it's almost tax day, and I'm feeling the pain

Are you one of the 47% of this nation's population that aren't paying federal income tax this year? if so, please come visit me, and bring a couple of steaks...i prefer grass fed, and a sixer or two as thanks. uncle sam got deeeeep into our pockets this year.
and of course, this is the time the pundits find a receptive audience, especially those of us that actually paid taxes this year.

this article by Phyllis Shlafly in Town Hall magazine just hits a lot of valid talking points before wandering off into the typical rant. but her points are damned valid.

Income tax day, April 15, 2010, now divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders. The percentage of Americans who will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009 has risen to 47 percent.
.....
When Obama told Joe the Plumber he wanted to "spread the wealth around," Obama wasn't kidding. That's exactly what he is now doing: taking money from taxpayers and spreading it around to non-taxpayers.

Delta Airlines can kiss my keister

so i've got to go to Philly next month, and like a good employee, i bought the tickets early enough to minimize the financial impact of the trip.
so today, i get an email from delta telling me that due to their scheduling changes, my flight itinerary has changed. to the point where i've got to get on three airplanes to get home, with layovers in two different airports.
bull sh*t!
looks like i'm canceling my flights, and rebooking on another airline.

don't need to be a toothless shopkeeper to gouge

i know we aren't suffering the aftermath of a hurricane, or some other natural catastrophe. but the year+ ammo shortage is showing me who i don't want to buy anything from in the future.
case in point: an online ammo distributor (i won't name them, or send traffic their way, but they are in Brenham Texas) has winchester plinking ammo in 555 round boxes for about $22. ok, that's expensive for plinking ammo, but in day and age, beggars can't be too damned choosy. if you order a case (10 boxes) you end up paying over $90.00 in shipping. that's more per box in shipping charges than i pay for the ammo in other places. i've been shipping and receiving everything from printer cartridges to air compressors for years and i know how much it costs to ship UPS from texas to kahleefornia. and i've carried many a case of bricks of .22 ammo out to my truck over the years. i know how much they weigh. thieves taking advantage of scarcity beyond acceptable levels.

second case in point: i went to Big 5 Sporting store, and they had a lone box of winchester plinking ammo in the 333 box size for $19.98. that works out to $30 a brick. not only is that outrageous, but i bought a box of that same ammo 3 days ago from wallyworld for $9.98. i've bought guns, ammo, fishing gear, sporting goods and even very expensive hiking shoes from them before, but i will never cross their door sill again.
i absolutely understand the need to make a profit, and would never begrudge one to an honest dealer. but these are two of the examples of exorbitant gouging from supposedly gun friendly companies.
i'll take my business elsewhere, or not shoot at all before i buy from either of them.
i'm really pissed

file this under "you have got to be kidding"

seems this family had a pool. and a doggie door, and a kid. this is a recipe for bad news, innit?
so the two year old kid crawled through the door, and ended up face down in the pool.
what's a parent to do? why, sue the manufacturer of the door.
i'm sorry their child drowned. truly. but where in the hell were the parents? and what culpability is it of the manufacturer of a dog door, that the parents had installed in their house, which a kid smaller than the dog the door was intended for could crawl through and meet its fatal end?
wtf is wrong with our society? is there no longer any sort of personal culpability, or responsibility? oh my god, my kid died. it HAS to be the fault of someone else, because anything else is unimaginable.
idiots. sad, but they are still idiots


edit: i just did a search on this, and apparently i'm not the only one that is somewhat flummoxed by this lawsuit. the comments posted here seem to mirror my own. where ever cape may county is, i would probably fit in!

it's not a tax, it's a fee

holy crap. i have a 15 year old motorcycle, and the registration fees we just paid went up 26% over last year. the bike is a year older, it's fuel efficient, and the fees went up 26 frigging percent?
no, we're not raising taxes here in kahleefornia, but by gum, we're getting smacked around like a punching bag with increased fees. only the last in a long line of hidden taxes i've noticed going up lately.
but thankfully we aren't getting hit with tax increases.
yeah, right.

