YOUR MOM LIED TO YOU
A few years ago we found out that monsters are real, they just don't live under your bed.

These people are trying to destroy us because women, minorities and people of all religions are allowed equal rights in our society. They're willing and eager to kill innocent people in their attempts to destroy all of us and everything we stand for.

Ever wonder what monsters are afraid of?

IS CANADA PAYING ATTENTION?
Theodore Dalrymple has a new op-ed in Canada's National Post. Its' pretty much what we've come to expect from Mr. Dalrymple: a thoughtful and well-written essay on the complete failure of British government to curb gun violence. Mr. Dalrymple's genius is in making his comments on the obvious interesting to read. An example is when he mentions that no one really cares if the criminals kill each other....

"The plain fact is that the average person in Britain is rather glad when he hears that a drug dealer has been shot dead by another drug dealer. I have overheard the police rejoice."

Well, duh! Go anywhere there's cops and you'll find that.

Considering Canada's well publicised failure of their national gun registry I can't help but wonder if they'll finally wake up and answer the clue phone. Considering how politicians everywhere will never admit failure I'm certain that they won't.

SHUT UP AND ACT
Blog goddess Natalie Solent has a few choice things to say about actors who bloviate on weighty issues they know nothing about. She really hits the nail on the head with the following ....

"It is a mystery to me why anyone should think that one's skill at reading words written by someone else, while pretending to be someone else, while pretending that all those men with cameras are somewhere else counts as evidence that one's political opinions are congruent with reality."

Ouch! Spoken with wit and scalpel-sharp insight.

THIS ONE DOESN'T GO OFF THE TRACKS LIKE THE REST OF THEM
Collin May over at Innocents Abroad finally has a post that's relatively clear. Mr. May is a smart cookie but he has a problem with dragging a few off-the-wall references and allusions into his posts to prove it.

This post is in response to an editorial in Le Monde. Looks like the French journalists that wrote the editorial seem to think that all those eastern European countries are eager to forge friendships with the US because they're dopes so used to slavery under the old Soviet Union that they're now looking for another master with a whip. Mr. May disagrees. And he does it without mentioning a single dead philosopher.

Not bad for someone who used to work for the UN.

A PERFECT SOLUTION
Do you want to know how I feel....?

Dave Kopel wrote this article, which tells the tale about how Eleanor Roosevelt was to give a speech about equal rights down south during the worst days of the civil rights movement. The FBI told her that they couldn't protect her, so she packed her own .38 revolver. No one fucked with her, which was a good thing.

In 1946 she was elected head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. She wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Human Rights. When Harry Truman showed signs of caving in to political pressure and wouldn't recognize the newly formed state of Israel she said she'd resign if he didn't straighten up and fly right. He did and she didn't, which proves that sitting Presidents couldn't stand against her if she put her mind to it.

Do you want to know how I feel....?

I think she was a giant amongst men. Homely as a mud fence with a will of iron and a mind of steel and a moral compass that always pointed her towards true north. She makes her fellow Americans both proud and ashamed at the same time. Ashamed because we could follow her example and do so much more, proud because she was ours. She was the best of America, a frail old woman packin' a gun and doin' good.

A few years ago the UN kicked America off of the commission that Mrs. Roosevelt had worked so hard to nurture. I couldn't friggin' believe it. Had all those pinheads in the UN gone insane? I suppose so, because now they've overwhelmingly elected Libya to sit in Mrs. Roosevelt's chair!

This has been ricochetting around in my head for the past few days. It's like I'm delirious with fever and nothing makes sense. Steven den Beste claims that the coming war with Iraq will destroy the UN's credibility. I think that's already been done. Now those morons are all wandering around their building in New York, wasting space on American soil and breathing American air.

I say we kick those idiots out of the country and turn the UN building into a giant public bathroom and sewage treatment plant. We can have toilet stalls decorated with scenes from all of the countries that voted for Libya. The paper can have images of their flags on it. It would be the first time that the UN actually cleaned a mess up instead of making it worse.

And that's the way I feel about that!

THIS IS WEIRD
Pump action shotguns are cost effective weapons for home defense. But some people just don't like the fact that you have to work the slide after every shot before the gun can be fired again.

