The Smallest Minority

I LOL'd

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:02:00 +0000

Joe Scarborough Agrees with Piers Morgan

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:50:00 +0000

It feeds into this notion that government is either inept, or it's corrupt. -- Sam Stein, Huffington Post @ 1:15

How about BOTH?

Quote of the Day - Affirmative Action Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:14:00 +0000

From Grumpy Old Fart in a comment:

Affirmative Action is, and always has been, the political equivalent of insisting that Tiger Woods use the women's tee because he's black.

Can I get an "AMEN!"?

And read the rest of the comment. Spot-on.

Thomas Sowell - Intellectuals and Race

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:24:00 +0000

I may be giving you filler, but it's QUALITY filler.

Must be Something in the Air

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:22:00 +0000

...like, pollen.

I feel another Überpost coming on. I think this one will be pretty long. Content will be light in the interim. The Free Ice Cream Machine is set to "LOW."

"If You've Lost Piers, You've Lost all 3 of His Viewers"

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:34:00 +0000

Piers Morgan's grudging admission:

Post title comes from one of the comments to the video.

Shut Up, Peon

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:22:00 +0000

James Kaleda explains that the proposed NJ Gun Bills will not save any lives but will endanger them. He is ejected by Committee Chair Senator Norcross. This took place at the NJ Senate gun control hearings in Trenton on April 30, 2013.

As the Geekwitha.45 puts it, "The dark and fascist state of New Jersey."

Edited to add this:

Overreach. Overreach. OVERREACH?!?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:17:00 +0000

So the Chicago Tribune posts an op-ed on Wednesday, Obama and overreach: Americans see evidence of truth-shading, arrogance and intrusion.

First, let me check the definition of the word "overreach":

1: to reach above or beyond : overtop

2: to defeat (oneself) by seeking to do or gain too much

3: to get the better of especially in dealing and bargaining and typically by unscrupulous or crafty methods

I think they were going for definition 2, but NOT. And "truth-shading" is a polite way of saying "lying." Let us fisk:

•Multiple White House claims about Washington's handling of the murderous raid in Benghazi stand exposed as false.

•Internal Revenue Service officials admit a worse-by-the-day scandal that appalls fair-minded Americans.

•The U.S. Department of Justice scrambles to explain its clandestine collection of records on work and personal telephone lines that The Associated Press says are used by more than 100 of its journalists.

In reaction, the White House blames political opponents, disavows ownership or pleads ignorance.

Like this:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

And this:

And, edited to add this:

Hard as it may be, then, set aside your own politics and ask yourself which of these Monday statements rings truer:

"The whole issue of talking points, frankly, throughout this process has been a sideshow. ... And suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there's something new to the story. There's no 'there' there."

— President Barack Obama, dismissing congressional scrutiny of his and his subordinates' statements about Benghazi as a "political circus"

"Americans should take notice that top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don't have to answer to anyone."

— House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa

IOW:

For now, many among us would take Option 2. With each of these troubling disclosures, the Obama administration finds itself reacting to appearances of overreach, of arrogance, of determination to dodge its embarrassments rather than to take ownership of them.

"Many among us" only in Chicago. In the rest of flyover country, it's about 100%.

We don't expect unanimity of agreement on this. On each of these controversies, though, even some of the president's most loyal supporters — from Capitol Hill to the liberal commentariat to Main Streets across the land — are questioning the government's conduct on his watch. That turnabout either angers or amuses opponents inclined to ask the supporters, "Where have you been?"

Or "Where were you before the election?" Mostly directed at the MEDIA.

At each of these turns, the Obama administration has looked manipulative, defensive and peevish. In one sense those aren't startling reactions; they're vulnerabilities for any White House that, like this one, wants an image of moral righteousness, honesty and transparency.

