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good read
milsurper
Member Posts: 278 ✭✭✭
Just got the Ninth Annual "Shotgun News".. Best of 2008 articles... Good read, Worth the money.. Anybody into the black guns will really like it.[;)]
Comments
I PROMISE YOU - NO DEMOCRATS WILL ENJOY THIS ONE, BUT THE LAST LINE EXPRESSES THE FEELINGS OF MOST EVERY AMERICAN....EXACTLY !!
From the Sand Pit - Message From a Recon Marine inAfghanistan ....
Posted by John P. in News, Philosophy, Politics
The Sand Pit:
It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.
I also glance at the area around my * every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle *. Hurts like a meanie. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid, but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware. We bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement.
It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but days way from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin.
I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel-plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me, I'm a romantic. I've said it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man. It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure, there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit poop hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.
Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks, and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtuns, for over a month-and-a-half now, and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns.... Actual, living Huns.. They LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do... They have no respect for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each other's barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47's. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky.
I'm freezing my * off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice, and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart..' They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines..They are sneaky and ruthless, and when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart... Pfft. Yeah, they're real smart.
They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.
OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon, so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice, but I'm good at it.
Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter oatmeal and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under control The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we're doing over here, because you have no idea what we're doing, and really, you don't want to know. We are your military, and we are doing what you sent us here to do, keep you safe, and keep the fight off of American soil.
You wanna help us ? Take Obama and the Democrat Party out of power !
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/21714
>A COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
>
>This Texas lawyer, himself recipient of an Honorary Degree, is
>obviously opinionated, but to say what he does, in a commencement
>address a couple of weeks ago, in front of a class of Texas A & M
>graduates, and especially the faculty, is amazing. I would have loved to
>have been there just to see the faculty reaction.
>
>This address should be considered must-reading for every adult in North
>America. It is extremely rare that anyone speaks the truth like this at
>any College or High School Commencement Address. Neal Boortz is a Texan,
>a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a nationally syndicated
>talk show host from Atlanta. His commencement address to the graduates
>of Texas A&M is far different from what either the students or the
>faculty expected. His views are thought provoking.
>
>
>
>Commencement Address (Texas A&M) Date: 24 Jan 2008
>
>'I am honored by the invitation to address you on this august occasion.
>It's about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you;
>you'll have enough smoke blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet
>your tassels I'm not here to impress the faculty and administration. You
>may not like much of what I have to say, and that's fine. You will
>remember it though. Especially after about 10 years out in the real
>world. This, it goes without saying, does not apply to those of you who
>will seek your careers and your fortunes as government employees.
>
>This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You've heard the old
>saying that those who can - do. Those who can't - teach. That sounds
>deliciously insensitive. But there is often raw truth in insensitivity,
>just as you often find feel-good falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say
>good-bye to your faculty because now you are getting ready to go out
>there and do. These folks behind me are going to stay right here and
>teach.
>
>
>
>By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma
>doesn't mean the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me
>my private pilot's license many years ago, he said, 'Here, this is your
>ticket to learn.' The same can be said for your diploma. Believe me, the
>learning has just begun.
>
>Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact,
>you are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much.
>You feel so much. You want to help so much. After all you're a
>compassionate and caring person, aren't you now? Well, isn't that just
>so extraordinarily special. Now, at this age, is as good a time as any
>to be a liberal, as good a time as any to know absolutely everything.
>You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow, for the truth to set in.
>
>Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of
>reality down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty
>fast... including your own assessment of just how much you really know.
>So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality:
>
>
>Pay attention to the news, and listen to the words and phrases that
>proud Liberals use to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of
>the left to the words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless,
>greedy conservatives. From the Left you will hear 'I feel.' From the
>Right you will hear 'I think.' From the Liberals you will hear
>references to groups * The Blacks, the Poor, The Rich, The
>Disadvantaged, and The Less Fortunate. From the Right you will hear
>references to individuals. On the Left you hear talk of group rights, on
>the Right, individual rights.
>
>That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are
>pack animals whose identity is tied up in-group dynamics. Conservatives
>and Libertarians think -- and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their
>identity is centered on the individual.
>
>Liberals feel that their favored groups have enforceable rights to the
>property and services of productive individuals. Conservatives and
>Libertarians, I among them I might add, think that individuals have the
>right to protect their lives and their property from the plunder of the
>masses.
>
>In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at
>your diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them.
>Not the name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority,
>but your name. Your group identity is going away. Your recognition and
>appreciation of your individual identity starts now.
