21Guns,Salute

BATFE Oversight Hearing

2011-06-16T10:19:00.006-07:00

Mike over and Sipsey Street and David at WOG have covered the lead up and hearings themselves brilliantly. One item that was missed in coverage was the Terry families opening statement. In it was a reading of a poem Brian Terry wrote to describe himself and his mindset.

“If Today Is to Be the Day…So Be It”.

If you seek to do battle with me this day, you will receive the best that I am capable of giving.
It may not be enough, but it will be everything that I have to give and it will be impressive for I have constantly prepared myself for this day.
I have trained, drilled and rehearsed my actions so that I might have the best chance of defeating you.
I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in the martial skills and have become proficient in the applications of combat tactics.
You may defeat me, but I’m willing to die if necessary. I do not fear death for I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me.
But, I do fear the loss of my honor and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without courage.
So I will fight you, no matter how insurmountable it may seem, to the death if need be, in order that it may never be said of me that I was not a warrior.

I read as much as most and more than many, rarely has the written word affected me so much. As the statement was read I was not so much angry, or even sad, but yet I cried. I tear now again writing this. This man, is America and everything that makes us a nation exceptional. I am sorry I never got to know him, I know I will never forget him.

Train to Win

2011-05-07T20:01:00.006-07:00

Read about our recent training agenda.

Follow "Line in the Desert" daily on-line and on facebook.

Thanks,

Jason

III

Busy, Busy...Please Read

2011-04-26T21:57:00.005-07:00

Sorry all have been busy. As noted earlier my primary employment was terminated. My gun shop is small but moving foward AND I am in the process of starting yet another fledgeling company. Yet I am still dedicated to my country and our struggle on the S/W border. Please follow the link below for the "public face" of our little mission in the desert.

http://www.lineinthedesert.com/

There are multiple posters on the lines in the desert site and this will still be the main me, but we are expanding. This is "me" and all of my commentary, that is the "us" and our mission and relative news. Give us a look and a prayer. Thank you for all of your moral and citizens salvation support.

Jason
III

Why I Love the Gun Business

2011-04-05T08:43:00.004-07:00

Just under 3 years ago I opened a small gun shop out of my house. I am "new" as compared to many, have been an active shooter less than a decade and a "dealer" for less than 3 years. Every transaction and every choice a customer makes comes with a lesson. Some for me some for them, but it is a constantly evolving and learning process. I carry and use, primarily current issue and styled arms of the US military. I have had generous customers share with me knowledge on WW1 Russian arms, turn of the century cowboy arms, and even some of the latest R/D from DOD (Department of Defense) bids and prototype weapons. While my business runs at a financial deficit now, the spiritual and enjoyment pay is beyond value. Thank you gunnies for being a diverse and sharing group, I am honored to deal with you every day.

Jason

Reporting from the "depression"

2011-03-14T13:55:00.002-07:00

"Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours." Ronald Reagan

The above is a fact in my humble opinion, solidified last Wednesday. Such is life. Not that writing has been expansive lately, but it will be dried up until I can generate some income soon. Carry on and continue your training boys and girls it will get uglier before it gets better.

Jason
PS- Keep up to the dailies on Sipsey Street, Liberty Sphere, WRS, and Uncle...Links on the right side bar for each. A storm is brewing, most likely NOT natural as Japan saw last week, but could be just as devastating.

Tango Down?

2011-02-25T22:40:00.003-07:00

News story HERE
From my AO and patrol area. The important part "Border Patrol agents track a group of armed suspects seen carrying backpacks when they discovered the body."

Watch your six, got mine covered.

Train

2011-02-22T22:01:00.003-07:00

What did you do this weekend? Passed on Nascar for some small unit tactics. Rest assured we all have actual faces in real life. First aide, communication and group movement was studied and practiced. If you know how... share it, if not... learn it. This is NOT a call to arms, but the responsibility you choose as a gun owner and a patriot.

Practice like you fight, and you will fight like you practice.

Jason

FYI- I am on far right, we were covering basic first aide and trauma procedures before live movement drills.

Kinks in Design?

2011-02-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Working out kinks in the "new" layout. Posts to follow

Spreading the Word, Said Better Than I

2011-02-06T09:11:00.002-07:00

"The truth is, I do not know. Perhaps, like Washington, our job is not so much to win, but to avoid losing long enough for God to rescue a future generation. In the meantime, keep your powder dry and your stocks built up. And pray."

From HERE ...Read the whole thing

Fatherhood

2011-01-14T17:52:00.003-07:00

I am so tired of the gloom. In Arizona we are still pelted about the recent shooting in Tucson. Every news source is pointing to a falling "quality of life" or liberty. I needed to take some time to reflect, and to be honest shed a tear. Not for one specific cause or another, but just to release. Well the introspective caused a revelation, that revelation from my sons. I only know life through my perspective. (I guess knew would be a better word, but we'll get to that.) I am one of the few people I know that made a conscious choice to be a husband and a father. This was a decision that took me a few years to be sure of. Recently I have had the good fortune of that choice. First the ugly, then the bad, and finally the good.
The Ugly:
- Some know, as I have mentioned it before, I was in the construction business for many years. As it declined in Arizona, so did all of my income. There went the lifestyle and the house.
- Recently my wife was diagnosed with a "We don't think it is cancer" and underwent some massive surgery only to find they still don't "think" it is cancer. They next surgery should provide proof positive one way or the other.

To some the above is not "Ugly" but, simply situational. But as I said it is based on my perspective.

The Bad:
-My wife had to return to regular work after being a Mom for 9 years.
-Work, when available, eats up valuable time with my family that I deeply cherish and miss.
-Work, when available, tends to suck.
Once again, not very "Bad" at least there is work.

The Good:
-Most o the "Bad" column can be called "life."
-Even a bad day looks bright as your first born walks into the room and for no reason holds you hand, looks you in the eyes and says "I love you dad."

This may not be "good" for everyone, but... I now get to see life through not only my perspective, but that of my children. If even only a glimpse, I treasure it.
I have had to swallow pride in recent times and ask family for loans, some under the pretense that I may not be able to repay, and have been blessed by the family I have to have made it this far. I find it strange that sitting in a room over 15 years ago trying to decide "if" I should/could be a husband and father has given me so much everyday since then. The family that I was born into, married into and created is a family like I could not have dreamed.
I am a husband and father first...
Jason
P.S.- This is meant solely as a reminder that life is what we make of it, and sometimes we make it good. Find the good in life, find the good in man. Hold onto this, for there is a rough trail ahead.

AZ- A Side Thought

2011-01-10T19:19:00.004-07:00

So, I've been thinking.... With all of the local and national media attention paid to the recent weekend events in Tucson, what they hell are these people going to think if real violence breaks out. When you look at the history of engagements in "pending" civil unrest uprisings, the "terror in Tucson" is small fish. One delusional jack wad goes to an unsecured event, gets within 2-4 feet of a politico and lets lead fly. Had this been an actual operation against the establishment, society or politics, by someone with an ounce of tactics or skill, the blood would still be flowing and suspects far and few confirmed. Yes this was a bad day for Arizona, the tragedy is the death of 9 year old Christina-Taylor Green. Too much is being done and said about some fu**tard that had the skill of a 10 year old. If this stops the White House, Congress and the entire news media, how do they cover weekly/daily outbursts in the future? This is meant as a legitimate question, have we not once again emboldened those that wish to use violence as a "statement" for their cause? I for one think the "newsworthiness" of this story ended Saturday night. The rest can be covered in recaps as the verdict(s) and sentence(s) are handed down.

Bean bags vs. AK-47s

2010-12-22T21:37:00.002-07:00

An excellent follow up on the recent murder of a Border Patrol agent in AZ. I could not just paste a clip, so here is the article in its entirety.

Another Border Patrol agent on the Arizona border was shot and killed by Mexican drug smugglers last Tuesday. Of the eight attackers, four are in custody and a fifth is under surveillance by Border Patrol Blackhawk helicopters as he tries to make his way back to the Mexican border.

BP Agent Brian Terry was part of a BORTAC team (for border tactical unit) tracking armed drug smugglers 15 miles northwest of Nogales, Ariz., (and only three miles west of Interstate 19) when they were attacked with automatic weapons fire. The area is well-known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, and the smugglers are known to frequently be armed with AK-47s and other long rifles.

Here's the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were under standing orders to always use ("non-lethal") bean-bag rounds first before using live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean bags every time.

The larger, ugly truth Napolitano and senior managers in the Border Patrol want to hide is that the rules of engagement and inadequate weaponry of the Border Patrol place the lives of all agents at grave risk. The National Border Patrol Council, which represents over 15,000 field agents, believes the border is too dangerous for officers to patrol without body armor, armored vehicles and automatic weapons.

Concerned about the impact of illegal aliens on the United States? Don't miss Tom Tancredo's book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security" – now just $4.95!

