Quote of the Day–Edmund Burke (02/20/2011)

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. –Edmund Burke

[The American people have been fed numerous lies as of late.  From lying about why the government needs to kill the internet, to the impending doom of an assured terrorist attack.  Many believe them, others do not even really understand what they’ve lost.  Today yet another danger of government involvement in the internet could be seen in China.

Someone who TMW works with just turned 20 and lives in one of the sororities doesn’t understand what’s wrong with the TSA scanning machines or pat downs.  Her comment was, “You get a physical from your doctor, how is the TSA any different.”  She couldn’t seem to understand that government is force, and the fact she had no voice in the matter was a problem.  Government is force, and they will expand that force through deceit and claims of necessity.   Not to mention she couldn’t comprehend it was A Security Theater.

Even more than that though, no one seems to understand these are not their rights to give up, and even more importantly they are not rights that can be removed from others.  Not by law or by force of man can our natural rights, which include the right to be secure in our persons and property, can they be removed from us.  For when we allow these rights to be destroyed, we shall begin our decent into serfdom and slavery.  -TMW]

Open Carry and BBQ

Some friends have a barbeque joint in Moscow, and they give a 10% discount for open carrying.  I was in Moscow so I decided I’d stop in, and ended up hanging out for four hours.  While I was there I couldn’t help but take pictures.

Their wall of awesome.

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Since there were three Kimber’s in the room we decided to have a group photo, can’t argue with some gun p0rn.

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The left full size is a Custom II, the right is an original Custom.  The left two can also be seen here.  The Big Bear is an awesome sandwich, but seriously, cutting it in half is a pain in the ass.  The thing is freaking massive.

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They also sponsor a local hockey team, with the most awesome name ever.

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If you root for the other team, you’re wrong. For those who noticed yes, they do have beer on tap,

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and they have many signs now advertising it.

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Beer is served the way god intended.  Chilled and in mason jars.

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If you haven’t been there, I highly suggest it;  If you went there previously prior to the new ownership, go back, it is wonderful now.

[end shameless plug]

*note: I was in no way compensated or paid for this, it’s just that awesome, and I like the barbeque and the owners that much! Seriously.

How did I miss this!?

This is epic.

Info can be found here.  You can download the music here.

When open carrying, you are a diplomat

The whole open carry incident in Michigan is getting annoying and it’s becoming annoying for numerous reasons.  I stopped commenting on different threads because it seemed the majority of people just lacked critical thinking ability.  It turned into a pointing game with people screaming that people were actually the equivalent of Joan Peterson and the Brady Campaign.  All because they voiced their OPINION that carrying a long arm was unnecessary and runs a serious risk of causing damage.  As Robb said, “you need to be prepared for the consequences”, that includes having people angry at you that would normally support you.

This morning Uncle posted that Michigan Open Carry has now been served with a restraining order and civil suit.  Fan-freaking-tastic,  from reading the suit I have a strong feeling that MOC is going to win, however there are some questions the court is going to have to settle and the win isn’t cinched.  The big item is who exactly the preemption law actually applies to, and does it actually restrict the library.  If you read the law word for word the answer is the library is not restricted. 

What many fail to realize is there is absolutely no correlation between the law and justice. Laws are not created for justice, and if there was a correlation it would imply that there could be no law which could violate our natural rights.  So when someone goes and picks a fight like this it’s unnerving.  It is unnerving because those who started it usually didn’t actually think the whole episode through as if they were on the other side.  Which leads me to why many people are upset over the incident, and why Breda, PDB, and others made posts regarding being on your best behavior.

What happened in Michigan was unfortunate and totally avoidable.  The major complaint has been about behavior and how people acted.  It sounds as if the people who were involved were not regular patrons of the library, were not known by the library staff, and the all around behavior created the mess that we now see.

The individuals involved in this incident could have easily preceded their "political action" by actually regularly using the library and being regular customers.  Got to know the library staff and talk with them prior to even open carrying in the building.  While they did this they could still conceal carry as to be armed, but plant the seed of trust.  Instead some loitered as irregular customers, who from the description of the article weren’t really in the library for related business, openly carrying weapons, and refused to leave until the police asked them to.*  Being unknown to the staff or anyone else around, while openly carrying a holstered firearm shouldn’t be cause for alarm, it does panic some, especially those whose support we are trying to win.  It is doubly compounded when said individual dresses in such a way to fit the media stereotype.  You should look like someone you would want your daughter to marry, professional and kempt.

If they had introduced themselves to the staff prior to the actual event, become known to staff, they could easily have protested the wrongful regulations of the library without any serious negative effects.  The conversation between the protesters and staff would have probably been much more open and comfortable.  When approached by the staff, the staff would have been more comfortable and the staff would also been more receptive of the information the carriers were conveying.  The staff could have also just told patrons, “Don’t worry about it, they’re regulars.”  Not to mention the fact if the protestors actually had business to conduct in the library it probably would have aided their case.  I’m willing to bet none of the individuals from MOC involved in this incident even have a library card for that branch. 

This was not people acting in a normal capacity (conducting every day business), it was group of armed people gathering in a location as a form of political protest.  While within their rights and the law to do so, their lack of planning, forethought, and actions prior to the event have created a mess of legal litigation and negative public relations which is very damaging to both open carry and well as the right to keep and bear arms in general.  I like being able to open carry and when I hear about events like this, it pisses me off because instead funding serious action, the community is now going to also be funding a skirmish that is actually going to result in zero legal gain, possibly lose ground, and could have been dealt with easily by thinking and diplomacy.