Taken together, though, these controversies project a less flattering image of truth-shading, hubris and intrusion. In the week of humiliating disclosures that started with last Wednesday's congressional hearing on Benghazi, Americans haven't seen the administration exhibit ... one shred of humility:

•The White House and State Department have taken vague responsibility for Benghazi mistakes, but neither has produced answers to the most crucial questions, starting with:

Who, exactly, had rejected repeated requests for security upgrades from U.S. officials in Libya? Who, exactly, decided not to attempt a military rescue, an F-16 flyover, a NATO or other allied reaction, something, during the eight-hour assault? Who, exactly, let the task of informing the American people deteriorate into an orgy of tail-covering and lies? And why, exactly, does the president's spokesman still mislead Americans by suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency, rather than the State Department or White House, drove that process — essentially blaming CIA staffers who did the typing rather than blaming administration officials who told them what to type?

I'll let Attorney General address those questions:

•The IRS' disclosure that it had inordinately targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status was astonishing. No more astonishing, though, than Tuesday's news that the IRS allegedly gave nonpublic information about nine of those groups to ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization.

Obama called the early disclosures outrageous and vowed to learn "exactly what happened on this." The president would have better served himself and his administration, though, by acknowledging the shriekingly obvious: If IRS officials were trying to hinder conservative groups that opposed Obama, that means high-level federal officials were trying to steer the Nov. 6 election to the president. There was no such candor from the president or, Tuesday, from his spokesman.

•Americans thus far know less about the Justice Department's grab of AP staffers' phone records. But here, too, many of those Americans can't help but ask if all the president's men and women stay up late, trying to look intrusive.

The question they ought to be asking is whether this is Standard Operating Procedure for government entities. I have no illusions that this kind of behavior began with Obama's administration - they're just less competent at it.

By the AP's account, Justice subjected the organization to an unprecedented invasion of its news-gathering operations. The evident goal: to identify the government source(s) of a May 2012 AP story about a CIA operation in Yemen that had stopped an al-Qaida plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airplane.

Once again, a question raised by the Benghazi debacle resonates loudly: As the 2012 presidential election approached, were some federal officials overstepping bounds to shore up the president's campaign claim that, as he said at the Democratic National Convention, "al-Qaida is on the path to defeat"?

The easiest way for the president and his White House to further that rising suspicion — we emphasize that it's thus far unproven — is to demonstrate three things to his newly energized foes and to his friends who didn't expect this sort of conduct: that his subordinates will end their egregious stonewalling on Benghazi, will pursue the IRS scandal as high as it goes and will demand full disclosure of whether his Justice Department scrupulously followed the law in its pursuit of journalists' phone records.

Um, excuse me, but what about Fast & Furious? Can we pursue that scandal "as high as it goes" and "demand full disclosure" of his Justice Department?

Until the president makes and keeps those three assurances, he'll continue to make Issa's accusation ring true: This administration looks guilty of overreach — of believing it is above the law.

The administration looks guilty, but not of "overreach."

Quote of the Day - IRS Scandal Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:43:00 +0000

Where, one wonders, did "anyone at the IRS that was involved in this" get the idea that it was a good thing to do? Were they just going to drop it on the porch, like a cat bringing home a dead sparrow, and hope they would be praised by He Who Wieldeth the Opener of Cans?

It's possible, but it's not the way to bet. I leave the implications (for now) as an exercise for the reader.

-- MiddleAgedKen

Photographic Evidence

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Sorry about the pause in blogging, but I took my grandson to see Iron Man 3 last night.

So, photographic evidence of Bill Whittle's appearance in Tucson on Tuesday:

Bill at the podium

Bill and local talk-radio host James T. Harris.

Bill and me.
As I said, the man does give a helluva speech, and afterward he took questions as "Mr. Virtual President." I asked him why Thomas Sowell had never been made Secretary of the Treasury. Bill's answer: "Because about thirty seconds after confirmation, the Fed would cease to exist."

Edited to add this five minute segment of Bill's speech - how to sell freedom, wealth creation and virtue to college students:

Safe, Low Gun-Violence Britain

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:27:00 +0000

Where they now have some cops foot-patrolling carrying honest-to-jeebus assault rifles:

Playground gun law: In a grim portrait of modern Britain, rifle-toting police mix with children on estate plagued by gang shootings

Bedfordshire town suffers nine shootings in four month crime wave

Police say armed patrols in place for 'foreseeable future' to deter violence

Officers with guns and dogs will also be increasing searches to find weapons

With a heavily-armed policeman guarding the playground, assault rifle at the ready, it could be the scene of a terror alert.