Another aspect of this story that is not being reported is that the site of the shooting, Peck Canyon, is inside the area Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has proposed to designate as the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness reserve. If Grijalva's bill is enacted into law, what is now a well-established drug smuggling corridor will become a drug-smuggling superhighway, because the Border Patrol will be prohibited from patrolling the region. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah has proposed legislation that will remove the restrictions on Border Patrol jurisdiction on such public lands within 50 miles of the border.

On Thursday, Secretary Napolitano and several aides flew to Tucson to meet with local Border Patrol brass. The Obama administration obviously has a mess on its hands, and Napolitano does not want it to blow up before today's U.S. Senate vote on the Dream Act. They know another murder on the southwest border will not help garner needed votes for the Dream Act, because senators supporting that bill must be able to say with a straight face, "The border is as secure as it has ever been."

The BORTAC team encountered not one or two smugglers but a team of eight. Four are in custody, one is under surveillance in the rugged terrain of the Pajarita Wilderness area east of the small ranch town of Ruby, and three others are missing. The captured smugglers had AK-47s and backpacks filled with ammunition, food and radios. There are rumors that three of the captured four are members of the Mexican military, but that is unconfirmed. Yet, it would not be the first time Mexican police and military have been apprehended smuggling drugs into the United States.

It is not widely reported by our news media that the smugglers maintain a dozen or more permanent lookout posts on desert hilltops inside the U.S., and that those lookout posts are manned in week-long shifts by individuals who commute not from Mexico but from Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities.

The allegation that the Sinaloa drug cartel obtained those AK-47s from gun shops in the United States is nonsensical. That's a fairy tale cooked up by the Obama administration and endorsed by the Mexican government because they do not want to admit that the cartels get most of their serious weaponry from the international black market and the Mexican military itself.

The rules requiring first use of bean-bag ammunition is but one example of the suicidal rules of engagement that govern Border Patrol operations. The reason they have such insane rules? The politicians who run the agency do not want the public to think the border is so dangerous a place that Border Patrol agents fear for their lives. In other words, the rules of engagement are based on a lie, a lie that must be maintained for political purposes.

Secretary Napolitano should do two things on Monday morning. First, she should order all Border Patrol agents to be issued weapons adequate for both self-defense and apprehension of armed drug smugglers. The second thing she should do Monday morning is resign.

Tom Tancredo is a former five-term congressman from Colorado and 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He currently serves as chairman of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and co-chairman of TeamAmericaPac. Tancredo is the author of "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security."

Original article HERE

Angry yet, you F'n well should be

Oh hell NO!

2010-12-17T16:20:00.001-07:00

ATF to Require Multiple Sales Reports for Long Guns

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is moving to require federally licensed firearms retailers to report multiple sales of modern sporting rifles beginning January 5, 2011. Specifically, the ATF requirement calls for firearms retailers to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of two or more .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days.

Today’s Washington Post suggests that the reporting mandate would be limited to retailers along the Southwest border; however, the Federal Register Notice does not limit the geographic scope of the reporting requirement.

This ATF “emergency” mandate was originally pushed by the anti-gun Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) coalition, headed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, more than a year and a half ago. And the Post reports that the Department of Justice has “languished” over this plan for several months. Given this timetable, it’s hard to see exactly where the “emergency” is.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation opposes this reporting requirement because it further burdens America’s law-abiding firearms retailers with yet another onerous regulation that will do nothing to curb crime. Multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement, thereby driving traffickers further underground. This is not unlike how criminals maneuvered around one-gun-a-month laws in states like Virginia – which is still considered an “exporting source state” by anti-gun organizations like the MAIG despite its restrictions on the number of firearms law-abiding residents may purchase.

Multiple sales reporting for long guns is an ill-considered mandate and one that ATF does not have the legal authority to unilaterally impose. In fact, ATF has not specified under what legal authority it presumes to act. The decision as to whether ATF can move forward with this agenda-driven mandate will be left to Cass Sunstein who heads the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This is the same Cass Sunstein who in a 2007 speech at Harvard University said, “We ought to ban hunting, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.”

NSSF will be submitting comments in opposition to this registration scheme and is encouraging all firearms retailers, sportsmen and enthusiasts to do the same.

Please voice your concern by doing the following:

1. Call the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulation Affairs, Department of Justice, Desk Officer at (202) 395-6466.

2. E-mail Barbara A. Terrell, ATF, Firearms Industry Programs Branch at Barbara.Terrell@atf.gov

3. Call your Senators and Representative: United States Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Points to make:

1.Multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement. Traffickers will go further underground, hiring more people to buy their firearms. This will make it much harder for retailers to identify and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement.
2.Long guns are rarely used in crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics).
3.Imposing multiple sales-reporting requirements for long guns would further add to the already extensive paperwork and record-keeping requirements burdening America’s retailers – where a single mistake could cost them their license and even land them in jail.
4.Last year, ATF inspected 2,000 retailers in border states and only two licenses were revoked (0.1%). These revocations were for reasons unknown and could have had nothing to do with illicit trafficking of guns; furthermore, no dealers were charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
5.According to ATF, the average age of a firearm recovered in the United States is 11 years old. In Mexico it’s more than 14 years old. This demonstrates that criminals are not using new guns bought from retailers in the states.
6.Congress, when it enacted multiple sales reporting for handguns, could have required multiple sales of long guns – it specifically chose not to.

Spread the word,
Jason

2010-12-15T15:43:00.004-07:00

RIP Agent Brian A. Terry, may you sacrifice not be in vain. Sadly I have often said it will take many more of his circumstance before anything will happen. May his family find peace, and may their sacrifice save our border and countless other lives.

"This is a sign that the politicians and bureaucrats are overly optimistic in their assessment that the borders are more secure now than at any point in our history. It showed just the opposite,"

Full Story HERE

This is what happens when criminals are ignored and lands are given to the lawless. This is a real threat in the southwest, coming to a neighborhood near you soon.

Jason

Are You Honest?

2010-12-08T21:16:00.003-07:00

"As a warning, the following post was written in complete desperation. I have recently learned some very sobering truths from people that I love dearly. These truths have set in motion a quest within me to do whatever I can to make a change. Today is not geared at funny. Today is geared at something greater. Read it to the very end. I promise you will be affected in a way you have always needed to be. I spent more than twelve hours writing this post because its message is that important to me.
......
"Perfection" is a wife...
"Perfection" is a husband...
"Perfection" is a couple... (a boy, a girl etc...)

Be real.

Be bold about your weaknesses and you will change people's lives. Be honest about who you actually are, and others will begin to be their actual selves around you."

The excerpts above, coupled with losing a very good friend, fearing the loss of my wife under a surgeons knife etc have changed my life. Normally I try to stay on topic, and to a bit this is. Everyday I try to be a better man, for my wife, my children and myself. Most days I fail in one sense or another, I am slowly coming to terms with that. THIS helps, and you should read it, ALL OF IT. Read the comments, comment yourself and read the follow up HERE
I am a broken man, I have been unkind to my wife and unfair to my children. I have done this in "their" name. Believing the ends justify the means. I live with this knowing I am learning, making corrections and becoming the man I need to be. Pass the original post far and wide, look in the mirror. If you do not fix yourself, you can fix nothing.

Have fun, stay safe...
Jason

Consequentialism?

2010-11-20T14:12:00.005-07:00

Summed up Consequentialism is that the ends justify the means. Basically as long as the end result is what we want, who cares how we get there. Our government, not only today but of generations past also, seem to thrive on this "theory." I think about this often as I evaluate my purpose and worth as a man, and as I try to guide my sons.

Definition of END
a-cessation of a course of action, pursuit, or activity

The end, as most people see it, is as defined above. I tend to look at a larger, broader picture. To me there is but one end, my death. Just as nothing before my birth could I control, nothing after my death will I be able to either.

Definition of MEAN(S)
2-plural but sing or plural in constr : something useful or helpful to a desired end

Once again most people look at a singular event to a singular end. My paycheck justifies my "worth", and the means to my home, car, etc...

Throughout life we all have the means to create change, positive and negative. To put my opinion bluntly the ends NEVER justify the means. To believe so is looking at the picture, and life, backwards. The means justify the end...if you are lucky. Among warriors of old, they dreamt of a warriors death, one of honor and bravery. To die in a service to a value, larger then your own. When I look at the world around me and learn of lives past, it is not the "method" of death that brought a justified end, but their actions in the end justified their lives. In many a movie, most recently 300, there is the scene where brothers in arms make a statement about "honored to met you" or some such.
From 300:
Stelios: It's an honor to die at your side.
King Leonidas: It's an honor to have lived at yours.

My basic point in this drabble is to say, that from the moment you took your 1st breath, the end has been coming. Make the journey to that end as pure and honorable in every aspect of your life, justify your end by the way you live your life. For some direction on how to achieve this, look to your articles of faith, or to "The Code of the Samurai."

