7/24/2004
I Feeeeeeel Good!!
Out on the qual range today, one last day, to get the soldiers who failed last time qualified. The rest of the company was doing training on quickfire techiniques.
For some reason, the ammo truck dropped 7 cases of ammo-that's almost 12,000 rounds, to qualify 8 soldiers. They're lousy shooters, but not that bad. So myself and the rest of the cadre got a chance to shoot. I shot 37 out of 40, qualifying expert. That's just borrowing an extra rifle that was brought out for a private that went to sick call. Never zeroed that weapon. Picked it up cold and hit 37 of 40 targets.
That's a good day in my book.
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7/23/2004
How the GOP Relates to Gun Owners
Via Instapundit again-Bush poses questions for black voters in a speech at the Urban Leauge. I've pulled out the first three:
Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted?
Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party?
How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete?
Now, take the first two questions, and change "African Americans" to "gunowners," and "Democrat" to "Republican."
Makes you think, doesn't it?
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This is Where I Grew Up
Found via InstaPundit- Ronstadt gets audience walkout encore -Link requires registration
LIVERMORE - Linda Ronstadt's political message sent close to a hundred concert-goers home early Thursday evening. What had been a mellow evening at Wente Vineyards, with the crowd evenserenading her with "Happy Birthday" at one point, turned into a rush for the exits by some fans angry by her encore tribute to filmmaker Michael Moore.
"She just had to do it," one fan steamed as he headed for the parking lot. "It was good until the end," another yelled to TV crews waiting outside the concert.
"She's getting out of line; it's ridiculous," said Cindy Williams of Livermore, as she left during the last song of the evening.
Livermore is located about 40 miles east of San Francisco, and once upon atime was considered the fringe of commuting range to SF or San Jose. Now, it's a major commuter town, filled with typical PRK types. But the town is also home to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, once one of the nation's two primary nuclear weapon research facilities, which still does all sorts of Big Science physics research. The physicists and engineers who work there tend to be pretty conservative types. What I find interesting is that neither the Tri-Valley Herald (the other paper serving Livermore) nor the SF Chronicle mentioned the story. Or perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. She didn't actually get booted from the place, so they can't make a martyr out of her this time.
The story closes with the semi-obligatory mention of Hollywierdos who have pissed off Red State America by spouting their political views.
With her comments Saturday, Ronstadt became the latest liberalmusician to use the stage for political views, and another to sufferconservative backlash.
Of course, they fail to mention conservative performers-such as Ted Nugent, Tom Selleck, Charleton Heston, and Bruce Willis-who have suffered career backlash from Leftist Hollyweird.
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7/20/2004
You Know the Commies Progressives Are Scared...
...when they sick the lawyers on you over something piddly like this.
Fox News' Use of 'Fair and Balanced' Challenged Legally
NEW YORK (AP) - Fox News' use of the slogan "Fair and Balanced" constitutesdeceptive advertising, two political advocacy groups claimed Monday in a petition filed with the Federal Trade Commission. Liberal MoveOn.org and historically nonpartisan Common Cause assert that FoxNews' reports are "deliberately and consistently distorted and twisted to promote the Republican Party of the U.S. and an extreme right-wingviewpoint."
First of all, if Fox News is "extreme right wing," then what am I, and thesegment of the blogosphere that I hang out in? (Nevermind that to thesegimboids anything futher right than Hillary Clinton is "extreme right wing.") I'd love to see how these twits would freak if somebody gave Kim duToit, Mad Ogre, or Smallest Minority a TV network.
FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris, thankfully, has some common sense:
"I am notaware of any instance in which the Federal Trade Commission has investigatedthe slogan of a news organization. There is no way to evaluate this petition without evaluating the content of the news at issue. That is a task theFirst Amendment leaves to the American people, not a government agency."
Stop the presses. A government official actually trusts the people more than the government. Oh, and the American people, at least the portion that get their news from cable TV, seem to be voting in favor of Fox News.
