re: "No Guns for Illegals"

Mr. E. Blogger at The Jawa Report identified a limitation on the Second Amendment.

Money quote(s):

"The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver has ruled that illegal aliens do not have the right to own firearms under the U.S. Constitution."

His verdict on the subject:

"Seems about right."

5/8

re: "Worst Kept Secret"

Lex at Neptunus Lex ("The unbearable lightness of Lex. Enjoy!") harbors his suspicions about "Fast and Furious."

Money quote(s):

"(A)nti-gun activism is a proven political loser. It turns off the constitutionalists who look at the 2nd amendment and say, well: That’s rather clear. It turns off the folks living in neighborhoods edgy and otherwise, who’d like the option to defend their lives and property when the bad man comes. Knowing, as they do, that when the bad man comes and seconds count, the police are only minutes away. It turns off the working class that the liberal left pretends to care for, in a paternalistic way. And of course it turns off gun owners and enthusiasts across the political spectrum, who believe – among other things – that the last defense against tyranny of whatever flavor is an armed populace."

Naturally, ideologies or political movements which act to promote an unarmed (or disarmed) populace should be viewed with extreme suspicion.

"Heretofore I was willing to apply Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Now I believe we have to consider both malice and stupidity." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

UPDATE: As most within the milblogging community will already be aware, longtime and well-respected milblogger Lex passed away earlier this week, the sole casualty of an aircraft crash in California.

We only met the oncet, briefly, at a milblogging convention a few years ago when I was between overseas assignments. Nearly all our interaction was "virtual." So I have little in the way of adding to or polishing his legacy.

A glance at my sidebar tag list of "Labels" shows more than 30 incidences of Lex and Neptunus Lex. That essentially means I excerpted from and commented on at least that many of his thoughtful and well-expressed posts.

As an old "spook," let me assure readers that while my online reading is wide-ranging and somewhat eclectic, if I'm linking to you or mining your blog that many times then you just may be on to doing something right. When I "stole" from Lex, I was stealing from the best. His surviving wife and family have my sincere condolences.

Fair winds and smooth sailing, Captain Carroll LeFon, USN (Retired).

12/8

re: "Norwegian Lessons"

MikeM at Confederate Yankee ("Because liberalism is a persistent vegetative state.") drew some lessons from the Utoya Island shootings in Norway.

Money quote(s):

"Dressed in a police uniform, he called many of the youngsters on the island at a summer retreat to him and opened fire, eventually killing 86 and wounding—at the bombing and on the island--more than 90. His rampage was stopped when he was shot—he survived--by a police SWAT team, but it took approximately 90 minutes from the first shot until the police were able to find transportation and travel to the island."

As Mr. McDaniels notes further down in his post (see red bold type below), when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. Sometimes lots of minutes.

"There was immediate speculation that the attack was another Jihadist outrage, which these days is far from an unreasonable assumption, but it seems that this attack was most similar to that in Tucson: the act of an evil man, acting alone in response to whatever demons pursued him."

Apparently SJS is not limited to those of the jihadist persuasion. There is no ideological or religious monopoly, after all, on either evil or madness.

"I'll provide only three primary lessons, though there are surely more.

(1) Gun free zones are deadly. In this case, the entire nation of Norway is essentially a citizen disarmament zone. Even though many Norwegians own firearms, even the police do not routinely carry handguns. Utoya island was very much like American schools: isolated, vulnerable, and completely unarmed. In school attacks, and in the attack on Utoya Island, the final body count will depend on the lack of marksmanship and the humanity of the killer(s), who will be stopped only by the intervention of armed police. Even in America, it takes far longer for the police to respond to such attacks than most people realize. When seconds count, it will take the police tens of minutes to arrive and longer to react. On Utoya Island, the killer—exploiting a dream Socialist gun-free zone--had approximately 90 minutes to roam the island at will, killing at a truly leisurely pace." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

In our own fair land, whose federalism has fostered over fifty (don't forget D.C.!) jurisdictions with their own particular interpretations of the Second Amendment, it's more than clear that the easier it is for ordinary law-abiding citizens to arm themselves, the lower the incidence of violent crime.

