Innocents Betrayed
The merit of our Constitution is not that it promotes democracy, but checks it. -- Horatio Seymour
infidels.org - Robert Green Ingersoll - Will Cate noticed my R.D. Ingersoll quote yesterday (didn't check if the "D." is my typo or The Sun's), and told me a little about him along with the featured link: [will]
The Robert Ingersoll quote caught my eye. As you may know, he was a renown/infamous atheist columnist from the late 19th century.
Another great quote of his: "The highest possible idea of happiness is freedom."
I became aware of Ingersoll as a result of Lol Creme/Kevin Godley's 1977 triple LP concept album to-end-all concept albums, "Consequences," which they released after leaving the group 10CC. It's part demo of a guitar/synthesizer they invented (the "gizmo") and part radio play featuring voice characterizations by the late Peter Cook about nature's revenge upon man.
The "In nature..." quote is on the inside front cover of the album's accompanying booklet.
Someone from the Times Union called about the letter to the editor that I submitted and published here yesterday. Looks like they're going to print it. Amazing! My experience with them is that they have about a week's backlog of letters. So mine should appear sometime next week. Assuming they don't chicken out.
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - Never The Twain Shall Meet - A tribute to Jonas Savimbi, announcing the upgraded version of The Art of the Rifle, a gold-finished 1911 from Investment Arms with Mr. Cooper's monogram, another reminder that skill, not gadgetry, wins the game, a comment on Johnnie Walker, Black Hawk Down the movie, Bill Ruger's new double shotgun, the importance of the shooting sling, kudos for the NRA's new TV series emphasizing victors as opposed to victims, some derogatory comments on Islam, dislike of sit-and-wait hunting, young men should be expected to cope, Craig Boddington's promotion to Brigadier General USMC.
On the subject of wheel guns, I tend to fancy the feather-weight 22 introduced last year by Smith & Wesson. At risk of sounding loony, I maintain that the 22 long rifle is a considerably more practical cartridge than the 38 Special, or for that matter almost any other handgun cartridge. The advantage of the 22 is that you will shoot it a lot, and thus learn to hit what you are shooting at. While stopping power is certainly an essential of a sidearm intended primarily for defensive use, we must remember that a 22 in a tear duct tends to stop more decisively than a 9 in the wish-bone. Of course to use a 22 in a combat mode, the shooter must be well trained and in total charge of his nerves, and that may be too much to expect. However, as we have often taught, more than half of handgun confrontations are successfully concluded by the appearance of a handgun, rather than the shooting of one. Nobody wants to get shot with anything, and most people cannot tell one handgun from another. The 1911 still constitutes the defensive handgun of choice, and the more sea stories we get back from the wars, the more this point is proven. But in the big picture it is attitude that wins fights. Naturally we want the right equipment, but what we need is the right attitude.
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As to the righteousness of this procedure, it was impressed upon us as junior officers that if a man is innocent he should seek a military court. Only if he is guilty should he demand a civil court. The purpose of a military court is to find out what happened. The purpose of a civil court is to get the accused off, if possible.
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However well that scuffle in Mogadishu turned out, it was notably deficient in class. Not theirs.
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If you have a 22 and a good 30-06/308, you really do not need anything else - but do not tell the merchandisers that!
Nesreen Khashan at The (Ogden Utah) Standard Examiner - '60 Minutes' looks at Weitzel case: He agrees to rare interview - CBS is planning to air on interview with Psychiatrist Robert Weitzel on tomorrow's edition of 60 Minutes. Dr. Weitzel was charged with murder for oversubscribing opiates to elderly patients.
The Weitzel case is one that has gained him local prominence since the doctor was first charged with five counts of first-degree felony murder nearly four years ago.
In his first trial, which lasted six weeks, a jury found Weitzel guilty of lesser offenses of two counts of second-degree manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide in the deaths of five elderly patients. But that conviction was overturned in January 2001 when a Farmington judge ruled that the prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. Weitzel now faces a retrial on those same charges he was found guilty of in the summer of 2000.
JPFO Alerts - Message to America's Gun Clubs and Gun Club Members - JPFO is asking for donations to cover filming costs for "Innocents Betrayed", the movie version of Death by Gun Control. [jpfo]
Daniel Henninger at Opinion Journal - Wascally Wabbit Made Us Laugh When It Was Legal - Chuck Jones would have a hard time getting away with most of his cartoons in the age of political correctness. Sad. [mind]
Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com - Get Us Out of the IMF - Why the United States should withdraw support of the International Monetary Fund.
