Friday, May 30, 2008

The FLDS Folks Begin to Obtain Redress ... Soon?

The Texas supreme Court has declared that the state overstepped their authority in taking those FLDS kids from their parents because their parents belonged to a baaaaad religious group. Give back.

Let's see how long they will drag this out.

In soviet Russia, they would bring a case and (literally) beat up the "accused" because they said they were innocent. The tenor of the response would be: How dare you say you are innocent and the prosecutor is wrong, after all the effort the state has put into this investigation. You must be guilty because an accusation has been brought!

Hold on there.

Does anyone see a resemblance?

What do you mean, you should get your kids back? Didn't we have an accusation brought? Don't some of the yung'ins have children? Doesn't that mean that you shouldn't have due process of law in an individual case? How dare you say that the state in all its power does not have a right to take the children?

Whose children are they, anyhow?

Not the State's.
Not the Parents'.


The children born into this world are PEOPLE. They are not PROPERTY. I tell my kids that they are mine, and what is theirs is mine, because they are not intellectually developed enough to understand the following:

People belong to their maker. You did not make your children, you made sex. God mixed the magic juice and made the children in their mothers' wombs. "Before I formed you in the belly I knew you." and "It is he that hath made us, and not we, ourselves". Children are born to parents who, ideally, are happily, with deep commitment, truly down-for-the-struggle Married. Not "we're seeing if it will work out" shacked up. Not a one night stand, rape or incest. Married.

The home of a married couple is the BEST environment in which a child can be reared. The father and mother balance each other's foibles, and their strengths and weaknesses complement each other. A child sees the way people should relate, and grows (hopefully) into a balanced individual.

The State is made BY people, FOR people. The state is supposed to protect people from damage by non-people and itself, as well as provide infrastructure that would be unfeasible to do privately (international diplomacy, armed forces, and, arguably, streets, to name a few functions). The State is not the ideal parent for a child. The State has a responsibility to to see that children are not abused, but that's a pretty narrow limitation.

I'm sorry if you don't like it, but having a kooky sending-you-to-hell religion that involves multiple wives is NOT the same as hitting a 5 year-old with a pipe wrench. Living in your own compound and having consensual relations between adults is NOT the same as starving a teenager locked in a closet. You're getting closer if you say, forcing a child into marriage at 14 and getting them pregnant, is a violation of human rights (given by God, by the way) that the State should try to punish.

That means, maybe, a couple dozen criminal cases here. it does NOT mean 440+ children arbitrarily grabbed at gunpoint, or burning down your compound with 80 people inside. Yes the examples are related.

It is only a small difference in scale, between burning your house down over your head, and stealing all your children, especially if the reasons for that action BY THE STATE are similar.

But I digress.

The State is not a parent, and the children are not the property of the State. The State does not get to say how children are to be reared, only that they are not to be abused. If the State doesn't like the way you rear your children, the proper response by ALL of us The People should be: Tough Cookies, Bite One.

God has given the responsibility for the rearing of children to the parents. The parents will do the best they can, and as they see fit. When we start acquiescing as a society to the taking of children because the parents' religion is different to ours, we are running headlong down a slippery slope.

I will lose my children for being a member of a cult with kinky sex action
I will lose my children for being a member of a cult
I will lose my children for being a member of a fundamentalist religion
I will lose my children for being a member of a religion
I will lose my children for publicly having religious ideas
I will lose my children for publicly voicing unpopular ideas
I will lose my children for suspicion of unpopular ideas
I will lose my children for unpopular actions
I will lose my children for smoking
for not seeing that they have health insurance
for not putting them in the assigned government school
for not feeding them properly
for not indoctrinating them properly
for not being a Party member
for not having a licence to have children
etc., and it gets worse.

Does it sound ridiculous? Then contact your local Elected Heroes and tell them you are outraged at the FLDS case in principle, whether or not they are responsible for it. Because YOUR children are next.

You freak.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

It's Happened. The Lunatics Are Now Running the Asylum.

I used to joke, privately, to myself, that, since we are assigning all these "rights" to animals, plants would be next.

Proving once again that modern liberalism truly is a mental disorder, Switzerland is assigning rights to plants.

It is morally ok to mow a field for farming, but not to pick a flower. The next step is clear.

We must stop eating plants, as they are our moral brothers. We already have stopped eating animals for the same reason. We must only eat air. Of course, it is the essence of selfishness to drink water from a stream, as it takes from the fish. Drinking rain water as it falls from the sky, obviously takes the life-giving water from the earth itself. We must stop eating and drinking.

