Reflections

Disclaimer:   This is pure opinion.  No documentation, no links, just raw opinion.  Feel free to ingore.  Your mileage may vary.  Use at your own risk.
I have always had a finely developed sense of impending doom.  Growing up in the 60′s and 70′s, I lived in a constant state of fear that the Cold War would get heated up and I would die in a nuclear Armageddon or the ensuing nuclear winter.‡    With the collapse of the Soviet Union, that fear diminished.  Then came 9/11.
I believe that 9/11 occurred because we were perceived by the world as weak, spineless, and without the stomach for the action necessary for killing the bastards responsible and everyone associated with them effective retaliation and neutralization in an asymmetrical war.  In large part, I think we demonstrated otherwise.
But, here we are, 12 years later, and no amount of groping by the TSA, domestic surveillance by the NSA, the Patriot Act, and all the other losses of freedom and privacy has made us any safer.  In spite of the inconveniences, indignities and intrusions we can’t even keep tabs on a couple of Chechen terrorists we were warned about by our allies.  Our military acted in good faith, tried to accomplish the mission of making us safer (argue all you want about whether it was the right mission, the right response, etc.) and our sons and daughters have paid the price in blood, limbs, and lives.   All of that has been a waste, because we are perceived by the world as weak, spineless, and without the stomach for the action necessary.
Why?  Because our Dear Leader doesn’t understand:

• that making us the Great Santa doesn’t mean a significant portion of the world doesn’t still see us as the Great Satan
• that other than on the east and west coasts of this country and in Western Europe, most of the world sees concession as a sign of weakness
• that for most of the world, negotiation is perceived as a lack of resolve
• that what he perceives as sophisticated, nuanced diplomacy is perceived by most of the rest of the world as spinelessness.  Our President acts and speaks as if he believes the rest of the world plays by the same set of enlightened, evolved rules he affects to by playing by

In short, we are less safe now than we were twelve years ago because, whether through stunning hubris and stupendous incompetence or as a deliberate act to reduce the stature of the country, our Dear Leader has given away any progress we might have made.  The worst part is that we will have even less liberty, even less privacy and will be even less safe a year from now.
That finely developed sense of impending doom of mine seems a lot less like paranoia and a lot more like a rational assessment of the situation on the ground with each passing day.
‡Of course, I also slept with my arms at my sides for fear that an alien in a passing UFO would interpret some random arm position as the intergalactic version of the finger…

What to Say to An Obama Voter Who Just Got Laid Off

1. "Hey, at least that successful Mormon businessman didn't win."

2. "Didn't your lady parts warn you this would happen?"

 3. "Look at the Bright Side, Gay marriage passed in four states."

 4. "Hey, Big Bird still has a job. Isn't that the important thing?"

 5. "I am sure Obama cares deeply about your situation. Maybe he'll send you a postcard from Hawaii."

6. "Well, look at the bright side, Rush Limbaugh is getting a massive tax increase."

7. "Hey! Now you'll have more time to play with your unicorn."

8. "Isn't it worth losing your job to know that religious organizations now have to pay for abortions and contraceptives?"

9. "Well, now you and Keith Olbermann have something else in common."

10. "Forward!"

