Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Repost: 20 Questions

If your spouse ran into the room and said her brother - a state trooper - just called to warn that raids under the new Federal assault weapons/domestic terrorism laws were beginning tonight:

1) Would you flee, assuming that you believed yourself to be "a person of interest"?

2) Whether your decision was to flee or to stand, what would your spouse and children do?

3) What would you and your family use as money and travel documents?

4) Would you have an adequate bag or two suitably packed and ready to go for each "fugitive"?

5) Would you have all medical necessities addressed for you and your family (e.g., teeth, immunizations, mitigation of any preexisting conditions, adequate supplies of maintenance drugs, etc.)?

6) What about three-season (fall/winter/spring) clothing for you and each family member?

7) What would you use for transportation?

8) What would you use to refuel your transportation?

9) Where would you go?

10) By what route(s)?

11) Upon arrival, where would you stay and for how long?

12) What would you use for communications (both receive and transmit)?

13) What would you tell your employer?

14) What would you tell your neighbors?

15) What would you tell your friends and family?

16) What would you use to buy what you need while in flight (fuel, food, transport, bribes, etc.)?

17) How would you alter your and your family's physical appearances while in flight?

18) Who would be your allies trustworthy enough to guard your life and the lives of your family?

19) How would you contact your allies?

20) What are your three alternate plans for each of the preceding questions?

Tempus fugit.

Monday, March 30, 2009

III Patch Update


Raven's Wood Enterprises has shipped all orders received as of March 30, 2009. Any orders received from March 31, 2009 will be delayed as we await a new shipment of patches.

New Options: 3 color Desert will be offered in addition to the Woodland patch.

If you've sent an order that you think might be received on or after March 31st, please be patient as we will ship them as quickly as we receive them. Also, please remember that if you choose to send anything other than a USPS Money Order, your shipment will be delayed by 7 to 10 days as we await your instrument to clear the bank.

In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding your order, please send a note to: ravenswoodent@sbcglobal.net Please include your name, the street address, and the amount of patches you ordered.

Thank you!

Raven's Wood Enterprises, LLC.
http://www.ravenswoodenterprises.com/

Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Republic, If You Can Regain It

Watch this video.

Pass it to others.

Don't tolerate the claim that this country was intended to be a democracy.

And consider how, if ever, can delegated authority be controlled.

Friday, March 27, 2009

More Action Items for John Q. Public

From The Burning Platform:

***
...It is now time for all Americans to force fiscal sanity upon our government through the use of civil disobedience. Our current fiscal path is unsustainable. The government’s solutions will extend the pain for decades in the best case or result in an abrupt collapse in the worst case. If Americans force a fiscal restructuring upon the world it will be extremely painful, but would result in a more balanced sustainable society going forward. In both cases, Americans will need to accept a reduction in their standard of living. This is the price that must be paid for thirty years of living above our means. Some passive resistance ideas regarding the fiscal sanity movement could be:

* Imagine that Americans refused to spend any money on discretionary items like electronic gadgets, furniture, and jewelry. With 70% of GDP dependent on consumer spending, this would result in the closing of thousands of unnecessary retail stores. We know that a sustainable level of spending is 62% of GDP, so let’s get there in two years rather than dragging it out over a decade.

* Imagine that Americans decided to withdraw every dime of their money from all the banks that have accepted TARP funds. There are 8,500 banks in the United States. Seventy banks have accepted TARP funds. Pull your money out of these banks and put it in your local banks or credit unions that didn’t bring down the financial system. This would ruin the Treasury’s latest $1 trillion scheme of hiding toxic assets.

* Imagine that Americans stopped using credit cards. The major purveyors of credit cards, Bank of America, Citicorp, American Express and Capital One would collapse under the weight of bad debt. Credit cards are a ponzi scheme dependent upon new credit issuance. Without charging 21% interest and collecting $25 late fees for being one day late, their businesses will implode.

* Imagine that every working American walked into work tomorrow and changed their W-4 to 20 exemptions. This would immediately remove $1.2 trillion of taxes from the grasp of politicians in Washington. You could bet that would get the attention of the political hacks in Washington...
***


Go and read the rest.

Then act.

Audentes fortunat iuvat.

Let's Win

Last July, I responded to a question from Kevin Baker of The Smallest Minority as follows:

And the alternative [to voting] is...

what, exactly?

Be specific. And detailed.

Because I really want to hear it.

My reply:

Kevin:

The people in this country who truly cherish freedom in all of its manifestations (thought, guns, speech, religion, association, private property, etc.) had better darned skippy get used to the idea that we are a cursed minority and will be for the foreseeable future.

The simple formula is this:

- We're screwed

- There's gonna be a fight

- Let's win

Your posts on the courts and freedom issues in general mean that I don't have to make the case for "we're screwed" with you.

BTW, thanks for all that you have taught me through your writing.

So we move to "there's gonna be a fight".

Why?

Ain't no way that the transnational socialists can leave an armed, educated, defiant remnant intact to cut and slash at their Utopian schemes at every opportunity. The tranzis have to do everything in their power to disarm (literally, perhaps, but certainly educationally and psychologically; see generally Snyder, Walter Mitty's Second Amendment) everyone they can.

The reality is that the fight has been on for some sixty (or more) years.

You know that, per your writings.

So on to the fun part - "let's win".

Step one in "let's win" is to refuse any further collaboration in our demise. That's Billy Beck's point - delude yourself all you want with your participatory democracy fantasies, but leave me the hell out of it.

Withholding collaboration takes many forms, however. It involves getting physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the really hard stuff. Specific steps include the following:

Physical:

1) Fix teeth
2) Lose weight
3) Start walking at a fast pace regularly (1 mile 4x weekly)
4) Start working 25 yard jogs into your walks
5) Eat less and eat better
6) Get a complete physical
7) Stockpile any needed maintenance drugs
8) Start weightlifting by doing rifle dry-fire snaps (start with rifle at low ready, bringing up and dropping hammer just as sights align on light switch) 25 reps for strong side and weak side 3X/weekly
9) Integrate a light (20 lb.) pack into your walk/jogs
10) Bring one's spouse along as much and as quickly as possible.

