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Category Archives: Liberty

Independence Day…

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I’ve written about Independence Day many times before.  Honestly, go take a peek at those posts if you haven’t read them before.

It’s not the 4th of July, well it is literally, but it’s our Independence Day.  That is what we are celebrating, not just some random day of the year.  I don’t celebrate the 4th of July, I celebrate our Independence.  I celebrate the men who in that Continental Congress that hot July 2nd 1776 voted unanimously to declare the following:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Re-read that last sentence and let that sink in for a a second.  These men were committing treason according to the British crown.  Those men had we lost would have been hung for what they did.  One man’s riot is another man’s rebellion.  It is important that we all remember those facts.

As you celebrate our Independent with family and friends today, don’t forget about those men who took the ultimate risk to secure your liberty, both then and now.  At the same time, you might want to ask yourself, “When was the last time I took a risk to preserve the liberty of myself and my country men.”  Currently there is a man on the run who exposed a serious overreach by our government.  Many in that government have called him a traitor.  He gave up everything to expose the wrong our government was doing.

I know for the most part with this last statement I’m mostly preaching to the choir, but when was the last time you were politically active and engaged?  When was the last time you contacted your legislators and expressed your opinions in an effort to make them represent you instead of themselves? When was the last time you spend researching a political topic and didn’t just trust the media for the information on the subject?  When was the last time you shared the skill, joy, and freedom that comes with firearms with someone else? All of those items merely require the sacrifice of time, nothing more.  If we aren’t careful though and we don’t start fighting back hard, the sacrifices that will have to be made in the name of liberty and freedom will be considerably higher and more costly.

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."

And given the day, you should at least watch this once…

Snuggly The Security Bear

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This reminds me of Petey, the Sexual Harassment Panda.

SSCC Cleveland

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Incase you can’t see the video:

An Ohio prosecutor who was fired for creating a fake Facebook account to chat with witnesses in a murder trial insists he acted in the interest of the public.

Aaron Brockler confessed to posing as a woman on the social network in an attempt to coax the accused killer’s alibi witnesses to change their testimony, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports.

“Law enforcement, including prosecutors, have long engaged in the practice of using a ruse to obtain the truth,” Brockler told the newspaper. “I think the public is better off for what I did.”

Remember, it takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent man.

State Sponsored Criminal: Aaron Brockler

Because when you think that someone’s guilty, do everything you can to intimidate others into lying to support your version of the story.

via Rob Halvorson

SSCC California Highway Patrol

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No officers have been fired and the acting chief had the following to say:

The public if they get stopped and simply comply with what they are asked to do, they have nothing to fear, nothing to fear at all.

Translation.  Follow orders blindly or suffer violence without cause.  Think about that, do exactly as the officer says or they can kill you.  Think about what that implies and remember if you fight back you’ll be charged with assault. 

When they do it, it’s merely law enforcement, even when force isn’t necessary.

State Sponsored Criminal: Andrew P. Murrill

Because when you’re a cop and you’re bored and someone doesn’t do exactly what you want, beat them to within an inch of their life.

I Don’t Think They Thought This Through…

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So Mom’s Demand Action, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg, Inc. issued the following statement.  Most of note was this line:

The right of mothers to protect our children SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.

Evidently in their twisted view of the world there are only a few acceptable means of defending your children.  One small problem with that, their statement in and of itself is full of hypocrisy.  Why?  Let me illustrate with 1000 words with help from A Girl.

DefensiveMom_2

A Girl and her daughter E.

You see, my immediate thought when I read that line of garbage, and it is garbage, was of her and E.  Immediately followed by my friend Laurel:

Image via Oleg Volk.

I could continue down the list of mothers I thought of who would stand opposed to what “Moms Demand Action” is claiming to be right.  Not only do they stand opposed, but the desires of Moms Demand Action stands as a direct infringement to prevent them from doing what they claim to be protecting.

No one is forcing you to pick up a rifle to defend your family.  If you don’t want to, fine, that’s your choice and your business.  If however someone does want to pick up a rifle to defend their family, no one has any right whatsoever to tell them they cannot.   Any attempt to tell a woman she cannot pick up a rifle to defend her children is an infringement on the right to protect their children.  As such, any attempt at gun control whereby arms are removed from the hands of law-abiding citizens is just such an infringement.