Live a good life, and you will be a good man.
Stay safe,
Jason
III

Semper Fi Devil Dog, 11/07/2010

2010-11-07T22:06:00.006-07:00

You will be missed, you have had an impact on my life greater than you can imagine. RIP

Since this entire blog is pseudonym, I will only say this man was not my father, but as close as one could be to filling that role. For all my life a man of honor has been there, and now he is gone.

WTF?

2010-11-04T17:58:00.003-07:00

"After announcing that it would buy $900 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds in the next six months, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in an opinion article that the move was aimed in part at spurring a stock rally so as to increase the wealth of businesses and stock owners." Full article HERE

Call me crazy but this is once AGAIN the wrong direction. Just 2 weeks ago Bernake boy toy Geitner said "It is very important for people to understand that the United States of America and no country around the world can devalue its way to prosperity, to (be) competitive,It is not a viable, feasible strategy and we will not engage in it."

Getting froggy, hope we can survive a few more years.

Jason

III

An Open Letter to Sheriff Paul Babeu

2010-11-01T19:46:00.001-07:00

Attn: Sheriff Paul Babeu
With all of the current media reports and claims, why can we not bring together the Sheriff’s Department and citizens that want to be active? There are many people in the community that wish to take an active role in the establishment and security of their homes outside of a full time commitment. While I understand the department’s reluctance to endorse and support citizen patrols of the desert regions, this is done at a time that the Sheriff’s Office says “We find our deputies are being outgunned and clearly the violence has increased recently.” (From your site HERE) Has thought been given to providing training or guidelines to citizens that want to, need to, participate in their community and its defense? Many of those I have spoken with would appreciate a more open dialog. To paraphrase them, “if you lead, we will follow.” While some out there are looking for publicity and or attention, many more just want to help. If this means providing water, emotional, spiritual, moral, and in the extreme case tactical support; we will. But keep in mind that as you ask for donations to increase your departments arms supply, many citizens have the equipment, means, experience and desire; why can this not be utilized with the co-operation of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department? Money is the one thing many citizens do not have at this time. From another article on your site it states “What this incident does show is the lack of manpower in Pinal County. Deputy Puroll was alone and outgunned. There is one deputy for every one thousand citizens in Pinal Co., and Sheriff Babeu says it's time for some border help”.(Emphasis mine original article HERE) Having simple limits, background checks or requirements can filter out some of the negative traits of volunteers that may be frowned upon. Require a combination of prior Police/Military/EMS service and/or current AZ CCW, with an interview and/or background check provided by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department. I do realize that there is a liability to involving citizens; but claiming a lack of resources, and denying a major resource of your constituents and willing volunteers seems against your goal. If you feel you cannot endorse a group, any group, is there a way to set up a route to open the dialog and/or communication for persons who will participate independently? Thank you very much for taking the time to consider these questions as I know your time is very busy right now.

Jason XXXXX
Pinal County Resident

Submission to the Federal Reserve Board Members

2010-10-29T21:31:00.001-07:00

From an e-mail i got from a friend, I thought it was a well done open letter and deserved distribution.

To Mr. Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Board Members,

What a difference just a few weeks and a few Fed minutes can make....
As I have feared, all of this talk by Mr. Bernanke in regards to the need for additional stimulus, including possible large scale asset purchases, has again caused the U.S. Dollar to depreciate, and for the stock market to engage in "irrational exuberance" in regards to all hard and soft commodities!!!

METALS, GRAINS, CHEESE, MEATS, EGGS, COTTON, FEED, OIL, ETC. HAVE ALL SKYROCKETED, THESE INPUT COSTS FOR FOOD, FUEL, CLOTHES AND DIAPERS WILL BE PASSED ON TO THE CONSUMER RIGHT AWAY, BECAUSE THESE ARE THINGS WE HAVE TO HAVE...

BUT WAIT, YOU DON'T LOOK AT THESE THINGS THAT I MUST HAVE TO LIVE, YOU ONLY LOOK AT CORE INFLATION EXCLUDING FOOD AND FUEL...
SO IT WILL TAKE ABOUT 4-6 MONTHS FOR THESE HIGH COMMODITY COSTS TO MOVE THE CORE INFLATION NEEDLE enough to get your attention, BUT I TAKE AN IMMEDIATE HIT FOR FOOD AND FUEL WHICH MEANS I HAVE LESS DISCRETIONARY INCOME TO SPEND, AND WHAT ABOUT THE INPUT COSTS THAT COMPANIES ARE UNABLE TO PASS ON?? WHAT IS THE END RESULT: MORE JOB'S LOST........

THIS STOCK MARKET RALLY IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF A DECLINING DOLLAR, AND THE DECLINING DOLLAR IS THE DIRECT, OR AS SOME WOULD ARGUE THE INDIRECT RESULT OF FEDERAL RESERVE POLICIES!
I THOUGHT IT WAS THE JOB OF THE U.S. TREASURY TO SET DOLLAR POLICY???
THIS WILL NOT END WELL, ANY TIME THE FED ATTEMPTS TO INFLATE ASSET PRICES AND THE STOCK MARKET THINKS IT IS WAGGING THE DOG, IT ENDS WITH A POP!!!

Please just stop what you are doing and begin to back yourselves out of the corner, allow commodities to correct, allow interest rates to rise, allow people to continue to pay down their debt and build up their savings accounts, instead of pumping it into the gas tank or the dinner table. Reward savers with some kind of return on their hard earned money, and let the stock market go ahead and throw a hissy fit, let it correct 20% or more, and then it can get back to fundamentals for valuations instead of empty headed QUANTITATIVE EASING SPECULATION.... The retail investor has bailed on the stock market and you are hurting them more by artificially propping up the stock market, and artificially keeping interest rates low.

THIS FIXATION WITH THE EVILS OF DEFLATION NEEDS TO MODERATE, IF YOU KEEP ON FUELING ALL OF THIS SPECULATION, YOUR JUST GOING TO MAKE MY LIFE AND MILLIONS OF OTHER AMERICANS WHO DID NOTHING TO CAUSE THIS MESS A WHOLE LOT MORE EXPENSIVE AND A WHOLE LOT LESS SATISFYING....

But what do I know, I'm just an unemployed high school graduate, middle class nobody with an 800+ credit score, who owns his home, has zero debt, and, an actual savings account that you guys are actively and intentionally depreciating.

I'M A PART OF THE "NO YOU CAN'T CROWD" WHO IS BEING FORCED TO FINANCE

THE "YES WE CAN CROWD"

REGARDS,
XXXX XXXXX

2010-10-27T20:51:00.003-07:00

No I haven't died. Had some family issues to tend to, then got backed up with some BATFE addendum nightmare. Anyways, getting my ass in-line again and posting should be coming a little more regularly in the near future.
This past Sunday I was on a citizens patrol approx 2 Miles east of Vekol Valley road and South of Highway 8. This is just outside of Casa Grande, AZ. This missed us by a stones throw...
Story HERE
I am TIRED of the "they only want..." argument. Don't fret about the boys and girls on patrol too much, we were geared up and armed as needed. Keep all patrol personnel in your thoughts. I will try to update the fight, til then I will try and help do a job your government WON'T!

Keep the pressure up, Vote early and often. :)

3 Points Recon

2010-07-19T17:34:00.006-07:00

My observations from July 17/18, 2010 in the southern desert of Arizona. (Three Points area.)

This area is rampant with smuggling, both human and drug, but I wanted to witness it firsthand. On the 17th of July, a group of us went down to see what we would find. We rolled into the area at about 1800 hrs and set up a camp and lookout/watch location. Being that it was night, and I could not film under a half-moon overcast you will have to take my word on this next section. Within 60 minutes of observation, first visual contact was made. About 300 yards south of our position I witnessed a flashlight illuminating and moving. For approximately 2 minutes it was behaving similar to a parking attendant at a large event, ushering a group to a fixed location, then all was dark again. Within the next hour this happened again further down the trail as you would expect but for a very short duration. Was this 1 or 1000, I do not know as at that range visibility was of the light source only. In the third hour of observation a new, subdued light source appeared due west of the original. This was much more erratic and shorter in its usage, and repeated no more than 30 or so seconds before going dark, but at a higher frequency and progressing down the terrain faster. It was shortly after this we were asked, via radio/phone, by Border Patrol to “illuminate our personal lights, sling rifles and holster handguns” as they were in pursuit of a “hostile” and did not want to mistake our group for him/them. We complied and returned to camp.
Since we were later getting started than planned, we did not have time to photograph, and log the surrounding area in the setting sun. The following pictures are of the area the next morning. All photos were taken by me within 100 yards of our camp and the existing road.

There are uncountable numbers of water bottles in the area.

Garbage the strung about, it is difficult to look somewhere and NOT see evidence of what is happening in the area.

