Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Haven't yet received confirmation of my press credentials for the NRA Convention in Nashville.
"It's Vanderboegh! Try to ignore him."
Of course I'm about as popular with them as a skunk under the the front pew at church on Sunday morning, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Monday, March 30, 2015
The NRA Anti-Defamation League weighs in.
The more streamlined Waynermobile gets lapped by The Little Rascals' downhill soapbox racer entry funded by GOA.
An anonymous commenter, although I have a pretty good idea who it is, writes a comment in response to this post.
"And yet you need a ride and/or lodging at The NRA Annual Meetings in Nashville. Why don't you just join the anti-gun protesters in Nashville? That may be where you belong. Why the hell do you want to go to The NRA's annual meetings, since you're so much against them? You do use your voice, but it comes out of both sides of your mouth. I think you're just jealous, because The NRA has more influence to preserve Amendment II than all the other pro-gun organizations combined. Hooray for The NRA!"
Now, if this is who I think it is (and I love the man like a brother) I would respond thusly.
My disdain for the NRA (especially the present leadership since the LaPierre-engineered coup against Neal Knox)is born of twenty years of personally-witnessed disappointments, failures to act on opportunities, and sellouts on critical issues galore. The NRA, when it does move in the interest of firearm rights, usually has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the fight, and even then makes an inconstant and unreliable ally, more concerned about fundraising and making the press love them than actually winning the fight in question. My memories of the their reluctance to get into the Fast and Furious fight, followed by their use of it to raise money under the lying pretense that they were "alone in the wilderness" on the issue early on is particularly vivid in my memory.
There are many good men and women in the NRA, including some on the board. There are also many long-time scoundrels on that board like Grover Norquist, selected because they are loyal to the LaPierre regime. If I poke fun at the NRA leadership it is because they are an easy target who have done much to deserve my disdain. I still have hope that the NRA will one day become as uncompromising as GOA, but being a practical man, that's not the way to bet. In defending the regime of Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox, you are defending amoral manipulators who are not deserving of your commendable loyalty to the organization. I'm sorry, truly sorry, that you are offended by my posts, but the NRA leadership has done much to earn any sneering I do.
Another case of mistaken triumphalism. AWR Hawkins sez: "Haters Of Self-Defense Face Unrelenting Defeat Everywhere."
Try telling that to the folks living in fear of tyranny behind enemy lines in CT, CO, NY, MD and Wa state. Here's my comment to the author, AWR Hawkins:
Another case of mistaken triumphalism. Try telling that, AWR, to those folks who get up every morning in states now behind enemy lines like CT, CO, MD, NY and Washington state, not knowing if when they get home that the gun raids will have started. Try telling that to the practitioners of armed civil disobedience in those states who have declared publicly that they "Will Not Comply," putting themselves and their families on another government list. The only reason the raids haven't started is that the politicians who passed these laws are frightened of the personal consequences if they do. They truly don't know whether to defecate or go blind. Why don't you, instead of this blind optimism that is obviously occasioned by your own personal distance from the problem,, give some ink to the brave men and women who are engaged in this armed civil disobedience campaign behind enemy lines?
Update
I have been getting some inquiries (some in the form of criticism for slacking) about why I haven't been doing more original work lately. It is a fair question and deserves an honest answer. The fact is that, quite apart from the diagnosis of the resurgent liver tumors, I have had some fairly stiff problems with eating and drinking lately. The esophagus is proving increasingly problematic with acute pain on swallowing, worsening heartburn, and occasional inability to eat without regurgitation. Yeah, I know, too much information. But the fact of the matter is that these problems have caused some weight loss -- I literally have to force myself to eat -- and point to worsening stenosis in the esophageal junction.
I will be getting a swallow study on Wednesday which should tell us more, and will let you know what's up. I am still hoping to cover the NRA convention and then to do a run out to Colorado and Washington state (and perhaps Oregon, we'll see). In the mean time, keep me in your prayers please.
Need an extra mag or two for Zoe's .45 Star PD
Factory mags being "unobtanium", does anybody have experience with these aftermarkets?
Texas Secessionist Invited To Moscow And Seeks Russian Support For His Cause
"Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest."
See also the Google translation page: I arrived in Moscow at the invitation of my friends from the "anti-globalization movement in Russia." I'm going to meet with a number of public organizations that are close to us in spirit and have common values with us.
Meet stupid.
Israelis are starting to figure it out. Obama is as great a threat to the Jews as Haman was.
And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or do him obedience, then Haman was full of wrath. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had told him of the people of Mordecai; so that Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai. (Esther, 3:5-6)
“The president of the United States is lashing out at Israel just like Haman lashed out at the Jews,” he said.
See also: 'U.S. Negotiating Team Mainly There to Speak on Iran’s Behalf'
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Kit Lange goes radio.
Kit Lange of Liberty for All writes: "I will be hosting a weekly radio show beginning 2 April from 1600-1700. This week's guest is Cope Reynolds, who will be discussing the role of the militia, and how to start/run an effective unit."
The Patrick Henry Society Show.
C'mon, Montana. What kind of police state crap is this?
