Pastors Packing Heat

See this article from an Associated Press reporter. There is much food for thought.

SCOTUS Gears

The following links, requiring a total of a little under 30 minutes of your time, describe the mechanics of the highest court's operations.

This leg of the United State's triune government is profoundly different from the other two.

• The court's members are not elected by the populace. Instead, they are nominated by the sitting President and affirmed by Congress.


• Supreme Court justices serve for life, or until voluntary retirement.


• And perhaps most importantly, they only pay attention to A) what they are requested to consider -- their deliberations may be initiated by anyone except themselves -- and B) only if they are so inclined.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (Commonly attributed to Edmund Burke.)

Burning Man

A friend announced he was going to the Burning Man festival outside of Gerlach, Nevada. I knew he had been several times and, at $300/person, I wondered what the attraction might be. It's hot out there in the desert, you know?

So I Google'd up the event's web page and, after a little looking around, found a PDF called the "Survival Guide".

On the cover page are these "Participant Responsibilities":

Participants at Burning Man must bring all necessities to the desert: food, shelter, water, fuel, and basic first aid supplies. As you read these guidelines for responsible behavior, please keep in mind that you are responsible for yourself at all times, in every regard, as you approach, once you enter, and as you leave Black Rock City. Above and beyond the provision for individual survival, everyone is requested to help ensure our collective survival by following very basic rules relating to public safety and community well being. Everyone is expected to abide by these standards. Community membership is a privilege. Violation of these requirements could result in ejection from the community.

If you change "participant at Burning Man" to "Citizens of the United States" and make other similar changes, you'd have a very succinct statement of my beliefs in this regard.

Sadly, the cover page is not like the content just as the laws of the United States have strayed from its "cover" document, the Constitution.

• At Burning Man, you can't bring a dog.


• At Burning Man, you can't bring a gun.


• At Burning Man, you may not sell things.


• "Your car will be searched at the Gate."


• Do not bring: "Feathers of any kind".

Well, in the United States we can still have dogs and guns. We can buy and sell -- that is the foundation of Capitalism, after all -- and although your car may be searched entering or leaving the United States, once you're in, that can't be done without a warrant or [the ability to convince a judge the officer had] probable cause.

And we can still have feathers in the United States of America.

All in all, I don't think the Burning Man festival is for me.

Have a good time, Kevin. See you when you get back!

Free Enterprise and a Great Video

Would you watch a five minute commercial?

This is it.

Well done!

 

When Seconds Count

In Waist Band (IWB), Galco

I have the utmost respect for our law enforcement officers many of whom frequently put their lives on the line -- and sometimes lose -- on our behalf.

Having recognized that, there are a couple of statements quoted by carry-your-gun advocates that, while promoting personal responsibility, also can be taken to demean the "Boys in Blue."

The first has been said in so many places and so many times that its origin is almost certainly lost.

When seconds count, the Police are only minutes away.

We expect our Police and other security forces to provide exactly that, security. And, in the long term, they do. Unfortunately, they can't be everywhere at all times so the sad fact is that, in the short term, you're on your own.

The second statement, which I am hereby coining, carries a note of a terrifying truth known to a few unfortunate communities.

When seconds count, the Police are waiting outside.

In Pocket, Uncle Mike's

While it is true that I am far too ignorant of the harsh realities officers face in such situations to pass judgement on their departmental policies and procedures, the fact remains that there are reasons for not charging in blindly the moment they arrive.

In personal terms, that means you and I are still alone with the gunman.

As public shootings over the past few years have shown, you don't have to be in a crime-prone location to become a "random target". Indeed, it doesn't matter where you are, be it in the shopping mall, at school or at a religous retreat. If someone starts shooting, you are going to be on your own for what will certainly seem to be a nightmarishly long time.

Like it or not, you will then be forced to choose between being a victim or a fighter. And make no mistake, making no choice is choosing the former. That's what the gunman wants, to kill you.

I pray none of us will ever have to face such a terrifying, faith-challenging situation. But as the news tells us, it is happening here and now, in our malls, in our schools and even in our most sacred religous institutions and retreats.

How will you exercise your God-given right to life?

That question does, I have to confess, leave me conflicted. Wrestling with the sanctity of the God-given life versus the preachings of Jesus ... well, as I say, I'm conflicted.

In another blog, I did a lot of soul-searching as well as Bible-reading and research before coming to a contrary conclusion. In "Okay, I'm Convinced" you can read the Bible references, arguments and finally my conclusion which is that Jesus would not condone his own defense -- indeed, he did not -- and he advocates we do the same.

So now I live with the contradiction because I will tell you that I am a fervent follower of His teachings, and I carry a legally concealed weapon and will defend myself.