Drop points are often in the shade, and any number of items can be found...Bags, hygiene products, baby food packaging, human waste, clothing etc. Keep in mind these are but a sample of over 60 photos taken in an area no larger than a football field.

We will be going back and to other areas in the future.
Jason

UPDATE clarification: I/we are in NO WAY affiliated with Ready or the other racist/socialist a-holes around. I do not condone the speeches or platforms he or his group espouse.

All my bags are packed, guns are good to go...

2010-07-17T08:16:00.004-07:00

Heading out at 1600 hrs to the Arizona desert known as "cocaine highway"

Will provide a SITREP upon return. If it is in your nature give out some good thoughts for a safe and productive op.

Jason

III

DOJ sues Arizona...why you ask????

2010-07-08T19:18:00.003-07:00

There are a few things in the gov'ts brief that I can agree with:

"In our constitutional system, the federal government has preeminent authority to regulate immigration matters. This authority derives from the United States Constitution and numerous acts of Congress."
"Although states may exercise their police power in a manner that has an incidental or indirect effect on aliens, a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with the federal immigration laws."
However here is where it goes a little hinky:
"Assuring effective enforcement of the provisions against illegal migration and unlawful presence is a highly important interest, but it is not the singular goal of the federal immigration laws." While not the singular goal, a pretty f'n big one.
"See 8 U.S.C. § 1304(e). The INA provides that any alien who fails to comply with this requirement may be fined and imprisoned not more than 30 days. See id.; 18 U.S.C. § 3571." hmmmmmmmm, if Arizona asks for this FEDERALLY REQUIRED ID we are racists, and causing a conflict of federal laws.
"Through a variety of programs, DHS works cooperatively with states and localities to accomplish its mission to enforce the federal immigration laws." Wait a minute here, so local authorities CAN arrest and detain under federal law?
"S.B. 1070’s mandate for verification of alien status will necessarily result in a dramatic increase in the number of verification requests being issued to DHS, and will thereby place a tremendous burden on DHS resources, necessitating a reallocation of DHS resources away from its policy priorities" But a page or so back it was stated that handling immigration WAS a DHS priority, it is called ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)for Christ's sake. There is much, much more HERE I cannot believe their basic arguments are:
1. It is a federal issue, and even though we are not doing it, it is our game. You are not allowed to play... This is plainly contradicted not only in the brief, but dailyby local law enforcement and state laws dealing with Federal laws. E.G.- Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, Speed Limits on Federal roadways, Drug Use, Safety Standards, Building Codes, Lending Laws... and the list can go on and on.
2. Since our above argument sucks, we the Federal Government think that this will make us do a part of our job...and we think it will be really hard.
This whole boondoggle pisses me off, I STAND WITH ARIZONA, and so should you. If this is pushed too hard the citizens of Arizona will start pushing back. As Mike Vanderboegh has said before on federal laws..."they were protecting YOU from US"

Take heed, stay safe,
Jason
III

Yeah, What They Said....

2010-07-04T00:30:00.001-07:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

TheAZCDF (Arizona Civil Defense Force)

2010-06-26T21:34:00.003-07:00

Couldn't make this trip. Good job boys...I'll make the next one. For those not local, this area has had a Deputy shot in recent time and 2 dead people found. Heavy traffic area and the .gov gave us a sign. Yeah thanks for that.

RISK(s)

2010-06-25T23:49:00.001-07:00

Chief Alan Brunacini (1985, 2002) wrote;
• We will risk our lives a lot, in a highly calculated and controlled manner, to protect a savable human life;
• We will risk our lives a little, in a highly calculated and controlled manner, to protect savable property.
• We will not risk our lives at all to protect lives or property that is already lost.”

3 More off "The List"

2010-06-19T13:01:00.004-07:00

NIJ 0101.04 Standard Level III Soft Armor
Level IV Rifle plates Front and Rear
MOLLE Quick Release Plate Carrier
PASGT Level IIIA with BLSS Kit

Gotta love Fathers Day!

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T10:44:00.002-07:00

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration

2010-05-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

Quality Music for Memorial Day

War on Drugs QOTD

2010-05-14T21:18:00.003-07:00

From NICKI

"I'm also less than thrilled with the "coddle the drug user" policy the current administration has announced, intending treat addiction as a public health issue, rather than a choice that has consequences. First, I have no sympathy for these people. They made their choices with the full knowledge of what drugs can do to them. Nowadays, you really have to be living under a rock not to know the effects. You make the choice, you live with it, or you take positive steps to make changes. I have no sympathy, and I certainly don't want my tax dollars being wasted on yet more useless programs."

Quote 2.0
"No one has the right what to tell you what you can put in your own body. However, If you step over the line and violate the property rights of someone else in a free society you'd get the book thrown at you. That is if the perpetrator survived the encounter."
From Chef

Hat Tip to Econ, good write ups both of you. AP story is here

Is it "Terrorism" yet?

2010-05-09T12:25:00.004-07:00

From HERE
"We know that they helped facilitate it; we know that they helped direct it," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "And I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence which shows that they helped to finance it. They were intimately involved in this plot." Said Holder of the Pakistani Taliban invlovement in the failed NYC bombing.

I guess now that it is NOT "Homegrown," “somebody with a political agenda who doesn't like the health care bill or something.” per Bloomberg all I want to know is, was Faisel Shahzad a terrorist. Or just the people who support the Constitution of the US.

Arizona Constitutional Carry

2010-04-16T19:05:00.002-07:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY!
"However, the measure was supported by police unions representing rank-and-file officers, who said their best friend on the streets is a law-abiding citizen equipped to protect themselves or others."
From HERE
A GREAT day in Arizona.
Jason

The Taxman Cometh

2010-03-27T21:57:00.003-07:00

Today was tax day at my house. Words are not fit to print. Next year looks bad, time to buy. Came out OK on federal, state killed me. Oldy but a goody
My wifes post "HATE TAXES... I voted Ron Paul!!! It is not my fault!!!"
Jason
III

Posting Edits

2010-03-22T21:05:00.004-07:00

With the current thrust of political action, posting may be edited in the near future. I originally started writing here for 2 reasons, (1) to entice education/debate, (2) to document my ideas on truth and liberty. I am considering the recourse of those words as time for them is running out. Either this post or previous ones will disappear in the near future. Please feel free to email if you would like any of the previous text.
"Summum ius summa iniuria."-Cicero

Jason
III

The Cookbook is BACK!

2010-03-15T21:25:00.002-07:00

On of my personal favorite sites is back up. After a small hiatus the Economist Cookbook is up and running. Give it a read, it is worth your time!
One of my favorites from the past HERE
Jason
III

Drug Costs, the bigger picture

2010-02-27T18:52:00.004-07:00

Between 1974 and 2001 the percentage of Americans in prison per ca pita had doubled. Details on their stats and backgrounds can be found HERE

In 1970 the "War on Drugs" was officially federal policy. Coincidence? Approximately 25% of those in prisons are there on drug, not "drug related," charges. (Cited HERE) From yet another report we get this: "According to a federal survey of jail inmates, in 2002, of the 96,359 violent offenders in jail, 37.6% used alcohol at the time of their offense, 21.8% used drugs, and 47.2% used alcohol or drugs; of the 112,895 property offenders in jail that year, 28.5% used alcohol at the time of their offense, 32.5% used drugs, and 46.8% used alcohol or drugs; of the 112,447 drug offenders in jail that year, 22.4% used alcohol at the time of their offense, 43.2% used drugs, and 51.7% used drugs or alcohol at the time of their offense." Truth be told, I haven't touched an "illegal drug" in almost 20 years, not because they are "illegal" but because I do not like their effects on my consciousness. Yet we sell alcohol on street corners, glorify it's usage and overturned prohibition. Did incarceration rise and all of the crazies come out with the repeal of prohibition, no... would everyone become a junkie if the "war on drugs" was ended...nope. According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 249,400 inmates for drug offenses in 2006. That means it cost states approximately $16,846,970 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,149,144,050 per year.

One more fun fact, in 1984 the first "private prison" was opened in Tennessee. Look at that graph above again...see it. Crime does pay, depending on where you sit. What will you do, when what you do is no longer condoned. In this time of deficit, do we really need to spend $19 billion to enforce and $6.15 billion on punishment of this? To see this years direct cost per second, you can go HERE

I may revisit this topic as I finish my reading on "health care" and prescription costs, as reform is thrust upon us, and the potential costs of trying to synthesize the effects of mother natures medicine.

Jason

III

PS - My main point is to question the "official story," no matter your personal beliefs and perspectives. I have no love for drugs, druggies and drug dealers.