"AN ACT REVISING LAWS RELATED TO FILMING LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS DURING CONDUCT OF OFFICIAL DUTIES; REQUIRING A PERMIT TO FILM ON PRIVATE PROPERTY; PROVIDING PENALTIES; DEFINING "LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER"; AND REQUIRING RELEASE WAIVERS FOR CERTAIN PERSONS.
Montana House Bill 633 will require members of the media to obtain a $100 permit and a release waiver to film or photograph police officers or face a fine of $500.
Of course the anal sphincter who introduced this piece of cop-worshiping garbage is a member of the GOP: Rep. Dale Mortensen (R-Billings), HD 44.
Mailing Address:
446 Caravan Ave.
Billings, MT 59105
Phone Number: (406) 855-1424
Email: Rep.Dale.Mortensen@mt.gov
Remember that $15 grab bag from last weekend's gunshow?
I mentioned it here. Well, I've gotten around to unpacking my plunder and separating out the dross from the gold in the hardware and parts and found this nugget, brand new. It is a Lyman 17 AHB front sight. Not bad, eh?
BTW, the .35 S&W Auto pistol cartridges (quantity 3, see list at above link) in the same bag are worth at least $5 a piece. So when you see what looks like a bag of miscellaneous scrap on a table at a gun show or flea market, give it a glance. Thar's gold in them thar baggies.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Finally catching up.
I've had more sleep in the past couple of days than I've had in a while. Will try to catch up with my backlogged emails today.
Anniversary: 27 March 1836. The Goliad Massacre
"Well, gentlemen! In eight days, home and liberty!"
Shackleford's Red Rovers were among the slaughtered prisoners. It is said that in the aftermath of Goliad, every planter family in the Tennessee Valley of Alabama went into mourning, having lost sons and fathers to Mexican perfidy.
Here is Captain Jack Shackelford's Account.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Obama's in town.
Coming out of the thrift store this morning, I saw one of the escorting fighter jets landing at Birmingham airport. To make things simpler for the Secret Service (and to catch up on my rest) I've spent most of the day at home. Back in the 90s, when I had a full-size Chevy pick-up truck and Bill Clinton came to Birmingham, I put a tailgate-sized sign on the back which said, "Hide yer women! Clinton's in town."
The unmarked tail car I had for that day blipped their little portable blue light and pulled me over on the ramp to the 1st Avenue railroad overpass and asked if they could take my photo next to the sign. Sure thing, I replied, and posed while these laughing Secret Service guys got pics.
It was suggested that I do something similar for Obama, but frankly, O just ain't that funny, and besides, what message would I use? "Hide yer guns! Obama's in town." I don't think so.
If we refuse to obey, it doesn't matter what the GOP and Democrats "debate."
Colorado's gun debate will likely rage on for years.
My email to the author:
From: georgemason1776@aol.com
To: megan.schrader@gazette.com
Sent: Thu, Mar 26, 2015 6:02 amSubject: Your story is beside the point -- the law is already being flouted by large numbers of armed civil disobedients.
As someone who is a leader in the national "We Will Not Comply" movement -- which ranges from Connecticut and New York to Colorado to Washington state -- and as someone who has personally broken CO's magazine law by smuggling 30-round magazines into your state, it doesn't mean a fart in the wind what the politicians "debate." We have already nullified their laws and dared them to do anything about it. And they don't know whether to defecate or go blind. Why don't you go back to those same Democrat politicians who passed the law and ask them when they intend to enforce it? And ask them what they expect will happen when they do.
Mike Vanderboegh
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com
Conflation alert. Collectivist wets his pants over the Three Percent. "If you think ISIS is our greatest threat, think again."
Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. In logic, it is the practice of treating two distinct concepts as if they were one, which produces errors or misunderstandings as a fusion of distinct subjects tends to obscure analysis of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts. -- Wikipedia.
SPLC-inspired conflation lies: Three Percent equals sovereign citizen equals methamphetamine-fueled LVPD snitch cop-killers like the Millers.
This comment from the author "21st Century Pacifist," is instructive:
Under any definition opposing the Federal government when implementing the law of the land and doing it as an armed force is sedition. In any other country in the world the vigilantes at Clark County would have been killed for opposing the legal government of their country. To do so in the tradition of the open land principles of the XIX century is even more odious.
Ironic application of "pacifism" to use lies to solicit government violence against your own people, no?
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
It Can Be Done.
Almost four years ago, I posted this about a volume of poetry that dates from the 1920s: "Fate only picks on the cowards and quitters, So give 'em both barrels--and aim for the eyes." I've been struggling with health and other issues lately (headed to the doctor again today), so I pulled down It Can Be Done again last night to peruse its pages. As I wrote then:
Hold to the course, though the storms are about you;And finally, I think, my favorite of them all. I vividly recall Bob Wright's recitation of this poem of Grantland Rice's, entitled On Down the Road, at a militia FTX campfire back in 90s out at "Fort Stinking Desert," New Mexico. I knew it, of course, but nobody can recite it like Bob.
Stick to the road where the banner still flies;
Fate and his legions are ready to rout you--
Give 'em both barrels--and aim for their eyes.
Life's not a rose bed, a dream or a bubble,
A living in clover beneath cloudless skies;
And Fate hates a fighter who's looking for trouble,
So give 'im both barrels--and shoot for the eyes.
