Saturday - June 16, 2007

Weekend Assignment

From Misha and Blackfive

Hear That?

No?  Me either.

What I want to be hearing is grunts of pain from RCT-6’s PAO, as he hefts box after box of printed-out emails supporting our Marines.  Since I’m not hearing any complaining yet, I think we need to do it harder.

You read how our Marines need, more than anything else, to hear that you love them.  By God, you ought to.  And according to my email, Col. Simcock “admonished” them into getting a separate email account set up for us, just hours after we started mailing. 

Let’s fill it.

Here’s the address: RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

So far they have 25 letters.  Flood them.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2007 at 07:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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   Friday - June 15, 2007

Friday Afternoon Distraction

Man, do I need some range time.

Try it out - The Shooting Simulator

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2007 at 01:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Ruth Graham - RIP

Billy Graham’s wife dies
Ruth Graham to be honored at public memorial service
The Associated Press

MONTREAT, N.C. — Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world’s most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She was 87.

Graham died at 5:05 p.m. at her home at Little Piney Cove, surrounded by her husband and all five of their children, said a statement released by Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s spokesman.

The Grahams had five children together: Franklin (William Franklin III), Nelson, Virginia, Anne and Ruth. Their daughter, Ruth, lives in Waynesboro.

“Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team,” Billy Graham said in a statement. “No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.

“I am so grateful to the Lord that he gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together. We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”

Ruth Graham had been bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck — the result of a serious fall from a tree in 1974 while fixing a swing for grandchildren — and underwent treatment for pneumonia two weeks ago. At her request, and in consultation with her family, she had stopped receiving nutrients through a feeding tube for the last few days, Ross said.

The family plans a private interment ceremony and a public memorial service. Those arrangements had yet to be made on Thursday.

As Mrs. Billy Graham, Ruth Graham could lay claim to being the first lady of evangelical Protestantism, but neither exploited that unique status nor lusted for the limelight.

Behind the scenes, however, she was considered her husband’s closest confidant during his spectacular global career.

Thank you Ruth, for your undying committment to your God, to your husband and to your family.

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Matthew 25:23

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2007 at 06:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Celebrities • Personal •  
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Why Ron Paul is Not the Man

Jahn Hawkins has a point-by-point article making the case why Conservatives should not be backing Ron Paul.

Read the article for the meat behind each point.

#1) Ron Paul is a libertarian, not a conservative
#2) Ron Paul is one of the people spreading the North American Union conspiracy
#3) Ron Paul encourages “truther” conspiracy nuts
#4) Ron Paul’s racial views
#5) A lot of Ron Paul’s supporters are incredibly irritating
#6) Ron Paul is an isolationist
#7) Ron Paul wants to immediately cut and run in Iraq
#8) Ron Paul excused Al-Qaeda’s attacks on America
#9) Ron Paul is the single, least electable major candidate running for the presidency in either party

His conclusions?

Is Ron Paul serious about small government, enforcing the Constitution, and enforcing the borders? Yes, and those are all admirable qualities. However, he also has a host of enormous flaws that makes him unqualified to be President and undesirable, even as a Republican Congressmen.

I’ll be interested to hear from you who support Paul to refute these claims.  I have not been following him as closely as I should, but this seems pretty damning, especially #7 & 8.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2007 at 06:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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Good Show

Listening to NPR on the way home yesterday, they were reporting on the fighting between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza.  It was funny because without Israel to bash, they could not find an angle for this story.

But the fighting was a Bad Thing^TM anyway.

I’m wondering why, from my perspective, I should get worked up about it.  Here we have two factions of people who hate our guts, shooting each other!  What could be better than to have the enemy eliminate itself while we stand around and watch?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2007 at 06:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Paleswine •  
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HR2640 is not HR297

I received an interesting email from The Firearms Coalition last night talking about HR2640, passed by the House yesterday.  There has been much talk in the gun blogs lambasting the NRA for supporting this bill, namely because its author, New York Democrat Carolyn McCarthy, is such a raging anti-gun loon.

