A Dixie Carpetbagger

Kevin Baker has a post up detailing how few Britons have guns.  Crime skyrocketed when the U.K. brought their gun bans into effect, and the populace wants to… ban more guns.  Bonus: Kevin has attracted a Scottish troll (och, wee laddie, I’m-a gonna EAT YOU!) who has an off-the-scale density.  One section from the quotes I want to point out:

James Kelly: Thank you for the clarification, Ken.  Answer – Because I believe in democracy and the rule of law, rather than ‘might is right’ and imposing one’s will by force.

Unix-Jedi: So sending other people to apply force on your behalf means you’re not imposing your will by force?

James Kelly: Electing a parliament that passes laws, the police and the courts implement those laws…this is pretty basic stuff.  I thought belief in democracy and the rule of law was a shared value between our two countries.

Ken: So. If you take A’s property by force, it’s theft. If some guy with a badge claiming to be acting “in the name of the People/King/G-d/Whatever” does it, it’s…what, exactly? Apart from the salutary (sorry for the big word there) benefit of not exposing you to personal danger, that is. The point is, you are perfectly happy imposing your will by someone else’s force. There are several words for that, you know.

Note the interplay– Mr. Kelly believes that if X amount of the population says A, then Y amount must simply roll over and play dead.  This belief (I may not do [ACTION], but if I can convince people to vote for [ACTION], not only is it okay, but it is proper) and “group rights” are yin and yang… perfect, matched pairs.  I would like to introduce you to a quote from a friend of mine, Major Reid:

“To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives — such as mine to make your lives miserable once a day. Force, if you will! — the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is force.”

Some of you recognize this quote immediately.  You see, Major Reid is the H&MP (History and Moral Philosophy) professor in Starship Troopers.  The next section is the part I think is the perfect answer to Mr. Kelly:

“But this universe consists of paired dualities. What is the converse of authority? Mr. Rico.”

He had picked one I could answer. “Responsibility, sir.”

“Applause. Both for practical reasons and for mathematically verifiable moral reasons, authority and responsibility must be equal, else a balancing takes place as surely as current `flows between points of unequal potential. To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. The unlimited democracies were unstable because their citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority . . . other than through the tragic logic of history.”

BINGO!  “Because I can!” is not– repeat NOT– a valid answer for pulling the lever for anything.  Every time you vote, the responsibility for and consequences of your vote rests on you, and you alone.  Conversely, it is not– repeat NOT– moral for you to vote to do anything that you cannot do in your own power.  However, the most ardent anti-rights advocates always hide in the safety of the masses…

One of the most promising things I’ve seen recently is the uptick in sales of historical and political books.  Ayn Rand, Judge Napolitano, American history… all booming.  13,000 copies of Road to Serfdom sold in less than a day, and my local bookstores can’t keep Atlas Shrugged on the shelves.  (But then again, maybe there’s a lot of insomniacs around here…)

Comic book version of Road to Serfdom here.

(Both link one and link two H/T Instapundit)

“I want it to be an international movement. This is the same battle that Ronald Reagan and millions of other people fought in the 20th century; it just has a 21st century New Media battleground. The Cold War is now a New Media War. — Andrew Breitbart

The more I hear of and from Breitbart, the more I like him– his view of the world and mine match up closely.  All too often, the pro-rights crowd tries to be nice, civil, courteous and clean… and they get walked over.  Get scrappy, take the fight to the ground, and get dirty– and win.  Anti-gunners make dick jokes?  Question why they focus on penis humor.  Leftist wants to mock your family?  Ask why they are envious of a working nuclear family.  Obama voter wants to make snide remarks and jet off?  To use the old military strategy– fix ‘em, flank ‘em, and fire on ‘em.  It’s time to stop fencing in a cage match world.

And he’s right about Buckley.  The video of Bill Buckley versus Gore Vidal warms my heart every time I watch it.  It presents the perfect engagement for a scrappy fight– the leftist tosses out insults, handwaves, tries to disengage and flee… only to get pinned down and hit.  An additional bonus for Buckley is the moderator breaking it up.

His next point is that Christians shouldn’t let things slide… and I agree with him.  One of the Biblical doctrines is for Christians to “be always ready to give an answer” when you are questioned about your faith, and the word used in that passage meant to give a legal rebuttal to the accusations of a court.  (It’s also the word from which we get apologetics.)  You are being tried in the court of public opinion… so defend yourself.

The reason I chose the title of this post is because we need to draw a line, or we’ll keep backing up.  “Compromise” to a leftist means you giving them what they want and shutting up so they can brag about it.  The solution is simple– don’t give them what they want, and don’t be quiet about it.  Working with someone who wishes to destroy you and your way of life isn’t a value, it’s a lapdog mentality.  Plus, there’s no satisfaction like seeing the blank expression a leftist gets when you get a really good zinger in on them– it’s like they lose connection with the hive mind for a moment…

A bus driver who T-boned a taxi (killing the cabbie) and one who beat down McGruff are back on the job, with back pay given.  Do I even need to say that they belong to a union?  What the blazes is it with union members and violence?  Are those shirts coated on the inside with chili powder or something?

