A Musical Interlude, Part II: "The Funky Western Civilization" by Tonio K

Background on the artist here; more on this album here and here.

Lyrics:

Come on everybody
Get on your feet
Get with the beat
There's a brand new dance craze
Sweeping the nation
and it's called the funky... western... civilization.

Well there's a riot in the courthouse, there's a fire in the street
There's a sinner bein' trampled by a thousand pious feet.
There's a baby every minute bein' born without a chance
Now don't that make you want to jump right up and start to dance?

Let's do the funky
The funky western civilization
It's really spunky
It's just like summertime vacation .
You just grab your partner by the hair
Throw her down and leave her there.

They put Jesus on a cross, they put a hole in JFK,
They put Hitler in the driver's seat and looked the other way.
Now they've got poison in the water and the whole world in a trance,
But just because we're hypnotized, that don't mean we can't dance.

We've got the funky
The funky western civilization
It's really spunky
It's just like summertime vacation.
You just drag your partner through the dirt
Leave him in a world of hurt.

You get down
Get funky
Get western
(own up to it boys and girls)
And if you try real hard... maybe you can even get, you know, kinda civilized!

Joan Of Arc: Mesdames et messieurs, bon soir. This is Joan of Arc. Tonio has asked me to personally deliver a rather special message. He say he just cannot get enough of my 15th-century wisdom. He say he loves it when I talk with him like this. And after many a Saturday night of doing ze Funky Western Civilization together, I know for a fact he agrees with me when I say
[in French: You can bullshit the baker and get the buns,
You can back out of every deal except one!]

This is the funky
The funky western civilization
It's oh, so very spunky
It's just like summertime vacation
All's you gotta do is find some little kid somewhere
And throw him way up in the air
(never mind the parents)

Yes it's a funky
A funky western civilization
And it may seem kinda skunky, you know
But it's hitting every nation (all across the universe)
That's 'cause all's you gotta do is grab your partner by the hair
Throw her down and leave her there!

A Musical Interlude, Part I: "Life in the Food Chain" by Tonio K

Background on the artist here; more on this album here and here.

Lyrics:

Well your mother was there to protect you
Your papa was there to provide
So how in the world did the excellent baby
Wind up in this hotel so broken inside
You lie on your bed in the midnight darkly
Listening to every sound
Watching the shadows for anything moving
And hoping they don't come around

`Cause it's dog eat dog
and it's cat and mouse
It's watch your step and cross yourself
And get back in the house
And it's do or die
It's push and shove
Because everybody's hungry
And there isn't quite enough

That's right we're talking about the good life
In the food chain
Love among the ruins
I guess that you've finally got to accept
That there's nothing you can do about it
It's kinda like carving a turkey
Kind of like mowing the lawn
Everything gets to this certain dimension
Winds up on a customers plate and then gone

`Cause it's dog eat dog
And it's cat and mouse
`Cause it's cut the cake grab a plate
And hope it goes around
And it's do or die
It's time to push and shove
Because everybody's hungry
And there isn't quite enough

Break

`Cause it's dog eat dog
And it's cat and mouse
Ya know it's close your eyes and roll the dice
And shut your filthy mouth
It's time to push and shove
Because everybody's hungry
And there isn't quite enough

`Cause it's dog eat dog
And it's cat and mouse
It's watch your step and cross yourself
And get back in the house
And it's do or die
It's push and shove
Because everybody's hungry
And there isn't quite enough

That's right we're talking about the good life
In the food chain
Love among the ruins
I guess that you've finally got to accept
That there's nothing you can do about it
It's kinda like carving a turkey
Kind of like mowing the lawn
Everything gets to this certain dimension
Winds up on a customer's plate and then gone

(fades out)

Coup de Grâce

The expression coup de grâce (pronounced /ˌkuːdə ˈɡrɑːs/; French: [kudəɡʁas], "blow of mercy") means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to killing civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies and with or without the consent of the sufferer. It is often used figuratively to describe the last of a series of events which brings about the end of some entity; for example: "The business had been failing for years; the coup de grâce was the sudden jump in oil prices."

In war times, it means shooting into the cardiac or temporal region of an already shot, but not yet dead person during a military or civilian execution. It can also refer to the beheading that follows a samurai's seppuku.

-- Wikipedia

Read this analysis of the Pelosi national socialist health plan, as posted today by Mike.

Then read this piece from Cold Fury via Green Mountain Homesteading on the constitutional authority for such an atrocity, courtesy of US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT):

***
...
Q: I just want to know where, in your opinion, does the Constitution give specific authority for Congress to give an individual mandate for health insurance?
LEAHY: What — we have plenty of authority. Are you saying there is no authority?
Q: I’m asking –
LEAHY: Why would you say there is no authority? I mean, there’s no question there’s authority. Nobody questions that.
Q: But where — I mean, which –
LEAHY: Where do we have authority to set speed limits on an interstate highway?
Q: Well, the states do that.
LEAHY: No, no, the federal government does that.

No, it doesn’t. But that’s not important now. There’s something missing there–did you catch it?

By my count, that was three Bare Assertion Fallacies, two of which are also False Generalizations, and three Answering a Question with a Question, one of which is also a Red Herring. And a partridge in a pear tree.

But never an answer to the question...
***

Do you understand yet?

The Republic is dead.

And soon, so too will be its adherents.

Are you ready?

