Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sunday Musings

There's been some great stuff gun-wise on the ole Internet lately, including this SUPER piece from our pal Dave Kopel, who was in attendance at our New Media Happy Hour in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. The main link seems to be missing in action, but I got the text of the article from Oleg Volk's The High Road, a Hoplophobes' Travel Guide to the United States: 
Generally speaking, a mentally ill person has a better chance of being cured if he wants to be cured, and so the first step towards mental health is recognizing that one is mentally ill. So in the interest of perhaps encouraging some Hoplophobes to admit that they have a problem, here is a travel guide to the United States, based on the presumption that a person refuses to go any place where most adults can lawfully carry firearms for protection.

For convenience’s sake, let’s presume that the victim of Hoplophobia lives in Manhattan. Of course most people in Manhattan, including most Manhattanites who hate guns, are not Hoplophobes. But the island is a place to which Hoplophobes often migrate, perhaps as a form of self-treatment, trying to place themselves in a place where their phobia is less likely be triggered.

So starting in Manhattan, you can enjoy the entire Empire State, a large and interesting place. If you feel a desire to leave New York, be extremely careful about heading east. Going into Connecticut will immediately put you in a place where the government routinely issues carry permits to law-abiding, trained adults. In other words, Connecticut is just as dangerous as a National Park.

Vermont is even worse, with no permits even required for carrying concealed handguns. And everyone knows how dangerous Vermont is. New Hampshire and Maine are similar to Connecticut, and must be avoided.

Massachusetts is safe, as long as you cross directly into the state, without going through Connecticut. Rhode Island is good too, providing that you approach it via Massachusetts, or take a ferry from eastern Long Island. A trip through Connecticut would obviously be too risky.

New Jersey is the Hoplophobe’s Garden State. Its licensing practices are much more severe than New York City’s. In New Jersey, not even diamond merchants or celebrities can get carry permits.

From New Jersey, you must go south to Delaware. Do not even think of crossing into Pennsylvania. It is a Shall Issue state for carry licenses, similar to Maine or New Hampshire.

Maryland is also safe, and from there you can go to the District of Columbia, whose very strict gun laws have made it notoriously safe.

If you want to fly to D.C., take a plane to the Baltimore airport, and then rent a car or take a bus. Do not fly to either of the D.C. airports. They are both located in Virginia, and the danger that you could be shot by a gun-crazy Virginian while traveling through Virginia into D.C. is nearly as high as the odds that you will get shot by a gun nut while in a National Park. Stay away from Arlington National Cemetery; it is in Virginia, and the people buried there were gun users.

Needless to say, the entire Southeast is off limits. So is almost everything from Pennsylvania west. It is OK to fly to Illinois, and enjoy that state, since it does not even have procedures for issuing carry permits. The South Side of Chicago is an especially safe place to go, thanks to the handgun ban in the city.

Like Illinois, Wisconsin has no provision for handgun carry licenses, and so was safe until 2005, when the state Supreme Court ruled that people had a constitutional right to keep and carry guns in their place of business. After that, you could still go to Wisconsin, as long as you never entered a place of business. But now, the state Attorney General has advised that people have a right to open carry without a permit, and thus the Badger State is far too dangerous to contemplate a visit.

So is all the rest of the Midwest. So are all the Rocky Mountain states. So is the entire Southwest.

The Pacific Coast is mixed. Washington and Oregon are Shall Issue states. Alaska allows carry without a permit, and besides that, the mere thought of Sarah Palin can trigger anxiety attacks in Hoplophobes.

California is safe, except for some of the rural counties, where sheriffs issue permits to law-abiding citizens. Permits are close to non-existent in Los Angeles, making South Central L.A. an especially safe area for the Hoplophobe...
Read the whole thing and appreciate Dave's droll sense of humor.

I also loved Brigid's .22 Things I've Learned From Shooting post on her Home on the Range blog, which includes recipes and great photography. Here are a few examples:
(3) The less skilled shooter, the more likely he is to come up to you at the range and criticize your grip.