WTF?

if you commute, or even just get in a car and drive somewhere, you've seen this. luckily i had my cell phone handy, and caught a snap. yeah, she's reading a book, passing me on the right, going fast as hell, with half a mile of traffic behind us, and at least that much more ahead, and her passenger is kicked back scrolling through what looks like a mounted computer screen.
these are the folks that cause, but may not actually be involved in accidents.
they are why my insurance rates are so high. wish there was a button on my steering wheel marked "DISINTEGRATE". probably a good thing i don't because i'd be using the damned thing all the time, and wear off the writing.
click for size selection.

a taste of what a state run health care system looks like

so you want to have the government run the health care system? kind of like they do in Britain? how about we examine just what that might mean. how about in a system paid for by taxes dedicated to providing health care, there are more managers than midwives, as the article headline states.
managers have increased their ranks by 9% this year. a snip, and remember to substitute Democrat for Labor in the text. this is what we face:

Meanwhile the number of health visitors and nursing assistants, who help on the wards with duties including cleaning and helping the elderly to eat their meals, have fallen by 3 and 6 per cent respectively.

Critics say patient care is suffering because the NHS is putting more effort into employing bureaucrats - often in so-called 'non-jobs' - than front-line staff.

They say cuts in the number of nursing assistants will lead to more malnutrition on Health Service wards.

Overall, the numbers working in the Health Service rose by 2.8 per cent to 1.37 million - a quarter higher than the figure when Labour came to power.

The news comes after the Government admitted that NHS staff and other public sector workers would receive inflation busting pay rises, even though the private sector is struggling with pay freezes and job cuts as the recession begins to bite.

Conservative health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: 'Yet again funds that are urgently needed for the frontline are being swallowed up by Labour's bureaucratic black hole.

this goes hand in hand with another issue i ranted about some time ago HERE

more evidence that THEY LIE!

Pretty dramatic, i admit. but damn, the hype and hyperbole surrounding the world's global warming phenomenon has my head spinning. i've recounted in this blog several times that the data sets, and analysis of those sets, is not only flawed, but intentionally misleading. just a couple of links from here using the nifty blogger search bar --- bothenook's take on global warming---.
and now this:

...GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

read the whole article here.

i don't know exactly why the pholks behind the whole global warming hysteria are doing what they are doing, but i can make a few educated guesses. i think the main reason is that the truth is not what is important, but the message. the message is that mankind is bad for the planet, and since we (those folks stirring the pot) can't kill everyone to save mother earth, we (again, you know, those folks) will concoct something really frightening, get a big time politician to pimp the idea, and force everyone into doing as we say, and thinking as we want them to think.
just a guess.
but THEY LIE!

UPDATE11/17/08. Gus has his own take on the article here. interesting stuff.
ditto that for Photios

my one and only BIG political rant of the season

first, let me say that rants are usually free form. when the brain kicks into hyper-drive, thoughts may become disjointed and fragmented. if that happens, sorry. but bear with me, because i really do have a point.

