AWB 2009

The Libocrats will defend Mr. Obama against the Conservatives' fears of the proposed Assault Weapons Ban, saying that every time a Democrat takes office, we get scared that guns will be taken away. I would say that it is a well-founded fear, as this is exactly what happened the last time we had a Democrat in the White House, and it is part of Obama's Agenda of Change. The reason the '94 ban was allowed to expire in 2004 is that it very simply did not do any good.

So, the question is WHY? Why does Mr. Obama want to take steps towards further disarming The People? The actual text on Obama's website reads:

Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

This is the way I read it:

Address Gun Generate Escalated Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, in purcuit of their totalitarianistic goals, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information for the purpose of individual privacy, as well as the protection of law enforcement agencies, and give police officers across the nation the tools Gestapo strong-arm tactics they need in the guise to allegedly solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade, but in effect, only violate the privacy of law-abiding citizens. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense unconstitutional measures that respect pay lip service to the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals those otherwise law-abiding citizens that would oppose an oppressive government - as our Founding Fathers intended. They support closing the imaginary gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof for the government only. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent because they are either too stupid to see that it had no positive effects the first time around, or they have another agenda.

If I sound nutty, please try to keep an open mind and humor me for just a moment - even if you will leave my blog shaking your head at what a wack-job I am. If you followed my links, and/or did a little Googling on your own, or know a little history from the last two decades, you will see that the AWB whose duration was from 1994-2004 had NO positive effect on crime rates. This is why it was allowed to expire ten years after its inception. This history teaches us that the law was useless to its purpose of reducing violent crime.

Mr. Obama is not stupid, nor is Mr. Biden. They are smart enough men to know that the previous law did nothing towards its stated purpose. Why then, would they want to push for a permanent version of the same law? It is obviously not for the reasons stated, therefore it has to be for other reasons. What are those reasons? That's the million-dollar question. What hidden agenda do the newly elected have in mind that is supported by the 2008 Assault Weapons Ban?

Any answer to that question explains exactly what the Conservatives are so afraid of.

Science as a Religion?

Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?

Who could not love the work of Michael Chriton? This one is worth a read in its entirety.

Linkarooni

Gossip and Rumors

It is a fairly accepted fact that gossip is one of the more destructive forces in society. If you ruin someone's reputation, it can often never be repaired. I used to be a courtesy driver for the service department at a local Ford dealership. I would not recommend that anyone pursue a career as a courtesy driver. It is a thankless job. I would never have accepted the position had it not been sweetened by the empty promises of higher employment in the company. I didn't get anything from that company that I did not fight to get.

I would have done well to be driving an armored version of a Cobra with run-flat tires, non-descript paint job, and no license plates. Alas, my assigned vehicle was a Windstar minivan with the dealership name, logo, and phone number in giant sheets of vinyl pasted all over the little van. People in general are pissy, moany turds that have nothing better to do than piss and moan about everything. Since you are reading my blog, you are clearly no stranger to this concept.

As a matter of routine, there were road complaints that were directed to the service managers about their terrible drivers. Several times, the service manager would pull me into his office to tell me that I had complaints called in on my. You know those "how's my driving?" stickers? People really take advantage of those. The service manager really was a nice guy, and made it a point to tell me that he was pretty sure that these calls were B. S., but that he had to let me know about them. I think his philosophy was that if I was the bat-out-of-hell that the callers wanted to believe I was, I would straighten up my act on the honor system. It seemed reasonable to me.

In one of these encounters, he offhandedly commented that if a complaint call came in that I had flipped someone off, that we would be having a different conversation. His office door was open at the time, and his office was near the front desk. There sat the front desk lady. She had nothing better to do than eavesdrop, gossip, and screw somebody else's husband in her off time. What she observed was that I was in the boss' office, and he said something about a complaint of me flipping someone off. This is where the gossip started.

All of a sudden, every employee of the dealership was all-a-titter about how I had gotten in trouble for flipping someone off on the road. First of all, I find the hand gesture to be grotesque and a completely unintelligent cliche. If I am to make a disgusting hand gesture at someone, I'll get creative with it. They will feel unclean for some time after the fact. If I am going to go to the trouble, I will make them feel disturbed and violated. Usually, that's only in response to being flipped off. It's like, "Oh, I know you didn't just go there. Try this one on for size, honey!" Suffice it to say that I did not make hand gestures from my van.

