UPDATED Told You So!

See Thag. See Thag's knee jerk. Jerk, Thag, jerk.

This article is a year old. I saw it reported as new news without noting the date. Sorry.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6960824&page=1

I am Cassandra.

Molon Labe.

Image stolen from The Jawa Report.

If you agree, post this image to your LJ, Blog, MySpace, Facebook, whatever...

Comments:

Pics For Tam

Just in case the URL I left in comments don't work, here are the pics I attempted to link to in her comments section.

Charlotte is a clone of a transitional Navy M16 with a full fence lower and three-prong flash-hider. Please note, the A2 guards are mounted here for demonstration purposes, period correct triangular handguards are her normal furniture.

The M16A2 handguards were designed to use the same triangular cap as the M16 and M16A1 and are thus backwards compatible with guns that shipped the the triangular handguards. This is good because the original handguards are a tad fragile and come in distinct 'left' and 'right' versions. The A2 guards are identical, top and bottom.

Israeli has used the A2 style handguard as a replacement on their A1's as they wear out.

Armed Man

Today an armed man was infuriated three separate times.

No shots were fired, no weapons were drawn.

Note:

Congress: I am a clever monkey. I can adapt to almost any condition and thrive. What I need you to do is to leave the conditions alone so that I can adapt to them.

Found Something Out

I give President Reagan a lot of credit for putting the US military back together after it had been destroyed by the post-Vietnam era. I won't even point fingers at who destroyed it.

I was talking about Ronnie's general hawkishness and was confronted with, "What about Beruit? One explosion and he put his tail between his legs and ran."

I did some digging. I am sure that someone like Weinberger whispered in his ear, "Sir, our military is in no shape to stay and fight."

In 1983, it wasn't. By 1985 it had recovered. I had several sergeants who talked about the bad old days.

Look at the timelines a bit. Reagan took office in January 1981. By October '83 there was no way the changes he'd called for to have started to happen.

I joined the Army in late 1987. I saw for myself the tail end of the bad days. If you root around a bit you'll see that the military replaced a lot of weapons in the Reagan era. Like the M-1911A1 with the M9. I trained on both in Basic and did not see a single issue one before I left in 1990. Like the M1A1 Abrams; the unit I joined had M60A3s when I got there and received 105mm M1(IP)s just after. The M1 had been in service, officially, since 1979, but line units stationed in Germany were only just getting them in 1987! How about the AH-64A Apache? The 1st Infantry Division (Forward) was still using Cobras in 1989.

And just a very short time after I left the Army, it won against Iraq in less than two weeks of ground combat.

Weinberger was correct when he advised Reagan to not go to Beruit. My libtard "friend" is correct, we did cut and run; he's wrong that it was an act of cowardice that was inconsistent with the persona of Mr Reagan. To stay would just have gotten men killed for no reason other than his pride, and it was a rational decision to leave. It was also the last time we backed down during his presidency. Notice what happened in 1985 with the hijackers of the Achille Lauro (and thanks for nothing Italy). Notice Operation Praying Mantis (aka Sink-Ex 88). Notice the response to the "Line of Death".

Sun Tzu has advice that was apparently taken here.

Something Their Marketing Department Missed

Bushmaster seems to have priced their ACR against the FN SCAR.

What they are missing is they are competing with ALL semi-auto 5.56 rifles on the market and not just the FN.

The ACR is not in service with any force or agency, so they cannot brag about that.

Bushmaster doesn't have a stellar reputation for quality going back over 100 years, so they cannot brag about that.

They have to present this thing on its objective merits.

So far, those merits are not compelling.

All I have, so far, is that I like the looks of it better and it's Made in the USA.

I should also add that the $2,300 to $3,000 that vendors are getting for the FN SCAR is too rich for my blood as well. The thing is that FN never promised their offering for $1,500 for the last three years and has not been secretive about the features; and FN is known for being an expensive product.

FN has also not charged state and local sales taxes on internet orders. That alone has me looking to alternate vendors for the next AR parts purchase. A quick check at the tax collector's office told me the "penny for Pasco" they collected did not get submitted to Pasco. Bushmaster is breaking the law and pocketing the state and local taxes while lying to us about being required to collect it. They are claiming it's because of their ownership by Cerebus and being part of the Freedom Group. Problem with this lie is DPMS and Remington are also owned by the Freedom Group and don't collect those taxes.

But What About?

I've recently read a couple of blog posts objecting to the second amendment being just a restriction on the federal government to pass gun control.

