Proper Terminology

Why am I so hung up on it?

Because I come from a profession where there's a difference between 318 and 318R and that difference is critical.

Where saying "stainless steel" only begins the conversation about material.

I give a lot of grief over the revolver vs pistol issue.

But, let's consider another common term people starting using wrong that bit us in our asses: assault rifle.  It wasn't the gun grabbers who started calling semi-auto's this first; it was the gun rags.  I still have those magazines.  I can still read the impassioned pleas to stop using this term for semi-autos and having the editor being dismissive.

How about another word?  Infringed.  The 1789 meaning of the word has been all but expunged from current dictionaries.  Is it OK to forget that definition because nobody uses it that way anymore?

I'll keep repeating it until it sticks:  If you cannot say what you mean; you cannot mean what you say.  Whether through inability or prohibition, if you are not precise in your use of the language your meaning can be mistaken.  Even if I know what you mean, that does not mean the next person does.  Nor should you assume that they will parse the correct meaning; because they may maliciously take advantage of the slack you've given them.

Can We Vote Our Way Out Of This

Actually, we might.

The problem is one we voted our way into, so the same could provide the solution.

It would require a fundamental shift in people's perception of what the government is for and how much power it should have.

It's not that we cannot vote in a manner that will remove the problem officials; it's that we don't.

I've posited before that 2006 was an early attempt to do something like that.  Romney is an excellent example of my hypothesis.

I've said that I believe that we voted in a buttload of democrats in 2006 because we were shut out of the primary process on incumbent RINOs.  If the party wasn't going to allow us to remove an incumbent via the primary process, we only had one other recourse: vote for the other team.  2008 showed us that the national "leadership" had not learned or even noticed when they selected McCain.  They are showing us they learned nothing by attempting to put Romney up now.  Even with the Marco Rubio lesson.

What happened in 2006-2008 was a rejection of RINO and not an endorsement of Democrat.  The Democrats read it wrong too.

The process is broken and you need to get involved to fix it.

Tightening Election Laws

In general I am all for it!

There's entirely too much fraud going on.  ACORN registered around 400,000 ineligible voters for the 2008 elections, for example.

This article is opposed, I think.

I'm for photo ID of the voter being required.

I'm for making the prospective voter physically tramp down to the election office 90 days before the election to get registered.

I'm for not letting anyone but the military vote absentee.

I'm for requiring you vote in person on election day.

The vote is the most important power we have as the sovereign in this republic.  It is a right, it is a duty.  I don't want anyone voting who would trivialize this.  Someone who won't make even the smallest effort and take the time off to get to the polls is not someone I want voting with me.

Making it easier to register does not convey the import of what you are going to be doing.  I think that if some effort were required to get registered, then just maybe someone would think about what they are doing.

This is not a ploy to keep the elderly, minorities or students from voting.  Honestly, if the elderly haven't registered by now, I don't think they are going to.  Let AARP provide a bus and lunch to the registration center.

I do notice that the people who are hottest under the collar about disenfranchising the elderly, minorities and students don't have a care in the world that many of the votes the military cast in absentia weren't counted.  In some cases the courts were asked to block those votes.  I am looking at Al Gore and the 2000 Florida election in particular, but he's not the only one.

Quote of the Random Interval

Joe Huffman says:

Those anti-gun people who claim it is a fantasy to believe the gun owners could hold our own against the Federal Government are totally clueless and whistling past the graveyard. We outnumber them, we can outshoot them, and that doesn’t even take into account that most of them would be on our side anyway.

It's A Conspiracy!

Only a single Iowa Class Battleship is going to be a museum where they allow conceal carry to anyone but the most well connected.

Missouri is in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Iowa will be in San Pedro, California.
New Jersey is in Camden, New Jersey.
Wisconsin is in Norfolk, Virginia.

Seems a trend too.

Massachusetts is in Fall River, Massachusetts.  You need less connection to get a toter permit in MA, but the reciprocity is sorely lacking.