Fame never comes to the loafers and sitters,
Life's full of knots in a shifting disguise;
Fate only picks on the cowards and quitters,
So give 'em both barrels--and aim for the eyes.
-- Grantland Rice, From "The Sportlight."
Note to the "Ted Cruz is not an American" conspiracists.
Your comments go to the same place as "Sandy Hook was faked," "9-11 was a false flag," and "5,000 ways David Rockefeller and the Jews hate me personally." Send them to Alex Jones, please.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Well, isn't this interesting? "Expanding military training activities in Cooper Creek" (Georgia) area.
By Jim Walker, District Leader, Georgia Forest Watch: "Don’t be surprised to encounter Army Rangers in the Cooper Creek area."
I have long been accustomed to seeing soldiers and signs of their activity in the vicinity of Camp Merrill, the Ranger training base in the Etowah watershed, and as far away as Hickory Flat in the Noontootla watershed. They even use the Appalachian Trail. But until this year, to my knowledge, they have never operated as far away from the camp as Cooper Creek.Back in June, Georgia ForestWatch District Leader David Govus came across two soldiers on foot and one in a pickup truck near Bryant Creek, a tributary of Cooper Creek. Talking with them, he learned that they were scouting out potential helicopter landing zones in the area because, as the sergeant said “the colonel wants to step out.”The first confirmation that this has been accomplished was on a Sunday in early November. While David was leading a hike in the Cooper Creek area, he met six big army trucks. A soldier on foot in the lead was very helpful in squeezing the wide trucks past the hikers’ vehicles on the narrow road.Then in December, I had an opportunity to observe the whole operation in action. Accompanying a Forest Service employee going out to core some trees and survey a couple of older stands included in the proposed Cooper Creek project, we came upon a blazing fire. Expecting hunters, instead we found six soldiers with two jeeps, two trailers, and a very large canvas tent, maybe 200 square feet. Not wanting to interfere with their operation, we talked with them to make sure that we would not get in their way. No problem, they said. They would be conducting a three-day training exercise, but the bulk of the troops would not be arriving until later. They also told us that these exercises would be happening on a regular basis, and “you can expect to be seeing a lot more of us.”With the soldiers’ permission, we went on up the ridge to measure the diameters of selected trees and core them to determine their age. About an hour later, I heard two helicopters approaching and could see that they were heading toward a food plot about a mile and a half away. Because of the terrain, I could not see them land, but they were out of sight only briefly before returning the way they came. The helicopters made four or five trips to the same location, and as we passed by their campfire on our way out, the soldiers verified that those were their guys coming in.In an apparently unrelated incident, I recently happened to be at Wilscot Gap, where the gated road to Brawley Mountain (FS45) begins, when a big pickup truck turned in toward the gate. I thought it must be Forest Service employees and went over to talk with them. But the truck was not a Forest Service one. The driver was not in military uniform, but the passenger who got out to unlock the gate, was. We had a brief, friendly conversation during which he informed me that, “This is a military road.” “No,” I contradicted him, “it’s a Forest Service road.”
Also from Herschel Smith (He's on a roll.) "Take Away White Man’s Guns."
“White guys cannot be trusted to use guns responsibly. It is time to stop giving guns to white guys,” Grimes added. ”I mean, it’s time to stop giving guns to everybody, but we can start with the white guys. . . As a bonus, we can collect their tears for research and resource purposes while they line up to surrender their weapons,” Grimes said.
Hahahahaha … is that the way you think this is going to go down, deary? You’re going to pass a law to make our guns illegal, and we’re just going to line up to turn them in? We’re going to cry while we do it? You don’t get out much, do you?The more likely scenario is this. Against the advice of the police, you pass a law that makes our guns illegal. The police have to enforce the confiscatory policies you learned in your idiotic sophomore collectivist classes in college. Blood runs in the streets, women weep for being made widows, and children weep for being made fatherless. The police curse you for making policies they have to implement while you sit perched on your elitist throne. Civil war consumes the nation, the electrical grid goes down not to return for years, medicines are unavailable, and the economy has collapsed. The things called the federal reserve and the stock market are but a distant memory of a different time that your children will never know except as told in fairy tales and stories.You didn’t consider that possibility, did you? You’d better.
From Herschel Smith: Army And Marine Corps On M855 Ammunition
So in summary, the SOST is much like the .223 pointed soft point for game hunting, except that it has a copper shank. If a reader would like to weigh in on the effects of the copper shank, please do so (in an educated fashion – and do not allow this to become yet another worthless argument over 7.62 v. 5.56). Finally, don’t forget the main reason for the lethality of the 5.56 mm round, which is the fact that it is frangible and immediately fractures into pieces leaving multiple tracks through ballistics gelatin. See the excellent paper Small Caliber Lethality: 5.56 mm Performance In Close Quarters Battle. It appears that the Army has forgotten the simple things.
“Weapons always get broken,” he said. “That’s why I have to repair them.”
A tip of the boonie hat to Herschel Smith, who provided this link: "Skilled gunsmith helps Kurds turn ISIS' guns on terrorists."