The weird part is that the driver who put the hurt on the guy in the dog suit pulled over to do it.  Stopping your vehicle to beat down a costumed cop isn’t exactly a sign of mental stability… but, hey, maybe he knew the guy.  “Hold on folks, we gotta make a stop… that’s the bastid who stole my wife!”

(H/T Instapundit)

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the laws. …just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on the guilt.   — Dr. Ferris, Atlas Shrugged

Weer’d has a post up about stupid laws and how they’re not enforced.  He points to one of Florida’s stupid laws (tie an elephant to a parking meter, and you have to pay the meter).  I’m going to point to a few more.

In Florida, you cannot-

1. Shower naked (no, I’m not f*cking kidding)
2. Fart in public after 6 P.M. (local or Eastern?)
3. Break more than 3 dishes a day (take THAT, clumsy waiters!)
4. Fall asleep under the hair dryer at a salon (half the older ladies in my area just became criminals.)
5. Wear a strapless dress if you are a male (but what if it matches my shoes?)
6. Sing in public while wearing a swimsuit (spring breakers, watch out…)
7. Live together and commit “lewd acts” while unmarried (now my favorite cousin’s a criminal…)
8. Commit “un-natural” acts on anyone (wait, what’s “un-natural”?)
9. Have sex, unless it’s missionary style (ahh, I think I figured “un-natural” out, guys…)
10. Kiss your wife’s boobs  (wait a second, I though that was cool under 7?)
11. Have sex with a porcupine (wasn’t this covered under 8?)
12. “Third Base” is off-limits.  Period.  (But what if you’re in the approved position?)

Translation– if you’ve been to Florida on spring break, you’re a criminal.  Period.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to arrest myself and wait for the police to arrive.  I know I have a pair of handcuffs around here somewhere…

Rush Limbaugh got married… and Elton John did the music.

Look, if Obama buys himself a white horse, I’m heading to the mountains.  And don’t even say anything to stop me.  “You even say, ‘huh’ and you’ll be talkin’ to yourself…cause I’ll be gone!”*

*I’ve been wanting to use that quote for a long time.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 has had its first successful flight… with a dummy Orion replacement on board, to boot.  Video highlights here (ignore the dirt dauber trying to nest in the camera housing, they aren’t that big… really).

This highlights something I’ve believed ever since I began edging into libertarianism (and Tam has pointed out the same thing)– private enterprise beats the pants off governmental agencies in the spaceflight arena.  Think about it– NASA can’t even keep up a reliable transport to the ISS (much less the Moon), but private enterprise can conceive, build, and launch a new transport in less than five years.

Of course, it still looks like astronauts will have to hitch rides from the Russians, but maybe it’ll be a one time thing now.

Whether you’re going to a Tax Day Tea Party or going to make this Buy A Gun Day, be careful and be safe.  Remember– stay alert, stay alive.

Tam has tips on preparing for emergencies.  It’s something I’ve always done.  (Not so surprising, being the kid of a Depression era child and a kid raised on a farm before rationing was phased out… )  To these tips, I have some to add:

• Your house is bigger than it looks.  You have dead space– behind furniture, unused rooms, crawlspaces, the attic (but please watch the weight), unused cabinets.  Heck, if you have a garage workbench with cabinets underneath you never use, you have tens of cubic feet of storage.  You can put stuff away, just be creative and the space can be found.
• Organize.  Tip 1 doesn’t help if you can’t find anything.  In my house, everything is sorted by type– canned foods, dry foods, liquids, supplies, clothing, etc.
• Hunt around.  There are companies out there that make food designed for long term storage.  There are also companies that make good, cheap water filtration units.  Here’s the UGA guide to what you need.

Now, you don’t have to prepare for Armageddon… but preparing for say, a month without power is a good point to start.  Here is a kit that will feed one person for 60 days.  Two should feed four people for a month, and take up a mere 7 cubic feet of space.  That’s 3.5′ x 2′ x 1′… which is the dead space under a bed.

… has a sucker been born yet?  Seriously, an egg cracker?  Dear Lord, you mean all these years the things were hard to crack?  I never knew, I just tapped them on the counter a few times…

Contrast that with this.  One thing I pointed out to a friend a while back was there is a growing divide between the Cans and Cannots.  (Or more accurately, the YES I CAN crowd and the YES WE CAN crowd.)  One group can do things themselves– the other needs assistance.  One can think rationally– the other needs leading.  One is fiscally conservative– the other is wild.

Two examples of this from my personal life.  One, I talked my best friend the other day.  He used to be far, far Left.  He now supports the Tea Party.  This guy voted for Kerry and Hillary… but he can think, and he knows business.  The second example is that Judge Napolitano is going to speak… at my college… on April 15th.

Expect someone from my college to make the news.  Except this time  it’ll be “don’t taze me, b ZUUUUHH THUD.”