i have really worked hard to keep my posting about politics to a minimum this year, as i did during the last of the previous presidential election. the hateful and vituperative posts you find across the political spectrum around the blogosphere really turned me off. but i've been stewing over this for a long time, and i thought i'd get it out there, and get it over with.
first of all, it should come as no surprise to anyone that as a life member of the NRA, guns are important to me. i wrote a post years ago called Late Night Musings. the post and the responses are worth a read just to get a taste of what gun ownership means to me, and what responsibilities that ownership imparts. possession of the means to protect family, my home, and myself against those intent on doing harm is of paramount importance to me. many local police agencies have no legal liability to answer a 911 call (many cited articles, but here's one that is actually intelligently written, with little hyperbole here. it's a little dated, but there are many "fresher" citations available with a little search engine time)
(here's another.) what does this have to do with this presidential election?
one of my most favorite and frequent debater about politics this year has made the election into a single issue concern. well, she has others, but the main concern is that the next president will probably install at least two supreme court judges. her concern: overturning Roe v. Wade. yes, abortion rights are at the top of her concerns. so my turnaround argument is this: the next president is most likely going to install at least two supreme court judges. and the latest ruling from the court in Heller v. Washington D.C. which holds that private ownership of firearms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. that decision was upheld by a vote of 5 to 4. 5 to 4. me, i am ambivalent about abortion. i really could give a rats ass what a woman does with her body before viability. sorry folks, but that's just the way it is. i've long held that anyone that is anti-abortion because of the sanctity of life, but pro capital punishment is either delusional about what sanctity means, or is a hypocrite. and vice versa. again, sorry if i'm stepping on toes, but there it is. i've been around for 54 years, and have learned to think for myself.
but taking away my right to own firearms?
consider the following: the dem contender has publicly stated that he sees no reason to own guns. of course, he's had to modify that a bit as the election draws to an end. but just look at his comments during a dinner in SF where he thought he was among like minded folk. his disdain for private gun ownership is evident in many of his early speeches (easy to find using a google search. go ahead, it won't take long). but even if he DID have a change of heart, the folks he would consider for judgeship will be drawn from the same pool he climbed out of. and in that pool, guns are BAAAAAAAD BAAAAAAAD BAAAAAAD, and all gun owners are criminals just waiting for the time and place to break the laws.
so if it's a single issue campaign, anyone that even considers abridging my rights as a law abiding citizen of this country to own and use guns is my single issue. i don't think any right minded, intelligent human being should base their decision on one and only one issue, but if push comes to shove, you've just read mine. the fact that the government is in a rapid slide to hard core socialism, with a "spreading around of the wealth" for example, frightening as it is, is not my primary concern. having a veto proof congress, with a president that travels in circles that think i'm a criminal, those concern me more. socialism may cost me money, but the other will cost me freedom.

two different outcomes

i don't know if you out there in the wide world have heard about the craziness that is california, but we've had a couple of really crazy, very sad things that have happened in the last couple of days.
in the first instance, a dad pulled over, jerked his two year old son out of the back, and began punching and stomping the little guy. apparently he told bystanders that he was driving out the demons. what i don't understand is what the hell the "bystanders" were doing. me, i'd be in the middle of that guy. things didn't resolve until a deputy landed in a helicopter, and told him to back off. it was reported the deputy received the middle finger from the miscreant. after flipping off the cop, he started stomping his son again. the only positive thing to this whole sad story is that the cop capped the dude. father and son were pronounced dead at the scene. sad sad sad. what in the world would be enough to trigger that kind of rage/action in a father? i've felt like taking my kid's by their heads, twisting them off and using them for bowling balls, but i certainly didn't act on the impulse.

the second is bad too, and involved a parolee who tried to escape from a cop by blazing off at 100 mph after the cop tried to pull him over for suspected drunken driving... with an infant (his) in the car. the story is jumbled, but after finally pulling the drunken parolee over, the deputy was shot once with a high power rifle, and subsequently died. the paper's report that after shooting the deputy, the creep ran off into the woods, leaving his infant in the car. in this instance, both the dad and child survived.

what is this world coming to? two very seriously bad decisions, one resulting the child's death and the other could very likely resulted in a major accident killing the infant. and who did these despicable acts? their fathers! WTF? two incidents in two days, one being Fathers Day, of all things. hell in a handbasket with bells on. that's where the world is heading.

and on a possibly related note, the San Francisco Federal Appeals Court overturned a man's death sentence (for the THIRD TIME), because they said the defense lawyer didn't present evidence that could have mitigated the dirtbag's sentence. what is it that the jury didn't hear?

Family members at the penalty phase of the trial testified that Belmontes' father was a violent alcoholic who beat his mother. But the appeals court said jurors never heard evidence of other childhood trauma and Belmontes' drug use, or of an attack of rheumatic fever at age 14 that left him with depression and a changed personality.

well excuse the fuck out of me, but who cares? was he the one that held the crowbar, the one that beat that poor 19 year old girl to death with said crowbar during the commission of a robbery? that point has been irrefutable proven. what else do they need to know? did he do it? yes. then why isn't he in the express lane to the death chamber?

point? there seems to be no real accountability in our society any more. i'm not advocating a star chamber type of justice, but there SHOULD BE JUSTICE in our society. accountability sure didn't work in any of these three cases. well, that's not true. the first "dad" paid the ultimate price, but only after he killed his own child.

i think i'll go crack a bottle of Crown Royal. it helps, but only a little.

