NRA getting left in the dust.

Check out this story from... ABC NEWS!?

Pro-Gun Grassroots Groups Taking the Lead in Gun Rights Fight

You'll note the statistics ABC throws up at the top of the article. Those are lowball estimates. And its good to see a turncoat sellout organization like the NRA getting their due.

Also, in the interest of highlighting greatness, from the comments:

If seeing someone openly carrying a gun makes you nervous there is a good chance it is because it forces you to realize that you have chosen to be helpless. What other magic do you believe in? A gun will magically transform a normal person into a raving maniac, a "Law" will magicallly make violence go away, the police will magically apppear when you need them. Childlike dependance on the actions of someone else for the safety of your self and your family is what the Brady's of the world are promoting, they hope to be the parents but are not up to the job. But they will dance in the blood of their victims to get a paycheck.
Ex-Nuke 11:22 AM

My thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender

Okay, after years of mocking all of this faux-weeaboo Avatar BS, I finally watched it.

...

It's..

..it's..

...pretty good, actually. Maybe not "greatest cartoon of all time", but its definitely up there. Okay. I was wrong. Its not anime, its not stupid, all that jazz. (A little annoyed at the "Teen Titans"-ish moments--exaggerated head sizes, faces, etc.)

I watched the enitre third season in one day. Better than the other seasons. Now for my thoughts-- may be a little random, but bear with me.

-Aang is a cool character (I've noticed I like Messianic heroes and Aang is definitely THAT), and at first I was a bit worried at the season 2/3 junction cause he seemed to be going dark, but it was just good character development.
-Zuko was quickly my favorite character, though who didn't like Iroh right off the bat?
-I totally have a crush on Toph. Tell anyone, and I will kill you.
-Mick Foley voiced The Boulder. (Also, refering to himslef in the third person, heavyweight champion, etc. Genius!)
-The Rock better play the Boulder in Movie two, or I will shed blood. IT'S SO OBVIOUS, YOU'D HAVE TO BE LIVING ON ANOTHER PLANET(Or not be a wrestling fan) TO NOT SEE THE PARALLELS.
-The Hippo fighter was obviously a knockoff of KIng Hippo in Mike Tyson's Super Punch Out! down to the tuft of hair and the four teeth.
-Sokka. I like Sokka, cause he's the average Joe on the team. Good to see he rounded out as a fighter. Also, he made me laugh.
-White Lotus Society. Avatar world has its Freemasons. Clever.
-Ozai is an evil bastard. Mark Hamill was a perfect fit.
-Ron Perlman as Sozin was also an awesome pick.
-It took a little getting used to that the spirit world wasn't Good/Evil but I guess that's because I'm used to a Christian cosmology, whereas this was obviously Eastern Oriented ([Sokka] Get it? GET IT?![/Sokka]). And yes, I'm talking to you giant owl of knowledge. At least be in favor of balance or something.
-Azula is an evil bitch. I like Ty Lee though. Why does she stick around?
-I noticed it pulled from a lot of non-Western Cultures. Could Avatar do an ancient greece? I know its a Western heritage thing, but enough people are ignorant enough that you put some hoplites in armor, helmets up and make them travel across the earth kingdom and no one would be the wiser.
-On that-- I wouldn't have minded seeing Persians, or Phoenicians.
-End of Season 2. Zuko, I am fucking disappoint.
-The Face Stealer creeped me the hell out.
-Katara. Obviously there to be Aang's love interest, though not without her own development. Only waterbender left in the SWT? I thought anybody could be a bender, you simply needed work at it hard enough(Like the classic Idea of the Jedi Knights)
-Katara's revenge episode seemed to be thrown in at the last minute.
-Aang shoulda killed Ozai. I know you're a pacifist (Vegetarian? I guess that's why you're so skinny- malnourishment and all that. Also, Tibetan, and I suppose that makes sense.) kid, but c'mon. the other Avatars were right. And some people need killing.
-Spiritbending was a Deus Ex Machina, inserted to give Aang an out. Kudos on rejecting what everyone wants and going your own way, I guess.
-Lion Turtle didn't fit, to me.


-I'm surprised Avatar:TLA hasn't been banned in China. Tibetan hero, the Han China expy (Ba Sing Se) being run by a Secret Police that brainwash, kill, and manipulate? It screamed PRC to me, anyways. And considering that this is the same gov't that is putting pressure on archaeologists in the Gobi Desert b/c they found Celtic graves (which contradicts official policy that the Han Chinese have always ruled the area, and no other ethnic groups have ever had a claim there),
hey'd probably not take to well to an Epic hero who was designed off a culture they are actively subjugating and seeking to stamp out. Figured they'd ban the damn thing.

So rip my observations apart if you want, I'm done.



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+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it."-Albert Einstein

"Repeal the 17th Amendment?" Gene Healy, Washington Examiner.

