Bitter – Page 107 – Shall Not Be Questioned

We’ll See How Long the Power Lasts

Yay for backup power! We lost our main power a few minutes ago. Everything was fine and stifling hot, and then the wind came up out of no where. It went nuts. I regret having put the garbage out already since it is already knocked over. I checked radar on my phone and there’s a wall of red headed this way. Sebastian is at the gun club a few minutes east of here, so I called to give him a warning since they are shooting outside.

(And now we’re back on for a few more minutes.) What a world we live in that I can call him to tell him exactly what the radar looks like even as the power starts to flicker here at home. I guess it shouldn’t amuse me any more than tweeting during the multiple blizzards we had just a couple of winters ago.

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic commentary about home life. But I just have to admit that while we don’t have flying cars yet, life is still pretty damn cool.

UPDATE (By Sebastian): Â UPS power is definitely a Godsend, but one interesting thing is that no one bid on our natural gas powered generator at work. It could be had for three grand. This is a 30,000 KVA three phase setup. If I had the land, and a pad, I’d totally go for it. As it stands now the blog is backed up by about an hour’s worth of battery. The downside to natural gas power is that you still need some kind of grid to run it. Diesel engines could probably run off fish oil if you needed them to.

Feminists Love Their Bodies

In fact, a women’s rights group loves women’s bodies so much that they believe clinics which provide services exclusively for women shouldn’t have any of the regulations applying to other outpatient facilities applied to them. Because safety and sanitation, those are things only men deserve, right?

Pardon me as I step away from the main topic of this blog and ponder an issue that baffles me as a modern women who actually does consider herself a feminist – at least one who doesn’t hate men.

I can’t fathom exactly how pro-choice groups oppose regulating abortion clinics as ambulatory surgical centers. While I understand their goal is to make abortion as accessible as possible, it is still a fairly major procedure that can have a long-term impact on the reproductive health of a woman. Shouldn’t they be in favor of making sure that such facilities have the same kind of oversight and safety requirements as similar medical centers that provide services for men?

I’m not even getting into the moral issue of abortion, this is a matter of looking at it strictly as a legal medical procedure – which it currently is right now. After the horrors in Philadelphia with agencies in dispute over who controls what in the process, why is there opposition to providing a clear regulation structure that can allow abortion clinics to remain open, but also require the same quality of treatment and safety conditions required for clinics that also serve the needs of men? Instead, a woman’s group calls on such equitable standards as a “public health crisis.”

Even beyond the question of whether abortion should be legal, the fact remains that it is legal. But I’m really shocked when proposals that ultimately do protect the lives and health of the women who seek abortions are actually opposed by women’s groups on the grounds that it will somehow cut off all access to the procedure. This isn’t a notification law, it’s not a mandate to get an ultrasound with a waiting period imposed afterwards, or any of the medically-dubious types of rules that many pro-life lawmakers try to push around the country. It’s regulating an abortion clinic for what it is – an outpatient surgical center.

I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on tv. I also don’t follow the abortion debate or politics very closely because it’s not an issue that’s ever going to change in any substantial manner. But, I am a woman. And when I hear groups that are supposedly all for equality getting their panties in a twist over regulating surgical services for women the same way that men’s medical services are treated, it doesn’t really add up on how this advances feminism if the current structure allowed a clinic that killed live babies and a woman. That seems very anti-woman to me.

Getting Rid of the Sunday Hunting Ban

Alerts from NRA and NSSF this week announced a public meeting of the Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee tomorrow to tackle the topic of ending the the blue law that bans Sunday hunting dating back to the 1870s.

The Sunday Hunting Coalition points out that Pennsylvania would see a significant economic boost from expanding the number of days hunters are allowed to take to the fields and woods.

The estimated impacts from a lift on the ban on Sunday hunting are based on responses to surveys of hunters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In these two states, government agencies conducted extensive surveys of hunters in which they were asked to report the number of additional days they would participate in hunting if the Sunday hunting ban were to be lifted. Based on these responses, it is estimated that hunters will participate in, on average, about 22 percent of the additional days made available to them from the lifting of the ban. In other words, if the lifting of restrictions increased the number of hunting days by 10, the average hunter would increase their hunting days by about two.

