Virginia rattles its saber

--A House committee yesterday passed Del. Mark Cole's bill to get the federal government out of in-state commerce.

Cole's bill says that the federal government has no authority over commerce of goods made in Virginia that do not cross state lines.

This applies to firearms as well. Some of the comments question Virginia's place to challenge Congressional authority. But the way I see it, at the rate the federal government is going, and with the powers that they have cut for themselves from whole cloth, it's way past time that the states start to assert themselves.

This isn't subversive in the least; it's the way it's supposed to be. The tenth amendment isn't there to just look at; it's there to give the states something to throw their weight from against a federal government that always has, and always will, try to take more than they are allowed.

Virginia's machine is working like it was designed.

I blame Phil

Punxsutawney Phil, that is. This snow is his fault, and I'm gonna take this wonderful time given from my third snow day off from work to build a thousand handloads for my 308, just like the ones I shot at the bottom of this thread, and I'm gonna make a plan to assassinate his little buddies this spring.

One by one. Big und small.

Little exploding grog-hounds!

Tough talk

"The Taliban are ready to fight, to do jihad, to sacrifice their lives. American forces cannot scare the Taliban with big tanks and big warplanes," he said when reached by phone.

So says the militant little scumbag phoning in his tough talk from some cave in craptasticstan who has never locked horns with our big tanks and warplanes. Russian tanks and planes - sure, twenty years ago; but methinks that this time around will be different.

It's good too that y'all are ready to sacrifice your lives, as American forces are reluctant to sacrifice theirs, but more than happy to take yours.

"No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy." - Helmuth von Moltke

Yup. Enjoy those virgins. You deserve them.

That's a stunning claim

"More women kind of have an interest in Tasers, preferred to a firearm," a gun store owner said.

That would be opinion not based on anything resembling fact. It's great that the guy is selling stuff and making a profit, and it's also good that women are looking into self defense; no qualms there.

What irks me is that this whole article is factually flawed.

Tasers don't always work, even for cops, and the advice from "safety experts" to just drop the thing after you shoot an attacker is pretty poor considering that Tasers can still be used to shock someone via contact with the front even after the single shot is deployed. So if you do happen to put an attacker on his ass with the probes, and then drop the weapon and run, there is always the possibility that he will get up and run you down. Then what? You dropped your weapon on the bad advice from an unkown source published in a local online article and are now unarmed. Well done.

What this is all boiling down to is that this shit article by an unknown journalist was not given even a passive attempt to verify defensive facts. We've come to expect this from them these days.

"If you use these and make a mistake, you're not actually killing somebody with it," Dalston said.

Uh-huh. And that is also the big downside to them. Why do all cops in the US carry a firearm, and only select few carry a Taser? Because if they make a mistake in the face of an attacker with a Taser, they might not effectively stop them with it, and must then resort to other measures.

"At least with the Taser, you have at least 60 to 90 seconds or more to actually get yourself to safety," Dalton said.

And typically when you use a firearm to stop an attacker, you have way longer than that. And more than that, you have up to 20 times more chances at stopping them too.

I'm not a Taser hater by any means, but they are not the most effective self defense tool in any way, shape, or form. My opinion is that they are a niche weapon. It just wouldn't hurt for some lowlife reporter or such to actually do their homework and point that out to their viewers from time to time, so that I don't have to.

Hey, it's a non drug and gun free school!!

Oh, I'm sure they had put up signs and all, but it doesn't seem to stop those crazy kids!

More on armed mom story

SailorCurt's hunch about the crazy son 'pretending' to rob his mom and getting shot for his troubles looks like it was spot on.

Son has lengthy drug related problems with the local police, and they believe that he was really trying to rob her. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea.

Mom may have some problems of her own since it was her weapon that had the obliterated serial number. Who knows.

Thanks to SailorCurt for the scoop!

More on pistol strong boxes

In an email, reader Bernie C. sends along his recommendation of the Fort Knox handgun safe that he has personal experience with. I like the mechanical opening over the electronic keypad on my safe, and the gas strut assisted opening is a plus as well. At $180, it's a little spendy, but buy once cry once.

My kids are getting old enough that they are just starting to explore the house, and they're too young for any sort of education. It's time I give a better look into gun storage.

My thanks to Bernie C.! I'll check those out!

Alive and kicking!

Mornin' folks. My internet just came back up this morning; yesterday the stolen connectivity on my neighbor's wireless was spotty, hence the sudden lack of posting.