Liberal Fascism: a very interesting read

That Che Guevara has become a chic branding tool is a disgusting indictment of both American consumer culture and the know-nothing liberalism that constitutes the filthy residue of the 1960s New Left. Ubiquitous Che shirts top the list of mass-marketed revolutionary swag available for sale at the nearest bobo chic retailer - including a popular line of children's wear.
... "Viva la revolution!" Now even the smallest rebel can express himself in these awesome baby onesies. This classic Che Guevara icon is also available on a long-sleeve tee in kid's sizes...Lon live the rebel in all of us...there's no cooler iconic image than Che!"
Th Argentine henchman of the Cuban revolution was a murderer and goon. He penned classically fascist apothegms in his journals: "hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine." Guevara was a better writer, but the same muse helped to produce Mein Kampf. Guevara reveled in executing prisoners. While commenting revolution in Guatemala, he wrote home to his mother, "It was all a lot of fun, what with the bombs, speeches and other distractions to break the monotony I was living in." His motto was "If in doubt, kill him," and he killed a great many. The Cuban-American writer Humberto Fontova described Guevara as "a combination of Beria and Himmler." Guevara certainly killed more dissidents and lovers of democracy than Mussolini ever did, and Mussolini's Italy was undoubtedly more "free" than any society Guevara the "freedom fighter" was seeking. Would you put a Mussolini onesie on your baby? Would you let your daughter drink from a Himmler sippy cup?

source: Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg pp. 193-194.

this is how far into the book i am, and it's an amazing read. the parallels to the whole global warming hysteria and many other "calls to action" that can be seen coming directly from the fascist's handbook are sobering. and this quote reminded me of a little tempest that went on back in February. Remember it? click on the picture to take you to one of the better blog entries of the day.

and of course, i can't miss the opportunity to share my favorite "Che" shirt:

recent email, and my rebuttal

here's the text, and a picture i received in an email the other day. i guess because i'm a red meat eating crazy man, all my friends, family, and acquaintances deluge my inbox with stuff like this:

Read the following explanation before looking at the picture!

Most Syrians struggle to even read Arabic, much less have a clue about reading English.

So, how does a group of Syrian protest leaders create the most impact with their signs by having the standard 'Death To Americans'(etc.) slogans printed in English?

Answer:
They simply hire an English-speaking civilian to translate and write their statements into English.

Unfortunately,in this case, they were unaware that the 'civilian' insurance company employee hired for the job was a retired US Army Sergeant! Obviously, pictures of this protest rally never made their way to Arab TV networks, but the results were PRICELESS!

This picture is not doctored.

and my response is... PLEASE OBSERVE A FEW BASIC RULES BEFORE SENDING THIS GARBAGE TO MY INBOX. FIRST, does it really really make sense?? SECOND, take a few moments to check out to see if this is just another B.S. post some pinhead thought was funny, but you took seriously. this is a perfect example, and here my response

Definition: Electile Dysfunction

Electile Dysfunction: the inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year.

looks like Fred pulled the plug. i really wish there was at least one candidate on either side of the party divide that appealed to my sensibilities. no, and i mean no fiscal responsibility in any camp that is coupled with anything like common sense on the domestic AND international fronts.

i am not looking for a wingnut wackjob, and i'm certainly not happy with the isolationist mentality i'm hearing espoused from several of the candidates. all i'm hearing is "I WILL GIVE YOU FREEBIES. VOTE FOR ME!!!"
who the ***k is going to be paying for the freebies they are so blithely promising? where is the commitment to build a stronger society when freebies are so readily available? short term promises become long term entitlement programs that eventually have to be paid for.... screw them all, i say. vote for Pat Paulson. oh wait, he's dead. never mind

state run health care, Brits show us how not to do it.

i know there has been a lot of debate the last couple of years regarding a national health care program. as a matter of fact, it has become something of a major issue in California politics.
but what is it that they are trying to do to us in the name of "we're from the government, and we're here to help"?
let's take a look at just one of the problems they are facing in Britain, one of the industrialized world's leading providers of state sponsored health care.
a clip from the article:

Dr Peter Kirkbride, the chief spokesman on radiotherapy for the NHS, said the NHS spent £100m on the breast cancer drug Herceptin in 2006.
But he told Radio 4's The Investigation only about 500 patients had benefited - at a cost of about £200,000 each.
If that was spent on radiotherapy, it could have a dramatic impact, he said.