Vanderboegh: One Hundred Heads

From Sipsey Street:

Scout Sniper (MOS 0317, formerly 8541) is a specialist in the United States Marine Corps whose mission is to deny the enemy freedom of movement by killing enemy leaders, crew-served weapons operators, radiomen, observers, messengers, and other key personnel with single, well-aimed shots. In addition, scout snipers also provide close reconnaissance and surveillance to the infantry battalion. Scout Snipers attached to Marine infantry battalions fall under the Surveillance and Target Acquisition units, usually a reduced platoon with the headquarters company. Marine Corps Scout Snipers are widely considered one of the elite forces of the US military and all branches of service send their best to be trained at one of the four school house locations.

As defined by the Marine Corps Scout Sniper Basic Course, a Scout Sniper is a Marine highly skilled in fields craft and marksmanship who delivers long range precision fire on selected targets from concealed positions in support of combat operations. -- Wikipedia.

NOTE: Some folks, in and out of government, will take what I write below as an invitation to assassination of public figures. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am on record as denouncing the idea of assassinating President Obama, going so far during the campaign as to call on good folks to attend his rallies and watch for threats to him. Assassination, even of a President no matter how much you dislike or fear his administration's policies, is a loser's tool. Indeed, there is much more to be gained by the enemies of the Founders' Republic in the assassination of President Obama than by anyone else.

If it happens, one must ask the old criminal investigator's question: Cui bono? Who benefits?

(One wonders if this isn't -- subconsciously at least -- what's behind the incessant comparisions of Obama to Lincoln and Julius Caesar.)

Rather, the political and military dynamics I try to explain below are in the context of a hypothetical civil war initiated by a tyrannical administration. In that scenario, the killing of senior executives of the murderous regime would not be murder, but, from one perspective simple justice, and from another legitimate targets permissible under the laws of war. (See Bill Clinton and Serbia, 1999).

As with everything I write, I'm trying avoid a civil war here, not start one. -- MBV

Folks,

Trying to finish Absolved, real life events intrude as they must. The flurry of praxis posts was done for a reason -- responding to a need reflected in email requests and face-to-face conversations with folks new to the armed citizen concept. The response to the FM 21-15 offering was amazing, and I spent more than I little time sending those pdfs out. It was worth it. Glad to see all those budding militia supply officers out there. Logistics most often decides conflicts and thus we should pay great attention to ours.

Will, of course, is also indispensable. But as the Japanese Empire could tell you if it were still around, "Yamato damashi" alone can only take you so far. Training, tactics, strategy, intelligence, all are also critical to success.

But what we would all prefer is not to have to fight at all. Since we prefer to live in peace AND liberty, it is necessary to figure out what motivates our enemy -- the domestic enemies of the Founder's republic and the Constitution. What do they want? Well, that's pretty obvious. They want to be able to tell the rest of us what to do without interference. To paraphrase the sign my ex-wife used to have on the wall, it is their way or the highway.

That is what they want, surely. But that is a mere appetite. That is what the old military acronym IOE -- Intentions of the Enemy -- is all about. But if we are talking about preventing war, then we must create a credible deterrent -- something that strikes at the heart of their ambition and causes it to die aborning.

Thus, in the end, credible deterrence is less about figuring out what they want or how they intend to go about getting it, but rather depends upon the answer to this question:

What is it that they most value?

Credibly threaten what they most value -- as in, make them believe that they will lose it if they attempt to attack you -- and they will not do that thing. They will not attack you, lest they lose it.

So, what do they value? Power, certainly. Principle? Certainly not. Everything is compromisable toward the satisfaction of appetite. Do they fear God? Certainly not. These are very temporal creatures. They live in the here and now and glory in the satisfaction of their senses.

Thus they have no understanding of the concept, "Live free or die." Such a thing as dying for a principle is incomprehensible. Which is why they do not understand how dangerous is their present position.

They value power then, for power's sake, but here is the key. They cannot wield power if they are dead. Because they believe in nothing higher than their own ambition (despite whatever convincing noises they make for the collectivist herd about "for the children" or the "perfectability of socialist man" or the "triumph of the 'volk'") it is their lives and their lives alone that they value.

This is what they understand: YOU CANNOT EXERCISE POWER IF YOU ARE DEAD.

And THAT is what they fear. The ending of their existence. That, and that alone.

Remember, we are talking about the war initiators here. The war makers. Not the useful tools who carry out the policy but the policymakers themselves, and the people who manipulate them.

Boiled down, this is part of what the Founders had in mind with the Second Amendment. Give the people the means to resist tyranny, and then it is the tyrants who die in the end.

Or, as I tried to distill it down for the impatient hoplophobe who demanded that I tell him my position in as few words as possible: "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

Substitute the words "liberty and property" for "firearms." THIS is what we must make our enemies believe. If we regain the credible deterrence that the armed citizenry once had in this country, no would-be tyrant will dare apply for the position. He will be unable to attract lieutenants if they believe such an action is suicidal.

This is what the Founders intended. They tried to construct a system of checks and balances, a deliberately inefficient system of government, to avoid the tyranny of the King or of the mob. But it was a system designed for a moral people, a God-fearing people, and though it lasted a long time, the fact is that we are, in aggregate, no longer moral or God-fearing. Thus, we are left with the armed citizenry as the arbiters of their own liberty.

If you try to take our liberty and property we will kill you.

That sentiment strikes at the heart of what they value. Everything else is window dressing.