In fact, this is a routine patrol just yards from a suburban primary school.

The show of force is designed to calm residents of an estate plagued by gang shootings.

In the past four months there have been nine gun-related incidents in Luton linked to the Marsh Farm and Lewsey Farm estates.

In the latest, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the back early on Saturday morning. He may never walk again.

The violence has left law-abiding families so terrified they welcome the patrols, even if they risk scaring children.

Faye Bell, 37, a mother of two, said: 'The armed police might seem heavy-handed to some people but to us they are hugely reassuring.

'It's very sad that it has come to this but we need the police to be armed so they can protect our kids.'

The officers, with a dog unit, have been patrolling the estate near the rundown Purley shopping centre all week.

Marsh Farm residents told the Daily Mail yesterday that the armed patrols had given them the confidence to go outside.

Shannon Read, 17, said: 'I don't really come out of my house at all so it's reassuring to know these patrols are here.

'I knew the lad who got shot on Saturday so it has been even more terrifying recently.'

Darren Putney, 46, added: ‘Some of the children on the way to school or in the play area look frightened.

'But the police need to make their presence known.'

The officers carry Heckler and Koch G36C assault rifles with 5.56mm calibre ammunition that can pierce body armour.

But those are only good for spray-firing from the hip and gunning down large numbers of people!! How is that gun control working out for you, again? And what about these people's right to "freedom from fear"? I thought the "strictest control of firearms" was supposed to protect them, not Bobbies carrying assault rifles.

(h/t to expat Phil B. from New Zealand via email.)

Steven Den Beste Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:49:00 +0000

In a rare political post on his anime blog Chizumatic, Steven opines on the media's reaction to the current Washington scandals in See no Evil. My only disagreement with Steven comes from this excerpt:

So even though we're increasingly uncomfortable acting as a shill for the government instead of as an opposing force, the way we always thought the press was supposed to be, ...

The press doesn't take that position. The press has an administrative control bias that is decidedly Leftist in slant. They're an "opposing force" only when the wrong people are in charge, or are doing something that the New York Times editors don't agree with. The rest of the time they see their job as conveying the divine grace of government to the laypeople of the public.

Other than that, spot-on.

Perhaps now someone in addition to Sharyl Atkisson of ABCNNBCBS will do some actual reporting.

Bill Whittle...

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:13:00 +0000

...is even better in person than he is on video. Unfortunately, I can't download the pictures or the short video clip I recorded at the moment, but it was great to hear him speak, to hear him answer questions extemporaneously (no teleprompter!) and to speak to him afterward. I got him to sign my 1st Edition copy of Silent America: Essays from a democracy at war, too.

Best blogiversary present ever.

Mr. Virtual President on Entitlements

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:57:00 +0000

Really looking forward to seeing Bill tonight here in Tucson.

Even Jon Stewart Gets It

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:44:00 +0000

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

In a few short weeks, you've managed to show that when the government wants to do good things, your managerial competence falls somewhere between David Brent and a cat chasing a laser pointer, but when government wants to flex its more malevolent muscles, YOU'RE FUCKING IRON MAN!

Yup. That's it exactly. (Had to look up the David Brent reference.)

Edited to add this as Quote of the Day:

This has, in one seismic moment, shifted the burden of proof from the tinfoil behatted to the government.

Where that burden ought to be all of the time.

This Blog is 10

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:30:00 +0000

I did this post on the first blogiversary of TSM, and now on its Tenth, I thought I'd dust it off and update it. Forty-four Things About This Blog:

1) I started this blog on Wednesday, May 14, 2003.

2) I'm 42 51 years old.

3) I'm male, white, married, and overweight. I drive a pickup. (4WD. No gunrack, though.) The '99 4.0L Ranger supercab is long gone, replaced by a 2006 (2WD) Tundra and more recently by a 2002 F250 7.3L diesel 4x4.