The article goes on to state that the drug the national health care system decided on is only good for 10% of the successes in the fight against cancer. surgery and radiotherapy account for 90%. "Dr Kirkbride said: "There is a lot of publicity about the role of chemotherapy but the consensus is of all cancers that are cured, half are cured by surgeries, 40% by radiotherapy and only 10% by drugs."
but they can't buy the machinery necessary for a 40% vice 10% success, because the drug they've hung their hat on costs so much money that there isn't enough left to buy the machines needed.
think about that. in a state run system, there is no competition, no market driven protocols and techniques. there's only what the government says is ok. in the last few years there have been numerous reports that those at the top of the British healthcare industry have stated that triage of patients that includes their lifestyles and age will determine whether or not they get any treatment at all because the system can't handle everyone's needs. so if you are overweight, have diabetes, are older than some predetermined cutoff, or fail to meet the government's standards required to receive treatment, you are screwed.
is this what we are looking for?
is a health care system run by the government what we really need, considering the debacle the senior prescription drug program has turned into?
are we really so far gone as individuals and self sufficient/reliant citizens that we no longer are willing to care for ourselves? i know that individual or family healthcare coverage is expensive. $500.00 is a low number i've heard.
for many, that might seem like an unsurmountable amount of money. but let's be realistic. for those that $500 is truly too much for, the government has medicare, welfare, and medicade already in place. but for most Americans, the thought of only having one car, no cable tv or cell phones, or a myriad of other "essentials" that most people in the world do without is hardship. spend $500 a month on my family's healthcare and do away with my wide screen plasma tv? screw that. i'll bitch and complain until the politicians give it to me, just so they can be elected.

it was said a long time ago by someone a lot smarter than me that the end of a society occurs when society decides it can give itself gifts.
where will we be in 30 years? i'm afraid to even think about it.


the snips were from a BBC news article posted a couple of days ago. you can read the whole aritcle at the link: full article here

here's my email to the governator

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,
I have been following the progress of two bills, AB 821 (Nava) Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, and AB 1471 (Feuer) Microstamping with some alarm.
Both are examples of the use of incrementalism towards a total ban of firearms in this state.
I am not a criminal. I do not engage in criminal activities. I store my firearms in a large, heavy fireproof safe. Yet the legislators in this state continue to try to take away my 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bare firearms as though I am a crazed drug addled thug.
By using the deceptive tactics of "it's for the environment", without taking into account there are no viable alternatives, seeking to ban lead bullets is just another example of muddled uninformed State Representatives (elected to represent the entire population, not just some vocal and politically sexy segment) utilizing bogus science to force their agenda down our throats.
Regarding the microstamping bill, I can hardly believe there are those people backing this act can have law enforcement in mind. Any day of the week I can go to a shooting range and collect spent shell casings. Since I reload my ammunition, would my recycling brass now put me in danger of prosecution because brass I collect may have stamps that could be traceable to a crime? Or if my brass was collected and used, I would again be at risk.
Neither of these bills show the slightest hint of common sense. I urge you to veto both.

Respectfully,

gun grabbers acting up again in California

i'm a gun owner. i'm a responsible citizen, with no felonies, no arrests, and not even a speeding ticket since 1975. but in the eyes of many, i am of the worst type of people, because i own and shoot firearms for recreation. i also own and maintain firearms for personal protection. breaking into my house when i'm home will probably be the last in a long line of bad decisions you've made in your life. so here i am, a completely aboveboard member of society, yet i'm viewed as a criminal. it's just that i haven't committed a crime yet. why? because i own firearms.
now in california, they are trying desperately to separate me from my guns. why? "because no law abiding citizen needs guns, since the police are here to protect you." and "your guns can fall into the hands of those less responsible". bullshit. if you can get that bolted down 1000+ pound safe out of my house, dude, you are welcome to them. far be it from me to get in your way. of course, you may have to deal with a 125 grain 0.357 inch diameter hollowpoint bullet delivered at 1200 feet per second by someone that can shoot like this 25 yards off hand in low light conditions (AND THERE ARE NO PLACES INSIDE MY HOUSE EVEN APPROACHING 25 YARDS IN A STRAIGHT LINE):

