And so we continue with our presentation of the “5 Levels of Awarenenss” as written by Boston T. Party in his book Boston’s Gun Bible
Yellow – Alert and aware, focused and conscious of any potential problem.
Nobody can tell you what your Bad Guy (or Girl) will look like, where they’ll come from, or what they’ll be armed with. Statistically, it will be a minority male in his early twenties, however it could be a 53 year old asian woman with a cane.
Tomorrow we’ll move to Orange.
By now I’m sure you’ve already heard of the “Pin-Ups for Vets” Calendar, all the big-name right wing blogs were talking about it last week. But a guy named Matt wrote and very nicely asked for my support, and who am I to refuse something this thoughful for our soldiers?
And who could resist a smile like this from Gina Elise?
I’m told that there is a bicycle in the picture somewhere, but I have yet to see it.
I’m not going to say.
But I will tell you about some things discovered by our good man, The Heartless Libertarian, during his looksee into Washington State Gun Bigot Politics.
HB 1014 was the first to be “Prefiled for Introduction”. Titled “The Safe Kids Act of 2007” it is essentially what a gun bigot would call a bill “encouraging the safe storage of firearms”, but it is nothing of the sort.
First of all, it is unenforcable. It would require your home to be entered and searched for loaded firearms without trigger locks or not locked in a childproof compartment. Secondly, it is toothless, with violations being not even a misdemeanor crime but a “civil offence” where the fine tops out at $50.
HB 1014 will basically be nothing more than a law to harass child-rearing gun owners. It will not be used to prosecute adults whose children are injured or killed by their lack of knowledge of firearms, nor will it be used against teenage gang-members who shoot people.
Next up is HB 1026, which was “Prefiled” three days after HB 1014. It purports to close the “Gun-Show Loophole”, which any reasonable individual knows does not exist.
It does this by basically banning non-FFL dealers from gun shows and requires them to do the full-on NICS background check. It also requires that the dealer post their license at their table for inspection. Likewise, the show organizers are liable for each and every sale that goes on at that show. If someone who is not an FFL dealer manages to even get a table at the show and wants to complete the sale of a firearm, they must do so only through one of the licensed dealers at the show.
While I would highly suggest to Washington State residents that calling, writing or emailing you representative be your first course of action and that having your firearm owning friends and relatives who live here do the same be your second, The Heartless Libertarian has something else you can do.
He recommends, and I concur, that you stop by a site called WashingtonVotes.Org. There you can read up on legislation and leave comments on them.
Update: You can find mine here and here.
As I have pointed out here and here, HL reminds that none of these pieces of legislation so highly demanded by Seattle Mayor Nickles would have stopped any of the high profile crimes that have taken place in the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia/Everett metropolitan area; neither the recent murder at Foss High School or the murders committed by Kyle Huff, the drugged out raver who killed six other partygoers.
Not only would they have not stopped any of those serious crimes, HB 1026 has the potential to stop a single mother from buying her only source of protection from the thugs in her neighborhood and HB 1014 will, not has the potential, but will, stop a parent from defending themselves and/or their children from a violent attack.
Take a look at Washington DC, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles for examples. Fewer firearms in the hands of private, law-abiding citizens, with more restrictions on their ownership equals more crime than Washington could ever have a nightmare about.
And because of the politcal affiliations of the sponsors of these pieces of legislation, they also prove this David Horsey cartoon to be a lie:
In an effort to get you, the RNS reader, out taking firearms self-defense classes, this week’s Quotes of the Day will focus on “The Five Levels of Awareness” as quoted from Boston’s Gun Bible.
While carrying a firearms for self-defense isn’t for everyone, the one way to test to see if it is for you is to attend professional firearms training courses from places such InSights, Front Sight, Thunder Ranch, Gunsite, Yavapai or Bill Rodgers.
And so we’ll start with the first level of awareness: White
White – Unalert and unaware.
This is a separation of the conscious and subconscious mind (i.e., daydreaming). Drivers in car accidents often remark “He came out of nowhere!†This is White.
White may be fine when you’re at home with loved ones, but you should never be in White in public (a condition which is called “foodâ€). If you look or act like food, you will be eaten.
Dig, if you will, this picture:
You live in a small town of around 3500 people. Your town council fastracked a proposal to build one of those big box stores for you to shop at. The store has been built, employees hired and shipments of products have arrived to be sold.