Mental:

- read and assimilate the resistance canon (Heinlein, Ross, Vanderboegh, Bracken, Suarez, Royce, von Dach Bern, etc.)

- read and assimilate the economic canon (Hayek, von Mises, etc.)

- read and assimilate the political canon (DoI, USC, BoR, Spooner, DiLorenzo, Bovard, etc.)

Emotional:

- Get square with God as you understand Him. Even if atheist or agnostic, one needs a Larger Context in which to place the upcoming suffering and struggle.

- Sort the sheep from the goats in one's immediate circle. In some cases, that may mean divorce/separation, estrangement from children, parents, or other relatives, and the loss of friends. Better now than when the excitement has begun.

- For those remaining, get them up to speed on all fronts as much and as quickly as they can handle. Your associates' ability to digest all of the bitter medicine that they must swallow will no doubt be a source of frustration. Keep trying.

- Understand, at a profound level, how our lives as mortal creatures are both fleeting and as meaningful or as meaningless as we make them. Commit to yourself and to your ideals that you will spend the remaining days of your life wisely and in furtherance of those eternal truths.

Now, compared to that list, do you really think it matters whether one votes for McCain, Obama, Barr, or the write-in candidate of one's choice?

I respectfully submit that it matters not one whit.

Declare yourself into freedom, just as the Founders did 232 years ago.

Then do everything you can to defend that freedom, even unto death.

And I mean everything.

Remember too the cannibal's paradox - that the time spent in overcoming a taboo can so debilitate the prospective actor that the action taken fails for being too late.

Keep bashing on, amigo.


Yesterday, a commenter on this post asked:

OK, but what is the average John Q Public to do?

The list above is a pretty good start, and I would add the following elements upon further consideration:

Mental:

Psychological Toughening/Stress Inoculation: Start to wrap your brain around the fact that you will likely be committing multiple felonies, misdemeanors, and regulatory violations as part of your personal path to victory. Those folks who plan to survive in the new reality but currently pride themselves on being good, law-abiding citizens had best get over that silliness forthwith. After all, as Ayn Rand pointed out more than fifty years ago in Atlas Shrugged:

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Look around and tell me that we have not crossed that legal Rubicon.

Given the current situation, 'tis best to get on with your new life as a criminal. As a warm-up exercise, I'd suggest violation of at least one malum prohibitum law per day -- be it speeding, tax avoidance, unauthorized concealed carry of a deadly weapon, removing the flow restrictions on showerheads and faucets, tossing a rock through an appropriate statist window, or any other of an almost-infinite number of other meaningless rules.

Embrace the life of a malum prohibitum criminal every day, and insist that others in your tribe do the same.

Logistics:

I am not going down the list path in this post, other than to remind you that you'd best be getting your "Six Bs" finalized before the the current "rip-your-face-off" suckers' rally ends in the financial markets.

What are the Six Bs?

Beans: Food for a minimum of one year for each member of your tribe.

Bullets: A bare minimum of a long arm capable of killing a man at 100 yards for every tribe member over the age of 10, along with a bare minimum of 1000 rounds of ammunition for each long arm. Every adult (16 and above) should also have a centerfire pistol and no less than 500 rounds of ammunition for the sidearm. Holsters, slings, and webgear will be essential as well.

Bandaids: Medical supplies to allow your tribe to survive disease and/or injury without reference to existing medical systems.

Brains: Training and reference works to operate and sustain all of the bean/bullets/bandaids elements above.

Balls: Courage and sheer willpower will be dispositive. Strengthen yours and that of each tribe member.

Buddies: You will need a minimum of 14 like-minded people to stand even a basic lookout watch on a 7/24/365 basis. Got real friends? You're gonna need 'em.

Location:

The bug-out/bug-in debate is handled ad nauseum elsewhere. My point here is that wherever you are, you'd best have a detailed plan (along with several back-up plans) for how you and your tribe are going to defend your space. Remember, too, that defending space (i.e., fixed positions) is how hajii has been dying in droves in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of the people coming to hurt you will have had experience in the "fix 'em and then kill 'em" tactics used by the .mil in those struggles. Ergo, best to have a "going mobile" component to your plan -- or, as a wise man once told me, "Don't plan on being where they know you live if you want to keep living."

When John Q Public is squared away on those items, I'll bet this blog's smart readership will have other "to-do" lists to keep the Public tribe moving towards victory.

And defining "victory"?

Easy.

1) Survive the first die-off.

2) Keep your kids alive.

3) Kill the enemy.

4) Keep fighting.

5) Stay alive.

Any questions?

Audentes fortunat iuvat.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spartacus: More Financial Tremors

From Spartacus comes these links:

Denninger: The End Game Approaches

Coming soon to a Treasury near you: UK bonds fail to find buyers

Rig for storm, folks.

Alea iacta est.

Beck: Aghast

"My own point of view is that last week's Fed buy-up of Treasury notes represents the fateful step into the fiscal/monetary abyss of Weimar America."

Glenn Reynolds linked The Other McCain, yesterday. I note it here for the economic distinction that he draws, which is apart from the cultural and ethical abyss of Weimar America, which is a necessary predicate for the economic disaster. I emphasize ethics with the fact that Americans simply do not value freedom. They haven't for a long, long time. I think it's to the point now that very many if not most of them have no serious idea what concept is denoted by the word.

At The Liberty Papers, Stephen Gordon linked-up a comprehensive round of blogtakes on the "John Galt" impulse sweeping through the wreckage lately.

The discussion is wide-ranging and fast-moving: the norm for innertubes operations. Certainly, it must be a lot bigger than is evident in Gordon's linkfest, and I don't know how anyone could keep up with all of it. In nothing that I have seen so far, however, is there even an outline of moral principles necessary to explicating the case against the Amsoc now so manifestly on the march in this country. Nor do I see serious consideration of what must be done, and why.