An Op-Ed from the Washington Examiner, detailing the increasing amount of people who are talking about repealing the 17th Amendment.

Here.

Thanks to the wonderfully impertinent Tea Partiers, that 1913 "reform" is no longer just the stuff of trivia -- it recently made headlines in House and Senate races.

Two Republican nominees for House seats -- Ohio's Steve Strivers and Idaho's Raul Labrador -- have expressed sympathy for repeal. And Tim Bridgewater, one of two Tea Party candidates who last month knocked off sitting Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, argues that "if the states elected their senators, legislative monstrosities like ObamaCare or [No Child Left Behind], with their burdensome mandates, would never see the light of day."

Of course, the Statists exhibit massive butt-hurt at the idea of checks and balances:

Of all the "goofy ideas from those lovable wacky Tea Partyers [sic]," John Aloysius Farrell writes at USNews.com, this is the "stupidest." Repeal talk is "truly regressive," even "Paleolithic," Timothy Egan seethes in Sunday's New York Times.

Apparently, the only thing worse than peasants with pitchforks is peasants with pocket Constitutions.

Read it all.

+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"Freedom of the press, freedom of association, the inviolability of domicile, and all the rest of the rights of man are respected so long as no one tries to use them against the privileged class. On the day they are launched against the privileged they are thrown overboard."
-- Prince Peter Kropotkin - "Anarchism" (1884)

Been gone for awhile.

But that's just cause I was busy. I haven't forgotten this blog, nor will I allow it-- despite my venting-- to turn into my personal blog. I suppose the occasional lurker might stumble onto this page, and I want them to be entertained by what they see. So I'll begin some blog posts about random stuff.


+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born, is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" -Marcus Tullus Cicero

Random Venting

So I finally worked up the courage to mail a birthday card that I've had in my posession for a month now to a wonderful little boy whom I care for very much. But why do I have this queasy, hard lump in my stomach? Why do I feel like the other shoe is about to drop?

Answer: Because that same wonderful little boy's mother is my ex-best friend. And she loathes the very thought of me. If I were burning in hell and complained of thirst, she would hand me a tall glass of gasoline.

I know, even as I write this, that it wasn't really anything I did. Yeah, trying to block her status updates from my facebook homepage backfired. (I didn't know that "blocking" removes that person from your friend's list. Caveat emptor.) And I'm not pure as the driven snow in all this either. But she changed. She chose this path. She had two lives open to her- one of temporary pain and momentary self-denial, but eventual triumph and gladness; and one of self-centeredness and temporary happiness, but eventual emptiness and disappointment- and she chose the latter.

For my part, I recognize that she has pushed me out of her life forever. And while I regret what happened, I know that those last few months I didn't really care for her at all. The last time I saw her in person, she was positively bubbly. (I thought- selfishly- that it was because she got to see me. But now I know it was because the "addict" had her "fix" back at home. I forgive her, and I still pray for her.) I saw that day through the lies she was throwing at me- about us hanging out, etc. And later, when I found out her ex-husband had hit her, I felt terrible because I wasn't angry. My first thought was "Well, what did you do to deserve it?"

I didn't love her with Christ's love. And mine was spent. I still love her, because now I have Christ's love. I forgive her for all the wrongs she has committed against me- all the lies and manipulations and deceptions. And I pray to be forgiven my thoughts and my anger. We are all sinners. But we are redeemed if we accept to be.

Some days I'm hurt. but most days I just miss her.

---------------------
+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
"An armed society is a polite society.
Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."
~Robert A. Heinlein

"Will America Break Up?" from the Washington Times

by Jeffrey T. Kuhner. Article here.
--------------------

"President Obama is splintering America. The passage of Obamacare was a historic victory for liberal governance. Yet, its true cost may be that it triggers the eventual breakup of the country.

Mr. Obama has achieved what his liberal predecessors - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bill Clinton - could only dream of: nationalized health care. Obamacare signifies the government take-over of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It has dealt a mortal blow to traditional America. We are now a European-style socialist welfare state. The inevitable permanent tax hikes, massive public bureaucracy and liberal ruling elites will stifle competition and initiative.

Republicans vow to repeal Obamacare. Their past record, however, leaves many conservatives rightly skeptical. Since FDR's New Deal, Big-Government liberalism has been on the march - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Education. The Republican Party has been unable to roll back the tide of statism. In fact, under Richard Nixon and both George Bushes, Great Society Republicans have been complicit in erecting a nanny state.

Socialism is the road to economic ruin and fiscal bankruptcy. It subverts democracy, threatening the very future of our constitutional republic. Socialist states degenerate into some form of autocracy or technocratic neo-feudalism, whereby the productive class is taxed and exploited to sustain a growing dependent class. Factions are pitted against each other; groups vie for handouts at the expense of their fellow citizens. The bonds of economic union and national solidarity slowly dissolve.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not," warned Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was right: Redistributionist welfare policies are undermining our democracy. The resentments in America are growing. Tea Partiers believe that their government no longer represents their interests or values. The heartland is becoming dangerously alienated from the political class, whom it feels has betrayed them.

