The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
All of you who have given us advice or thoughts on lighting – yeah, pack your bags and open your wallets. In many states, you could risk jailtime or fines for taking on the task of interior design without state certification.
It was a trap, and you all fell for it!
Kidding, of course. I just saw this video while composing my last lighting post yesterday and thought I would share. It’s absurd. Good for Reason for highlighting this crap.
If you live in Detroit, the time to leave is now:
[A Story Once Appeared Here About a Man Who Hunt and Sold Raccoons, but it is from a newspaper working with the scum of the earth I will no longer link to.]
You’re eating racoons. It’s over Detroit. Life is better in other places, like Camden, New Jersey. Or perhaps I can suggest a fine town like Oakland, California.
Hat tip to Eric of Classical Values.
UPDATE: Watch the video. I think the “Coon Man” is my new hero. I admire people who can capitalize on tragedy. Also, check out this post about how nature is reclaiming Detroit.
Fox News hasn’t always gotten its facts on guns right, but it did this time. I join many other bloggers in praising Fox News for telling the truth about this issue. It covers exactly the things I highlighted here. They add:
In fact, it’s not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.
[…]
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.
Which is what I suspected. The guns they recover that have obvious sources from the Mexican or foreign militarys don’t get traced through ATF’s systems. The other question I have is what percentage of guns the Government of Mexico recovers are from violent individuals and drug cartel members, and what percentage were recovered from people who smuggled the guns back to relatives so they could protect themselves from the individuals I just mentioned. The latter is a human rights issue, but the Mexican government doesn’t see things that way.
We waited for the patio to cure, and now we have to wait on the weather. Off and on rain predictions have put us in a holding pattern until next week. That’s actually not terrible news since it gives the patio more time to cure. It still looks good, even the general contractor wasn’t expecting it to turn out that nice.
In the meantime, I’ve looked at more lights and furniture. Since I mentioned that I love brown as a color, I thought I would share some of my favorite brown light finds on my search for perfection – within a budget.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to use any of these. They don’t have versions that would work for the front with the features we’d like.
Top Left & Clockwise:
1. I like the cracked glass look of this one as opposed to the similar brushed nickel version. Unfortunately, we’d have to get three identical ones. While it’s budget-friendly, I’m not sold 100% on the brown, and I think the motion detection option in the front is handy.
2. The back plate is brass, otherwise I generally like this. I get the feeling I wouldn’t like it as much in person though.
3. I like this one a lot. I was looking at a similar piece at a lighting shop yesterday, but again with the daylight sensor and motion detection issues.
4. Nothing about our house is particularly contemporary, but I still think this style would look great. Unfortunately, it’s budget unfriendly to get two small ones and a bigger one for the front.
5. This one hints at that slightly nautical theme, and I like that it’s not perfectly clear glass. But, once again we find that there were no options in brown for motion detection.
6. I like that this one is very different. There’s a bigger version for the front. It’s also less budget-friendly than other options, and I also fear it kind of mixes styles. Our house is a really odd mix in and of itself. I’m not sure adding another really works.
That said, I did try going to a lighting specialty store to see more options, and to see if they could beat the box stores on price. Price is not the final straw here – I would be willing to ask for a slightly larger budget if there was something that just hit the right look. I suspect that if it really was a better option, he’d be willing to pay the higher price. But, with higher prices comes the expectation of better service.
In my case, it would have included the expectation of a staff member even talking to me. But that didn’t happen. I walked in and got stared at, but with no greeting. I made my way around the store looking for outdoor lighting and passed three people who appeared to be staff and not one said a word. I was looking at fixtures and price tags in the room I finally found with the outdoor lamps and no one bothered to even stop and talk to me, even though staff members eventually came into the room. It’s too bad since I did find some decent (but not perfect) options in there. I would have been willing to look at catalogs if they had any or would have given me the time of day. So, for anyone else in SE PA looking to spruce up their home with some new lights, I would have to recommend against going to Light World in Trevose. It’s too bad since we’ll also need new fixtures for the living room, dining room, and den.