If we can convince the enemies of the Founders' Republic that this will happen as surely as two plus two equals four, there will be no next American civil war. But the burden is on us to present the mathematics and make them credible.

Thus, as an exercise in the mathematics of liberty, I re-post a piece from back in January. Cheyenne 0317/8541 is my nominee for next year's Nobel Prize in Mathematics. If we can somehow get the Constitution's enemies to understand this mathematic principle, we will all live long, prosperous and free lives without conflict.

But, given the collective history of this sorry planet, that's not the way to bet.

Mike
III

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-hundred-heads.html

Saturday, January 24, 2009

One Hundred Heads

Folks,

You have no idea how humbling the response as been to Absolved and this website. These are serious issues. Issues that, in the fullness of time, could get people killed. Yet what I write apparently resonates with people because God has given me a talent for expressing what they have long believed.

All of my work has been motivated by a desire to avoid conflict over these principles we hold so dear. If I bluntly warn liberal politicians, media types and academics of the folly of their proposals, it is because I don't want my children and grandchildren to have to suffer the ghastly experience of civil war.

It has always been my belief that if people understood where this is heading, there was a least a chance of avoiding it. As we proceed into the Era of Obama, I am afraid that is becoming more and more a faint hope.

As some of you know from bitter personal experience, taking a stand does not come without cost. There are dangers, even now, to having political opinions. Just ask David Olofson. From time to time, people express concern that I may fall victim to ATF retribution or FBI miscalculation. There is, in fact, little I can do about that, for that move is up to them. Like Luther, here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. There are no free lunches. It is what comes of being a free man. Or as my Grandpa Vanderboegh used to say in an imitation of a cartoon character, "You pays your money and you takes your chances."

But I was reminded this week that no man is an island, entire of itself. On my trip to the post office box, I was rewarded, in addition to statements from Social Security and the power bill, a single anonymous envelope. It was postmarked from somewhere in Oklahoma. It said this in handwritten block letters, spelling and punctuation as written:

Sir,

I have read you on the internet and believe in what your doing. One day the ATF will come to count coup on you & take your head. I promise to take One hundred heads for yours.

Cheyenne 0317/8541

There is a small, delicate ink drawing on the bottom of the sheet, showing what appears to be a coup stick crossed with a tomahawk and over-arched with what I'd guess are eagle feathers. 0317/8541, for the uninitiated, are the current and former MOS numbers for a Marine Scout/Sniper.

One hundred heads. I sat in the car, reading and rereading this piece of paper, touched by its simple sincerity. I have no doubt the man means what he says. I also have no doubt that a Marine scout/sniper has the skills to take a hundred heads if, God forbid, this should come to guns.

I shared this with a friend yesterday, and he had only this comment: "A hundred heads properly targeted could finish this thing." Indeed.

On the assumption that Cheyenne is reading this, I would like to tell him this:

I do not ask you to take those hundred heads, sir, but I appreciate the commitment to our common cause that such a promise implies. I do not know what the future may bring, but if it should be grim I merely ask that you get the right hundred heads.

In liberty, and with gratitude,

Mike Vanderboegh
III

Codrea: The Smutty Professor

In his most recent Examiner column, David skewers an academic onanist.

Go.

Read.

Denninger: The Fed Gets Desperate

Read Denninger's latest on the Fed's desperate attempts to avoid accountability.

Key section:

***

The Fed has promoted and in fact still is promoting through policy action the lie that credit can expand "forever" at a rate that exceeds GDP. This is mathematically impossible and Bernanke knows it. I do not accept that he is ignorant of this fact as he is clearly an intelligent man and in addition is a credentialed Professor with an advanced degree - therefore, I must conclude that this is not an error but rather an intentional lie. It is, in fact, the big lie upon which all others rest, and yet as I have repeatedly pointed out the mathematical facts are not subject to dispute. To recap, here's the graph:

And to recap on the averages:

GDP growth from the early 1950s onward has been 6.818% annually, debt growth 8.777%, for a spread of 1.959%.

From 1990 onward, GDP grew at 5.396%, debt at 7.907%, for a spread of 2.511%.

From 2000 onward GDP grew at 5.225%, debt at 8.495%, for a spread of 3.270%.

***

But hey -- the recession's over!

Whew....now who's winning the World Series?

Let's get back to normal.

Anyone seen my Snuggie?

First, We'll Write Letters and Make Phone Calls...Then We'll Vote!

Watch this video, received from a friend, of a civics lesson from Congressman Jack Murtha (D - PA 12).

PajamasTV has more.

Maybe if we waved some signs -- that would change things?

Hey, I know!

We can blog about it.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Then we can turn to getting Charlie Rangel's constituents to do the right thing.

Go-o-o-o, democracy!

Noonan Finally Gags on the Kool-Aid

Perhaps to atone in part for her emetic epistle last year on The One's imminent election, Peggy Noonan has a brief moment of clarity.

Read it all, but here's a key quote:

***
...When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?
***

It is because the ruling class -- your Beltway buddies -- is equal parts ignorant, stupid, and evil.

And you helped hand the whole she-bang over to the Obamunist-in-Chief, you daft old biddy.

Move away from the keyboard, Peggy.

For your own sake.

I Am Your Worst Nightmare

From Survivalblog:

***
Retreat Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare, by Jeff T.

I am the leader of a band of 8-to-12 looters. I have some basic military training. We move from place to place like locusts devouring everything in our path. My group is armed with light weapons and can develop and follow simple plans of attack. We take what we want by force of arms. We prefer none of our victims survive because that could cause problems for us in the future.