But they make a couple of good points in the note; mainly that this does make some good improvements to the NICS system.  While we would like NICS to go away completely, making positive improvements in the meantime is not a bad thing.

Here’s the note:

In a surprise move, the US House of Representatives today passed a bill which provides incentives for states to enhance and computerize criminal and mental health records and make such records available to the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS).

While The Firearms Coalition has consistently opposed previous versions of this bill, we do not oppose the bill as it was passed by the House today.

H.R.2640, sponsored by New York Democrat Carolyn McCarthy, is a modified version of a bill Rep. McCarthy has offered in each of the past several sessions of Congress.  This version of the bill was just introduced this past Monday (June 11) and differs from previous versions in that it includes several provisions for the removal of names arbitrarily added to the NICS list and to ensure ways for a person who is on the list to regain their rights.  These provisions were negotiated by the NRA over the past several weeks.

This bill is Congress’ response to the murders of 32 students at Virginia Tech last month and was fast-tracked straight to the House floor, bypassing the normal committee process - and public scrutiny.

The Senate is expected to deviate from their traditional, drawn out deliberative process and vote on the bill in the next few days.  It is clear that the skids are greased and I would be very surprised if the Senate doesn’t pass this bill and send it up to the President for his guaranteed signature.

There has been much argument within the gun-rights community about this bill, NRA’s support for past versions, and their participation in reaching a passable “compromise.” Much of the opposition seems to be more concerned with the idea of dealing with long-time enemies than with the actual impact the bill will have.

The Firearms Coalition has opposed passage of McCarthy’s previous “NICS Improvement” bills because we are opposed to the entire concept of the NICS program, oppose throwing another Billion dollars at this expensive placebo with little, if any, impact on crime, and we were concerned about language which would snare more individuals into prohibited status.  We were critical of NRA and NSSF for supporting the bills and critical of GOA for over-hyping the potential negative impacts of the bills.

With the negotiated language of the new bill, reduced negative impact, and inclusion of some very specific, positive improvements to the NICS system, we feel that, though it is still a large-scale waste of taxpayer money, this is not a gun control bill and the good in this bill outweighs the bad.

We would like to have seen implementation of the financial incentives included in this bill predicated on a thorough study of the efficacy of NICS in reducing crime and a thorough cost/benefit analysis, but the window for such a requirement has likely closed.

There has never been a serious study to determine what - if any - impact the multi-Billion dollar NICS program has had on violent crime and criminal misuse of firearms.  Instead, every evaluation of NICS has been based on the number of transactions and denials the system processes and how quickly they do their job.  Stopping sales does not necessarily equate to reducing crime and it is well past time for the Government Accounting Office and the Justice Department to examine the true value of this expensive intrusion on civil rights.

Since NICS already exists, this bill contains no new or expanded restrictions on firearms ownership, and there is little likelihood of gaining the included, much needed reforms in any other way, therefore it is prudent and responsible to accept this bill as it is written.

Until NICS is completely repealed, it makes sense to take real improvements when we can get them.

As always, we will keep you posted as the - probably brief - debate over this bill plays out.

Yours for the Second Amendment,

Jeff Knox
Director of Operations
The Firearms Coalition

What say you?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/15/2007 at 06:30 AM   
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Another mohammedan minuet

The mooselimbs are getting more and more restless it seems.  (I wonder how that is possible.) Now Hamas has declared it controls Gaza.  Some pretty messy business apparently.

Fatah fighters were seen being led away, stripped to the waist, their fate unknown.

There has been talk of things spreading to the west bank.  When the Hellsbubbas in southern Lebanon start acting up again things could get busy real quick for the Israelis.

Of course, Iran couldn’t have anything to do with any of this, right?

Slippery slope, anyone?