Specifically, Pennsylvania would likely see a direct economic impact that could create more than 4,400 jobs with wages topping $99 million. Of all the states with Sunday hunting bans or heavy restrictions, Pennsylvania stands to gain the most jobs and economic impact of a repeal of the prohibition.

So, you know, lawmakers who are so desperate for more money and want to be seen as “creating” jobs, this is your chance. Seriously, $99 million more in wages to tax and 4,400 new jobs. That’s just the direct impact, the indirect impact gives us even more jobs and higher wages.

(Similar post with a little more data & background over at PAGunRights.com.)

Losing a Gun Rights Leader in the House

Well this is startling news.

Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren (D) won’t seek reelection in 2012, a Democratic source in the state told The Ballot Box.

Boren, the only Democrat in Oklahoma’s five-seat House delegation, will announce his decision at a press conference in Muskogee, his hometown, according to The Oklahoman.

The decision came as a surprise to Oklahoma Democrats and threatens the party’s ability to hold the Republican-leaning seat.

“I never had any idea that he was not planning to run for reelection,” said Wallace Collins, the state party chairman.

Rep. Boren is a member of the NRA Board of Directors, and I’ve seen him out on a gun range before. He will be missed in that seat.

For a bit of good news on this front, the likely replacement for the Democratic nomination on the ballot according to the article also has an A rating from NRA.

On Chick Clothing & Range Time

Just before the weekend, it seems folks who attended the Lucky Gunner shoot were talking about the ammo waitresses at the event. Sebastian asked my opinion over drinks one night since I have a lot of experience bringing feminists into the shooting sports, have been to quite a few machine gun shoots in my day, and generally talked to a lot of women about their perceptions on the gun culture while teaching them to shoot.

One of my co-instructors used to say that the most common injury at a gun range is a result of a slip & fall. I’m not sure if this is an official statistic or if it’s one he gathered from working with the 100+ ranges in the area we taught. Either way, it fits with my experience at various ranges. Given that, the shorts worn by the ammo girls in the photos may not have been the best bet. They were in no way inappropriate or overly sexy attire, but longer pants may have been a better option given all the guns on or near the ground and brass flying at a typical machine gun shoot. Walking around a busy live range could put the legs at risk for scratches, scraps and what have you.

But, given most women’s clothing, I don’t see anything worth really complaining about if the adult women are going to choose to wear shorts instead of longer pants. It was the end of May. In Tennessee. With the sun beating down on much of the firing line from what I saw in the pictures. It doesn’t shock me that some would choose to wear shorts instead of heavier pants. Pants would be wiser, but for those who want to wear shorts, have you looked at the shorts available in even the adult women’s clothing sections of many stores? Those things aren’t often terribly long. I don’t have the world’s longest legs, and I can’t tell you how much trouble I had trying to buy shorts that fit the dress code for Southern Baptist church camp. I actually had to buy men’s shorts so they would be long enough.

I will disagree with some of the comments and say that I really doubt that the decision to hire women who happen to look good in summertime clothing is going to turn off women as customers. From what Sebastian told me, this was not an open range. This was a private, invitation-only event. Which means Lucky Gunner knew exactly who they were selling to on site. This wasn’t a commercial range where any Tom, Dick, Harry, Tina, Diane, or Harriet could walk in as a first-time shooter looking to learn everything they can about the gun culture in one visit. When you’re marketing to a private group where you know who the customers will be, it’s quite different than marketing to a broader audience.

I didn’t see anything inappropriate in the photos, and Sebastian would have been the first to call me and bitch if he saw any overt problems with the way things were handled on the line. Were shorts the best decision? No, at least not based on my experience at machine gun shoots which tended to be in New England during the fall and winter. But, I’ve seen plenty of female shooters who wear shorts to the range with zero incidents, and never have I had a female student, a feminist friend, or other new shooter complain about sexism in the community because of clothing. I didn’t see anything in the photos that I wouldn’t see on average American women in the warm summer sun in just about every corner of the country, so I’m not sure why it would be considered any kind of controversy just because they wear the same kind of clothing on a range.