They're terrified because they've lost their monopoly on how the TV watching public gets the news Nevermind that, thanks to the Internet, they've already lost their stranglehold on dispensing the news that they think you should see and hear, how they think you should see it and hear it. And they seem to be caught in a downward spiral-the less people listen to them, the more shrill and extreme they get, and the more shrill and extreme they get,the less people listen to them.
Want to see the Left Media really panic? Somebody to convince Rupert Murdoch to add a network news show, supported by Fox News, to the Fox Television broadcast lineup.
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Ouch.
Via Moonbat EWS - Drudge bitch slaps Kerry's latest campaign promise.
The words are enough. The pictures are priceless.
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More on the AWB
Say Uncle has some good items on the AWB here and here, revealing that some Lefties get it and that some are lying sacks ofexcrement.
Gunner at No Quarters goes looking for the actual Sunset Clause in the AWB-and finds it in the comments section.
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Air Force Plans Big New Bomb
From Jane's Defense:
The US Air Force plans to launch a project later this year to develop anexperimental ultra-large 30,000lb (13,608kg) penetrating munition, accordingto service officials. It will be optimised against hardened and deeply buried targets thatexisting air-delivered weapons cannot destroy, they say.
So, how soon can we drop a couple on Iran's recently buried nuke factory?
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BATF Approved Exceptions?
My unit is doing rifle qualfication this week. I was looking at one of the M-16 magazines, one obviously made after 1994. Written on the side was the expected "Military/Law Enforcement use Only," followed by this bit: "Or BATF Approved Exceptions." I wasn't aware that there were exceptions. What wouldthey be? Private security firms? Body guards? Corporate mercenaries? Who are these special citizens who have more rights than the rest of us?
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7/19/2004
Musings on a Meme
Publicola has set up a meme on how bloggers plan to vote if President
Bush signs an AWB extension. He was nice enought to link to my DiFi rant,
so I'll contribute to the discussion. Some of this may come across as
annoyingly calculating, but it's what I'm thinking.
Ending the AWB is one of the two most important RKBA items on the agenda for this session of Congress. President Bush and Majority Leader Frist let the Dems use it to kill the other important item, so he's already behind the 8-ball with me. Signing any extension of the AWB will most likely cost him my vote come November.
For President: I vote in the state of Washington, which right now is
leaning Kerry's way anyway. If W signs the AWB, I think he'll lose a
good number of votes in the red parts of the state (which is basically all
of it except King (Seattle), Pierce (Tacoma), and Snohomish counties),
pushing Washington even more into Kerry's column. So I can probably feel
pretty safe making a protest vote, knowing that it most likely won't change
the actual outcome. But as I stated in one of my earlier posts, I'm not
exactly enthralled with the LP candidate, Badnarik, because of his statements
on national security matters. So I'd probably either vote for the
Constitution Party, or just write in "None of the Above"
Senator: Patty "Soccer Mom in Sneakers" Murray, holderof the
presitgious grade of 'F' from the GOA, is up for re-election. She voted in favor
of adding the AWB to the Gunmaker Lawsuit bill, and will vote for any
other chance at extending it. Her opponent, George Nethercutt, has earned an
'A-' from GOA. My vote goes GOP here.
House: Last I checked, there wasn't even a GOP candidate in my
district. Haven't seen the slate for the other parties yet, since the state
primaries aren't until September. I'll either vote LP or write myself in.
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I Await the Wailing about "Freedom of Speech"
Great story, relayed courtesy of the Moonbat EWS. Executive summary: Performer loves
Michael Moore. Casino loves making money. Casino fires performer for
mixing politics with performance.
The performer in question is Linda Ronstadt. Her praise of The Unwashed One
resulted in paying customers storming out of the performance hall and it
sounds like it almost sparked a minor riot. The casino president, one Bill
Timmins, fired Ronstadt on the spot.
When will the Hollyweirdos learn-mix politics and work at your own
risk?
Oh-and if I ever go to Vegas, and Bill Timmins is still in charge, I'm
staying at the Alladin.
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GWOT Strategery?
Instapundit has taken a very interesting look at what might be a bit of grand strategy in the War on Terror.
