School Tells Boy "Take the Flag Off Your Bike"

What a friggen joke. Apparently, in California (well, that about says it all right there...) there's a 13 year old kid who has an American flag on his bicycle to show support for the veterans in his family. The school administrators said some other students complained....and you see where this is going, right?? You just have to see the insanity for yourself to believe it. (Click here for text and video)
Good God, where are we headed? And why are we all in this handbasket?

A great time to be a Cajun!

I ran across something on the net that made me think about my brother. I'm actually going to give him a call and let him gloat because that's the kind of sister I am.:D

About 30 years ago, he moved to Louisiana and although he talks a big game about moving somewhere else, I think it would likely take a massive quantity of C4 under his hiney to unroot him. He went totally native on me and a lot of times I have to tell him to repeat what he just said because I don't understand what he just said in English...God help me when he tosses in French with a jacked up accent.

Anyhow, here's a quote about what Louisiana is doing next month:

Louisiana has adopted a program we’d like to see state governments copy nationwide. From September 4th through 6th (Fri-Sun), Louisiana shoppers can buy guns, ammo, and hunting supplies without paying a penny of sales tax. The Sales Tax Holiday is authorized by a new Louisiana statute that waives gun-related sales and use taxes each year on the first consecutive Friday through Sunday in September. Now that’s a “stimulus program” all shooters can support.

The sales tax holiday will take place Friday, September 4, through Sunday, September 6, pursuant to the Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Holiday Act. This law (Act 453 of the Regular Session of the 2009 Louisiana Legislature) provides a three-day exemption from state and local sales and use taxes on consumer purchases of firearms, ammunition, and hunting supplies.

Well, there's only one thing left to say:
Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

Antis will "use it or lose it"

Last week in West Lafayette, a couple of guys who were drinking decided to "scare" a friend with a prank involving guns. I guess you can see where this is going...
The two guys pulled guns and of course, one of the "unloaded" pistols "went off". The victim of the prank was hit in the neck, and died later from the wound. Gun pranks are never "funny" and this one has not only devastated three families (the deceased's and the two families of the guys going to jail), it's also thrown gas on the fire for anti-gun advocates to keep self defense tools out of the hands of law abiding citizens in the name of "campus safety"...even though it did NOT happen on Purdue's campus and the two with guns were NOT students.
Here are a couple of direct quotes from the news article: "University police are using the shooting as evidence to keep guns off campus" and "This is just another example of why mixing guns on a college campus is just not a good idea." ...again, this did NOT happen on a college campus and the two men who were handling the firearms in an unsafe manner were NOT even students.
There ya go antis... a freebie.
Just remember:

Coming up next

The Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Tuesday business meeting in which they are likely to vote on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Check out SCOTUS Blog tomorrow for details.

Woot @ MT!!

UPDATED!
Today, Montana has signed into power a revolutionary law.
Montana now has a law defying the reach of the federal government pertaining to firearms!
If it’s manufactured in Montana for sale and use inside Montana, the federal laws have no applicability since they can only control commerce across state lines.
Our government fears an armed citizenry and will try every back door and loophole they can think of to confiscate every piece they can get their hands on.
Good job, Montana!! We’re on YOUR side!!
UPDATE:
Looks like Utah might follow suit to protect State's Rights.
Awesome.
UPDATE #2 Now Tennessee!

Oh no you don't!!

Apparently, on March 10th there was a report of a mass murder in Samson, Alabama. Guess who showed up to take matters to task?
Soldiers from Fort Rucker, Alabama and a provost marshal!
HELLO!! That's illegal!! TOTALLY against our Constitution unless given a directive by the president during insurrection. That was not the case in this instance.
Not to mention, no one seems to know who ordered this!
The Samson Police Department didn't ask them. The county police didn't ask them. The governor didn't ask them. Obama didn't ask them (as required by law!).
Now what?
Coming to a town near YOU??
Full article here.

Guns n' Media. Not quite roses.

Why, oh why do people not use technical advisors (who actually know something) for movie or television?
It’s bad enough that guns in “real life” get such a bad portrayal by media, but that representation is compounded by Hollywood over and over.
For instance, remember that freakish knife attack in New York little over a year ago?
A guy walked behind the counter of a Texas Smokehouse restaurant, swiped four knives and started slashing and attacking people walking down the sidewalks. Finally, an off duty cop took him out. Of course the media, in its default “guns cause all crime” mode, said, “Other cops arrived, along with paramedics. The woman and Singh were rushed to the hospital, as was the gunman.” Gunman?
I took a screen shot of that one.

