Sandy Froman tries to make the case for McCain

I am NOT a McCain fan despite the ads that Google keeps dropping on this blog. However, Sandy Froman, the current leader of the National Rifle Association, does have a point when she states:

That’s why the 2008 presidential election has unprecedented importance for gun owners. Despite their campaign rhetoric purporting to support the right to keep and bear arms, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are categorically opposed to our Second Amendment rights. Hillary Clinton opposed the 2005 tort reform law that saved the American gun industry from bankruptcy. Barack Obama has declared his opposition to all concealed carry laws. He has refused to repudiate his answer to a 1996 questionnaire, where he answered “yes” to a question asking if he supported laws banning “the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.” And Senator Obama’s true contempt for gun owners came out when he described us as “clinging” to our guns out of bitterness.

You can read the full article titled Guns and Judges: Electing the Supreme Court in 2008.

Long story short is that McCain would be more friendly to gun owners than either of the total socialists. McCain is only a half-hearted socialist. For the record, I am not an anti-socialist. I think strong social networks are vital to the health of any community. However, when social networks and societal support systems are run by governments, they generally suck, for lack of a better term.

I am not interested in mediocrity, particularly when it is being forced on me in lieu of other choices I may once have had available.

McCain might well keep some pro-2nd amendment people in the government in the short term. In the long term though, the anti-individualists will keep chipping away at all the things that make people flee other places to come here – choice, opportunity, freedom and most especially a mindset of rugged individualism.

Anyone who is truly interested in self-defense and individual rights already has an escape plan. McCain isn’t going to save this country from anything. Only private citizens acting together can do that.

Bullets and Bibles

This is a departure from my normal blog entry – I don’t usually do video blogging. Ever since I came across a news story about a soldier’s Bible stopping a bullet, I’ve been curious to see for myself if such an event could occur, and how likely it would be.

This weekend, I fired a variety of pistols and a rifle at a dummy that had a Holy Bible and then a Holy Quran as his sole means of protection from the projectiles. The results were, at least in my mind, illustrative. The end result of my experiment is that I am much less confident in using the 32 ACP pistols in my collection as primary defensive weapons – although they are the easiest to conceal I’m afraid they would be useless in many situations.

The resulting video should be taken for what it is worth – some will be entertained, some will be bored and some will be offended. If you fall in that latter category may I suggest you go and quietly pray in a corner? Also, I believe I call my SA XD 40 a revolver at one point in the video. I know that technically that is completely incorrect. It’s just a mental hiccup on my part. I have minor issues with reversing 6 and 9 sometimes and I occasionally say revolver when I mean automatic. Crossed circuits I guess.

If anything else going on is technically incorrect or stated poorly, please feel free to comment. I always want to learn and improve.

Obama is the man

I don’t mean that in the sense that he is a good guy, or a politician I support, or someone I admire because Barack Obama isn’t any of those things. He is the man in the sense that Barack Hussein Obama has locked the Democratic nomination. The writing is on the wall and the wrangling that is still going on is a pointless waste of time. Barack is the dude who will be running against John “2013″ McCain for leadership of this rudderless ship we all share called the United States of America. I am sure Hillary Clinton will play some sort of prominent role in the new administration should Obama find himself elected.

I once thought that the worst thing that could happen to the United States would be Hillary Clinton as President. I’m not really in that mindset any longer. A Barack Obama presidency won’t be significantly different from what we could have expected under the reign of Hillary Clinton. Although I have a strong personal dislike for Ms. Clinton and I cringe and feel like ranting every time I hear her grating, ego laden voice on my car radio, the broad goals of either individual are the same – a socialist nation where the common them is mediocrity. John McCain would lead us down the same path if given the opportunity.

I envision a time when the United States finds itself in the situation Mexico is in today. Instead of guarding our borders against those who want to come here for the myriad opportunities we will be guarding them against those who want to escape in order to be able to make their own choices.

And that is the only key point you need to know about all three of these powermongers: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain have one common theme – they want to make choices on your behalf. A life bereft of choices is a life without joy. Remember that on election day.

All you can count on if you vote Democrat or Republican is fewer choices in the coming four years.

America’s decline is Bush’s fault says Michael Hirsh

This morning I came across an article by Michael Hirsh whining about “America’s decline.” An Unnatural Disaster compresses the history of our great nation and draws simplistic conclusions.

In many articles and in book after book American “declinists” nowadays tend to portray America’s reduced stature as a largely natural phenomenon. Never mind that on the eve of the Bush presidency we were still seen as the most powerful nation in the history of the world. Decadent powers always wane in influence, and it seems we’ve just been doing a lot of waning very quickly. As other countries around the world partook of the ideas we pressed on them in the post-cold war era—free markets, democracy—they started to prosper and catch up to us. Meanwhile we grew fatter (literally) and more spoiled. It was all very organic.