4) I have an IQ somewhere in the 130's, and my Meyers-Briggs personality type is INTJ. (My wife says I should frame that description for future reference - it's that accurate.) Supposedly INTJ's make up only one or two percent of the population. That would explain a lot. No changes.

5) I have a BA degree in General Studies after spending 5½ years in college studying Physics, Mathematics, and Engineering. No changes here, either except for an advanced degree in the School of Hard Knocks.

6) The Arizona Board of Technical Registration says I'm a qualified, registered Professional Engineer, (Electrical). The State of Nevada is similarly convinced.

7) I have a rare genetic enzyme disorder that causes a condition known as Acute Intermittent Porphyria. My case is relatively mild and doesn't affect my mental balance, but it hurts pretty bad when it occurs and it requires me to sustain a carbohydrate-heavy diet - just ONE reason I'm fat. However, since I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, I haven't had another porphyria attack. Oh, joy. Now I have to learn to NOT eat carbs. Which sucks.

8) I do not smoke, I do not drink, and I've never taken an illicit substance. I've never been intoxicated and never wanted to be. I don't understand the attraction and don't want to. But I don't believe it's the business of government to tell me that I cannot. No change here, either.

9) I'm a shooter and a reloader. Those are two of my hobbies. My blog is another, though it has consumed the majority of my time, spare and otherwise, over the last ~~year~~ ten years. ~~I also own a 1967 fastback big-block Mustang that will (someday) be built into a 500Hp highway-cruising hotrod.~~ I sold the '67 in 2008, and then bought a 1989 to fix my jones, but I ended up selling than one, too. And buying a 2011 GT. 400Hp will do, though. I have it and the F250.

10) I have two siblings; a brother five years older who is a professional auto mechanic, and a sister four years older who is a public school teacher. Sister's getting ready to retire, I think.

11) Both of my parents are still alive and in their (late) 70's. (My dates were screwed up. They were in their late 60's in 2004.) We all live in the same city. Mom's getting pretty frail.

12) I was pretty much apolitical for most of my life. I was 12 years old when Nixon resigned, and I was quite happy when Jimmy Carter won the Presidency. THAT was short-lived. I turned 18 in 1980 and voted for Ronald Reagan for President. It was quite obvious to me that Carter was a nice man, but a lousy President. He's still a nice man, but he should stick to building houses and stay the fuck out of policy. Still hold the same opinion, but I think less of Jimmuh today. And even less of the current President.

13) Since that time there has not been a single candidate I was happy to vote for but quite a number I was more than willing to vote against. In almost every case, my vote has been against the Democrat running. Still voting against.

14) In 1992 I voted against G.H.W. Bush AND William Jefferson Clinton by casting my ballot for H. Ross Perot. I did not make that mistake a second time, though by then it didn't matter. I didn't really want Dole either. Nor have I wanted G.W. Bush or McLame or Romney. I want to vote for the best candidate, but he never RUNS!

15) In 2000 I cast my vote against Al Gore. On Sept. 12, 2001 I was very glad I had. I'm not quite as content with my decision today, but I still believe that Gore would have been an unmitigated disaster. (G.W. Bush is merely a mitigated one. His domestic policies are a mess. His prosecution of the war is not.) ~~I believe the same to be true of any potential Democrat candidate for the seat this year. As I note below, I don't think Kerry will be the name on the ticket come November.~~ Wrong on that one. Ever since then, I've voted against the Democrat candidate, even going so far as to vote for McLame. We're now into Obama's second term. Things do not look good for what's left of the Republic.

16) In general, my politics are those of a pragmatic libertarian (small "L"). I believe in maximum freedom and personal responsibility. I recognize that those are relatively rare traits. (Remember my Meyers-Briggs personality type. "Does it WORK?") Still hold to that.

17) I had an AR-15 "post-ban" "assault rifle" custom built for me in 1997, specifically because of the 1994 AWB. And that sucker shoots. But it's still the pipsqueak .223 varmint cartridge. I have since purchased a Stag Arms M4gery upper, a complete Bushmaster lower, and built my own lower on a York Arms stripped receiver, topped with a Rock River .458 SOCOM upper. That's three evil black rifles, and not one of them has killed anybody. Must be defective.