So I went through and fixed up their document while adding commentary:

A Mother’s Bill of Rights

We, as mothers, have the absolute right to protect our children families from harm. We have the right to know our children are safe from gun violence, from the moment they leave our arms in the morning until they return home later in the day.  (That sentence is false, see Warren v. District of Columbia.)  We have a right and responsibility to defend our families from those who might do them violence.  But the rights of Americans mothers are under attack by criminals, the gun lobby, and legislators and puritans  who wish to trample those rights while still sticking them with the responsibility are unable to stand up for common-sense gun reforms. The right of mothers people to protect their families our children SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.

As mothers people, we have the right to…

 

  • Expect that assault weapons will remain in the hands of our military, not civilians that our right to keep and bear arms in defense of our families and children shall not be infringed.
  • Preserve our children’s innocence and shield them from gun any violence by taking any means necessary to stop it abruptly and swiftly without prejudice. in America, real and scripted(Really, scripted, why don’t you just turn off the TV instead of attacking Free Speech).
  • Demand that all public places remain gun-free zones;’ except private homes and shooting ranges allow the carry of defensive arms by those legally entitled to do so.
  • Know our children are safe in their schools: any school, anywhere, by allowing those who wish to defend our children the tools to do so.
  • Expect our teachers to be focused on teaching our children, not training to become armed guards.  (Because what a teacher does in their own time to defend themselves and your children is a bad horrible thing?)
  •  Demand that our government create the same strong regulations for guns as they have for toys, cars and food.  (Umm, did you miss the fact that firearms are more heavily regulated than all those things combined?)
  • Expect our leaders to put our children’s safety above the profit desire for power and influence of the gun industry those who hate and wish to deny us our rights and personal liberties.
  • Have access to complete, accurate information about the impact of gun violence on our families and communities personal responsibilities we have in ensuring our own family’s safety and wellbeing.
  • Hold our elected officials accountable for keeping our children safe from gun violence breaking their oath to support and defend the constitution.

Seriously, in what world does anything they wrote count as not an infringement.  You all keep using these words rights and infringements and I don’t think any of you on the other side really understand what a right is and what it means to infringe on one.

Not to mention it seems that they think some how their opinion is worth more merely because they are mothers.  Tell me, does the father’s opinion not matter?  Does the opinion of the desire of the husband to defend his wife count for nothing?  Just the same, does the opinion of the wife and mother to carry for the defense of her own family not matter?  No they would rather tell you, me, and everyone else how to live our lives.  Our opinion to them counts for jack.

It doesn’t matter we respect them and their decision not to carry firearms, but they want to force their decisions on the rest of us.  To them I say, “NO!”  I’ve had enough of you taking my cake and you will not get a single solitary inch until you give something back.  I am sick of “compromising” where I give up everything and you give up nothing.  GO TO HELL!  There’s a reason I get angry.

I think this version of the picture of A Girl with some additional text says it best:

Everyone has a right to choose their own tools.

Everyone has a right to choose their own tools.

h/t to Sean.

*If you’d like to use the spoof logo I created:

Moms Demand Action

Feel free to use this, just give me credit if anyone asks. 🙂

Evidently I’m not an activist…

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Neither is Robb, Joe, or Linoge.

Then there are the people who are doing nothing for advancing the cause, and are simply engaged in an attempt to garner fame for themselves. They loudly proclaim themselves to be engaged in civil disobedience, get the spotlight focused on themselves, and before any serious consequences can befall them, they fold their tent and scurry away. They then spend a large amount of time patting themselves on the back, and demanding that others recognize the so-called huge ‘risk’ they took in doing absolutely nothing. They are doing nothing for the CAUSE, they are doing this for THEMSELVES and their over sized egos.

Where did this all come from?  Well Joe, Robb, Linoge, and I were hosting an extra copy of the Defense Distributed file pack.  Allowing a quick and easy method for others to grab it if they so choose.

Divermedic took great offense saying how dare we pull our links when we evaluated the risk – reward matrix being beyond our worth.  Evidently if we were true activists we would fall on our swords and simultaneously commit seppuku.

You’re missing my point. The point here is that hosting the file from the beginning was a risk. Joe had to know that, or else why post the file at all?
A lawyer will ALWAYS tell you not to take a stand. That is his job. The easiest legal case to win is one that you never get into in the first place, but this results in very little change.
You accuse me of driving from the back seat, but isn’t that what the entire blogosphere does? We all sit around and complain about the state of affairs, but very, very few of us are willing to take a stand.
This is the reason why I think that all of this big talk about the “line in the sand” for gun owners is just that: talk. Everyone wants to complain, but no one wants to actually risk anything. Including myself, Joe, and even you.