"(2) Evil exists. The left sees all things through a political lens. All motivations, all meaning may be found in political ideology. Socialist/Statist/Leftist ideology is infallible, so it can never be mistaken. It can never be wrong. Any problems along the way must be attributable to the existence of Conservatism, which keeps Socialism from working properly, or to the fact that not enough time has passed for a given Socialist policy to work properly, or as in the case of gun control issues, insufficient Socialism has been applied. Not until all firearms are in the loving hands of the state can the state protect individual citizens, despite the fact that the state has no obligation—or intention—to protect individual citizens.

Because all is political, morality—to the small degree that leftists recognize its existence, exists only in service to the preferred political narrative. Concepts such as good and evil have no meaning unless they are politically useful, such as evil being applied to those who oppose righteous Socialist policy, which is inherently good."

While I cannot personally vouchsafe the existence of Satan as an individual manifestation and personification of evil, it's more than clear to me that there is evil abroad in the world. The presence and persistence of evil acts, evil men (and women), and evil governments makes this inarguable.

"One need not be a Christian to believe in evil, for evil is manifested most meaningfully in acts, not words. The most revealing evidence of evil in despotism is not in the despot's writings and pronouncements, but in the millions of innocents they slaughter. On Utoya Island, the killer dressed as a policeman, and knowing that kids would not be alarmed by an armed policeman, called them to gather around him and betrayed their trust in the loving state by shooting them. He spent 90 minutes, taking his time, calmly walking about the island and shooting everyone he could find, killing 86 and wounding a great many more. He reloaded multiple times. If this was not evil, evil has no meaning." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

"(3) One indisputable fact remains: If a single, capable innocent on that island was armed, the killer could have been stopped and nearly two hundred children would not have been wounded or killed. Life could have been preserved and evil defeated. Evil cannot be appeased or reasoned with; it must be confronted and destroyed.

This was not possible because of what Socialists would surely consider one of their greatest accomplishments, an achievement they would see as indisputable evidence of more advanced evolution, of more enlightened humanity: the more or less complete disarmament of an entire nation, including its police.

The media and Norwegian and American politicians sharing the same political and social views will be unable and unwilling to recognize or accept this final, simple truth. They will argue instead for even more disarmament of the law-abiding and innocent, and the suppression of political ideas with which they disagree, even in a country that has no First or Second Amendments, for all must be made to serve the narrative."

I can't improve on Mr. McDaniels words above.


7/25

re: "Random CT Lesson from Norway #2: Carry Weapons"

Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at The Jawa Report ("Sand people, get it?") discerned a counter-terrorism lesson from Norway's recent experience.

Money quote(s):

"The jihadis exploit our Constitution against us. So it's no surprise that a right-wing psychopath would exploit lefty anti-gun hysteria to further his irrational and evil plans"

It's basic Sun Tzu, after all, to avoid strength and attack weakness. And having a disarmed populace (including police) has to go into the "Weakness" column.

"We have much more gun violence here, but an atrocity of this scale is unthinkable in the US. Even if there were no feckless and unarmed police around had this asshole tried this anywhere in my neck of the woods he would have found a well armed citizenry ready to protect themselves and their children."

Just so.

7/25

re: "Heresy In Old Blighty"

Rand Simberg at Tranterrestrial Musings mourned the passing of one of "the Rights of Englishmen."

Money quote(s):

"The right to self defense is a fundamental Anglospheric human right, going back to the Magna Carta. It is only in the last few decades that it has been abandoned in the place of its birth. It is shameful."

And so it goes. There are reasons why this is so, just as there are reasons why "the Rights of Englishmen" linger still in places where no one thinks of themselves as English (and hasn't for generations).

8/10

re: "If We Let the Government Take Our Guns, We’ll Have to Run and Hide Like Londoners"

AWR Hawkins at Big Government relayed a (true) story that reminded me that America is where "the Rights of Englishmen" are still preserved.