18) When the AWB sunsets, I intend to buy an FN-FAL "black rifle" in celebration. Probably about 2006. There are other guns I want more in the mean time. In fact, instead of an FN-FAL, I had an LRB M25 forged receiver built up into a very nice semi-auto M-14, but it took until 2010 to get it.

19) I'm a shooter, not a collector. I don't like overly fancy guns, but functional ones. I like hitting small things from a long way off, so most everything I've got is rifled. I have one shotgun, a Mossberg 590 model 50665. It is not a Sporting Clays gun. Still have just the one scattergun. I might eventually get a semi-auto, but it's not high on my list of desires.

20) I'm primarily a handgun shooter, though I really like rifles. ~~I am the match director for the local International Handgun Metallic Silhouette matches a the Tucson Rifle Club.~~ Gave that up several years ago.

21) I'm also the TRC's Pistol Director, though that duty hasn't required much of me. I dropped that when I stopped running the IHMSA matches. I was re-elected to the board again when I started running Bowling Pin matches, but I stopped running those as of January this year. I resigned as Pistol Director in April. They needed someone who spent more time at the range than I've been able to.

22) My favorite target pistol is my Remington XP-100 center-grip chambered in 7mm Benchrest. Haven't shot that one much since I stopped shooting IHMSA. Now my favorite target pistol is my Kimber Classic Stainless, which I have used to shoot both Bowling Pin and USPSA. I'm not actively competing currently, but I'm considering Steel Challenge.

23) I'm a shooter, not a hunter. I understand the appeal that hunting has for some, but for me hunting is "taking your gun for a walk." If you do it right, you only pull the trigger once, and then things get messy. Feral Hog is beginning to appeal to me, as is prairie dog. In both cases, you don't have to do anything with the carcasses.

24) I prefer shooting steel to punching paper. I like reactive targets. Still do.

25) I have shot clay pigeons in the air with my sporterized 1917 Enfield in its standard .30-06 chambering, shooting Korean military surplus 147 grain FMJ ammo. I hit three out of the first ten. I have witnesses. (I missed all of the next ten, though.)

26) I want to do it again. But haven't since. Still would like to, though.

27) My favorite handgun is my (aforementioned) Kimber Custom Stainless 1911 in its John Moses Browning intended caliber of .45 ACP. My favorite load (Disclaimer: Use At Your Own Risk) is a 200 grain Speer Gold Dot hollowpoint over 7.0 grains of Unique. Out of my pistol it pushes 950fps, hits with a 6 o'clock hold at 25 yards and with a dead-on hold at 50. It feeds and functions with complete reliability. I wonder if I could hit a clay in the air with it. Still do.

27) When it comes to bolt-action rifles, I'm a cock-on-close enthusiast. My first bolt gun was a No. 4 Mk I Lee Enfield, my second a 1896 Swedish Mauser. Now that I've acquired a 1917 Enfield and a P-14 Enfield, I'm even more convinced that cock-on-close is the way it ought to be. Your mileage may vary. I don't give a shit. I have, however, gotten used to cock-on-open, even though it seems odd.

28) I'm also convinced that recoil, at least to some point, is something you can simply learn to ignore. When I started shooting rifles, my .303 No. 4 kicked pretty damned hard. Now I can sit at a bench and put 100 rounds through my 1917 with essentially no discomfort. I've fired a couple hundred rounds of .30-06, .303, and 12 gauge high-base in a single afternoon and had barely a bruise and just a tiny bit of stiffness the next day. I have also learned to like muzzle brakes, as long as I'm BEHIND it. I recently purchased a .300 Win Mag. That one has a brake.

29) Flinching, on the other hand, requires a LOT of practice to overcome, and it comes back if you don't keep up your practice. Intentionally setting off an explosion a few inches from your face is not a natural act. It takes a while to convince your subconscious that everything is copacetic, and I don't think it remains convinced long. And hard-recoiling guns (like my .45LC M25 Mountain Gun with 285 grain bullets at 950fps) tend to cause flinch to return with a vengeance after a few cylinders full.