In their fight against ISIS, the Kurdish army known as Peshmerga has a secret weapon – a second-generation gunsmith so skilled he can practically turn a bucket of rusty bolts into a killing machine for the rugged, but cash-strapped, fighting force.Bakhtiar Aziz works in a dimly lit basement shop in Erbil, refurbishing guns taken from the enemy, bringing broken and even decades-old firearms back to life and helping to outfit an army as short on weapons as it is long on heart. On a recent day, he inspected an M-16A4 assault rifle badly damaged in a coalition airstrike. Pocked with holes, missing a large section of the barrel and with human hair wedged in its moving parts, the gun was found by Peshmerga soldiers near the town of Gwer.“The Americans gave it to the Iraqi Army, then when ISIS came, they took it from the Iraqi Army,” Bakhtiar told the military blog War Is Boring. “Now after the American airstrikes against ISIS, the weapon is in the hands of the Peshmerga.”Aziz’s shop is outfitted simply with a work bench, chair and tools. An arsenal of firearms, including old muskets, line the walls. He learned his trade from his father, who openly repaired weapons for hunters, and secretly fixed them for Kurds who resisted Saddam Hussein. Now, with the Peshmerga battling ISIS along a 600-mile front line, Aziz is putting his skills to work repairing weapons for the fight against the Islamist terror group.
Now this story illustrates a number of points that I have made in the past. First, the Kurds, like the Haganah in the Israeli War of Independence, have few friends and so are making do with what they can. (A further indictment of the U.S. policy of refusing to seriously arm the Kurds, our only real friends in that part of the world.) It also demonstrates the futility of "gun control," for in truth there will always be people who can "practically turn a bucket of rusty bolts into a killing machine." I know such folks, and their skills are truly amazing. Finally, it reinforces the need for budding logistics officers to remember never to discard anything as truly useless and to have a plan to scavenge future battlefields for the raw material of resistance -- not just broken weapons and dropped ammunition but packaging that can be reused, web gear, the list is endless.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Well, that was less than optimal.
Finished the day at 3PM and came home exhausted. Tally for today: Virtually no table sales of my own, no hat sales, no purchases, no meet and greets. Stayed busy selling my table-buddies' stuff. Had some bouts of vertigo, in the middle of one of which I discouraged a couple of shoplifters. (Although I did meet a reader who was working another table in a wonderful encounter. Didn't have much chance to talk though, since we were both busy.) Came home with my stuff packed in the back of a friend's open pickup truck in a driving rain, necessitating a dry-and-salvage operation when I got home. (Proper planning prevents piss-poor performance.) To sum up, as good a day as I had yesterday, today was a bust.
Anyway, I collapsed after that and only just now enabled the blog comments and glanced at my email. I'm turning in. I'll try to do better tomorrow.
Collectivist subversion of liberty, like rust, never quits.
Democrat to Meet With New ATF Director to Revive AR-15 Ammo Ban
These tyrannical assholes must think this is a winning issue for them.
This guy hasn't been paying attention to the armed civil disobedience movement.
"America is Screwed Unless ‘We The People’ Get Baptized Afresh In Our Founders' Rebel Spirit." If he had been paying attention to the Liberty for All folks in Washington state, or the We Will Not Comply movements in CT, NY, CO and MD, he might not be so pessimistic.
One of the things I love about gun shows: Misc. Grab Bags.
So, yesterday at the show I bought for $15 an overstuffed quart baggie of junk. He had $25 on it and I talked him down to $15. Inside the junk baggie were, among other things:
** A collection of allen wrenches, misc hardware (screws, nuts, etc.)
** An RCBS #2 shell holder, a Herter's No. M-3 shell holder for .30-40 Krag, a CH Die Case Trimmer Holder 301-1 Group G (waiting an email back from CH to see what it fits), three antique sling swivels, hooded front sight with dovetail base (application unknown)
** 3 wheat pennies, a 1913; a 1941 and a 1946.
** The following projectiles:
.30 caliber rifle, Qty 32
.32 caliber pistol, qty 28
8mm rifle, Qty 2
.38 pistol, Qty 3
.30 caliber pistol, Qty 1
6mm rifle, Qty 1
.25 caliber pistol, Qty 1
.22 caliber rifle, Qty 2
Total: 70 projectiles.
** The following loaded antique cartridges:
.35 S&W Auto , headstamps WRA Qty 2, Peters Qty 1 (had never heard of such, but they sure enough existed) Total: Qty 3
.32 Auto, WRA, Qty 2, Rem UMC Qty 1 Total: Qty 3
.32 S&W, Rem UMC Qty 1
.32 S&W Long, Rem UMC, Qty 1
.38 S&W, UMC, Qty 2
7.65 Luger, WRA, Qty 1
.38 Special, US Military, RA 56 Qty1
.44-40 Win, WRA, Qty 1
.44 S&W R, Rem UMC, Qty 1
.44 Mag, Super X, Qty 1
.45 Colt, Rem-UMC, Qty 1
.45 ACP, Chinese headstamp(?) Qty 1
.303 British, Super speed, Qty 2
.30 Army (.30-40 Krag), WRA Co., Qty 1
Total: 22 antique cartridges
Not bad for $15, eh?