I have had a blast four wheeling in the snow. I've got an Xterra, which was made for this type of weather. Even with that, I got hung up in my driveway and in a cul-de-sac and had to rock back and forth to get out. The freakin snow is that deep. I know, I know, the reporters on TeeVee (who were out in this mess I might add) were telling everyone that there is absolutely no reason to drive, that it is too unsafe. I have a legitimate reason to need access to the roadways, so I'm not going to sit on my ass until the roads get cleared. I must have a way out.

You will find out why soon enough.

I wouldn't have minded a little stimulus money this weekend either; I had a great shovel ready project to do. Good thing I skipped my workout on Friday.

I've been reading High Power Rifle Accuracy by Douglas E. Arnold and it seems like a great book. I'm still in the first chapter, reading about how to properly clean your barrel, and I stopped mid paragraph and went to Ganderous Mountainous to buy some cleaning stuff. Turns out I've been doing it wrong all along. The 308 got a good swabbing, and damned if a ton of copper came out. The Ar15 is next.

I haven't cruised through the news yet today for gun fisking goodness, and I don't think I'm going to. Since the .fed is closed today, I am home with the kids; and oooooh I just got off the phone with my wonderful mother, and I am cleared hot to bring them over for some grandparent time while I make some noise with the 308! Sweet gun blasty goodness!!!

Maybe I'll take the AR too!

Range report to follow - stay warm folks!

Note to morons: It is not funny to scare your armed mom

Ever the optimist - his mom is totally cool for carrying a .357 magnum wheelgun. She can shoot, too!

I do hope the moron has a full recovery.

Update: SailorCurt has a good point: what kind of moron dons a ski mask and tries to scare his mom with a gun that has a worn off serial number? Said moron is more likely a crack head that botched a real robbery of his mother, and claimed the whole thing was a big joke when mommy dearest put some holes in him. Good catch!

I'll just hang more kudos on the mother for not telling her son she carries a gun. Funny how such a little device can be such a big game changer.

It's not safe when someone gets shot there

"It's a horrific event and I hate it, and I wish we could have changed it, but our schools are safe," he told reporters.

So they weren't safe before? Of course not; we all know that. Silly signs with associated laws, and zero tolerance policies created to keep the lawyers off the backs of school officials in such an incident will not stop fourteen year old kids from doing the unthinkable.

This, one would think, would be common sense.

It's a horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the deceased kids family.

So what point do I have in posting this? That school policy, and local, state, and federal laws are not crafted to prevent this from happening. The sooner we wake up to this notion, the sooner something real can be done to prevent future tragedies.

The founding fathers knew how to rock!

Creepy but kinda cool:



Found at Ace of Spades.

Blizzard of 2010 re-deux

More of the white stuff this weekend. So far we have about ten inches, and it's gonna come down all day. I've been crossed up at work trying to get through the week, in anticipation of this mess. It means I've got a little bit of work to do to my house, but lots of bloggy time.

Stay tuned.

Light blogging today

I'm a busy bee this morning, but I might get some time around lunch. We'll see.

Gun Cabinet Warning

About a year and a half ago, I bought a Stack-On pistol strong box that's made to put in a drawer. I never did use it because it is just a little too thick to place in any drawer that I use, so it has sat under my bed all this time. This morning I pulled it out because I have found a place to use it, but I noticed that it will not unlock when it's lying flat which is how it was designed; in order to get it to unlock, you have to stand it up. This causes a problem as you need two hands to access your firearm, and you can't see it when you reach for it, as the door hinges are on the to p.

I was surprised to find that the batteries were still good. The box seems strong enough, and it has two holes for mounting it to whatever; although I am the type of person to drill several more just to make sure it stays put. With this latest finding though, I can not trust it to keep a pistol locked up. I can only imagine swearing at this thing in the dark, trying desperately to get it open while some scumbag is busting the door down.

I thought I'd give y'all a heads up.

Seems harmless enough

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, well then, it's a duck, right?

Ummm, no.

In this case, a mentally disturbed man posing as a federal agent kidnapped and abducted a pregnant woman, leading her on a ride to deportation. No, you read that right; he put her on a flight and sent her to the Philippines.

So, our Homeland Security is so super awesome that a fat crackpot with a porno mustache can holster a weapon, hang a shiny thing on a beaded chain around his neck, pull on his $9 CTU T-shirt from Wal-Mart, and wander around a freakin airport with a kidnapped pregnant woman in handcuffs, and send her to another country!!!!! What?!!??!