And the sectarian mutual admiration brigades in Iraq are working overtime.  They sure are determined to work over that mosque in Samarra.

The Samarra site contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams _ Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shiites consider them to be among his successors.

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi, known as the “hidden imam,” was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine. Shiites believe he will return to restore justice to humanity.

Good old I’maneedajob would love to see al-Mahdi come back.  Maybe like Hamlet’s ghost?  He’s willing to see the Israelis drink seawater to raise that spectre.

At a time like this in the history of mankind how could a sensible people elect the liberal twits that control our congress today? 

Wake up, America!  The toast you smell may be you.

Posted by The Navigator     on 06/15/2007 at 12:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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   Thursday - June 14, 2007

No gay marriage vote for Massachusetts

Thanks to member pgrossjr for the tip.

BOSTON - Massachusetts lawmakers blocked a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday that would have let voters decide whether to ban gay marriage in the only state that allows it

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” said a victorious Gov. Deval Patrick, who had lobbied lawmakers up until the final hours Thursday to kill the measure.

The narrow vote was a blow to efforts to reverse the historic court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. More than 8,500 gay couples have married there since it became legal in May 2004.

I do not agree with the idea of “Gay Marriage” in the first place, but the gall of those who support it and didn’t think they had the votes to get it passed doing an end-run around the law and have the courts declare it legal really gets my goat.  It’s an abuse of the rule of law in the first degree.

But, when you keep re-electing the ilk in that state, you deserve what you get.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/14/2007 at 03:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Outage

If you tried to get to the site earlier today, you may have gottten a message about a configuration file missing or some such thing.

What actually happened was an attack on the site from places unknown.  We were receiving over 300 messages (spam, trackbacks, comments) at a time, which overwhelmed the processes.  Hosting Matters jumped on it before I even noticed and worked to smack down the offender and got us back online.

I should have some posts up later on today.

Thatisall.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/14/2007 at 01:44 PM   
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Fred Has A Blog

Fred Thompson now has a blog (but sadlt, we’re not on his blogroll.........YET!)

We’ve been talking about doing things a bit differently, and that’s why I’ve spent time online over the past few months posting opinions and discussing important issues directly with you.

I’m going to be spending a bit of time on the road, continuing this conversation we started a few months ago and getting to know you a bit better. I’d invite you to take a look at some of the things I’ve been thinking and writing about. Take a look, and let us know what you think.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/14/2007 at 08:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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   Wednesday - June 13, 2007

Back and packing

Sorry to have been away for so long, but my computer has been uncooperative.  I put some more memory in it and changed video cards, but even with that its days are numbered.  I’m building a new one and should have that one working soon.

I’m not a computer pro like the Skipper was.  I don’t work in front of one all day either.  I can build one from parts and get things up and running though.  I won’t switch to the new one until it’s in perfect order, so this old box will have to do for now.

Speaking of the Skipper, and we must never forget him, I know he was fond of shooting and an advocate of being well-armed.  That’s just one of the things he and I had in common.

I hope most of you are willing to accept the responsibility that comes with being armed with a deadly weapon.  It is a solemn responsibility.  Most states will now allow citizens to carry a concealed weapon, but there are exceptions.

This map should tell that story.

I don’t think there should be any place in the United States where a person who has a concealed carry permit cannot exercise their right to bear arms.

My drivers license is good in Wisconsin, Illinois, California and New York (etc.) while my carry permits aren’t.  So, I can pilot an 80,000 pound machine at 65 miles per hour in every state, but can’t carry a concealed firearm everywhere.  Which of the two has the greater potential for destruction?  What would happen if two or three states decided your drivers license was no good within their borders?

How is public safety assured by laws that force law-abiding citizens to be defenseless?