The unanimous Declaration

2010-02-21T00:30:00.007-07:00

Today as part of the 2010 tour of the Declaration of Independence, an original Dunlap Broadside printed on July 4, 1776 was on display in Arizona.
See news of it HERE

Seeing it just inches away, knowing the history, it affected me beyond my comprehension. I was damn near teary eyed as I saw the past 230+ years flash in front of me. I have, as of yet, been unable to travel to DC to see so much history, and rely on copies I have hung in my house. The power of this document, it pure words, hit me like a brick in the face. If you have a chance, see this. When asked by the local media "How I felt after examining the document," I could only respond that I was honored to see something that was so important to our history. They then asked if I would speak "on camera," sorry but no; I do not trust the local media at all.My boys, along with the Arizona Rangers, and the previously mentioned document.

Jason

III

Quote of the week

2010-02-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

"What you did manage to do, however, was to accomplish the impossible: you caused me to feel sympathy for an IRS agent. Ain’t that a bite in the ass?"

From Syd HERE go read the wole thing!

Jason
III

Enemies. Foreign and Domestic

2010-02-15T21:12:00.003-07:00

Finally got off of my duff and read Matthew Bracken's book "Enemies Foreign and Domestic." If you have waited like I did, STOP right now, click the above link and BUY IT! While there is not a grand story, that is not predictable or recognizable to any threeper, it is a very important exercise in thought. Some small things that end up on the prep list:

Night Vision

Radios (multi type and frequency)

Contacts with contacts who have contacts....

The story was enjoyable, and if you are empathetic you can really identify with the characters and their struggle. The best thing i can say about it it when my wife stated "I thought it was a true story," I smiled and said "It could be..." That is the jab, it "could happen" and reminded me of many questions I have yet unanswered of our recent history, topped off Mr. Bracken has started a journey we should support of a common cause. Buy it, read it, learn it. Then return to the blogosphere.

Early Valentine Gift

2010-02-06T12:22:00.004-07:00

The tenor in DC over the proposed takeover of health care is changing.
Obama Admits Health Care Reform May Die In Congress
Now this is not the gift as I see it. Some BS "reform" legislation will be rammed down our throats, the 2010 elections will move some seats. Millions will cheer and we will start the cycle all over again. The gift is that the people who a mere 6-12 months ago would have been shocked to find out our current President cannot, in fact, walk on water; are forced to report that President Obama has little to no leadership ability or experience.
"The time has come for more forceful presidential leadership," Neas said. Obama must explain more clearly how his health care provisions would help average Americans and must give clearer guidance to Congress, he said.
A comment from one of his policy "supporters." Now where have those who are paying attention heard remarks about the Presidents leadership, or lack there of before. My earliest remembrance is when I first heard of him and thought I should look into him a bit, about 2006. My first reaction was "who the f*(k cares, what has this guy done, ever, that points to him being a top candidate." Now this obviously shows I am not clairvoyant, but maybe I am OK at observations. Most people who know me, will also know I have an appreciation of the ideas of "laws" and study them at random. I to some extent pride my self on being "law-abiding" by choosing to not recognize laws I feel are unjust, irrelevant, or biased. I will be happy to not see a "law" I would have to break on general principle alone.
Hope this all goes away, and fast. If it does go away... KUDOS to the American people, you started using your voice. Do not fall silently back to a slumber no matter what the future holds.
Jason

9/11: Science and Conspiracy (NAT GEO)

2010-02-02T20:54:00.003-07:00

Jebus crimeney. This was just freakin STUPID. While I admit there are questions that are logical that have not been answered to my satisfaction, seriously these are the best "point vs. counter-point" they could come up with? The idea that ANYONE gives "Loose Change" anything other than WTF, was this made by a 16 year old look is asking for ridicule. (OK he was like 20, and probably rode a short bus) Can we please have someone other than Popular Mechanics do an in depth actual analysis? PM left to many unanswered questions, but at least they looked at real ideas and used real testing. This was "theory vs. theory" with NO actual substance. I think I am now dumber from watching it, I need to blow up my TV. FYI Structural Steel does NOT need 2700* F to falter:
From HERE
Although steel does not burn, it loses strength in a fire, which can lead to a structural failure. Above 500 Â°F, steel starts to lose its structural integrity, and at 600 Â°F, steel loses 75 percent of its strength, according to International Paint. Interchar and other Chartek fireproofing materials swell to provide a tough and stable insulating layer over the steel to protect it.
The average house burns at 1100* to 1400*
From HERE
Real stats don't add up to their conspiracy theories. I am more than a little curious about the fall rate and directions (beyond "Pancake Collapse"), Building 7, and some of the Flight 93 rational.
Damn the Japanese physicist are in on it too.

Rant off,
Jason

Open Letter(s)

2010-01-26T20:00:00.003-07:00

Was shown a MUST see video by a buddy of mine today. Go FULL SCREEN and volume ALL THE WAY UP. Here it is:

The retort (remix) is even more powerfull, if only it had a III in the final scene.

If they show up "removed" search America Rising An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians (for video #1) America Rising An Open Letter to the Republican Party (for video #2)

PSYOPS in full effect.
Jason
III

SHOT Show, final day

2010-01-22T18:56:00.002-07:00

Lots and lots of walking. If you get the chance GO. Bring your own water, comfy footwear and a bag or three. Ended up with about 1000 pens, a ton of cozies, hats, and enough stickers to choke an elephant. Had a great meeting with the Aimpoint crew, finalized some future plans and came to the conclusion that VERY high end optics, are not worth their very high end price. Bushnell has come a long way, and are a fair price. Off to Zumanity tonight, then heading back to Arizona.

SHOT Show day 2

2010-01-20T17:29:00.003-07:00

Today was much slower pace. All of the major manufactures had their best foot forward. The only things that really caught my attention were the:
Taurus/Rossi "Circuit Court Judge"
Smith & Wesson "Body Guard" series with integral laser sights. Very nice and clean, just need .380 ammo to run the semi-auto.

Taking Thursday off to rest the feet abd back, along with having a little "vacation time."
Jason

SHOT Show day 1

2010-01-19T17:07:00.004-07:00

WOW, it is big. This is my first year and I am "overwhelmed". To try and convey the size I will bore you with some details. Check in started at 0730 this morning, and we were on the floor by 0800. At 1100 we took a break for a "sack lunch" and were about 2/3 of the way done with the first floor, or so we thought. After a full day of walking (8 hours) we are about 60% seen with all of the large vendors to go. Personal Highlights:
- Ultimate Equipment - A 1911 handled folding knife. I was salivating, and my wife agreed these are a must have.
- Magpul Dynamics - I am a "fan boy" of these guys so that was cool.
- Black Hills Ammo - Good ammo, GREAT people. They are on my short list of "must stock" companies.
- Laser-Ammo - This training tool I could not wait for and bought on the spot!
That is it for now, getting ready to go see Penn & Teller at the Rio. God I love this city, even though I can only afford small doses.

Jason
UPDATE-- Meet Massad Ayoob at the Penn & Teller show. Fantastic ending to a great day!

SHOT Show day (-)1

2010-01-18T19:29:00.003-07:00

Arrived in Vegas safe and sound. We will see what tomorrow brings. I will update as i can vacation willing.

Jason
III

Second Amendment IMHO

2010-01-03T22:29:00.004-07:00

On a forum the question was asked:"How far will you go with "shall not be infringed"? Not in a what will you do, but what should we have done legislatively. Below is my response.
Shall not be infringed:
I will try to cover most bases but I am sure I will miss a few.
Everyone who is a US citizen, and walking on the outside (not incarcerated) should have the right to bear arms in my opinion. Self defense is a basic right of all living beings, including plants and animals. It is the natural way.
Types of arms: For lack of a better term “the cat is out of the bag.” If there is a chance, however slight, that I may come up against a threat with any weapon imaginable (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, Conventional or Explosive) I believe I have the right to defend as I see fit within my means. This does not mean I am owed a chem. suit, Barrett 50 cal, and an M16 by birthright, but if I can provide these tools for myself and family I should have that right. If I think, and can provide, claymores and defensive charges on my property that should be my right. You want them on yours, cool we can talk placement and compare and contrast our options. But what about “public safety”? Fine legislate that I must post if NBC, or explosives defenses or weapons are in the area, but do not infringe my right to have them. In regards to firearms in particular, arms of a military origin should be the norm if desired for tactics and defense. This was their sole purpose in design, to allow you to kill instead of being killed. Legislate an ownership requirement such as the cards required in Illinois and DC, or a registration list? Violations in my opinion. No public safety claim can be legitimized under these, similar to “3 million jobs created or saved.” Not a legitimate statistic or verifiable claim through an actual study of facts.
Felons, if they have “paid their debt” should be allowed ALL of the natural, “unalienable”, and Constitutional rights. If they cannot be trusted with the basic right of self defense, or they have done a crime so heinous we as a society choose to remove that right, remove the person. Death is not required, banishment, imprisonment and death are all options. Just as any other defensive action…remove the threat, not the rights and abilities of the threatened. Removing the 2A from some one “charged or accused” of any crime is a definite violation, “innocent until proven guilty” should not be a catch phrase, but a culture.
Class III should be a third level training class, not a government classification.
If you act improperly with the above rights, we as your neighbors and fellow citizens have an opportunity and in-fact in obligation to respond with force. This is where a jurisdictional police force, posse, and a very limited federal government could come into play. This is where legislation comes in again. The idea of legislating what I “might do” is another breach of the innocent until proven guilty culture. If I want to run around naked and anally rape dogs, the elderly and everything else with less than 6 legs, no law will stop me, nor should it pretend to. Now if you want to legislate that anyone doing the previous, individually or as a whole, are sentenced to the punishments listed under the felons subject that would be allowed and “fair.” It would not prevent the illegal activity, but would outline the “what if” that a potential criminal can weigh out as pros/cons. Crimes happen, just like accidents and we should all have the ability to defend and react to both. The ATF, FFL, 4473 and such are not directly allowed under the specific Amendment but subsequent legislation that I believe should be repealed. I understand I am on the “extremist minority” with this, and am willing to accept some of the above mentioned violations to keep the peace with the majority. You did however ask for opinions and this is mine, “shall not be infringed” is an intentionally simple and plainly worded statement.

