A Dixie Carpetbagger

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

“How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.” – C. S. Lewis

Breda comments on the fact that recent events seem to be almost miraculous, but also fated to happen. Simply put, when a person is ignorant of history, their path is set. No matter how many turns they take, no matter how their pace changes… their endpoint is marked, and the only variable is how long it takes to get there.

To those of us who know their history, the path is clear… to quote Gator in the comments of Breda’s post: “now go back and re-read the first couple of paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. It’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

With a few changes, the list of grievances could’ve been written yesterday.  One line stands out, due to the fact that it rings so true now.  “In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.”

I think that the Founders knew that they were effecting history, and even the very patterns of future events.  Hopefully, we work under a rising, and not a setting sun.

No Brown celebration post. Meant to do one last night, but I laughed myself to sleep. A Republican Congressman from Massachusetts? HA! This seat hasn’t been held by a Republican since 1953, as Rustmeister points out. (For those of you curious, it was Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.)

The past few years, I’ve found myself wondering if I’d entered a parallel universe. This just makes it worse. I’m halfway tempted to start asking people who the first man on the moon was. (Just to check, it was Leslie LeCroix, right?) Like Sebastian, I’m halfway expecting to wake up from a weird dream.

Now, the finger pointing has started. Unsurprisingly, Olberman is in on the action, too.

Now for some humor, courtesy of Weer’d.

Keep crying, Dems.  You need the practice for November.

Someone stumbled across Tam’s blog by Googling the price of an old Remington rifle. Not just any old Remington, mind you, but a Remington built for the Vatican.

I always wonder how old firearms survived… between the scrap heap and the ravages of time, it is a wonder that any historic arms survive. However, the firearms have made it, and I only wish they could tell their stories. The closest a gun can come to telling its story is if some marking can lead you to the original owner… if they’re still alive. That’s one reason I want a K31 with a soldier’s card, so that I could have a chance to find out the history that the gun had.

Democratic rookies aren’t wanting to step up to the plate. Hmm… it couldn’t be that they know what’s gonna happen in November, is it? I mean, Obama’s in the White House, right? And Americans love their “Christmas present” from Congress, right? There won’t be any backlash from all this in November, will there?

On November 2nd, Americans will vote. And you’ll see that 2010 will be just like 1994– those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

(H/T Dr. Lott)

From the Buckeye Firearms Association.

Good, but here’s to 2010 being better.

Weer’d Beard has a post up about assault rifles that got me thinking. I agree with his point– the small-caliber assault rifle concept is essentially the answer to an unasked question. Some of the stories coming from Afghanistan and Iraq about the effectiveness of the 5.56MM round are disturbing.

I think the best solution is a semi-auto bullpup in a major caliber, like 7.62 x 51 NATO, for the troops, and a good automatic weapon in the same caliber for the two “swing men” in a squad. I say “in the same caliber” because two types of ammo in a squad would wreak havoc, and if push comes to shove, the riflemen can break down the belts (or unload the mags) for the automatics for their own rifles.

So, for the standard eight man Army squad, you would have two automatic rifles and six semi auto rifles, with both derived from the same weapon, so that parts and training would be standardized.  The FAL operated like this– the squad automatic simply had a heavier barrel than the rifle version.

Also, I consider the argument that some people just won’t be able to operate a major caliber rifle to be utter bull– physical size has no bearing on competence. Go take a look at some of the men who were in the Airborne in WWII– some of those guys were small framed, but they were able to operate major caliber weapons. For a visual, here’s Breda operating an M-14.

A librarian who stands 5′ 4″ is able to put rounds on target with a gun that most modern American males wouldn’t shoot… a second time.  So why have we equipped our troops with a round that is usually delegated to varmint shooting?

The NRA was founded this day in 1871.  The first President was Ambrose Burnside… the guy whom sideburns are named after.

Congratulations, NRA.  Here’s to your work.

Notice the rhetoric.  Also notice the the ultimate answer to Rockefeller’s rhetoric came in 1980.  We just decided to re-check our findings in the period 2000-2012.

I mean, that’s what we’re doing, right?  Right?

So far this year, I’ve missed Constitution Day, the Fifth of November, and the birthday of the Corps.

So far, I managed to remember my mother’s birthday (September 19… 9×19) and my own.  However, Sunbird informs me today is Veteran’s Day.

To those of you who are serving or who have served, I thank you.  Ignore those who demonize you; most of America loves you.  That goes double for those of us who have veterans in our family.