While I tend to agree that this country is on the decline in many areas including morality, education and the stability of basic social systems, Hirsh provides no metrics for this purported decline. Hirsh is also tragically short-sighted and foolish in his conclusions.

In a nutshell, he blames President Bush for the “waning influence” of the United States.

That is the decline in America’s position in the world from where we were when George W. Bush inherited power on Jan. 20, 2001, to what he will bequeath to the next president eight months from now.

Mr. Hirsh conveniently overlooks our long history of interventionism that began in earnest after World War II. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton, intervened in Kosovo. We’ve been bribing and bullying to get our way for decades. George W. Bush is just continuing a well established tradition of forcing ourselves on the rest of the world. Hirsh continues, blaming the devaluation of the dollar on poor decisions by the Bush administration (which somehow includes Wall Street in Hirsh’s mind).

Now America’s economy is in the process of “de-leveraging”—shrinking in borrowing power and thereby reducing its impact around the world as foreign funds pull their investments from dollars or redirect them into euros or “baskets” of several currencies. As European and Asian financiers and economic officials have come to learn the truth about the subprime debacle, they’ve become leery about ever trusting Wall Street’s or Washington’s advice again. Yet had anyone in Washington been paying serious attention, the worst of the credit crunch—and loss of prestige—could have been avoided.

The economic downturn has little to do with George W. Bush and much more to do with a national attitude the values instant gratification over responsible spending. Ultimately, it is the apathy, slothfulness and poor value choices of individual Americans themselves that are to blame for any “American decline.”

The beast of bureaucracy

What should you expect for violations of the mighty bureaucratic pen in the America of 2008? Something like this story of a dedicated and productive citizen who was eaten by the behemoth monster every gun owner should be wary of.

Guardsman guilt of illegally transferring ‘machine gun’ after firearm malfunctions

A drill instructor in the National Guard has been convicted in a Wisconsin federal court of illegally transferring a machine gun after a rifle he loaned to a student malfunctioned, setting off three shots before jamming.

The verdict of guilty on one count in the case against David Olofson was confirmed yesterday by the clerk’s office in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

That means now that anyone whose weapon malfunctions is subject to charges of having or handling a banned gun, according to an expert witness who reports that the particular problem is a well-known malfunction and was even the subject of a recall from the manufacturer.

“If your semiautomatic rifle breaks or malfunctions you are now subject to prosecution. That is now a sad FACT. I guess we know now what Sen. Kennedy meant when he said he looked forward to working with [Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director] Mike Sullivan on Gun control issues, after his committee approved him for full Senate vote,” Len Savage, a weaponry expert who runs Historic Arms LLC, said in a blog.

The case of United States vs. David R. Olofson is a case about what happens when pieces of paper and a bureaucrat’s pen become more important than what is in a man’s heart. David R. Olofson is a National Guardsman and by all accounts a decent and law abiding type who contributes much more to society than he takes back from it. Unfortunately, none of that matters to the sweaty, small minded men in cheap suits who run this country.

Olofson, you see, had loaned one of his rifles, and it malfunctioned at a range, firing off short bursts before jamming. This was called to the attention of local authorities who seized the rifle, an Olympic Arms AR-15. They in turn called BATFE, who decided to make a federal case out of it, charging Olofson with illegally transferring a machinegun.

Enter Len Savage (See “Failing the Test,” July 2005), President of Historic Arms, LLC, brought in by Olofson’s defense to testify the automatic fire was not by design or intent, but rather by mechanical failure, and that the firearm in question was simply a semiautomatic rifle that needed to be repaired.

Now this good man is a convicted felon. Not because he was planning a crime. Not because he hurt someone. Not because he showed bad judgement. No, David R. Olofson is a felon because a group of idiotic bureaucrats decided the rules are more important than common sense.

This is a clarion call to every citizen about the political climate created by a bloated federal government. Doesn’t matter which rule you violate. Doesn’t matter if you even knew the rule existed. You will be smashed. Your life will be ruined. Don’t believe me?

Read on. If the government notices you, no matter how well intentioned you may be, and it doesn’t like what it sees, it may well decide to smash you too. You may not be allowed to defend yourself in a manner most people would deem to be reasonable. You may not even be allowed to attend testimony against you! That’s pretty damn close to fascism if you ask me.

If anyone knows a way for me to contribute to Mr. Olofoson’s legal defense fund (assuming he has one) please contact me. I will not sit idly by while an individual of good character is destroyed by our bloated system of sycophants and rule weasels.