"Move your whiskey before you start shooting..."

He's right. A party-foul on the firing-line is the ultimate social gaffe.

Eye for an "aye"

The Republicans are in italics. (Original link to Campaign for Liberty.) Print it out, distribute it to your friends and family.

Vote. Them. Out.

I don't care if he/she was your college roommate, or sends you Christmas Cards, or you personally saw them walk an old lady across the street. Their actions belie a willingness on par with touching your children in an inappropriate way, nevermind the willingness to ignore an estimated 100-300:1 ratio of public sentiment against this bailout.

AYES:

Ackerman Allen Andrews Arcuri Bachus Baird Baldwin Bean Berman Berry Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Blunt Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boozman Boren Boswell Boucher Boyd (FL) Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brown (SC) Brown, Corrine Calvert Camp (MI) Campbell (CA) Cannon Cantor Capps Capuano Cardoza Carnahan Castle Clarke Clyburn Cohen Cole (OK) Cooper Costa Cramer Crenshaw Crowley Cubin Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) Davis, Tom DeGette DeLauro Dicks Dingell Donnelly Doyle Dreier Edwards (TX) Ehlers Ellison Ellsworth Emanuel Emerson Engel Eshoo Etheridge Everett Farr Fattah Ferguson

Fossella Foster Frank (MA) Gilchrest Gonzalez Gordon Granger Gutierrez Hall (NY) Hare Harman Hastings (FL) Herger Higgins Hinojosa Hobson Holt Honda Hooley Hoyer Inglis (SC) Israel Johnson, E. B. Kanjorski Kennedy Kildee Kind King (NY) Kirk Klein (FL) Kline (MN) LaHood Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Levin Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Lungren, D. E. Mahoney (FL) Maloney (NY) Markey Marshall Matsui McCarthy (NY) McCollum (MN) McCrery McDermott McGovern McHugh McKeon McNerney McNulty Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Melancon Miller (NC) Miller, Gary Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Murphy (CT) Murphy, Patrick Murtha

Nadler Neal (MA) Oberstar Obey Olver Pallone Pelosi Perlmutter Peterson (PA) Pickering Pomeroy Porter Price (NC) Pryce (OH) Putnam Radanovich Rahall Rangel Regula Reyes Reynolds Richardson Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Ross Ruppersberger Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Sarbanes Saxton Schakowsky Schwartz Sessions Sestak Shays Simpson Sires Skelton Slaughter Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Snyder Souder Space Speier Spratt Tancredo Tanner Tauscher Towns Tsongas Upton Van Hollen Velázquez Walden (OR) Walsh (NY) Wasserman Schultz Waters Watt Waxman Weiner Weldon (FL) Wexler Wilson (NM) Wilson (OH) Wilson (SC) Wolf

He speaks to us from beyond the grave in a time of need

"From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. A politic minister will study to lull us into security by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable.

When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth?

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

- Samuel Adams, speech at the State House in Philadephia (August 1, 1776)

Caturday Night Special, Episode XI

"No doubt the precogs have already seen this."

"Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of PreCrime; how may I direct your call?":

Individuals detected as suspicious by FAST will be pulled aside for light questioning by security staff. Information processed by the system will never be matched with names, said Verrico, and it will only be used to help security screeners decide whom to question. After that, data from FAST is discarded.

Beyond simply discarding data, Verrico points out that the system is subject to intense privacy controls (PDF).

Yuh huh. Ignoring the flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment for a moment, Homeland Security isn't known for its practice of hiring the most intelligent or discrete amongst the population. If anything, DHS is known for repeated abuse of its power in the most indefensible manner conceivable. To make the claim that any data collected would be "subject to intense privacy controls" frankly flies in the face of both common-sense and the track-record of DHS.

Wheedling for the nation to trust in the goodness and wholesomeness of the government isn't going to cut it. Constitutionally, it's not an option. And while that hasn't stopped the government from overstepping its authority before, it certainly does not excuse the attempt.

Government of any stripe has a habit of creating problems, then proposing a government-created solution to said problems. In this case, at best, they fear what the public will do without such a system in place, but perhaps they should harbor a greater fear for what the public will do once such a system is implemented.