There were a few brave souls that started asking me about flipping people off on the road. After the first couple, I decided to handle the situation like I prefer to handle most such situations - up the ante. My response went from denial to embellishment as follows:

Dude, no. Get it right. If you are going to be talking about what I did on the road, at least find out what really happened. It was just like this:

I was speeding down the highway while texting and listening to heavy metal as loud as I could crank the stereo. I had some really important businessmen that had places to be in the van with me, so I needed all the motivation I could get to keep that gas pedal well-planted against the floorboards.

All of a sudden, this school bus came out from nowhere! Some nun was driving the bus, and it was full of orphans, and she totally cut me off. So, I ran her off the road. I made a second pass back by to see where she had run off the road. When I got out, I could see the burning remains of the bus in the ditch. I flipped them off as they all burned alive, and pissed on the smoking mess.

I then cackled loudly as I burned the tires and took off down the road. I suppose the nun was able to drag herself from the wreckage and make the complaint call. I knew that I should have finished her off when I had the chance...

The strangest thing happened. Nobody was interested in talking about my escapades anymore. I don't think that this approach would work every time rumors are flying about, but it worked like a charm there!

Hail To The Chief IV. - What Can You Do?

So, at this point, you may find yourself saying, "But Michael, what can I do?" In my humble opinion, the answer is several things.

1) Seek training and gun ownership if you have not yet done so. Getting either right now will be tricky with the whole rush, but give it a little while. Be patient. There will be no bans immediately. There will be no passing of the torch until January, and even then, new legislation takes time. The initial fireams madhouse rush will die down a little before any bad laws are passed. Keep your ear to the ground, and opportunities will come up. Check pawn shops and gun shops alike. Make a short list of what guns you would like to own, prioritize it, and assign a range of price that you would be willing to pay for each piece. When you buy a gun, practice, practice, practice. The propensity of responsible gun owners is a wonderful argument against the antis.

2) Get your CCW Permit/CHL if it is available in your state. If the powers that be can make a correlation between the number of active permits and the census numbers, and show a shockingly high number of permit carriers, disarming the populace is obviously going to be an inconvenient task. Even if you don't think that you will carry, it's still nice to have the option.

3) Join the NRA. I really need to practice what I preach on this one. I'm still trying to recover from #1, so finances have been a little thin lately. Even so, this organization is a powerful ally in the fight for your 2nd Amendment Rights, and needs the monetary support of new members more now than ever. In addition, a healthy member roster is a weapon that they can use against the opposition. Your state may also have similar associations on the state level.

4) If your state allows it, open carry. This is a controversial point to make, but I'm making it anyway. People who are against open carry form two camps. On the one extreme, you have the antis. They think that if everyone is carrying a visible handgun, as in the Old West, that duels will spring forth, and blood will flow in the streets. This hasn't been a problem in any state where it is legally practiced. On the other extreme, you have the tactical gunnies. They say that you should keep your gun hidden so that you have the element of surprise on the bad guy. I say that if normal people are commonly seen with a side-arm, it removes the element of fear from the would-be antis - which is what makes an anti an anti in the first place. In other words, you don't open carry for the tactical arrangement, you open carry for the political statement. If people are never exposed to guns except for TV and movies, the message is that cops and bad guys carry guns. If they see their friends and neighbors, fellow PTO members, grocery store patrons, and everyone that they interact with on a daily basis carrying openly, the message is that normal, responsible, good people have guns. I think this is better, and makes anti-gun legislation nearly impossible to pass.

5) Write to your State Representative. Don't send them an email, or blog about it. Put a letter on paper telling them how you feel about the threat to your Second Amendment rights. Tell them courteously, in no uncertain terms that you do not intend to support a politician that does not represent you.

6) Pray that we don't lose too much over the next two years.

Hail To The Chief III. - Kneejerk Reaction

On many of the gun forums that I frequent such as The High Road, The Firing Line, and The Gun Counter, the word is flying around that gun stores are being stormed in response to the election results. I emailed with my friend who works at H&H Gunrange about the current situation. This is an enviable facility, dedicated to firearms education, practice, and sales, in a safe, family-friendly environment. Their sales floor is amazing. Anyone who has the slightest interest in firearms should pay them a visit if they ever happen through the Okc area.