It has been six months since the grid went down. You and the other five members of your party have settled into what may be a long grinding existence. The every day tasks of growing and gathering have now become routine. The news from the outside is extremely limited but you don’t really miss it much. Life is simple but physically demanding.

Although things may seem stable you will need to keep your team focused and alert. This is your first and most important layer of defense. You should hold an immediate reaction drill once per week. Keep things simple. Practice a specific response to such threats as injury, fire, attack and evacuation. Despite the challenges you must maintain contact with those around you such as neighbors for vital clues that trouble is brewing. Regular monitoring the radio will be critical in providing an early warning of trouble. You may be able to safely interview refugees with risking your party. Keep in mind the information you get from them may not always be reliable.

While you have been farming I have been learning the best tactics to employ to seize your property and your goods. I have been refining them since we hit the road right after the lights went out. I have conducted eight “hits” so far and have been successful seven times. Here are some of my “lessons learned”...
***

Read the rest.

Are you and yours ready, right now, to repel boarders?

If not, what's your plan?

Threeper Swag by 'Solzhenitsyn Wept'

Lots more at this Zazzle store, including III flag two-fer bumper stickers.

Auribus Tenere Lupum III Swag

One more design from AD at Zazzle.

Auribus tenere lupum - I hold a wolf by the ears. (I am in a dangerous situation and dare not let go.)
-- Terence

Obamopoly

From over the transom; click on image to enlarge.

Have You Thought About F-Class?

Read these links:

F-Class Long Range Target Shooting, Part I

F-Class Long Range Target Shooting, Part II

Official US F-Class Open Rifle Team Home Page

Equipment Needed for F-Class Open Shooting

F-Class Info

Zak Smith's Introduction to F-Class 1000 yard Shooting; excerpt:

***
...If you already have a Remington 700, Winchester Model 70, or other rifle that can shoot one MOA or better at 100 yards, you can get it tuned up for 1000-yard F-Class. You'll need a good scope with enough adjustment to get from a 100 or 200-yard zero to 1000 yards. The easiest way to ensure the scope will make it is to use an inclined scope base, which usually have 20 or 30 MOA incline built in. The scope should have external target knobs, and top-end magnification at least 12x. Popular scopes for F-Class include the Leupold Mark 4 and VX-III Long Range models, and the Nightforce NXS models.

Next, you need a load that will stay at supersonic speed to the target. As a general rule, a bullet that has a ballistic coefficient (BC) of 0.50 or higher launched at 2600 fps or faster will make it to 1000 yards. Great long-range loads generally have a BC of 0.60 or higher and are shot at 2850 fps or faster. In .308 Winchester, the Federal or Black Hills 175-grain, or Lapua 155-grain loads will work. In .300 Winchester Magnum, the 190-grain loads from Federal and Black Hills are good choices. Rifles that are built specifically for F-Class often use the long, sleek, and high-BC bullets in 6.5 mm and 7 mm calibers such as .260 Remington, 6.5-284 Norma, 7 mm Remington Magnum or 7 mm Winchester Short Magnum.

Finally, you need to know how much bullet drop compensation is required to move from your short-range zero to the six-foot square target backer at 1000 yards. The easiest way to get "on the paper" is to run one of the ballistic calculator programs which are available online or from Sierra, Pejsa, NECO, RCBS, and Exbal. With the correct data for your load, rifle, and environment plugged in, these calculators will usually be on within a scope "click" or two...
***

And a quick overview of the rule set:

F-Class Open Rule Overview
Rifle ........... Any
Sights .......... Any
Front Support ... Front rest allowed
Rear Support .... Rear bag allowed
Caliber ......... Any up to 0.35 caliber, per local range restrictions
Maximum Weight .. 22 lbs

F/TR Rule Overview
F-Class Open Rule Overview
Rifle ........... Any
Sights .......... Any
Front Support ... Bipod or rucksack
Rear Support .... Rear bag allowed
Caliber ......... .223 Winchester, .308 Winchester
Maximum Weight .. 18.15 lbs

F-Class Target Dimensions

X ring 5.0" diameter
10 ring 10.0"
9 ring 20.0"
8 ring 30"
7 ring 44"
6 ring 60"
5 area 6 foot square

More Information

US F-Class Rifle Team
http://www.usfclass.com/

So what?

No, I am not suggesting you go out and buy some fancy-pants $5000 dedicated rig for exclusively F-class shooting.

What I am suggesting is

1) A lot of readers have sub-MOA .308 bolties with decent glass.

2) With a 175 SMK (factory match or handload), your rifle and round can get to 1000 yards and be on paper.

3) The bags and tripods acceptable under the rules mean that you too can get out to 1000 yards.

4) These matches and sighter days are already being run around the country, so that all you have to do is show up with your gear and match fee, sign up and pay up, and start shooting.

5) In light of 1-4, why not root around and see if there is an F-class clinic/sight-in/match near you?

What better way to learn how you and your precision rifle shoot at full distance, especially with the wind calls inherent in such a challenge?

You do realize that more and more freedom-lovers getting proficient at truly long ranges will make the hoplophobes thoroughly soil themselves, don't you?

Can you say "strategic"?

I knew you could.

Audentes Fortuna Iuvat Threeper Swag

Thanks to AD, who seized the day and established this store at Cafe Press.