>
>If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself
>to be a libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly
>as you can and apply for a faculty position. These people will welcome
>you with open arms. They will welcome you, that is, so long as you
>haven't developed an individual identity. Once again you will have to be
>willing to sign on to the group mentality you embraced during the past
>four years.
>
>Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your
>eyes. You're going to actually get a full time job! You're also going to
>get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn't going to help you do
>your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday.
>This partner doesn't want to share in your effort, but in your
>earnings.
>
>Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent; an agent representing a
>strange and diverse group of people; an agent for every teenager with an
>illegitimate child; an agent for a research scientist who wanted to make
>some cash answering the age-old question of why monkeys grind their
>teeth. An agent for some poor demented hippie who considers herself to
>be a meaningful and talented artist, but who just can't manage to sell
>any of her artwork on the open market.
>
>Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job
>skills, but who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent for tin-horn
>dictators in fancy military uniforms grasping for American foreign aid.
>An agent for multi-million- dollar companies who want someone else to
>pay for their overseas advertising. An agent for everybody who wants to
>use the unimaginable power of this agency for their personal enrichment
>and benefit.
>
>That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive
>government. Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this
>agent has. Power that you do not have. A power that no individual has,
>or ever will have. This agent has the legal power to use force, deadly
>force to accomplish its goals.
>
>You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to
>you, introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out,
>and move right on in. Say hello to your own personal one-ton gorilla. It
>will sleep anywhere it wants to.
>
>Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful
>it will seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there
>just isn't any way you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can't
>decrease its share of your income. That power rests with him, not you.
>
>So, here I am saying negative things to you about government. Well, be
>clear on this: It is not wrong to distrust government. It is not wrong
>to fear government. In certain cases it is not even wrong to despise
>government for government is inherently evil. Yes ... a necessary evil,
>but dangerous nonetheless ... somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that
>in the proper dosage can save your life, an overdose of government can
>be fatal.
>
>Now let's address a few things that have been crammed into your minds
>at this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as
>possible. These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they
>fail miserably out there in the real world.
>
>First is that favorite buzzword of the media, government and academia:
>Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group
>of people - be it a social group, an employee group, a management
>group, whatever - is based on diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal
>because diversity is based not on an individual's abilities or
>character, but on a person's identity and status as a member of a group.
>Yes, it's that liberal group identity thing again.
>
>Within the great diversity movement group identification - be it
>racial, gender based, or some other minority status - means more than
>the individual's integrity, character or other qualifications.
>
>
>Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere
>where diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual
>achievement and excellence actually count. No matter what your
>professors have taught you over the last four years, you are about to
>learn that diversity is absolutely no replacement for excellence,
>ability, and individual hard work. From this day on every single time
>you hear the word 'diversity' you can rest assured that there is someone
>close by who is determined to rob you of every vestige of individuality
>you possess.
>
>We also need to address this thing you seem to have about 'rights.' We
>have witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called 'rights' in the last
>few decades, usually emanating from college campuses.
>
>You know the mantra: You have the right to a job, the right to a place
>to live, the right to a living wage, the right to health care, and the
>right to an education. You probably even have your own pet right - the
>right to a Beemer for instance, or the right to have someone else
>provide for that child you plan on downloading in a year or so.
>
>Forget it. Forget those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are! You
>have a right to live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your
>labor.
>
>I'll also tell you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of
>another.
>
>You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care.
>After all, Hillary said so, didn't she? But you cannot receive
>healthcare
>unless some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time
>* his life - to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation,
>but that's his choice. You have no 'right' to his time or property. You
>have no right to his or any other person's life or to any portion
>thereof.
>
>You may also think you have some 'right' to a job, a job with a living
>wage, whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to
>force your services on another person, and then the right to demand that
>this person compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure
>you would scream if some urban outdoorsmen (that would be 'homeless
>person' for those of you who don't want to give these less fortunate
>people a romantic and adventurous title) came to you and demanded his
>job and your money.
>
>The people who have been telling you about all the rights you have are
>simply exercising one of theirs - the right to be imbeciles. Their being
>imbeciles didn't cost anyone else either property or time. It's their
>right, and they exercise it brilliantly.
>
>By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase 'less fortunate' a bit
>ago when I was talking about the urban outdoorsmen? That phrase is a
>favorite of the Left. Think about it, and you'll understand why.
>
>
>
>To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced
>out on drugs, unemployable, and generally miserable because he is
>'less fortunate' is to imply that a successful person - one with a job,
>a home and a future - is in that position because he or she was
>'fortunate.'