30) I think I prefer handguns because shooting a handgun well is more difficult than shooting a rifle well. I like the challenge. But I like the challenge of hitting stuff a long way off, so rifles are gaining.

31) I like reloading because it requires concentration and precision, just like shooting does. Loading my own ammo adds that much more control over the entire process. It doesn' hurt that it costs a lot less than buying commercial, either. But I won't load for someone else, and I won't shoot someone else's reloads. No change here except I've added a lot more equipment for reloading in the last ten years.

32) Back to politics: I think our political system has degenerated from "loyal opposition" to out-and-out "the other side." I think this bodes ill for our future as a nation. The polarization affects about 10-15% of the population, leaving 70-80% in the middle pretty sick and tired of all the crap they have to put up with. Unfortunately, very few in that middle bother to vote much. Fewer bother to think. This trend has apparently accelerated.

33) I'm a REPUBLICAN but not a member of the "Republican Party." By that, I mean that I believe our Founders had it right in that Democracy was a quick path to Hell. As one local op-ed columnist put it recently

The Electoral College stands as an elitist and blatant reminder that the founders of this nation believed the rabble - that's us - couldn't be trusted with the task of directly choosing our president.

And they were right. About that and a lot more. But we've managed to (mostly) overcome the safeguards they built in, and the rabble - that's us - has managed to do what DeTocqueville (or someone) warned against:

"The American Democratic experiment will succeed until the people realize they can vote themselves money from the public treasury... then it will collapse."

That's what a Republic is supposed to prevent. It failed. It was supposed to be foolproof, but we keep making better fools. I have become convinced that the manufacturing of said fools has been deliberate.

34) I have a stepdaughter, about to turn 25 34, who is a product of Tucson's public schools.

35) I have two grandchildren, one ~~four~~ thirteen and one ~~five~~ fourteen, who ~~will also be~~ have been exposed to that system. I hope ~~to be~~ I have been able to intervene, or at least mitigate the impact. I am not, regardless of my sister's chosen profession, a public school enthusiast. I am convinced that the public school systems are a tool, deliberately ~~crafted~~ twisted by the left to produce mindless, unthinking, compliant, obedient proles. And they are largely successful in spite of the efforts of teachers like my sister.

36) And I'm beginning to wonder about the effects of 20+ years of public school systems ON my sister. I don't wonder anymore.

37) I hope that the world my grandchildren grow up in is a bright, cheerful, and safe one. With the rise of radical Islam and the moonbat Left, I don't think it will be. Still don't.

38) I intend for them to be able to think for themselves and stand up for their rights. And I will threaten violence, if necessary, to keep the "authorities" from putting my grandson on Ritalin or any other substance when he happens to exhibit a personality in the classroom. They haven't threatened that yet.

39) I concentrate in this blog on the right to arms because, to me, it is the litmus test of the politician's faith. If you do not trust the populace with arms, you should not be a leader. A Republic needs to be lead by leaders, not people courting popular support. Always understand that some will not be worthy of that trust, but that's not reason to strip all of their rights. Government is there to protect the rights of its citizens, not parent them. And ten years on, I still believe this, and still blog.

40) In a Democracy, the majority rules. If 50% +1 decide that all left-handed redheads should be exiled, then it's law and that's all there is to it. A Constitutional Republic has a basis in law that says "Government may NOT DO" and "Government may ONLY DO" and when it strays from those rules, its citizens lose. That system WORKS, as long as we let it. But once we start bending those restrictions for personal advantage or the "general welfare," it begins to fail. Our system began failing almost from inception, but for over 200 years it has worked better than any other government in history, making the United States of America the most free, most productive, and most hopeful nation on Earth.

And I hope we can prevent it from collapsing under the weight of 225 years of being fucked with "by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

(41) This, according to Blogspot, will be my ~~1,020th~~ 6010th post since starting this blog.

(42) Sitemeter says there have been over 3.5 million site visits.

(43) This site says TSM ranks 15th among the gunblogs.

(44) I have met probably fifty or more other bloggers over the last ten years, easily a dozen just a couple of weekends ago. You have been uniformly some of the nicest, most generous and most intelligent people I could ever have hoped to meet.

