QOTD: Debt Limit Smackdown

There isn't a person outside a mental hospital or an Ivy League faculty who believes the federal government can continue on its current fiscal trajectory, even with tax increases. Change is inevitable. Real change. Bone-deep, re-write the social contract, no more free lunch, learn to live within our means change. What is the political wisdom of demanding that it can only happen over your party's dead body?

Bill Frezza had that to say a week ago as the debt ceiling vote drew nearer (the no strings attached version of which was voted on last night and went down harder than a DC hooker).

Obviously, Mr. Frezza is correct in that Washington is so delusional with regards to spending that they can (and should) be grouped with the Ivy League nut jobs and the psychos whom belong in white padded rooms.  Thus, it's imperative that some how, some way, the putzes inside the beltway get their shit together and find a way to cut the federal budget now (and not for next year, or the next 10 years) and forever to allow our country's finances to remain in tact (or at least functional).

QOTD: Three to One is Bettin' Odds!

Other evidence also suggests that Hoven did “the right thing.” The National Crime Victimization Survey shows that defending oneself with a gun is by far the safest course of action when one is confronted by a robber. For example, people who protect themselves with a gun are injured in robberies about 8 percent of the time, but those who behave passively are injured by the criminals 24 percent of the time, a three times higher rate.

From John Lott's latest on Big Government, we find that if you prefer to be a pascifist when it comes to being a vicitim of crime, you are three times more likely to be injured!  I'll use a gun please!  Then I'll bet on the poor suckers who chose not to heed the following...

QOTD: Operation Proper Exit Challenge

What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's poetic quote is certainly appropriate on Memorial day, especially when remembering the soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice.  Their efforts certainly are efforts from within that respond to a much higher level of service for fellow man and the defense of liberty.  A soldier's combat death, no matter within what conflict is not something to be taken lightly, and today it is completely absent of a political prism.  Sacrifice for the good of the many is something that none of us can even begin to comprehend in this life.  Perhaps we will understand it when we see our heroes again in the next one.

While I am about to post this video here for your viewing, I emphatically encourage you to click through to watch it on YouTube in a quest to push it to 1 million views before the end of the year (as of this writting on Friday afternoon, it sits around 940 views).  Hell, there are plenty of viral videos that hit that number in less than a week, so let's make this one happen in the next month!

The reason for my grotesque level of goading?  Simple.  Local radio personality Mark Zinno is a member in the Maryland National Guard who is currently in theater and wanted the help of listeners to hit 1 million views.  If that happens, he has pledge to put up $1,000 of his own hard earned combat pay to the Wounded Warrior Project.  He plans to be back by the year's end but as said above, let's not wait that long.

While I can't manage to match that generous gift personally, I can pledge a few bucks to a worthy cause as we go into this Memorial Day if it helps entice you to share the word with your friends and family.  So, please, watch the video, click through to YouTube, and let's help Major Zinno and all of our vets as we remember those who have give us their lives in defense of freedom. 





I hope you can all do a little bit while partying and enjoy burgers and beer this weekend to help out our military and their injured.  Most importantly, let us all be a bit somber at a few points this weekend to remember the fallen, those who laid down their lives in defense of freedom.

QOTD: Marine Whoop Ass Style!

One thing is for certain, that Marine deserves a beer (or two)!  I hope to see him run for office one day, and slap some silly liberal/hippies around like this (because of the the Trumpified language)!  Look, average Joe six pack (meaning me, and people like me) appreciate this kind of speak.  It's raw, it's real, and it certainly takes balls, and yes, even patriotism to speak it.  That's America in a nutshell, someone with the sense, the guts, and the passion to lay the wood.  HooooRaahh!  Well put! 



H/t to Trevor Loudon.

QOTD Double Bonus: Freebie Love!

Yeah!  It's happy brown truck of joy day!  Your mount goes out today!  I'll send you a tracking number when I get it out.

Freebies are awesome!  Especially when it comes out of a semi-bet with an upstart company.  More on the back story after the introduction.

That company is RS Regulate; a new accessory manufacture for AK variant firearms (and what ever else comes from the upstart).  So, shipping out to me today is the RS AKM, side rail mount that accepts 30mm optical red dots while also allowing for the optic to be centered over the bore, AND provide a lower 1/3 co-witness of the factory irons!  How bad assness is that?!

I've followed this product's development for approximately 5 months now, and when designer / company owner made me a bet that he'd have this mount on the market for my February birthday, or my first was on him, he certainly pulled through.  When a company believes in its product so much before the end user ever gets to put their hands on it, it says a lot!  I can wait to get this thing in my hands, and mounted up!

So, mad props go out to RS Regulate!  You can find their products shipping from AIM Surplus or Brownells.  If you want the development stuff, check out this thread on ARFCOM.

Author's Note:  As I mentioned here I've been slacking and I have actually received my mount.  I'm hoping to get it installed this weekend and get it sighted in and shoot some with it.  Hopefully I'll even get some pictures and an initial review.  I must apologize to RS Regulate's owner for being a bit back logged.  He has been nothing but "all world" when we first started conversing.  Had he not been true to his word, I would have been shelling out the cash for this product myself as it seems true to the AK design; simple, effective, and rugged.  I'll keep you readers posted with initial impressions and round counts.  