** A collection of allen wrenches, misc hardware (screws, nuts, etc.)
** An RCBS #2 shell holder, a Herter's No. M-3 shell holder for .30-40 Krag, a CH Die Case Trimmer Holder 301-1 Group G (waiting an email back from CH to see what it fits), three antique sling swivels, hooded front sight with dovetail base (application unknown)
** 3 wheat pennies, a 1913; a 1941 and a 1946.
** The following projectiles:
.30 caliber rifle, Qty 32
.32 caliber pistol, qty 28
8mm rifle, Qty 2
.38 pistol, Qty 3
.30 caliber pistol, Qty 1
6mm rifle, Qty 1
.25 caliber pistol, Qty 1
.22 caliber rifle, Qty 2
Total: 70 projectiles.
** The following loaded antique cartridges:
.35 S&W Auto , headstamps WRA Qty 2, Peters Qty 1 (had never heard of such, but they sure enough existed) Total: Qty 3
.32 Auto, WRA, Qty 2, Rem UMC Qty 1 Total: Qty 3
.32 S&W, Rem UMC Qty 1
.32 S&W Long, Rem UMC, Qty 1
.38 S&W, UMC, Qty 2
7.65 Luger, WRA, Qty 1
.38 Special, US Military, RA 56 Qty1
.44-40 Win, WRA, Qty 1
.44 S&W R, Rem UMC, Qty 1
.44 Mag, Super X, Qty 1
.45 Colt, Rem-UMC, Qty 1
.45 ACP, Chinese headstamp(?) Qty 1
.303 British, Super speed, Qty 2
.30 Army (.30-40 Krag), WRA Co., Qty 1
Total: 22 antique cartridges
Not bad for $15, eh?
I hope all you budding ordnance men and women are paying attention.
Shell: A man works on a mortar shell inside a cave used as a weapon factory operated by rebel fighters from Suqour al-Sham Brigade
"Syria's DIY weapons: The rebels fighting the Al-Assad regime with rockets and shells that are hand-made in caves."
Basic: The men use basic welding tools to prepare their mortar shells and other weaponry
Rebel fighters in Syria are developing their own hand-made weapons as they battle the government regime. Fighters from the Suqour al-Sham Brigade are setting up weapons factories in caves to make shells and rockets as they take on the might of President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Welding tail fins.
Prepared: The rebels are seen here preparing a range of devices to fire at President Bashar Al-Assad's forces.
Secure: The rebel fighters have built their weapons factories deep inside caves in the Idlib Province.
Remember Kurt Hofmann's patches?
Good day at the show yesterday (if more than a bit exhausting).
Here's some local coverage on it: "ATF ammo ban for the AR-15 is a hot topic at the Gun Show: ATF Director B. Todd Jones resigns." (I'm in the accompanying video.)
Mike Vanderboegh, a member of the "Three Percenters" and founded the Sispsey Street Irregulars blog said, "The ATF reached a bridge too far. They discredited themselves. They haven't given up. In fact, the bill the democrats introduced in the House, which has no chance of passage, indicates an appetite not only for the M855's but also for any rifle ammunition."
Had a good day meeting and greeting friends old and new. I'll be there again today, but don't wait too long because I don't know how much I've got left in me for the whole day.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
The bitter disappointment of the racial collectivists is palpable.
"Officials: Evidence in hanging doesn't support foul play." You know they're cussin' at the SPLC right now. They were looking at another ten million or so in fundraising off this poor man's death.
Oh, to be a garbage man in Serbia.
Serb order to secure corrupt monopoly of violence creates garbage hazard.
The Serbian parliament passed laws last month requiring “strict conditions for owning firearms, including medical and psychiatric checks,” Reuters reported Tuesday. Citizens who have not proven a "genuine reason" to persuade the state to grant them a license have been ordered to turn in their arms to a police amnesty program by June 4 or face up to five years in prison. In addition to over one million registered weapons, it is believed hundreds of thousands of unregistered guns, holdovers from the Yugoslav Wars, have been secreted away by participants and their survivors, who know better than to leave themselves defenseless after having experienced widespread violence and instability firsthand. And government, as usual, in its zeal to control all, has responded to crime by holding everyone accountable, and created unintended consequences where the "cure" can be more deadly than the disease.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Well, that was less than optimal. Hat production comes to a standstill (although actually it already was).
The lady who runs the embroidery shop and I came to a difference of opinion about whether she was continuing to lie to me about the constantly-shifting delivery date on the last fifty hats or whether she was merely over-promising on an imagined and ever-tenuous reality (a charitable way of saying she was lying). Yesterday, after putting me off yet again, she asked me in front of another customer what I wanted her to do. I told her I merely wanted her to do what she promised to do in the time frame she promised to do it. Apparently this was beyond her ability, so today she handed me back the hats untouched and unceremoniously demanded I leave her shop, actually knocking her business card out of my hand and threatening to call the cops. The woman either a. has neither business sense nor communication skills; b. has difficulty telling people the unpleasant truth; c. mental problems; or d. all of the above. What this means in the short run is that until I find another embroiderer, I am suspending sales, and have thus removed the pics on the upper right column. I do have enough to finish out the orders I have in hand, although I won't be able to provide hats in brown. If you are okay with black, let me know. Sorry. I'll let you know sometime next week if I can find another embroiderer.