I have one more lighting specialty store to hit that’s not too far from Sebastian’s gun club. I just want to make sure that we’ve made the right decision.
Next non-working day installment: Furniture!
JimmyB has the April E-Postal match up. Has to be in by the 27th at midnight. This is a really creative match. You start off 12 trillion dollars in the hole, and you try to reduce your deficit by hitting the small (-1) targets, without hitting any of the bigger deficit busting whoppers that surround it. Each hit on those is worth a trillion dollars in savings to your budget. Can you do better than Obama on the budget? Find out and shoot this month’s e-Postal match.
Arlen Specter is already running ads against Pat Toomey. That’s rich. Arlen Specter, who voted for Obama’s Porkulus bill, is trying to suggest that Pat Toomey, who has spent the last several years heading up Club for Growth, which advocates for smaller government, has destroyed America.
I guess now it’s time to think about starting a 2010 Election category, and pondering whether I have the energy for a nasty primary, followed by a nasty general election.
Megan McArdle shows us why correlation is not necessarily causation. I’ve dealt with this even in my professional life, because there’s a lot of lessons to be drawn from this even in the drug discovery field.
Dave Markowitz has some advice. I have to deal with this sometimes with the Nagant, and I’ve been the victim of shooting other Soviet Bloc ammo I didn’t realize was corrosive, but was. It can rust a rifle pretty quickly if you don’t deal with it.
I think it’s good advice. He recognizes that it’s the surfactants in Windex that make it a good cleaner, not the ammonia. When I shoot my AK-74 with the corrosive 5.45×39 ammo (you can shoot all day with that stuff for a good price) I just take the gas tube, flash suppressor, bolt carrier, and bolt, and give it a bath in soapy water. Then run some patches down the barrel with soapy water, clean the surrounding areas, and then go over everything with gunzilla once it’s dried out. That seems to do a good job of keeping the rust away.
Robb things we need to start focusing on the important things. I’ve seen talk of Obama Derangement Syndrome floating around in other places too. It’s certainly a risk, but in trying to build a coalition with moderates, you have to hit on a lot of areas, in hopes that some of them will resonate with people. Whether we like to admit it or not, humans are wired to gossip about gaffes and violations of social protocol more than they are about how Obama is ruining the economy and driving us closer toward a Social Democracy along the European model. I would argue the left was actually rather effective at making Americans embarrassed by George W. Bush’s foreign policy.
During the election, I feared that Obama was a game changer. Basically someone who would fundamentally alter the American landscape and political climate, and in highly radical ways. FDR was this kind of politician. During Obama’s transition, seeing that his picks for his cabinet were Democratic establishment, rather than radicals, I started believing he might govern closer to the middle.
I think Obama has turned out to be a radical, but he is no FDR, and this isn’t the 1930s. The American population isn’t in any mood to accept a new New Deal, though they Democrats are trying to foist one on us anyway. We should be well positioned to make gains in 2010, but the real difficulty will be whether the Republicans can capitalize on Obama’s missteps. So far, they aren’t showing much leadership.
Will you be joining the tea party protests on and around April 15?
Like it or not, we’re stuck with the federal government we’ve got until January 2011. We’ve got a chance to shake things up in November 2010, but that’s still well over a year away. Until we can show our displeasure via the ballot box, these tea party protests are the best way to keep pressure on Congress to at least question “the One.” His numbers are dropping and he’s now no better off than Bush was at this point in his term. Democrats are beginning to stand up on individual issues and tell the White House, “No.” It’s our job over the next year and a half to tell them – and members of the GOP who keep embracing big government – that it is time to stop and we’re pissed. Will they stop? Probably not. Will they slow it down? Possibly. Will every report of a protests in their homestate make them more nervous? Absolutely.
Check out the map and find your local tea party. You need to go. The local media has stopped ignoring these protests and now covers them regularly. Some organizers are finally taking next steps like gathering donations to pay for flyers to be sent to voters about what’s going on, or gathering email addresses for further protest notices. Get involved. Make them squirm in Washington.
There are several in the Philadelphia region, including one at Independence Hall, as well as West Chester and Trenton. Make the time to attend – we will.