Life is grand. Employment will go up, as will tax revenues for your burg.
Except for the fact that a small minority of people who live primarily outside of the town, owning second or third homes there have found a judge to stop the grand opening.
Because it will ruin, what they perceive, as the “town charm”.
Chelan Wal-Mart built, but will it ever open?
About two weeks from now, Wal-Mart was supposed to celebrate a grand opening here, ushering in a new era in retail shopping — and big changes for this scenic tourist town on the lake.
The shelves are still being stocked. Construction workers are gluing up trim and decking the food court in plastic plants. And some 200 new employees are ready to go to work.
But it’s quite possible the big celebration is off. A county judge last week delivered a giant legal victory to a small group of local opponents of the 162,000-square-foot big-box behemoth, agreeing that the project violated the city’s zoning rules.
Now they aren’t just talking about stopping the grand opening. Some people are talking about tearing the whole thing down.
The outsiders who filed the suit are claiming that when they bought their houses in the area, they were told that no big-box stores would ever be built here. Who told them this is yet to be determined (previous owner, retailer, pixie charm dust distributor, etc), but they contend it was the town council.
“This was a bait-and-switch on the part of the city and Wal-Mart,” said Kathy George, a Seattle lawyer who represents the opponents. “The city told the public this was going to be a nice business park with buildings up to 50,000 square feet, and that it would be good for jobs. It skated through the process with hardly any public concern. Years later, we get a 162,000-square-foot store.”
For Laurel Jamtgaard, who heads the group that has managed to raise all of $15,000 for the cause, the issue is fundamentally about protecting the town’s charm.
“It is just so out of scale for a small community,” Jamtgaard said. “I’m totally empathetic to people trying to buy goods at lower prices and tired of driving to Wenatchee or Omak. But every small town doesn’t have to have one of these stores. Part of living in a place like this is being further from that kind of convenience.”
Now the group plans to ask the judge to send the permits back to the city, and yank the temporary occupancy permit Wal-Mart has been using to stock the store, hire employees and get ready for opening day.
So instead of getting three or four buildings of 50K square feet, they got one of 162K. I’m failing to see why it would make much of a difference. But then again, I don’t hate Wal-Mart with a passion.
I do thoroughly enjoy the condescention from the group’s leader, Laurel Jamtgaard, and his “empathy” for the people who are willing to drive the 43 miles to Wenatchee or the 57 miles to Omak to save a little extra cash.
Of course, he makes no mention of the 200 or so locals who would now be employed locally, OR of the influx of tax dollars from both the locals and from the tourists and others passing through Chelan, shopping at the only all-in-one store within 100 miles.
Probably because he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about them. He wants his “Charm”.
UK Parliment Ministers will be gathering together 100 “ordinary citizens” to ask them one simple question:
Does the person whose lifestyle causes them illness (smokers, drinkers, the obese) deserve the same priority for medical proceedures as a non-smoker, a non-drinker, or those who are height-weight proportional?
Obese may be denied priority NHS care
A Cabinet review group on public services was shocked by the scale of the burden caused by people’s lifestyles. “Ministers were shocked by the fact that half of all years of healthy life are lost as a result of behavioural factors (e.g. smoking and diet),” a Government source said.
Ministers want a “cultural change” in public services so the state can support and encourage people to change their behaviour to improve their life chances and well-being.
This goes right along with the story I posted about back in November of 2005, where local clinics were denying hip and knee replacements to the overweight to try and cut down on the number of people waiting in line.
Got a bum knee and a little pudge around the middle?
How about a big ass that didn’t provide enough padding when you fell and ended up breaking your hip due to the onset of osteoperosis?
Well then, you are a heathen piece of shit who deserves to suffer. At least according to the people who have your best interest in mind from the UK’s National Health Service in East Suffolk.
The truly battering irony here being that, if you have injured your hips or knees, you are now, at best, wheelchair mobile and cannot exercise to lose the weight. Hope you like those starvation diets!
And I still stand steadfastly by exactly what I wrote about socialized medicine then
Remember, no matter how much of your tax money goes into the bucket for these “Free” services, the bean counters in the administrative offices are the ones that decide who gets what.
Never, ever, trust a bean counter to have your best interest in mind.
Especially when that bean counter has a guaranteed gov’t position.
