In praise of e-commerce

I'm telling you, I love e-commerce. Sit down with the Christmas gift lists, clickity-clickity-clickity, get the confirming email and then sit around and wait for the Big Brown Truck of Happiness. No lines, no surly clerks, no surly shoppers, no Christmas music 3 weeks too early, no tramplings, no tasers and no pepper spray.

Ah, progress!

But...but...this couldn't happen!

Because in the People's Republic of Chicago, those evil guns are banned.

Police say four people have been shot after gunmen stormed a Chicago restaurant and demanded money.

I guess the robbers didn't care if they violated that law, either.

"Gun control" never serves its stated purpose. Repeal the laws now, or admit that it isn't about crime, but about government fear of an armed populace.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's wishing you and yours a utterly politically incorrect Happy Thanksgiving, complete with Pilgrims, Indians and all the trimmings.

Hey! Somebody get the dog--he's eying the turkey!

How to title this post?

I'm not sure...Would "There are obviously some weaselly bastards disgracing the uniform of naval officers" do? Because that what it looks like to me.

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

I applaud the SEALs for not taking the easy way out and for demanding their day in court. Of course, being SEALs, I wouldn't expect anything less.

It's a shame their officers thought they would.

Calling Bullshit! on the gun banners

Michael "I Hate Guns" Bloomberg has "persuaded" two New York Congresscritters to introduce a bill to give the ATF 1500 more agents. Why? As Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tells us:

Because right now, they only have the capability to check gun dealers once every 7-20 years, literally. It is so outrageous.

What I find outrageous is Senator Gillibrand's quick and apparently thorough co-option by the power structure in DC. At one time, she was considered pro-gun (the NRA gave her an "A" rating, FWIW), but now that she has entrenched herself in the Senate, it would seem that she knows who buttered her bread.

I also find it outrageous that a sitting US Senator will lie. Yes, I know I shouldn't, especially in a day when their colleagues will whore themselves out for a measly $300 million, but I do. FFLs are audited every 7-20 years? In what bizarre plane of reality? Both of the ones I know personally are audited every year--and not because they're doing a bad job at record keeping. I hear it is much the same for most FFLs.

I have this sense that the leftists feel that their time is short. Their Obamessiah has lost his Golden Calf luster and his momentum. Their "health care reform" is beginning to falter while "cap our trade" has been brought up short by the beginnings of the collapse of the global warming religion (link via Drudge). The time they have to ram their agenda down our throats is getting short, and we're going to see a lot more attempts to make it happen, whether by a frontal assault or, like this, via the back door.

Those of us who love our freedoms and who love our country are going to have to step it up several notches. We're going to have to spend a lot of time keeping informed and using that information to inform others. If you blog, you need to be active and talk these things up. Mention them in any forums you participate in. Talk to your friends and family. Work hard not only to defeat them now, but in November, 2010 and November 2012.

Remember, we have to win every battle. They only have to win one.

Handy information to have

Oral Rehydration Solution

Remember the Census worker found dead in Kentucky?

Much was made of the word "fed" scrawled on his body. Many seemed to hope that this was the opening shot of a revolution. (Dolts. If we have a revolution, let's hope for our own version of the Velvet Revolution. I'm too old to play "man the barricades".)

It seems that either he committed suicide or he's channeling Vince Foster. Let the conspiracy theories commence!

*sigh*

I've been waiting to comment on this one until all the facts came out. I was hoping for something less...stupid, foolish...preventable....

Galen Elijah Ruble told police he thought his muzzle-loading rifle was unloaded when he pointed it at his friend's head and pulled the trigger, according to Boone police.

Outside of the criminal record, he gets to live with that visual in his head for the rest of his life. So do the others who were there. Personally, I'm not sure how that can be done.

Just for the record, Mr. Ruble managed to break all 4 of the Four Rules. Folks, we have these rules for a reason. They build on each other just to try and ensure that these sorts of things don't happen. Let's go over them again for those who missed that class:

1. The gun is always loaded.
2. Never point the muzzle at anything you're not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Always be sure of your target and what is behind it.
   

Some people want to argue about these, unbelievable as that is to me. They want to lawyer about things like training (Use a blue gun.) and "How do you clean it if you can't be in front of it?" (Render it unfireable.) I think that those people either lack common sense or just like to prove how smart they are. I think they're also more like to get someone killed. In any case, here's my commentary on the Four Rules.

1. I don't care if you just checked it, your friend just checked it and your sainted blue-haired granny just checked it. The damn thing is loaded! Treat it like that an no one gets hurt.
   
2. Absolutely self-explanatory. Guns expel small bits of metal at high velocities. When that metal impacts anything, it causes damage. In the case of flesh, the damage can be fatal, and will surely be life-altering for all involved. Sure, guns are fun, but they are also dangerous. Treat them that way.
3. If you're a moron who has violated Rules 1 and 2, at least this gives you a chance to stop being a moron. Try thinking for a change.
   
4. And in case Rule 3 doesn't work for you, one final check--is this something you want to shoot? Is there something behind it that you don't want to shoot? Bullets are meant to penetrate things, you know? Double check yourself.

It should take an act of will to ever point a gun at anything with the intention of pulling the trigger. You should have to override the red screaming alarms in your skull to do so if it's something alive.

If Mr. Ruble had managed to follow any one of these rules, we wouldn't be talking about this.

Do us all a favor--have a little talk with your friends about this, just to remind each other about what we already know and too many don't practice.

Not all warriors carry a weapon

(Via an email reflector that must remain nameless)

Paulette Smith-Kimble stood, stunned, in the entryway of a large room where she had helped put many wounded soldiers on the path to healing.

Blood covered the floor. Men and women writhed in pain. Some were past feeling pain.

Outside, the shooting suspect was down. Smith-Kimble, an experienced nurse, had verified that the medic had kept him alive. She had checked on a police officer who had returned fire. And she had helped coordinate the nursing students who had come flooding onto the scene from their graduation next door to help.

Inside, a downed soldier lay to her left. She was too far gone. Move on.

Read it all.

So, how is that new shotgun?

Son and I went to the range, trying to beat the rain. We were semi-successful, finishing up the last of three rounds in light rain.

I went 11 of 25, 13 of 25 and 16 of 25 as I began feeling my way through the new gun. With 18 of 25 being my personal best (Hey, I didn't say I was good at this), I'm good with that showing. The gun shoots well, and I really didn't notice the trigger as much as I thought I would.

I did notice the change in choke. My Ithaca has a fixed improved cylinder choke, while the Franchi was wearing its modified choke tube. You have to be a bit more exacting up close, but I was able to hit many shots that were further out much more decisively than I was before.

The biggest thing was the fit of the gun, which is much closer to what I need than the Ithaca was. I've been told that is a big part of shotgunning, and "they" are not kidding. I shot 16 of 25 almost without thinking about it, while shooting that well with the Ithaca was almost like a gift.

I think I'm going to like this. Now if you'll excuse me, there are some damp shotguns that would like my attention.

Mary Landrieu isn't cheap

(Via the Drudge Report)

Not by a long shot.

On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.

And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix."

I wonder if the French would take the place back if we refund their money? It'd be cheaper.