When to fight?

On Joe’s blog today Joe posted another question from Mark Philip Alger to go along with the “Just One Question“.

To summarize here:

When is it proper, for example, to use force to stop a legislator engaged in unconstitutional actions? Indeed, when is it required of those who have sworn oaths to… protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic…?

This is a question I have often asked myself over and over, and it is a very critical item. There have been numerous comments made on the subject and many have different feelings. Ultimately I think everyone has their own independent tripwire of what will “set them off”. Joe’s page on Civil Disobedience serves as a good resource to those who have never pondered the question.

I read that new post just after re-reading the Declaration of Independence. Now if you’re wondering why I would spend my free time reading that, or the Constitution or any other numerous items regarding history, it’s because I don’t want to repeat it. A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from other peoples mistakes. History gives you the ability to see events and what occurred because of them.

Back to the point however many only remember a few phrases, such as: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Many do not remember the laundry list of things that was done by the King that was presented as evidence. Now while many of these may not directly pertain to our present state of affairs, we should however also note other lessons that we’ve learned in the 20th century.

My personal thoughts on the subject is that the denial of the any specifically enumerated right of the people, most especially the right to keep and bear arms is a tripwire. Any and all attempts to prevent the people from being able to arm themselves properly for the defense of themselves, family, or property serve no other purpose to make us subservient to the state. This includes attempting to restrict ammunition by tax, or by requirements. A firearm without ammo is only an expensive club. While some would argue that you can stash weapons and use them at a later time, not everyone will be successful in stashing weapons. With restrictions on firearms, restrictions on travel and speech will exist limiting our ability to organize.

My definite words to live by are the lessons of the 20th century. When it came to New Orleans after Katrina, certainly shoot any soldier collecting weapons, nail the police chief, and the mayor too. At this point their sole goal is to be bigoted against us and kill us. To me it’s like negotiating with a terrorist who only wants you dead, what is there to negotiate? If it reaches this point you must trip and act. As for legislating it’s much harder to say. If someone actually starts collecting after legislation, they are definitely guilty, but who will hold them accountable.

These are just my thoughts on the subject, they’re very fluid and it’s a topic that is very difficult. It is not clear cut like someone attacking you in your house or stealing your property. However it is someone stealing your rights.

Winter Storms

Evidently there are some in my family who don’t believe that the Palouse is/has been buried under snow for the past couple weeks. Well, considering I spent three hours re-clearing my driveway and sidewalks yesterday, and it’s been a daily chore I say BS.

I took some pictures of my truck.

I removed about 12 inches of snow from the entrance to our driveway, the night before I had it nice and level with the road. My truck had packed down the snow so I had a comfortable parking spot. The cut for the walkway doesn’t look as deep because that was the first set of cuts down the middle. Where it had previously been cleaned. It was about another 6 inches in the driveway which was shielded by vehicles. In front there was about 12 inches. I would say it was blowing in from the south.

As you can see my project for today is digging out my truck. Thankfully it’s about 40 degrees so some of its melting off. Please note, the night before my truck was completely clear, that’s what I drive to work and I used it to pack down the snow in front of the driveway.

 

This is my upstairs neighbors deck. You can still see where I stepped to go up one time to ask him if his reception came back on his dish. The steps have just meshed into one. The Palouse got a white Christmas, and HOW!

Now for another pretty shot…

Merry Christmas

I’ve been busy lately, and finally got a little of a break this afternoon after clearing out my driveway and sidewalks. It’s supposed to begin dumping this afternoon again just in time for my birthday. I guess hell decided 25 years later to freeze over again.

Here’s a picture from my front yard to wish everyone a merry Christmas from the Palouse.


Brainwashing and Schools

Joe posted an item on Friday which I responded to and felt it worth posting here:

Hey, I was told by an instructor just after I transferred to WSU that I shouldn’t be an Electrical Engineer. Why did he say that? Because my focus wasn’t on regurgitation, it was on RUAC, emphasis on the UAC. Rote memorization is easy, yeah I know Euler’s identity, but understanding it, applying it and correlating it, that’s where the sweet spot of engineering lies. I remember sitting at work looking at a sine wave sampled at a regular interval and realizing that I can get the imaginary component by “rolling back” 90 degrees in time, no math required by the processor, it was already there.