anyway, i subscribe to a newsletter from American Gunsmithing Institute. they have an amazing range of DVD's covering a large number of gun smithing topics that are usable by tinkerers like me. today, the president of the AGI sent out the following e-mail to all subscribers. since i'm a californian, and i am affected, you can bet i'll be sending my email to the governor. if you live in california, and you own or shoot firearms for any reason, you need to step up to the plate and act NOW. this is just another one of the small, incremental steps we've known to be the modus operandi of the gun grabbers in this state. pretty soon, i'll either be trying to sell my guns out of state, or become a criminal simply because they will have finally achieved their often stated goals of criminalizing gun ownership.

here's the email. read it, and act. and if you don't live in california, and think you are safe, think again. what starts in this state has a habit of spreading like syphilis at a liberal arts college. (hehe. not bad. that just bubbled up out of nowhere. appropriate, though).

oh, and before i forget: i not only renewed my NRA membership, but sprang (finally) for the life membership. yup, i'm officially a gun toting right wing nut job, and have the card to prove it.


To ALL: This is Serious. I don't normally send out politically related stuff but this is important because what starts in California can spread across the country. This is effectively a ammo ban and the Micro stamping is a Handgun ban, all based on Junk Science and lies. If you have firends in california please make them aware of what is happening and ask them to take action. This has PASSED the assembly and the senate and is sitting ont the Governor's Desk. We need to get him to VETO them.
I have attached a copy of the letter I emailed, FAXed and will be mailing at the end of this email.

Please redistribute this action alert to others as soon as possible!!!!

The following bills are strongly opposed by sportsmen and other owners of firearms. Your contacts with the GOVERNOR in opposition are urgently needed now!!!

AB 821 (Nava) Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act - Would prohibit the use of lead ammunition for the hunting of big game and coyotes in the range of the California Condor. This would affect much of the Central Coast and Southern California hunting areas. Supporters claim it is hunter's ammunition that is responsible for lead poisoning in condors. If AB 821 becomes law, they have let it be known that they will be seeking a lead ammunition ban statewide. Anti-hunting groups know that the alternative to lead, (i.e.-copper bullets), is not as effective, will likely result in more crippling of animals, and is also toxic to condors. AB 821 is seen by them as laying the groundwork for a total ban on hunting next as it will allow them to claim that hunting should be stopped because no satisfactory ammunition is available that will not poison condors.!!!!

AB 1471 (Feuer) Microstamping - Would expand the definition of "unsafe handgun" to include semiautomatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, and which are transferred in at least two places by imprinting onto each cartridge case when the firearm is discharged. This will enable identification of the registered owner.
Even though over 90% of handguns used in crime are stolen, the registered owner from whom the firearm was stolen would become the subject of a criminal investigation and possibly prosecution!

If signed into law, AB 1471`s requirements could soon be expanded to cover all firearms of any kind! And...if a criminal gets a hold of some of your spent cases (as from a shooting range) he can leave them at a crime scene and the police will come looking for you!! To make matters even worse, scientific studies have shown that any criminal can easily remove or defeat the microstamping technology with a minimum of effort!!!!

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED!!!!

It is important that every sportsman and other owners of firearms immediately contact the Governor to oppose the above described two bills!!!

Mail: The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger FAX: (916) 445-4633
Governor, State of California
State Capitol e-mail: http://gov.ca.gov/interact
Sacramento , Ca. 95814

Your action is needed now if we are to have success!!!
The Governor will act on these bills very soon!!
Please act today!!!

Here's an example of a letter I sent:
9-14-07

The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor

By FAX 916-445-4633

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
This is junk science at its worst. This is an example of "the Camels nose under the tent" to BAN all Lead ammunition, thus ALL Ammunition. REdiculous, Unfair and just plain Wrong! Please Veto.
This lie is using the "handgun safety" law to CREATE A TOTAL BAN on Sales to lawful individuals. This technology Doesn't Work!!! - It's a lie. It is easily distorted and altered and even legitimate repairs will alter it thus making the owners criminals The DOJ own research shows it doesn't work. Again this is a Back-door method to create a total Ban on new handgun purchases by the Extreme Liberals. Please Veto!