There's lots more at the link.

Pass it on.

III Flag (Variant), Georgia

Courtesy of BT.

And for those who quail at the Confederate flag, I give you Georgia's flag from 1956 until 2001, when the experience of neighboring South Carolina cowed the Legislature into abandoning that design and ultimately adopting the current banner:
All hands, prepare to repel charges of racism and pro-slavery sentiments.

To those who would spread such calumnies, I give you Professor Lorenzo.

Sic semper tyrannis.

UPDATE 2305 EDST 30 OCT 2009: Am advised the that III flag variant in question is simply the First National III and is in fact located in Texas. My bad -- but what would it take to make the current Georgia flag into the same?


Just sayin'....

Fitness Drill For The Weekend

Suggestion for some movement exercises that can be done in the local park w/o your longarm (of course, you can and should use your rifle and related gear where such is acceptable):

1) Place two traffic cones (or lawn chairs) 100 yards or so apart, then warm up with six 100-yard sprints as fast and hard as you can.

2) Then, starting at cone/chair #1, get into quasi-prone position (belly and hips flat on ground, your upper chest/neck/head held off the ground by your elbows.

3) At the 'go' signal, roll explosively to the left or right, get to your feet and sprint as hard as you can for as long as it takes you to say "I'm up -- he sees me -- I'm down."

4) On the "down" part of that mantra, drop immediately to the ground and assume quasi-prone again.

5) Give yourself a fifteen-second recovery period, then repeat steps 3 and 4 again.

6) Repeat step 5 until you reach cone/chair #2, then reverse directions and repeat.

7) One repetition is going from cone/chair #1 to cone/chair #2 and back; continue this drill for 5 repetitions.

8) Complete your exercise period with another six 100-yard sprints, as fast and hard as possible.

III Flag Update

Picked up mail tonight, including several new orders.

Will prep for mailing Monday as many orders as I can with current inventory. The remainder will be filled with the final shipment when it arrives next week.

More as I make progress.

Ordering information remains here.

Thanks for your orders and for passing the word throughout the blogosphere.

Futile?

Billy Beck links to this chap.

Read it and tell me:

Is it better to keep shouting, or simply go about one's business as the Light fades?

What keeps me going, barely, is that (likely delusional) thought that someday, somebody will, as I did with Garet Garrett, look to the remnants of our work and say:

"People knew how bad it was going to be, and did the best they knew how to alert others."

Qui tacet consentire videtur.

Silence is consent.

III Flag: Washington State

Courtesy of Jeffersonian; send your photos to westernshooters@gmail.com.

Audentes fortuna iuvat.

Hanson: All Falling Down

A superlative sitrep from Victor Davis Hanson; excerpt:

***
...Why the pessimism? I think there are a few truths that transcend politics and remain eternal. In life as a general rule, debt has to be paid back, and with greater pain and anger than it was to borrow it. Bullies do not respect magnanimity, but tragically interpret it as weakness to be exploited rather than to be admired.

Hoping that something good comes true —like being self-reliant through solar and wind—does not make it true; neglecting the riches at hand to dream about greater riches that do not exist is adolescent. Radical Islam hates the West, not because of what we do or say, but because of who we are: a dynamic, mercurial culture that challenges all the protocols of a traditional, tribal and religiously fundamentalist society.

Diplomacy is a tool to lessen, but not eliminate, tensions—a way to conduct foreign policy, not a foreign policy in and of itself...
***

"Upholding the Law" or Simply Theft by Other Means?

Please read this essay from Of Two Minds and consider:

What will local, state, and Federal government agencies be willing to do when revenues get really tight?

Answer: Exactly as much as they are allowed to do by the American citizenry.

No consequences; no reason to change.

Simple.

Dead Government Walking

Read this .pdf report from Toronto's Sprott Asset Management, courtesy of 321gold.

Key section:

***
...Hemingway wrote that a man goes broke "slowly, then all at once." We believe the same sentiment can be applied to governments. If fiscal abuses continue unabated, confidence eventually erodes until investors eventually just stop lending...
***

After you have read the report, pass it on to others.

Tempus fugit.

The Philosophy of Liberty

From Theo.

Watch.

Then look hard in the mirror.

Then act.

Cooper on Accuracy

From the February 22, 1995 edition of Jeff Cooper's Commentaries:

"No experience is so conductive to steady and accurate shooting as the knowledge of the impossibility to escape by speed."

-- Sir Samuel Baker

Liberty Stickers

One more image from the dozens at Liberty Stickers.

When? Who?

On The Green points to a Will Grigg article, then asks the key question.

Billy Beck provides more data in support of that question, with his "Standing Army Round-Up" today.

And, of course, there is David's ongoing "Only Ones" compilation.

My thoughts?

That "identification friend or foe" project for AmRev 3.0 better get started pretty damned quickly.


Tempus fugit.

(images from Liberty Stickers)

Is 'Limited Government' An Oxymoron?

From Tyranny Unleashed comes this video, reposted here to spur more thinking about what level of economic and political organization, if any, will be needed in the autonomous zones formed both during and after the upcoming War of the Tyrants, a/k/a AmRev 3.0.

See also this post from Larken Rose via Bill St. Clair.

Watch, listen, think, and act.

Audentes fortuna iuvat.

No More Collaboration

A Lesson From One of the Last Free Britons

Head over to The Smallest Minority for a lesson from a Brit on how his nation committed suicide.