No one ever taught me that, and that instructor who said I shouldn’t be an engineer, I promptly dropped the class and took it the next semester with a different instructor.

Over and over I keep seeing different schools and departments remove classes that actually apply the knowledge and they instead focus on “theory”. I’m sorry but I don’t think universities have any business discussing theory, most push socialism as a working theory, completely ignoring history.

Some have asked why I didn’t go and get my Masters immediately. My response, “they’ve been attempting to brain wash me for the past 20 years of my life, and by god my brain deserves a break from the constant bombardment.” Besides, I make more money overall this way, opportunity cost. Go back piecemeal, one class at a time while working, 4 years I’m done, about the same time I finish my PE apprenticeship, low and be hold my ass is productive and I well be rolling out of debt!

I guess I’m just lucky because my parents didn’t tell me to do what the teacher tells me, they told me “Question Everything!”


Ignored Lessons

For those who have never read it, Joe Huffman wrote this great page on civil disobedience. The lessons quoted from someone else at the end drive it home.

Remember the lessons of the 20th Century:

Lesson No. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you someplace you don’t want to go because of who you are or what you think– kill him. If you can, kill the politician who sent them. You will likely die anyway, and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant’s executioners. Any nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out of executioners and tyrants, or they will run out of it.

Lesson No. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and confiscate your firearms– kill him. The disarmament of law-abiding citizens is the required precursor to genocide.

Lesson No. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know if you have a firearm so he can put your name on a list for the common good, or wants to issue you an identity card so that you may be more easily identified– tell him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms is the required precursor to the tyranny which permits genocide. Bureaucrats cannot send soldiers to doors that aren’t on their list.

Lesson No. 4: Believe actions, not words. Tyrants are consummate liars. Just because a tyrant is “democratically elected” doesn’t mean that he believes in democracy. Reference Adolf Hitler, 1932. And just because a would-be tyrant mouths words of reverence to law and justice, or takes a solemn oath to uphold a constitution, doesn’t mean he believes such concepts apply to him. Reference Bill Clinton, among others. The language of the lie is just another tool of killers. A sign saying “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes You Free) posted above an execution camp gate doesn’t mean that anybody gets out of there alive, and a room labeled “Showers” doesn’t necessarily make you clean. Bill Clinton notwithstanding, the meaning of “is” is plain when such perverted language gets you killed. While all tyrants are liars, it is true that not all political liars are would-be tyrants– but they bear close watching. And keep your rifle handy.

From Obama’s mouth:

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be OK

But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.

And that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.

His statements on guns coupled with the above are greatly disturbing and certainly lesson 4 comes into play.

Stress Relief, Death to pumpkins

I saw a post on Joe’s blog last night about heading out to the Boomershoot site for some pumpkin destruction.

I arrived just after one as was asked. Good timing evidently because he was just finishing up the explosives as the wife and I showed up.

We spent the next bit chatting, I met a coworker of Joe’s, Kris, and I proceeded to gut and dismember the pumpkins much like Hannibal Lecter would to feed a man his own brains.

We then crated up the poor little victims and moved them to their zone of destruction.

This was a pumpkin that was in dire need of destruction. It was molding and becoming extremely soft. Big enough however it required two to move.

Six pounds of HE however would deal with this quite well. Besides the two that were rotting on top, well that was just nasty when it covered my hand.

We then proceeded to their destruction, first my wife, ladies first and all…

Followed by Kris…

And finally, here’s the video of my shoot. Along with a pic. Joe said “Just the big one left, give me a count of two so I can get the whole thing.” Sweet!!!! So I get to shoot this mother! AWESOME, Thanks JOE!

And as a final closing statement, we found pumpkin chunks 71 yards away. It quite literally rained pumpkin. Wife got hit in the leg, nothing major, I danced to get out of the way. The final dance move was to the right.

We drove back through Orofino to eat at Ponderosa, and gassed up outside the Casino for a low $2.18 a gallon. Thanks for a mini vacation Joe, much, much appreciated.