B-b-b-but, he said he had an order from ICE!!

Hey morons!!! Crazy people claim crazy things!! It's your job, your duty, to FIND OUT IF THE CRACKPOT IS TELLING THE TRUTH!!!

I can be disarmed, arrested, and imprisoned because of a baggage mixup while on my way to Iraq, and that's totally cool. But porno mustache man can just do whatever the hell he wants in an airport and you let him because he lied? So why am I disarmed when going through an airport?

"Hey, fellas. . . .relax, . . . it's me, Jack Bauer. Yeah, they issue us MP5s these days, now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get on the plane. Thanks."

Idiocracy is here to stay.

This is why the internet exists

To provide endless stupid entertainment. I got a few good laughs out of that one.

Banning April

I was browsing through the VSP 2008 Crime Report this morning, and discovered that if we could just get rid of April, the already low crime rate in Virginia would be drastically reduced. Maybe I could petition the governor to just have it wiped off the calendar. Seems simple enough.

Hell, it's for the children, really, so who would possibly be against it.

Some tidbits in there that I thought were really cool:

1. If we locked up all men ages 20-24, we would reduce murders by a full quarter. The impact of this is totally worth it, as we would save not one life, but almost a hundred. You can't argue against this logic, you big meanie.
2. Holy freakin smokes! Black males from 15 to 29 years old make up pretty much half, HALF, of all the murders in Virginia. I won't add any snark here, cos' that's just a doggone shame. This should be a major focus of anyone looking at reducing crime in this state, as it probably should be in others. If someone really wants to reduce crime, figure out why young black men are killing young black men. We've covered this topic before.
   
3. Aggravated Assault. If you don't want to get into a round of fisticuffs, then don't argue with people. Just walk away; that parking space is not worth it.
   
4. Middle aged thirty something year old men burgle in the morning. And they tend to come in through a door.
   
5. Keep your car in the garage in August, and it shouldn't get stolen.
6. Despite what angry, white Republican politicians tell you about drugs and crime, alcohol is by far the most influential factor in violent crime by about six fold. I mean, you're more likely to get fondled inappropriately by a pasty skinned computer geek than a crackhead. OK, that's just one example, but drugs don't seem to be the factor in violent crime that people think.
7. Automatic weapons are rarely used in crimes. I say again, automatic weapons are rarely used in crimes.
8. Assault thingies. There isn't a statistic for the dreaded machines of death mentioned, but rifles in general - which are more likely to be grandpappy's Marlin thutty-thutty - are rarely used in crime. In short, rifles are not favored by criminals, assault or otherwise.
9. Firearms are not the weapon of choice for attacking cops; personal weapons are, which is also true of attacks against us regular folk. The report does not go into detail on what constitutes a personal weapon, but my gut has quickly determined that they are mostly guillotines. Having a guillotine thrown at you is absolutely a deadly threat, and you should respond by moving laterally, drawing your own guillotine, and returning fire. Make sure you do a tactical 180 when the threat is down. Very important.
10. More: Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and native Alaskans are good people.
    

That's all I've got for right now. Busy day, and a busy week. Sorry about getting carried away with my little tirade yesterday. I get wound up every now and then and go into a profanity laced spiel that serves no purpose whatsoever. I do enjoy some profanity though, from time to time.

Paying good money for what we would do for free

Well, since the ever fruitful white-tailed deer population is up around Camp David, the gov't is proud to piss away more of our hard earned money sending "government sharpshooters" to thin the heard.

The real takeaway in this is that the local population of the human species would jump at the chance to harvest 2,000 deer from that area, but alas, they would be operating too close to the King's castle. Can't have that, so we must pay men who have kissed the king's ring to do what we would do for free.

Pity.

Represeh-ehn

Congrats to Caressa Cameron for her Miss America win. She hails from the greater Fredericksburg area; and not that I follow the Miss America pageant or anything, but it would seem that around here we have a dog in the fight. . . .er, wait. Maybe that's a bad choice of words.

I wish her the best.

The Paranoid American

I link to this Hot Air post this morning because it really touched on how I feel. "What's a matter with you Americans?" Read it; it's spot on.

I can't speak for all Americans, but no doubt some are like me. I am naturally paranoid, and have a definite militant sort of nature. I am not at all a violent person; in fact, I am the type of person who is more than willing to give any sort of help to a stranger because I love my fellow man. I love human beings. I am drawn to serve for the good of others, at the expense of my own life if need be. And I am strongly skeptical of those who position themselves in places of authority or power and then claim that they are acting for the better of all. Most of the time they are selling snake oil.

