Tuesday - July 25, 2006

It’s a Great Day!

Hello fellow bat-hunters,

I am back from my super-secret trip to South America and will have a report as soon as I can compile the photos and text in an understandable and meaningful way.  But beside that, it is a great day because Bill Whittle has posted the first chapter of his new online effort called “An American Civilization.  This chapter is entitled The Web of Trust.  Go read it, then report back.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/25/2006 at 12:53 PM   
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   Sunday - July 16, 2006

Seek and Destroy

Seek and Destroy Stupid
- BMEWS Mission Statement

Power makes stupid
-Nietzsche

Posted by Christopher     on 07/16/2006 at 04:48 PM   
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   Saturday - July 15, 2006

Quote Of The Day

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

-- Albert Einstein

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/15/2006 at 08:23 AM   
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   Sunday - July 09, 2006

Sunday Quotes

A nice, quiet Sunday here in Dayton, Ohio. I’m too lazy to surf the net for articles. So I’ve broken out my file box of quotations.

Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating. or endeavoring something for the public good.
- Thomas a’ Kempis

These quotes come from my reading. I read a lot and I keep 3x5 cards handy to jot down quotes for later use. Like today.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
-J. S, Mill, On Liberty

And what is political correctness if not the attempt to silence any opposition? Ditto for hate speech laws.

It is said ... that the characteristic of a fool is this: he readily believes evil of everyone, and as readily believes all good of himself.
- Dame Prudence, The Tale of Melibus from the Canterbury Tales

Again, this sounds a lot like what the Left has devolved to. They take it to the extreme that all humanity (except themselves) are evil and are destroying the planet with greenhouse gases, drilling for oil, etc. 

Posted by Christopher     on 07/09/2006 at 10:33 AM   
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   Tuesday - July 04, 2006

Study the Classics

For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dondona never gave. We might as will omit to study Nature because she is old.
–Thoreau, Walden.

Posted by Christopher     on 07/04/2006 at 03:11 PM   
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   Monday - June 26, 2006

The Limits of Liberty

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

–John Stuart Mill - On Liberty, Chap. 3

Posted by Christopher     on 06/26/2006 at 03:30 PM   
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   Friday - June 02, 2006

Nugent Rocks

I love it when the Brits try and understand us.  Even better when they do it with Ted.  So they send this guy to Texas to meet with Ted and find out what’s going on with his relationship with GWB, his board member status with the NRA, his hunting, his guns and a bunch of other stuff.  What a great read.  I think this poor chap had to go change after the interview was over.

Here are some bites to whet your whistle:

We sit down to coffee, eggs and grits. Ted is 6ft 3in; to get a sense of his general demeanour you could do worse than imagine the body of John Wayne possessed by the spirit of Ian Paisley in one of his less conciliatory moods. He launches into a fevered monologue about how much safer Britain would be with more guns on its streets.

“Never has there been such an upsurge in crime since they confiscated all your weapons. Why don’t you arm yourselves? You Limeys have a zipper that’s locked in the closed position, because you don’t have a constitution. You’re rewarded for shutting the fuck up.

Back at the ranch, he shows me a selection of his firearms. Laid on a table in his garage are enough Uzis and AK-47s to wipe out three platoons. Everywhere you look there are Magnum pistols, ammunition cases and crossbows. In a nearby field there are battered, life-sized sculptures of animals including a wolf, a deer and a coyote. He fires at a Styrofoam bear using his weapon of choice, a traditional bow and arrow. “Straight through the heart… dead bear,” says Ted, as his heavily pitted target submits to yet another onslaught. “Both lungs… dead bear.” The arrows, which he makes himself, keep flying. “Dead bear… dead bear… dead bear.”

Ted, like his father, has the rage. At one point, when he’s describing how he gave a Crawford vandal so frightening a telling-off that the teenager had to be admitted to psychiatric hospital, he is shouting inches from my face, reliving the scene. The experience is alarming.

“I’m feeling sorry for that kid,” I tell him.

“That’s your Limey coming out in you.” Nugent is trembling with fury at the memory of the confrontation. “I think I’m going to have an aneurysm.”

Great stuff.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/02/2006 at 01:44 PM   
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   Wednesday - May 31, 2006

Is a Gun Just Wood and Metal?

Not to Miss Myra

Miss Myra had never been afraid of what the future held. When she was a child of eleven years, her father had handed her a revolver and instructed her to take care of her little brother and sister while he went to look for work. He never returned. For her, the future was always uncertain, but she knew it would come regardless, so she had no fear. When she reached her 89th year, she knew she could no longer live on her own, and she would have to go into a nursing home. She called me to come get the one thing she had held dear all of those years, her talisman against the dark and unknown future.

