Handgun Club of America
"No man-made law has ever stopped anything from happening." -- E.J. Totty
# Gun Week - Cons Teaching Cons How to Defeat Tasers - jailhouse wisdom: if shot with a taser, drop and roll away from the attacker, "which will cause the probes to fall out or the wires to break." [gunweek]
# David M. Ewalt at Forbes Magazine - The 20 Most Important Tools - knife, abacus, compass, pencil, harness, scythe, rifle, sword, eyeglasses, saw, watch, lathe, needle, candle, scale, pot, telescope, level, fish hook, chisel. [trt-ny]
# Rich Lucibella at The Claire Files Forum - Re: Have You Gotten Your Monthly SWAT Yet? - Rich announces that for this entire week, 100% of all sales from the S.W.A.T. Magazine online store will be donated to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Every penny. [clairefiles]
# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Good Mornin' America, How Are Ya? - Neil opines on the disaster in New Orleans. [tle]
None of this would have been possible without a population already dependent on government for its very existence. As everybody knows now, it wasn't the hurricane that killed New Orleans, but a massive failure of levees and pumps that, until now, kept the city safe and dry even though it's below sea level. Fingers are beginning to be pointed all around the daisy-chain at local politicos who feel they didn't get enough emergency money, at the Corps of Engineers in charge of the levees and pumps that failed, at a Bush Administration which stole funding for maintenance and emergency personnel in order to conduct an illegal middle eastern war simply to enrich its friends and family.
But the real culprits, sad to say, are the ordinary people who are suffering the most at present, and who will continue to suffer from disease, dehydration, impoverishment, and black despair because, since at least the 18th century, they have left it to government to defend their city and keep it operating. Now--if they permit themselves to see it--they have firsthand evidence of what government is actually all about: looting the productive class and absolutely nothing else. Beyond that, our elected and appointed parasites don't really give a damn--and haven't for a lot longer than just since the 18th century--whether its poorer victims live or die, just as long as they do it quietly.
# Ron Beatty at The Libertarian Enterprise - Death From Government - how the gummint made matters worse in New Orleans, much worse. [tle]
# Mike Wasdin at Strike the Root - In a Land of Sheep - on the real cause of much of the suffering in New Orleans. [root]
The headline reads, "Waiting to Be Rescued" over a picture of thousands sitting and waiting for the government to save them, in a city that has now become a sewer. They're waiting because they don't know what else to do and have never had to think for themselves. What a pathetic people we have become that some would wait to be rescued, rather than do something to save their own life. Truthfully, I guess they're really not to blame for having this mindset though, since it was the government syndicate school system that taught them to think of themselves as victims in the first place. After being conditioned to believe that only the government can protect you, they're now shocked when the reality finally sets in that government cannot save you.
I thought the Mayor of New Orleans had some really good advice when he screamed, "Get off your asses and do something, goddamn it!" Yes, get off your asses and do something to save yourself! Then I realized he was not talking to the "victims" in New Orleans, but to the very people he put his trust in to save them. Turns out, he too was a "victim" who was "waiting to be saved."
# John Roach at National Geographic - Why Fire Walking Doesn't Burn: Science or Spirituality? - wood is a bad conductor and blood flow keeps the feet cool. It's important to walk over, not just stand in the coals. [grabbe]
# Josh Manheimer - Handgun Club of America "was started to fill the gap between the politically-charged groups like the NRA and other firearm organizations that do not focus specifically on handgun owners. We are, if you will, a calm, rational alternative for the 60 million households who lawfully choose to own a handgun." Nice web site. They list 13 membership benefits, including their newsletter, member testing of products that you keep after testing, discounts, a forum, and more. Unfortunately, their registration page is currently down, and I can't find a price anywhere. They're located in Norwich, Vermont, about 100 miles south of Canada, across the river from Dartmouth College.
# Dave Workman at Gun Week - Picking New .45 Colt Loads For Ruger's New Vaquero - Can you say "Trail Boss"? Thought you could. [gunweek]
# Freeciv "is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each player becomes the leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal: To become the greatest civilization." It appears to be based off of Sid Meier's Civilization game, a commercial product. I haven't tried it. [nick]