I hate to say it, but; the 2nd is just a restriction on the federal government and has no power over the states to forbid them from passing infringements on the right to keep and bear arms.

Let's leave aside how the 14th amendment affects the Bill of Rights for a moment.

Let's talk about 2nd amendment type language in the state constitutions. Those most certainly have power of the state they are written for.

44 states seem to have such language. Dead SAF.org link

Florida, for example: Florida Constitution Article I, Section 8(a)

The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and of the lawful authority of the state shall not be infringed, except that the manner of bearing arms may be regulated by law.

Florida has very few restrictions on firearm ownership, and its CCW permits are obviously constitutional because of the last part of that phrase.

How many states with restrictive gun control have such language in their state constitutions?

Illinois has a KaBA clause; Illinois Constitution Article I, Section 22

Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

What's "police power"?

California doesn't have such a clause...

Even if the 14th amendment doesn't extend the 2nd's restrictions to the state governments, it seems that many are in violation of their own constitutions.

My New Desktop Image

From left to right, M-1903A3, M1 Garand, Romat, M16 (R604), XM177E2, XM177E3, VKb.07.

Quote Of The Random Interval

From: Auto Show!

"I will beat you until you learn!” In her best Ren Hoek voice, “And if you don’t learn, you will die stupid!!"

Avatar Thought

I spent time among a primitive people.

I was not overwhelmed by a desire to throw off my heritage and become one of the tribe. I could not wait to get back to flush toilets, air conditioning and hot showers.

Camping is only fun if it's not your whole lifestyle.

Comment

The New Rules For Biathlon Are HARSH!

hat tip: http://www.gregandbeth.com/blog/

Quote Of The Random Interval

"At what point did you helmet wearing short bus window licking morons lose your Goddamned minds?"

Read the whole, short, thing: An open letter to the leftwits.

Same Sex Marriage

In general, I am not opposed to the idea. If two men find love in each other and want to share each other's life in a relationship, then by all means let them get married.

My principle objection to gay marriage is the government defining marriage part.

I think that marriage is between you, your spouse (or spouses) and your God (or Gods) and that is all.

You're a guy in love with a guy, find a pastor who thinks that God doesn't mind and have them hitch you.

Think you're man enough to handle three wives? Same same.

Just about the only place I think the gubmint should stick it's teeny head in here is for taxes. Couples should make kids so that our native culture is cultivated and passed on. Tax incentives for children are A-OK for me. I don't give two shits if the child has two mommies or three mommies and two daddies; as long as the parents rear a healthy, productive, tax-paying adult.

So, count me as opposed to a law allowed same-sex marriage and supportive of "It's none of the government's business who I love and choose to share my life with."

I would replace marriage law with marriage contracts. Real contracts with teeth and you can put whatever you want in there. We could start with what most people consider a traditional marriage, and for most that will do really. Having to go through the details of what happens if you are caught cheating, for example, might cause a few folks to decide that they don't really want to get married, and that might just be beneficial. We could also predefine what happens to property and children, including things like child support.

What about insurance you ask? Why don't the insurance companies offer family plans to same-sex couples now? Is there a law forbidding them? With all the clout the homosexual organizations have, why don't they start their own insurance company offering plans to the people they claim to want to help?

Florida Has Its Advantages

Mr Stone Think About This

"Now, the culture: in Oliver Stone’s film JFK—nominated for Best Picture Oscar in 1991—Kennedy is a peaceful lefty contemplating a withdrawal from Vietnam. He’s assassinated by a vast right-wing cabal that includes every single person in America except for Oliver Stone."

From: http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0205ak.html

If the entire nation (or even just the powerful cabal implied in the film), had, indeed, conspired to assassinate President Kennedy, it would be insanely brave of Mr Stone to reveal the conspiracy. I gather that be believes that he is brave because he showed The Truth™.

Or there was no conspiracy and it's completely safe to make such a "revelation" because there's no cabal of powerful people who conspired to kill the president.

Occam's Razor: Does it make sense for such a powerful group of people to stand idly by while their conspiracy is revealed to the general public? Or does the lack of response from such a group more likely denote there is no such group?

Comment:

Everything Is Online

Dead Link

According to this, Anvil Arms made a whopping total of 60 rifles. It's no wonder they went under. Interestingly, there's a 4484 range to the serial numbers I have.

2008: 0 rifles.
2007: 42 rifles.
2006: 18 rifles.
2005: 0 rifles.
2004: 0 rifles.

By way of comparison; NoDak-Spud, the boutique maker of the retro AR lowers produced 726 rifles in 2007, 0 in 2008.