Tactical Nerf

It’s just so wrong.

Police as Super Heroes

I think one of the protesters in my video may really live in Illinois since the opening of this letter to the editor sounds awfully familiar:

Rep. Jim Sacia calls a concealed carry law, â€œpretty common sense stuff.â€

As I see it, itâ€™s all a bunch of B.S. conceived by the biggest lobbyist in the country, the National Rifle Association. The NRA declares everyone should have the right to have a stockpile of weapons. The only interest the NRA heeds is the gun and ammunition manufacturers.

That’s right, there aren’t really 4 million members who actually support the NRA and their goals. But that’s not the real meat in this hysterical letter. Oh no, it gets so much worse.

Our legislators are voting on a bill to allow the average citizen to carry a concealed weapon and to use it when they deem it necessary to take the law into their own hands. The only super heroes are the police who deal with crazy people every day and are putting their lives on the line for all of us.

Do we all feel unsafe?

The police are in uniform with a badge and a gun in plain sight for a reason. We know who the good guys are.

Super heroes? Really? And what about the officer who shot his ex in front of their child with innocent bystanders around, then led other officers around on a police chase that involved not one, but two other shootouts with innocent people nearby? Is that the kind of behavior that the “good guys” exhibit in the context of their “super hero” work? I’m not anti-police officer, but that’s really on the edge of being delusional to think that sometimes bad people don’t make their way into a uniform. It’s also delusional to believe that just because we hire police means that we are somehow protected from criminal activity. If that were the case, then we wouldn’t have crime at all in this country.

When I read this to Sebastian, he suggested I look up the writer to see if he’s an anti-gun activist. It is such a far-fetched and extreme letter that it seemed impossible that it would come from an average citizen. Not surprisingly, he is an activist. Whether he’s done any specific work with anti-gun groups, I did not focus on after I found his other letters to the editor. They publish him every few months, and he is specifically targeting his local lawmaker in every single letter. One of the letters also defends the HSUS agenda, so he’s pretty clearly not on the side of any lawful gun owners – whether they carry concealed on the sidewalk or carry openly in the fields & woods.

Jealous of the Pro-Gun Toaster

Mz. VRWC is one lucky bitch. I say that with the utmost love and respect – and jealousy. Our friends at Great Satan, Inc. are the newest owners of the NRA toaster available through the Friends of NRA dinners.

I already know there will be a bidding war at our local dinner in the fall for the toaster that can meet all of your pro-gun bread needs. As I mentioned on Facebook once, there’s not a person in the world who can’t use an NRA toaster. Perhaps you don’t want your toast to be pro-gun. That’s fine, it could be pro-restaurant toast (National Restaurant Association) or even pro-New Deal toast (National Recovery Administration). Of course, Ian Argent then pointed out that it would be unconstitutional toast. But, as I responded at the time, I’d much rather that anyone who truly longs to relive the early days of the New Deal do it via toast than actual public policy.

For you Southeast Pennsylvania people & random New Jersey folks in the area, you can buy tickets to the September 15 event and someone will get back to you. In fact, if enough of you are interested in coming out for the dinner, I’ll see what I can do to put together an unofficial “Snowflakes” table.

UPDATE: We have the first report from Arizona: “Pro-gun toast is the breakfast of champions!”

Speaking of Kids & Guns

Kevin has the cutest post about how he has raised his kids around firearms in the home. And it comes with a video that shows what shooting sport his youngest son might be interested in trying one day…

Celebrate Father’s Day with Shooting Pics of Your Kids

NSSF is hosting a photo contest this month asking people to post photos of family outings to hunt or to the shooting range. They are suggesting a father-child theme in honor of Father’s Day. I suggest you enter if you have any good photos or have the chance to get to the range to take any photos this month. It’s a $50 Cabela’s gift card to the winner.

It’s an odd topic for me since my father passed away before I got involved in the issue, so I don’t even know how he would feel about it. I introduced my mom to shooting as an adult. I kind of did things backwards from how most people got involved in the shooting sports.