I guess there's always Alabama, North Carolina and Texas.  Texas even sports a donation from me!  Look for McThag on some commemorative brick or plaque when you visit.

I Would Be A Failure As An ATF Agent

This evening there were two largish dogs harassing a neighbor walking her 10-15 lb dog.

They were doing the lunge in and nip at the smaller dog and trading off when the lady would confront one.

These two dogs have been seen running around the neighborhood off and on for a while.

I grabbed the 6.8 and my wife got their attention and we got them off the lady and back towards us.  Both dogs were barking at us, but no bared teeth or growling.  So I just put the dot from the Aimpoint between the eyes of the closest one and waited.

I don't think I needed to shoot, so I didn't.  I am getting sick of two things here.  First; I am sick of people not taking care of their animals properly.  Second I am sick of the government response to being informed of illegal activity.

It's against the law to let your dog run without a leash or tags.

Wanna bet that the cops would come out for shooting a dog, where they won't come out for a loose dog?  And we had to call the cops because animal control works hours that make the bankers jealous.

Are Revolvers Pistols?

A resounding NO!

Know why?

A pistol is a handgun where the chamber is integral to the barrel.  This is why muzzle loading handguns are pistols as well as semi-automatics.  Revolver chambers are separate.

A pepperbox is a pistol!  A revolver isn't.

You may now stop using the term incorrectly and spread your newfound knowledge far and wide.

Times, They Are A Changin'

Spotted this Remington R15 at Wal Mart this morning.

Absolutely unheard of even a year ago.

Of course, this is the full-on Fudd AR-15, but still a huge indication that even if we have not won, we are winning.

Something to Note:

The incumbent doesn't get to run against "The Man".

The nature of being the incumbent makes you "The Man" so you'd better have accomplishments to point at.

Quote of the Day

"So when some Americans have greater access to their rights than other Americans, this concerns me, regardless of whether or not a majority of people having their rights trampled on support it or not."

From: Shall Not Be Questioned

Flat Taxes and Fairness

For the 9-9-9 plan or a fair tax or a flat tax to work you're going to have to do something extreme.

You're going to have to make those the only taxes and you can't just leave it to mere law.

You're going to have to put the form and rates in an amendment; otherwise we'll end up keeping all the old taxes those are meant to replace and the rates will be subject to the whim of the current crew of thieves in Congress.

Put in a balanced budget clause too.

Disappointment

I am getting extremely sick of being let down by the same people over and over again.

I had a friend (note that past tense there) who wants to buy a gun.  She used to live around here, but now lives just outside of Indianapolis.

I wondered if, perhaps, the mighty Tam would be willing to allow her to show up at the blog-meet they often have in Broad Ripple and see if someone there would answer her questions and give advice.

Tam answered my email with an affirmative!

All would have been fine had my friend shown up.

I don't think this is a big deal to Tam.  I hope it's not.

It's a big deal to me.  I was asked for help and I found a way to get it to her.  Then she blew it off because of yet another manufactured crisis in her life.  She is constantly taking on responsibilities that are not hers to the neglect and detriment of her friendships with others.

I feel as if I asked Tam to go out of her way to help my friend and she didn't even have the courtesy to call me before she was to arrive to tell me that she wouldn't be going.

So, Pam Frederick, you've disappointed me for the last time.

PS, she's all unarmed in Pittsboro if anyone is interested.

10/22

Got in just under the wire!

This is Dee.  She came to use by accident.

At What Level?

I will continue to grapple with the 14th Amendment's effect on the local.

I can put a cross on the roof of my house, no problem.  It's my roof and will be my cross.

Putting a cross on top of the city water tower appears to be a no-go because the 14th amendment applies the 1st amendment to the states and since a city is a creature of the state it applies to municipalities.

I can accept that.  Really.

Except.

Government itself is a creation of the people themselves.  We created it to advance our needs and protect our liberties.  Too often it has become a tool to impose our prejudices on others.