Guns in movies have all these supernatural powers that guns in real life apparently don’t have. You can see their muzzle flash in broad daylight, you can shoot more than a dozen times with a six shooter, sometimes they fire when no one is touching them, there are 12 gauge shotguns with zero recoil…it’s amazing.

One of my favorite “catches” is the semi-automatic handgun unexpectedly going “click” at someone when it’s empty. See, how it really works is, when an auto fires its last round, the slide moves backward and locks in a very open position. There’s no way the shooter would not know that his firearm was empty and there’s no way the intended target would not know…if Hollywood was just a teensy smidgen more accurate.

Most of the time, you’d find that all the threatening, pointing, and shotgun play is done with an empty chamber. You find that out after the fact because at the end of whatever confrontation is going on, the shotgun gets “racked” for effect when it’s pointed at somebody up close and personal. Don’t get me wrong, that “shick-schick” is very intimidating and also a very cool sound (especially in surround sound), but it’s a little anti-climatic to realize that up until that point, nobody had a round chambered and if a trigger was pulled nothing would happen.

Then there’s just obvious crap that even the novice can catch…scope caps still covering the lens, scopes on backwards, or even upside down like in the freeze frame captured from Flash Point:

Another of my favorite catches is somebody cocking a firearm more than once.
OMG that aggravates me something fierce! I guess I’m not the only one, because someone made this awesome video! Watch it!

God Bless Texas

Here's an odd little story floating around the net.
The gist of it is, an angry woman stormed into a Houston business with a mock gun (mock??) and a very real bow and arrow. She shot an employee with the arrow and ran down a hallway.
Here's the money quote:

Witnesses said other employees of the business pulled out their own pistols.

Oh yes they did. Licensed to carry concealed...all of them.
Nice.
Anyway, back to the story... the chick with the bow and arrow gets the "mock" gun knocked away from her (I'm sorry, I'm still hung up on that..."mock"??)and while she's standing there obviously looking down a few barrels from the business ends, she has the cajones to threaten to shoot these people with arrows. Not the sharpest crayon in the box, huh?
So here's the quote from the article about how that went down:

when she allegedly threatened to shoot them with another arrow, they fired a couple shots at her.

One witness (I don't know if it was one of the armed employees or not) calls the cops and tells them what is going on.
The cops show up and surround the area and people say they heard a half dozen shots fired by police, although it was unclear why. She was taken to a hospital and so was the arrow shot man. They are both fine and she has been charged with Aggravated Assault and Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer.
I'm kind of wondering why she wasn't charged with attempted murder (of the guy she bow shot).
Article Link

Who is Dan Cooper? Updated and UPDATED AGAIN

• CEO of Cooper Firearms
• NRA Member
• Republican

What is Obama’s stance on guns?
• voted to allow lawsuits designed to bankrupt the firearms industry
• voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition
• endorsed a complete ban on handgun ownership
• endorses prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense
• supported a proposal to ban gun stores within 5 miles of a school or park
…and several other things mentioned here.

What does Dan Cooper think about this? He must not mind too much because he’s contributed over $3,300 to Obama’s campaign and is endorsing him for president.
What’s wrong with this picture?
UPDATE:
From the Cooper Arms Front page:

Regarding the USA Today Article. Cooper Firearms of Montana, Inc. did not contribute and does not support in any fashion the campaign of Senator Obama.
Nine months ago Dan Cooper (personally) made an online donation to the campaign in an effort to help defeat Hillary Clinton and in protest of American plant closures and the shipping of jobs overseas. Three months ago he made yet another donation to the McCain campaign and the RNC totaling over twice that given to Obama campaign.
There is no doubt that the article in USA Today has caused a considerable response. To this end we are encouraged and stand with our fellow NRA members and supporters of the Second Amendment and against those who oppose it.
~Cooper Firearms of Montana

UPDATE # 2
Allegedly, this morning Cooper told his worried-for-their-jobs staff that this would all "blow over" after the election when Obama wins. After Obama gets in and "they" (us) see that everything is fine, "they" (us) will forget all about it. Their (our) memories are short, he reportedly said.
According to his personal political donation paper trail, he lied in the USA Today story and on the Cooper web page, he's clearly been on Team Obama for quite some time and with numerous donations instead of the two reported. This account also proves his website claim to have donated to McCain/Palin is also false. Obviously, he can donate to whomever he likes, but lying about it to underhandedly fund Obama’s campaign with money gained under deceit is revolting to the people who would have made different choices with their money if informed with the truth.
"Dear Dan,
You are so screwed.
Your friend,
Jim Zumbo"