ATF, DOJ, media confirm Jones stepping down as director
“As the first ever Senate-confirmed Director of ATF, his indelible legacy will serve as an inspiring example for all those who follow him,” Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a Friday morning Department of Justice press release.
See also: ATF Director Jones resigns, setting stage for White House battle with NRA
I'll be at the Birmingham Alabama Gun Collectors Show this weekend.
Both days. I'll be working a table with friends and raising money for future operations. Drop by and visit.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Request to Conduct Realistic Military Training: JADE HELM 15
JADE HELM is a challenging eight week joint military and interagency Unconventional Warfare exercise conducted throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado.
JADE HELM is a US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) sponsored exercise to improve the Special Operations Forces' UW capability as part of the National Security Strategy. JH will run from 15 July through 15 September 2015.
Methinks thou dost protest too much, for truly, personnel IS policy.
Someone has criticized Scott Walker and Derek Hunter doesn't like it one bit.
Just when you think the government-monopoly-of-violence advocates of CSGV can't get any any loopier.
CSGV condemns 'insurrectionist imagery' of civilian standing up to Chinese tanks
Well, I say, God bless the "insurrectionists."
You know, it is perhaps not so very strange how CSGV is managing to ignore the armed civil disobedience movement. You would think that it would fit right into their meme. It must take mighty self-discipline to ignore us on the fund-raising level because they are abjectly frightened to give us publicity on the strategic level -- for the "I Will Not Comply" movements in the various states are achieving their worst nightmare, nullification of all their collectivist appetites for other people's liberty, property and lives.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Why UC Students Voted to Remove American Flag
Of collectivism and convenient propaganda targets.
If you want to know what I think about flags, I refer you back to Flags, Both True and False
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
The E.N.D. Game and the End of Games. "No tyrannical politicians or their bureaucratic, economic or propagandist minions were harmed in the filming of this exercise." And R.A. Bear advises: "In the event of civil war, aim for the nabobs."
An Indian nabob.
A Field Training Exercise, generally shortened to the acronym "FTX", describes a coordinated exercise conducted by military units for training purposes. Field training exercises are usually practice "mini-battles" which provide fairly realistic scenarios and situations based on actual situations a unit might face if deployed. -- Wikipedia.
There were armed citizens training in the desert of Arizona and up on the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico this weekend. Likewise in the melting snows of Ohio and Michigan, in rainy North Carolina and Alabama, and behind enemy lines in Connecticut, Colorado, New York and out in Washington state -- and those are just the ones I know about personally. These are formally known as Field Training Exercises, or FTXs, a variety of what are sometimes sloppily referred to as "war games."
Webster's Dictionary defines the word "game" with a variety of meanings that are great and small, even contradictory. The first listing is "an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement." This is not what those folks engaged in military training were about. Diversion and amusement were the last things on their minds.
There is an increasing sense in this country that night is falling, that we are at the end of our previously bright, sunny, optimistic day and, perhaps, arriving at the sudden end of days for many of us. It is this foreboding that motivates otherwise busy people whose lives are full of competing demands to put them aside and train to efficiently defend themselves collectively -- to practice how best to kill other folks who are trying to kill them. This is no game, at least not one played for sport.
There are other definitions of the word "game," of course. Webster's tells us that among these are "a procedure or strategy for gaining an end (tactic)" and "an illegal or shady scheme or maneuver." There are a lot of those kind of games being played by forces of the militarized federal police these days. Activists in Washington state report being tailed, out in the middle of that state's eastern high desert, by small convoys white Tahoes with heavily tinted windows as well as other forms of harassment -- designed to pressure them into unforced errors of minor traffic laws so that they may be "legitimately" detained for interview and arrest. This chicken excrement police state activity actually does more to illustrate the Feds' essential limp-dicked impotence than anything else, but it also is an invitation to the kind of misadventure that can get people inadvertently killed -- or start a civil war.
Another definition of "game" is "a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other." Yet another is "animals under pursuit or taken in hunting." With these we begin to approach the mindset of those tax-paid meatheads in the white Tahoes. Their misapprehension is that the rules by which they've operated for years still obtain. (See my earlier post U.S. Marshal's Service: Risking Civil War From A Failure of Institutional Memory. Bundy Ranch -- only with bullets this time.) They really believe that they are the mighty imperial fedgov and that they've got more guns, power, intelligence and determination than those of us who still believe in the Founder's concepts of liberty do. Used to dealing with common criminals, they feel comfortable in their certainty that we're just a variant of that reality. They believe that they are the hunters and we are the game. And they will be the hunters (for we have no interest in anything besides being left alone) until they really screw up and the tables are turned, when they will become the game as well. And they will be astonished when that, sadly, tragically, but predictably, happens. Some of them terminally so.