The fact that people are putting crosses on top of water towers in defiance of the 14th amendment, ACLU and FFRF seems to indicate a bit of push-back against the separation of church and state.

Let's remember that prior to the 14th, the 1st amendment really only applied to the federal government.  The framers intended the states to be able to do their own thing.  That the states didn't get the message about the outcome of the Civil War forced the 14th amendment on them.

I posit that a cross on the water tower, or at a veteran's cemetery was fine to the founders and that the resultant effects of the 14th on such things was unintended.  To get religious freedom, for reals, we're probably going to have to pass another amendment allowing for towns to be able to put up crosses and manger scenes.  This is really a restoration of the original state of things when the Bill of Rights was passed.

Remember, the entire point of this grand experiment is MORE liberty.  If a single person in a town of, say, 1,500 can be offended by the cross and override the remaining 1,499 that's just freedom for one person.  Tyranny of the minority.  For an example of this in action just look at what the permanent members of the UN Security Council can do to prevent something that the whole rest of the general assembly wants.

Especially since the meaning of any given symbol is very subjective and fluid.

What does the Confederate Battle Flag symbolize?

Swastika?

Inverted Cross? (Bonus points for this one).

US flag flown upside down?

It has to be religious to qualify to be eradicated?  OK.  Druids find trees to be holy; I do believe that the city is using public funds to grow and maintain trees in its parks.  Yellow is the color of the Chinese God-Emperor, public funds are used to buy and maintain school busses, road signs and lights in this holy (to some) hue.

The toughest nut of freedom is that you have to give it to get it.  If you want to be left alone you have to leave people alone.  Yes, there are people who will be offensive.  Yes, you will offend.  A thick skin is a prerequisite for living in liberty.  You have to become brutally honest about what actual harm you've endured.  "I don't like that" is far below the bar of injury.  To borrow a religious phrasing of it, "Do as you will, harm none."  Libertarians could get behind that as well as Wiccans.  That means the Christians have to let there be a titty bar, the atheists have to let the Christians rent the top of the city water tower for their cross (I agree that city monies shouldn't pay for it) and the market will decide what prevails.

The 1st amendment is about the imposition of religion from the outside.  Preventing one from choosing for themselves.  Imposing atheism from the outside is exactly the form of state tyranny the framers were talking about when they wrote about religious freedom; and make no mistake atheism IS a religious position.  "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice" - Rush.

Vault Scarecrow - Full Length

Think we can get Brian to come to any of the OWS protests?

Inspired by New Jovian Thunderbolt.

Dammit!

Jasmine has been recalled!

DS Arms has discovered a problem with the hardness of the aluminum that goes into the lower receiver.

That's kind of a big deal with an FAL, so it's going back to the factory to see if I have a bad one and if so; a new one will be swapped in and she will be returned.

I just don't want to be without her for the two weeks or so it will take.

Really?

Your excuse for Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner is; "If those kind of guns had been banned we wouldn't have been able to get them and hand them off to the drug cartels."

BWAH?

If only they'd been banned we wouldn't have been able to break the law?

Is that what you are saying?

I think it's time to add a new question to the 4473.  "Are you now or have you ever been an employee or agent of the federal government?"  People responding with a 'yes' are not allowed to own a gun or even make a gun with their fingers and make a "phew phew" noise.

Looking for a bit of help...

I have a vintage bird-cage flash-hider threaded for 1/2-28.

What I want is to have it threaded for 5/8-24.

To buy a drill and tap is about $40.

If there was a shop in or around Tampa that could drill and tap it for near that price I would happily fill their coffers instead of buying a set of tools I would likely never use again.

Act Of Valor (2012) Official Movie Trailer HD Navy SEALS

Instead of actors pretending to be SEALs we have SEALs pretending to be actors. I, for one, welcome this change to the paradigm.

Message Delivered But Not Received

Reading at Gun Free Zone about a Occupy Wall Street dude, anarchosocialist, he's exchanging tweets with.

anarchosocialist keeps alluding to murder by calling it "#breaksomeeggs"

GFZ replied with a link to a vid about prairie dog shooting.