"The most subversive political implication of 'Atlas Shrugged', is that individual freedom is possible only to those who are strong enough, psychologically and morally, to withdraw their sanction from any system that coercively thrives off their productive energies. In the novel, Rand examined the process by which creators tacitly collaborate in their own enslavement by granting moral legitimacy to their exploiters."
(Chris Matthew Sciabarra, 1995, "Ayn Rand -- The Russian Radical", p. 302)

It's curious to me that something of a line has been scratched across the ethical/political landscape at about a dollar less than two hundred fifty thousand. It's more complicated, of course, in that we're only talking about an increase in the rate of tax at levels above that. It's the percentage -- the angle of the chisel -- that's got some people now talking about trying to avoid it.

This is a very different thing from identifying and refuting the premises of the thing itself. It is to come to terms with with the presence of government that has brought us to the straits that we live with now. Even before the socialist push of the past couple of months, political conditions in this country were -- to cop a phrase -- "unsustainable". However, one implication of the hue & cry over the proposed tax rate increase must be a question whether people talking about "going Galt" would be content to live with the slow-rolling destruction of everything government, funded up to the historical moment.

Would they have been happy enough to live with it before this?

If not, then it would appear to be time to wake up to the political potential of Sciabarra's observation.

If so, then I would only point out that complacence did nothing to keep this thing from running off the rails so badly as it has.

Martin McPhillips grapples with shapes of coming things:
"And that’s what this merger of the movement socialist and his movement socialism with the unprecedented power of the federal bureaucracies will bring.

This industrial crusher-harvester-paver is not about protecting prosperity or 'providing opportunity,' and certainly has nothing to do with freedom. This thing is about itself, about establishing itself, about feeding itself, and above all about protecting itself.

It will no longer simply be government in business for itself, but rather utopian movement socialism in business for itself, and its business will be power.

It is going to be very American, and it’s going to work like the very worst of the public schools, with all the panache of the postal service, amidst the strident idioms of a child welfare bureaucracy, because childhood will need to become even more of a permanent condition."
I've been trying hard to see this, but I see nothing in history availing real insight. That's because nothing like the individualist idea in practical politics has ever been overthrown before. It has only been a brief flourish in world history, and has been under concerted attack almost since the beginning, but it really did exist here once and it brought to the human annals everything great about America: everything for which it will never be forgotten, everything that everyone will always want and will often strive in vain to recapture because they don't understand. It was freedom.

Going the ways it's going now, in the place where it was first put to practice in all of time, it's very hard to see what it will really be like. It's going to have to be a weird cross between the pervasive grays natural to every bureaucratic blanket and the kindergarten propaganda colors praying everyone to be happy, which means: politely submissive.

There's no telling how it will play once the everyday money right in peoples' pockets starts going to sand in real time. It's going to be really hard to keep people smiling politely through something like that.

It's just amazing; how fast things are going now.

Eidelbus: Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

From Perry Eidelbus:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Nationalizing the banking industry: don't say I didn't warn you


Americans are more likely to listen to the likes of George Stephanopoulos analyzing Obama's style and glossing over the typical lack of substance, ignorant of what Obama and Geithner are actually proposing.


The bottom line: the Treasury wants the power to take over any non-bank "financial institution" that it says is in need of saving. With this power, it can renegotiate and even nullify contracts (not just with employees, but business partners, so who will want to enter into contracts anymore?). The feds can also seize any and all assets to sell to competitors. Think of how dangerous this tyranny is. Remember how Chuck Schumer caused a bank run on IndyMac with comments he sent out one Friday afternoon? That will pale in comparison to what will be possible. Nothing will stand in the way of a federal bureaucrat at the Treasury who has a beef with a financial institution, or who wants to punish a single shareholder. Nothing will stand in the way of the feds keeping "we the people" in line.


I wrote on February 19th, talking about those liars Greenspan and Bernanke: "Mark my words here: as bad as it is now, we haven't yet seen how finance will become politicians' ultimate weapon to stifle dissent and ensure obedience. Under such a system, much like in African dictatorships, any suspicion that you're not loyal, have mocked or derided a politician, etc., means blacklisting. Financial blacklisting. That means an inability to deposit savings, get a loan, or transmit money electronically. It's not impossible to live that way, but most people don't have the stomach and would rather lick the hands that feed them. Be watchful, for I believe in the coming years we'll see (and most won't realize until too late) what "the mark of the beast" is. Without control of the financial infrastructure, how else could the tyranny of the last days prevent (most) people from engaging in commerce sans the mark?"


I started warning shortly after AIG was taken over by the feds that this was a prelude to nationalization. I also explained how a country can be taken over, quietly and from the inside, as the feds are doing now.


I've warned about Tim Geithner from the beginning.


I warned that, after Hank Paulson said the Treasury was dropping plans to buy "toxic assets" in favor of "injecting capital" into banks in exchange for direct equity stakes, the feds' goal all along was nationalization.


I've exposed the feds' lies and hypocrisy in using certain accounting trickery, which in the private sector would be fraud.


I've warned about scare tactics to make Americans think government intervention is necessary, like
"$550 billion was pulled out money markets in just a few hours on September 18th!!!" (Paul Kanjorski, quoted in the second article I linked to, has been spreading this myth, as has conservative shill Diana West.)


Stay strong and vigilant. It's coming.



When the feds came to nationalize AIG, I was silent because they weren't my insurer.

When the feds came to nationalize the top banks, I was silent because I didn't care about Wall Street.

When the feds came to nationalize American automakers, I was silent because I drove a Japanese car.

When the feds came to drive health insurers out of business with a government-run plan, I was silent because I paid out of pocket anyway.

Now they've nationalized everything, doling out only what they say we need, and I am just a worker ant for the state whose job is to stay silent.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

China Calls For New Global Reserve Currency

From FT, via Spartacus:

China calls for new reserve currency

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: March 23 2009 12:16
Last updated: March 24 2009 00:06

China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China.