Fortunately, those who truly adhere to this philosophy will remove themselves from the gene pool. The problem is with the hypocrites who force socialist philosophy down our throats while eating the flesh of small children behind closed doors.

If people had stayed in their Bibles, this would not even be a concern. It says the earth, the plants, the animals, are for us to have dominion over, take care of, and even (gasp! horrors!) eat.

Don't get me wrong, I love plants and animals. They taste great. Just stay out of my garden if you think the flowers have rights.

I wonder what they would think about my right to self defense?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Range Report

or, I Know What You Did Last Memorial Day

Yesterday (Memorial Day) we observed the holiday by spending it with those living people we love, including several families from our church and their families. In the morning, our a/c at the house was acting up, so I missed the 14:00 range session, but I figured our host, M.V. would at least like to see my highway patrol surplus Glock, so I took it and the Kel-Tek and a small pile of ammunition, on the chance that he might want to do some more shooting once the party thinned out some.

I knew that M.V. had shot a revolver and some pistol-caliber carbines, so I was somewhat surprised when he said he had never fired a pistol. C.B. may have a revolver (I'm not sure) but if he's fired off a full box of cartridges, ever, I'd be surprised.
E.M. has never been shooting.

We lit off some fireworks after a few hundred too many calories, and the majority of the guests split. Right at the crack of night, E.M. got clearance from his Wife to go shooting before they left. It was M.V.'s land, so he was good to go. C.B. joined us as we arrived on the range.

Distance: about 15yds. Target/backstop: some sacks of quickrete that had set up in the rain last summer, that were propped against some trees. I set my coke bottle on the sacks.

The 1st shot was mine. I went through the manual of arms for the Glock 22 and, with the first round, made a clean kill of my recently-emptied bottle. Everybody got a few rounds off with the Glock, and there were comments about the biggish recoil.

The next course of fire was with the Kel-Tek .380, and there were no more comments about the recoil from the foh-tay.

Then once more round with the Glock, me first. I was very pleased with the controllability in rapid-fire, and happy to put my first rapid-fire string out of it (Red's doesn't allow more than a controlled triple in rapid-fire). I also put out a much less accurate rapid-fire string from the Kel-Tek, and shot both single-handed. Fun.

We picked up some spent casings for souvenirs and recycling (and, for me, to have a quick check to see how the guns were running) and headed back up to the house. I tried to assuage E.M.'s fears when he asked how much all this shooting was costing me. The answer would have been different if we were shooting 30-06, but if you count the price cut I got on the Kel-Tek, I basically spent $0 on ammunition last night (yay!). We had a discussion with the neophytes about the relative power and size of various chamberings, including a discussion of E=MC(squared). Score: 3 made better militia members, 1 militia member got more gun time with his own weapons. Also, a 4-year old got to handle his first-ever live cartridge and got a very brief saftey & explanatory lecture, and E.M.'s wife heard from mine, that shooting really is fun. Plant the seeds!

The shooting was good. The quick-set concrete seems to be an excellent backstop for pistol fire. The Kel-Tek had zero malfunctions of any kind. The painted sights were of little use, due to low ambient light and a handheld spotlight that put daylight brightness on the target. The night sights on the G22 were of little use, also due to the spotlight's brightness. The Glock had one stoppage, a failure to feed, with a Speer Gold-Dot that had never been chambered before. That's a 5% failure rate and I think I'll be getting some Expanding Full Metal Jackets instead, in the future. Accuracy was fair, but since we were just shooting to shoot (no paper targets), the shower of cement shrapnel was much more impressive than the accuracy of the weapon.

Good times.

In the iterest of promoting familiarity with weapons of all sorts, and the advancement of the level of skill and knowledge amongst the members of the People, I will reiterate The Offer, again: if you have never shot a firearm, and are in the Central Texas region, contact me. I will take you to a well-lit, air-conditioned, controlled environment and supply the guns and ammunition. No strings attached. I want you to not be afraid of guns. I want you to know how to shoot. I want you (eventually) to be at least armed and able to defend your own home against Goblins.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

w00t! GIVE BAK!

Appeals court rules: TX has NO RIGHT to take the kids from the FLDS compound.

YAY! How about a sharp stick in the eye you JERKS. Let's see how long it takes to get the traumatized youngins back home.

Monday, May 19, 2008

What Do You Mean by "Equality Under the Law?"

Okay, the FLDS compound has been raided

hundreds of kids taken

on apparently completely made-up first-hand testimony from a crazy person.