QOTD: Constitutional Senility

It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as spring-boards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us. As guardians of the Constitution, we must be consistent in interpreting its provisions.

Judge Kozinski had that to say from his dissenting opinion rendered from the 9th Circus' decision in the Nordyke case.

My question is, why can't all judges write opinions like this?  We libertarians and conservatives feel this way, how hard is it for judges to express their thoughts in "normal" commoner language?  It certainly would make decisions easier (and more fun) to read, but the best part is that this is the kind of language that sets jurisprudence for years to come.  Can anyone imagine Scalia writing something like this into a majority opinion to screw with the libtards for decades to come?  Two words...last laugh.

QOTD: Pay Discrepency

The point is, the dollar is going down. Over the short term, I don’t know…but certainly over the long term. As it is, a tollbooth operator in the state of Massachusetts earns more than a person with a master’s degree in computer science in Beijing. And the fellow in Beijing works 12 hours a day…and gets almost no benefits.

Discrepancy in pay certainly is a major problem of the current economic crisis.  We can say the same about our CEOs of major corporations in this country that their salaries are very disproportional to the earnings of the company, the amount input that they have (or chose to put in), and their employees'.

While no man should ever be limited by laws (or more precisely, taxes) on the amount of wages one can earn, we must realize that the market does set the fair wage, inclusive of the inherent risk in the currency with which the wage is paid.  The problem with pay discrepancy is that it will always find equilibrium; which means that through inflationary burn, debt enslavement, the burden of government, and high unemployment, the wages of average workers in the United States will not have upward pressure.

All the more reason to reform Washington, end the Federal Reserve, and prevent the meddlers from meddling with our currency.

QOTD: Turtle Harness Racing

So we are watching two horses round the clubhouse turn, gotta keep watching them to see if one pulls ahead of the other.  Actually, it's more like harness racing, but with turtles.

As various Maryland Shooters members watch the threads pertaining to the challenges before our legal system with regards to public RKBA, member SkunkWerx had that to say about the quickness (or lack thereof) of the process. 

I'd say he is spot on!

QOTD: Get up, Stand Up!

I don't stand for the black man's side, I don' t stand for the white man's side.I stand for God's side.

Often times, the Google Trends gadget I have on my home page makes me shake my head in disgust at the ignorance of my fellow humans.  Fortunately, Skynets (aka Google) isn't doing that today, and it made me see that one of the best musicians of all time had an anniversary today (that of his untimely death).

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!

The singer I am referencing is of course Bob Marley (as today marks 30 years since his death).  Certainly, Marley is not an individual that I would agree with in every facet of life, but he did understand nobility, integrity, freedom, and rights.  Those are personal characteristics I have to admire!

Rest Peacefully Bob, and know well that your music is still delivering the goods to this day.

ETA:  WaPo Blog Post here (and you should know how I hate the WaPo) has a nice write up on the Jamaican National Hero.  

QOTD: Judical Check & Balance

The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, and both should be checks upon that.  -John Adams

QOTD: Happy Birthday Jefferson Edition: Government Restraint

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

How true is that statement given today's current political and economic climate!  Oh so accurate words to live by, that is for certain.  Happy birthday great founder, perhaps we'll reform our republic back to your (and fellow founders) original intents before it is too late and we need another one of these...

QOTD: The World is Just a Trailer Park

While debating Canada taking over the NATO command of Libyan actions, and adding in the irony that the Canadian government just took a vote of no confidence in the PM (which passed), AK Fan and I lamented for the days of the cold war.  Simply because during that era, at least we knew who the players were.  From AK Fan:

The world truly is a fucking mess.  Like we've joked about before, you ALMOST have to miss the cold war.  Sure we were always on the edge of destruction, but you have the US/NATO and you have the USSRF.  Everyone else stayed the fuck out of their way.

Pure and simple, the two major players kept each other in check.  Yes, there were proxy wars and actions on the periphery, but for the most part, the world was a fairly stable place.  The US also did not need to have this policy of freedom export upon the level that we do today, knowing full well that we might find ourselves up against Ivan himself if we over stepped our bounds and threatened his interests.  The cold war kind acted as it's own mediator in a civilized suburban neighborhood.  There were rules of detente along with weapons inspectors (the good old Reagan doctrine of "Trust but Verify").  Of course, the clandestine game was probably at its best during that era which gave us some of the best books and movies of all time.  

Unfortunately, as I analogized, the world has degraded into that of a proverbial trailer park.

 The world is really a big cluster fuck; since the fall of the wall, it has turned into one big trailer park.  Unfortunately, I think that a trailer park could manage the world better than the numb-skulls running it.  On the economy they'd just say "Fuck you, you didn't pay your loan, so we put your pick-em-up-truck on the record and toed yous ass down to the junk yards, now leamme alone so I can drink ma beer."