You might then ask, "Doesn't that make your beliefs inconsistent? Aren't you contradicting yourself? Aren't you then advocating 'situational ethics' where right and wrong can no longer be clearly defined?"

Yes, it does. That's true.

And it's because we live in a grey world where good and bad are often mixed together.

God didn't say this would be easy.

So, I am conflicted.

And I am armed.

Under Cover Down Under

Sport Fields, Alice Springs (from Google Earth)

I usually avoid soap-boxing or cross-posting but, for the section quoted below, I will make the exception. This needs to be heard, and heard widely.

Quote:

"It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:

List of 7 items:

1. 
   Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.
   


2. 
   Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.
   


3. 
   Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
   


4. 
   In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent.
   


5. 
   Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
   


6. 
   While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
   


7. 
   There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY.
   

Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased after such monumental effort and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns."

You can find the original, and complete, posting at http://www.theshootist.net/2008/12/lest-we-forget.html.

Freedom to Build or Waste Your Life

"Freedom", as to how it has been defined and used in the United States, and by William Wallace, and by many others is a concept many do not understand.

For example, it does not mean that your well-being will be cared for no matter what you do and that you are, therefore, "free" to do as you wish.

No, "freedom" carries a responsibility, and it is first to yourself.

"Freedom", as these individuals used it, means you are free to create the best life you can by your own actions.

That is, within the constraints of a civilized society, you are free to build your life as you see fit. You can choose your own profession, apply yourself and succeed or fail, as your talents permit. And if you find your well-being in one area is less than you desire, you are free to do something else, again and again as your wishes and tolerances permit.

It is, in three words, up to you.

Sadly, over the nearly 250 years since this country was founded on that idea, this understanding has been lost. Today, "freedom" means you can do as you wish because "the government" will take care of you.

But we are fast approaching the point where "the government" is not only unable to afford you that luxury, it is also going to refuse to do it. This is because not only can we no longer afford to do so, more significantly it is because "we" are going to begin refusing to do it.

Remember that, in this country, "the government" is ultimately "the people", and "the people" are begining to demand a stop to this recklessness.

Indeed, since "We" are the government, it is up to us to rise up and assert our wishes. In our chosen form of representative government, we are obligated to tell our representatives what we want, and to then hold them accountable in carrying out those wishes.

These bail-outs are careening out of control. It is our future and that of our children and grandchildren that is being destroyed, not protected, by the wave of multi-trillion dollar bail-outs.

Ask where this money is coming from and the answer is simple: You. Through your work and the sweat of your brow, you are putting that money into the system that is giving it out. You have worked and earned and then put money into that system in the past, you are putting it into the system now, and you (and your children and grandchildren) will continue to work, to earn, and to put money into for many years to come.

We are putting in the money as cash or as inflation, or as debt that must be repaid. Either we or our descendents are going to have to work to generate dollars that is then given to the government to pay this debt, or those dollars are going to be severely devalued by inflation so, when they are finally spent on exorbitantly priced goods and services, the taxes thereupon will be sufficient to pay the horrendous debt.

It's either that or the idea of a "dollar" becomes meaningless and the slate of debt is wiped clean. And in order to do that, the entire economy must collapse. In that event, those of us and our children who are not farmers and who do not grow our own food will starve and die. It's that simple; if the economy collapses, if you can't survive on what you bring up from the ground in your own land, then you won't survive.

And recognize that those who are doing anything about this are those of us who are acting, who are doing, who are working and funding the system. Those who are not have made their choices. They have capitulated, given up, crawled in a corner and demonstrated they do not want their lives. They have given them up.

I pity them, but their lives are not my life.

My life is mine and I choose to act, to work, to build and to earn.

The collapse of the dollar isn't upon us, at least not yet. But the bail-outs that are taking place raise that specter.

And it is now time to call a halt.

"Freedom" means you have the power to determine your future. It is a God-given right and ability. As with the founding fathers, no authority has the right to take away your freedom -- it is yours to assert.

"Freedom" is something you must demonstrate because if you don't, then clearly you don't have it, and I mean "you" on an individual basis.

Each person that chooses to act, to work, to try is demonstrating they have the "freedom" to determine, to the extents limited by various forces, their lives. And those who choose not to act, not to work, not to try are demonstrating they do not wish to determine their lives.

Your life is yours to choose how you will use it, but you must make the effort to use it.

And if you don't choose to use it, then it will, eventually, sooner or later, be taken away from you.

Assert your right. Speak and act and remember the five "boxes" upon which liberty relies: The Soapbox, the Mailbox, the Ballot Box, the Jury Box, and the Ammo Box.

The founding fathers understood this, and they used those boxes, and in that order.