2nd Amendment /flex

~
I ran across a story posted by RayDiffraction from RFC (top/left link) about a little dog alerting a homeowner to a possible break-in.
The gist of the story was that the homeowner found some suspicious things laying around and he sort of knew something might be hinkey. Having his alarm system disarmed because of storms, the only alert he received was from his Chihuahua. He met the burglar (who was attempting to tunnel onto the property) with a .357 magnum.
Hello Castle Doctrine!
OK, now for the reason I blogged this...
The story, although great, isn't what caught my attention the most.
The comments were! As of currently posting this entry, every single comment so far is in support of the homeowner and what he did. Not a single hint of anti-gun rhetoric. Awesome.
Here are some:

Thank God for the castle law. We could all be living in places like England, or Chicago or DC like helpless sheep.

...after one verbal warning my first round would have been in the center of mass, not the fencepost. It'd be the very last time he violates his probation.

Burglary is a tough occupation. Everyone in our neighborhood has "anti burgler[sic]" instruments readily available. Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Colt, Winchester, among others, make very fine instruments.

Too bad we can't post that: "protected by smith & wesson[sic]" on a sign in our front yards. I bet that would make a better deterrent than ADT.

The people have spoken.
Amen.
~

New Link / Passing Link

I've had a lot of fun reading the installments at News Of The Weird (down there on the left under "Stuff that Amuses Me").
But like many things, it's run its course. A snippet from today's entry says;
"Effective tomorrow morning, you can read Yr Editor's daily column of news 'n' commentary at its new home, www.WeirdUniverse.net!"
I'll still leave NOTW up over there because you can still use the links on that page to subscribe to the Google Groups e-mail feeds of the weekly News of the Weird column.
I've put Weird Universe on the list down there.
Have fun in search of YOUR "weird"!

New stuff on the side

~
I added a link to the side bar over on the left. It’s a link to the SCOTUS blog and filed under “Valuable Links”. It’s a good way to keep yourself “in the know” of what’s going on around you.

Boomerang

~
I’m sure we’ve all seen it. The crap that some kids do…
I’m talking about when they think it’s funny to fake a “drive by” with paint balls or air soft guns on unsuspecting people. Like this

Or this


Well, odds were in favor that it had to happen sometime…

Injured man returns gun fire on paintball pranksters
A Ruth man is hospitalized in Salt Lake City with eye injuries after being shot with a paintball Thursday night.
Sheriff Dan Watts said the man heard noise in his backyard and went outside with a flash light and a gun. Several Ely teenagers who had been trespassing on the man's property got into a vehicle and one of them shot him in the eye with a paintball gun as the car drove away. Watts said the man thought he had been shot with a real gun and returned fire striking the car but not injuring any of the occupants.
The sheriff's department detained the youths and the one who fired the paintball gun is being held at the juvenile detention facility in Elko. Charges might be pending.
The man who was shot with the paintball has a detached retina and it was not known Monday afternoon if he would lose sight in one eye, according to Watts.
Link to source

Schmuck Alert.

This was taken from a piece where Dennis Henigan was talking about the Parker case and the US court of appeals striking down D.C.’s handgun laws in finding that they violate the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. He states that the decision by the Supreme Court 70 years ago held that the 2nd Amendment firmly applies only to well regulated state militias. (What?!!)
I’m not going to link the whole video clip because it’s from the Brady Campaign place and frankly, it turns my stomach. Much.
Anyway, it’s no wonder he feels this way… listen to him TOTALLY misquote that very Amendment to twist it into what HE wants it to say. He completely leaves out “OF THE PEOPLE”.

Get this: He also says the 2A does not endorse the private ownership of guns for any purpose while in the *same* breath stating that the courts should not edit the Constitution and how the courts must interpret the Constitution as it was written by the framers. What a two-faced forked tongued hypocrite.

Bikers!

I had no idea there was a Cycle Fest going on in Auburn this weekend. When we drove over there, we saw tons of shiny chrome and Harley wings everywhere. The noise was shaking the pavement in some areas. You couldn't look 50 feet without seeing a sea of Harleys.
It. Is. AWESOME.
I'll see if I can get back over there with a camera before it's over. It's truly an awe inspiring thing to witness.

