreciate hearing from you, and your views are important to me.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
The incomprehensible act of violence that ended the lives of innocent children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School has left our nation with a profound sense of sorrow and questions about why these tragedies are occurring with increasing frequency. Congress has an obligation to pass sensible legislation in an effort to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. We can take logical steps toward that goal without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens and restricting the traditions of sportsmen in states like New Mexico.</div>
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The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as New Mexico's Constitution, secure the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. In 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual citizen's right to own a firearm, but said this right is subject to reasonable restrictions. For generations, many New Mexicans have exercised this right in a responsible way, and I believe they should be able to continue to do so. At the same time, our communities have an obligation to combat crime, maintain public safety and protect citizens from senseless gun violence.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
Proposals for reducing gun violence have been put forth by President Obama and several of my colleagues in Congress. This week, the Senate agreed in a bipartisan vote of 68-31 to begin debate and consideration of S. 649, the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, a bill introduced by Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. While the bill has not yet been finalized, it does contain key provisions I support to expand criminal background checks, increase school safety and strengthen laws against gun trafficking and illegal purchases.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
On April 11, Senators Joseph Manchin and Patrick Toomey introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act (715), which I plan to support during the consideration of this bill. It would extend background checks to all commercial sales conducted at gun shows and over the internet. However, it would not require background checks for transfers between family members or friends. The amendment also includes language that reaffirms the existing prohibition on creating a national gun registry in current law.</div>
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While making these sensible changes to federal gun laws is important, we must also give our law enforcement the resources they need to enforce these laws. As a former federal prosecutor, I understand how it can be difficult to prosecute firearm offences when resources are limited. Therefore, I also plan to introduce an amendment to S. 649 that will allow the Attorney General to hire additional Assistant U.S. Attorneys to focus on investigating and prosecuting gun crimes, including gun trafficking which contributes to violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
Another important component is increased access to mental health services. To that end, I am a cosponsor of S. 116, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Reauthorization of 2013, and S. 195, the Mental Health in Schools Act. These bills will help improve accessibility to mental health services for young people. I will continue to seek additional ways to improve our country's approach to mental health during the amendment process for S. 649.</div>
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There is much more serious work ahead and many other amendments are expected to be offered and voted on as we consider S. 649 -- including those to reinstate the ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and to restrict high-capacity magazines. I will carefully evaluate each and every one of these proposals and cast my vote based on whether I believe they can effectively reduce violent crimes, meet Constitutional standards and work for New Mexico.</div>
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I remain hopeful that working together we will achieve sensible, bipartisan solutions to prevent gun violence and secure our communities. Please be assured that I will thoughtfully consider any legislation focused on preventing future tragedies, and that I will keep your thoughts in as the Senate continues to consider S. 649.</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO UDALL'S BALONEY...</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Senator,
I received your letter on gun control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It contains the same stupid, insipid, and ill-advised garbage that has
been pandered by fascists for decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times; line-height: 110%; page-break-inside: avoid; text-align: justify; text-indent: 30px;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
asked you a very specific question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how
do you propose to make “universal background checks” work without utterly
repudiating the Bill of Rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You responded
by invoking the recent mass murders, especially of children, clearly in the
belief that it gives you absolute free rein to do anything you wish, as long as
it “…saves even one child.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then you
went into the familiar litany about commercial sales at gun shows and undocumented
internet sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Here’s
a newsflash for you, Senator:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all
commercial sales, at gun shows and otherwise, have been subject to background
checks for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have purchased guns
at shows, and I assure you, I went through the background check.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for internet sales, they have been illegal
for decades, along with mail order sales, thanks to the Democrat frenzy over
Lee Harvey Oswald’s mail order purchase of a rifle he could have had at any
hardware store for $30.00. That was in 1968, I believe, and we all know how
effective it was in combating crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At
every opportunity, you equate crime control to gun control, with phrases like, “common
sense,” and “bipartisan” thrown in, evidently under the impression that such
phrases grant absolution to your misbegotten ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, Sir, they do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Common sense is getting more rare by the day,
and I guarantee you the common sense of murdering gang-banger on the border is
not the common sense of a homeowner who might be facing him in a gunfight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for bi-partisan, don’t make me puke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s Republican party is as filled with traitors
and quislings as is the Democratic party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bipartisan just means you got a bunch of other snakes to go along with
you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
it only saves one child?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about all
the children who are saved by the parents<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>- and even themselves – who <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>use
guns to save life and preserve virtue?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How many of them are you willing to condemn to death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, Sir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How many death certificates are YOU personally willing to sign?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Will
you answer my question, Senator?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will
you implement universal background checks without eliminating most of the Bill
of Rights? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I also noticed that
you voted for the UN gun control treaty. That, Sir, is an act of treason, and,
if there were justice in America, you’d be in irons right now.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rebsarge</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">14 April, 2013</span></span></div>
Rebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8797440981238670905.post-4328213777276931992013-04-08T14:01:00.000-07:002013-04-08T14:01:58.726-07:00LETTER TO MY SENATORIAL VERMIN, 8 APR., 2013To Senator Tom Udall (F-NM) and Senator Martin Heinrich (F-NM)<br />
<br />
Senator, I have question for you. Just how will "universal background checks" work? How can such a law be implemented?<br />
<br />
I submit that you can not know if a gun has changed hands unless you know who had it originally and who has it now. To achieve the first, you will have to register every gun in the United States. To achieve the second, you will have to grant government authority - presumably to the BATF or DHS - to do unannounced searches of the homes of every gunowner.<br />
<br />
No? Well then, how in hell do you propose to know when I have sold a gun? And what if I don't tell you to whom I sold it? The only way you can find that gun is to search every house in the nation.<br />
<br />
Think about just how laws will be enforced, and that will imply for our liberties and the lives of every man or woman you send to enforce such laws.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sic semper,<br />
RebsargeRebsargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11676495343616090001noreply@blogger.com0