>
>
>
>The dictionary says that fortunate means 'having derived good from an
>unexpected place.' There is nothing unexpected about deriving 'good'
>from hard work. There is also nothing unexpected about deriving misery
>from choosing drugs, alcohol, and the street.
>
>If the Liberal Left can create the common perception that success and
>failure are simple matters of 'fortune' or 'luck', then it is easy to
>promote and justify their various income redistribution schemes. After
>all, we are just evening out the odds a little bit. This 'success equals
>luck' idea the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former
>Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to
>high-achievers as 'people who have won life's lottery.' He wants you to
>believe they are making the big bucks because they are lucky. It's not
>luck, my friends. It's choice.
>
>
>
>One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino,
>entitled 'The Greatest Secret in the World.' The lesson? Very simple:
>'Use wisely your power of choice'.
>
>That bum sitting on a heating grate and smelling like a wharf rat, he's
>there by choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he
>has made in his life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for
>some people to accept, especially those who consider themselves to be
>victims of something or other - victims of discrimination, bad luck, the
>system, capitalism, whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept
>the blame for his or her position in life. Not when it is so much easier
>to point and say, 'Look! He did this to me!' than it is to look into a
>mirror and say, 'You S.O.B., you did this to me!'
>
>The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact
>that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to
>either success or failure, however you define those terms.
>
>Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school,
>whether or not to get pregnant, whether or not to hit the bottle,
>whether or not to keep this job you hate until you get another
>better-paying job, or whether or not to save some of your money, or
>saddle yourself with huge payments for that new car.
>
>Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the
>movies with, whose car to ride home in, whether to watch the tube
>tonight, or read a book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this,
>each choice counts. Each choice is a building block - some large, some
>small. But each one is a part of the structure of your life. If you make
>the right choices, or if you make more right choices than wrong ones,
>something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable.
>You, my friend, could become one of the hated, the evil, the ugly, the
>feared, the filthy, the successful, and the rich.
>
>The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they
>provide the investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the
>formation of new businesses. Businesses that hire people and businesses
>that send millions of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.
>
>Second, the rich are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and
>hatred. Few things are more valuable to a politician than the envy most
>Americans feel for the evil rich.
>
>Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional
>minefield that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch
>of White House interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And
>they keep that power by promising the envious that the envied will be
>punished: the rich will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything
>to do with it. The truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this
>country pays almost 50% of all income taxes collected. I shudder to
>think what these job producers would be paying if our tax system were
>any more 'fair.'
>
>You have heard, no doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get
>poorer. Interestingly enough, our government's own numbers show that
>many of the poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of the rich
>actually get poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and
>the poor who remain poor ... there's an explanation -- a reason. The
>rich, you see, keep doing the things that make them rich, while the poor
>keep doing the things that make them poor.
>
>Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an
>endless string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor. So, you
>need to know that under our government's definition of 'poor' you can
>have a $5 million net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes,
>all completely paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, a valet, a
>million dollars in your checking account, and you can still be
>officially defined by our government as 'living in poverty.' Now there's
>something you haven't seen on the evening news.
>
>How does the government pull this one off? Very simply, really. To
>determine whether or not some poor soul is 'living in poverty,' the
>government measures one thing -- just one thing. Income. It doesn't
>matter one bit how much you have, how much you own, how many cars you
>drive or how big they are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether
>you winter in Aspen and spend the summers in the Bahamas, or how much is
>in your savings account. It only matters how much income you claim in
>that particular year. This means that if you take a one-year leave of
>absence from your high-paying job and decide to live off the money in
>your savings and checking accounts while you write the next great
>American novel, the government says you are 'living in poverty.'
>
>This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy
>statistics, is it? Do you need more convincing? Try this. The
>government's own statistics show that people who are said to be 'living
>in poverty' spend more than $1.50 for each dollar of income they claim.
>Something is a bit fishy here. Just remember all this the next time
>Charles Gibson tells you about some hideous new poverty statistics.
>
>Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the
>government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare
>programs, which then translates into an expansion of its power. If the
>government can convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of
>'poor' is increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an
>electorate suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive
>Compassion Disorder.
>
>I'm about to be stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed
>their minds about that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK,
>though. I still have my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz
>Institute for Insensitivity Training. I learned that, in short,
>sensitivity sucks. It's a trap. Think about it - the truth knows no
>sensitivity. Life can be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity and
>you'll be unable to deal with life, or the truth, So, get over it.