The Difficult Steps to Defunding Obamacare

So the Republicans are getting in this fight over defunding Obamacare, and a lot of people think it’s a stupid battle to get into because there is no way it will ever succeed. And defunding is superhard. Just look at the steps it will take:
STEPS TO DEFUNDING OBAMACARE
1. You have to get a bill to defund Obamacare. This is hard because you’ll need to get all the Republicans behind it, and many are establishment Republicans who have an intense dislike of doing anything that’s even remotely useful to anyone.
2. After the bill is ready, it will have to go before Obama to sign. This will make him mad. He’ll probably hiss and claw at you. And then he’ll veto it.
3. It takes a two-thirds vote to override a veto, but it’s really hard to get two-thirds of Congress to even show up. Most of Congress, instead of working, just kind of lounges around the pool out back of the Capitol or they play hooky and go see movies in town. You’ll have to come up with something good to get them all in to vote, like free ice cream and a clown that makes balloon animals — though now the Capitol will end up sticky and with pieces of balloon everywhere.
4. So let’s say you get the two thirds vote and now Obamacare is defunded. It’s over, right? Wrong. Obama will just grab a trash bag and head over to the Fed and tell them to print enough money to fill up his bag so he can fund Obamacare. The only way to stop that is to sabotage the money printing presses. And it’s not easy because there are video cameras watching those printing presses. You’ll need smoke bombs so you can sabotage under the cover of smoke. Then when security sees what’s going on, they’ll be like, “Oh. It’s nothing; it’s just a bunch of smoke.”
5. So you’ve defunded Obamacare and kept the Fed from printing Obama more money — but it’s still not over. Obama will then get into his drill machine and try to drill into the center of the earth to get the diamonds there. And, as everyone knows, it’s the diamonds in the center of the earth that give us gravity, so if Obama takes them, gravity will cease and those levels with the bubbles in them will no longer work. So we’ll have to get a drill machine and go after him. And there will probably be a big battle underground, and the winner will be whoever can form an alliance with the mole people.
So, there you go; that’s the steps to defunding Obamacare. It doesn’t sound very realistic to me — especially the stuff about the mole people — so I’d be really cautious about pursuing this. Or not. I don’t really care. But I would like free ice cream though clowns scare me.