His head was bloodied, but unbowed

I lurk a hundredfold more than I comment, but I didn't want this to slip by, as I read, appreciated, and looked forward to his postings.

Bane, of BaneRants, passed away this morning.

I had to think a while about what to say, as I've commented once or twice, and more than a few times at Vox Populi, where I was first exposed to his, er, antics.

Bane made me laugh more than a few times, think before I spoke (as I saw what happened to the trolls; he was a sterling example of how to levy withering verbal fire on the unwashed), and I'm richer for the experience.

More than that, however, he reminded me of my father, who has been dead these many years. Suffice to say, I liked him immediately.

I'm saddened that he's no longer with us, but I find comfort in that he feels no pain, but elation in the presence of the Almighty. His wife and family, however, could use encouragement and the solace of a kind word. His blog will carry the details.

Bane, we will miss you.

Feeding frenzy

Evidently I broke something while playing with Feedburner; if your subscription feed is malfunctioning, odds are that I did that while tinkering with the options.

Here's a link for the updated subscription: Subscribe!

I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's my nature to tinker... Which is precisely why I never want to hold public office.

The Devil comes collecting

The wages of sin must be paid:

Wall Street is dead. According to its Journal, The Wall Street that was "a coterie of independent brokerage firms that buy and sell securities, advise clients and are less regulated than old-fashioned banks" died last night when the Federal Reserve agreed to convert Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last remaining mega brokerages on Wall Street, into bank-holding companies. In exchange for access to more Federal loan money, and not having have to mark its assets at market value, the two companies will be subject to much more government regulation and oversight about how they do their business.

This is only the beginning of the collection, mark my words.

On the bright side, the harder they push to control the market, the grayer it becomes. While having a truly-free market would be ideal, it seems like it is entirely unlikely to manifest in any legal incarnation any time in the near future.

If anything, desperately lean years are ahead, and I cannot overstate the importance of being prepared for coming trouble. It's moot if it doesn't happen, but it may make the difference between comfortable living and utter disaster in the future.

Idle academics are the Devil's workshop

One of the many, perhaps one of the foremost reasons that I refuse to regard the hive-minded socialists across the Pond with anything but contempt:

Banned phrases on the list, which was originally drawn up by sociologists, include Old Masters, which has been used for centuries to refer to great painters - almost all of whom were in fact male.

It is claimed that the term discriminates against women and should be replaced by "classic artists".

The list of banned words was written by the British Sociological Association, whose members include dozens of professors, lecturers and researchers.

Making the term "Old Masters" more vague won't change anything about the quality of their works or the nature of the bits betwixt their legs, but I believe these charlatans hope they can muddle the issue enough so that there might be a possibility that maybe, perhaps, the term could encompass the undiscovered parity of "Old Mistresses" and their apocryphal masterpieces mistresspieces (probably hidden in the vaults under the Vatican with all the matriarchal-society artifacts).

Of course, like any group of publishing academics, they have issued an edict that the older editions are to be revised for reprint:

Among the "sexist" terms to be avoided are "seminal" and "disseminate" because they are derived from the word semen and supposedly imply a male-dominated view of the world.

Authors are also told to "avoid using medical labels" when writing about disabled people as this "may promote a view of them as patients".

In addition, the list says "special needs" should be changed to "additional needs", "patient" to "person" and "the elderly" to "older people".

"Able-bodied person" should be replaced with "non-disabled person", it is claimed.

"We also require Sunday-editions of the New York Times, fair-trade half-soy caffè lattes and grant money in a cloth shopping-bag deposited on the number-8 Downtown transit at 11AM sharp. No funny-business!"

A pack of twits of this caliber should not be allowed to have the run of the island unsupervised... Hypothetically, if a terrorist group were to detonate a device with an aerosolized neurological agent, could it be classified as fumigation?

Caturday Night Special, Episode X

An extra-special Caturday Night presentation tonight for a week that highlighted the ineptitude of the Beltway Establishment.

A pox on both your houses!

The scene this morning

The joys of cat ownership. Whee.

When in doubt, empty the clip

The title is especially pertinent this week; between economic agitation, academic wrangling, mathematical uncertainty, emergency preparation and good old-fashioned allergies, I have a full plate.