Read it all, but here are some lessons learned from the piece:

***
...So what lessons can I summarise here?

1) Government is a Business and like any business it is a case of expand or die.

2) An emergency allows legislation to be introduced which ratchets up, never down and any power once seized is NEVER given up.

3) Politicians lie.

4) The Police are a business (see 1 above).

5) Unless you take an interest in Politics and watch your “representatives” like hawks, they will arrange things to benefit themselves.

6) Unless you are cynical, the plausible schemes, soft and reasonable sounding words are not rebutted and there is always a further step which can be taken towards Utopia. Once you realise the process has gone too far, it is too late.

Does that little list sit uncomfortably with you?
***

It should.

Read the whole thing.

Socialism For Me, But Not For Thee?

Neal Boortz slams those who believe that a cry of "need" is sufficient justification for looting.

Key grafs:

***
...Here's the bottom line. Our construction worker made a conscious decision to have four children. He knew, or he should have know if he had paid any attention at all, that his chosen field of construction work was not going to allow him and his family to live at the poverty level. A college education for his children? Well, you can pretty much forget that unless they excel in sports, or they have a rich grandma somewhere.

Well here's someone who deserves our pity, right? Look at the decisions he's made. Education? Maybe high school. If there was a college degree in the picture he wouldn't be a construction worker. (Well .. he could, I guess, be one of those brainiacs who pursued a degree in English or history.) Then ... after deciding to forego higher education, he gets married and starts downloading children - each with a $200,000 or more price tag - at a pretty fair clip; stopping at four. He's chosen employment in an industry where continued and steady employment is, at best, problematic, ... and he starts having children like a hamster; children that he cannot afford to raise. Then the inevitable happens. The work dries up. He can't feed his family ... and he decides it's time to take advantage of the willingness of the political class to seize property from private citizens and give it to him in return for his support and vote(emphasis added). Then, of course, I'm the bad guy when I point all this out...
***

On a similar note, consult Congressman Davy Crockett:

***
..."Mr. Speaker – I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. This government can owe no debts but for services rendered, and at a stipulated price. If it is a debt, how much is it? Has it been audited, and the amount due ascertained? If it is a debt, this is not the place to present it for payment, or to have its merits examined. If it is a debt, we owe more than we can ever hope to pay, for we owe the widow of every soldier who fought in the War of 1812 precisely the same amount. There is a woman in my neighborhood, the widow of as gallant a man as ever shouldered a musket. He fell in battle. She is as good in every respect as this lady, and is as poor. She is earning her daily bread by her daily labor; but if I were to introduce a bill to appropriate five or ten thousand dollars for her benefit, I should be laughed at, and my bill would not get five votes in this House. There are thousands of widows in the country just such as the one I have spoken of, but we never hear of any of these large debts to them. Sir, this is no debt. The government did not owe it to the deceased when he was alive; it could not contract it after he died. I do not wish to be rude, but I must be plain. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks"...
***

Theft, for any rationale, is theft.

And thieves generally do not cease being same until they are forced to do so.

Got courage?

Self-Portrait

From Big Fur Hat via a reader.

Not All Contractors Are Hessians

Go.

Read.

Then start thinking about "IFF" codes and signals for a decentralized battlespace.

We're gonna need 'em.

JPFO: An Open Letter to BATFE Acting Director Kenneth Melson

From JPFO:

October 22nd 2009

Dear BATFE Acting Director Melson:

We at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership recently received the document that is copied below for your convenience. We would respectfully ask you to either validate these assertions or refute them in detail. Our organization has had a long and disconcerting experience with the agency you now head. We would suggest that you might seek to bring a refreshing era of candor and honesty…and, if possible, a substantial dose of legality… to the BATFE. You can certainly start by examining the following carefully compiled expose in detail, and then tell Americans if you are truly planning a national gun registry.

(JPFO’s open letter continues below following document …… )

BATFE Backdoor Registration Scheme

For nearly 20 years, contrary to the Intent of Congress and in violation of 18 U.S.C. 926(a), BATFE has been quietly building a massive Firearms Registration System for Firearms, Firearm Owners and Firearm Transactions.

The Firearms Owners' Protection Act, signed into law in 1986, specifically forbids registration of firearms records at 18 U.S.C. 926(a):

"No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners' Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established."

When a firearms dealer, importer or manufacturer dies or otherwise goes out of business, all the Acquisition/Disposition records (the "Bound Book") kept by the business must be delivered to the BATFE Out-of-Business Center. Currently (according to the 2010 BATFE Budget Submission), over 1.2 million records per month are being received by the BATFE Out-Of-Business Center.

Most recently, on August 25, 2008, BATFE implemented Ruling 2008-2, allowing Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders to keep the Acquisition/Disposition "Bound Book" on a computer. However, when the FFL goes out of business, he must provide a computer file (digital file) and file layout to the ATF Out-of-Business Records Center - in addition to a printout of the "bound A/D book". Since BATFE kindly allows dealers to also record antique firearms in the A/D book, these records are also being turned in to BATFE.

Obviously, BATFE intends to make use of those digital records. The digital file includes the Name and Address of every Buyer and every Seller for each gun, as well as the Name, Make, Model, Caliber and Serial of each firearm. In fact, each set of Out-of-Business digital records is precisely a system of registration of firearms, firearm owners and firearm transactions specifically prohibited by 18 U.S.C. 926(a). BATFE has not revealed what they are doing with these files.

