I’m as surprised as you are

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Phil Kadath

John Aravosis and I agree on something. Kind of.

He wants to repeal the Congressional medical insurance plan to members of Congress until they pass legislation for a socialized medicine program.

I want to repeal the Congressional medical insurance plan to members of Congress forever, and if they pass legislation for a socialized medicine program I want them to have to live under it, following all the rules that the everyday citizen would.

Sure, neither of which will ever happen, but mine is actually “fair”, whereas under his idea, you and I will get stuck with the socialized medicine program and Congress will have Tri-Care.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 2 Comments

If the media wants to talk about torture

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Phil Kadath

They should start in our public schools.

There’s a new bogeyman lurking in the closet, and this one isn’t imaginary. Us. One out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that Ma Earth won’t exist when they grow up, while more than half—56 percent—worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live), according to a new survey.

Commissioned by Habitat Heroes and conducted by Opinion Research, the telephone survey polled a national sample of 500 American preteens—250 males and 250 females.

On a sliding scale of anxieties, minority kids have it worst; 75 percent of black children and 65 percent of Hispanic children believe that the planet will be irrevocably damaged by the time they reach adulthood.

There is no evidence that any of this will happen within the lifetimes of the children of these children. And there is no reason that any of them should believe any of the above scenarios.

So it can only be concluded that the children are being lied to or they aren’t listening. What with the way the rest of the education testing scores look, I’d call it for the former.

Found via RTftLC

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense, Evil walks the earth | 1 Comment

Boomershoot Dinner Raffle Prize

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Alaska

This year, as part of the Boomershoot Dinner festivities, I’m donating an autographed copy of the below XKCD comic.

xkcdwrongoninternet.jpg

Buy your raffle tix early and often!

As a great THANK YOU to mine merrie host of Firebase Blue for his hospitality, he gets another autographed copy for his Blogstation wall.

Posted in Boomershoot | 1 Comment

Being Hospitable

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Phil Kadath

As you’ll read a few posts below, David and Derek are en route to Firebase Blue.

Being the esteemed host, I’ll be taking the rest of the morning getting the locale prepared for their arrival and stay.

Enjoy your local weather if you can and take care.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

One thumb up

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Phil Kadath

To Judge O’Scannlain, Judge Alarcon, and Judge Gould of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for their decision yesterday (pdf).
If they’d have found for the Nordyke’s, they’d have gotten the second one as well.

So now the appeal of the appeal. En Banc with the full 9th.

The Pucker Factor is set to HIGH.

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 1 Comment

Lauded as a Great Idea

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Phil Kadath

But only by stupid people.

This is a grapical representation of Obama’s latest budget plan.
obamacuts.jpg
……….
This is a written one

To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year–approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.

Great, the King of the Latte Liberals is cutting back.

I’ve flushed better ideas than that.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | Leave a comment

The Ways of the Force

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Phil Kadath

And not just the Police Force.

Eight police officers serving with Scotland’s largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, the BBC reported.

Strathclyde Police said the officers and two of its civilian staff claimed to follow the “faith,” as depicted in Star Wars. The details were obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Jane’s Police Review.

Strathclyde was the only force in the United Kingdom to admit it had Jedi officers.

About 390,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in the 2001 Census for England and Wales. In Scotland the figure was a reported 14,000. The Office for National Statistics did not recognize it as a separate category and incorporated followers of Jedi with the atheists.

Atheists? Really?. That doesn’t seem right to me.

Atheists believe in nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Everything was happenstance and there is no rhyme, reason or supernatural entity involved.

The Jedi believe in the supra-natural existence of motion and energy and an ability to modify it via willpower.

Yet again, a government body screws up.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 2 Comments

Less than 12 hours to go…

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Alaska

More on the extent of Boomershoot prep in a bit, but the good things are:

1) The two-position canopy arrived in the nick of time;
2) I got both Weatherby CFPs, the Bower Encore .223, and the non-Bower Encore .308 sighted in yesterday.

The bad things are:

1) Phil’s gunsmith’s gonna have to work on the OTHER forend hanger bar screw while I’m away at Boomershoot;

2) The Bower Contender .223 is temperamental; the two 7-30 Waters pistols are not zeroed; and I didn’t get a chance to sight in the Dominators.
3) The canopy legs are about two inches too long for my pickup bed. We’ll be headin’ north on I-5 with the truck cap rear window a-flappin’ in the wind.

I’m picking up Derek at 4:30 am tomorrow; with a 5 am departure and an hour or so for meals and rest stops, we should be at Phil’s by 7:00 or 7:30 pm. This schedule should, I hope, allow us to miss the commute traffic in Portland, and more importantly will let Phil have his sleep.

Posted in Boomershoot | 2 Comments

Tune on. Tune In.

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Phil Kadath

If you’re in the Seattle metro region, tonight’s Evening Magazine on KING 5 will be something you’ll want to watch and/or record.

The Boomershoot segment made at the 2005 event will be rebroadcast at 1900 (six bells for you sea dogs).

Watch and learn.

I might shed a tear because the 2009 event is next weekend and I can’t go this year.

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment

Are you a Producer?

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Phil Kadath

In reading through the leftosphere’s pieces on the T.E.A Parties of last week I came across a word I haven’t heard in quite a long time (and for that matter, anywhere in the blogosphere, until then).

Producerism

Defined as: Sometimes referred to as “producer radicalism,” refers to a syncretic ideology of populist economic nationalism which holds that the productive forces of society – the ordinary worker, the small businessman, and the entrepreneur, are being held back by parasitical elements at both the top and bottom of the social structure. (via Wikipedia)

If you read through the Wiki link, you’ll see why the left likes this definition of the word found at Wiki: It contains the word “nationalism” which they can tie to the National Socialist Party of Germany in the early 20th Century.

I would submit that people who call themselves “Producerists” may have strong love and respect for the nation they are operating in, but that they believe in the parasitic nature of the government and welfare state world wide and wish to see both elements significantly reduced for the good of mankind.

At least the people I would consider “Producerist” whom I believe would call themselves such do. I don’t think I know anyone who only wants the nation they reside in to suceed and all others to fail. A true “Producerist” is, essentially, someone who believes in Capitalism and that the more people free to buy what they produce, the better. Anyone who lets their nationalism get in the way of another open market for their product is setting themselves and their nation up for Epic Fail.

If the Norks did a 180 on trying to kill everyone and opened themselves up to the world market, I can’t think of anyoen I know who wouldn’t want to trade with them. The same goes for Cuba. Get rid of the Communist state and they can have all the American made products they want and I’ll buy a gross of cigars and whatever else they decide they’re going to produce.

Resistance to tyranny by a Producerist isn’t “nationalism” it is doing what is right and punishing tyannical governments for their nature.

Of course, if the left knew right from wrong, they’d be Producerists too.

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age, The Left is Never Right | Leave a comment