Alrighty then, the case may proceed!

That would be, removal proceedings for ALL the kids in the compound.

Nevermind if the parents are accused of abusing the kids or allowing them to be abused... they were polygamists! Didn't you read the headlines? Pregnant CHILDREN!!!!11!

And some of the mothers have the gall to ask that their children be returned since there are no accusations of abuse in their cases. Stupid womyn. Don't you know you can't be members of an unpopular minority in the United States of America?

Oh wait.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Tales From a Survivor

At the grocery store last night, I heard employees on their handheld radios going back and forth about a Tornado Warning as we were on the way to checkout. After we made our evil capitalist dog transaction and the kids were at the Buddy Bucks machine, they came over the 1MC and asked customers to go to the middle of the store because of the Warning.

Being in the middle of a tin can during a tornado? Not my idea of a safe place.

We, of course, being led by non-sheeple type me, bugged out. I kept to the more-travelled roads in case the car got blow'd over with us in it, they'd find us sooner. Flags standing straight out, leaves & rain blowing sideways. Nice. By the way, NewTruck needs new wiper blades.

Got home: Severe Thunderstorm Warning. One remote transponder called a possible swirly action and automatic Tornado Warning. This morning: No tornado reported.

Bugging out 1, Hunkering down in a store with 60 sheeple 0, everybody got a good night's sleep thanks to the rain on the roof soothing the baby all night.

Lesson learned: don't let "them" do your emergency action thinking for you, unless you want to be scared and unaware of what's going on around you.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Irksome.

I am irritated.

I am irritated by phony feel-good holidays.

Valentine's Day is the worst. I'm not a Catholic and I'm not a jerk. Pretty much everything I do is for my wife and family. I shouldn't have to go to some extra effort on some arbitrary day to say what my entire life says every day. Let me be clear:

Valentine's Day is for Jerks.

If you need to buy a card, candy, flowers, jewelery, etc., so your woman knows you love her, you aren't expressing it properly, or she is an ungrateful wretch, brainwashed by feminist influences in our society, including commercial advertisements. either way, if you need to do something special on V'D, somebody in your relationship is a Jerk. I actually got offended this year by all the commercials equating stuff with love. I mockingly say "happy love day" and don't celebrate it. I did the same thing this V'D as the year before and after for my wife: Nothing Special.

But today is especially irritating; Mother's Day. Who could be against mothers? I'm for mothers, and my kids have a good one, but because Congress says so I have to do Something Special? Humbug. So I sat there & stewed in my juices the entire morning and will likely do so all day.* I think I'm not the only one. I told a joke and the guy to whom I told it got all offended. Blame fake holidays.

Now a real event, I'll recognize. It's our 10-year Wedding Anniversary this year, and if I can afford it I'd like to get a diamond ring for my sweetie. But today is just another day as far as I'm concerned. Count me that man who "esteemeth every day alike". I would miss my birthday. I would forget it was Christmas. I would ignore the New Year. We know the date of Easter, so I'm glad for that day. Don't get me started on Halloween.

Oh well.

And by the way, if you think that the above makes me a Jerk, what did you do for Secretaries' Day Administrative Assistants' Day? What will you do on Armed Forces Day? How about Hurray for Buttons Day, National Third Shift Workers Day, Migratory Bird Day, or Fibromyalgia Awareness Day?

HUMBUG. Bah.

&&&&&&&&

* I wrote this while I was still irked. As we were driving home from church, it occurred to me why this day sucks so bad. It's not Mother's Day, it's the Lord's day. I'd be upset if somebody threw my next door neighbor an un-birthday party in my house on my birthday, too. What a terrible idea. At least, while my wifey is out, I'm cleaning up around the house.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men

or, Why I Haven't Made Many Posts Lately.

New baby
New car / Old Garage (new car requires complete rearrangement of old garage)(including redoing the lights and shop air supply lines)
Full Time Job
and (drumroll)

College Algebra and US Government!

Yes folks, that's helping take care of a fresh #3, along with #1 and #2, AND a wife, house, cars, dogs, etc. all whilst trying to teach myself algebra at 2 in the morning.

Note: a daily combined total <6 hours sleep, mostly in <2 hour segments, is NOT conducive to lots of spare time for blogging.

My legions of faithful readers will have to suck it up a while longer, until #3 starts sleeping through the night, or until The Next Big Thing comes through.

If The Next Big Thing does happen the way it could, I could be on my way to 5x the money for 0.25x the hours worked. I'd appreciate your prayers on the subject, and we'll see what happens!