It would be the least of our worries.
America’s Holy Warriors – Chris Hedges
The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.
During the past two years I traveled across the country to research and write the book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.†I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack—the military and law enforcement. While these preachers had no interest in communicating with local leaders of other faiths, or those in the community who did not subscribe to their call for a radical Christian state, they assiduously courted and flattered the military and police. They held special services and appreciation days for all four branches of the armed services and for various law enforcement agencies. They encouraged their young men and women to enlist or to join the police or state troopers. They sought out sympathetic military and police officials to attend church events where these officials were lauded and feted for their Christian probity and patriotism. They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as “satanic.†All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society.
What we have here is not a failure to communicate; it is more like Mr. Hedges has hit his own personal trifecta.
He hates Christians, Cops and the Military. Now that he sees the three of them congratulating or supporting one another, he is screaming that it is proof of the end of America.
I hope there wasn’t too much of a residual aftertaste in whatever he was drinking. Bile like that probably tastes bad enough.
Of media silence.
By now, everyone and their dog has heard of the “Bridge to Nowhere”, so I don’t need to recap much of the story other than the cost was $500 Million, it was Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens and that it was actually going somewhere (the areas only airport).
But, have you heard of Representative Noncy Pelosi’s “Subway to Baseball”?
You haven’t! Then click this link and see where Pelosi wants $532 Million dollars to build a subway that’ll connect the Giants Baseballpark to downtown San Francisco.
She has already gotten most ($320Mil) of the money set aside and is now just looking for the final dollop to make her dreams come true.
Though, I do wonder if the “flap” over this obvious waste of federal taxpayer dollars will be even so much as a “kerfuffle” what with how enamored the MSM is with Her Nanciness.
Sheriff’s Office to Hold Classes on Safety for Young Adults
Young people spend their early years relying on their parents for safety and security. When they move away from home they become responsible for their own safety. If you are a teenager moving into you own apartment or heading off to college soon, or if you are still living at home but enjoying more freedom as you venture out into the community, this is a great opportunity to learn about safety!
In this interactive and informative class, trainers from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office will discuss safety precautions and strategies to keep young people safer. The class will be geared toward young women but interested young men and supportive parents are also welcome! Topics of discussion will include:
* Awareness of surroundings
* Avoiding dangerous situations
* Self-defense strategies
* Date rape
* Drugs and alcohol
* Physical security in cars, dorm rooms, apartments, and “frat” housesTeens and young adults are encouraged to attend this safety class which will help prepare them for situations they may not have encountered while living at home.
While the phrase “Self-Defense Strategies” is included amongst the topics to be discussed, how many doughnuts do you want to bet that “Learning Firearms Competency” and “Buying a Handgun” will not be included in the discussion?
All the way to Washington DC. And I’m not talking about what the Dems did to Lieberman. This will be much worse.
Wajid Khan was an Canadian Parlimentary MP in the Liberal Party. MP Khan had stepped up to help his Prime Minister, Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party, in a way that only he could. Before moving to Canada, MP Khan was a fighter pilot in the Pakistani Air Force and knows more about radical Islam than, quite possibly, anyone else in his country’s Parliment.
For doing this, Stephane Dion, leader of the Liberal Party MPs told Mr. Khan that he had to make a choice: Stay with the Liberal Party, or keep helping PM Harper and switch to the Conservative Party.
With the line drawn in the snow, Mr. Khan stepped right over it and isn’t looking back
When I’m given a choice to choose between a political party and my country, I will always choose Canada.
The Liberal Party clearly only cares about their political power and not the country itself. The entirety of their nation could be smouldering, but as long as there were enough people around to vote them into power, they could care less.
The same could easily be said about the Democrats during the first six years under the Bush Administration (and now especially the 2006 Democrats). Say anything, make up whatever you need to, overplay any and all bad news; just whatever you do, make it hurt the Republicans. Granted, the Repubs didn’t do a very damn good job at keeping themselves under wraps, and fucked themselves out of the Majority. But they couldn’t have done it themselves.
When Lieberman decided that killing terrorists is a better plan than negotiating with them, the Dems fielded a candidate against him. But so far, they haven’t told anyone to make the choice.
It will not be long. They smell the blood of power and they want more of it. They will start drawing lines and “throwing mama from the train”, so to speak.
Watch for it.