Is the Administration possessed of enough strategic vision to have planned
to position their pieces on the chess board this way? Or did it just work
out that way by happy chance? Either way, when looked at that way, we may
have Iran in a neat little box.
But I think Glenn may also be missing something-what if the primary intent
isn't to put forces into position to overrun Iran-even though they would be
well positioned to do just that. What if the primary goal is to put
functional, democratic, Muslim-majority states on either side of Iran and
let Iran collapse on its own? That would seem to be more deisreable. Would
the CIA, possibly with British and maybe even Russian help, be capable of
working with pro-democracy groups in Iran to help such a thing happen?
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7/18/2004
And From the Cesspool that Inflicted DiFi on the Nation...
Sniper rifle in city's sights
By Adriel Hampton Staff Writer, SF Examiner
OK, first off, notice the scare tactic right in the title-the term "Sniper rifle." This despite the fact that later in the article the author states that " The guns are popular among hobbyists who use them for target practice." But a title that states "Target Rifles in City's Sights" wouldn't have near the scare factor, would it? Now, on to the article-it seems Pyongyang by the Bay is trying to ban .50 rifles.
A San Francisco supervisor has quietly introduced a proposal to join growing efforts to ban the sale or transfer of high-powered sniper rifles, prompting gun lobbyists to threaten a lawsuit against The City.
Supervisor Matt Gonzalez's plan is part of a growing legal pressure against the military-style .50-caliber weapons that are capable of penetrating armor and striking targets up to four miles away.
And now the exageration starts. "Military style weapons...capable of penetrating armor." Of course, pretty much all rifle ammo will penetrate armor, to varying degrees. America's most common hunting round, the venerable .30-06, will easily penetrate car bodies. And "striking targets up to four miles away?" Folks, even with a 120mm cannon, a 65-ton stabilized firing platform, and computerized fire control, an M1A2 Abrams tank can't hit another tank 4 miles away. A .50BMG round might be capable of flying 4 miles, but it won't be hitting a target except by dumb luck.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has worked for years to curb the .50-caliber's prevalence, and a spokesman from her office said she would be supportive of a local effort.
"We've tried to limit them on a national level and we haven't been able to get that through," said Howard Gantman of Feinstein's office.
Ah, what would a gun control post be without DiFi, the Hive Queen of the Antis. Actually, I hadn't heard that she'd been trying to pass a .50 ban. Good on the folks on Capitol Hill who put a stop to it. It's yet another example of DiFi trying to erode away our right, gun by gun.
Contra Costa supervisors passed a ban on the rifles this spring, arguing that they might be used for terrorist attacks on local refineries.
(For those of you who aren't familiar with the Bay Area, Contra Costa County is located across the Bay from SF. ) Now, I have to ask: I can't name any other item that it is even considered permissable to ban because the item could potentially be used to commit a crime or terrorist act. Cars are used in crime all the time, but they're not banned. Ditto for ski masks. Box cutters were actually used to take over the planes on 9/11, but I don't hear calls to ban them. To date, I know of no crime committed with a .50 caliber rifle, yet they seem to pose such a huge potential danger that they have to be banned. Sorry, the Antis are just looking for an excuse.
And the author has to throw in one last scary statement:
The sniper rifles, available easily over the Internet for a few thousand dollars...
...must be shipped to and transferred through a licensed firearms dealer, and the purchaser must fill out a 4473 and pass a NICS check. And you still have to have a spare couple thousand dollars, too.
They can't even call it Baghdad by the Bay anymore. The people in Baghdad have more gun rights.
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Another Reason We Don't Want Blue Helmets Here
Via Instapundit.
There have been allegations of 50 cases of sexual attacks on minors carried out by Monuc, the United Nations mission to the DRC, in Bunia in the north-east of the country over the past year.
Read it here.
And this isn't the only such incident-allegations of U.N. troops doing everything from raping to running brothels have surfaced in Kosovo and several other places.
These are the people that some Democrats want to come watch our elections. These are the people that the EU and Fuckface Kerry want in Iraq.
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