8/02/2007
Barack Hussein Obama Is A Gun Grabber
I know, I know, this is not news. I'm just repeating it to increase the number of internet searches for Obama that turn up that result. Found via Junkyard Blog, Obama speaking close to home in the Mayor Daley's People's Soviet of Chicago. Oh, and the story's from the A(ppeasement) P(ress), even though it's on the FoxNews website, so it's chock full of bias, too. Let the fun begin!
CHICAGO — Standing before a church congregation that has witnessed inner-city violence firsthand, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Sunday that more must be done to end a social ill that is "sickening the soul of this nation.
Actually, Senator, the ill that is "sickening the soul of this nation" is the ever expanding wing of your party that started with the candidacy of George McGovern in 1972 that thinks it can turn America into a shiny happy version of what Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Che failed to create-the perfect socialist utopia. I'm not sure from the story if it's Obama calling guns a "social ill" or the reporter, but either way, note that somebody is calling inanimate objects a "social ill," not the mutants who use them unlawfully.
Obama told churchgoers at the Vernon Park Church of God on Chicago's South Side that too many young lives are being claimed by violence and more must be done to combat the problem. Do more? You mean like arresting them, trying and convicting them, and putting them in jail for long periods of time? Oh, wait, Obama's a DemCong. Sorry about the misunderstanding.
"From South Central L.A. to Newark, New Jersey, there's an epidemic of violence that's sickening the soul of this nation," the Illinois senator told the crowd. "The violence is unacceptable and it's got to stop." Interesting that he chose DemCong run cities, in DemCong run, GFW states as his examples. Of course, he neglects to mention how much of that violence is caused by criminal gangs fighting over drugs and the other things criminals fight over, or how much is done by repeat offenders who should be rotting in jail instead of roaming the streets.
Nearly three dozen Chicago students have been killed this year, according to Chicago Public Schools. Obama said that figure is higher than the number of Illinois serviceman (sic) who've died in Iraq in 2007. A completely useless statistic, unless we know how many students there are in Chicago as compared to how many servicemembers from Illinois are in Iraq. According to the CPS website, during the 2005-2006 school year, CPS had 371,125 students in grades 1-12, of which 109,982 were in grades 9-12, which corresponds to the school age age group, 14-18, most likely to involved in gangs. Assuming a rough 50/50 male/female split, I'm pretty sure that even that segment is far larger than the number of servicemembers from Illinois in Iraq. (The entire IL NG, Air and Army, numbers only 13,500 troops. So even if they were all mobilized to Iraq, which they're not, to add to the number of active duty troops, I'm pretty sure you'd still come up far short.) So, am I to assume that Senator Obama is a product of the CPS and never took statistics in college and thus doesn't know his comparison is bullshit, or should I assume he's being deliberately misleading. When in doubt, I always assume a politician is being deliberately misleading. Especially when the politician in quesiton is a DemCong and they're talking about crime statistics and guns.
"We need to express our collective anger through collective action," Obama said.
I can name a few other leaders who were big on collective action, Senator. Lenin, Stalin, and Mao come to mind.
He said the government needs to permanently reinstate an assault weapons ban and close regulatory loopholes that protect unscrupulous gun dealers. Because so many crimes are committed with cosmetically incorrect self-loading firearms. And the cities Obama-rama cited earlier already have bans of the sort he wants. Last I checked, and I don't have the link handy (I really need to start compiling those) the number one firearm used in homicides in the US was a revolver made by a New England company in .38 Special, followed by blocky Austrian 9mms, and various members of the Bryco/Lorcin/Jennings family.
It's not specified, but I'd bet that one of those 'regulatory loopholes' is the Tiahrt Amendment, which keeps people like Mayor Daley and his close friend Mike Bloomberg away from ATF data.
He also said government should support and fund more after-school programs to keep kids off the streets. But some of the burden must also be shouldered by residents who need to do more to raise and protect at-risk children, he added. To bad for him that the "It Takes a Village" line was already taken, I guess.
"We have an entire generation of young men in our society who have become products of violence, and we are going to have to break the cycle," Obama said. "There are too many young men out there who have gone down the wrong path." "An entire generation." That would put the start right about the time LBJ's Great Socialist Society programs really started to make fathers superfluous, wouldn't it? Think that might have something to do with it? Of course, the AP writer can't make that connection.
He later added, "There's a reason they go out and shoot each other, because they don't love themselves. And the reason they don't love themselves is because we are not loving them enough." Koom-Bye-Yah, my Lord, Koom-Bye-Yah...so if we just love them more, they'll stop being violent scumbags? I sure hope it's some seriously tough love. You know, the kind that teaches them that actions have consequences, and that the consequences of breaking the rules of civilized society are extremely painful.
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8/01/2007
Routing
OK, after consulting with Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest, along with my trusty road atlas, I think I've decided my cross country route. The route is intended to get the shortest possible distance from here to Fort Bragg, NC, while also minimizing time spent driving in GFW states. (Unfortunately, Packing.org seems to be down, so I can't easily verify this last part. I'm going on memory.)
Route starts on I-90 eastbound, across Washington, the Idaho panhandle, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.
At Souix Falls, head south on I-29, through Iowa and into Missouri. This is actually where my route diverts from Yahoo! and Mapquest-Mapquest continues east on I-90 into southern Minnesota to I-35 South, then east on I-80, while Yahoo! gets of I-29 at Omaha and heads east on I-80. Both split onto I-74 through Illinois and into Indiana Since Iowa and Illinois are two states where I'm pretty sure my CCW is no good (in Illinois, the whole Second Amendment seems void), I'm trying to minimize the time spent there. That this should probably allow me to skip across Daleyland without even having to stop for gas-which is also more expensive there than in the states to the east and west.