(4) No matter how bad that first target is, it's possible to be worse.

(5) The inevitable result of reading about how to improve your shooting is the instantaneous annihilation of that one critical unconscious movement that actually made you hit the paper in the first place.

(6) A steel plate shoot is a test of your skill against everyone else's luck.

(7) Nonchalant shots count the same as chalant shots.
It's those damn chalant shots that get me every time! Finally, a non-gun thing from no less than Pravda, the Russian news organization we all used to make fun of for its statist propaganda slant while patting ourselves on the collective back for our "free" press and democratic form of government. Since Pravda is now far less biased than the New York Times and CNN, I suppose it makes some kind of perverse sense for a Pravda columnist to write the obituary for capitalism in the United States...somewhere, Nikita Khrushchev is rolling in his crypt with laughter...in the end, he was right, our own working class is indeed burying us. 

 "Мы вас похороним!"

Here's the obit:  
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
[...]
Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.
[...]
The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: Pravda

Will China, Japan, and Europe allow the U.S. economy to sink to third world status? A U.S. economic collapse would trigger the ruin of the entire world economy. If our economy does go POOF then look for a world wide Dark Age.

Anonymous said...

Think that America is indespensible? Whenever I find myself beginning to believe that I am irreplaceable, or even oh so important, I am reminded of the words that my dad taught me. He said: "If you dropped dead tomorrow, someone else will just slide right into your space. It will happen instantly too, no matter how many tears are shed. Then, they won't even miss you, let alone remember you!"
I've seen it happen time after time. I'll bet you all have too. It happens to people, companies (GM, Chrysler, Packard, Westinghouse, etc.), and countries; even entire species.
Who "slides in" is often a surprise too, sometimes not.
As the Chinese say "May you (we) live in interesting times".
Life Member

Sadltrmp said...

Great blog Michael first a bit of humor about Hoblophobes - a new word for me - thank you. A quick point of clarification, if some one leaves the island of Manhattan and travels to upstate NY they will likely encounter many, many CCW holders. Upstate NY is certainly not overly gun friendly, but depending on your county of residence it is not an unreasonable endeavor to get a "pistol permit" as they are called here. I have no idea what Long Island is like to obtain a PP and am sure I never will! So if Hoblophobes stay south of Rt. 84 they'll probably be OK, maybe.... Or they could just stay in NYC which would be the best plan for all concerned parties.
Then a dark commentary on our society, which is probably entirely true. If you haven't talked to a lib lately as disturbing as it is to do so you should, they are all practically orgasmic in their enthusiasim for b Hussien obama, and the new direction of our country. Though I think many of the misguided middle of the roaders who voted for him are fast becoming dissalusioned and will help to change things with next years elections, though it may already be too late.
Hang tough everyone and remember...."Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition"
Dan D

Anonymous said...

Will China, Japan, and Europe allow the U.S. economy to sink to third world status?

Why do they need the U.S. of obama? When Brazil and India can take it's place.
They know the MCdonalds rule.
Sell millions of .99 - 2$ burgers or 50 thousand 7$ burgers.
Where you gonna make the money if USobama is third world?
that's a EZ answer.
The hard question is WHAT are you gonna do to get the USA back, before we are lumped in with India,Brazil and others on the rise. Hint:THINK population dynamics!India + brazil outnumber our market at what ratio?, then add our unemployed,etc.
Bottom line:
Don't count on everybody saving us cause Obama said so.

Matthew Carberry said...

The NYT Travel section this Sunday had an article about renting a cabin in SE Alaska.

I was thinking of writing a letter to the editor asking them to editorially note whether a particular story destination allows firearm carry.

You know, for safety's sake.

Anonymous said...

Thanks also for the Pravda link and the text of the article. You were part of the "scooped" story! This afternoon, both Limbaugh and Beck covered it . You were there for us this morning!
Funny thing though, Charles Gibson's crew on the ABC Nightly News missed it, or maybe they're holding it over until tomorrow, so that they can give it better coverage. Yeah, that's it!
Life Member