Starbucks and guns

Let’s be clear; I’m not a real Starbucks fan in the first place.  The coffee is horribly expensive and, frankly, you can get a better cup for ¼ the price at a Quick Trip.  Interestingly enough, even McDonalds has stepped up their coffee quality lately.  Dunk ‘n Donuts is good also, but I prefer to sweeten my own coffee, thank you, so don’t ask me how many Sweet ‘n Lows I want.
            Another thing …. I stopped going to Starbucks when they came out and openly supported 0bama for a 2^nd term.  I guess it goes with the territory … Seattle and all that … but I prefer not to support businesses that actively participate in the destruction of our country .. and supporting 0bama fits that bill.  That’s why Boortz appearances have been rare around such places as Starbucks, Costco, Kohls, and Atlanta Falcon Football games.  (Can you believe Falcons owner Arthur Blank throwing a fundraiser for 0bama?)
            Now … the big coffee news yesterday was the CEO of Starbucks sending a letter – and Tweets – to Starbucks customers asking them not to bring weapons into Starbucks even if they happen to have a valid concealed carry permit.  Fine .. that’s his privilege.  To be perfectly honest, though, it was the gun owners themselves that goaded him into this.  It seems that some Starbucks locations have been targeted by permit holders to flaunt their weapons.  They would gather at a particular Starbucks with their pistols visible in holsters – and sometimes carrying rifles.
            Stupid.
            Frankly, I find it hard to fault the Starbucks CEO for his actions.  Some customers are just not going to be comfortable with a bunch of show-offs brandishing their guns in a coffee shop.
            Yes … I have a permit to carry a weapon.  And yes … I have received some pretty extensive training in the use of that weapon (An Uselton 1911) and appropriate safety measures.  And yes … I do carry that weapon .. CONCEALED .. when I think the situation warrants it … and that means pretty much everywhere I go in Atlanta.  The key word, though, is “concealed.”  I believe that to flaunt your weapon is to invite trouble.  I don’t need some thug deciding to test just how tough I am.  If you walk through life in a fighting pose with your fists balled up and ready to strike, someone, someday, somewhere, is going to want to test your mettle.  I can think of only one time where I wanted it to be clear that I was armed … and that was gassing up in Atlanta at a station that, shall we say, was not in one of Atlanta’s finest neighborhoods.  One guy at another pump looked at me, looked down at my holster, and then gave me a big thumbs up.  “Smart move,” he said.  “Especially here.”  If the clerk inside is behind a bulletproof barrier … well, there’s your clue.
            But guess what?  Starbucks is not an inherently dangerous place --- unless you spill a latte on Big Al and the Boys, that is.  There is nothing to be gained by a group of Second Amendment defenders marching into a Starbucks with guns on their hips and scaring the poor, weak, trembling Democrats sipping grande somethingorothers.  If the armed self-defense advocates had kept their guns in their pants there never would have been a problem.
            Now .. the other side.
            Starbucks was a unique situation.  They had been targeted by people I guess we can call “demonstrators” who wanted to display their weapons.  Almost all of the permit holders that I know --- and you would be surprised to know who some of them are --- would never do that.  The statistics clearly show that people with carry permits are some of the least likely, if not THE least likely people to ever use a gun in the commission of a crime.  The very fact that these people obtained a permit to carry the firearm shows that they are and consider themselves to be law-abiding.  Now I’m not going to say it hasn’t happened, but I cannot remember ONE single instance where a person with a concealed weapons permit walked into any retail establishment anywhere, pulled the gun out and robbed the joint … or shot an innocent person during the commission of a crime.
            Let me share two stories of gunplay in restaurants.
            First .. Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.  This happened in 1991.  A man names George Hennard crashed his truck through a window of the cafeteria and began shooting.  He shot about 50 people, and killed 23.  He had to pause and reload a few times.  There was not one person in that restaurant with a gun that could have made an attempt to stop the massacre.  One patron, Suzanna Hupp, was having lunch with her parents.  She left her gun in the car because Texas did not, at that time, allow concealed carry.  She sat there in a booth while Hennard shot and killed both of her parents.  Her gun was 100 feet away.  As a result of this massacre the Texas legislature passed a concealed carry law that was signed by then Governor George W. Bush.
            Now .. the second restaurant.  This time it’s a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Alabama.  It’s December of 1991 .. .just a few months after the Luby’s shooting in Texas.  Two robbers entered the restaurant with stolen pistols.  Note, please, that they did not have permits, did not buy the guns legally, and didn’t give a damn about magazine capacity.  The two thugs rounded up 20 Shoney’s customers and herded them to the back of the store .. .and started robbing the place. Thomas Perry was in that restaurant at that time with a .45 caliber pistol.  He had a valid concealed carry permit.  He hid under a table while the others were being shoved into the back of the restaurant.  One of the robbers noticed Perry and pulled his gun on him.  Perry immediately put five bullets into the robber, killing him instantly. The second robber shot at and grazed Terry.  He fired back and critically wounded the robber.  Threat over.  Customers freed.  One bad guy dead, the other wounded, and not one innocent person hurt.  Why?  Because Terry had a concealed weapon and Shoney’s had not asked him not to bring it into the restaurant.
            Now I have a simple question for Starbucks CEO Schultz.  If you were sitting in one of your coffee shops sipping your overpriced cup of burnt coffee, and a thug walked in with a gun and started robbing the customers – you included – at gunpoint, would you sit there and pray that nobody else in your shop has a gun and knows how to use it?
            I would truly love to hear your answer to that.

How to Shut Down the Government

So there’s a lot of talk about shutting down the government. Like either the Republicans are threatening to do it or Obama is threatening to do it — but the point is it could get shut down. Some people are wondering, though: How do you shut down the government?
Well, there’s a big lever that turns the power on and off for the government, and it’s in the subbasement of the Capitol. You can’t just waltz into the basement and pull the lever, though, because there is a security guard whose job it is to make sure no one does that. He has a 9mm handgun. I think it’s semi-automatic. And his name is Gary — the security guard, not the handgun. Gary is not the type of guy who names his handgun.
Well, here’s something you only know as a Washington insider: Gary takes a two hour lunch at noon. So if at noon you only take a one hour lunch, you’ll have an hour to sneak in and pull that lever without Gary and his 9mm there to stop you. And then — BOOM! — the government is shutdown.
So what happens then? Well, Gary will probably get fired. And he has a wife and three kids. So that’s pretty awful. So, you know, if you shut down the government, people are going to get hurt. Just a warning.