Rant over, thanks…
Jason

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T21:47:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas to all.
Jason

Have you ever....

2009-12-14T20:18:00.003-07:00

I was focused full on what I thought was a positive, singular goal for my family and I. In one brief phone call it came to a stop, and fast. I would love to put the blame anywhere but here, but I cannot. I have made no apologies for my life, nor excuses for my life. Over the past 18 years I have been adding tattoos to my body as I felt the need. No regrets until today. For the past few months unbeknown to most, other than my wife, I have been working with a recruiter for the US Army. All my life I have had an excuse for one reason or another to not fulfill my "dream" of service. Most were superficial at worst, genuine at best, but excuses none the less. Today as I was told I am not eligible for service due to my tattoos, I felt crushed. Failure first reached is a bitter pill to swallow. I post here only because my family, other than my wife, will not understand and my "friends" are mostly co-workers. Thank you to all who serve, I wish I could have called you brother. Maybe in another time, in another way.

Jason
III

1,000 Cranes for Krista Update

2009-11-30T19:08:00.005-07:00

Received mine in the mail this weekend! I also got an e-mail from Frank:
"I am thankful and completely humbled. I have been making crane pics for two weeks and have finished 100. Only 900 more to go! Thank you all so much for listening , reading and forwarding our story. Back to the studio--"

If you can, please get one of your own HERE

Read the whole story from my earlier post HERE

This is a truly inspirational tale, that is sadly true. I asked earlier for you to pray for Life, Liberty and Love...that request continues. Help, if and when you can.

Jason

Redemption

2009-11-27T08:03:00.007-07:00

Bob Marley sang about it in Redemption Song
"But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs."

I was reflecting on this lately, and stumbled upon "Seven Pounds" which also deals with redemption, in a new and interesting way to tell the story.

Western Rifle Shooters has an important re-post HERE where he lists his "what to do list" with the number one point under emotional preparation as: "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."
Now I am not a religious man, but I am a man of great faith. Someday I, in-fact all of us, am going to need to come to grips with what I have done, or not done. I will need either redemption, atonement or acceptance of my life by me or "He." I tend to follow my impulses to speak when I am "spoken to" and for whatever reason, by whatever faith I am compelled to ask you, all of you to pray... pray for life, liberty and love for it is an all or nothing deal. Do not be shy, do not ask why, but make sure you are at the ready for the fight that is coming. A fight to everyone of us in many different ways. I often describe myself by quoting myself:
I am a husband and father, first and always.
I am a jack of all trades and master of some.
I am self taught, and defy institutions.
I will refuse to relent.
Failure is not an option.
Success is not an accident.
I am lost and sometimes confused, I will find the way.
Period.
Redemption is calling, may I be the man I need to be at this time.
Jason

III

The 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

1,000 Cranes For Krista

2009-11-17T17:45:00.003-07:00

Thankfully this not my story, this is an email I received today...Frank is a friend from some 15 years ago I recently regained contact with. This is his brother on laws plea. I know in todays world money is not given lightly, neither is this request. Please read and feel no guilt if you cannot help, but if you can please do what you can. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this simple, yet powerful story.

Dear Friends,

Before this story begins, I just want to explain that this is written to all of you from a very deep need. It is a story of greed, of cancer confronted and overcome, of big medical bills, and of the creative power of love, and hope, and friendship. It is also a very true story about my beautiful sister, Krista, her husband Frank, and their 4 year old daughter Maya, who are now in a very difficult circumstance.

I hope you can take the time to read this letter. It is not meant to be political. It is simply a real illustration of what can happen when a family falls through the cracks of the health care system in this country. With your help, one family, Krista and Frank’s family, will not fall through those cracks.

It is my hope that Krista and Frank’s story will cut across political party lines, positions, and unexamined prejudices, and remind us of how fragile we are, how fragile our lives are, and how dependent we are upon each other when things go wrong.

But why are Krista, Frank, and Maya confronting a possible medical bankruptcy? Here is their story.

Krista’s Story

Just a few months ago, Krista, Frank, and Maya were a pretty typical, hard-working, middle-class American family with the feeling that their health was good and their future secure. Today however, they are on the verge of bankruptcy due to overwhelming medical bills - Medical Bankruptcy- as it is now called. On December 1st, they will be about 5,000 dollars short of their monthly bills. A recent study estimates that medical-caused bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans each year, including 700,000 children. Many people are suffering with this problem- and like many others, Krista and Frank never thought anything like this would happen to them. Now they are another family added to this statistic.

How did this happen?

A few months ago, in late July, Krista, was struck, out of the blue, with a crippling pain in her abdomen. The pain was so severe she felt she might be dying. She went immediately to an urgent care facility to find out what was wrong. After an exam, blood work, and an ultrasound, she went home to await the results of the tests. Later that night her doctor called to tell her there was a cyst on her ovary. It was 8 cm in circumference, a little bigger than a tennis ball.
She was concerned, of course, about the cyst, but she had health insurance, and was hopeful that the cyst was nothing serious.The next day she went to see her doctor. After a brief exam, the doctor said that her ovary would have to be surgically removed, and that a biopsy would be needed. So she went to the surgery center, scheduled an appointment for surgery, and then went home to call her health insurance broker to make sure the surgery would be covered. That phone call turned her life upside down.

Her insurance broker told her that her health insurance had lapsed at the end of May and stated that the company would not honor any claims made after May 31, 2009. This could not be true. Krista, whose insurance was supposed to be covered by State Continuation, explained to her broker that she had been sending her premium payments to her previous employer. Her broker said “I’m sorry, but we have not received your premiums and your surgery will not be covered.” Her next statement seemed impossible to believe. Krista was told that her employer had stolen her payments. He had kept the money she had sent for her premium payments and and diverted them into his own account. And now he was bankrupt as well. Turns out he had stolen millions of dollars from his investors as well. At this point Krista faced surgery without any insurance. But it was not an option to forego surgery, in spite of the out of pocket expense. The cyst might be serious and had to be removed.

At the time of the surgery, the doctor believed it was a benign cyst. But after her surgery, the news was bad. I came across my mother listening over the phone as Krista told her the results. My mother was crying and I had never seen her look so scared and sad. “Krista has cancer,” she said, “the tumor is cancerous.” Cancer. Besides the seeming death penalty and the uncertainty and fear of being diagnosed with cancer, there was now the issue of trying to pay for major surgery without any health insurance. Her parents would help to pay for the costs of the surgery from their retirement funds, but they could not cover the total cost of the surgery without great financial risk to their security.

Now, in addition to the bills and recovery from the first surgery for the removal of the tumor, Krista’s second surgery would mean a total hysterectomy, appendectomy, omentomectomy, and lymphadenectomy, followed by biopsies of the small and large intestine, and colon. The surgery was invasive, extreme, and would mean the end of her ability to bear children. And of course, without insurance, it would be extremely expensive and far beyond their means to pay.

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

Today it has been over a month since Krista’s second surgery. In the end, she was very lucky. The cancer was caught in a very early stage. She is recovering well and her prognosis is good. There was no metastasis of the tumor and she is cancer free. She will need to go in every 3 months of this first year post-op for blood work and exams. She will need to go back every 6 months for the next five years. She is very grateful that the worst part of the journey is over. And she knows that there are others who go through much worse.

The lasting blow is not the cancer, but the medical bills, which have run close to 15,000.00 dollars. This is a figure that they were not prepared to pay. And of course, because of our current system, there is no health insurance company that will cover her. She and Frank have sold everything they can to raise money for their bills, but they get a bill almost everyday, a reminder that they fought cancer and now have to pay dearly for it.