New Side Bar Linkage

Thanks to Jay for introducing me to Indiana Gun Owners who've been linked over there on the left as "Hoosier Shooters".
They look to be a great group of like-minded people with a lot of good info to share.
The following article was one that I saw posted there and is a topic I've blogged about before.
Negligent discharges.
Today's story:
RIVERDALE, Utah - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. "We were told the gun is the chief's personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn't know anything about the gun," Lewis Walker said.
Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked.
"Right then, I was very leery, because there's no need to have live ammo in a gun in the class. But I figured he's the chief, so he must know what he's doing," Ulm told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.
Hansen held the Glock 40 under a table to disassemble it when a bullet fired, Walker said.
The chief cried, "I'm hit," and fell over. Students who were screaming "Officer down!" were urged to call 911.
The gun went off in a conference room Saturday at Riverdale police headquarters.
Hansen was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden for surgery and released Monday, Lt. James Ebert said.
Ebert said the findings of an internal investigation would be announced Wednesday. He declined to offer specifics but disputed the accounts of Ulm and Walker, describing the pair as "disgruntled."
Other students "did not share that feeling" about the chief, Ebert told The Associated Press.
Walker said he didn't have confidence in the investigation.
"I think Riverdale police are just trying to keep this quiet and act like the chief is a hero. But if you ask me, he's really stupid," Walker said. "His state certification to teach concealed-weapons classes should be taken away from him. This was totally gross negligence."
Ulm said there was a moment of levity during the emergency.
He said an officer at the scene joked that "instead of shooting himself, he should have used the Taser."
Linkage
My two cents; I sure bet those students were “disgruntled”. I would be too if an incompetent, ignorant fool pulled out a loaded gun in a classroom setting and then fired it. What an imbecile.
I don’t doubt that *somehow* the “investigation” will turn up the “fact” that the gun malfunctioned or it was someone elses fault (nevermind the fact that his finger was ON.THE.TRIGGER!!- Look the other way!!). The students who were “disgruntled” probably have a big ol’ target on them now, too. Look for a variety of bogus tickets (parking, speeding, eating/sleeping/breathing) in Riverdale made out to those guys in the future.

Scary stuff for a mom & dad

Stephen Phillips and other soldiers in his Army MP company were battling insurgents when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents in the small Oregon town of Otis.
They weren't home, but the machine recorded much of the battle. They heard shooting and explosions and their son yelling for more ammo. They heard him shouting that his barrel was so hot the front sight was turning red. Then at almost three minutes into the firefight they heard someone yell, "INCOMING! RPG!" and the phone went dead.
They worried for hours until they were able to contact him. He's fine.
You can hear the whole message and watch a video interview here.

Rumble rumble rumble

Somewhere around O'Dark Early, the sound and vibration of trouble at the depot woke us. The longer the rumble and the more intense the vibration, we realized it wasn't train related.
It was an earthquake. Holy Moly.

Backlash?

There have been a rash of shootings near and police are hesitant to say if they are connected. I have my own theory. If you remember this post about a huge pot bust, I think that’s where this can all be traced back to. Earlier this week this shooting happened, and then this one all in the span of a day. Then this morning this man was shot. My opinion is that now the two rival gangs in the city are warring for turf.
I think the D-boys drew first blood and then the Knights of Destruction retaliated. Ever since then, I think it’s been a back and forth onslaught of reprisal killings. I don’t think the cops had much of a clue how big nor how active these gangs were until their biggest supplier was taken out of the equation. All I know is that I won’t be venturing where I was planning to go to pick up something I needed any time soon! And when I do finally decide I don’t want to wait it out any longer, I’ll go. But I won’t go unguarded or helpless.

No video this Friday

Spring break has translated into much turmoil here. We had phone calls in the middle of the night about my aunt’s mom only having hours to live. My uncle is having more bad days than good ones in his early stages of dementia. My daughter’s classmate got her scans and test results back and it turns out she’s got a cancerous tumor on her brain stem and they are waiting for x-rays to come back to see if she also has lung cancer. My cousin has gone to the hospital and gotten shots repeatedly to stop labor because her baby is way too early but she’s already dilated and keeps having contractions. Another cousin’s efforts to adopt a little boy away from a wicked witch (who tells him constantly how much she hates him and hurts him just enough to not leave marks) has fallen through because the mother realized she won’t get any government coin if she signs the papers. Another aunt is awaiting results today to find out if her cancer is back.
That’s pretty much the speed version and non-inclusive of *all* the drama going on.
It’s making us all irritable and short with each other which sucks. You know the saying: “You take it out most on the ones you love best” or something like that.