“This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC.

Although Mr Zhou did not mention the US dollar, the essay gave a pointed critique of the current dollar-dominated monetary system.

“The outbreak of the [current] crisis and its spillover to the entire world reflected the inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system,” Mr Zhou wrote.

China has little choice but to hold the bulk of its $2,000bn of foreign exchange reserves in US dollars, and this is unlikely to change in the near future.

To replace the current system, Mr Zhou suggested expanding the role of special drawing rights, which were introduced by the IMF in 1969 to support the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime but became less relevant once that collapsed in the 1970s.

Today, the value of SDRs is based on a basket of four currencies – the US dollar, yen, euro and sterling – and they are used largely as a unit of account by the IMF and some other international organisations.

China’s proposal would expand the basket of currencies forming the basis of SDR valuation to all major economies and set up a settlement system between SDRs and other currencies so they could be used in international trade and financial transactions.

Countries would entrust a portion of their SDR reserves to the IMF to manage collectively on their behalf and SDRs would gradually replace existing reserve currencies.

Mr Zhou said the proposal would require “extraordinary political vision and courage” and acknowledged a debt to John Maynard Keynes, who made a similar suggestion in the 1940s.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Non-Options

A Canadian's perspective from a few years further down the road to serfdom:

Non-options

One of the key functions of modern government is to reduce, by law, the options people have, especially when they are facing challenges to survival.

A classic example of this is socialized medicine. Like all socialist systems, government health care creates big shortages and surpluses, beyond the reach of market correction: in this case, serious shortages of doctors, nurses and essential equipment, balanced by huge surpluses of administration and unspecialized support staff.

By contrast, one need never go far to find a dentist or a veterinarian in Canada, because these fields have not been fully "socialized."

So if you have a toothache, or your cat is ill, you know where to go. If the case is serious, you hardly need an appointment. It will cost you or your insurer money, of course, but within reason, and there will be no waiting lists, or all-night encampments in a crowded lounge outside the emergency ward, among the moaning and wheezing. (Then later, the waiting room inside.)

If you need serious tests, because you are stressed-out by medical symptoms, you may wait for a very long time. If you have money, and are still mobile (unlike so many of our old and ill), you may consider crossing the border. But in principle, in Canada, you wait your turn -- and if symptoms get worse you can try emergency. You might be extremely willing to pay for the tests, but the government won't let you. You could, in more than theory, die, because the government has restricted your options.

Guns are another good example. There are places on the surface of this earth -- and some of them are in our cities -- where life is fairly dangerous. Things may happen that have happened to others, and the police cannot be everywhere at once. The wisdom of our ancestors, not only Stateside but here, was to allow the honest citizen to carry. Gun accidents happen, as car accidents happen, but the citizen was granted a powerful "option" against assault, mugging, robbery and worse. This in turn reduced the options of potential assailants, muggers, robbers, etc.

The right to life, which necessarily includes the right to defend your life when it is threatened, underpins both freedom and order. The ham fist of government chips away at both, when it employs the implements of social engineering.

But survival does not come down only to select, momentary, life-threatening situations. The whole Nanny State was, after all, erected on the premise that someone must take care of the poor and helpless -- or more precisely, that this immortal task should be taken away from religious and other "faith-based" institutions. The vagaries of private donation -- in goods, services, time, money and devoted love -- were replaced by bureaucratic appropriation through taxes, and the love that comes from bureaucratic decree. From there, the state spread into taking over everything.

My third example of the withdrawn "option" is something that will be coming more clearly into view as our economy absorbs the shocks administered by the international financial crisis, and foolish profligate government responses ("bailouts" and "stimulus packages" on an unprecedented scale). Whole nation states may become effectively bankrupt, and thus unable to pay out welfare and other customary benefits without triggering hyperinflation by simply printing money. (We've been here before; we learned nothing.)

Labour law sets "minimum wages," which hardly make a difference in good times, but must be very constraining in bad.

Beyond such obvious legislation, the Nanny State has created an incredibly cumbersome apparatus to regulate the labour market.

The tax system burdens employers with huge costs -- both direct in cash and indirect through the cost of administrative compliance -- that are invisible to most employees. Each sees his salary, and the deductions taken from it directly; he does not begin to see the other costs associated with employing him, unless he is of an unusually curious, imaginative and generous disposition.

Compounding this, feminist developments in family law, over the last generation, have added a new layer of garnishes that trump labour law -- together with the bureaucracies to impose them -- as the social costs from the destruction of the family are monetized and arbitrarily reassigned. Males, the traditional bread-winners, especially in hard times, are often bankrupted by spousal and child support payments set at whimsical levels by ideologized family courts. This prevents them from, for example, supporting aging parents and the new families they have formed.

My question for today is, what will the citizen do when he has lost his job, can no longer depend on the "social safety net," and needs to earn money any way he can? Forget the minimum wage -- just money for immediate food and shelter.

We are presented, it seems to me, with two terrible "options." The first is, that honest citizen methodically continues to obey all laws, and he and his immediate dependents quietly starve. And the second is, the entire economy is metamorphosed into a black market, carrying society into real lawlessness, as the Nanny State crumbles under its own weight.

Perhaps my prognosis is too dire.

Discuss.

David Warren


My two cents?

Bring it on.

"Worse is better", to use a quote attributed to Lenin.

What folks forget when they use the perjorative term "black market" is that for all of their potential risks (caveat emptor, anyone?), black markets are in fact free markets, where buyer and seller voluntarily meet and exchange value.

I'll take my chances with my fellow citizens, rather than the multiple hordes of rogues, charlatans, and incompetents currently employed by my extracted-by-force taxes who claim to be "looking out for my interests."

A virulent pox on all of them.

234 Years Ago Today

Patrick Henry delivered this speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, VA:

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?

What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God!

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

JPFO: Is There Still Time?