One really crappy solution is double barreled shotguns. Besides the fact that you only have two rounds, most models are geared for the gentleman hunter market. This means that they're pretty high in price, though there are exceptions.

A better solution is an autoloading shotgun. These will fire as fast as you can pull the trigger until they run out of ammo. Unfortunately they're pretty darn expensive as well.

In recent years a robust line of autoloading shotguns have appeared that retail for very reasonable prices. Using the AK-47 action and made by the same company, the guns have been sold all across the world under the brand name Saiga. They even look like an AK.

Okay, so we have an autoloading shotgun that looks like a Russian assault rifle. Today I came across this weird lil' thing. It's a South African pump-action shotgun that looks an awful lot like an Uzi sub-machine gun.

I might buy a Saiga 12 guage someday, but when it comes to pump guns I think I'll stick to my Winchester 1300.

EQUAL OPPURTUNITY
This site will be sure to offend just about everyone.

Don't say that I didn't warn you......

PITHY
Dammit, I wish I could be as clear with as few words as Kevin.

NO SURPRISE HERE
Anna has a link from Random Nuclear Strikes. The link is to a personality quiz that determines if you're a Lefty or a mean ol' Right-Winger. It also checks to see if you're Rational or Irrational. It's not hard to guess how I scored.

I first became old enough to start developing a political conciousness 25 years ago. Back then the things I was most interested in was equality and safety. Equal oppurtunities should be avaliable for minorities, women, anyone of any religion. The environment needed to be protected because pollution and toxic waste had gotten out of hand in some areas. That pretty much put me firmly on the Left.

I also was incredibly alarmed at excessive government spending, which I saw as a danger to the health of our economy. People had to be able to defend themselves in their homes, so the restriction of firearms was a bad thing. The environment needed to be protected because the numbers of most large game animals in North America had fallen and I was in favor of hunting. These views put me firmly on the Right.

This meant that my values and views kept just about anyone from being comfortable around me when politics becamse the topic of conversation.

My values have changed some but they're still mostly the same. Now I see that the Right has embraced many of the things that they were (rightly or wrongly) accused of rejecting, such as equal rights for women. The Left has wandered off into La-La Land somewhere, so divorced from reality that I wonder if these guys see little elves peeking around the corners. Another 25 years and, should my values remain unchanged, I'm sure that those on the Left will accuse me of being a Nazi.

But people will still feel uncomfortable around me when discussing politics, I'll bet. Even the other "Nazis".

ANOTHER WAY TO GAIN SUPERVILLIANHOOD
Go on over to Jack Burton's blog and click on the Switch to....Linux link. You'll be glad you did.

I think that I'll take their advice as far as improving my love life is concerned.

JANE'S ROUNDUP
The new non-subscriber articles are on the Jane's Defence server. Let's see what they have for us deadbeats.

A Matter of Procedure
The London police have made some arrests recently. They're busy breaking up some terrorist cells, one of which was manufacturing the poison ricin. Unfortunately, an unarmed police officer was stabbed to death and three others wounded when a suspect who had not been handcuffed suddenly sprang from the couch where he had been sitting and attacked the officers.

There are many questions that I had about the incident. How had the suspect gotten the knife? Hadn't he been searched? If he had been searched why wasn't he restrained?

This editorial gives more details. Seems that the entry team was armed and armored, and the suspects gave up without a struggle. It was only after they left and detectives took over the scene that the suspect produced the knife and went to town. No one had searched the suspect, or searched the place where he was sitting for weapons, and the suspect had not been cuffed.

The editorial states that the majority of letters from the public are calling for police officers to be routinely armed. While I'm a big advocate of giving the police the tools they need to get the job done, in this case they acted like rank amateurs. A sherriff's deputy from Mayberry would have done a better job. If they want to prevent something like this from happening again they'd better get their heads pulled out of their butts. Hey, they could hire me as a training consultant but they'd have to pay me in US dollars.

Death From Below
According to this item Germany has introduced a new APC named the Marder 1 A5. The thing that sets this one apart from all the others is the introduction of reinforced plates on the bottom of the APC for mine protection. Good idea.