Money quote(s):

"Fast forward to 2011 and look at the riots taking place in London, England: the city of unarmed people where crime was long ago vanished via the confiscation and destruction of handguns.

Now that the criminals are confident the citizenry is thoroughly unarmed, they’re going into homes and businesses whenever they wish, taking whatever they want once they go in, and walking (or running) away with a smile on their face.

(Oops! I guess someone forgot to tell the criminals that guns were the cause of criminality.)

Just consider an episode from London’s acclaimed restaurant – The Ledbury – from a few nights ago. Patrons talked of being attacked by rioters with “weapons,” who rushed into the restaurant and demanded customers “hand over wedding rings, cell phones and wallets.”

What “weapons” did the rioters use? Baseball bats of course. (That’s right – an entire restaurant full of people was controlled by kids with clubs.)

To be fair, the patrons said the restaurant staff fought back, with “rolling pins, fry baskets” and other “kitchen tools.”

Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and third President of the United States, once wrote of how denying a person their natural rights is akin to denying them part of their humanity. "

Just to fill in a blank, the right of self-defense is one of those "natural rights" to which former-Pres. Jefferson was referring.

"It is embarrassing to read of the abasement these Londoners have faced as a result of being disarmed. In fact, it is, as Jefferson would say, an insult to their humanity.

Where I live, if a gang of rioters comes busting through the restaurant doors swinging baseball bats at patrons, I doubt I’ll be alone in pulling my .45 and taking care of business. And the very act of doing that, though not hoped for, will prove a reminder that my life is too valuable a thing to be sacrificed on the altar of progressive policies and academic rhetoric."

As a matter of fashion, CAA doesn't (generally) bear arms when not in uniform. But it's not like it's something he's unprepared to do, at need. Speaking of fashion, one's holster and gunbelt (or shoulder rig) should match one's shoes, watchband, and belt. Just sayin.'

8/10

re: "Dear London"

Confederate Yankee ("Because liberalism is a persistent vegetative state.") authored a heartfelt testament to the Second Amendment.

Money quote(s):

"Our Creator endowed me with certain unalienable rights—stop me if you've heard this—and also the responsibility to defend the life he gave me from oppressors, tyrants, and thugs.
That right extends to defending the lives of my family, and our home. No one has the right to take away my home or threaten my family, and I have the God-given responsibility to ensure their safety and survival by any means necessary.

We're quite adamant about that, and have taken up arms against entire governments on more than one occasion to ensure our liberties, and will likely do so again at some point." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

8/9

re: "Vampire Slayer: Buffy the Conservative"

Evan Pokroy at Big Hollywood decrypts the secret Conservative themes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."


Money quote(s):


"The fact is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is, at its core, an exceptionally conservative show. There are a few episodes that break this general mold but, as a whole, it is everything that Hollywood is not. There is a main theme that runs throughout the entire span of the show and is apparent in every single episode.

Evil exists and you do not negotiate with it; you fight it."

Never forget what Will Rogers had to say about diplomacy.

(I rather like dogs, and never throw rocks at them.)

"You don’t need special powers to confront evil."

That's why there's a Second Amendment, so everyone can have special powers to fight evil.

"Actions have consequences."

So do elections. And economies. And foreign policies. And wars.

"You are the master (or mistress, if we’re going to stay in context) of your own destiny."

We all have choices, every moment of every day. How we respond to them, how we make them, tells ourselves (and others) what kind of a master (or mistress) we are of that destiny.

"Government is suspect."

Again: this is why, in extremity, we have a Second Amendment.

(But let's keep going with elections in the meantime.)

" No one is so irredeemably evil that they cannot, after much hard work and rebuilding of self, find themselves unequivocally on the side of good."

re: "Saturday"

Dr. Jerry Pournelle at Chaos Manor ("The Original Blog *") explains something about the correlation of forces in Libya.

Money quote(s):

“We used to understand that mob cannot stand up to regulars. Militia barely can and usually cannot. The wording of the Second Amendment is not accidental.”