I figured out the message even if anarchosocialist didn't.  Prairie dogs are small, about a foot tall.  Prairie dog shooters shoot at phenomenally long ranges, upwards to 1,500 yards!

A person is a much larger target and the Occupy Wall Street agents provocateur are telegraphing their move something fierce.  Their little revolution is likely to be a short one since nearly all of the guns and expertise in using them is manifest in the eggs they wish to break.

My reply to their demands?

"Nuts!"

Late to the Party.

Both of my readers have already read it every place it's been posted previously.

The lovely Jennifer is getting credit for me joining the meme, but she's not the first place I saw it.

So here’s the meme. Long answers or short.

1. What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition?
2. What adventures did you have in it, good or bad?
3. What happened to it, what’s the end of the story?

I have two first cars!

The first, first car was a 1973 Volkswagen Passat.  It was in sound condition, but in 1988 that didn't count for much.

Pic from Wikipedia.  Mine was tan with a brownish interior.

I bought this car in a very common form of exchange on Army posts.  There was a guy leaving and he had this car.  If I took over the title and insurance, it was mine.  The deal was that I would pass it on to another soldier when I left the unit.  Which I did.

I drove all over Europe in that car!  Well, all over Germany.  The cathedral in Neu Ulm.  Disneyworld in Bavaria.  Hitler's condo.  Checkpoint Charlie.  The wall (in Nurnberg).  I had a car!  I did not have a camera.  The most adventuresome part of driving that car was getting to Autobahn speeds.  Starting at about 110 km/h a vibration began.  It got worse and worse until about 130 km/h where suddenly it was like driving a Cadillac on glass.  Top speed was about 140 km/h.  It was like Chuck Yeager going through the sound barrier!

The second first car was a 1983 Mercury Lynx; automatic.  It was in near new condition in 1991 when I bought it for the princely sum of $2,000.  This is the first car I actually paid for.  What a piece of shit.  Ford has much atonement to make with me for this car.  Mine was red with a red interior.  Audio started as a factory AM radio which I "upgraded" with Kraco (a gift from my dad).  About a year into owning it, it fired a spark plug out into the hood liner.  That cost about $1,500 for a new head.  It would just quit from time to time.  Then a minute later fire back up like nothing had happened.  The heater core design must leak because three of them didn't fix the issue.  I sold it for $400 to a local used car lot in 1993.

This is the first car I made out in.  It was my first taste of automotive freedom despite having a car in Germany.  I never felt that feeling of freedom driving in Europe that I got in America.  It was the first car I ever modded all alone (if that junky stereo counts as a mod).  It was the car that taught me my dad was right and learning to fix my own car would save thousands.  It was the first car I got a speeding ticket in (80 in a 55).  It was the first car I was happy to be rid of.

Photo from Old Parked Cars.

I tried to replace it with a '73 Ford Mustang Mach 1.  That car was a manual in a deep blue metallic.  351W engine.  Stolen.  I was arrested when I tried to register it.  I was released when they busted the guy who "sold" it to me.  The rightful owner got his car back (and I am happy for him) but I lost the $3,000 I paid the thief.

There is no good luck for Thag and Ford.  So we avoids them!

A Note...

To political candidates everywhere:

Not only do I not care about your spouse; I demand to be able to not care about your spouse.

The spouse of a candidate should be like their middle name, they probably have one but it doesn't matter one iota if I know it.

Speaking of Being A Nerd

Nerd gun people with time on their hands do things like this.

It was inspired by this.

I skipped putting my dog-tags in the shot because the Army thought having my SSN on them was a good idea.

Three years...

Three years of carrying in my Miami Classic II and I have finally got it adjusted so that I am comfortable.

You wouldn't think it would take so long, would you?

Shirt Idea

You go right ahead and be the 99%

I'm the 3%

Who owns the commons?