Never one to be outdone, AK Fan makes the analogy even simpler:

See, right now the world is a trailer park.  The problem is the US is the cop who tries to keep order but, while he's there to enforce the law, he's also fucking half the wives in the park.  Further, he's helping them pay their rent with $20's he prints up on his HP copier.  At some point, it just can't continue. 

Folks, this is the world in which we live...Welcome to the Trailerhood! 

QOTD: Milton Friedman on Greed

Milton Friedman on greed, presented in it's raw and most powerful form.

QOTD x2: Searching for Monsters

From founder John Adams: 

Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and prayers, but she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.  She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.  She is the champion and vindicator of her own.

Should we interpret this quote to mean that the United State should be an isolationist country?  Perhaps that argument could be made, but unfortunately it is only true in theory.  Throughout the history of mankind, there are morally righteous cases to be made for going to war or waging conflict against other nations, but those cases are made with opaque colored glasses.  If one side is right, and one side is wrong, who has the righteous clarity to play referee?  (Often, the winner of the war, I suppose.  It's a deep philosophical question without a correct answer). 

So why do we engage in such conflicts when our founder warned against seeking conflict and "troubles" to be "correct?"  It is even harder to answer that question.  There is no mandate for the USA to play referee to the world when there are human rights at stake by anyone other than ourselves.  We chose to intervene in one civil war, but which other civil wars are we neglecting?  True, we can alter world events and change the course of history into the future should the right tactics be used, the best results achieved, and the evils eradicated, but it's time we start asking "at what cost."  (And I mean not just monetary terms).  

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge.  It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base.  All men are afraid in battle.  The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty.  Duty is the essence of manhood.

Patton was a pure student of history and realized that often times, just one simple event changed the course of mankind for forever.  Further, the general realized that battle was only ever, at best, a necessary evil; one he emphatically hated.

As the last beacon of true freedom in the world (that which is quickly dimming and dwindling for its own people), should we be looking for monsters?  Should we be engaged in Libya while still trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis and Afghans?  Or should we realize that perhaps our doctrine of spreading democracy and forging peace with friendly nations should no longer be spread by the spear, but by pure example?  Should we switch from a manifest destiny of military action, foreign aid, and good will towards all men (enemies or friends), and once against turn inward to concentrate upon our own?  

I'm sorry dear reader, I've been doing a lot of pondering upon my beliefs lately, and I find myself questioning just how much I claim to know (or believe that I am right).

QOTD: Right Grid

When you are taking out insurgents by dropping JDAMs (probably of the 2,000 pound variety, and in multiples) on their compounds, you better damned well hope you get the "right grid."

 Rodger.  Just hope I got the right grid!

Note:  Possible NSFW language, view at your discretion.

QOTD Double Bonus: Caution: Democarcy Working at Fail!

From Zero Hedge (of course):

If this is the way politics in America will be done going forward, when any party knows the only way to prevent passage of austere financial measures is by fleeing, one wonders: just what is the point of the US "democratic" system when a minority can hold up the majority just by taking the first one way taxpayer funded private jet out of the state?

 I don't think that needs any further statement.

QOTD: Living at the Expense of the State

From Frederic Bastiat:

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state.  They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Presented by itself for effect.  Thanks to the Mogambo Guru over at the Daily Reckoning.

QOTD: Wife's Perspective on Cell Phones & Sink Holes

Between the weather, work, and recovering from skiing this past weekend, (and staying up to watch the SOTU and the Paul Ryan response), I'm a little out of sorts.  (Well, dear reader, perhaps you are learning that I am always a little out of sorts).

My wife, a civil engineer by trade, and the apolitical women that she is, actually watched 3/4s of the SOTU with me on Tuesday evening.  In doing so she made me LOL at this:

Great, so...let me get this straight?  What the President just said was that we are failing at maintaining our existing infrastructure and we are lagging behind in creating new infrastructure, but don't worry, we'll give you a free government cell phone so you can call for help when you fall into a massive sink hole?  How does that solve our infrastructure problem? 

Well, even the apolitical, sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative citizen can see through the smoke and mirrors of the big .gov.  I swear, there is hope to make her into a conservative / libertarian yet!  

QOTD: George Mason Bonus

I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

As others have noted, a week ago today, the militia acted, in concert, and WITHOUT formal training.  Just goes to show that society is not dependent upon the government for response to conflict or crippling problems.

Now, if someone could just tell congress to butt out of our lives, we'd be in good shape.

QOTD: George Mason Disagrees with Legacy University

“[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, – who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.”

Sebastian over at SIH covered this the other day when the Virginia Supreme Court sided with George Mason University to restrict carry in buildings and dorms, but thanks to a smart poster over on MD Shooters, our founding father tends to disagree with the lot of them. 

Obviously, as we have learned over the last week, to be enslaved does not necessarily mean to JUST your government or purely as a piece of chattel.  Nope, we can also be enslaved to ugly and perverted thugs whom are demons praying on the weak.  As the saying goes, best to be prepared when the fight comes to us, instead of to be always looking for a fight.