Looks like Countertop had a good weekend. It was pretty chilly in Connecticut this weekend, but nothing like that.
Month: December 2007
US Submarine Museum
Bitter and I went to the Submarine Museum in Groton, CT, where they have the USS Nautilus displayed:
 
Sadly, they don’t tour you through the reactor or engine room. I’m wondering if any of that stuff is still classified. USS Nautilus is the only nuclear powered submarine on display to the public anywhere in the world. You can visit the submarine museum in an hour’s time if you want, and it’s worth the visit. Especially if you have kids of the right age. You can show them where the nuclear warheads would be mounted on the Polaris missile they have on display.
USS Nautilus is the official ship of Connecticut, which is only fitting. Groton, CT is the home to General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division, which is the birthplace of much of our nation’s submarine fleet going back a century.
I’ve been on more than a few submarine museums, and I have to say, I have a lot of respect for anyone who could spend months at a time on something like the Nautilus. Even on a nuclear sub, quarters were cramped. It was tough for me just walking around for a few minutes, but then again, I’m probably a bit tall to be a submariner.
Account from Omaha
I’m late getting this to you all. A few other bloggers have covered this, and someone commented earlier about it, but it’s been a busy weekend with Bitter, so I didn’t get a chance to post it until now.
Joe’s Crabby Shack has a great eyewitness account of the Omaha mall shooting.  He’s got a lot of posts on this, so check out his main blog and just keep reading.
Gun Control Rally Tomorrow in Harrisburg
Ed Rendell said he’d be back, and he will be, tomorrow at the Capitol.
Governor Ed Rendell, mayors and police from across Pennsylvania will rally in Harrisburg Monday, as a push for new legislation on guns. Last month, Governor Rendell made an unsuccessful plea to the legislature to take up a slew of gun control measures but lawmakers rejected them all.
He’s back, even though many pro-gun Democrats are telling the governor they want nothing to do with this issue. I firmly believe that we have to give the Democrats in PA the boot if we want to retain our gun rights. Your local guy might be well and good, but having his party in charge puts the Philadelphia politicians in a much better position to attack your gun rights. Think about that in 2008.
UPDATE: Traction Control has more.
Blogosphere Nonsense
A lot of misinformation is floating around on blogs out there. Most people are completely uneducated on guns, gun laws, and related subjects. Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. We need to educate these types of folks so they know what they are talking about.
UPDATE: It seems we’ve been asked to leave, and I’m certainly willing to oblige. It’s his sandbox.
I WON’T post comments that idiotically claim that gun control hasn’t worked in Britain and made it a nation that is vastly safer from gun murders than the U.S.
50 deaths. FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR.
Listen, gun nuts: please, go play somewhere else. Oh, and if you love guns so fucking much: please join the Army and go fight in Iraq. You’ll get to handle all the
guns you want over there, while you’re fighting to secure oil for the ExxonMobil and the other rich cronies of Bush.Oh, and one other thing: please grow a pair. You gun nuts are such pussies. You’re so fucking frightened of anything and everything. You think you need your precious gun to defend yourself.
How about stop being a coward for a change? Real men use their fists to settle disputes (or better yet, they use reason and logic).
Only cowards use guns.
Reasoned DiscourseTM Strikes Again! I pointed out earlier that you can’t use totals in countries with different population sizes. Britain does have a lower murder rate than the US. It’s had a lower murder rate even when both countries had no gun control laws. It’s violent crime rate has trended up since it’s banned firearms. Oh well. And they wonder why they are losing.
A Night On The Reservation
Bitter and I were guests of the Pequot Indian tribe this evening at Foxwoods Casino Resort in Connecticut.  We were “special guests” of Wynonna Judd at her Christmas Concert that Bitter’s brother is the lighting director of. It was a good show. Wynonna is an amazing singer.