From JPFO:

***
Is There Still Time?
By Kirby Ferris

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. © JPFO 2009

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

-- Sir Winston Churchill

Like most of you, I must confess I never thought that what is happening today, in our nation at this very moment, would occur in my lifetime.

Many of us have nursed a foreboding that it would be the task of the next generation to deal with what we face now. We feared that a love of freedom and independence was being bred out of the minds of our youth. Therefore, because they would be so woefully unprepared (and, very likely, disarmed), they would meekly slip on their shackles.

And the great American experiment would be over.

In our minds, we simply did not believe that all the things that were necessary to wake up the “Sleeping America” would arrive in our laps within these last few tumultuous months.

But they have.

Not a single one of us can deny the raw villainy and theft that has beset us like a Biblical hoard of locusts. We have been duped beyond our wildest imaginings. Our elected officials (with only a smattering of truly noble exceptions, like a certain Congressman from Texas) have betrayed our trust like never before in the history of our country.

These duplicitous men and women, acting in our names, have built a poisonous house of cards, an invitation to turmoil and chaos. And with this comes an invitation to authoritarian evil which is no longer disguisable.

No one with an ounce of common sense can deny that, at the very least, these whores and pimps must now be handed their pink slips, and shown the door.

The time for “reasoning”, the time for “conflict resolution”, the time for “compromise” and “tolerance” has now passed. Their Marxist Dialectic buzzwords have been unmasked.

It is time for each of us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we are going to finally do something about these crimes and these plundering criminals.


Are you ready to end this insanity?

Are you ready to bring back a true “Bill of Rights” culture to our nation?

We’ve complained enough. Now what do we DO?

There are two basic things that WILL happen in America. The only question is when … and if they will occur soon enough to bring change for the better. I don’t have to advocate anything. I GUARANTEE you they will happen. It’s just a matter of when.

These coming events only mirror and echo the irrefutable causes and effects of recent and ancient pasts.

BASIC EVENT #1:

Americans, en masse, will refuse to give these thieving vermin any more of their hard earned money. Look what they do with it! You vote for the Republican thief … or you vote for the Democrat thief … and the result is always, ALWAYS the same!

Might the populace somehow soon realize that it is a rigged game?

Well, here’s what you can do right now:

There is a film that is feared by the government, because it unveils what has been kept hidden from the American people. Do you really understand what has happened to you, to your life’s sweat? To your life savings and the inheritance you hoped for your children?

Watch - "Take Your Money Back". This download is free.

You can educate yourself, and then educate others. Again, it is free. You can pass it along to friends and family with the click of your computer mouse.

This film shows how Americans have been cheated by having their money confiscated out of every pay check, and then, on top of that, “double dipped” by immense layers of hidden taxation.

It is an eye opener. We must begin a “seed planting process”. Knowledge is power. Absorb this clear and understandable presentation and then immediately email it to five or more friends. This exposé can become a crucial geometric progression in the days ahead.

After viewing this film, you will ask yourself: Do those thieves in D.C. and in our State Capitols, those liars, those duplicitous and vile traitors to our Constitution, deserve one more dime of my money?

If you say yes, you’d better watch the movie again.

BASIC EVENT #2:

The American citizenry, having been prodded to desperation, will soon, and en masse, physically threaten these political charlatans and their corporate puppet masters. There’s muttering on the street. And it’s getting meaner by the hour. Mainstream media commentators are talking about a coming civil war and violent social upheaval. Such speculation, in the mainstream media, would have been absolutely unthinkable a year ago.

Please understand this pragmatic fact of life: Power only understands power.

Americans can still brandish their power, thanks to the Second Amendment - see "2A Today for The USA".

As tyranny and authoritarian dictatorship falls across the rest of the world, only we Americans have the personal power (more than SIXTY FIVE MILLION of us own firearms) to resist and prevail. This is amazing. It is almost miraculous. This blessing is only because of the Second Amendment, and the foresight of those who more than two hundred years ago installed it in our way of life.

Tens of millions of Americans will, at some point, finally say to the political vermin who beset us: “This far, and no farther. And when you’ve stopped here, you may begin a massive retreat. And that, Sirs and Madams, is not a request. It is a command.”

Yes, friend -- take a look in the mirror.


The time has come to “fish or cut bait”.

I wonder how many of us will go “fishing”.

*****************

ADDITIONALLY: We at JPFO urge you to read this fine essay by Jeff Matschke: “A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE”. It is a bit lengthy, but crucial understanding and reasoning must precede action if our actions are to be morally justifiable.

***


Audentes fortunat iuvat.

Economic Perspectives

Rolling Stone: The Big Takeover

Denninger: Geithner -- Banking Stooge

Denninger: Open Letter to the FDIC Ombudsman

NY Federal Reserve Bank: Dynamic Maps of Bank Card and Mortgage Delinquencies in the United States

Kunstler: Full Commanding Denial

The Geithner Disaster

Does Washington Even Want Recovery?

Thanks to the readers who sent the links. Read 'em all and pass 'em.

These shenanigans are not going to end well.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Thomas Paine Speaks



UPDATE 1925 CDT 23 MARCH 09: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", sayeth Emerson. Well, shucks -- no sooner did I pull the vid (which I still haven't watched in full) then did a regular viewer suggest a better path than pulling it altogether.

So "viewer beware" of the call for universal service and for abolition of the electoral college -- but watch the whole thing and make up your own mind.

And remember, to quote Perry Eidelbus, "Let me put it this way, saying nothing more.

Was the Boston Tea Party at all about postponing buying the tea? How did it get the attention desired?"


UPDATE 1845 CDT 23 MARCH 09: Mea culpa. I have never pulled a piece of content before. Now, with multiple commenters calling us out for having advocated universal service, I yield. I watched the opening bits of the vid and thought it useful; so much for not fully vetting content prior to posting.

Thanks for keeping things honest.


Pass it on.

