It appears the watchdog groups are getting bold with highlighting just how easy it is to get a ballot without any form of identification. The title of the post refers to a line of comedy gold in the video about how not even the Attorney General is safe from voter fraud that could be committed in his name.
Month: April 2012
Would Love to Be in Some Hot Water
Many thanks for those who offered advice on water heaters. We did decide to go with a tankless gas unit because of the need to recover space to be able to reach our electrical panel. We called around to see what plumbers would charge for installation. The experience reminded me of a scene from one of my favorite movies:
I got a bid out of the gate at from Home Depot’s installers was 2500. Second bid was 4200 from a local plumber. Third bid was 1000, which is about what I expected the job to run. This is just labor for installation, and some parts. I had explained that we’ll buy the hardware. I would expect if I were to undertake doing this myself, the whole job would take me a weekend. I’d also have to buy a 250 dollar 6″ masonry coring bit to core the hole for the vent, and then rent a coring drill, if I didn’t want to feel like I was trying to escape from Alcatraz by chipping through the masonry with the tools I have.
I figure 10 hours would be a generous estimate for the number of hours it would take a pro. Given that, the 2500 bid was 250/hr and the 4200 bid was 420/hr. I don’t think the Endodontist who did my root canal was pulling down 420/hr. I could hire a decent lawyer for that kind of money! I’m wondering if the 4200/hr bidder ever gets people to accept those kinds of bids, but I guess people do or they wouldn’t be in business. Needless so say, we’re going with the 1000 dollar bid. For 4200 bucks I’ll chip through my masonry walls with an ice pick myself!
One thing I had to do yesterday was install an outlet in the area the water heater is going to be mounted to power the micro-controller on the unit. The most expensive bidder wanted a separate circuit, and I have no spare stabs in the box. That seems silly to me. I can understand a furnace, sump pump, or stove — something the integrity of the house depends on or is a heavy draw — but is it really a disaster if you lose hot water from a breaker trip? The low bidder just wanted an outlet, so that’s now done. Hopefully I can be done with taking showers out of a bucket of stove heated water by Tuesday.
A Gift For Our Side, Really
TBCKADOOT blogs about pant loads of PSH. It’s kind of like someone green lighted everyone in the media to say “It’s OK to hate on gun owners again.” One of my big fears headed into 2012 was that gun owners would be mostly asleep, and not really concerned about threats to their gun rights, since there weren’t any obvious and apparent threats, only subtle ones. Additionally, the media really did get better about the issue for a while.
Well, that’s not the case anymore. This has been a stern reminder for people on our side that they hate you. They hate everything about you just for the fact that you have a hobby and a philosophy that they find objectionable. That’s why I’m a big fan of pulling the plug and canceling your subscriptions to the local partisan rags. Starve the beast. I’ve even researched whether I could report the Bucks County Courier Times for littering on my property when they deposit one of their uninvited promotional copies on my lawn (still not sure the answer there). There are plenty of other publications and news sources out there that do a good job of reporting and analyzing the news.
Next is to show up at the polls and vote for pro-gun politicians in 2012. Our opponents are re-energized, and believe they can now beat us. I think they are counting their chickens before they hatch. They just don’t understand what a force our people can be when they get scared.
Assault on SYG Continues
The Washington Post pens a piece that shows the number of justifiable homicides are up in the wake of Stand Your Ground laws. A few questions:
- During this period, the number of people who have concealed carry permits has risen significantly. Could this be a greater contributing factor?
- Why is this necessarily a problem? It would seem to me that more people defending themselves successfully is going to be a consequence of more people having firearms. I don’t view this as a social negative.
- Many of the states listed here have always had no duty to retreat. There are missing states as well. California has no such duty, and neither does Virginia. It seems to me in order for this to be accurate, you’d need to eliminate states that have traditionally had no duty to retreat, which is probably 1/3rd to 1/2 of the states on their list. There are also a number of states which require no duty to retreat when attempting to stop the commission of a forcible felony.