As an amateur historian, this is not something I'm advocating -- indeed I'm doing my best to avoid it -- but it is something that is entirely foreseeable. For words on a page are powerful things and they can kill. The words that will later be used to justify the killing of you and me and many, many innocents are already written in some dry bureaucratese in an agency report, a federal judge's decision, a "Presidential Decision Directive." They will be hauled out after the fact in some Nuremberg maneuver to explain that all those deaths really weren't their personal fault. They were only executing "the law" and "policy." You don't have to be able to cite the document and page to know that. Our death warrants are already written -- if the powers that be are stupid enough to try to enforce them in their ignorance that they are in fact mutual death warrants -- a suicide pact for an entire society, a whole country, and the end of everything they and we have known.
End: noun, "a point that marks the limit of something; the point at which something no longer continues to happen or exist." -- Webster's Dictionary.
The E.N.D. Game: "Exterminating the Nabobs of Dictatorship."
I was made aware recently of another game now being played by some liberty-minded folks in this country. Mindful that 4th generation warfare requires a very different sort of FTX, these people are playing what I call the E.N.D. Game, for "Exterminating the Nabobs of Dictatorship."
Now "nabob" is not a word you encounter in conversation. The apex of its usage in American politics came about when Spiro Agnew called the news media the "nattering nabobs of negativism." Still, it is a very descriptive word for certain purposes.
According to Webster's "nabob" comes from the Hindi word navāb (nawāb in Urdu and nuwwāb in arabic) meaning "governor" during the period of Mogul Empire. It is defined as "a very rich or important person; a person of great wealth or prominence." Synonyms include "big boy, big cheese, bigfoot, biggie, big gun, big leaguer, big-timer, big wheel, bigwig, fat cat, heavy, heavy hitter, heavyweight, high-muck-a-muck (or high-muckety-muck), honcho, kahuna, kingfish, kingpin, major leaguer, muckety-muck (also muck-a-muck or mucky-muck), big shot, nawab, nibs, nob [chiefly British], pooh-bah (also poo-bah), wheel." Phew. Well, you get the idea. In the bureaucratic terms of tyranny this adequately describes the decision takers and the war makers. Not the foot soldiers. No, these are the Heydrichs, the Eichmanns, the people whose orders fill the trains, get them running in the same direction to the east -- to the showers and the ovens.
The E.N.D. Game is, as they say, in developmental stage, but its practitioners tell me that it involves "grey men" and volunteer "nabob" targets. A team of grey men and women are given the name of a target -- the volunteer nabob -- and sketchy information as to his or her job, whereabouts, etc. The grey men then flesh out an intelligence profile of the nabob, beginning with untraceable research (using anonymous computer and library open sources). This information is crafted into a surveillance plan, then an action plan. Finally, comes the field training exercise where the nabob is, shall we say, forcibly retired in a simulated sense.
A variant of the Assassination Game, the E.N.D. Game is much more complex and puts a premium on techniques that minimize forensic traces of the participants.
It is played ONLY with volunteers, as the use of such techniques on an actual nabob would be highly illegal, even absent the last act, simulated or not. Were it a video game, it would come with the disclaimer "No tyrannical politicians or their bureaucratic, economic or propagandist minions were harmed in the filming of this exercise."
It is an interesting game, and I am looking forward to seeing a complete praxis on how to win it. I only pray it comes before the E.N.D. Game is transmogrified by the events created by a blundering nascent tyranny into the end of games -- and the end of days -- for many of us.
LATER: Ramsey A. Bear, with his usual incisiveness, has distilled down the previous essay in one short line: "In the event of civil war, aim for the nabobs."
More power for the American Stasi.
FBI’s Plan to Expand Hacking Power Advances Despite Privacy Fears
A judicial advisory panel Monday quietly approved a rule change that will broaden the FBI's hacking authority despite fears raised by Google that the amended language represents a "monumental" constitutional concern. The Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules voted 11-1 to modify an arcane federal rule to allow judges more flexibility in how they approve search warrants for electronic data, according to a Justice Department spokesman.Known as Rule 41, the existing provision generally allows judges to approve search warrants only for material within the geographic bounds of their judicial district. But the rule change, as requested by the department, would allow judges to grant warrants for remote searches of computers located outside their district or when the location is unknown.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Iran's 'Swarm War' Against the Islamic State.
Interesting.
The Iraqi push into Tikrit features loads of Iranian weapons. And the pint-size Safir jeep is one of the most distinctive of them all. Dozens of the rocket launcher-equipped, Iranian-made buggies are in Iraq, helping out Iraqi troops and allied Shia militias. The buggies reflect Iran’s preference for swarm tactics, which emphasize deploying large numbers of simple, cheap vehicles in order to outmaneuver and overwhelm the enemy. . .Some of the Safirs in Iraq boast rocket launchers. Others pack direct-fire weapons, such as 106-millimeter recoilless rifles. All of them are lightweight, brute-simple vehicles — perfect for the hastily-trained recruits who increasingly fill out the ranks of Baghdad’s beleaguered army and the Iranian-backed militias that reinforce it. The buggies are similar to the infamous machine gun-toting “technical” pickup trucks that have fought in most of Africa’s modern wars. Minimally-trained irregular troops can deploy the swift little vehicles to strike and even surround the enemy in an urban environment — like a swarm of insects. With so many individuals in the swarm, each darting around so quickly, it’s hard to swat them all.The vehicles allow a military force without modern communications equipment to perform flanking attacks. The jeeps can establish visual contact with neighboring vehicles at intersections, then drive toward gunfire in the event of a neighbor coming into contact with the enemy. Surveillance aircraft and attack helicopters are the best weapons for defeating a swarm. Islamic State has neither. The U.S. government appears to appreciate the Iranian methods. The Pentagon has begun providing technical-style trucks to Iraqi troops.
