Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

The Skinny

I am a gun enthusiast trapped in the People's Republic of Maryland. My political affiliation is Independent, as the Ruling parties are both full of crap, and long ago stopped representing the common man. If the Libertarians weren't such freaks I would probably be one. I am a member of the Nation of Riflemen and damn proud of it. I once took an oath that I would support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As far as I know I never broke that oath, and will continue to follow it. I am not Politically Correct and will NEVER be Politically Correct. If you need to know more, feel free, Ask.

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Well since I changed my blog URL around I seem to be a bit off the beaten path.  My hits and comments are down…  Things will come back to normal eventually…  (normal being my Wife’s Blog getting twice as many hits as mine)

But in the mean time it seems that only Coyboy Blob has figured out my new URL (all on his own I might add) So since he was nice enough to fix his link (he is the top referrer with well over 40 hits from his site since this saturday) early I decided I will honor him with his own button on my site…

Here is a preview…

So this will be going up in a special link section on my sidebar…

Thanks for the hits CowBoy…

The supremes just reinforced the old “you don’t have a right to police protection” decision that they keep putting out.  But at the same time they won’t rule that the second Amendment is an individual right not to be infringed by the state, so that we have the ability to protect ourselves.  So remember, if you go out and get a restraining order just remember that it is only a very thin sheet of paper…

Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the court order against her husband, the court said in a 7-2 opinion.

City governments had feared that if the court ruled the other way, it would unleash a potentially devastating flood of cases that could bankrupt municipal governments.

City (and State) governments that take ability for a person to defend themselves (in the form of denied Concealed Carry or other firearm restrictions) have by default taken on the burden of protecting the people. 

The Government that wants to take away the citizens best form of protection, but then does not want to bear the responsibility of then protecting the people need to be removed.  The only method that we really have to accomplish that (outside of a large amount of bloodshed) is through the courts.  When the courts take that ability away… What options do we have left???

When are people going to wake up to the fact that if you want protection you have to provide it for yourself?  Fricking Sheep…

Speaking of restraining orders…

I live in Maryland where we just (April) had a woman have to shoot her abusive ex-boyfriend when he violated his restraining order, fortunately she was able to defend herself with a gun.  It is also doubly fortunate that the Peoples Republic of Maryland decided that she was indeed a victim. It is great that she had the foresight and fortitude to arm herself and take care of her problem.  But in Maryland you may not always be able to do so.

We seem to have a problem with some of the domestic violence laws in the PRoMD.  You see in the great state of Maryland if you have a restraining order placed against you the cops come and take all your guns away.  Now in some cases this may be a good thing, but the bad guys have also figured this out also.  So in some cases an abusive spouse or former spouse will file a counter (or pre-emptive) restraining order against the woman, then the nice police come and take her only means of defense.  Nice ehh?

I only know about this because I met a woman that has had this little legal stunt pulled on her.  I had asked her why she did not just get a gun when she told me about her situation.  She stated why she could not in the gory details of a legal system run amok.  So now she lives in fear of her former husband and is defenseless against a stronger foe.  But on the up side she has a piece of paper with which to swat his nose if he show up (again).  See how well intentioned laws get out of hand…

Well the confiscation for redistribution to other private interest has begun.  You would think that in Texas people would have a bit more respect for property rights but it appears that it is just not so. 

Once again the government decides what is in your best interest. 

The Government is not your friend, and unfortunately the government is the one making all the rules. 

Stock up on the ammo boys, seems we may need it before our lifetime is over…

Here is another object lesson from our pals across the pond (once again “sorry Mr. Freemarket”)

Gun Crime up 44% in the gun free utopia of south London UK.

after a sweep of a portion of south London they came up with a .44 Magnum which is “Capable of immense destruction” as well as ten other guns.  Heh, “immense destruction”.  Yea right.  A thousand pound laser guided bomb in capable of “immense destruction”, not a .44 Magnum.  Get a grip over there already, but I guess that kind of frightening language is useful for intimidating the sheep…

Some money quotes for us in this little object lesson.

“POLICE can defeat the scourge of gun crime and gangster culture - but only with YOUR help.“

Well we already know that the police are not our friends, but it turns out your neighbors may not be either.

“Much of the intelligence behind the raids came directly from the public, via 60 calls made to Chief Supt Bridger’s 24-hour gun
crime hotline number. Revealing the weapons cache to community leaders and senior police colleagues, Lambeth’s top cop confirmed his steely determination to rid the borough of guns - but warned further success depended on the help of the community.“

So if the worst ever comes to pass in this country be sure of your neighbors.