Anyway, back on my route. At Kansas City, pick you I-70 east to St. Louis, then on to I-64 east across Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky to Charleston, West Virgina.
From Charleston, take I-77 south (toll road? WTF? This is America! And if it says "Robert 'KKK' Byrd" Turnpike, I'll be taking potshots at the signs.) and through Virginia to I-74 east to US-52 to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then I-40 east to I-95 south to Fort Bragg/Fayetteville.
Total distance, approximately 2970 miles.
To my best recollection, my WA and SC permits (yes, that one's still good until next yeat) should be good in every state I cross except Iowa and Daleyland. I know my brand-new NH permit doesn't pick up Daleyland, and I don't think it gets Iowa, either. With Packing.org down, I'm not sure about carrying loaded in the vehicle, but I'm pretty sure I'm good until I get to Iowa.
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7/31/2007
Got Some DVD Movie Nights Coming Up
...but not tonight.
Went to Wal-Mart because I needed eggs, Ragu sauce, and motor oil, and right up front was a display featuring both 300 and Hot Fuzz. So I grabbed both DVDs.
But I won't watch them tonight...because tonight, the San Francicso Giants play The Most Loathsome Team In All Of Sport, and the game's on ESPN at 7pm Pacific.
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In Honor of My New Gun
The gun I'm selling my Kahr K40 to pay is finally in my hands: a CZ-97B. I took it out to the range for the first time yesterday; range report and a pic of the gun to come soon.
But in looking around for CZ-97 pics, I found this page. I don't need any extra motivation to put up pics of hot women with guns. So...hot CZhicks. Enjoy.
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7/30/2007
Bill Walsh, 1931-2007
Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, who built the 49er teams and designed the offensive system known as the West Coast Offense that helped them win 4 Super Bowl titles in the 1980s, died earlier today after a three year battle with leukemia.
Walsh conceived his offensive system, then in the third round of the 1979 draft-his first as 49er head coach-found the perfect quarterback to run it in Notre Dame quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana. The rest, as they say is history.
While Walsh is best remembered for winning 3 Super Bowls as a coach and the West Coast Offense, he was also a master talent evaluator and draft day maneuverer. He drafted 3 Hall of Famers in 10 years- quarterback Joe Montana, corner/free safety Ronnie Lott, and (the not-yet-elected) wide receiver Jerry Rice, and traded for a fourth-quarterback Steve Young. His 1986 draft-which produced EIGHT starters in the first six rounds-is legendary, and possibly the best draft ever by an NFL team.
Almost twenty years after he retired from coaching, Walsh's influence on the NFL continues. Most of the league runs offenses that utilize at least part of his system.
So long, Bill. From all the Forty-Niner Faithful, thanks for the memories.
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Note from the Family Reunion Last Week
Last week I went to a family reunion and got to meet a good chunk of my wife's extended family.
#2 also acquired a new nickname, courtesy of my wife's uncle Dan (a retired Navy man, although that's not germane to the story.)
We arrived at my wife's grandparents house on Moses Lake, and Junior had already bolted into the swirling scrum/melee of his three cousins. As #2 toddled/trundled/did his best impression of running toward the same melee, Dan yelled out,
"Look at the kid, he's a tank." (#2, at just short of 19 months, tips the scales at 29 lbs, and no, he's not fat.)
So his new nickname is Tank.
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The Dems Destroy Wealth by Their Mere Presence
From today's WSJ Online
What would be the stock market response to repealing them? "Oh, I think it would probably cost the market 5% to 10%," he predicts. "That may not happen on a single day. But it will certainly suppress prices. And the market is already anticipating these higher tax rates," he assures me, which means stock prices are already being suppressed by tax uncertainty. "I would say we're probably in the neighborhood of $10 trillion of unrealized capital gains" Mr. Schwab says of the present economic situation. "If you put a 100% tax on it, of course, the government's going to get none of that. If you're at zero, you would get none. With the 15% rate for capital gains, we're probably at the optimum rate."
Two things about this bit: first-Democrats in power are bad for the stock market. $10 trillion in unrealized gains, just from anticipation that the Bush tax cuts will be repealed, or not renewed (pretty much the same thing, actually) by the DemCong. TEN TRILLION. $10,000,000,000,000. Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Reid, you and your kind are making me less wealthy by what you say and do. You are inhibiting my ability to obtain my piece of the American dream. And I want to know why. What is your justification for preventing me from becoming rich?
The second part is Schwab's opinion that a capital gains tax rate of 15% is optimum. Something I've never really understood: how exactly is capital gains different from what the government calls earned income? Where exactly is the line drawn that differentiates capital gains from income? If I buy a house for $100,000, and the housing market goes up, and I sell it 2 months later for $125,000, the $25,000 is capital gains. But if I buy a box of Snickers bars for $10.00, and sell the candy bars in my mini-mart for $12.50, it's income. WTF? Buying and selling is buying and selling, whether it be stocks, real estate, or candy. Income is income, whether it's from buy and selling stuff, or digging ditches, or whatever an employer will pay you to do. Why is the difference in taxation? The only justification I can see is the traditional DemCong class envy/warfare.
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