- Congress is unsure of how to alleviate our economic woes, as throwing wads of money at it seems to exacerbate the situation:

The Federal Reserve Board, with support of the U.S. Treasury, invoked emergency powers to lend as much as $85 billion to American International Group Inc. to save the firm from collapse. At the start of the week, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy. That followed the bailout of Bear Stearns Cos. in March, and the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said in a speech on the Senate floor that President George W. Bush isn't in a position to propose regulatory overhaul legislation because he is close to leaving office ``and the Congress is not in a position to pass it.''

Horse-shit. Congress is merely unwilling to do anything about it. Somehow, they managed to overwhelmingly (98-0) pass a resolution supporting any necessary force for eradicating terrorists, but they are "not in a position to pass" anything in this instance, as anything but standard operating procedure would mean relinquishing power over the markets. And they just can't do that.

At least someone was speaking out against it, but ~400:1 odds ain't that great.

- Speaking of the blame-anyone-but-ourselves mentality from our leaders, we're not alone.

- Possible blowback from the endless attacks regarding Palin; I'm still not voting for McCain, and I'm still not overly impressed with Palin, but I love how the Obama-zombies are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Either way, bread and circuses are guaranteed; pay no attention to the figures behind the curtains.

Even broken clocks are right twice a day

Santa Cruz, paragon of the open-campus asylum, actually gets it right:

For the first time since 1996, when the Compassionate Use Act was passed, the federal authorities have been charged with violating the 10th Amendment for harassing medical marijuana patients and state authorities.

The case of Santa Cruz vs. Mukasey, was heard by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who said the Bush Administration's request to dismiss a lawsuit by Santa Cruz city and county officials, and the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), wasn't going to happen...

In the summation, the court found that, “There was a calculated pattern of selective arrests and prosecutions by the federal government with the intent to render California's medical marijuana laws impossible to implement and therefore forced Californian's and their political subdivisions to re-criminalize medical marijuana.”

Bravo! Although the likelihood of this decision emerging from Santa Cruz was "high", the fact that the Federal government makes a persistent, malicious and otherwise tyrannical effort to thwart states' laws when they run afoul of the official party lines in Washington DC cannot be denied, and it is becoming more evident in every state of the Union.

While I'm happy that California residents are closer to enjoying the level of freedom all citizens should enjoy, I'm more excited that the revitalization of the Tenth Amendment seems imminent, which heralds a concerted movement to systematically dismantle the means by which the Federal government interferes with reserved rights of the States and the People. A real emphasis should be placed on the necessity to alter the United States Constitution if Washington wants to retain its self-mandated powers, which would require ratification by a super-majority of the states.

Frankly, I don't see that happening.

Caturday Night Special, Episode IX

"He says your brother voted for the Volstead Act..."

Microcosmic Humor

Don't turn around...

Der Kommissar's in town:

One of the areas still under discussion, according to a senior Justice Department official, is the standard for the FBI's rare involvement in responding to civil disorder. Under the current standards, FBI involvement requires the approval of the attorney general and can last for only 30 days.

The new approach would relax some of those requirements and would expand the investigative techniques that agents could use to include deploying informants. FBI agents monitoring large-scale demonstrations that they believe could turn dangerous also would have new power to use those techniques.

Policy guidance for FBI agents and informants who work as "undisclosed participants" in organizations is still being written, the officials said yesterday.

This country is rapidly developing uncanny similarities to Soviet Russia in more than a few ways. While things haven't quite declined to this level yet, I wouldn't discount the possibility in the name of fighting "domestic terrorism":

Former judges and lawyers say the system is also under threat from authorities angered because jurors render not-guilty verdicts far more often than judges do. About two out of 10 defendants tried by juries are acquitted, compared with fewer than one in 100 tried by judges. It takes seven votes on a 12-member jury to convict.

While the legal system in the United States is not required to inform the jury of its rights when assembled (Sparf v. United States, 1895), they currently must abide with any decision that incorporates the act of jury nullification (United States v. Moylan, 1969). However, in what could be construed as a false extension of voir dire, a policy like this could feasibly be enacted. The government has already making the case that it should be able to change the venue to secure a higher probability of conviction:

To support his effort to move the trial, Ebert produced affidavits from several Chesapeake residents who support a change of venue. He asked the judge to let the case be settled by an impartial body elsewhere.