Evidently, the thought there are different levels of risk and different cards that could be played never crossed this poor soul’s mind.  According to our illustrious leader here the best course of action is to always follow the original plan, even if the enemy makes an unexpected move that can easily and most likely cause your total destruction.  Hey, at least you died on a hill for nothing while screaming “Shall not be infringed” like a true activist right?

If you think that Joe, Robb, Linoge, or myself hosted this file for attention, maybe you’re the self-centered egotistical asshole projecting his approach to life on others.  I do find it interesting that while he continues to criticize us he has yet to actually put his money where his mouth is and do a damn thing beyond open his mouth bitching about how we’re “posers”.  Because a poser runs out and donates time and money and supplies said information to a couple hundred people?

Did we take as much risk as we could have?  No, why? Because honestly there was no reward to continuing the risk.  So why do it, why choose that hill to die on given the weapon they brought to bear against us?  We’re not running around bragging about it, we’re defending our decisions to some pleab who didn’t take an ounce of any risk himself.  We’re defending our actions against a man who has quite literally done nothing other than complain.

What is really telling though is how he states we’re not activists.

A lot of Joe’s writing on the right to keep and bear arms which you can read on his blog… is writing that you really really need to read.

  • Linoge isn’t doing anything to advance the cause?  I guess his work on the graphics matter posts aren’t worth anything.  His work engaging in debate is pointless and not worthy of note either.
  • Robb isn’t doing anything to advance the cause?  So his work for Florida Carry does not exist?
  • I’m not doing anything to advance the cause?  I guess my time donated helping Joe doesn’t matter.  I guess all my writing doesn’t matter.  I suppose the time I spend at gun shows helping people contact their legislators is time wasted.  I suppose the time I spend on the phone with my own legislators working on the details of pro-gun bills coming up for sponsorship are moot.  I suppose the time I donate to support A Girl, Sean, OldNFO, Linoge, and Weer’d and ensuring their blogs work and run is nothing.  I’m also going to be supporting another Washington State Firearms group here over the next couple days.  At cost while donating my time, but remember I’m not an activist.

His claim is the following:

Look, the penalty for violating ITAR is a million bucks plus twenty years in prison. I GET it if you aren’t willing to risk that. I know I’m not, but that is no excuse to run around and brag about how much you did and how much of a risk you took. That does nothing but pull the focus away from the problem and place it on you. That is why I criticize people for this.

No, here’s what happened.  Divemedic came into Joe’s place and started acting high and mighty calling us pussies for pulling down the files after the risk was too high.  He gave us a line of shit when we actually did something while he sat in his own little world and did nothing.

Does he really think that none of us have distributed those files in any other means?  Does he realize that three of us write software for a living and are very skilled with computers.  Tell me, given the penalty, would we advertise any further involvement?  Especially when we could accomplish the goal anonymously to protect ourselves.

He misread the point of posting those files.  Neither Joe, Robb, or myself posted that after the ITAR letter.  We had posted the files to help spread them far and wide and make it simpler for some to make their own copy.  Not everyone uses bit-torrent or is familiar with its use and we were helping anyone and everyone find it and sharing our bandwidth and server usage to do so.  The benefit of doing so was when the primary server link was cut we were still immediately available until the alternative methods had made their way all the way into the public’s view.

I didn’t ask everyone and their mother to link that post and I certainly provided no statement that I would keep the file posted no matter what.  I implied that you can’t stop the signal and you can’t.  Even though Joe, Robb, Linoge, and I have removed the files to legally protect us, it continues to spread, and that’s the damn point.

*Corrections since he evidently failed reading comprehension 101 and didn’t bother to actually read the quote.

One of them even made claim that he believe John Adams when he said:

If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.

I guess he changed his mind and decided to become a slave…

I think you were confusing that quote with this one from Samuel Adams.

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

Ok, first up, you still don’t have the file publicly posted so you have no room to speak as if you were issuing a call to arms for support.  You didn’t even post the damn thing to begin with.

Secondly, that John Adams quote states the following since you don’t seem to be able to understand, “The natural rights of man are non-negotiable and not subject to the laws over government as they are natural.”

I have not told anyone else to pull down that file, it is their choice to continue to host it if they so choose.  I support their right and free exercise of that right.  Just because I support that right doesn’t mean I must exercise it exactly that way.  In this case I choose not to exercise that right, not because I don’t think I should be able to, but because the trouble and risk far outweighs any possible positive benefit.  To put it another way, just because I support the legalization of weed doesn’t mean I want or have to smoke it.