I travel long distances by motorcycle.  I carry where I can legally do so.  Some people have criticized me for that.  “Why do you carry a gun?  Why would you possibly need one?” I tell them that I wear a helmet.  I don’t know when I’ll really need it.  My crystal ball broke a long time ago.  I don’t know whether or not today will see me bang my head against something hard.  I wear my helmet on a contingency basis.  If it turns out that I really-really need it I surely won’t have time to go home and get it.  My lead launcher is another item of safety equipment, like the helmet.  I hope I never really need it.  I can’t roll up the windows and lock the door.  I can’t go home and get it in a pinch.  So, helmet, S&W and good sense are the best safety equipment I’ve got when down the road on two wheels.

There are a good many moonbats out there horrified that there are people like me.  Look at the potential presidential candidates and ask which school of thought they are in.

For information about particular states and their regulations packing.org is a good place to look. I think their information is up-to-date.  If in doubt, check each state you might be traveling through.

If people choose to be armed, they should also be proficient.  Range time is good.  More range time is better, and more fun.

Posted by The Navigator     on 06/13/2007 at 09:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Lost!

As you all know, Allan was an Air Force brat, so when he got “lost”, it was over an air base.  I’m more of a business traveller, so I only see commercial airports.

Today, I’m heading out west to find a place about 4,000 ft above sea level that is typically a tourist destination.  There seems to be a lot to do here and in the surrounding area.  Some ski resorts and water activity as well.

Where the heck am I?

This airport was originally built by Boeing Transport, Inc in 1929 and was acquired by United Airlines in 1936.  It used to be known as Hubbard Field.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/13/2007 at 07:13 AM   
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Property Rights: 1, Greedy Landgrabbers: 0

Here’s an article by John Stossel in at Real Clear Politics that made me all happy inside.

If you don’t have property rights, you really don’t have any freedom at all.  It’s real simple.

Property Owners Win One
Opponents of eminent domain finally have something to celebrate. After a public campaign, Target Corp. has decided not to build a store on condemned property in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Five years ago, the Village trustees declared the International Plaza shopping center and other properties blighted, setting the stage for condemnation under eminent domain. The business owners who were to lose their stores fought the “blight” designation in court but failed.

Yet they didn’t give up. They and their supporters held protests at trustee meetings. They were aided by the Sam Adams Alliance and Foundation, which launched a letter, telephone and flyer campaign that threatened to boycott Target if the company went through with its plan to occupy property seized by the government.

In late May, the Alliance triumphantly announced, “Target backed out of their contract with the Village. International Plaza tenants have saved the property from eminent domain abuse, at least for the time being.”

Its not over yet though.  The trustees are still seeking another major buyer to come in and take over the property, so we’ll have to keep a close eye on this one.  The Kelo decision was a terrible one, and its effects are going to continue to be felt for a long time.  We must be careful to stop these type of land grabs wherever they occur and let the governments know they do not have free reign over our land.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/13/2007 at 07:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed •  
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Maybe They’re Getting the Message

I’m still amazed that President Bush holds so strongly to his personal beliefs in this “Shamnesty” arrangement.  I’m still of the mind that there is something deeper in this whole thing for him that no one knows about.  But, at least some of the Republicans still have a spine it would seem.

Senators Unmoved by Bush Bid to Save Immigration Bill

In a rare visit to Capitol Hill, President Bush pressed Republican senators yesterday to resurrect the compromise overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, but many of the senators instead demanded that his administration first show a more determined commitment to border security.

Indeed.  Anyone who has looked at this for more than five minutes know that step #1 is going to be securing the border.  Why open up a free ride for anyone who is hear and leave the door open for millions more?

Although senators described the meeting as cordial, even jovial, they also said the president’s efforts to rally GOP support did not win any converts. “We’re off the bill. We ought to stay off the bill for a while,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), one of the bill’s sternest critics.

That’s good to hear.

“We . . . have lost credibility in Washington on the issue, and I think before the American people will really ever get behind an immigration policy, they’re going to have to feel that Washington is truly going to follow through on what it says,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).

Ya think?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/13/2007 at 06:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • Politics •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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