It's Too Early in the Morning to be This Smug
During Operation Desert Storm most of the casualties that the allies suffered were blue-on-blue fatalities (translation: friendly fire incidents). This editorial insists that it's all the Americans fault, noting that the only fatalities that the Brits suffered were when a US A-10 Warthog strafed some Brits.

C'mon, guys! Look at how many troops and how much equipment each country contributed. The main reason that the majority of B on B casualties were inflicted by the US was due to the fact that we made every other country's contribution look like a gnat on an elephant's ass. If there had been as many Brits there as Americans I'd bet the contents of the gun safe that they would have killed more of our guys than we did of theirs.


Well, that's it. It's a slow week for defense issues, but the Brits at Jane's still managed to annoy me. Must be a record of some kind.

SOMETHING TELLS ME THAT WWII WASN'T REALLY LIKE THIS
I went over to a friend's house over the weekend. He had wiring installed in the basement when the house was being built so people can network their PC's. We played a shoot-em-up game called Battlefield:1942. Much fun was had by all.

Jack Burton has pictures over at his blog. That big dark lump with his back to the camera in the first pic is me. He also has a hilarious musical interlude. Just click on the link in his post labelled "HERE".

Take my word for it, you won't regret it.

RUE BRITTANIA
Every modern society needs a modern police force. Constant vigilence is required to make sure that the police serve the will of the people and don't evolve into a group of thugs bent on crushing dissent. I was just over at blog goddess Natalie Solent's blog and I see that it might be too late for jolly ol' England.

Anti-hunting laws are a major political issue over there. The government has thrown it's weight behind them, and a massive section of the population thinks that it's a bad idea. Now the police are harassing some guy who organizes rallies against government policies and are fishing for some reason to toss his sorry butt in the hoosegow. First identify the perp, then decide what you want to charge them with, then fish for the evidence so you can try him for the charges. Doesn't look good.

How did this all happen? I think it started with the Dunblane massacre. After some nutbag shoots up a school and kills some kids the Brits decide that they can prevent this awful tragedy from happening again by banning all privately owned firearms. To convince the voting public that it's a good idea they claim that the average Joe doesn't need any guns because the cops can protect everyone 24/7. Just to get the point across the politicians pass laws making it illegal to defend yourself.

So now violent crime is soaring in England. Instead of admitting failure the police over there are claiming that they need more money and guns to combat the problem.

Is America much different? Don't we give too much power to our own police and don't criticise them enough?

I think we do a pretty good job. After all, we generally don't let the police abuse their power to help politicians look good.

THERE'S A RIGHT WAY AND A WRONG WAY
I was just sitting here about twenty minutes ago when I heard seven shots go off about 1 block from my house. Two rounds in rapid fire, a short pause, then five more. sounded an awful lot like 9mm.

So what did I do? I shoot a bunch and I'm a better shot than most police officers. Grab the 12 gauge and go outside to see if I could do some good? Maybe save a life?

No way! I dialled 911. Then I waited till the professionals arrived. Then and only then did I break cover (my house) and walk on down to see if I could help out. And I wasn't carrying a long gun.

See, the problem is one of identification. The police have uniforms so they know who're the good guys. Some civilian running around with a gun after a report of shots fired? Must be the guy shooting up the neighberhood! Get him on the ground pronto! (Hey, it's 9 degrees F out there with two inches of snow. I'm not going down on my face if I can help it).

This is one of the nightmares that the police have. Some citizen that wants to help ends up getting in the way, or even shoots the wrong person. Sure, most of us want to help if we can. That's why we have guns and advocate concealed carry laws. But if the shit has hit the fan outside of your direct view then it's best not to run towards the sound of the guns. You'll just confuse an already chaotic situation.

In case anyone's interested, no one found anything. No bodies, no suspicious people lurking around, nothing. I'm sure that the officers who responded are thinkin' I'm some nervous nelly right now, but that's better than me NOT calling it in if something had really happened.

THIS POST ISN'T IN FAVOR OF GUN CONTROL
I just saw in the news where Jerry Hessler died of a heart attack. Mr. Hessler was on Death Row for mutliple murders. He never made the national news, but I think he's worth a mention.

