I have to admit a bit of a dirty old man moment after seeing this picture, and only reading the caption after. But I can’t think of a better birthday present, personally.
Month: November 2008
The Bond Guns
Caleb talks about the various guns that James Bond has used in both film and fiction.
Change.back
It would appear that the anti-gun crap on Obama’s transition website has returned.
Fall Fun
In the middle of shooting an air pistol match. 45 degrees out with high winds. Can’t even get the animals to stay on the rails. On top of that, I’m way under-dressed for cold. But, hey, you can’t learn to be a good shooter if you only shoot in good weather.
UPDATE: Well, that’s over with. Had to take a few alibi shots with the wind. Shot a 20/40, which is a AA score. Second match I shot 24/40, which is a AAA. That’s my third AAA score this year, so it puts me in that classification. I hope I can keep shooting AAA scores, or it’s going to be a while before I ever win a trophy or plaque.
UPDATE: Tam also opines on the virtues of shooting in poor conditions.
On Lizards and Voting
Another one from Overcoming Bias, which I think I will have to add to the RSS feed:
“The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford, “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
Read the whole thing. If you’r a third party voter, it’s a great defense of voting third party. I think the two party dichotomy is entirely to ingrained in our system to go away any time soon. The time to vote your conscious is the primary, and in local elections, where you can help bring political talent into the public arena. I mean really help. One person can make a difference in local races. Of course, I also think political participation is about a lot more than voting.
Something for Us to Avoid
From the blog Overcoming Bias:
We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL. Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind. Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin.
We have way too much of this in the pro-gun community. Way too much. I notice it particularly in those who would have us believe we’re, sure as sin, on the road to a marxist dictatorship with the election of Obama. That’s right along this line of thinking, if you ask me.
That also, if you ask me, describes much of the open carry movement as well.
Interesting Double Standard
You know, Obama supporters came totally unhinged about what happened to Dan Cooper, and said I was all manner of awful things. All I did was ask people not to buy his product. If this is their idea of an acceptable boycott, apparently I didn’t go nearly far enough!
Universal Health Care
This is bound to do wonders for the economy:
Mr. Baucus would create a nationwide marketplace, a “health insurance exchange,†where people could compare and buy insurance policies. The options would include private insurance policies and a new public plan similar to Medicare. Insurers could no longer deny coverage to people who had been sick. Congress would also limit insurers’ ability to charge higher premiums because of a person’s age or prior illness.
People would have a duty to obtain coverage when affordable options were available to all through employers or through the insurance exchange. This obligation “would be enforced, possibly through the tax system,†the plan says.
Enforced through the tax system, eh? Well, at least that’s probably constitutional. Either way, there’s no word on how they plan to pay for what is bound to be an enormously expensive program. To me this is the worst of both worlds. There will be no incentive to control health care costs with a system like this, and costs will spiral out of control.
Stay Classy, Chris King
Chris King, my local state representative who was just defeated by a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic year, apparently has just closed up his office.
The door to the district office of state Rep. Chris King, D-142, on Wood Lane in Middletown was locked late Thursday morning. Calls to the office received a message referring calls to the Middletown office of state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, at 215-945-2800.
House offices are required to transition on November 30th according to state law. Most state reps will keep their offices open to serve constituents as close to that date as possible. Says Frank Farry, who defeated King on November 4th:
“We’re diligently working to get our office open as soon as possible,†Farry said. “I’ve already spent several days in Harrisburg trying to get the necessary approvals. I’m disappointed Rep. King chose to close his office within a few days of the election instead of remaining open until the Nov. 30 deadline. He committed to me [that] we would have a transition between our two offices, but that obviously is not going to occur.â€
I hope no one needs any constituent services in the next few weeks.
Quote of the Day
Cam Edwards reminds us that it’s the birthday of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.†— Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928
We’re going to be seeing a lot of that over the next four years.