"There's so much misinformation that has been put forth in this case," he said. "Much of that has been self-serving statements from the defendant."

He cited Frederick's jailhouse interviews, rallies in his support and a billboard erected in front of his home. Ebert said that blogs, some claiming to have audiences of up to 50,000, have added to the speculation.

"There has been criticism that the police should have never gone to this house to begin with," he told the judge.

Change of venue is utilized for securing a "fair and impartial" trial. As the Commonwealth itself is not on trial but trying to secure the conviction, it should not have the option available to change the venue for its own purposes. Under Virginia law the Commonwealth is supposedly equally entitled to a fair trial, however, a superseding law may cause the prosecution some headache:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

I should also mention the debacle surrounding said "informants" and "investigative techniques" previously mentioned at the beginning of the post; according to Radley Balko (senior editor of reason.com and an eminently adept reporter) on his site The Agitator, Ebert's involvement with the suppression of evidence on behalf of the officers at the Frederick residence and the protection of confidential informants with vested interest in the prosecution sets more than a few red-flags regarding both persecutory and police misconduct.

The bottom line: the criminal system functions on prosecutions, and the machinery is being established for easing a purposefully-difficult process of depriving a citizen of his or her liberty at the will and whim of the State. Not only is it done in a kangaroo-court style, but under the guise that a citizen of formerly-unsullied reputation may, in a heart-beat, become "one of them", a "domestic terrorist", or the subconciously-segregated subhuman "drug-user". In a Kafka-inspired nightmare, the State is now preying without remorse or hesitation on those that would, in fatal error, look to it for protection.

Our liberties were paid for in blood, and they will vanish if we do not stand and fight for them.

When in doubt, empty the clip

- A simple yet effective RFID hack.

- Delicious, delicious irony, brought to you by the United Faildom.

- Yet another argument against the supposed need for regulation and licensing of fundamental rights.

- The conceptual realization is there, as is the sense of justice. Now, if only the two together in a single philosophy, perhaps where the jury could have some sort of "veto power"...

All aboard!

Surprise! But not really, since they "could not be allowed to fail":

Holders of the companies' common and preferred stock are ``very unlikely to come out of this at all happy,'' and the chief executive officers will be forced out, Frank said. Senior and subordinated debt holders will likely be protected, said other people who were briefed on the plan.

Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee almost half of the $12 trillion in U.S. home loans and the government had been leaning on the companies to help pull the economy out of the housing crisis. Instead, they got caught in the same slump that left the world's banks with more than $500 billion of losses since the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market last year.

Fact: the Federal government will not voluntarily relinquish any power it is not compelled to by the People, as it is antithetical to the nature of government.

Fact: the Federal government expects to spend its way out of a problem that it started by, you guessed it, spending. I'm looking at you, Keynesians.

Fact: the Federal government, like a drug-addled junkie, won't come to terms with its habit until it hits rock-bottom, and the excrement really hits the ventilation. A fundamental problem remains with the recovery strategies proposed for this recession: the money is still being printed at a break-neck pace, and that is devaluing the currency at such a rate that we may not be able to recover gracefully, or even unbloodied.

I'm making an educated guess that rather than cut unnecessary expenditures, something akin to this will occur. Combined with the documented lack of domestic control that the government has shown in natural disasters to date with copious forewarning, expect "domestic upheaval" on a scale previously unknown in this country.

Such being the case, I'm suggesting a new candidate for the White House, one that more accurately represents our American zeitgeist, one that can bring us to the train-wreck with unprecedented alacrity and trash-nouveau style: Paris Hilton.

Paris has the track-record we're looking for:

- Unrestrained spending on questionable, frivolous and otherwise useless items or services
- A Hollywood-shiny exterior with a petty, all-consuming soulless interior
- Room-temperature IQ, which should resoundingly trounce any notion of "elitism"
- Religiously-devout in the worship of Mammon
- "Full-transparency" in her private-life, which can be utilized in public schools for sex-ed; likely support for a "Soma"-type dietary supplement
- Utter impulsiveness, necessary for the current incarnation of our Foreign Policy
- A criminal record with corresponding jail time, for an instant 2.3 million-strong constituency; Paris can likely rely on Democratic support for reinstatement of the voting privilege right to felons

Clearly, she is the most qualified candidate, with more than twenty years of rigorous training. And considering the way that the public is eating up Palin's sex-appeal in spite of the numerous vitriolic attacks against her policies or association with McCain, I think the test-case for a shine-over-substance campaign is solidly established; the impulse to continue to worship at the altar of materialistic hedonism will trump any protests to the contrary.