How You Can Help

With your help, this story could have a very happy ending. But you will need to do something generous at the end. It isn’t much, but it is very important, and will be a great help. The only thing you will need to do is to buy one paper crane: Frank’s original painting of one paper crane. The price you can afford to pay for the paper crane painting will be yours to decide. The crane painting is an original piece of Frank Stanley artwork-1 in a series of 1,000- and it will be sent to you as a symbol of your caring and your generosity. Your purchase of one paper crane painting will help to save Krista, Frank, and Maya from medical bankruptcy.

Why One Paper Crane?

There is an ancient Japanese legend which promises that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted the fulfillment of a wish, such as long life, or recovery from illness, or injury. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes will make a person's wish come true. As an artist, Frank was looking for a way to use his creativity to help raise funds for his family’s medical bills. And he wanted to do something beautiful for his wife. In his search, he came across the legend of the 1,000 paper cranes. And he decided that since he was a painter, and not so great at origami, he would paint 1,000 origami cranes as a way to raise funds, and to use the proceeds of the sale to help stave off medical bankruptcy.

If you are in any position to help Krista and Frank by buying one painting of a paper crane, it would be a great help to their family. Frank’s goal is to paint and sell 1,000 Cranes for Krista, and hopes to raise enough money to pay their medical bills and hopefully be able to help others in similar situations. http://playgroundartstudios.com

How To Get Your Paper Crane Painting

At the end of this story, there is a link to Frank’s website. There you can choose one of the crane paintings he has already created, or you can request a custom painting.

How Much Should I Donate for the Crane?

Krista and Frank’s medical bills are approaching 15,000 dollars. To make it through December, they will need at least 5,000 dollars. There is no set price for a painting. We simply ask you to give as much as you feel you can. Anything you can do will be of help.

Krista and Frank’s Story- In their Own Words

If you would like to read more details of Krista and Frank’s story in their own words, the rest of the story is right here.
http://playgroundartstudios.com

My only comments on Fort Hood

2009-11-13T08:12:00.003-07:00

Remember the slain, not who did the slaying. In so many times throughout history we have made household names instead of pariahs of the perpetrators of similar instances. I will reserve personal thoughts on this other than a solemn, somber memory of a horrible day in our history by a coward, may he find the end of a very short rope very quickly.

Read memories of the slain HERE

Jason

III

Revolutionary Suicide

2009-11-04T15:49:00.006-07:00

Revolutionary Suicide

Huey P Newton is at first glance a polarizing and amazing man that has done more for the people of this country in about a 6 year period than most will in 2 lifetimes. Even though he was illiterate as a high school graduate, he argued and won criminal cases against him. Revolutionary Suicide has been out of print for a while, but it is back. While I do not agree with much of the Black Panthers politics, or their founders, I find their tactics bold and their methods pure. I use bold and pure on purpose. They argued that our rights, well specifically the "Black mans rights," were just as stated in the Declaration of Independence, endowed by our Creator. These could not be granted, or taken... simply they were our rights. They studied and obeyed the laws, while carrying shotguns dressed in black "uniforms", making sure others did the same. Pure and bold are the only to words I believe convey my feelings on that issue. I could not possibly in a few short words even hint at the impact the events of this story had on America and the world. Sadly due to either me being too excited to finally read a book I had been waiting years for, or because it really did just suck, I felt the book came up short, VERY short. The first 20% or so gives you a pretty good grasp of the mindset of Mr. Newton, at least bringing me up to the speed of his perceptions. Since I was not alive at that time, nor am I black, some of his descriptions were taken at face value as best as I could. The next 60% he came off as a narcissistic, megalomaniac that reminded me a lot of Alex Jones and his ilk. He would be in the middle of an amazing observation about humanity, then either retreat to quoting the most obscure text he could, or drop off topic to say it is the "white racist power structure" out to get him. Didn't matter if it was America, Africa, or Albania it was all the same New World Order (or in this case Old World Order) out to crush this one man. In the last 20% he narrates his 3 trials (same charges), his time in prison, and finally dismissal of charges. This was by far the most interesting part of the book. When he writes about finding himself in the darkness of solitary, of wanting more of it rather than give up an inch I finally saw what he brought out in people. Huey P Newton is some one I can never meet, will probably never agree with politically, and can never truly identify with...yet he inspires me to be a better man and I am for reading his book. There are certain parts I will have on my mind the day I reach my grave, and every day up til then. It might be strange after I just spent time telling you the majority of it is shit, but YOU should read this book, the story as they say must be told. Power to the People.

R.I.P. Huey, you have earned it.

Jason

III

P.S.- Yes the 10 point plan is f'd up, yes he had many short comings, yes his character was challenged and tarnished in later years. But does anyone give a rats ass trying to bring you down to tarnish all you have done? Even flawed he is still a better man than many I know today, that is not a stab at the people I know, but Huey P Newton was tested and he came out intact more times than most.

Sheriff, A moment of your time please....

2009-10-13T18:26:00.004-07:00

Below is the text of an e-mail I wrote to my local sheriff. It was inspired by an article HERE
To whom it may concern,
I would like to direct your attention to a recent web article that I found, and thought would be a great event for the Sheriff to look at. This would be a great opportunity for both Sheriff Babeu, and us citizens of Pinal County. (I also believe this could be done without any county funds?) Anyway here is a link to the article (LINK)and a link to the event co-ordination group Appleseed. I am a local small business owner who deals with the ideals of the Second Amendment daily, and feel that this event would be greatly accepted in Pinal County. I have been watching recent events in the Sheriffs Department this year and have been happy with the change and accountability that have resulted with the election of Sheriff Babeu, maybe this would be a way for us all to say thank you to each other. From the citizens to the department thank you for your service, from the department to the citizens thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Jay 21(Real name in real message)
Do me, and your community, a favor and write a similar message to your local law enforcement. This is a great way to build a strong community relationship with local LEOs.

PLANTIFFS request such other and further relief as...

2009-10-05T22:15:00.002-07:00

Montana Ready to go to court. For an older story if you're not familiar, read here. Read the brief below. Special note on page 9

lll

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20526759/Complaint-FINAL

Kinda of makes you go hummmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Jason

III

Hugh Kealer? AZ Governor wanna be...

2009-09-24T18:40:00.002-07:00

To be honset I don't know this guy from Moses, however I like what I have heard so far. Take a look at him here
It is good to be seeing people, regular people, start going after these seats. Jan Brewer is a joke, and Janet N, god I cannot even say. After Symington, Mofford, Mecham.... Man do we deserve a break in this state. Give him a look, at least lets get a couple of horses in this race.

Thanks to David Codrea for spreading the word. Read his stuff here and here...

My favorite part...
"HK: I oppose registration of weapons. This ends up being an infringement of the 2nd Amendment. There is no reason for registration, besides knowing who owns a weapon, how many they own, and what kind; which, I can not see one reason the government needs this information."

Don't forget about Jim Deakin, Candidate for US Senate, Arizona either boys and girls.

Gilbert Constitution Fair - AZ 2009

2009-09-20T09:08:00.009-07:00

I spent Saturday evening out with my family at a local fair celebrating "Constitution Week." It is billed as the largest celebration of the Constitution in the country. I highly encourage EVERYONE to follow this link http://www.constitutionweekusa.com/ and either come out and join us next year or get your local community to organize one. The entire event is put on WITHOUT tax funds of any kind. Representatives from every kind of patriot you can imagine were present. Pocket Constitutions were everywhere, as were games and events to keep the kids involved and educated. (Including Guy Fawkes masks for the kid in all of us) The event was touching as an American, and sobering as father. You walked in through a touching tribute to EVERY Arizonan who has died in Iraq/Afghanistan, all of them a son, brother, father or mother. With actors re-enacting some great speeches of the time including a reading of the Declaration of Independence, and an amazing performance of Francis Scott Key, coming up with the "Star Spangled Banner." I was touched and renewed in my faith of the American people in ways I cannot explain, almost to the point of tears as I recall the evening. A truly memorable event.

Children sign the Declaration wall, Pledging "Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" to liberty's ideas. A replica of the Liberty Bell was on display and was even rung. The evening ended with a fireworks display to Americana themed music played live by a full orchestra. I could not have been happier to be anywhere else, or with anyone else on this fantastic evening for a wonderful cause. The teaching of history, our history, and spreading the ideals of liberty. Please take a moment and remember those who came before us, and the prices they paid to give us a place that truly is the shining city Ronald Reagan spoke of. (Read a speech that is as relevant today as ever HERE) I wish I had taken more photos.

Jason
III

Friday Night "Semper Fi"

2009-08-29T23:39:00.002-07:00

Spent Friday saying welcome home to a friend and a Marine, and good luck and god bless to his brothers in arms that will be going back to the sandbox next month. Once again I was touched by the support of total strangers and genuine gratitutude towards these young men who are laying it all on the line. My personal highlight was when I witnessed a very personal "passing of the torch." A man who was introduced only as "a Marine from Vietnam," went around to each of these young Marines gave them a small token and had a private conversation with each of them. I would not dare to ask the content of those words, but as he finished his "thanks" all of these Marines went out of their way to let HIM know he "was their hero" for doing what he did at a time there were no parades, and very few happy home-comings. After many drinks, stories, and tributes we said good night, and a good night it was. Thanks to the American Legion, Patriot Riders, and the USMC 3/4. Please take a minute and have a thought for these boys and all of our soliders.

