The “We” (or, more appropriately “wee”)

I just thought I’d expand on Tam’s idea expressed after reading the sinistra writer subbing at Balko’s.

The way I see it is this: If, sometime in the not too distant future, we were able to power our homes and cars, etc. using only urine, and all one had to do in order to fully utilize this new personal power source was drink 1/3 more fluids in order to increase one’s urine output by 1/3, there would be a certain segment of the population who would refuse to make this increase and would demand that others help them.

There would also be a certain segment of the population, of whom I have no doubt that Peter Moskos would be included, who would demand legislation that would force, at the point of a government gun, individuals such as you and I to make this “donation” in order to help those who refuse to help themselves. Their justification being that those who would help voluntarily would be overburdened without the forced labor of the rest of the citizenry.

But you all already knew this.

Which is why I say, piss on them.

Posted in The Left is Never Right | 1 Comment

Message From Dave

Now this is the proper way to follow a fine Boomershoot, as Dave the RNS Staff Photographer messaged me on his roundabout way back to Michigan:

“…it’s Saturday May 7 and I’m in Raton, NM at the NRA Whittington Center. Just finished banging ‘The Great White Buffalo’ at 1124 yds. (in clearing at center, just into tree line) Hooyah!!”


Congratulations Dave, especially for getting on target at 1k with no spotter! Nice shooting!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Even Law Professors Can Whine

My former professor Michael Glennon, fled from his former digs to the Fletcher School, had a well-written, logically-argued rant published last month about the purportedly legal justification given by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) for the US military actions in Libya, and how it contradicted the prior denunciations by the One and his henchmen of unilateral presidential authority in foreign affairs. (This is the same office that gave a similar justification for waterboarding, etc., not being torture. Goose, gander, the sauce is all good.)

Anyway, his rant’s worth reading, because portions of his analysis still strike me as sound in many ways, but the funniest part was this:

Nor would one expect OLC to explain the stark contradictions between its position and the many earlier statements of top Administration officials. … But the credibility of the United States’ own domestic legal system is also at stake. Millions of people voted for “change we can believe in,” thinking that the election of 2008 meant an end to an era of extravagant claims of presidential power. The President, Vice President, Secretary of State and State Department Legal Adviser take an oath, after all, to support the United States Constitution, not the United Nations Charter. These officials bear a responsibility for maintaining the credibility of our system, which rests, in the end, upon the believability, reliability, and integrity of our highest constitutional officers. It’s not as though their earlier statements were made off-the-cuff, and it’s not as though these officials had no acquaintance with constitutional law. Their statements were deliberate, studied pronouncements by individuals schooled in the history and interpretation of the Constitution, with years of experience in the highest councils of government and legal education. What credibility costs are borne by the United States when the declarations of such officials – measured pronouncements on the meaning of the most fundamental precepts set out in the Constitution – turn out to be empty words?

Emphasis mine. Anyone who expected Obama to ask a Republican Congress for authority to go to war is smoking something. Aww, poor baby. Did the politicians (and Harold Koh) lie when they said they wholeheartedly supported your quixotic academic quest to resuscitate the 1973 War Powers Resolution? And for all those years, too.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | Leave a comment

Tribal Marketing

Hadn’t seen this until today. Interesting. This is, I am sure, a very meticulously-planned marketing effort both to attract and retain customers and to encourage hiring. Hadn’t seen anything quite this direct from a major business before, though. Judging from the Awards page, it’s been going for seven years at least.

My wife’s a Latina. We see lots of Spanish-language advertising, etc. here in California, but I don’t recall seeing specifically-targeted ethnic outreach efforts like this. I’ll have to keep a better eye out.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Phil’s Boomershoot AAR

Sorry for being so absent as of late (insert hyper-leftist English professor excuse here).

But enough of that, here’s some pics! (they’re bigger when clicked on).

Here is the RNS crew (minus MadRock, who really needs to join us next year).

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Davidwhitewolf, Dave the RNS Staff Photog, me! me! me! and Scott. While I may smile for a number of things, photos aren’t one of them. After all, the camera IS stealing my soul.

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Here is the Boomershoot firing line taken from the top of the berm, 710yds from the Boomeragio (far left tent). Photo via Rolf.

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Looking in the opposite direction, from the right side of Barak the Boomershoot Rifle (I named the rifle this in 2005 after its completion by Mike Palazzo. It is Hebrew for “Lightning”). No, I’m not changing it for “The Won”

Speaking of awesome rifles

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Dave the RNS Photog had this rifle built from a barrel he won in the Boomershoot dinner raffle last year. It is a tube gun design based on a Remington 700 action in the 6.5×47 caliber. He’ll have a post and better pics up in the not too distant future for y’all.

I’m sure that if you’ve followed any of the Boomershoot AAR’s across the gunosphere you’ve seen the pics of Ry’s most awesomest opening fireball evarrr! (which it truly was). However, Rolf got some epic pics of the bowlingball mortars going off as well.

Here is your standard mortar launching

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And this is what happens when you add two zip lock sandwich bags half filled with unleaded on top of the ball.

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Here are David and Scott taking part in clean-up (aka: High Intensity)

David with his SOCOM II

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Scott with my home-built XM-177 clone (his CMMG piston gun was still having “issues” at the time).

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At the end of the day, Joe was caught giving his tootsies a well earned rest before he had to call an end to another excellent Boomershoot event.

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And finally, Rolf camped on site and caught, in my opinion, the perfect picture to cap this AAR.

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Now, to be forthright with you, some of this year’s boomers in the new plastic containers were not up to Joe’s high standards. I’m sure that Joe feels terrible about this, even though he need not do so. I know that he is going to solve the issue and next year will be better, because every Boomershoot is better than the last one and that is all I, and you, need to know.

If you’re going to wander around calling yourself a “Rifleman and not a Cook” and haven’t visited Joe’s Fields o’ Boomers, you should really consider showing up or piping down. Oh sure, the Appleseed events are great, but paper is boring. Hell, even whacking pool cue chalk gets bland after a while. If you want your trigger time and spotting time tested by real world wind and weather, this is the place to run on the razor.

Be there or be sad.

Posted in Boomershoot | 2 Comments

For those of us in The People’s Republic of Seattle

I think we can all agree with Schram that this needs to stay alive.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Sums it up in two words

Over at Balko’s site, Radley is on vacation, so he has a bunch of guest bloggers holding down the fort. One of the guest bloggers, Peter Moskos, asked for the libertarians who haunt the comments at the Agitator to explain certain positions to him. The community did a pretty good job responding, but one of the other guest bloggers really, IMHO, nailed the core of Libertarian values in two simple words..

Power Corrupts

Go read the posts and discussion, it’s interesting.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Boomershoot AAR Coming Soon

Tuesday I followed Joe Huffman’s example and slept for about twelve hours straight. Now I’m catching up with things at the office. SCOTUS did good with its AT&T Mobility decision, but that means I’ve got to update our contracts post-haste. Once again, Thomas writes a separate opinon that’s the best of the lot.

Photos and recap of a fantastic Boomershoot 2011 coming in the next day or so.

In passing, I’ll note this interestingly-phrased news item from across the pond. Cover your keyboards:

Mr Panetta also told the network that the US Navy Seals made the final decision to kill bin Laden rather than the president.

I guess that Biden-as-VP insurance policy worked again.

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RNS Quote of the Day, 05/04/11

“Meanwhile, Brits have been cutting their steaks with spoons.”

Hat tip to The Packing Rat.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | Leave a comment

Sadly

I have to agree with Balko. The people who gladly traded liberty for the illusion of security handed him that victory.

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