I for one prefer the predictability of stupidity to the insatiable hunger for power in a Caesar. The former is less likely to create problems for the citizenry, whereas the latter causes no end of misery.

Caturday Night Special, Episode VIII

Mad-Libs, International-Incident Edition

You say "international incident", we say "foreign policy":

In news likely to stoke more anger, intelligence officials said a missile strike was suspected in a blast Thursday that killed at least four people in North Waziristan, part of the tribal belt where Osama bin Laden and his deputy are thought to be hiding. Previous such strikes have been blamed on the U.S.

The ground assault, with troops helicoptered in, occurred in adjacent South Waziristan early Wednesday. Officials said at least 15 people died, including women and children. The Foreign Ministry said no militant leaders were killed and there was no sign the attackers detained anyone.

U.S. officials declined public comment.

The State Department should nominate a seasoned diplomat with domestic experience in such areas, like the estimable Mr. Dennis J. Richards:

“We wouldn’t be comfortable discussing the internal investigation intelligence,” Richards said. “We can say comfortably that over 1,100 search warrants counter-terrorist operations were executed last year and 580 to date this year and that, with such a high volume and such a fast-paced environment, it is understandable that mistakes could happen.”

The catch: Richards isn't a diplomat, per se. The above refers to a similar breaking and entering officially sanctioned by the War on Terror/Drugs/____________ (Noun), wherein the offending parties had the wrong address, inflicted mass damage and injury in the commission of said breaking and entering, and ultimately evade any modicum of responsibility for their actions.

When the differences in the training, equipment, deployment, actions and ultimate personal responsibility between the civilian police and the military abroad are negligible, and, indeed, demonstrate a veritable parity on every level, it is time to do some deep and solemn thinking about the nature of our leadership in this nation.

This is not constrained to the presidential election; far too much of the power reserved for the people has been usurped in a most vile and pernicious way by every branch sworn to uphold the Constitution, and we owe it to ourselves and to our children to compel them to answer for it.

A Synopsis

Hoplophobia: Fear and Loathing in California

As She Who Must Be Obeyed, alias Mum, is having a varmint problem and I need a smaller rifle for facilitating a CMP membership, yesterday I decided that I would purchase a Ruger 10/22. Knowing California's reputation as a hoplophobic state, I screwed my resolve to the sticking point and got in the car.

First stop: Walmart. Now, while I know Walmart has a bad reputation for this, that and that other thing, they do have consistently low prices. As a percentage on a firearm, that's a significant pile of ducats.

Whilst waiting at the counter, waiting on a sales-clerk, I spy no rifles behind the counter, save for the orange-tip Airsoft toys and compressed-air rifles. Now, I could use a compressed-air rifle to complete the safety exam... But the thought doesn't really interest me. Plus, I already own one, and have access to at least three. So, it's moot.

The sales-clerk arrives. His shirt is hanging out, tie askew. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Yes, I see that you have precisely zero real firearms behind the counter here. If I were to order a rifle, could it be delivered for pickup here?"

He shakes his head. "Walmart in California doesn't do that anymore." A high-pitched shriek from an irate toddler punctuates the denial.

"I guessed as much. Thanks anyway." I leave before the swarm of middle-aged housewives with wailing brats in-tow move to block the exit.

Next stop: Longs Drug; strangely fitting for California. Soon they'll have a single counter for all the State-labeled vices, staffed by part-time "sex-workers" paying into the CalPers pension system. I move directly to the Sporting counter, where on a previous visit I had noticed that they carried at least a rudimentary selection of shotguns and small-caliber rifles. After haggling with the clerk for a bit, I get a walking price. I think I can do better than the figure on my paper-brain, so I take a walk.

