Category: Personal

Jeff points out the story of how Sandra Froman became involved in the gun issue.  How did you become involved?   I’ll tell my story.  There are a few things that might be surprising, or maybe not:

1. I grew up in a household without guns.  My mother would not have allowed a gun in the house.
2. I did not own my own firearm until I was 25 years old.
3. My first firearm was an Romanian AK-47 variant.
4. I wasn’t all that into shooting when I bought the gun.  I bought it because politicians kept saying I shouldn’t have one.   Yeah, I’m like that.

I did have exposure to firearms growing up.   While my father and mother were not gun owners, nor were they reflexively anti-gun.  They did not indoctrinate me with anti-gun and anti-freedom values, and did make the mistake of letting me spend a lot of time around my uncle, who got into them when I was a teenager.  I can remember going to my first gun show before Papa Bush’s import ban went into effect, and seeing tables with Norincos on it.  I would have been around 14 or so at the time I suppose.  My uncle owned a few M1 Carbines, a pistol or two, and a few BB guns and air rifles, which we were allowed to shoot targets and run around the woods behind his house with unsupervised (the horror!).  I had a lot of fun shooting at targets, cans, various glassware and other such things.  It was a lot of fun!  At this point, I was only vaguely aware of gun control as an issue.  I knew some people wanted background checks.  This never really seemed to be unreasonable to me as a kid.  I was aware there were constitutional protections for firearms ownership, and never really considered that there might be people out there who disagreed with this in a serious way.

After I entered high school, and later college, I got away from shooting, and forgot about the fun I used to have.  Probably the first thing that made me stand up and pay attention to the issue was Papa Bush’s assault weapons ban, which he did using an executive order under his powers authorized by the Gun Control Act of 1968’s “sporting purposes” clause.  Now, at this point, I understood the differences between a machine gun, and a semi-automatic gun that looked like a machine gun, so I realized for the first time that people were willing to ban semi-automatic firearms based on looks.

The thing that really turned me into a serious opponent of the gun-ban lobby was when I was a sophomore in college and Clinton passed the 1994 Crime Bill which basically put a ban on an entire class of firearms.  At the time, I didn’t realize just how silly the drafting was, so I actually thought it more like California’s ban, rather than just a ban on bayonet lugs and flash hiders.  I still thought it was unconstitutional.  I never really thought much about the ban on actual machine guns.   That happened when I was a kid.   I knew you could get them, but that it was difficult.  I didn’t know, at the time, exactly how the law worked.

I stayed out of shooting until just before 2000, my friend Jason, who you all remember as the guy who had the Calico M950 blow up in his face (he finally had the fragments removed the other day, BTW), took me to shoot his Calico M100 and Beretta Tomcat .32 at the Bucks County PGC shooting range (now closed).  I remembered how much I used to like shooting when I was a kid; it had been the first time I shot a gun since I was a teenager.  A month or so later, Jason informed me that a gun shop in Feasterville was selling Romanian AK-47 variants for about 300 bucks.  I was shocked to find out they actually weren’t covered by the ban, and given the fact that I knew the current administration would disapprove, I jumped at the chance.   The first shot out of my SAR-1 was the first center fire rifle cartridge I had ever fired in my life.   It was downhill from there.

A few weeks after aquiring the AK-47, I decided to join the NRA.   Shortly after I also joined the SAF.   I got into reading blogs in 2002.  The first blog was Reason’s Hit & Run.   Early blogs after that were Volokh, Insty, Vodkapundit, Steven Den Beste, and The Belmont Club.   The first gun blog I became aware of was Kim’s Nation of Riflemen.  From there I became aware of SayUncle, Bitter, and Jeff Soyer.   The rest of them all came later.

Of course, I started my own blog to impress Bitter, and convince her to go on a date with me.   You can read about the rest on my about page.  So what’s your story?

If Professor Althouse can post beautiful pictures of flowers, then so can I:

Except Bitter’s camera doesn’t quite have the focus, and I don’t quite have the eye, that Ann Althouse has.

I thought the poppies turned out kind of nice though.  I’m assuming these are garden poppies, or something, and not the kind you grow to make heroin.

These were our pictures from our weekend at Montecello.  Jefferson was quoted as saying “to be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves”, which sounds like he had a bit of a survivalist streak in him.   I’m pretty sure this statement, combined with the fact that he was a strong believer in constitutional rights, and that his estate is growing poppies, would surely make him a terrorist in the eyes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

I’m not really feeling inspired to write something, well, inspiring.  Won’t be blogging too much today, since I’m still in Virginia.

From SayUncle.

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Russ McBee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
R. Neal/KnoxViews (Blount Co., Tennessee)
SayUncle (Blount Co., Tennessee)
Sebastian (Langhorne, Pennsylvania)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location. (full disclosure: I eat out a lot, which is why I’m too fat).

Monk’s Cafe (Philadelphia, PA) – Bar none, one of the best Belgian Beer Bars on the east coast. I could drink the house Flemmish Sour Ale all day long (well, if after the fifth or sixth I wouldn’t be falling down drunk, that is). The menu has a lot of good stuff, including your standard mussels, wild game, and some good sausages. There’s also some good hippy food on there if you are going out with hippies. Desserts are very good.