Obamacare may be the last straw. It strips away fundamental economic liberties, empowering the federal government to de facto nationalize everyone's body by controlling our health. Americans are compelled - upon pain of penalty and eventual imprisonment - to purchase insurance.

Moreover, the law codifies the federal funding of abortion. Taxpayer dollars will be used to subsidize the murder of innocent life. Hence, Mr. Obama has violated the social compact: He has abrogated the conscience of pro-lifers, making them tacitly complicit in the slaughter of the unborn. Obamacare is a radical assault upon fundamental religious freedoms.

The Obama revolution threatens to tear America apart. This has happened before. Slavery eventually triggered the Civil War between the industrial North and the agrarian South. Abortion is the slavery of our time - the denying of basic human rights to an entire category of people.

The bitter debate over Obamacare has exposed the country's profound divisions. We are no longer one nation or one people. Rather, there are now two Americas: one conservative, the other liberal. Increasingly, we no longer just disagree but we despise each other.

Our disagreements encompass everything - politics, morality, culture and history. We no longer share a unifying essence or common values. One half of America believes abortion is an abomination; the other half considers any attempt to repeal it as oppressive and sexist. One half opposes homosexual unions because it elevates immoral and unnatural behavior to the sacred status of marriage; the other half supports it as an extension of civil rights. One half reviles Mr. Obama's socialist agenda, viewing it as the destruction of capitalism and our constitutional government; the other half embraces it as the culmination of social justice and economic equality. One half reveres America's heroes - Christopher Columbus, George Washington, James Madison, Davy Crockett - and its glorious history; the other half is ashamed of its past, seeing it as characterized by racism, imperialism and chauvinism.

Ultimately, a country is not simply its geographical borders with the people inside of it. It is something more - and deeper. A nation must share a common heritage, language, culture, faith and myths. Once upon a time, Americans celebrated the same heroes, sang the same patriotic songs, read the same history and literature, and gloried in its exceptional nature: a city upon a hill, with liberty and freedom for all. It was understood that, for all of our different ethnic and religious backgrounds, America is a product of English and Christian civilization. Those days are long gone.

Instead, we are going the way our Founding Fathers warned us against: increasing balkanization and sectionalism. A constitutional republic - unlike an empire - is only as strong as its national cohesion. It is based not on imperial coercion but civic consent. Mr. Obama is recklessly pulling at the strings of unity, further polarizing us.

In confronting Obamacare, state sovereignty, states' rights and state nullification of federal laws are being asserted. This is what happened in the 1830s and 1840s. They are the signs of growing political anarchy and social frustration - people can only be pushed so far. Mr. Obama's drive for a socialist super-state threatens America's very existence. As Jefferson warned about slavery, it is time we start ringing the "fire bell in the night."

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold," wrote William Butler Yeats. "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

Conservatives will not be passive in this onslaught on all our core values. Mr. Obama's true legacy may be that he divides us deeper than ever before - unless he abandons his revolutionary project."

A few personal points: firstly, I do not see the reemphasis on state's rights as a sign of "growing political anarchy". Social Frustration? Yes. But not anarchy. Many Americans forget that the United States was initially supposed to be a Union of sovereign states. And it worked quite well under the Articles of Confederation-- it was only the frustration of certain members of the founding generation who wanted a strong central government that we even got the curent Constitution. Even after its ratification in 1787, many of the Jeffersonian Republicans recognized the power of the States as being a check against an out of control central government.

The only regret, in my mind, is that it took the Federal government acting to seize a significant portion of the American economy before we woke up.

And it seems that more and more people are recognizing the parallels between slavery and abortion. The greatest weakness, in my mind, of Americans is that we find it very easy to relegate other groups to the status of "non-persons". The Cherokee, on the trail of tears. African slaves. The Japanese-Americans in WWII. And now the unborn. When it is convenient- or when it benefits us- we can ignore the humanity and dignity possessed by others and simply sweep them aside.

We slaughtered each other once, over state's rights and the status of a group of people who could not speak for themselves. Perhaps we shall do it again. Only this time, instead of the moral high ground being occupied by the two nations called "America", only one side will carry the twin banners of Liberty and Righteousness.

And its not yours, Mr. President.

---------------------
+++AWESOME QUOTE+++
Fire, water, and government know nothing of mercy. – Albanian Proverb

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death- 235 years ago...

Yesterday was, someone pointed out to me, the 235th anniversary of Patrick Henry's well-known speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses. In the interest of American history- and my political sensibilities- I am pleased to reproduce the entire thing. (Thanks Mike!)

--------------------------------

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death

Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775.

"No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained-- we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!"

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come."

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

I think we all too often forget, safe and snug in our simple, easy lives, that Liberty is a dangerous idea. And our Founders were dangerous men.