Next stop: Big 5 Sporting Goods. The sun is beating down ferociously at this point, and my mood is on the downward slope. I'm not a warm-weather critter, and after two strikes, I'm not enjoying this expedition any more.

Fortunately, the sales-clerk is both competent and helpful. I handle a few models, then excuse myself for a phone conference with She Who Must Be Obeyed. On my return, I inform him that I will be purchasing the rifle. The sales-clerk calls the manager, and they both depart to the office, only to return minutes later with a sheaf of forms.

I count my small blessings. At least the air-conditioning is working.

After presenting the necessary identification, I fill out the paperwork, which asserts that I must be a citizen, have a relatively clean record, have no outstanding warrants, restraining orders, not a habitual drug-user, domestic abuser, felon, or committed a thought-crime against anyone ever, and had never made a mistake on income-tax. Okay, the last two are perhaps pending, but there's little room for anything to add to the list of qualities that are verboten.

The manager tells the sales-clerk that he must fill out the rest of the form in blue ink, same as I had. The sales-clerk eyes the manager. "What?"

"If you don't, they can make the claim that we altered the paperwork, and that's illegal."

I nod. "The federal government has no sense of humor that they are aware of, and they need to justify that covey of bureaucrats in some fashion."

The manager smiles and nods. "Exactly. It's a liability issue. We've had to call customers in after having reviewed the form and finding a misprint, like 'USA' in that box," he points at the paper, "labeled 'County'. Looks like 'Country', but they know that."

This conversation repeats in various forms over the next forty-five minutes, the both of us making less-than-complimentary commentary about the Sacramento-San Francisco-Los Angeles voting bloc, and blue-counties in general.

While the sales-clerk is doing the paperwork-shuffle, two guys, both in their early-twenties, approach the counter. "Hey, I have a gift card, and I'd like to use it today," announces the youngest to the manager.

"Sure thing. What can I get for you?"

"Umm, six boxes of the number-seven 12-gauge shells, please."

"Okay, I'll just need to see some identification."

The manager fumbles with six boxes of the shells, and elbows the stack up to the counter-top. The other youth is holding the gift-card at this point while the manager inspects the driver's license of the former to his satisfaction. "I'll need to see his identification as well," the manager nods in the direction of the youth holding the gift-card.

"What? I'm not buying the ammo! It's his gift-card!"

The manager frowns. "Regardless, it's state law, not the policy of Big Five. I have to check your ID before I hand the boxes to you."

"What?"

At this point, I'm wondering if the youth is "hearing-impaired", as they say here.

"They're not for me," he reiterates. in a considerably louder voice. "It's his gift-card!"

"I understand that, sir. However, I have to check all of the IDs. It's state law. Please don't be this way, I have no choice in the matter."

Sulking, he produces the identification. I attempt to lighten the mood. "Well, look at it this way: at least you don't have an eleven-day waiting period for the shells."

The manager smiles again, and the youths are on their way. "You know," he says to me, "In Los Angeles they do have a waiting period on ammunition sales. All that gang violence, you know..."

This catches me off-guard, having (proudly) never lived inside the confines of that cesspool. "You don't say? Don't they know that they'll just go outside the city limits to buy ammunition?"

He nods. It acknowledges the logic of the argument, the uselessness of the law, and the plight that the city continues to make for itself by throwing worse laws on bad ones. All that he can really do at this point is adhere to the legalities.

He sighs. "Most of the ammunition used is .22, anyway. It's impossible to track."

I shake my head in disgust. "And yet, you and I, lawful citizens, are the ones that pay. Typical, isn't it?"

"Right you are, sir."

We finish the paperwork, and he thanks me for being patient. "Not a lot of people like to sit through this, we appreciate your patience in the matter."

"Well, ain't much to be done about it. If I want the rifle, I can spend a little time. Throwing a fit about it without taking constructive action is for children."

"Have a good day, sir."

I thank him, pay the cashier and leave.

...

Freud is often misquoted as having said, "The fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." However, the popularity of the misquotation seems to indicate that it has some grounding in popular sentiment, if nothing else. Jeff Cooper, the originator of the term "hoplophobia", describes a condition similar to that of the Freud misquotation, namely, "... the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user."