Sleep well, Miss Myra, sleep well.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2006 at 07:30 AM   
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   Thursday - March 02, 2006

Thought For The Day

This gem was discovered by James Taranto at WSJ’s Opinion Journal. Jennifer Lane, a student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst writes in the college paper the following:

No matter how you look at it, our society has gotten out of control. No one knows who they are anymore, and there are a lot of pessimistic attitudes walking around. During the 1940s and 1950s, everything was carefree and wonderful. The war was over, and the baby boom began. Every theatrical production had huge dresses and bright, beautiful colors to represent the love and optimistic point of view everyone had.

What has happened to that world? It was a time where people didn’t have to step lightly around politically correct issues, when America was the greatest thing since sliced bread and divorce rates were only 2.6 per 1,000 people (versus today, 4.0/1,000 people) according to census data.

The world spins so quickly. We only have so much time, and we need to spend it wisely. The soldier needs to do his duty and come home as safely and quickly as possible. The loner needs to branch out and find a way to network and enjoy life again. The workaholic needs to find the spice of life. The clouds look like they’re spinning so slowly.

It looks and seems like you have the time of your life, but you never know. You could be on autopilot and take for granted the idea that there’s always tomorrow, when, in fact, you don’t actually know. Hold on to what you have, and try to find your own meaning to life, because you never know how much time you have left.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/02/2006 at 05:37 PM   
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   Monday - February 27, 2006

The Show Must Go On

Into every life, now and then, a little rain must fall. Sometimes it pours. The trick is to get out your towel, dry yourself off and ... go have a party. You can’t stop bad things from happening. All you can do is suck it up and laugh in the face of adversity. New Orleans is doing just that ... at least as best that city can at the moment. The parades have been going on all last week and Fat Tuesday is coming up tomorrow. Beads and boudin. Bourbon and gumbo. Now that’s how you bring a city back to life ... not with a wake and a funeral but with a celebration of life ...

New Orleanians Find Something to Celebrate
February 27, 2006, 11:12 AM EST

NEW ORLEANS (AP)

Tourists and locals stood side-by-side—in some spots 6 to 8 feet deep—as two of the Carnival season’s biggest and glitziest parades rolled through a city struggling to reclaim some of its famous fun. “It’s very special,” said Barbara Sykes, who flew in from Irving, Texas, where she’s been living since Hurricane Katrina. “It’s part of my heart, my blood.”

The prelude to Mardi Gras—or Fat Tuesday—brought party-hungry crowds to New Orleans’ traditional parade route Sunday, nearly six months after Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and dispersed more than two-thirds of the population.

Mardi Gras “is just a symbol of the fact that New Orleans is going to come back,” said Stephanie Hall, 28, a city resident. “New Orleans has always done what it wants to do and it’s gonna come back whether the country wants it to or not.”

A threat of thunderstorms Saturday prompted a one day delay of the Krewe of Endymion’s parade, which followed the Krewe of Bacchus through the Uptown neighborhood on Sunday night. Three smaller parades were held in the afternoon.

Lori Caswell, 34, of Chesapeake, Va., said this is her first time participating in the festivities and she was surprised by the number of people involved. “It’s a blast,” she yelled, above the screams of children seeking beads. “It’s like no other fun I’ve ever had.”

Caswell’s friend, Yvette Hairston, said she was glad the parades drew so many people back to her hometown because it’s a sign that people are putting money back into the economy.

“It’s a sign there’s life here,” she said. “It’s a rebirth.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/27/2006 at 12:08 PM   
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   Tuesday - February 07, 2006

Why I Am Not The President

Reason #1: In light of the current situation, I would set off one of these over Teheran, Damascus and Pyongyang, then go on TV and give the world five little words: ”NOW SIT DOWN AND STFU”. If the rioting, burning and murdering didn’t stop within 24 hours, then Riyadh, Cairo and Tripoli would be next. I’ll stop when they stop. I have more cities on the list. Now that’s what I call detente. Any questions?

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/07/2006 at 02:00 PM   
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   Friday - January 27, 2006

Bill Isn’t Dead, Just busy

But it sounds like we’ll get something to chew on in a few weeks.

LOST IN SPACEGreetings, pathetic Earthlings!

Yes, I’m still here. Yes, it’s been five months. I may have appeared deceased, but I was merely hibernating in one of the suspended animation tubes visible behind me in the picture above.

Here’s the skinny: for the last six months now, I have been pretty much totally consumed by a new project. I’ve returned to the dark habits of my misspent youth and have almost completed my seventh movie script. I suppose I could work three jobs instead of two, the third being essay-writing, but my back has been very delicate lately. Oh, the pain! The Pain!