Three Financial Howls for Your Weekend

Take the time to read each of these articles over coffee (or something stronger):

Denninger: Bernanke Inserts Gun Into Mouth

Denninger: Actions Have Consequences

WaPo: US Budget Deficit Projected To Swell Beyond Earlier Estimates

Key grafs from the WaPo article:

***
...In the first independent analysis of Obama's budget proposal, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obama's policies would cause government spending to swell above historic levels even after costly programs to ease the recession and stabilize the nation's financial system have ended.

Tax collections, meanwhile, would lag well behind spending, producing huge annual budget deficits that would force the nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade -- $2.3 trillion more than the president predicted when he unveiled his budget request just one month ago.

Although Obama would come close to meeting his goal of cutting in half the deficit he inherited by the end of his first term, the CBO predicts that deficits under his policies would exceed 4 percent of the overall economy over the next 10 years, a level White House budget director Peter R. Orszag yesterday acknowledged would "not be sustainable."

The result, according to the CBO, would be an ever-expanding national debt that would exceed 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 -- double last year's level --and threaten the nation's financial stability.

"This clearly creates a scenario where the country's going to go bankrupt. It's almost that simple," said Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who briefly considered joining the Obama administration as commerce secretary. "One would hope these numbers would wake somebody up," Gregg said...
***


Read 'em all, then pass to friends.

Don't let this past week's good news on the brass and AWB2 fronts take your eye off the ball.

We are facing the increasingly-likely prospect of the FedGov going Tango-Uniform, along with all of its regular transfer payments to various segments of our society.

What the former recipients of those payments will do in reaction to "no money this month" does not require much imagination.

Only well-stocked, well-trained, strong-minded groups of moral actors with the means and the will to resist bad behavior by mobs of any origin will make it through to the Restoration phase.

Remember the motto of Team Reorg:

Survive the first die-off.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Update on Fort Rucker Fiasco

Reported first by CNSNews.com and picked by USAToday and AP, the US Army is investigating why Regular Army troops were deployed domestically after the recent multiple homicides in southern Alabama.

Follow this story, and pass it to your friends.

(Some) Dems Opt Out of AWB2 (For Now)

Read this item from David's War on Guns blog.

65 Democratic Congresscritters say "nyet" to a new and improved AWB2.

Kudos to them, and the NRA, who was behind the effort.

May they (both the Dems and the NRA) continue to hold the line.

WRSA Grid-Down Medical Course - Clackamas, OR - March 27-29


Details here.

Hope to see you there.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Mob Grows


Read this piece from Mike and this piece from yesterday's newswire.

Now calculate the effect of these two factors on the overall progress of freedom in this country.

Do you understand?

And note -- it makes not a whit of difference as to a person's gender, ethnicity, skin tone, or any other superficial factor. What does matter is where a person falls on the "government power versus individual freedom" continuum.

The simple fact is that the ratio of increased government power supporters to the number of individual freedom supporters is bad today and growing worse.

Under those conditions, the voting booth becomes a one-way apparatus.

Alea iacta est.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Good News on the Brass Front?

UPDATE 2228 EDT 17 MAR 2009: Posted at Georgia Arms:

Thanks to your voice, DOD has rescinded the order to mutilate all spent cases as of 4:30 pm on 3/17/09. We appreciate the time and effort that you expended, together we all made a difference. We will be posting the email we received from DOD as well as any additional information within the next 12-16 hours. Thanks so much and lets get to work!!! Georgia Arms


As posted in this JPFO Alert:

March 17th 2009
Exposing the GovCrims pays off

Great news! It appears the destruction of military once fired brass has ended with a reversal of DoD policy.

Who says complaining does not pay off. (Refer back to last alert).

Please read the latest from the MSSA.........

Dear MSSA Friends,

I just received a phone call from the office of U.S. Senator Tester of Montana to inform me that at 5:15 (EST) today a letter cosigned by Senator Tester (D-MT) and Senator Baucus (D-MT) was faxed to the Department of Defense asking DoD to reverse its new policy requiring destruction of fired military cartridge brass. At 5:30, I am told, Tester's office received a fax back from DoD saying that the brass destruction policy IS reversed.

Others report to me that they are already seeing evidence of this on the Websites of entities that liquidate surplus DoD commodities.

Our thanks go out to Senator Tester and Senator Baucus, and their staff, for getting on this problem promptly and making the reversal happen

Staff for Tester and Baucus promise they will get me the documentation for this reversal tomorrow morning. I'll forward that when I get it.

Best wishes,

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Stand Your Ground

From reader Santini:

A thought occurred to me a short while ago on the stopping of surplus ammo imports, the DoD curtailment of expended brass sales, the rumors of a reinstated AWB that will make the first one look like "the good old days", and the current demonization of FFL dealers & gun manufacturers in the Southwest vis-a-vis the criminal Mexican gang invasion of our southern border states, let alone the apparent raping of our economy by socialists currently serving as "elected representatives":

In my days in hostage rescue back when the good guys didn't wear masks or presume civilians were the enemy, SOPs dictated that once you had a suspect fixed into position, you turned up the heat by removing his/her access to amenities such as power, water, heat, cooling, etc.. The idea was to make the hostage taker so miserable that when you offered a glass of water or a slice of pizza, medical treatment, or even a kind word, he would be more inclined to be reasonably open to compromise and possibly give up -- especially when running water in the plumbing made things a bit, well, "close".

All the while this was going on, the "dynamic entry team" would be inching their way into position covered by "designated selected marksmen". The theory was that the hostage taker would be so preoccupied with his/her physical discomfort that they'd be distracted enough to not notice their impending capture or doom (should they try to get off a defiant shot or hurt a hostage in retribution).

The same tactic is being employed against all gun owners and the American population in general. We are being put into a more and more uncomfortable and incrementally miserable position by our own government with the intent of forcing us to a point of voluntary capitulation with the program certain parties have in mind.

As the vice is tightened, we will see more and more "Americans" addicted to reality tv, mall shopping and instant gratification say, "Ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok-ok, just make it stop!! Whatever you want is fine with me!!"