Generally speaking, there are two distinct varieties: the most original sense of the term, the irrational fear that firearms are miniature golem, wont to sow destruction unless kept on a firm leash by Authority; the other is that the firearm is something to be feared for what it enables the People to accomplish through proficient use, i.e., the Tyrants' Argument. The second is a far more insidious form of the mental disorder (I'm calling it as I see it; the naked will-to-power that follows this kind of ambition is the sign of a diseased mind), as it enables and encourages the first form through disinformation and agitprop, and occasionally through the flatly-applied edict.

As often as this is repeated, it needs to be heard until it sinks in:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

You may not license a Right, as a license may be arbitrarily denied. Period. End of story.

Evidently, the bar for reading-comprehension for law-school graduates and congressmen has fallen low in the last century, or we may call them traitors. One alleges mere stupidity, the other premeditated, willful malice against the People.

And lest I be remiss in my duty, this goes for the other nine Amendments as well. Everywhere is a "free-speech zone". The right to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects is not violable without a warrant. The rights enumerated herein are not exhaustive, and the powers not specifically delegated to the Federal government are reserved to the People or the States.

These freedoms have been abridged deliberately and incrementally, slowly bleeding the public in the name of security, safety, and civility. Now, with the advent of an imminent economic coma and a rapidly-metastasizing police-state, people will suffer greatly in the years to come, for years content to suckle at the teat of the State in the assurance that vigilance against tyranny was yesteryear's paradigm.

The Devil has come to collect, and he will have his pound of flesh.

A sign of the times, and man for this era

It is not a favorable indicator for the people that the sentence that will be handed down for this man's actions will be death at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party:

Mr Yang is said to have thrown molotov cocktails into a police station in Zhabei, a northern suburb of the city, before entering the building and attacking a group of unarmed officers with a knife. He was arrested at the scene...

Mr Yang is rumoured to have been badly beaten and maimed by police.

I do not support the aggressive use of violence on the part of Mr. Yang, nor the murder of six police officers, but had the police initiated the violence, I would support his right to defend his life, liberty and property (despite whatever the claims of the CCP may be to the contrary) with "extreme prejudice".

Despite the official/suppressed media releases, the actions of Mr. Yang seem to be having some resonance with his countrymen:

However, instead of condemnation, he has received widespread approval from Chinese internet users, or netizens, for his apparent act of defiance...

Mr Yang has even been compared to Wu Song, one of the greatest heroes in Chinese literature, who killed a tiger with his bare hands.

One message left on his MySpace page said: "You have done what most people want to do, but do not have enough courage to do".

Regardless of the outcome and Mr. Yang's intent, the situation bears thorough examination and discussion. Furthermore, I find the fact that the CCP is trying to suppress the information surrounding Mr. Yang more than a little suspicious, and the CCP didn't exactly take home the gold-medal last week for veneration of human liberties.

It seems that the Chinese are also participants in the subtle curse of living in "interesting times".

Utterly incompatible mindsets

Another mile-post on the long march to Hell:

Councils are recruiting 'citizen snoopers' to report litter louts, dog foulers and even people who fail to sort out their rubbish properly.

The 'environment volunteers' will also be responsible for encouraging neighbours to cut down on waste.

The Eco-Stasi is already making inroads with this despicable tactic in California; San Francisco Sodom of the West is already enacting a policy that can fine the plebians up to $1000 for not sorting their trash. While the cry of j'accuse! is not subsidized (yet), it's almost worse that one's neighbors, in the mindset that we must all be Good Germans, are doing this without bribe.

Expect to see similar policies enacted across Amerika; while I maintain the position that I am for having clean air and clean water, it can be done in such a way that is market-driven, not state-mandated. We owe it to ourselves to be good stewards of this planet, but not in such a way that cripples our personal liberties or destroys our ability to generate wealth.

Furthermore, in a consumption-based society, these competing ideologies are going to clash in such a way that the average suburban slob, mindlessly chanting a mantra laced with "freedom", "hope", "change" and "duty", is going to suffer greatly for. I can think of no more greatly injurious act to freedom than making the slave pay for his own chains, and leading him to believe that he is happier and healthier for the privilege.

Lastly, a thought from one of my favorite authors regarding the subject material:

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man