Hat tip to War on Guns

I am thinking about putting up a photo blog…

Anyone interested? 

95% of my work is Film based.  I do some digital stuff from time to time but it is mostly for the web.  The photographs that I would put in the photo blog would probably be mostly my large format photography like the one shown above…  I am still doing film because there are a couple of film emulsions that speak to my soul very strongly.  Though I do fear that they will be gone in a few more years… 

Well I am freshening up the place a bit…  Tell me how you like it…

Well this weekend was my turn to dive into Photoshop, Expression Engine, Templates, and CSS. 

I have long had Photoshop but never really did much with it as I am a Network Engineer not a Graphic Artist.  But this weekend I wanted a

lot more than a default template.  The first thing was a trip down into the basement to get a nice big pile of brass for my web title shot.  Then came the Lapua box for good effect.  I have long been a photographer (since I was six or eight my dad had me taking pictures) so I grabbed my digital camera and got to work.  I also have a shot of a big pile of Sierra Match Kings that did not get used.  I then spent a couple of hours working with photoshop to learn just how much I don’t know about the program.  In the end I came up with a nice tasteful shot that is now my title image.

It has been almost two weeks since I installed Expression Engine and I am very very happy and impressed with the software.  It was worth every penny and has far exceeded my expectations in almost every area.  The only thing that I like Movable Type better over Expression Engine is the way that MT separates different blogs.  EE does separate the different blogs, MT just does it cleaner.  As far as install goes EE was installed in less than 5 min with zero human intervention, EE was the personification of easy.  I have spent the last 4 hours working on my Templates (my wife wanted the template I was using initially so that took all of 20 min to switch her over) and I can say with confidence that the EE coding is much simpler and more concise, hence easier to learn and use.  So if you are looking for new blogging software and run your own site EE is my hands down winner and recommendation.

I am still feeling my way around the subject of CSS and things will continue to subtly change as I make the blog fit a bit better visually.  Oh and if you like the shadows around my titles you can add it using this little bit of code in your CSS “text-shadow: dimgray 3px 3px 3px;“  Of course color and shadow size can be changed easily to match your preferences.  If you can’t see the shadows you may want to look into a browser that is CSS2 compliant (not IE).

Update #1

One last thing on Expression Engine.  The user based support forum is Excellent.  I just posted up a question and then settled in for some more reading and before I had even finished a page I got a response back with just the information that I needed.  I never got support from MT that came close.  Just one more thing about Expression Engine that I love… 

Well I just got through with my blogroll updates. 

As I had not done this in a long time I had a whole bunch of entries to make.  I am forgoing my traditional blog roll addition blurbs this once since I

am still busy tweaking my blog in EE…

I also added a catagory for Military links in general.  This will be filled out as time goes on…

So if I added you to my blogroll and you would like an introductory blurb let me know I will do so…

K

Well the democrats want Karl Rove to resign because he called them a bunch of apoligistic pushovers…  Boo Hoo… 

After listening to Howard Dean spout his rhetoric for the last six months I have very little sympathy for the democrats.  I mean if the rhetoric is this bad now how bad will it be after the elections in 2006 when the republicans have a real super majority in both houses… 

This would truly be bad for America, but at the rate that Howard Dean is alienating moderate voters there really will be no other outcome than a super majority for the republicans.

We need a viable third party and we need it bad…

Just when I finished lamenting about how our government was out of control the US Supreme Court goes and pulls a really big harry monkey out of their ass…

I have had this graphic for a while now (thanks Nanny Knows Best) and finally found something worthy of posting it…

Well the Second Amendment was not enough.  Lets now start on the Fifth… 

Here is the money quote

“Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random,“ O’Connor wrote. “The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.“

Here is the link from CNN

Update #1

Fifth Amendment as issued by the SCOTUS today!!!

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

.

Update #2

The SCOTUS decision yesterday just underscores how badly our government is out of touch with the people that it is supposed to be representing.  When the SCOTUS that is supposed to be upholding the Constitution and Bill of Rights starts to drastically modify it, just where does that leave the people?  Let just say that it is not a pretty place for America. 

We are seeing the seeds of what caused the Declaration of Independence.  High taxes, no property rights, and a whole slew of overbearing, bloated, all powerful agencies.

Just when did we loose our grip on the leash?  How long ago did the hounds slip free?  Is there any chance that we will be able to gather up the hounds and put them back into the pen?

It all boils down to this.

When did our government go from representing us to ruling us? 
At what point did the government decide that it was no longer bound by the Constitution? 
Just where does the government get the authority to send our tax dollars abroad? 