Human beings will always have self interest in everything they do. That is not a flaw; people can still do selfless acts despite having that natural self interest. I believe that people who run for public office may very well want to help others - good intentions and all that - but the opportunity to advance their self interest goes starkly up with that power, and the road to hell I've heard is gorgeous.

I consider anyone who runs for any office to be a potential scumbag. By the very act of wanting that authority over others, as well intentioned as one may be, that individual has shown that they want to control others. Period. And at this point in my life, I am weary of people wanting to run my life for me; wanting to make my life better; wanting to take what is mine to make someone else's life better; wanting to take what is mine to advance science; wanting to take what is mine to save the whales, etc. I am weary of these intentions and I don't care about them. I don't trust you as far as I can through you, and I will not vote for you if you have ever passed a law, wanted to pass a law, or ever expressed or confessed a desire to pass a law that barred a human being from doing one thing, in the hopes of allowing another to do any other thing.

Unless you are in the business of passing laws that strip power from yourselves, or bar other public officials from meddling in the day to day affairs of Americans, than consider me opposed to your every move.

Yes, I understand that sending astronauts to the moon advances society, and that the money has to come from somewhere. I really do. But a dog can only stand to have so many fleas. You have had enough blood from me. So I'm telling you, leave my shit alone. I don't want to be a part of your vision of utopia. I am fully aware that people are starving all over the world; and if you tax 99% of every American's paycheck to buy them a sandwich, there will still be people starving all over the world. The same goes for the animals. Stop extorting my money to save the fucking dolphins, the whales, the desert tortoise, the chickens, and the polar bears: I Don't Care! They will die with or without the fruits of my labor, just like they have since the beginning of time.

When I was a kid, my parents taught me that if I took something away from someone against their will, no matter what kind of well intentioned ideas I may have, it was stealing. Taking from someone against their will = stealing. Got it. So when you take from me to give to another, it is against my will and it is stealing. Stealing! You got that! Virginia, are you listening? Governor McDonnell, are you listening? Mr. President, Congress, are y'all listening? I don't give one teensy weensy little tiny piece of shit about anything you are trying to give to me, or any other. It is not selfish. It is just reality. If you want to sit around all day conjuring up ways to stop people from doing shit, Fine. You can start by looking at ways to keep your hands to yourself, because I am not interested in any of your other ideas, and it looks like the vast majority of Americans feel the same way.

Jobs? Can y'all even create jobs? Of course you can't. You can either create the illusion that you're creating jobs, you can claim credit for creating jobs even though you didn't, or you can do us all a favor and get the fuck out of everyone's way and let them find jobs for themselves. Seems to me like y'all are the ones who caused this mess in the first place, at least in part, and you can definitely help the American people get back to work by just going home and watching some TV. Put your pen down, and go home.

I honestly can't imagine what good can come from people who go to work every single day with the intent to create a law with their name on it, just to stop someone from doing something. Why does Congress even work all day? Why can't they just meet once or twice a year, pass the budget, and then go home - just like they did to start with? When I hear some Congressman gloat about all the hard work their doing, I get really pissed off, because I know that they are ultimately working towards either stealing from Peter to give to Paul, or they are working on making some other facet of our lives illegal. If you think about it, they can't actually make something legal. Government can't give you liberties; they can only take them. So with their every day efforts, they work towards fucking you out of your liberty.

Just look at what has been done with Concealed Carry. Everyone I know smiles ear to ear when they get that paper card in the mail that says that they can carry a gun. I look at it with contempt. Why is it that people think that they can give me something I already own? A permit is not a liberty. It's not a freedom. It is exactly the opposite. Stimulus? You want to stimulate the economy? How about you give back the 30% of the labor that you forcefully take from everyone, and let them spend it on what they want. That way, it doesn't get wasted in the cogs of the most inefficient spending machine ever devised.

So from now on, you folk working on public office, just leave me out of your plans. If you must do something from day to day to draw a paycheck because you have no other skills, then work on dismantling this goat rope of statutes that you have created. Go on, there's plenty there to work on. Should keep you feeding at the public trough for centuries. Humanity will flourish when you scumbags finally move out of the way.

Update: Case in point. President Obama, you have no business meddling in this. You are Commander in Chief, not the head of college football; you were not hired for this. It is not your job. That you have focused even a moment of attention on this on public time means you are wasting the public's money which you do not have permission to use. Put your pen down and stay in your fucking lane!