Who owns the property in my town?

Does it belong to the residents?

Does it belong to the county?

Does it belong to the state?

Does it belong to the nation?

Who decides what becomes of that property?

If the city decides to sell the property to a business, can another city courting that business forbid the sale?

Can the city rent the property to a business?

Can the city sell to a church?  Can a church rent it?  Is the church's leasing of that property an endorsement of that religion by the city or an endorsement of the money?

How many objections to forbid the sale?  50%+1?  20%?  1?  Must everyone in town unanimously agree to everything the city does?

If placing a cross on top of a water tower is a violation of your first amendment right to freedom of religion; does your anonymously bringing in an out of state organization violate my sixth amendment right to face my accuser?  If indeed anyone local was involved in the objection to the cross.

That 6th amendment thing is important.  I put forward that FFRF or ACLU have no standing to complain about the symbols in public spaces unless someone from the political subdivision complains about them.  Meaning it has to be someone who lives HERE who brings the charge.  I also put forth that no such person complained; that the organizations in question took it upon themselves to rid me of the scourge of religious symbols (that are always Christian symbols for some reason).

I ask, where was our complainant was when the council met to decide if they would allow a privately funded and maintained symbol be placed on the water tower?  Did they raise an objection?  Did they wait even one election cycle before complaining to outside entities?  Did they even bother to vote for the city council?

If you refuse to inform yourself of the activities of the people who are elected in your name; you have no right to complain they do things you don't like.

On Living In The Future

The Occupy [Wherever] thing reminds me of the thing I hate most about class warfare in the USA.

It's constantly pointed out the things the rich people have that I don't.

Like what?

Car phone?

Super car?

Air conditioning?

300 channels?

Private plane?

Of that list, the only thing I don't have is a private plane.  All of them were luxury items in 1985.

My portable phone does more than any personal computer did in '85.

The Corvette I have will stomp just about anything Italy was making in '85.

AC is no longer exceptional, it's the norm.

Satellite and cable are ubiquitous.

I'd have my own plane if it weren't for all the lawsuits that just about killed Piper and Cessna.

The rich in America aren't the haves and we aren't the have-nots.

To me they are early adopters.

Hitler finds out CBS is reporting on Operation Fast and Furious

An Interesting Series of Posts.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

There may be more coming.

A Challenge

http://ffrf.org/

Those guys have a chance to impress me.

A chance to prove that they are not just a group of people who blindly hate Christians.

They can start suing to have the victory mosque in Pennsylvania stopped.  Religious symbol; check.  Public land; check.  Public money; check.  Anti "religion" protestors and organizations?

Hello?

Hellllooooooooooooo...

<tumbleweed rolls past chirping cricket>

Searching their site for Mosque gives no hits about it.  Searching their site for Pennsylvania gives no hits about it.

The mosque search did give an article complaining about how it was a school violating the first amendment when a local mullah invited the students to pray during his appearance.

They complain a great deal about prayers at lunch.

Hits on mosque had LOTS about how the Catholics are putting evil religion everywhere.  BWHAH?

This is not atheism, folks, this is anti-Christianism.

We also do not live in the dark ages.

Here's a first amendment test for you.  Does a cross on top of a water tower prevent you from not believing in God?  Does it force you to believe in God?  Does it force you to attend services on Sunday?  Does it make you (or pretend to) pray?  Are you forced to live in a particular part of town reserved for unbelievers?  Do the faithful refuse to do business with you because they don't see you in church?

If you're going to really, really start banning religion and its symbols you have to start based on the behavior of the worshippers and not just on a particular symbol.  You're going to have to start banning sports and sports fans from using public funding and property.

Teh evol Xtians really aren't hurting you except in your insecure mind.  The problem is not external.  Seek help.

I grow tired of having to point this out all of the time.  I am an atheist.  I am not harmed in any material way by religious symbols.  I am harmed when the place I live is forced to fork over massive legal fees to fight the accusations of bigots with a grudge and nothing better to do.  You know what?  I live here, you don't and it's clear I get the whole freedom and liberty thing better than you do.