I’m also happy to report I put 10 dollars in a 5 cent slot and won 50 dollars.  At that point, I decided to quit while I’m ahead, and left the casino. We took their land, and now I’m only happy to take a little of their money.
A Little Second Amendment Wager
I noticed this quite funny comment over on Bryan Miller’s blog:
Dear Mr. Miller:
As you know, the Supreme Court shortly will be making a weighty decision concerning the future of American freedom as it resides within the Second Amendment. I know we are diametrically opposed on this issue. However, the die has been cast and now we as a nation will finally have an answer to a question which both sides have sought for decades.
I have made a layman’s study of arguments from the pro and anti-gun rights perspectives and am firmly convinced that the Court will hold that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, not one reserved to the state. But what value is rhetoric if not backed up by a concrete demonstration of one’s firm belief?
Thus, my point in posting this message is to challenge you to a friendly personal wager regarding the outcome of the Heller case. If the Supreme Court holds that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms, I will personally present you with a certified check in the amount of $100 payable to your charity of choice. I will do so at a New Jersey place and time of your choosing, and in honor of the nanny state you represent, while wearing a diaper and drinking milk from a baby bottle.
Conversely, if the Supreme Court should hold, what every person who can read plainly the King’s English already knows, that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, you will present me with a certified check in the amount of $100 payable to my charity of choice. You will do this at a time and New Jersey place of my choosing while wearing full camouflage and bearing an unloaded New Jersey compliant AR-15 (semi-automatic, no lugs for drive-by bayoneting, no adjustable stock, magazine capacity restricted to 15 rounds, etc.), while keeping your finger off the trigger and muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
The gauntlet has been thrown. Demonstrate the courage of your convictions as I am willing to do and accept this challenge of the ages! This offer expires at 5 PM EST on Friday, December 21, 2007.
Respectfully Submitted in Good Faith and Credit,
Matthew Carmel
mcarmel@constitutionarms.com
I sincerely hope Bryan will take him up on this wager! But my bet is there’s no way he’ll take it.
Quote of the Day
This one is from Paul Helmke:
“There is the mythology advanced by the gun lobby of the Wild West and the individual frontiersman single-handedly holding off the British and the Indians and the bears simultaneously”
I don’t think I’ve ever done or seen a post that’s talked about the British, Indians and Bears attacking simultaneously.  I’d say that Peter Hamm needs to keep Paul away from the hard liquor, but I think this is actually carefully crafted language to make people think that what we advocate is an anachronism, and not relevant to modern society.  He also says:
He said European countries have enacted effective gun control laws and that U.S. politicians are cowed by the gun lobby as exemplified by the National Rifle Association.
I guess that’s why mass shootings never happen in Europe, or anywhere else with strict gun control.
Kryptonite to Stupid
Ah, yes. Persuasion by insult. The true harbinger of someone willing to engage in reasoned discourse. One of his commenters, though, gave me a good idea:
Therefore, if gun advocates were serious about using the magic of gun possession to protect the innocent from violent crimes…
…they would advocate or even create for themselves programs to provide firearm ownership and safe use training to impoverished inner city black and Hispanic residents.
If they are not willing to do so, it is because they only intend their arguments to apply when they apply to an imagined innocent *white* population.
That’s actually not a bad idea. I have to wonder if the people in Pro-Gun Progressive‘s neighborhood might be tired of being intimidated into letting the drug dealing scum run roughshod over their neighborhoods. Particularly in urban settings, the good, upstanding people need to be able to defend themselves.
Of course, Saturday Night Special bans, a favorite of the gun control crowd, most heavily fall on the urban poor’s ability to defend themselves. We’ve fought these laws time and time again, even though few of us buy those types of firearms. If we’re such a racist bunch, you’d think we’d support a law that would disproportionately disarm the poor and minorities.
I wonder if this guy is aware of the racist history of gun control in America.
Happy First State Day
It would seem on this day in 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. Happy 220th anniversary of saying yes The United States, Delaware!