Skivvy Nine

No, it's not a particularly disgusting disease (at least not in the accepted sense).

If you ever wondered what I used to do for a living, and why I don't do it any more, read thisto assuage your curiosity. It's set a few short years before I came on the scene, but familiar enough.

I've just ordered my copy. It should save on some 'splaining. As good with words as I am usually accounted, there's a lot that is incomprehensible outside of a fairly detailed and specific context. Maybe after I get friends and fam to read this book, some of my stories will make more sense. Maybe I could actually tell some of them that I don't bother with right now.

Not that any of them will be particularly flattering to me. Just perhaps more comprehensible.

Hat tip to Cowboy Blob.

To Mayor Pollard

Mr Pollard,

I doubt you will remember me; I recently assisted with the 4th Plain Community cleanup effort by providing a trailer and PA system for the pre-work assembly at Vancouver Central Park.

I have recently been made aware that you are part of the so-called "Mayors against Illegal Guns". I must express my disappointment with your stance on this issue. I firmly believe that Mayor Bloomberg is totally against any and all rights for gun owners, and that this organization is on the wrong side of the issue. It's a front for gun-grabbers and limitations on civil liberty.

I supported the recent Thune amendment. As I wrote to my representatives in Congress:

"As Washington state is one of the more permissive states in regard to issuance of concealed pistol licenses, your vote merely harms Washington residents' ability to exercise their civil rights and basic human right of self-defense. Your job as a senator is to look out for our State's interests, and you have abdicated that responsibility in this instance as in so many others.

We have nothing to lose by allowing other states' law-abiding and licensed residents to carry their concealed pistols in our state, according to our laws, and much to gain from reciprocity, which is also a Constitutional issue, under Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, commonly known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

As a CPL holder, I have been vetted and prodded to verify my clean legal record and law-abiding character. Yet I am still required to jump hoops through artificially high barriers in order to conform with arguably unconstitutional limits on my civil rights when I drive 2 miles south from my home.

Please be aware that I am strenuously registering my objections to your policy in person, print, and online at every chance I get. My single voice does not sway much, but I believe that the majority opinion is on my side and suffers only from misinformation, and apathy induced by feelings of being disenfranchised. This can change."

Mr Pollard, I was armed during that recent event I mentioned, indeed I am armed at all times and places that I am legally allowed to be. No one was harmed, and had someone attempted to cause harm, myself and people like me would have had a chance to do something to prevent it. People subscribing to your beliefs would have had to hope a cop was close enough by to respond. As Obama supporters are beginning to find out, empty hope is not enough.

Trust me, I am all for states' rights when it comes to the Federal government expanding and usurping powers, but extending reciprocity to the acts and public records of all states is clearly a Constitutional mandate.

Via Econlog

How American Health Care Killed My Father

I agree with his assessment of the current state of our healthcare system, but not with his suggestions to fix the problem. He's right, up to the point where he starts getting all "mandatory this" and "forced to do" that. I can see some government mandates for people already in the system, in order to transition them to a more independent scheme, but not for people who are't on the dole and don't expect to be.

Town Hall Tonight

At tonight's Town Hall at Clark County Ampitheater, I won't be allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights as others have recently. Even though I am not only a law-abiding citizen and a veteran of multiple enlistments in the U.S. Air Force, currently hold a security clearance, have in the past held a Top Secret security clearance and worked in a classified facility at the National Security Agency, have spent 2.5 years in Iraq being mortared and rocketed while working for the US Government, currently work at a school which require yet another background check, and on top of all that have passed multiple NICS checks to purchase my firearms AND passed a seperate background check to receive my Concealed Pistol License.

Because I would certainly become much more dangerous to myself and others were I to carry my pistol (concealed or not) in an outdoor music venue and the ampitheater is such a place.

I suppose I shall have to attend with an empty holster in protest.

Public School Education

Via Coyote Blog:

In reference to John Mackey's (Whole Foods CEO) op/ed on Socialized Healthcare and Obama's plans, this blogger and his fellow travelers have this to say:

"The op-ed reads like a page from the Republican playbook, touting individual responsibility for one's health. What a load of unorganic crap!"

Just read the comments for a dose of hilarious-if-it-were-satire-but-actually-really-scary-ignorance. No philosophical underpinnings of coherent justification for what is a right and what is not. Not even any discussion of how healthcare is a "right". Nor of how it can be achieved. No concept of planning ahead for foreseeable risks and costs.