A simple exercise.

The mayor of Whiteville, Tenn. said his community is under attack from a national racist organization that is threatening to sue unless they remove a black family from a publicly owned building.

“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said Mayor James Bellar about the Freedom From Negros Foundation. “They are alleging that some Whiteville resident feels very, very intimidated by this family.”


The mayor told Fox News Radio that the family was moved in about eight years ago by a private group of citizens. They collected private donations to cover the costs.
It’s just a black family living in an otherwise unused building” he said. “All we’re doing is exercising our right to practice our beliefs down here but this organization is now going to stymie that. We’re not out here knocking on doors trying to convert people.”

But the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Negros Foundation said the family is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They’ve given the mayor until the end of October to remove the family. If he refuses, they have threatened to sue.

“The law is very clear on this,” Freedom From Negros Foundation co-president Dan Barker told Fox News Radio. “An integrated city may not discriminate for or against any race. We don’t have a problem with black people living wherever they want, but this is a family put up by the city on city property.”

Barker said they’ve been sending letters to the city since last year demanding that the family be evicted, acting on behalf of an unnamed resident who complained.

“It offends many residents,” Barker said of the family. “Many of them think the family is offensive – that it’s an insult to humanity.”

But Mayor Bellar said he doesn’t believe that’s true.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t even think it’s a Whiteville resident,” he said. “We don’t have people of that belief here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town.”

Mayor Bellar said he’s inclined to remove the family rather than face a costly lawsuit.
However, the town council voted to consult with the Alliance Defense Fund about their legal options.

“This is their cause in life – to ride up and down the highway and find small towns that maybe have a black family somewhere on public property,” he said. “I have to admit it – checking their website, they’re batting 100 percent on this stuff.”

The Jackson Sun editorialized about the controversy, asking the town to remove the family.

The mayor said the racist group’s demands are “very frustrating” calling it a sad state of affairs.

“A terrorist is more than a guy that flies the planes into the building,” he said. “It’s anyone who can disrupt your way of living, destroy your lifestyle, cause you anxiety. It’s more than killing people. If they can disrupt your routine in life, that’s what they want to do. They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned.”

Barker said he found the comparison to be ironic.

“He’s the one breaking the law,” Barker said. “He’s the one who is anti-American, who is against diversity, against racial freedom and yet because we complain – and point out the fact that he’s breaking the law – he calls us the terrorist.”

He said it would be unwise for the town of Whiteville to defy their demands.

“Bring it on,” Barker told Fox News Radio. “If they’re going to fight it, they will lose this case.”

Original Story Here.

Odd Moments

It struck me as odd that I am having a discussion about which is the best smart phone and provider recently.

There were neither smart phones nor multiple providers when I was born.

I can recall when a cell phone was called a car phone, because it was so huge it needed to be carried in a vehicle.  Heck, check out "Lethal Weapon", Murtagh is seen talking on a back-pack sized portable phone; state of the art Motorola in 1986!

Portable computers that fit in my pocket were science fiction.  That computer networked with computers all over the world, NOT EVEN SCIENCE FICTION!  Just as the computer revolution was not predicted by the pulp sci-fi authors, the world wide web was not predicted by their successors.

1977's Traveller from GDW had computers that weighed a POUND that acted as a terminal when linked to a larger computer via a radio link.  A TL11 device where the world of 2011 would have been called TL8.  My Droid 2 weighs about 1/3 of that.  The computing power of the super advanced personal computer from Traveller was about equal to a 1990's era PC.

The present is more advanced than my future was.

Bent Out of Shape About Nothing.

Trijicon makes a scope called the ACOG.

Not too long ago they got into trouble because they had embossed references to Bible verses onto the outer casing of scopes they were selling to the military.

The US, UK and New Zealand all got their panties in a bunch over it and demanded the verse references be omitted in future purchases.  US scopes even got the emboss ground off.