I think if the media are going to go the route of justifiable homicides being a social plague, they aren’t going to find much reception among the public. One reason CD and SYG have been so easy to pass is because politicians are afraid to tell people they can’t defend their homes, conveyances, and have to surrender a place they have a legal right to be in order to be able to claim self-defense. As has been mentioned here numerous times, CD and SYG don’t honestly change much, and in most states, is just adjusting the statutes to match what juries will routinely decide in most of these cases.
Black Man Kills Unarmed Hispanic Man
The black man doesn’t get arrested. Where’s the media, Jesse, and Al?
A Congressional Solution to Deficits
Social Security Reform Bill Encourages Americans To Live Faster, Die Younger
While this bit of humor from the Onion might be good for a chuckle, it probably wouldn’t be the worst idea actual members of Congress have proposed in real life.
At Least They Admit it
So When is National Review Going to Fire This Guy?
I not only find the rhetoric here to be indefensible, it’s outright racist worthy of the worst the Nazis and eugenicists could be capable of producing. John Derbyshire is a writer for National Review, and my only question to them is when they are going to fire him? I am not at all opposed to honest discussions about problems in the black community. Rates of black-on-black violent crime are a serious national problem, and not a topic that should be regarded as beneath discussion, lest we offend someone. But what Derbyshire has penned at the above link just screams the kind of racism that would make Dr. Mengele proud. The worst part is, when it starts to get really bad, it just keeps going downhill. Here’s a smattering of his advice to his children in regards to race relations:
“Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.”
Well, hell, I don’t know how anyone could attend a meeting of the NAACP, or an evening at the Apollo Theater, and come out alive! I must also be hallucinating that I’ve attended protests where the majority of protesters were black, and protesting against what I was in Harrisburg to advocate, and got not so much as a suspicious look. I had to have dreamt all that!
“If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date.”
Yeah, cause you know, I regularly do this. I regularly plan to go places, but have second thoughts when I call ahead to find out what the melanin is averaging at the location that day. When the folks on the other end go silent like I’ve grown two heads, I know it’s a place to stay away from.
“Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.”
Because we know that blacks never end up in any kind of trouble where they might need help. Just doesn’t happen. Clearly robbery is always the motive with “those people.” Those hapless negroes can take care of their own, right, Mr. Derbyshire?
“If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.”
I’d suggest this advice regardless of skin melanin content, given the word “accosted.” Anyone accosts me on the streets is going to have me in condition red, regardless of whether they are black, white, red or purple.
“The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low.”
“There is a magnifying effect here, too, caused by affirmative action. In a pure meritocracy there would be very low proportions of blacks in cognitively demanding jobs. Because of affirmative action, the proportions are higher. In government work, they are very high. Thus, in those encounters with strangers that involve cognitive engagement, ceteris paribus the black stranger will be less intelligent than the white. In such encounters, therefore—for example, at a government office—you will, on average, be dealt with more competently by a white than by a black.”
Because those poor, stupid blacks can only compete with the master race when pity is taken on them? I mean, if this were really true, and you believe in equal protection in the eyes of the law, wouldn’t this justify affirmative action? Shouldn’t arguments against affirmative action be that it is inherently racist, by suggesting people with too much melanin can’t compete unless the playing field is forcibly leveled?
“In that pool of forty million, there are nonetheless many intelligent and well-socialized blacks.”
Not racist at all! Not at all! We can even make “Intelligent and Well-Socialized Blacks” into an acronym IWSB. We’re glad for the intelligent and well-socialized ones. I’m sure Derbyshire’s neighbors compliment him on the same character in his dog.
“Be aware, however, that there is an issue of supply and demand here. Demand comes from organizations and businesses keen to display racial propriety by employing IWSB”
“Unfortunately the demand is greater than the supply, so IWSBs are something of a luxury good, like antique furniture or corporate jets: boasted of by upper-class whites and wealthy organizations, coveted by the less prosperous.”
Yeah, because the neighbor on the next plantation always gets the best house slaves. He has money to win auctions, you know. Always have to settle for the field hands, because those house slaves are in short supply since they are a “luxury good.”
John Derbyshire’s words here certainly do not speak well of him, and the underlying thoughts they expose are among the worst instincts in human kind. If he still has a job by Monday, my opinion of National Review will take a permanent downturn. There’s a lot of authors I like over a NR, so it upsets me to see this. Taki’s Magazine should likewise be ashamed for publishing this claptrap and NR should be ashamed for every minute they continue to employ this jackass beyond the publish date of this article.