In 1992, BATFE began creating a computerized "index" (based solely on firearm serial number) to the microfilm Out-of-Business records, called the "CARS" system (Computer Assisted Retrieval System), as reported in a 1995 letter to Tanya K. Metaksa of the NRA. Since there are so many duplicate serial numbers, this system must have been woefully inadequate for tracing.

By 2004, BATFE acknowledged the existence of an automated Microfilm Retrieval System (MRS) containing information on 380 million firearms with an additional 1 million firearms added per month. This system had been enlarged from the previous system (CARS) to contain not only firearm serial number, but manufacturers and importers as well.More recently (since at least 2005), ATF has been converting microfilmed dealer out-of-business records to "digital images" of the records. It is not clear whether this is a digitized "picture" file, or an actual digital record of the acquisition/disposition. However, regardless of the method of storage, and whether access to the detail record is automated or manual, this system is precisely, in fact, a system of registration of firearms, firearm owners and firearm transactions specifically prohibited by 18 U.S.C. 926(a).

From the 2005 Appropriations Bill:

"Conversion of Records. The conferees recognize the need for ATF to complete the conversion of tens of thousands of existing Federal firearms dealer out-of-business records from film to digital images at the ATF National Tracing Center. Once the out-of-business records are fully converted, search time for these records will be reduced significantly. The conference agreement includes $4,200,000 for the ATF to hire additional contract personnel to continue the conversion and integration of records."

However, this same Appropriations Bill also states:

"Provided, That no funds appropriated herein shall be available for salaries or administrative expenses in connection with consolidating or centralizing, within the Department of Justice, the records, or any portion thereof, of acquisition and disposition of firearms maintained by Federal firearms licensees:"

Similar provisions have been contained in every annual Appropriations Bill between 2005 and 2010.

The Firearms Tracing System (FTS) contains firearm tracing information from all traces performed since 1989. The data includes Multiple Sales reports (ATF F 3310.4 with names and addresses), all guns that were "suspected" as being used for criminal purposes, as well as the detail results from all traces (which would certainly include Name and address of all known sellers and purchasers). Suspect guns include, for example, individuals purchasing large quantities of firearms (collectors?) and dealers with "improper" record keeping. Once a gun is traced, even in error, the data is kept in the trace file. Whether all these records are being combined into a huge data base is unknown. Regardless, each of these are a system of registration of firearms, firearm owners and firearm transactions specifically prohibited by 18 U.S.C. 926(a).

BATFE is so proud of their Firearms Tracing System [FTS], they offer on-line access to the records by another system (eTrace) on the internet - world-wide! BATFE offered world access to the eTrace System in United Nations Marking and Tracing Workshops held in Nairobi, Kenya in December, 2007, Lomé, Togo in April, 2008, Rio de Janeiro in June, 2008, and other locations. In 2007, BATFE reported some 10,000 individuals representing over 1620 law enforcement agencies around the world (now over 2,000 agencies) had access to our firearms data. Now, information on your guns (and you!) is directly available to 10 foreign governments (including strong cooperation with governments having known corruption issues, such as Mexico and Columbia), and trace requests have been received from 58 foreign governments (some with terrorist connections).

Implications of these registration systems are huge. These records can easily be sorted to report on all buyers of .223 and 5.56mm rifles - or all buyers of .50 BMG rifles, or all purchases by any individual.As BATFE has been placing increasing importance on their tracing function, they have been creating more firearms registration records. We need to question their statutory authority for automating the tracing process. Originally, the tracing process was intended to be handled by phone calls to the manufacturer or importer, followed by calls to the distributor, and finally to the dealer. By increasingly computerizing this process, BATFE has created a massive system of registration of firearms, firearm owners and firearm transactions specifically prohibited by 18 U.S.C. 926(a). The ultimate goal of such a tracing system is a registration system of every firearm and every firearm owner in the United States.

The author is a retired computer professional with over 40 years experience with computers and software.

(end document)

There you have it, Acting Director Melson. This seems to us at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to be a methodical and carefully researched presentation, but perhaps you can prove us wrong.

The reason we at JPFO are making this an open letter, which will be widely disseminated on the Internet, is because BATFE has a sordid history unlike nearly any other Federal agency. The BATFE brought America Ruby Ridge and Waco.

More recently, people now under your leadership blatantly framed David Olofson with light primer ammunition to get his lawful rifle to fire like a machine gun. You, being a forensics expert, should understand more than anybody how patently unlawful and dishonest this testing procedure was, and continues to be.

But these travesties, no matter how grave, are truly overshadowed by the ominous plans outlined above. Perhaps you might wonder why concerned, freedom loving Americans would be suspicious of a Federal government that knew where to find every privately owned firearm…and do so with lightning speed and efficiency via a computerized database. And why would you want to share this data with foreign powers?

Are we being “hysterical”? Are we being “paranoid”?

Frankly, I don’t think so.

So, Mr. Melson, what is your detailed response to our inquiry?

Respectfully,

Aaron Zelman – Founder JPFO
Etc. etc.

PS: If you wish, we will also provide you with your own personal DVD copy of our documentary entitled “The Gang”. This is a concise history of the criminal activity of the agency you now head. We doubt any of your subordinates will share with you much of the information contained in this documentary. “The Gang” will help you understand why so many Americans would, justifiably, like to see the BATFE abolished.

Codrea: Is SPLC Racist In Its 'Tracking' Choices?