Hessler was one of those sullen loners that never did anything right. Years before he had dated a woman named Judy. She had broken off the relationship and married another man named Doug Stanton. Hessler blamed them for everything that went wrong in his life and had stalked them. There were restraining orders, but Mr. Stanton decided that a peice of paper wouldn't stop Hessler if things came to a boil. He favored 1911 .45's, and for some reason he bought two. Then he practiced practiced practiced. He drilled his family to take cover on command. All good ideas.

Hessler went nutbag after being fired from his job due to sexual harrassment directed against several women that he worked with. On Nov. 19, 1995 Hessler drove to the home of Tracey Stevens, one of the women he had been harassing at work. When she answered the knock at the door he shot her. The bullet had to travel through her infant daughter, whom Tracey was holding at the time. Neither survived.

Hessler then killed her husband, Brian, and shot and wounded two other people. Hessler had left two five-gallon cans of gas on the back porch, but the shots had caused the neighbors to come out of their homes to see what the noise was about. He decided to leave without setting the house on fire. He also left a list of intended victims with the gas.

After murdering the Stevens family, he drove to his former supervisor's house and shot him. The supervisor survived the attack by grabbing a lever action .30-30 from under his bed, chambering a round and firing in the ceiling. Hessler fled but his victim was permanently disabled.

Hessler then drove to the home Thane Griffin, the father of a woman who had once rejected him, and killed him as well. Then it was time for the Stantons.

The police had found the list that Hessler had left at the Stevens' home. They had called several of the people on the list, giving warning. The Stantons were moving through the kitchen towards the back door and their car when Hessler walked up the porch steps. He kicked open the door and the fight was on, a gun battle at 10 feet.

Hessler was armed with a Browning Hi-Power, and he fired 11 rounds. Mr. Stanton sprayed-and-prayed six rounds until he settled down some. His seventh and last round struck Hessler right in the center of his chest.

Hessler had been planning this for some time. He had bought a bullet proof vest, but the hammer blow from the .45 impacting right over his heart convinced him that the fight was over. By the time Stanton manged to figure out that his handgun had run dry and switch to the spare, Hessler had run away. He was taken into custody by police without firing another shot about three blocks away.

During his trial Hessler was seen to be writing something on the wall of his holding cell. It read "I killed four people. If I get the death penalty then the state can only kill me. I win."

That same heart that was under Stanton's chest shot finally gave out. Seven years of brooding in his cell took it's toll. I'm very relived that he can't hurt anyone ever again. It might be morally wrong to rejoice in the death of any person, but I can't help but feel that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

I don't know why this wasn't picked up by the national media like Columbine or Pearl High School. There were plenty of murdered victims, desperate and swift action by law enforcement, a crazed killer, and a free man defending his family with a legal handgun......

Never mind.

THEY'RE NOT REALLY A BUNCH OF JERKS
Collin May has consistently posted thoughtful and insightful items over at Innocents Abroad. He has another thoughtful post about French sensibilities. Thoughtful it might be, but insightful it isn't.

To boil it down some (and I might be off base about what Mr. May is trying to say), he states that the French oppose America in a knee-jerk way because of fear of Islamic violence within their own country. Okay, fine. Hardly new or shocking, that is.

But the money shot of the post is when Mr. May says....
"While the French public may oppose war, they don’t do so with much conviction."

Think about that for a minute. They don't oppose the coming Iraq war with conviction.

My problem is figuring out what difference it makes! They're still kicking up a fuss, right? They're still indulging in idiotic anti-American claims, right? They still oppose just about everything the US does outside our borders (and a fair amount of things we do inside our own country). So how is it significant? How does this change anything?

WAR PROFITEER
Head on over to Megan McArdle's blog. It appears that she's been inspired by the anti-war protests that have occurred all over the world and she's decided to cash in on the coming war with Iraq.

Damn, gotta get me some of those T-shirts. Can any of you imagine what would happen if I went to class at OSU with one of those on? I better take along one of my batons and a fair supply of chemical spray just in case those peaceniks decide that peace is for the birds.