See also, from October of last year: Iranian support for Iraqi militias becomes increasingly apparent
Kurdish fighters fire a M40-type 106 mm recoilless gun from an Iranian Safir jeep near Tuz Khurmatu in Iraq on 31 August.
Members of Kataib Imam Ali fire a 107 mm multiple rocket launcher from an Iranian-made Safir jeep.
And note that the Iranians aren't too worried about supplying arms to the Kurds either:
Kurdish militias are also using Iranian weapons. Kurdish fighters were photographed with a Safir jeep and recoilless gun near Tuz Khurmatu in August. A photograph published that emerged on social media sites in early October showed Brig Gen Soleimani apparently posing with Kurdish fighters near Tuz Khurmatu. The Qods Force commander reportedly helped co-ordinate Iraqi government forces with Kurdish and Shia militias to retake the town of Amirli in August. Given the location, the Kurdish fighters were probably affiliated to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that controls the east of the Iraqi Kurdish region.
I am working on a major piece but . . .
it was a rough weekend and rougher night. I'll have it by evening, I hope.
On the theology of self-defense -- even in church. Perhaps, given current reality, most especially in church.
No Guns In Church In Alabama?
(BTW, with the crippling of the Alabama teacher's union and the Alabama Democrat Party well on it's way to becoming extinct everywhere but in the black precincts, this proposal has a snowball's chance in hell of passage. Still, Herschel's commentary is a valuable one.)
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Saturday, March 14, 2015
BOYCOTT US AIRWAYS.
Here's what the bastards are saying about their recent misadventure of shunting me from one failure to another leaving me high-and-dry (and costing me two one-way car rentals) to the person who purchased the tickets:
The airline said you could've gotten on the first flight and been late which was due to "act of God". The second one they claimed you were late. In either case they said I was not entitled to a refund. It is what it is.
By the way, I was in time to catch that second plane by more than a half hour. The person who bought me the tickets is out to the tune of more than $1600.00. I get about 10,000 page views per day on this blog. Surely we can take at least ten times that amount out of US Airways' hide by refusing to fly them. Register your agreement to do so in the comments below.
In crying over the loss of the M855 ban, Pravda-on-the-Potomac tells us what they really want.
"The proposed ban on certain armor-piercing bullets won’t end gun violence; background checks are more important." Ah, yes, why worry about firearms and ammunition when you can register law-abiding gun owners and force citizens to obtain government permission to engage in commerce?
Friday, March 13, 2015
Sorry I didn't enable your comments until very late today.
Had a very rough late morning and afternoon.
Another round of spam going around with my name on it. DO NOT OPEN THE LINK.
Sorry, but it will say "From Mike V." but of course it isn't, it's the same sort of spam that was plaguing me about a year ago this time.
Apparently the bastard's recovered from his near-death political experience.
Hick implies 'Real misgivings' with repealing mag ban
But of course Dudley's got his tin cup out and rattling:
At the Capitol, the hearing, held in the Capitol’s largest committee room which seats 260, was less than a third full. One of the bill’s most ardent supporters, Dudley Brown of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, sent an email out to supporters on Monday asking for donations for a new national organization that would fight gun control laws at the federal level. SB 175 was not mentioned.
Everything Dudley Brown touches turns to fund-raising shillery and excrement.
Fritsch is the founding director of Mississippi Gun Rights, created in October according to Secretary of State records. The group is affiliated with Colorado-based National Association of Gun Rights, a group that bills itself as a more conservative alternative to the National Rifle Association.
Gipson led the charge on gun law changes in 2013 that clarified Mississippians have the right to openly carry firearms without a permit, and for clarifying concealed carry laws to provide more protection for holders. He's been criticized by anti-gun groups, but this is the first he's faced from a pro-gun organization."I think this is just a fundraising group — a shield, a sham, a ruse," Gipson said. "They're doing what they've done in other states, going after the most conservative, pro-gun rights people … I've made up my mind I'm not going to take their crap."
Thursday, March 12, 2015
West Virginians: Help Pass Constitutional Carry In Your State.
The West Virginia Citizens Defense League sends the following alert:
Charleston, WV - Thursday, March 12th, 2015 - Today Constitutional Carry (SB347) passed the House of Delegates by a vote of 71 - 29. This historic vote is an enormous leap forward for Second Amendment rights in West Virginia. The stage is set for West Virginia to become the latest state to formally adopt the motto: "the Constitution is my carry permit."After a procedural vote by the Senate, the bill will head to the Governor Tomblin. The governor must not veto this bill. Please call Governor Tomblin's office at 304.558.2000 and urge him to sign this giant leap forward in the liberty and personal safety of not just West Virginians, but all who travel to West Virginia. Contact all your friends and associates, and ask them to do the same. It's not much in terms of effort, just dial the number and politely tell whoever answers: "Please ask the governor to sign SB347."
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