David asks an inconvenient question of the Southern Poverty Law Center and their sustained attacks on Oath Keepers.

Read it and pass it along.

Is your sheriff or police chief an Oath Keeper?

Why don't you find out, while things are still relatively quiet?

Oath Keepers Challenge Media to Tell The Truth About Their Organization

Codrea: Media Discovering Oath Keepers

Go and read David's latest:

Part 1

Part 2

Back to the road.

Going Mobile

I've got a few days of vacation to use, and will be in an area with dubious wireless and internet connectivity.

Along with checking at David's War on Guns and Examiner shops, please use the bloglist and resource collections in the left margin as content 'til I get back.

See ya later.

Bastiat: The Law

Take the time to read this classic economic treatise by Frédéric Bastiat as you consider what forms of government, if any, should be created in the post-Collapse autonomous zones.

Excerpts from "The Law" and other works from Bastiat:

***
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
***

***
...Do those worshippers of government believe that free persons will cease to act? Does it follow that if we receive no energy from the law, we shall receive no energy at all? Does it follow that if the law is restricted to the function of protecting the free use of our faculties, we will be unable to use our faculties? Suppose that the law does not force us to follow certain forms of religion, or systems of association, or methods of education, or regulations of labor, or regulations of trade, or plans for charity; does it then follow that we shall eagerly plunge into atheism, hermitary, ignorance, misery, and greed? If we are free, does it follow that we shall no longer recognize the power and goodness of God? Does it follow that we shall then cease to associate with each other, to help each other, to love and succor our unfortunate brothers, to study the secrets of nature, and to strive to improve ourselves to the best of our abilities?
***

***
...But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime...
***

If you prefer video to text, here is an extensive collection of videos about Bastiat's work, including "The Law" in 9 parts.

Freedom is the key value.

In the chaos of the day and to come, never lose sight of that central fact.

(Thanks to Perry Eidelbus for reminding me of Bastiat)

You Tell Me

Watch this video, recorded last week, of a portion of Britain's Lord Monckton's address to an American audience on the great global warming swindle.

Here's a transcript:

***
...And what are we doing instead? At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.

I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfaction of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.

[laughter]

And the trouble is this; if that treaty is signed, if your Constitution says that it takes precedence over your Constitution (sic), and you can’t resign from that treaty unless you get agreement from all the other state parties – And because you’ll be the biggest paying country, they’re not going to let you out of it.

So, thank you, America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your humanity away forever. And neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back. That is how serious it is. I’ve read the treaty. I’ve seen this stuff about [world] government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or not.

But I think it is here, here in your great nation, which I so love and I so admire – it is here that perhaps, at this eleventh hour, at the fifty-ninth minute and fifty-ninth second, you will rise up and you will stop your president from signing that dreadful treaty, that purposeless treaty. For there is no problem with climate and, even if there were, an economic treaty does nothing to [help] it.

So I end by saying to you the words that Winston Churchill addressed to your president in the darkest hour before the dawn of freedom in the Second World War. He quoted from your great poet Longfellow:

Sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
***

Working draft copy of the Copenhagen treaty here.

Full speech by Lord Monckton here.

Additional commentary from Anthony Watts' blog and Global Climate Scam.

Watch the vids, plow through the draft treaty, read the commentary, and make up your own mind.

I have, and thus will end as did Denninger:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F. Kennedy, 1962

Denninger: FDIC Is Bankrupt

Go and read.

Got cash in the mattress (or gun safe) at home?

Tempus fugit.

Beck: There Won't Be Anything Heroic About It

From Billy Beck:

"someone should put the record $1.42 trillion deficit in a balloon"

Jake Tapper jams American public awareness, implicitly indicting the frantic media zooms on floating shiny objects. Fairly well cracked, I say. Personally, I recall my father saying during the mid-80's that he would live to see the first two trillion-dollar federal budget. That was a fearsome prospect to him, for good reasons including all the destruction that such numbers would wring upon the landscape, and he was right: a Republican signed that budget the year before Dad died. (Bush, 2002)

Friday brought news that the federal deficit for fiscal year ended September 30 went $1.4T. It is widely reported as the largest deficit "since WW II"; a fnord designed to ease the average psychic strain of such a concept by ethical comparison to great moral adventures of the past which were, after all, borne and survived by Great Generations.

{spit}

Look: this is not that sort of crisis. Absent the aggressions of foreign dictators and the various stipulations, presumptions, and enforcements of United States administrations, it is very difficult for me to imagine that Americans would have gone to war in the whole of the twentieth century. The productivity and very existence of those people were roused in dedication to battle as what were considered (correctly or not) necessary responses to immediate and long-term military events. Of course, it's ridiculous nonsense to imagine that World War II represents some sort of "investment". However, it is an economic event of considerable moment in its amazing concentration of productivity upon such a generally-endorsed value. (Let us always recall that the thing was done half-assed.)

The crisis now is one of identification. I take these socialists at their words that this will be a different country. Let history record that freedom was an American ideal and that it had no place among these people who are attempting the wholesale concentration of entire generations' productivity to their designs for everyone's lives. That is the nature of the crisis now. It doesn't play headlines like a Pearl Harbor, and most people never even imagine anything like it, even while they are chin-deep right down in it.

This isn't a bump in history, like World War II. This is a different way of life -- which cannot even really be called that, because it is actually and ultimately a way of death, mitigated only to any degrees of hypocrisy in its practice.