>
>Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few
>random thoughts.
>
>* You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are
>living off the efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting
>down
>and shutting up until you are on your own again.
>
>* When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more
>important than your vote for president. The House controls the purse
>strings, so concentrate your awareness there.
>
>* Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the
>country. If someone can't deal honestly with you, send he or she
>packing.
>
>
>
>* Don't bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of
>plunder. If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who
>earned it -- to take their money by force for your own needs -- then it
>is certainly just as wrong for you to demand that the government step
>forward and do this dirty work for you.
>
>* Don't look in other people's pockets. You have no business there.
>What they earn is theirs. What you earn is yours, keep it that way.
>Nobody owes you anything, except to respect your privacy and your
>rights, and leave you the hell alone.
>
>* Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers,
>forty hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't
>see highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon
>at five. The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour.
>The winners drive home in the dark.
>
>* Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by
>definition, needs no protection.
>
>* Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino
>wrote,
>
>
>
>1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.
>
>2. Use wisely your power of choice.
>
>3. Go the extra mile, drive home in the dark.
>
>Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can. Now, if you
>have any idea at all what's good for you, you will get the hell out of
>here and never come back.
>
>Class dismissed.
www.zpub.com/notes/fbi-shame.html -
THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
It is now closer to reality
than you think
You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows.
One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.
One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside. As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.
In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the
few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make
them useless. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal possession of a Firearm. When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.
"What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask.
"Only ten-to-twelve years," he replies, as if that's nothing. "Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven."
The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local
newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while
the two men you shot are represented as choirboys. Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them. Buried deep down in the article,authorities acknowledge that both "victims" have been arrested numerous times. But the next day's headline says it all: "Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die."
The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin
Hood-type pranksters. As the days wear on, the story takes wings. The national media picks it up, then the international media. The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.
Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he'll
probably win. The media publishes reports that your home has been
burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects. After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time. The District Attorneyuses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.
A few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven't been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted. When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you. Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man. It doesn't take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.
The judge sentences you to life in prison.
This case really happened.
On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he
was convicted and is now serving a life term.
How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire ?
It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license. The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns.
Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.
Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987.
Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed Man with a Kalashnikov rifle
(AK-47), walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.
The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of
"gun control", demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)
Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a
semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.
For many years,the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun
owners. Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns. The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearm still owned by private citizens.
During the years in which the British government incrementally
took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to
armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longerconsidered a reason to own a gun. Citizens who shot burglars or robbers orrapists were charged while the real criminals were released.
Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, "We cannot have people take the law into their own hands."
All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.
Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his
collection trashed or stolen by burglars.
When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.
Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who
didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.
How did the authorities know who had handguns? The
guns had been registered and licensed. Kinda like cars.
Sound familiar?
WAKE UP AMERICA, THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND
AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.
"..it does not require a majority to
prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires
in
people's minds.."
--Samuel Adams
Peter Heck - Guest Columnist - 4/14/2009 7:50:00 AMhttp://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php
Peter HeckAs I was sitting in church waiting for the start of the service, my grandpa came walking towards me pointing his finger. No matter how old I get, and no matter how long he's been out of the U.S. Navy, that's still an intimidating sight. As he approached me, his voice quivered as he said, "We saved that continent twice...how dare my president apologize for this country's arrogance." My grandpa is right. Americans need not apologize to the world for their arrogance; rather, Americans should apologize to their forefathers for the arrogance of their president.
Barack Obama's first foreign trip as President of the United States has confirmed the naivetAc so many of us feared during the election cycle. But worse than that, it has also demonstrated that our president suffers from either a complete misunderstanding of our heritage and history, or an utter contempt for it. Neither is excusable.
Garnering cheers from the French of all people, President Obama declared, "In America , there is a failure to appreciate Europe 's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Consider that Obama spoke these words just 500 miles from the beaches of Normandy , where the sand is still stained with 65-year-old blood of "arrogant Americans."
Indeed, columnist Mark Whittington observes, "One should remind Mr. Obama and the Europeans how America has 'shown arrogance' by saving Europe from itself innumerable times in the 20th Century. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the wars in the Balkans were largely resolved by American blood, treasure, and leadership." But all that appears lost on the president's seemingly insatiable quest to mend fences he imagines have been tarnished by the bullish George W. Bush.
If Obama wishes to continue trampling the presidential tradition of showing class to former office holders and publicly trash Bush for his own personal gain, so be it. But all Americans should make clear that no man ?_" even if he is the president ?_" will tarnish the legacy of those Americans who have gone before us. Ours is not a history of arrogance. It is a history of courage, self-sacrifice, and honor.