There are a few voices of sanity amidst it, but mostly being drowned out by pure noise.

People, the argument that the Constitution doesn't cover something because the framers couldn't anticipate is a non-starter. There's a process in place for adapting to new circumstances. Yes, it is very difficult to achieve a Constitutional Amendment. That is a feature, not a bug. Educate yourselves on the following: "populism", "bread and circuses", Alexis de Toqueville.

My letter to Mr. Baird

I got on Brian Baird's website today to get the link for my earlier post. I noticed a poll there where he asks us to "share our thoughts".

Given the current economic situation, which of the following impact your financial situation most?
Education costs
Food prices
Energy prices
Health care costs
Housing costs

It didn't list my biggest concern as an option, so I wrote an email instead:

I see your poll on your home page lists nearly everything under the sun when asking what concerns us most financially; except for "cost of government."

I submit to you, that we can handle everything else if our taxes were lower, and the costs of everything weren't being constantly ratcheted up to cover costs of regulatory compliance and government inefficiency.

I don't want future generations paying for Socialist policies that we already know are doomed to failure. I don't want to pay for programs now that are failing and have been since before I was born. John Kerry's one of your guys, let's paraphrase him: "Who wants to be the last generation to pay for mistakes?" I'd almost be okay with it being my generation, if I knew we would truly be the last.

I recently read an article on the increase in size of the CFR. I have been aware of this for a long time, but this puts it in pretty stark terms. You would go far in my estimation if you were to champion the cause of reducing legislation. Delay and obfuscate, throw a spanner in the works. Form a committee to go through older legislation and write bills to remove the silliest and msot harmful. That should keep people occupied in Congress.

I know you all think that since we elected you as legislators, you have to go write legislation. It's a common fallacy. Please, do not feel obligated to write more legislation, let's just get rid of some of it. Do not feel obligated to provide services for us; we can do it ourselves. We don't want what you're peddling, don't give it to us "for our own good"; we know our own individual circumstances better than you ever could.

Town hall at Clark Co. Ampitheater

Brian Baird is having a town hall meeting at Clark County Ampitheater tomorrow night (Tuesday August 18).

Be sure to be there, no matter what side of the issues you're on. But especially if you're on my side.

No socialized medicine.
No socialized anything.
Leave me the hell alone, unless I'm hurting someone else (in a non-consensual way).

Uncle Sam needs YOU...

...To report on your neighbors.

Extra credit for family members.

Dissent is no longer the highest form of Patriotism. That is so six months ago.

Cyber Czar, my *ss

Libertarian and self-reliant attitudes are still common in some sectors of the economy.

Henry Louis Gates is a douche, part dux

I continue to be incensed about this issue. I want to let it go, but I can't. I just can't see why people are spending so much time

A. Bitching about non-existent racism. (At least as far as this incident is concerned.)
B. Ignoring the very real problem of treating police as minor nobility, a special class with privileges the rest of us don't get.

People, this is not a racist cop treading on the black man. This is the system swamping individual liberty.

Even people I normally agree with (and still respect) are on the wrong side of this issue.

You can't let the moral character (or lack thereof) of the victim cloud your judgement on the actions of the perpetrator. Nobody deserves to be raped, no mater how much skin they show.

I don’t get to punch somebody for something they say, no matter how loudly or offensively they may say it. I can't call a cop to arrest you for calling my mother a whore. Why does a police officer get to arrest you for "mouthing off"? Is there not a right to freely express yourself, even to a police officer? If someone threatens an officer with violence, it would be a crime. Then he would have justification to respond with violence (physical restraint and deprivation of liberty, i.e. "arrest"). Just as I would have the right to defend myself if I believe I am in danger of assault.

But just as I would be in the wrong legally and morally for escalating from words to physical violence in that situation, the cop could have (should have) walked away, got in his police car, and driven off, swearing out loud to relieve the stress perhaps, but none the worse for the experience, the douche-y professor could have gone back into his house, they both could have bitched about it to friends, co-workers, and the world at large, each striving to present his own ideas to the marketplace of public opinion. That is my (no doubt crazy) libertarian interpretation of the best scenario.

Remember Sir Robert Peel's principles?

4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

Good job, Officer Crowley. You're not a racist, you're a fascist.