Women Mocking Women
According to the conversation in the Twitter-verse, some on the left have declared that there is an ongoing War on Women because of disagreement over political issues. Amazingly, a column run in a major newspaper mocking a gathering of women who have differing views on issues like the Second Amendment, hunting, and self defense can be run and it is not counted as part of the offensive in this so-called War on Women.
But on April 13 (yes, a Friday), [Ann] Romney, Karen Santorum and Callista Gingrich will join in “A Conversation Off The Campaign Trail†for the ladies of the high-powered National Rifle Association. …
The three—minus Ron Paul’s wife Carol, whose status as an invitee is the subject of some disagreement—will headline a women’s leadership luncheon at the 2012 NRA convention in St. Louis. …
With the format and talking points of the luncheon still being worked out, we are left to speculate on what the wives might discuss.
As Mitt Romney marches closer to the nomination even as Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum refuse to quit, will the wives act as policy surrogates? Will they tackle such hot-button issues as women’s reproductive rights, the budget, health care and, of course, gun legislation? …
Will the wives keep it light and chatty, how gosh-darn fun and in touch with voters their guys are?
Will they joke about the rigors of campaigning, while offering helpful hints on no-wrinkle travel clothing, hurricane-proof hair products and staying slim while enduring endless rubber chicken banquets and ethno-regional food-fests? (Thank heavens for elegant culinary interludes such as the NRA luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel).
As an added bonus—perhaps playing into the stereotype that women just love to shop, there will also be silent and live auctions.
Yes, shocking that a fundraiser for an organization will feature auctions.
There’s a lightly mocking tone when items are highlighted like the mink fur teddy bear made from damaged pelts and leftovers from recycled garments using eco-friendly materials. I’m sure the author also used the tone to get a good laugh at the folks from Paul Newman’s Camps for Children with Cancer who used the teddy bear to raise funds. Or maybe the bear used to support the San Diego Children’s Hospital got a hearty laugh out of the folks at the Washington Post. As long as they are mocking those who would fundraise with something as outrageous as a fur teddy bear, the WaPo needs to set their sights upon the Epilepsy Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Albany Symphony.
Amazing how the WaPo‘s Annie Groer picks and chooses from the auction catalog to make it sound as though women from the NRA are mindless bimbos mostly interested in non-serious topics like haircare and shopping. She chooses to ignore the other auction items such as the Sabre pepper spray training classes for the winner and 12 friends or the signed copy of SHOOT: Your Guide to Shooting and Competition by top competition shooter Julie Golob. Groer makes mention of the purses designed to hold a concealed firearm, but chooses to ignore that women might take this right to carry seriously with any number of the 15 handguns on the auction block such as the Smith and Wesson Model 638. And of course the WaPo would never take any woman seriously if she actually bid on the 5 day defensive pistol course at Gunsite.
Overall, the column isn’t anything close to the openly misogynistic Eric Heyl who ran anti-woman columns just before last year’s NRA convention. I am curious about why these columns always seem to appear right about this time every year. It’s amazing how the number of women participating in the NRA Annual Meeting makes the absolute worst of the mainstream media come out when they must confront the fact that women can be independent thinkers on issues like self defense without feeling the need to turn to the gossip pages and opinion columns to find out what they are “supposed” to think.
As a side note, I’d be all over the bid sheet for that mink teddy bear if I wasn’t going to be too busy speaking at the Grassroots Workshop at the same time as the women’s luncheon.
Some Great Company There Pugsley
Hugo Chavez celebrates Good Friday by asking God to save his life:
In a televised speech to the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas, Chavez cried and his voice broke as he eulogised Jesus, revolutionary fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
One a Jewish carpenter who preached love your fellow man, a mass murderer who preached killing your fellow man if he didn’t back the revolution, and a guy who could have been the South American Washington, but decided he needed to be a dictator instead.
“Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do for this country and these people. Do not take me yet,” Chavez added, standing below an image of Jesus with the Crucifix.
You know, if I were God, I think I’d have a little trouble hearing.