Recently I noticed that a particular customer of Trijicon did not complain about the verses or take any action over them.  Israel.

The UK and New Zealand wanted the verses removed because they were worried that the Islamic targets of gunfire would become offended that there was a bible reference on the rifle that was shooting at them.  !!!

I guess to Israel, that's not a bug but a feature.  But it seems odd that a Jewish state doesn't care about Christian scripture references and nominally Christian nations do.

PS: The mostly illiterate people that "WE" are worried about offending would have blissfully ignorant of the offense if the Anti-Christian Bigots hadn't noticed this and made a huge stink about it.  To quote Dr Johnny Fever, "They sit there listening to the song, slower and slower, until, 'Ah, I heard a dirty word!'"

Unpossible!

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/october/324011/Protestors-gather-outside-Ybor-City-club,-scene-of-fatal-shooting

It's illegal to carry in a bar (even with a permit).  Therefore the above is malicious lies and the event did not happen because, as we all know, making something illegal makes it impossible.

Either that or criminals ignore the laws and do what they will.

But I'm betting it's the former...

Wanna bet nobody with a gun had a carry permit?

Pro-Choice...

Something that doesn't get mentioned in the abortion debate much is that virtually every woman contemplating an abortion has already made a choice.  Choosing to have sex.

There are varying degrees of "oops I'm pregnant" that fall from that decision all the way from, "I didn't think it would happen to ME," to "the birth control failed."

I don't think I would have an opinion about it one way or the other except for a couple issues.

First, a woman can force me to become a child-support paying father.  Yes, there are consequences to recreational sex, but all of the decision making rights are squarely the female's.

Second, the people I know who've had abortions are people I think would be good at raising a child and generally the reason for getting the abortion is financial.  Can't afford prenatal care let alone raise the child financial issues.

The solution to those, honestly, is to not have sex unless you can afford to be a parent.

Third, the vast majority of the people who I've seen who flatly refuse to consider an abortion are exactly the people who shouldn't be raising kids.  They certainly aren't paying for them, taxpayers are.  And so will be their grandkids and great-grandkids and so on.  At least one felony conviction per generation, many arrests.  Substance abuse, domestic violence... you name it.  By the way, guess what this group's opinion about birth-control is.

I am sure that many of my friends who are parents would also never have considered abortion, but I never got the feeling that, maybe, they should not have kids.  Never thought to ask them, "are you going to keep it?"  I guess if you don't raise any concerns about your ability to raise a child by the way you live your life nobody confronts you on the abortion issue, huh?

So, I am pro-choice.  Choose to keep it in your pants.

Debate About Killing ATF

Talked about by Joe and Sebastian.  Check out those links, and be sure to check out this too.

I am caught betwixt them.

One advantage I can see in giving the enforcement powers to the FBI or Marshals is they are not regulatory agencies.  They'd just be enforcing the regulations rather than generating them so, hopefully, we'd see a lot less post-facto rules making.  Maybe even get consistently applied rules.

Statism.

Wanting a government at all does not a statist make.

Minarchists are not statists in the same manner that a single drop of toxic waste turns a drum of spring water into toxic waste.

There are lots of things that are simply done better centrally.

There are lots of things that are simply clusterfucks when done centrally.

Likewise, there are many things that simply don't get done at all if left to individuals.

I want to maximize liberty.  I want the freedom to do the most I want.  My freedom has to be tempered with not messing with other people.

Loud music is something where lots of anarchist and libertarian ideals fall apart.

My neighbor's music infringes on my right to solace in my home.  If he refuses to turn it down has he initiated force?  What are my reasonable options?  Is it right to kill him over the subwoofer?  Can I levy a fine?  What happens if he doesn't pay?  Do I shoot him now?

Seems like all I have is learn to deal with his rudeness, kill him or move.  Do I have all my options listed?

It's practical, real-world, situations like that where I wonder about the viability of the libertarian utopia.

Real Informative, Guys...