In closing this isn’t the first time that someone from “our side of the fence” has decided to hate on me.  Frankly I don’t care, I’m just going to refer to myself as “The Third Tier non-Activist Gun Blogger with a Junior Internet Detectives Badge.”  Because honestly the behavior of Divemedic in this whole thing strikes me just like that Smoking Blunder ass hat.  He decided to try and use this as a wedge between members of our community and frankly anyone who acts or behaves like that I don’t consider a friend.  He thrives on badmouthing those on his side because they weren’t willing to continue to stand when he didn’t even stand to begin with.  I’m not trying to make this out to be some sort of bad ass move, but frankly he is criticizing people when he really has no right to.

Joe didn’t want to waste time on a response and frankly he’s probably right.  In the end though, he says that we were ego stroking in an attempt to gain traffic to our sites… That coming from the guy beating on the drama llama.  Honestly, why should anyone give a crap about the “opinion” of Divemedic?  Until this whole escapade I hadn’t even heard of him.

No, when I get a comment from Tam, Oleg, JayG, or Alan saying that I’ve done something wrong, I’ll perk up and listen, doubly so since they’ll do so in an appropriate manner and have earned their reputation and rightfully so.  As far as I’m concerned, this is a no-body bitching at a bunch of some-bodies because he felt like it.

The Best Publicity in the World…

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This has to be the biggest piece of publicity for an item ever created yet it didn’t even come from the company that created it.  Instead it came from our own government.

The Department of State, Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Enforcement Division (DTCC/END) is responsible for compliance with and civil enforcement of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778) (AECA) and the AECA’s implementing regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (22 C.F.R. Parts 120-130) (ITAR). The AECA and the ITAR impose certain requirements and restrictions on the transfer of, and access to, controlled defense articles and related technical data designated by the United States Munitions List (USML) (22 C.F.R. Part 121).

The DTCC/END is conducting a review of technical data made publicly available by Defense Distributed through its 3D printing website, DEFCAD.org, the majority of which appear to be related to items in Category I of the USML. Defense Distributed may have released ITAR-controlled technical data without the required prior authorization from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), a violation of the ITAR.

It’s worth noting that there is an exemption that Defense Distributed falls under but the bad news, for the government anyway, this will have the opposite effect by causing more people to grab it than you desire.

If/When I receive a take down notice validating the position of the State Department I will have no choice but to pull it.  Tonight I will be burying it behind a page that will require you to state that you are a US Citizen to download it under penalty of perjury.  I’ve already added a line disclaimer stating as much.  You can still get the files through this post.

Honestly I think this is a bullshit call and is merely an attempt to instill fear in the people and only serves to delay the dissemination of information.  Doubly so when you consider the ATF and Eric Holder violated ITAR during Fast and Furious.  No, you can’t stop the signal.

Freedom of Speech and the Right to Arms…

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I am morally aligned with the following quote from John Adams:

If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.

I also consider the right to self-defense and with it the right to keep and bear arms an essential natural right.  It is for that reason I am hosting the Defense Distributed file pack (by clicking this link you certify that you are a US Citizen within the United States under penalty of perjury) here(Upon advice from good friends, this has been removed, just see this quote for details.) (warning almost 500MB).  For details on why only US citizens may download these files, please see this post.

Many people seem to be lost on the real meaning of the Liberator Pistol.

That pistol is not meant to be a replacement for your standard side-arm.  I honestly don’t see 3d printing replacing standard firearms production.  The point of the Liberator is allow those to arm themselves that would otherwise be rendered defenseless by their government.  It is not designed to be used repeatedly over and over, it’s use is designed much the same as this pistol.

300px-M1942_liberatorYou have one shot.  It is not to be used at a far distance.  It is designed as a last-ditch when you have no other alternative.  One shot you think may not be effective, but that man you just killed sent by the state who was trying to kill you, he has a gun too right?  One much more effective than the one you just used.

The point of the Defense Distributed’s pistol is to at least give a tool to help better even the odds for the person being abused by the state and prevented from defending themselves.  It is not a magic talisman, it is merely a tool.  A tool which can help level the playing field and give a disarmed people a fighting chance to save themselves.

There’s a reason our federal tyrants are so afraid of something like this.  It guarantees that no matter what they do, the people will always have access to some sort of arm.

I will maintain that link and create alternate servers if necessary to do so.  It is a natural right of the people to be armed for their own defense.  Any person who opposes that right is not my friend, but my enemy wishing for my enslavement or death and I will fight back. As Linoge said, “You Can’t Stop the Signal.“