Why go AWOL and write a movie script, when the Idiotarian Mootbat Hunting Season is in full flower, and the skies are black with swarms of gaseous, leathery-winged bloviators, ripe for the skewering? Well, I’ll tell you. On my best day here at trusty Triple-E, I might reach forty thousand people. With a semi-successful film, I might reach ten million, maybe ten times that.

Many times in the past five months—MANY times—I have felt the call to pound out some essay or another, and every time I am reminded of the huge lead time necessary for getting a film produced, a clock that only starts ticking once the script is finished. And so time and again I have forced myself to stay on target and press on with this screenplay; which, I am sure you will be shocked - shocked! - to discover, is somewhat overwritten. Overwritten by a factor of two. Maybe three.

It’s just that I have such a huge story to tell. I can’t reveal the plot as yet, but I can give you a rough idea of what has been taking my essay time away from us at such a demanding rate:

It’s a science-fiction story. It takes place in the Strange and Mysterious World of Tomorrow—the unimaginable world of TEN YEARS FROM NOW! In this mad, topsy-turvey, upside down Future World, several things happen that are inconcievable to Modern Man and his Puny Brain.

Here are some poster tag lines that may help. They are:

(spoiler alert!)

* Men travelling through space WITHOUT THE AID OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES!
* People facing extreme risks and DECIDING TO TAKE THEM ANYWAY!
* Puny Earthlings using THEIR OWN MONEY ANY DAMN WAY THEY CHOOSE TO!
* Nuclear Energy being portrayed in a NON-EVIL FASHION!
* BUSINESSMEN and ENGINEERS as HEROES!
* PROTESTORS and CELEBRITIES as LAUGHING STOCKS!

It’s a World Gone Mad! Only Science Fiction can capture such a fantastical future!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/27/2006 at 09:00 AM   
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   Sunday - December 18, 2005

Random Thoughts

• We have a strong military because you don’t need free health care if your enemy kills you.


• If we were really smart, we’d take over the oil from Iraq and send the Mexicans to work the oil fields.


• Why would anyone pay good money to go see the latest “King Kong”? We all know how it ends.


• Our federal spending priorities are correct. If the Defense Department fails, the rest of the budget won’t matter.


• Isn’t there a small Communist country somewhere that we can pawn the Clintons off on so they can run it and shut up?


• Gay marriage is already legal: Gay men can marry gay women in all 50 states!


• People are protesting Wal-Mart because of the low benefits it provides to its workers, but they have no problem buying products made in China by slave labor?


• Our Constitution gives us the right of free speech, but it does not say you will not face the consequences of your words.


• The elections in Iraq went well only because Jimmy Carter stayed home.


• Does Howard Dean ever actually stop and listen to what he is saying?


• Christmas: It’s not about what you buy or what you get. It’s about what you give.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/18/2005 at 04:03 AM   
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   Sunday - November 20, 2005

Sad Ending

Somehow I missed this story last month, so I’m catching up with it a little late. This has to be one of the saddest stories I’ve read this month. This Thursday, as you sit down to turkey and dressing, remember to give thanks that you have not won the lottery. It almost never ends well ....

After Spending $10 M Lottery Win, Man Kills Himself
WINNIPEG (BRANDON SUN)
Wednesday,October 5, 2005

Seven years ago, Gerald Muswagon was all smiles as his troubled life took a fairy-tale turn by winning a $10-million lottery jackpot. On Sunday, Muswagon hung himself in his parent’s garage. It was a shocking end for a man who appeared to have the world at his fingertips, yet clearly never could grasp the instant fame and fortune he was handed through his lucky $2 Super 7 ticket.

‘‘People are very upset, and this is all very surprising,’’ said his cousin, Mike Muswagon. ‘‘But he had been very depressed lately, although he kept that part of him well hidden.’’ Muswagon, 42, somehow managed to do what seemed unthinkable and spent nearly every penny of his winnings in only a few years.

The former resident of Norway House in northern Manitoba was forced to take a job this summer doing heavy lifting on a friend’s farm just to make ends meet while supporting his girlfriend and six young children in their modest Winnipeg home.

‘‘I really wanted him to be set up for life, so he never had to work another day,’’ said his cousin. ‘‘He should have been able to do that. But he made some very bad decisions.’’ Muswagon’s spending habits were the stuff of local legend, as rumours began to spread throughout Winnipeg shortly after he won.

Most of them were true — Muswagon bought several new vehicles for himself and friends, purchased a house which turned into a nightly ‘‘party pad’’ and often celebrated his new lifestyle with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.

In a single day, he bought eight big screen televisions for friends. ‘‘He didn’t have the right people around him at the time, people who could have guided him,’’ recalled his cousin. ‘‘A lot of people asked a lot of him.’’

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/20/2005 at 02:44 PM   
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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
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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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