What I could ascertain from the rumors on the forums is that pretty much every gun shop had been completely cleaned-out by customer demand by the weekend. This spawned a personal desire to do some research on my part. My wife and I paid visit to a couple of pawn shops that we frequent, looking at firearms. Both of them had dramatically reduced inventory, but were not out of firearms. My friend said that AR-15 inventory is "thin", that they have but one AK-47 left in inventory, and that they are sold out of Glocks and several other handguns. He said that it is as though they have done a month's worth of business in half a week. Contrary to what I had read on the internet, most of the sales seem to be among people who were planning on their purchases already, but the election results simply rushed their planned actions.

On his website, Obama has stated that he intends to push for another assault weapons ban, but to make it permanent this time around. My wife pointed out that there have been some er... problems on Obama's website. It is my hope that the clear message that The American People have sent is that we do not intend to let go of our Second Amendment Rights. Mr. Obama is not at all a stupid person. I believe that he is a short-sighted, arrogant, naive elitest, but not stupid in the least. I want to believe that he sees the message and is reconsidering some of his stances, and that is the explanation of the site being down this morning.

It is not at all uncommon for a politician to change their stances on certain issues due to public response. Frankly, that is the mark of a good leader. These people work for us. When they see that they are making us unhappy, they should consider modifying their goals. As of this moment (11/10/2008 at 13:07), his website seems to be mysteriously devoid of any talk of weapons bans. A quick search on the site for "assault weapons" brings up short biographies on each of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The "Agenda" tab of the site shows nothing concerning future weapons bans. As a last-ditch effort, searching on the keyword "weapon" adds a third piece to the above mentioned search results. This third one notes that they plan on keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Could it be that this man intends to listen to The People after all? We can only hope. It was an electorate landslide, but a slim margin of the popular vote. The fact of the matter is that at most, the very slight majority voted for him. There are still doubts that it was even that many of us. It would serve this upcoming administration well to listen to The People. Whether an assault weapons ban is still in the works or not is not clear right now, but the message has been sent, and seems to have been received.

I believe that we all believe in change, but some of us want the right kind of change. There is a huge group of us that don't want some vacuous, mysterious, unknown change. I will keep praying for these men, and I will keep up the hope that we see positive change. I'm not holding my breath, but I do still want to be wrong about them. I, like many others, have been frightened about some of the change that may come with this passing of the torch, but am nearly as frightened of the possible reactions to such change. I don't want to see a civil war or a return of terrorist attacks. I don't want to go into exile because of my beliefs. Granted, these would be radical reactions, but the change that he seems to have proposed is radical as well.

Only time will tell, and we have not cleared the rapids by a long shot. We must hold on to hope, and we must hold this new administration accountable for what kind of change is acceptable. That is the bottom line. In the meantime, I know that many will be bolstering their arsenals, stocking up on weapons, ammunition, and high-capacity magazines. I can't say that I blame them in the least, and I hope that it is a clear message to those that might attempts to infringe upon the rights to such things. We may have voted in different ways, but ultimately, we are all in this boat together. If we row in different directions, who knows where we'll end up? Pray for whatever is right, hope for the best, and communicate with those that we have appointed as our leaders - by any and all means possible.

Hail To The Chief II. -Concerning My Best Friends

The way of things is odd, to say the least.

When I got married, I married my best friend. After nearly ten years, she remains my best friend and my soul-mate. We have made it a point to grow closer together rather than drifting apart, as I have seen many couples do with the weathering of the years. At this point, it just seems natural to spend the time together that we do. Most people who meet us have no idea that we have been together for so long. I like it this way. I'm looking forward to the next decade with her and the one after that, so on and so forth.

If you are close friends with your family, i. e. parents, siblings, cousins, count yourself as fortunate. This is a blessing, and not to be taken for granted. My wife and I are very close to my brother and sister in law. I value their friendship and their place in my life. Granted, I may get annoyed at them from time to time, but that is the way of siblings, isn't it? If you don't get annoyed at them, you probably aren't that close.

All that being said, I come to inner-circle best friends. I have three best friends that don't fit into any of the above categories (arguably). I'm speaking of non-blood relatives that are close enough friends that they may as well be. These three friends in no particular order are Darren, Beej, and Sean. Something else that these three people share in common other than essentially being non-blood relatives to me is that they all three voted for Barack Obama on Tuesday, and I don't think any less of them for it.

