T-Minus Sixty Days and Counting
# Note that the AW Ban Sunset counter in the right-hand column under the calendar is now below 60 days. Yay!
# From smith2004, Scott Bieser responding to an Australian hoplophobe:
> Also the "right to bear arms" is "as a part of a
> well organized militia" as I recall. People who
> want to use automatic weapons should be
> encouraged to join the army, they can even get
> paid for it!
This interpretation of the 2nd Amendment as relating only to members of the armed forces is a 20th Century invention, created for political purposes. The entire amendment reads: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
The main clause of the sentence is "The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." In every other instance where "the people" is mentioned in the Constitution and its amendments, it is understood to mean all members of the citizenry, not some elite force. In fact, as the dependent clause "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State" suggests, to impose an infringement on the right of the people to keep and bear arms therefore threatens the security of the free States, and is therefore treason.
Naturally, given the marvelous track record of government officials holding themselves accountable to their own laws, we should expect mass surrenders and prompt trials of federal and state legislative officials. ;-) ...
#
I fired my new
Marlin 1894P yesterday. When I picked up the rifle, I bought some
jacketed hollow
points and lead bullet cowboy loads. The cowboy loads made a
noticeable flash, but were very tame. The JHPs were much louder, but
still didn't kick much, at least not compared to my 444 Marlin or the
00 buck shotgun loads I'm accustomed to. It's a blast to shoot. No
muzzle rise. I fired 24 cowboy loads (3 magazines) and 17 JHPs (put
one in the chamber as well as the eight in the tube on the last
series). Fired them offhand at 25 yards as fast as I could get the
sights on target. To quote Bones (Star Trek's Dr. Leonard McCoy),
"He's dead, Jim." Whoopeeeeee!
# James P. Hogan has a new book, Kicking The Sacred Cow, covering current erroneous scientific dogma. There are some sample chapters at the book link. I haven't read them yet. [smith2004]
# Heartless Libertarian - You Go to Hell! You Go to Hell and You Die!!!!! - an energetic response to Dianne Feistein's support of the commU.N.ist desire to disarm the world's peasants, i.e. you and me. [geekwitha.45]
Gee, the only "international agreements on small arms" I've heard proposed are ones that involved not allowing civilians to have guns. So, Senator, I have just more thing to say to you: Go fuck yourself. I'll be damned if I'm going to turn over my guns to a bunch of blue-beenied assclowns.
Molon Labe, bitch.
# AP via Yahoo! News - Man Exposes Self During Airport Screening - bravo! [claire]
# Fred Reed at LewRockwell.com - All Loyalty Is Local - and local is being eaten up by Wal-Mart and federal agents. [lew]
Washington once seemed benign. It was the capital of a magnificent country that had promulgated freedom and defeated the Nazis and was defending the world from communism. Not all of this stood up to analysis, but at least Washington wasn't the enemy. It managed diplomacy and the military and ran the post office. Otherwise it pretty much left people alone.
Not now. People no longer live as they like, by standards and habits that seem right to them, within reasonable laws. We live as Washington tells us. The government tells us who to hire, who to sell our houses to, whether we can have the Ten Commandments on a courthouse wall or a Christmas display on the town square, what names we can call each other without going to jail, whether our daughters have to tell us before having an abortion, how far off the floor toilet seats have to be in factories.
Today the government regards me if not as an enemy, then as a suspect. I begin to reciprocate. Once at airports I got a smile and a "Welcome back." Now, going or coming, I encounter unfriendly police, semi-strip searches, and questions about things that are none of the government's business. It is Washington's business to determine at the border that I am a citizen, and perhaps that I am not a wanted criminal. It has no other business.
# Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers at LewRockwell.com - Kumiai - Mr. Rogers thinks Japan is more free than America. He may be right. [lew]
# Karen Kwiatkowski at LewRockwell.com - Six Heroes in Washington - Ron Paul of Texas, Jim Leach of Iowa, John Hostettler of Indiana, Connie Morella of Maryland, Amo Houghton of New York, and John Duncan of Tennessee. These six voted against giving Bushnev authority to invade Iraq. Bravo! [lew]
# Bob Wallace at The Price of Liberty - The Not-So-Wild Wild West - things work pretty well when the government doesn't get in the way. [price]
Robber: This is a stick-up! Give me your money!
Man: Do you realize there are now four people behind you pointing handguns at your head?
Robber: Here. You can have my .22.
Man: You're not from this state, are you?
Robber: I'm from Washington, DC.
Man: Figures. I guess you didn't know everyone is this state carries handguns. We have almost no crime anymore--almost no murders, or rapes, or robberies. We hardly have any prisons, because we don't have many prisoners. We even fired 90% of the police. The rest are what they're supposed to be--peace officers.