All without firing a shot.

Apparently, the Collectivists have read their Sun-Tzu also.

And by the time these same people who capitulated are angry enough to do anything about it, well, guess what?

No ammo. No components. No weapons.

Their looks of resigned frustration will be met by the returned looks from their armed masters that say, "So what are you gonna do about it?.....Yeah...that's what I thought....now sit down, shut up and do as you're told!"

And us, the three percent?

Oh, they haven't forgotten us, I can assure you. They are waiting for someone, anyone to make a wrong move and hit the wrong target or otherwise fire the first shot. They are salivating in anticipation.

But they don't acknowledge or accept one fact: Once they do cross that ever-loving line and push those who will be pushed no longer, whoever is left standing will be unpredictably accurate in their response.

God help us, and them...and remember:

In light of the myriad of offensive behavior TPTB are engaging in as you read this note, this quote, amongst many from the American fighting tradition, is perhaps most apropos for the moment:

"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

- Captain John Parker, Lexington Green, April 19, 1775

Stand your ground, ladies and gentlemen.

Stand.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Modest Proposal from Kali-forn-i-a

From KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles, via Billy Beck.

If you go to the radio station's link and scroll down halfway to the bottom, you can watch Ah-nold's severed head spin merrily over the fencepost-bound heads of various Kali legislators.

Oath Keepers: Have You Submitted Your Testimony?



Go and read the latest at Oath Keepers.

Post your testimony.

Pass the word.

Get ready.

AWB Intel

From Sipsey Street:

I received an email from someone whom I trust who works on the "Hill"

To quote:

I’ve been attending hearings about Mexico/U.S. border violence the past couple of weeks and the hearings are nothing but a witch hunt against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors; blaming them for gun running and drug crimes across the border. I fear the “Assault Weapons” ban may make a return, worse than ever.


GET READY.


Yup. And start dispersal, if you haven't already.

Alea iacta est.

Peggy Noonan Goes Doomer


Read this article from today's WSJ by former Reagan staffer Peggy Noonan.

Sample graf:

***
...Gun sales continue up. The FBI's criminal background check system showed a 23% increase in February over the previous year, a 29% increase in January, a 24% increase in December and a 42% increase in November, when a record 1.5 million background checks were performed. Yes, people fear President Obama will take away the guns he thinks they cling to, but a likely equal contributor to what The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch called a "gun-buying binge" is captured in the slogan on one firearms maker's Web site: "Smith & Wesson stands for protection." People are scared.

They are taking cash out of the bank in preparation for a long-haul bad time. A friend in Florida told me the local bank was out of hundred-dollar bills on Wednesday because a man had come in the day before and withdrawn $90,000. Five weeks ago, when I asked a Wall Street titan what one should do to be safe in the future, he took me aback with the concreteness of his advice, and its bottom-line nature. Everyone should try to own a house, he said, no matter how big or small, but it has to have some land, on which you should learn how to grow things. He also recommended gold coins, such as American Eagles. I went to the U.S. Mint Web site the next day, but there was a six-week wait due to high demand.

I just went on the Web site again: Production of gold Eagle coins "has been temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand" for bullion...
***


Pity she didn't have the smarts or the guts to name the real cause of much contemporary American anxiety:

Our fellow Americans have elected an inexperienced Marxist as POTUS and given him a crushing majority in both Congressional houses. Meanwhile, those of us who know better have sat benumbed while Comrade Sotero's first sixty days in office have dramatically compounded most of the problems he inherited.

Now trend things out three years.

Get it?

Last freedom-lover in the house -- please turn off the lights.


Alea iacta est.

Spartacus: Food As a Means For Control, Anyone?

Spartacus sends with this endorsement:

"As introduced by the wife of a Monsanto executive, I call it 'The Access to Food As A Weapon Bill'."

Read these links:

HR 875 -- Monsanto's Dream Bill

Text of HR 875

HR 875 -- Creating the Food Police

But I'm sure it will be OK -- the Congress and the President are just trying to help us.

Got gardens?

Chaos, Confusion, And Civil War


From Financial Sense:

Chaos, Confusion, and Civil War
by J. R. Nyquist
Weekly Column Published: 03.13.2009


On 29 December 2008 the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic academy. A former KGB officer, Panarin made a splash by predicting that America will probably come under martial law by the end of 2009, and may fracture into several states by 2011. When this happens, says Panarin, Russia and China will become the mainstays of a new global order.

Americans are naturally skeptical of Panarin’s analysis. But his conclusions are quite pedestrian. If North America sank beneath the ocean like the fabled continent of Atlantis, the world would belong to Russia and China. No significant obstacle would stand in their way. The proof of this is found in the history of all empires, in the character of the leaders in Beijing and Moscow, and in the appalling weakness of Europe and Japan. Unthinking people are sometimes heard to say that Russia and China aren’t expansionist powers. It is laughable to think this, because you don’t become the largest country or the most populous unless you’ve conquered a considerable territory inhabited by many millions of people.

Without the United States in the picture, Russia and China would be the dominant powers. They would dictate terms to the world. No country or group of countries could possibly stand against them. This is because Russia and China possess thousands of nuclear weapons. The small nuclear arsenals of France, Britain, Israel and India do not pose a serious threat to large countries with large arsenals like Russia and China. Psychologically speaking, these small powers are helpless against great powers.

If Panarin is right about the breakup of the United States, then he is also right about the coming of a new global order under Moscow and Beijing. But is he right about the breakup of the United States? It was an anonymous Russian diplomat quoted in Pravda last July, who first intimated that the United States was about to suffer a profound crisis – a crisis of existence. How did the Russian diplomat know that the United States was headed for a financial crash? He knew because Russia has the best information service in the world, formerly known as the KGB. Russian spies have penetrated everywhere, and provide high quality information to people like Panarin – who is a “former” KGB analyst.