Know Thy Enemy: AR-15

The Navy Yard shooter has put the AR-15 in the news. Yes, the shooter didn’t use an AR-15 — he took Joe Biden’s advice and used a shotgun — but that didn’t stop newspapers from putting the AR-15 in its headlines because any time there is a shooting, you can’t help but think of that evil evil AR-15. Thus I’ve had my crack research staff find out all they can about the world’s most deadliest weapon.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AR-15
* The inventor of the AR-15 was Satan, though his patent has since expired.
* Scientists have confirmed the deadly effects of an AR-15 by giving it to a chimpanzee who then murdered them.
* Scientists agree that each year the AR-15 will grow more deadly until it kills everyone in the entire world.
* Some believe that Hitler was in fact an AR-15 in a rubber mask.
* In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve access to every firearm out there except for the AR-15 which he told them not to touch because it was too evil. But then the NRA, in the guise of a serpent, told Eve that the AR-15 is really fun to shoot. So then Eve took the AR-15 and started shooting all the animals in the garden because she is one awesome chick.
* The part that makes the AR-15 so extra deadly is the handle on top. The AR-15 would be used in less murders if it were more inconvenient to carry.
* It was an AR-15 that told Miley Cyrus to dance like that.
* Bullets that are normally harmless will kill instantly when fired out of the AR-15.
* The reason AR-15s have that prominent handle on them is because the most requested feature for an assault rifle was to be able to carry it like a Hello Kitty lunch box.
* If you find yourself surrounded by AR-15, know that they will fire automatically if they sense fear.
* The AR-15 is easily concealable and can fit inside a matchbox.
* The AR-15 is the leading cause of global warming from how its bullets shoot holes in the ozone.
* A very small percentage of gun deaths are attributed to the AR-15 because it is very good at disguising itself as other guns to frame them.
* What are the differences between an M16 and an AR-15? Scientists agree that it is something.
* The AR-15 can be rendered harmless by giving it only a 10 round magazine as people always miss with the first ten rounds and an AR-15 takes an hour and a half to reload.
* The AR-15 can shoot through schools.
* In a battle between Aquaman and an AR-15, Aquaman would break down and buy it so people might think he’s more manly.
* There were no shooting deaths until the invention of an AR-15. No one even considered using a gun to shoot another human being until someone saw an AR-15 and said, “I bet I could use this to kill people.”
* There was an assault musket similar to the AR-15 used by the world’s most evil pirates, but it was pronounced “Arrr-15.”
* The Assault Weapon ban was needed because it is well known that an AR-15 with both a pistol grip and a flash suppressor would be unstoppable by any modern military.
* In Europe there is no such thing as an AR-15 and thus also no such thing as murders. Instead of being violent, people there just drink wine and smoke cigarettes all day.
* If the AR-15 were banned, it’s believed all gun deaths would end because even gun murders that didn’t use the AR-15 were inspired by the evil sight of that gun.
* If you are shot by an AR-15, you become one.
* The AR-15 is responsible for 95% of all deaths each year. The rest of the deaths are from obesity and drone strikes.

The Navy shooter, why did he do it?

Why did the Navy Shooter do it? Simplest answer is because he wanted to. He hated his life, he hated the people in it. He hated everything and everyone enough that the consequences weren't a factor. When these rampages happen everyone wants to think that the person just snapped. As though there was all this pressure and suddenly something inside just gives way and shazzam! a psycho killer appears where a regular nice guy used to be. I guess that it might happen that way, but my belief is that this guy fantasized about it. Thought about it. Told himself everyday as rude people ticked him off, as supervisors and co-workers stabbed him in the back etc. that "one of these days...to the moon Alice!"

In this case we'll never know. The difference between these days and the days of the Honeymooners is that violence is inculcated and nurtured within us by our non-stop culture of violence on TV, in moves, music and art, comic books, video games, and toys. In a world where a video game like Grand Theft Auto is a number-one best selling video game franchise, honestly were you expecting something else? It's not the guns it's the sick culture.