And, in a now well-established TSM tradition, I'd like to use someone else's words once again to say what I want to say better than I could say it myself. In the Vicious Circle podcast from the week after the passing of William the Coroner, Tribes, Breda said this:

I'm one of those people - I like people, I'm personable, but I don't really have "friends" friends, because I just don't connect to people really that well. But then blogs happened, and I found a whole group of people that I fit in with because I'm weird and they're weird in kinda the same way, and yea for our mutual weirdness. So, thank you for being weird with me.

"Thank you for being weird with me." Pretty much says it all.

Bill Whittle!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Tue, 14 May 2013 01:32:00 +0000

Bill's going to be in Tucson tomorrow! I've got my ticket!

"...people are not inherently good in nature..."

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:20:00 +0000

Some people misunderstand what that phrase actually means, even after it's been explained to them.

(h/t to Van der Leun for the video.)

New Coke

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:54:00 +0000

Bill Whittle's latest Afterburner:

Increasing Gun Ownership

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:22:00 +0000

Another example:

Pit bulls kill jogger

A pack of up to four pit bull terriers has been blamed for the death of a jogger in rural Los Angeles, with officials warning on Thursday that the dogs remained on the loose.

Sheriff's Lieutenant John Corina said a woman in a car saw the dogs attacking the female jogger, 63, on Thursday morning. The witness called police and blew her car horn to try to get the dogs to stop.

"When the first deputy on scene saw one dog still attacking the woman, he tried to chase the dog away," Corina said. "The dog ran off into the desert, then turned around and attacked the deputy, the deputy fired a round at the dog and tried to kill the dog, and the dog took off into the desert."

The woman died while she was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital, said Evelina Villa, county animal control spokeswoman.

--

Residents near the site of the attack said stray dogs were constantly roaming the area and had attacked people before. "It's really scary," Diane Huffman, of Littlerock, told KABC-TV. "I don't know what to think. I really think I'm going to be getting a gun to protect myself."

Everyone repeat after me: "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away!"

Good luck to her. Should be interesting when she finds out what the hoops are she has to jump through to get a gun in California, much less a carry permit.

Nobody Wants to Confiscate Your Guns

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:03:00 +0000

Nobody but the New Jersey legislature. Confiscate, confiscate, confiscate.

As Sebastian says,

You know what would help prevent gun owners from always being paranoid that gun control activists and politicians were after their guns? Not actually being after our guns.

Agenda? What Agenda?

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:54:00 +0000

Steven Crowder's latest:

Yup. Nobody knows nothin' because as former President of CBS News Richard Salant put it:

Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.

Quote of the Day - Thomas Sowell Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Saw this on Facebook yesterday and decided to use it as QotD today. This is from Thomas Sowell's A Personal Odyssey. That book just went on my Wish List. At the time this incident occurred, Sowell was still a Marxist, but he says that working for the .gov cured him of that particular disease.

I imagine this was a big part of the cure:

Quote of the Day - "Artistic Bravery" Edtion

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:25:00 +0000

Found via SayUncle:

You want to impress me? Dress up as Mohammed on the top part, with your pubes shaved into a crescent, and hand out rape whistles. Then I’ll be impressed with your edginess.

No Catholic is going to come and chop your head off for dressing up like the Pope. -- Phelps

Jim Henson Lives!

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:50:00 +0000

Jim Henson, creative genius behind the Muppets, was involved in several other things during his career. From 1983 through 1987 he did a show for HBO called Fraggle Rock. If you'll recall, HBO was still quite new to most people as cable television spread around the country. We'd moved to Arizona in 1981, but it was my brother (five years older than I) who moved into an apartment and got HBO first.

He loved Fraggle Rock.

Apparently, someone in New Mexico does too. For as long as I've been driving back and forth between Tucson and Silver City (or, more recently, Houston and Tucson) someone has kept the paint on their own personal Fraggle Rock fresh:

That was taken out the passenger window of the Mustang at 75MPH on my way west on I-10 just six miles west of Lordsburg.

Now THAT's a FAN.