Ludwig’s Garden (Philadelphia, PA) – Great selection of German beer and German fare. I usually get the Wurst Platte.

Tamarindo’s (Blue Bell, PA) – Small Mexican restaurant, run by real Mexicans. The food is Yucitan, which includes their fish dish, which is a whole grilled red snapper. Prices are reasonable, quality is high, and the absolute best part: free margaritas. They do not have a liquor license, but Pennsylvania law allows anyone to give away liquor, and they do. They aren’t watered down too much either. If I have three, I’m feeling it pretty good. They will come refill your margarita glass like you’re drinking water. You can’t beat that!

Issac Newton’s (Newtown, PA) – American cuisine. Their burgers are quite good. I usually like the Issac’s Fancy Burger, which is a burger served with brie and shitake mushrooms. Issac Newton’s also has one of the best beer selections outside of Philadelphia, including many fine Belgians.

Thai Orchid (Blue Bell, PA) – I’m a big fan of Thai food, and this is my favorite place to get it. I used to frequent it for lunch so often the waiter’s and waitresses knew me. Lunch prices are reasonable enough to frequent regularly, and the food is good.

I’m leaving a lot of good places off. Like, the best Chinese food in the region is the pretty upscale Lai Lai’s, in Blue Bell. Anyways, now you have some places to eat if you’re ever in the Philadelphia area. I’ll tag Bitter, Countertop, and Pro-Gun Progressive. I need some good food ideas for that area.

I’m off to Virginia. Taking the AR-15 and some pistols because I plan to shoot over this weekend. If anyone wants to go, I can go in Virginia or Maryland. I bought a few Maryland magazines (20 rds) to be legal there. Also, in honor of Governor Kaine, I’m taking far in excess of 377 rounds into the state.

It’s been a while since I posted a random conversation. It’s spring, which means it’s time for my neighborhood to be treated to the pleasures of ice cream truck music. You know, those sing song tunes that stick in your head to the point where you’re ready to sharpen a pencil and stab it in your ear.

Sebastian: I think it takes a certain kind of person to drive an ice cream truck
Lachrymite: a truly demented one?
Sebastian: They almost have to be. I mean, if I had to listen to the song the one in my neighborhood plays all day long, it wouldn’t be too long before I decide to drive my ice cream truck off a bridge just to end my misery.
Lachrymite: yeah
Sebastian: So I was thinking of what really motivates someone to drive an ice cream truck
Sebastian: I narrowed it down to two possibilities
Sebastian: 1) You really like eating your own inventory
Sebastian: 2) You really like little boys
Lachrymite: yep
Lachrymite: so either your ice cream truck driver is fat
Lachrymite: or he’s a child rapist!
Sebastian: Yeah, that’s basically how I see it
Sebastian: If your ice cream truck driver isn’t fat, I’d pay careful attention to his reaction when your kid orders a fudgesickle.
Lachrymite: haha
Sebastian: You also have to think that the fat ice cream man is eating his own profits.
Lachrymite: so he’ll probably go out of business soon
Lachrymite: which only leaves the pedophile ice cream truck drivers
Sebastian: So really, this could be an entire industry driven by people who like kids a little too much
Sebastian: I mean, anyone else, and they’d be handing the inventory out to the kids, because at the end of their shift, they planned to close the garage door with the truck still running, just so they can get that awful ice cream truck music out of their heads forever.
Lachrymite: hahaha
Sebastian: If I had an ice cream truck, I’d play death metal out the loudspeaker.
Sebastian: It would be the only way to maintain sanity.
Sebastian: And it would drive the hippies away.

Apologies to anyone who might be reading, who ever drove an ice cream truck, isn’t fat, and doesn’t want to touch children. I did not mean to malign your noble, if misunderstood, profession.

I might be blogging a bit more this weekend than normal.   Bitter is spending some quality time with Bitchy Mom, so we’re not together this weekend.   It marks the first weekend since Jan 21st that we haven’t spent together.

I think celebrating mother’s day a week late is probably a good idea.  You can actually go out to eat without having to deal with the masses.  Last weekend we just wanted some breakfast, and I ended up having to pay twenty dollars for a twelve dollar buffet.

I came into work today, which was probably a mistake, because I am so out of it I got nothing done, except filling my trash can full of tissues.  I think it’s time to call it a day and head home to dope myself up with Benadryl, which is the only thing that gives me actual relief.   Sadly, it also either a) puts me immediately to sleep or b) sends my brain somewhere into outer earth orbit.

I’m heavily medicated today, so when I’m not sleeping I’ll be laying pretty low. I just got back from the store where I bent over for Uncle Sam so I could get some Sudafed. The real stuff, not the crap they sell OTC now. You know what PE in Sudafed PE stands for? Placebo Effect. That stuff doesn’t work at all.

I’m not a big believer in Claratin either. It helps, but not anything like Benadryl. Benadryl is the shit, but it totally screws me up.