I've known Beej since I was in second grade. Back then, she was a squirrelly little kid, and went by Bridget. Of course, I was also a squirrelly little kid, and I was known as Michael. Later, she decided to go by her initials, B. J. She found that this new moniker had mixed results, and her group of friends settled into calling her "Beej," even in written word. Beej is a highly gifted, highly intellectual individual that has had the most unique personal story that I can recall. But, I would have to let her tell you about that on her own time and motivation. When Jenni and I took up handgunning in January, 2008, it kind of scared Beej at first. She wanted to come for a range session with us just to see what it was about. After her first trip to the range, she was hooked and the disease took her over. She now has a Smith & Wesson revolver and a Sig 9mm and has been thinking about getting herself a shotgun and some formal training. She thoughtfully listens to and reads our conservative views, but doesn't embrace them on our word. I'm proud of her for that. If everyone could openly consider all viewpoints and come up with their own independently, the world would be a better place to live.

I've known Darren for nearly as long as Beej. I can't remember whether it was in late grade school or junior high when Darren and I met. Darren has done some really crazy stuff in his life. He has a cabin out in the woods, but currently leads the career military life with his wife who is a nurse for the United States. In high school, Darren and I chased after some of the same girls. We've always had our differences, and never let them bother us. I've always been an opinionated fan of Japanese cars, and he has always been vocal about his Pontiacs. There have been times that we poked fun at each other for such differences, but at the end of the day, we'll drink from the same scotch bottle. I think it was during the 2004 election that I discovered how vastly different our political views were. I have to admit that I was shocked at the time. Darren has had points in his life when I thought to myself, "Dear Lord, he's going to kill himself." But such is they way with young men, I suppose. This is how we grow into full-fledged, grown men. I can't help but wonder if he thought the same of me from time to time.

I have been friends with Sean for the shortest amount of time of any of these three dear friends. I met Sean about 7 years ago maybe? We were fast friends from day one. He and I were both driving (and modifying) 1983 Honda Civic Station Wagons. He had commented that he wanted to lower his. Without hesitation, I asked Sean to buy the supplies needed and to bring them to my house on my day off, and we would lower his car. I didn't really know the first thing about him, but he struck me as a good person. My first impression of him could not have been more right. Sean and I got to know each other over the engine compartments of many Japanese cars. Together, we fixed some basket cases, and screwed up perfectly good drivers in the pursuit of making them perform better. I have fond memories of some of those monstrosities, which took on personalities of their own and were usually unfit for public roads in their final forms. Sean is a metal man. He has a heart made of solid gold, a mind like a steel trap, iron convictions, and if I had a sister, I would do everything in my power to marry her off to him so we actually could be brothers.

As I said before, all three of them voted for BHO. I find it incredibly interesting that I felt so very strongly about this election - that it was not a matter of black and white, or right and left but to me it had become a matter of right and wrong or good and evil - and yet, the three people that I would consider family except for the lack of blood relation each disagreed with me on this point. Of course, with the way my brain works, I'm trying to find correlation - some sort of cause-and-effect situation in or about my life that could explain what would seem to be such an odd coincidence. I have spoken with each of them in turn about the election. They all know that I'm opinionated and outspoken (that's just the nice way of saying a big-mouthed punk). A great friend will allow that and still care about you. Each of them has seemed hesitant to touch the issue to varying degrees, I suppose in fear that they would elicit my opinion maybe? I shudder to think that that could be the case!

Ultimately, I hope they find that I am proud that my friends think about things, and have individual beliefs and opinions. I hope they know that when it comes down to it, we agree on all of the important stuff. I believe that God's Will is the One Constant, and though different stuff happens because of what we as people do, His Plans will come about one way or another. I am a believer in the strength of the individual. I am a believer in unity in small groups. Once you really get down to it, these people - my immediate family, my extended family, and my adopted family - are more important than all the people in DC rolled up into one big, corrupt ball. As I wrote in my previous entry, I hope they are right and I am wrong on this one. I also hope that such petty things never damage friendships like these.

(By the way, I still think you guys voted wrong! ;-P)

Hail To The Chief.

To the majority voters who will doubtlessly not read my blog,

I do not address this blog entry to my regular readers, as that would be preaching to the choir... Well, it would be more like preaching to the duet, but that's not the point. My readers know where I stand and why I stand where I do. This blog entry is addressed to the hopefuls that want change in government. You wanted change, and you got it. We shall see if this is the change that you had in mind. My wager is that this is not going to turn out to be the change that you bargained for. Fasten your seat belts, Americans. It's going to be a rough ride.