When abusive monarchs repressed the masses, Americans resisted and overthrew them. When misguided policies led to the unjust oppression of fellow citizens, Americans rebelled and overturned them. When millions of impoverished and destitute wretches sought a new beginning, Americans threw open the door and welcomed them. When imperial dictators were on the march, Americans surrendered their lives to stop them. When communist thugs threatened world peace, Americans bled to defeat them. When an entire continent was overwhelmed with famine and hunger, Americans gave of themselves to sustain it. When terrorist madmen killed the innocent and subjugated millions, Americans led the fight to topple them.
This is the legacy that generations of Americans have left. If President Obama seeks stronger relations with the world community, perhaps he should begin by reminding them of these very truths, rather than condemning his own countrymen on foreign shores.
This "obsessive need to put down his own country," has caused blogger James Lewis to call President Obama a "stunningly ignorant man" who has evidently never spoken to a concentration camp survivor, a Cuban refugee, a boat person from Vietnam, a Soviet dissident, or a survivor of Mao's purges.
Unfortunately, I can no longer bring myself to give Mr. Obama that benefit of the doubt. Not after looking at the pain in my grandpa's eyes...a man who still carries shrapnel in his body from his service to this country.
As a student and teacher of history, I recognize that America has made mistakes...plenty of them, in fact. But one of the great things about our people has been their courage and humility in admitting and correcting those mistakes. God willing, they will prove that willingness again in four years and correct the mistake that is the presidency of Barack Obama.
US Navy using that nothing little island just off the
coast of Puerto Rico for bombing practices, which they
had used for the past 75 years? Demonstrations were
held, Hollywood left wingers & Al Sharpton, and his
fellow demagogues went down there to demonstrate to
get the Navy out? I am sure it infuriated you just as
it did me at the time.
Wellllllllllllllll, here is our revenge.
Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!
One of the many headaches that the U. S. has had was
the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. In the waning
years of the Clinton Administration, Protesters
demanded that the US Navy abandon bombing and naval
gun fire exercises that had taken place on the largely
uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. Liberal
icons bumped into one another to fly to Puerto Rico,
boat over to the island, trespass (but never on a day
that there was an exercise scheduled) and get arrested
for the benefit of the New York Times or Newsweek.
They included the
Reverend Al Sharpton,
Mrs. Jesse Jackson,
Joan Baez,
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
Edward Olmos,
Michael Moore and
Ramsey Clark, just to name a few.
In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an
Air Force bombing range in central Florida, not far
from the Jacksonville and Pensacola Naval Air
Stations. In January, many of the protesters were back
in Puerto Rico, celebrating the final bombing exercise
on Vieques and waved Puerto Rican flags and placards
that read:
"U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico."
The following Feb, Rumsfeld announced that the U.S.
Navy will close the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station
in Puerto Rico in 2004, eliminating 1200 civilian jobs as well
as 700 military positions.
This naval facility is estimated to have put nearly
$300 million annually into the local economy.
The next day a stunned Governor Sila Calderon, held a
news conference in San Juan, protesting the base
closure as a serious blow to the Commonwealth's
fragile economy. The governor stated that
"The people of Puerto Rico don't now or never did have
an interest in closing the Vieques bombing range or
the Roosevelt Roads naval base. We are interested in
both staying in Puerto Rico."
When asked, the Commander-in Chief, Western Atlantic Command, said,
"Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at Roosevelt Roads. None."
So, Yanqui go home? Fine. But we'll take our dollars with us.
Hasta la vista, baby!
On February 21, the Secretary of Defense also
announced that starting this year, the U.S. European
Command would begin moving most if not all of its
active combat and support units from bases in Germany
to others being established in Poland, The Czech
Republic, Hungary and Turkey to "better position them
for rapid deployment to likely hot spots in those
parts of the world."
Immediately the business and government leaders in the
German states of Hesse, Rhineland and Wurttemburg,
protested the loss of nearly $6 billion in revenue
each year from the bases and manpower to be displaced.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry speculated that
the move may be "what the Americans call 'payback' for
the actions of this government in opposing Military
action in Iraq. does anyone know the German translation for
"Hasta la vista, baby?"
Oh, ain't it nice to see a government with guts and a good memory.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Larry
Many are still armed , just other laws have been issued,there is a right way & a wrong way to defend ourselves . All within 'reason'.
Regards