Category: Current Events

Kansas City Star and a number of other media outlets report on his passing. It’s not secret that he and I did not get along, but having watched my mother slowly succumb to cancer over the entirety of my teen years, it’s not a fate I would wish on anyone. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. When I lost my mother, there was a palpable sense of relief that the struggle was over. She was free, and so in some sense were the rest of the family. The real grief doesn’t hit until later, and in odd ways. I hope his family can find comfort in some of the same things I have.

I had come to appreciate that regardless of whatever disagreements I may have had with Mike Vanderboegh strategically, he was quite a powerful public speaker and organizer (organizing gun owners is herding cats on a good day), in the way I could never hope to match. His work with David Codrea to break open Fast and Furious turned out to be top notch citizen journalism, despite a lot of initial skepticism. It was fine enough work that others in the media lined up to take credit and cash in.

I will always think of him any time I put on my big Russian hat to go shovel the driveway.

“Several dead and 10 injured.” There’s no details yet on whether this is ISIS or not, and early reports are often completely wrong. Given that this apparently involves three gunmen, I’d say an ISIS inspired attack seems more likely than deranged nut job. Funny how ISIS doesn’t seem to have any issues getting guns in Europe, despite strict gun laws. Yet who do they want to disarm here? You and me.

UPDATE: One shooter, and looks like he offed himself.

An attack in Nice, South of France. Looks like dozens dead. Plowed a truck through a Bastille Day crowd. There are reports of gunfire, but that could be police trying to shoot the driver. Early reports are almost always wrong in some way. This will no doubt bolster Trump and Marine LePen.

God help us all. This will not end well.

I hope you all have a great Independence Day. Sadly towns around here that chose to have their fireworks displays today are cancelling because inclement weather is descending upon us.

I went back to the home town yesterday for fireworks. Dude showed up with a sidecar motorcycle with a semi-auto RPK mounted to it. It was too dark to make out the motorcycle model. I wish I could have gotten a picture.

I do have to say that if you’re going to go forth to do some educatin’ of the soccer mommies, it would be awfully nice if you didn’t drive your motorcycle illegally into where the crowd was. But I suppose if you’re going to carry guns at people, you have to go where the people are. At the end of the day, it was too dark for anyone to really notice. Even the cops didn’t notice, or the dude is a known quantity. But you’d think they’d at least want to talk to to him about his parking job, and “hey, can you show me that magazine in your rifle is empty,” if they had. OC is legal in Pennsylvania without a license, but you can’t have a loaded long gun on or in a vehicle with or without a permit.

So, let me get this straight. Even though the House has no parliamentary procedure to allow members to stop the work of the House, it’s all good that a tithe of Representatives are doing so. But in the Senate, where there is a specific parliamentary procedure to allow members to stop the work, it’s not legitimate for members of the majority to block the work of the Senate.

Just checking.