The Assembly and Senate continue to act irresponsibly and without regard to the rights of legal, law biding citizens.

yeah, what the commander said

everyone around me is getting tired of my ranting about how i think the leaders of the at least one of the political parties in this country should be tried for treason and sedition. but enough of how i feel.
check out what the commander and Marco say about things.

the boycot of israeli universities, and my school's response

first of all, here it is, over three weeks since i last made an entry. it's not that i didn't and don't have anything to say. it's just that there are so many issues that have me so spun up that every time i sit down to blog, the only characters i end up typing look a lot like $*&)(#)@Q*#*&$%)@#_! so rather than just swear a ton, i gave it a pass.

BUT!

one of the things that has really really chapped my hide this last week or so has been the move by "the new British University and College Union" to boycott israeli schools. this is an unadorned and undisguised attempt by the wackjobs in academia in britain to appease the growing islamoshitbag population in their country.
i'm proud of the 300+ signatories on an open letter published by the president of Columbia University calling on the U and C Union to also boycott their schools. there are several university of california campuses (campi ?) that participated by signing along with many other institutions of higher education throughout the U.S. one very glaring exception was my own campus. it's truly a sad day for those of us staff members that believe in the fundamentals of education and free thought. for shame.

for a copy of the NYT open letter, follow this link .

oh, and i promise, i'll be back.

i've been watching the site meter slowly climb to a milestone. i've had over 97000 visitiors with well over 133,000 page hits since i started using the counter. imagine that. i know there are sites out there that get that kind of traffic in hours, not over a couple of years, but still! hell, if i had anything of interest to say, i'd have gone over 100,000 in weeks, not years! thanks for visiting!

i want to live like an eco-celebrity too!

SondraK at Knowledge is Power says exactly what is on my mind regarding the whole eco-celeb issue. i know, gore and edwards have done more to destroy the environment in the last month than i have my entire life, but they are politicians. we expect our politicians to shit in our back yards, and then tax us to clean it up.
but the "eco-celebs"? they are just fookin' lame hypocrites.
a quote from the article SondraK tipped :

I have some sympathy for the concert organizers who, when confronted with inconvenient truths -- such as the fact that performers flew more than 400,000 carbon-belching kilometres to the various venues for a single day of performances -- gave a sort of you-have-to-break-some-eggs-to-make-omelettes response.

What I have real trouble with is preachy (and ill-informed) celebrities exhorting the rest of us to live like ecomonks in unlit, unheated sod hovels while they live the high life burning through more carbon-based fuels in a week than a platoon of army Humvees in a year.

I don't mind that Sir Gordon probably hopped a private jet after his concert Friday night at Chicago's Wrigley Field, so he could be at New Jersey's Giants Stadium in time for Saturday's "Concert for a Climate in Crisis."

What rankles more is that when it comes to driving ticket sales on his own tour -- when it comes to making Gordon Sumner money --he has no problem with hiring a fleet of big, diesel-powered, soot-spewing highway trucks to fill with such eco-necessities as 100,000-watt speakers.

go on, read the article for yourself. ask the same question i did.... do they really think we are THAT STUPID?

hope no new bugs show up

yup, we're in this big rush to punish American drug companies for making a profit. bad, bad drug companies. we'll let no name generics flood the market, and allow generics from Canada in as well. that'll show 'em.

except, in an attempt to stay in business

Pfizer will close three research sites in Michigan and two manufacturing plants in New York and Nebraska. It may also sell another manufacturing site in Germany and close research sites in Japan and France.

in what way is this in America's interest? i've ranted before about the narrowminded and myopic view of many against the drug companies. and now, one of the big players is closing research labs because they can't stay economically viable. holy frack, are we in for a big big surprise. hope i stay healthy and don't contract any disease they don't already have approved drugs for. i don't feel sorry for a company that gets itself into trouble because it is greedy. i do have a problem with a company getting in trouble because it can't compete with generics that are capitalizing on the research monies spent by the big pharmas. who the hell is going to fund the research?

read the whole article at My Way finance