The Russian intelligence services have long tracked economic, financial and demographic changes in the United States. Russian analysts know that certain trends lead to political crisis. Such trends include ethnic balkanization, an ideological split in the ruling class, rising indebtedness, economic collapse, and declining moral standards. A country like the United States is ripe for civil war. If this should happen, foreign powers would intervene and the country would be split along geographical lines: California and the West would fall under Chinese control, Texas and the south would go to Mexico, and Russia would lay claim to Alaska. “It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska,” says Panarin. “It was part of the Russian empire for a long time.”

Panarin is saying, basically, that the present economic crisis signals a political crisis. The divisions within American society, and the narcissistic pathologies of consumer society, will cause an implosion. The people of America will turn against one another. The protective nuclear umbrella provided by the United States will cease to function. Europe and Asia will fall to Russia and China. From that point forward, the outcome of every political conflict on the planet will be determined in Moscow or Beijing. This would include, of course, the conflict within America itself.

Could America turn against itself in a matter of months? There are already inklings of a fissure. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) wrote a letter to President Barack Obama warning the administration to desist from bypassing the Senate’s authority over Executive Branch appointments. According to Senator Byrd, the new administration is creating new agencies out of the White House that “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances.” In effect, Byrd explained, the White House is taking “direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”

The new administration sees the economic crisis as an opportunity to create a new bureaucracy, less accountable and more powerful than ever. This new bureaucracy is preparing to take charge in the areas of health care reform, urban affairs, energy policy and the fight against climate change. Each new government office signifies a massive claim against the well-being of every American. The fight against global climate change will put the country in an environmental stranglehold. Health care reform signifies the nationalization of 14 percent of the U.S. economy. And what is meant by “urban affairs”? It is a wealth transference program bound to demoralize the suburbs. Administration energy policy promises expensive, unworkable energy alternatives while ignoring enormous oil deposits recently discovered under Montana and the Dakotas.

The Obama administration is headed for failure on every front. The economic healing process is being interfered with by a government that doesn’t know what it’s doing. The country is bound to suffer grievously, and lose patience. We already catch a glimpse of the future from Alan Keyes, who recently said that the country was headed for “chaos, confusion and civil war.” According to Keyes, “Obama is a radical communist, and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it’s true. He is going to destroy this country, and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist.”

The sentiments expressed by Mr. Keyes are those attending civil war. But matters have already taken a turn for the worse. There is a rumor in Washington that is making the rounds. It is alleged that the president has fended off dozens of law suits regarding his citizenship status, without producing a birth certificate to prove that he is a natural born citizen. In fact, Keyes will not acknowledge that Obama is actually the president. According to Keyes, “[Obama] has refused to provide proof that he is in fact a natural born citizen, and his Kenyan relations say he was born in Nairobi at a time when his mother was too young to transmit U.S. citizenship.”

The lines are being drawn, and we are headed for national tragedy. Panarin’s analysis isn’t farfetched at all. The country needs to wake up.

Danger approaches, and it is coming on fast.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Next Steps: LAST CALL! WAKEY-WAKEY!

Well, people, you were warned.

You were warned that cheap milsurp ammo supplies would dry up.

They have.

You were warned that reloading components would become scarce.

They have.

You were warned that TPTB could divert metals/propellants production because of any number of ‘reasons’, i.e., ‘The War in Iraq’, ‘The War on Terror’, and now the scariest one, ‘Domestic Terrorism’.

They have.

Two days ago, the news broke about the .gov's diktat that starting immediately, ALL once-fired military brass cases must be mutilated before sale and shipped to buyers only as scrap.

Reading it, I do not see where it limits itself to only US brass. Entrepreneurs of remanufactured ammo will be laying off workers and going out of business if they have to buy new cases from the domestic market. If that little gem is not quickly challenged in the courts, I foresee that diktat expanded to include ‘police’ calibers.

Sporting caliber ammunition is already very costly, but consider if you will how many ‘sporting’ calibers are based on a ‘military’ cartridge case. Some military somewhere in this wide world has used the popular calibers at some time. Some police department somewhere in the world has used the handgun calibers.

Do you see the thin edge of the wedge being inserted here?

To disarm you, TPTB don’t have to get into a row over the Second Amendment. You may have all the guns you desire: you just can’t FEED them.

So, what happens if the diktat is extended to include sale/manufacture of anything based on .mil calibers in the civilian market? Nearly everything made is a necked-up or necked-down, shortened or lengthened .mil case! Check it out in ‘Cartridges of the World’.

A stroke of the presidential pen and you are SOL. You can lobby Congress all you like, for the majority won’t listen.

It’s time, people, to look to your priorities.

In other Next Steps articles kindly published in the left margin of this blog, I have urged to investment in reloading components. I have given links to the Cast Boolit forum and urged you to purchase molds, work up cast boolit loads and practice with them ‘just in case’. I hope you did so, for another Next Step from TPTB I foresee is the banning of ammunition home-manufacturing tools, including boolit molds. They will make the case that, for the good of the children and as a curb to domestic violence or (HORRORS!) Domestic Terrorism, it is reasonable to keep these tools out of reach of “redneck terrorist militia types”, and the Constitution be damned.

I think it is also reasonable to assume they well remember that early in WW2 Churchill cried “Give us the tools and we will finish the job!”

Thus, my Last Call.

WHILST YET YE MAY, go NOW and add the molds to the reloading tools for your guns. If you do not, surely someone in your group knows how to use them?
Assuming you have heeded the warnings and stocked reloading components as deeply as your budget allowed, do not neglect to put by the molds you will need to make the projectiles. Start haunting your local tire shops NOW to scavenge used wheel weights, already scarce or disappearing, and in the process of being outlawed as toxic material!

My recommendations would be to obtain the mold producing boolits at the heavy end of your caliber range, for delivering the most energy to the target. You can go to the Cast Boolit forum and find out more than you need to know of ‘how-to’s’.

I won’t go into that here. What I do urge is that you get your mold orders in TODAY.