Yesterday morning, I stood in line with my wife and son at 6:15 a. m. to cast my vote. There were three people in front of us in the line outside the locked doors. By the time 7:00 rolled around, there were at least 200 people in line behind us. We were all aware that history was in the making. The energy was electric. Young and old were there, men and women, civilians and a police officer. A woman in a wheelchair had come to cast her vote. My son got to bear witness to an event whose magnitude did not strike him at the time. One day, he will think back on it and realize the heft of the experience.

I voted for the man who has proven his natural born citizenship. I voted for the man who has proven his allegiance with the United States of America. I voted for the man that has served us, and is committed to serve us moving forward. I voted for the man who has no questionable acquaintances. I voted for the man whom we honestly need more in Congress than we do in the White House right now. And for that, we won. In the Great State of Oklahoma, it was a landslide victory for the Republicans. But at the end of the day, we only have seven electoral votes to give our nation.

Senator Obama won the election. Whether it was a legitimate win, or a scandalous, dirty trick by ACORN, we may never know. But, the fact of the matter is, Barack Hussein Obama will be our next President. He took the country by storm on a campaign of Change, just as Fidel Castro and Adolph Hitler did before him. Similar to them, he has made a show of religious beliefs and family values to woo The People. His mantra of "Spreading the Wealth Around" is born out of the phrase, "From Each According to His Ability to Each According to His Need" as his predecessor, Karl Marx put it in his 1875 Critique of the Gothica Program. Following such great men, President Obama will be our leader until 2012.

Yesterday, We the People of the United States of America made history not by electing the first half-black President, but by electing the first radical left wing, Socialist President of the United States of America. He has made it clear that he detests handguns, semi-automatic weapons, and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. His Vice President, Joe Biden, wrote the original "Assault Weapons Ban" which vilified a number of semi-automatic, scary looking, plastic-stocked rifles. These two men will try to disarm the populace as would the a fore mentioned Castro, Hitler, or Marx. That is the first step towards a totalitarianistic, military state. In order to control the people, you must assure that they cannot fight you. Every dictator or dictator hopeful knows that.

I want to be wrong about the guy, I really do. In fact, I've never so badly wanted to be wrong about something before in my life. I do not want to panic, nor incite panic, nor do I condone anyone else panicking. John McCain has asked his supporters to shift their allegiance to our newly elected, and we should. The to-be-President Obama spoke to The People and asked that those that do not support him would choose to do so, and I believe we should listen. Just as I believe that the 3/4 of the country that do not approve of President Bush should support him because he is our President, so I believe that we who voted against Obama should give him our support because of the respect that the position demands.

This is not to say that we should roll over and die. I'm not for one instant going to relinquish my rights or my opinions without a fight, and nor should anyone else. This man works for us, we do not work for him. We shall hold him accountable in his position as he takes his place in the White House. If he does not adhere to the laws that he is subject to, we shall impeach him, just like we did President Clinton. He must be held accountable for his actions, and he must understand that he is our servant. Realistically, we have two years of a left-controlled government to weather. At that point, we will have the opportunity to reset the balance of power, and reset it we will. In the meantime, I will follow President Obama with a tight grip on my Freedoms and Liberties.

Dear LORD,

Please watch over our country. Please bless President Obama with the wisdom necessary to lead our great country. Grant him clarity of thought and judgement, and allow him to be the great President that like-minded individuals and I do not expect him to be. Let our temptation to panic be completely unfounded, and bless the four years that our nation has in front of it.

God, bless America. Heal our economy and protect us from our enemies. Please forgive us when we sin against You. Please protect our troops and deliver quick and decisive resolutions to our foreign activities. Bless the leaders in our great military, and compel them to treat even our prisoners of war kindly, as we have in past wars.

Lord, let Your followers glorify You. Let us shine like beacons in a dark world so that the rest of the world sees us and knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are indeed One Nation, Under God, Indivisible. Let us trust You and Your Wisdom in an age that seems so incredibly troubled. Give us peace and direction.

In Your Son's Holy Name, Amen.

The Fourth of November

Remember, remember the fourth of November
ACORN, Sleazing and Plot
I know of no reason
Why the Campaigning Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Obama, Obama, t'was his great goal
To turn the U. S. into a Communist Hell Hole
His friends and associates are the worst miscreants
He won't even prove that he's not an illegal immigrant;
By God's providence his plan can be choked
From 'spreading the wealth', making all of us broke.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, ignore liberal trolls.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, get your ass to the polls!