These are just a few of the questions that keep me awake at night.  It is good and well that the president proclaims that we are going to forgive Africa’s debts to us, as we were never going to get those debts paid back in any appreciable fashion.  At what point do we say lets fix our own problems?  At what point do we stop sending our tax dollars to other countries? 

We have a whole host of corrupt politicians (take your pick of the R and D variety) they run away from the hard choices.  One of the reasons that they don’t make sane decisions on Social Security is that they don’t participate in the Social Security system.  They have their own fully funded system so the don’t have any skin in the system that the average Joe has to live with.  Our latest proposal from the congress critters is lets raise the SS retirement age.  Not that it has not gone up in the last ten years, congress critters have steadily and quietly raised the retirement age.  Now we have some gibbering idiot proposing to raise the SS retirement age to sixty nine.  So what is the point of even having Social Security if we are going to raise the age limits that high.  Lets just raise the retirement limit to 90 and be done with the whole SS system, it is just a farce as it stands today. 

Once again lets reiterate for the slow people.  Our congress critters do not have the interests of Joe AVERAGE at heart.

Lets be blunt, because for my generation of workers (born in the 60s and 70s) if you are not able to sock away a significant portion of your income into a 401K you are going to be well and truly screwed.  The companies that will hire you for 30 years and give you a nice pension with free health care when you retire are few and far between (unless you go to work for Uncle Sugar).  Even if there were still companies out there, they would just start doing what one of the airlines just did, which was to go to court and have the company relived of the responsibility of funding their pension plan.  As an aside, just who do you think is going to fund that pension plan? Never mind, dumb question.  Actually that may not be a dumb question, as it seems America is getting filled up with sheepeople who no longer question what they are being told.  So for my generation you better plan and fund your retirement because no one else is going to do it for you, unless you want to retire at 80 or so…

Why should I have to fund other countries foolishness?  We give at least $20,000,000,000 (20 billion) dollars of American Tax money to other countries each year.  I wonder just when the government decided it was OK to piss away our hard earned money.  We also provide over 30% of the corrupt United Nations funding each year.  I just keep on wondering where our government gets off spending dollars that are not theirs to spend?  We have plenty of problems in America that our tax dollars should be spent on without being the World’s sugar daddy.

The Government really needs to learn to live with what it has.  No politician should be allowed to pass a law or create a program that is not completely funded using existing funds.  You want something new, fine what are you going to cut in order to make you little dream come true.  Additionally there should be no tax increase to fund a program or law.  We already pay a large amount of money in taxes with very little ROI and if our government wants to fund things off shore from America they better damn well think hard before burning our tax dollars on BS.

Well here I am back up and online…  I am very happy with Expression Engine so far. 

I have a few glitches to work out yet.  as well as getting my blogroll back up. 

I had a weird cross pollination of comments going on from my wife’s blog to mine but it seems that that may have resolved itself…

I love PFM solutions to problems… 

But for now this is it…

I do have a couple of posts up right now… 

Oh and for all you loyal readers you will have to change your link to me.  Thanks for your cooperation in this…

I am transitioning the Limpidity.org domain to a new server…  During this time things may go offline…

That will only be temporary…  Things should be back to normal by the end of the weekend if not sooner…

The Management (aka Me)

Kirk

As you can tell my format is a bit on the HORKED side of life right now. 

The upgrade to MT 3.17 has indeed gone horribly wrong.  MT support has been a bit less than supportive! 

I am going to move to expression engine ASAP…  I will be migrating my hosting to a web hosting company again, as running my own virtual linux machine has been fun but is has also been a pain in the ass… 

This migration will probably take another couple of days as my account is still being set up at the new hosting company…

Hopefully I will not loose all my content.  I have backed it up but MT’s backup method leaves a lot to be desired…

Kirk

Be back soon…

No I have not been posting, I have been working my ass off… 

The last two weeks have been 96 hour plus weeks…  I am tired…  But this is my birthday weekend and I may try to squeeze out some of what has been making my poor overworked gerbil stay up late…

I was supposed to be up bright and early to get some shooting done but our range got co-opted by the local county police so that they can bring in a heli and try and hit some targets while shooting out of the side of it…  (yes while it is in flight)  It should be at least fun to watch.  I can’t really see that they are going to hit anything…

Oh well at least we get the range back at 11.

Off to the range.

Well after a long and humorless weekend I found this to make me laugh a bit.  Ok a lot and had I been drinking it would have been messy.

NeanderPundit makes me laugh

err this morning… and yes I am still working.

I did get to go shooting this weekend but that is for another day.

K