Michigan law was in their favor, at that point you don’t need to be a dick, you need to be diplomatic.  It’s a policy problem, not a law problem.  They were dicks because they didn’t properly engage their targets in polite conversation, they may have tried, but they had created a hostile atmosphere that shut down the people they were trying to talk to.  Going “It’s my right” doesn’t change this fact, it also doesn’t alter the fact that some of those that shut down may have been positive if it was a pistol to start with, or hadn’t been loitering in a section they probably weren’t really interested in.  It’s a consequence of the decisions they made.

All I want is for people to think ahead and use the grey matter between their ears, and most especially show some empathy towards the people we’re trying to persuade.  Be tactful and think your actions through.  In this case they took the frog and tossed it into the pot of boiling water and some people seem surprised that the frog wanted out.  Now the gun community has to fight a battle here, for a right already won back, because someone couldn’t just think and be diplomatic with the library.  It’s much easier to convince them if you know them on good grounds first.  While this won’t work for every occasion, in this case it was certainly possible, and it’s true 99% of the time.

*Some have said they were never asked to leave, others claim they left immediately when asked.  I find it hard to believe this brouhaha is happening if they had left immediately.

**Also JayG nailed another thing that pissed me off on the head.

*** Just found three updates from Robb.

Here comes a new “necessity”

Evidently the FBI is 100% sure there is going to be an attack on US Soil involving a “Weapon of Mass Destruction.”

The question is, what are they going to use their new “necessity” for?  Not to mention the fact that the government has claimed numerous non-existent dangers before.

Imagine That

It’s amazing what happens when you restrict firearms so much.  People have to resort to hiring people who are “exempt” from the law to protect them.  They outlaw particular types of tools effective for the job, and this is the result. 

I guess it was all just a job creation plan for California that started way back, they just saw this recession depression  coming.

Something from nothing

So the unions in Wisconsin are currently going ape because the elected representatives have finally learned that if money going out is greater than money coming in, it is unsustainable.  However some of the law makers fled to prevent the law from moving forward.

For those who can’t understand how bad this explosion of debt across the country is, here’s a video regarding the Federal Deficit and proposed spending cuts.

Overall the Federal and even the Wisconsin cuts are a drop in their respective buckets.  The fact is things are going to have to start hurting to try and get things under control.  The options are minor pain now from the market corrections, or serious pain laterThe fact is public unions have overpriced themselves, crammed benefits down the throat, and now make considerably more than the private sector.

What is wrong with that I hear you ask?  The private sector pays the salary of the public servants through taxes.  So when the servants are making more than the private sector, the bottom line is it’s going to be unsustainable.  Your output is bigger than your input, and you have thusly violated the second law of thermodynamics.  You can not get something for nothing, who is going to pay the debt that the public sector is creating, it’s larger than the wages of the private sector.  Even FDR, my previously most hated socialist President hated the idea of public unions and understood the dangers.

This year the deficit will be 11% of the total gross domestic product.  For those of you who lack the ability to understand what the above means, the government has spent almost 11% of the production from the private sector, the government does not create wealth.  Wealth is created by production, the government does not produce, it consumes, don’t believe me or the link, explain the deficit.  The consumption has now matched the output of the private sector, and has passed the income of the government for a long time.

Unions are dying, there is no question.  What is interesting, is many of these people see the problem but have now been on the government teat for so long they have grown accustomed and dependent.  Many are conned into joining the union, or forced.  They become dependent and turn from being productive to being parasites.  Their response is cut money from someplace else.

TMW was the first one to ever ask the magical question when deciding on her new job, “Do I have to join the union?”  We finally got an answer, and thankfully it was no, and no matter what we were going to stick to our principals.  Many do not have the courage to do the right thing even when it hurts.  Many of those who have joined the union, were not aware that they could opt out or what other things the union does with their money.  The union takes 3% of every employees wages, it’s no wonder they could finance Obama’s election.  Many do not even know what else the union does “on their behalf.”  Union dues are nothing more than a mandatory political donation when the union is forced upon the people.  When it’s implied that union membership is required for employment, it’s racketeering.  Employment is held hostage unless you submit to also work for the political party supported by your union.

It’s no wonder given these facts that the unions are fighting so hard to prevent from being shut up.  Kids are being drug out of school to protest instead of learning.  They’re trying to cause enough discomfort that they continue to be paid their outrageous wage.  The thing is, there is no money to do so.  Unions especially public employee ones are some of the biggest parasites in America and they need to be dealt with swiftly as the dangerous infection they are.  Their motivation is greed, because if the employees aren’t unionized, the union heads can’t steal money off the income of the workers, and pay to have their buddies elected.  May Wisconsin be successful, and may other states follow in their path.

The Government Protecting Its Own

The King County prosecutor has decided not to press charges against Officer Ian Birk regarding this incident.

This whole incident is reminding me of the what the Federal Government did to protect Lon Horiuci after Ruby Ridge.  The officer created this incident, and shot a man without any real probable cause.  The individual had done nothing wrong, was not aggressive or threatening anyone, yet he was shot four times.  The reasoning for the prosecutors office was the following:

Speaking Wednesday, Satterberg cited a 25-year-old state law mandating that police officers not by held criminally liable for using deadly force if they acted “without malice and a good faith belief” that their actions were justified.

Any civilian who made the same decision as Birk would be charged with murder, or at minimum manslaughter.  There is no way that they would escape criminal prosecution.  Even in video taped incidents of self defense civilians do end up on trial.  Why is law enforcement given a free pass?  So what that their job is more dangerous, if they use deadly force, it needs to be CLEARLY justified.  In this case Seattle PD has admitted that he was clearly unjustified.

Initially the department said Williams made a move toward the officer, but it later backed away from that assertion. Sources tell KING 5 a preliminary review on October 4 by the firearms review board concluded the shooting was not justified.

So, this is really just the same story we’ve heard before, but now on a lower level than the Federal level.  Remember, they’re exempt, you are not.