Jason
III

At Least SOMEBODY Tried to "Proof Read"

2009-08-09T22:29:00.003-07:00

BELOW IS THE DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE 1000 PAGE HEALTH CARE PLAN BY MAT STAVER, DEAN OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW:

Obama Health Care Plan Details

HR 3200 currently under consideration in the House of Representatives

*HC = "Health Care"

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Government will audit the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC Bill - YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC Bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your benefits for you. You have no choice!

Pg 50 Section 152 in HC Bill - HC will be provided to ALL non-U.S. citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58 HC Bill - Government will have real-time access to individual's finances and a National ID Health Care Card will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your banks accounts for electronic funds transfer.

Pg 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in unions and community organizations (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government is creating a Health Care Exchange to bring private health care plans under government control.

Pg 84 Sec 203 HC Bill - Government mandates ALL benefit packages for private health care plans in the Exchange

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The government will ration your health care!

Pg 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Government mandates linguistic appropriate services.

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The government will use groups i.e., ACORN & AmeriCorps to sign up individuals for government Health Care Plan

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your health care WILL be rationed

Pg 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

Pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue the government on price fixing. No "judicial review" against this government monopoly.

Pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The government will tell YOU what you can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for health care for part-time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w/ payroll 400k and above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

Pg 150 Lines 9-13 Businesses with payroll between 251k and 400k who do not provide public opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn't have acceptable health care according to government will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay).

Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Administration (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans' financial and personal records.

Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC - "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it says that.

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same.

Pg 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of doctors' time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

Pg 265 Sec 1131Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries.

Pg 268 Sec 1141 Federal Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.

Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The government will penalize hospitals for what government deems preventable readmissions. (Incentives for hospital to not treat and release.)

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Doctors that treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission-Government will penalize you.

Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25, 1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Government is mandating hospitals cannot expand.

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception, BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Government mandates establishment of outcome based measures. Health Care the way they want. Rationing.

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Government plan.

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Government will RESTRICT enrollment of special needs people!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Government creates more bureaucracy - Tele-health Advisory Committee. Health care by phone/Internet?

Pg 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consultion. Think Senior Citizens end of life.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!

Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death.

Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The government has a say in how your life ends.

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An "advanced care planning consult" will be used frequently as patient's health deteriorates.

Pg 429 Lines 10-12 " advanced care consultation" may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from Government.

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The government will specify which doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.

Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non-profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Services here!!?

Pg 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. Like ACORN?

Pg 489 Sec 1308 The government will cover Marriage and Family therapy. They will insert government into your marriage.

Pg 494-498 Government will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services.

PG 502 Sec 1181 Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research Established. - Hello Big Brother - Literally.

Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Government will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic medical records.

Pg 503 lines 21-25 Government may secure data directly from any department or agency of the U.S. who have any of your data.

Pg 504 Lines 6-10 The "Center" will collect data both published and unpublished (that means public and your private info).

PG 506 Lines 19-21 The Center will recommend policies that would allow for public access of data.

PG 518 Lines 21-25 The Commission will have input from Health Care consumer reps - Can you say unions and ACORN?

PG 524 18-22 Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund set up. More taxes for ALL.

PG 621 Lines 20-25 Government will define what quality means in health care. Since when does government know about quality?

Pg 622 Lines 2-9 To pay for the Quality Standards, government will transfer money from other government Trust Funds. More Taxes.

PG 624 "Quality" measures shall be designed to assess outcomes and functional status of patients.

PG 624 "Quality" measures shall be designed to profile you including race, age, gender, place of residence, etc.

Pg 628 Sec 1443 Government will give "Multi-Stake Holders" Pre-Rule Making input into Selection of "Quality" Measures.

Pg 630 9-24/631 1-9 Those multi-stake holder groups include unions and groups like ACORN deciding health care quality.

Pg 632 Lines 14-25 The Government may implement any "Quality measure" of health care services as they see fit.

PG 633 14-25/ 634 1-9 The Secretary may issue non-endorsed "Quality Measures" for Physician Services and Dialysis Services.

Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision - Government wants to shine sunlight on doctor but not government.

Pg 654-659 Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections - Looks okay.

PG 660-671 Doctors in Residency - Government will tell you where your residency will be, thus where you'll live.

Pg 676-686 Government will regulate hospitals in EVERY aspect of residency programs, including teaching hospitals.

Pg 686-700 Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. Do they mean like the government with an $18 million website?

PGs 701-704 Sec 1619 If your part of health care plan isn't in Government Health Care Exchange but you qualify for Federal aid, no payment.

PG 705-709 SEC. 1128 If Secretary gets complaints (ACORN) on health care provider or supplier, government can do background check.

PG 711 Lines 8-14 The Secretary has broad powers to deny health care providers/ suppliers admittance into Health Care Exchange. Your doctor could be thrown out of business.

Pg 719-720 Sec 1637 ANY Doctor who orders durable medical equipment or home medical services MUST be enrolled in Medicare.

PG 722 Sec 1639 Government MANDATES doctors must have face-to-face with patient to certify patient for Home Health Services.

PG 724 23-25 PG 725 1-5 The same government certifications will apply to Medicaid and CHIP (your kids).

PG 724 Lines 16-22 Government reserves right to apply face-to-face certification for patient to ANY other health care service.

Pg 735 lines 16-25 For law enforcement, proposes the Secretary-HHS will give Attorney General access to ALL data.

PG 740-757 Government sets guidelines for subsidizing the uninsured (That's your tax dollars people).

Pg 757-762 Federal Government will shift burden of payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) to States. (Taxes)

Pg 763 1-8 No DS/EA hospitals will be paid unless they provide services without regard to national origin.

Pg 765 Sec 1711 Government will require Preventative Services including vaccines. (Choice?)

Pg 768 Sec 1713 Government - Nurse Home Visitation Services (Hello union paybacks).

Pg 769 11-14 Nurse Home Visit Services include economic self-sufficiency, employ adv, school-readiness.

Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services - "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies." Government ABORTIONS anyone?

Pg 770 SEC 1714 Federal Government mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services. Abortion and State Sovereignty.

Pg 789-797 Government will set, mandate drug prices, controlling which drugs brought to market. Bye innovation.

Pgs 797-800 SEC. 1744 PAYMENTS for graduate medical education. The government will now control doctors' educations.

PG 801 Sec 1751 The government will decide which health care conditions will be paid. Can you say RATION!

Pg 810 SEC. 1759. Billing Agents, clearinghouses, etc. req. to register. Government takes over private payment system.

Pg 820-824 Sec 1801 Government will identify individuals ineligible for subsidies. Will access all personal financial information.

Pg 824-829 SEC. 1802. Government sets up Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund. Another tax black hole.

PG 829-833 Government will impose a fee on ALL private health insurance plans including self-insured to pay for Trust Fund!

PG 835 11-13 fees imposed by government for Trust Fund shall be treated as if they were taxes.

Pg 838-840 Government will design and implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids and families expecting kids.

PG 844-845 This Home Visitation Program includes government coming into your house and telling you how to parent!!!

Pg 859 Government will establish a Public Health Fund at a cost of $88,800,000,000. Yes that's billion.

Pg 865 The government will MANDATE the establishment of a National Health Service Corps.

PG 865 to 876 The NHS Corps is a program where doctors perform mandatory health care for two years for part loan repayment.

PG 876-892 The government takes over the education of our medical students and doctors.

PG 898 The government will establish a Public Health Workforce Corps to ensure supply of public health prof.

PG 898 The Public Health Workforce Corps shall consist of civilian employees of the U.S. as Secretary deems.

PG 898 The Public Health Workforce Corps shall consist of officers of Regular and Reserve Corps of Service.

PG 900 The Public Health Workforce Corps includes veterinarians.

PG 901 The Public Health Workforce Corps WILL include commissioned Regular and Reserve Officers. HC Draft?

PG 910 The government will develop, build, and run Public Health Training Centers.

PG 913-914 Government starts a health care affirmative action program thru guise of diversity scholarships.

PG 915 SEC. 2251. Government MANDDATES Cultural and linguistic competency training for health care professionals.

Pg 932 The Government will establish Preventative and Wellness Trust fund- initial cost of $30,800,000,000 billion.

PG 935 21-22 Government will identify specific goals & objectives for prevention & wellness activities. That means controlling YOU!!

PG 936 Government will develop "Healthy People and National Public Health Performance Standards" Tell me what to eat?

PG 942 Lines 22-25 More government? Offices of Surgeon General -Public Health Svc, Minority Health, Women's Health

PG 950- 980 BIG GOVERNMENT core pub health infrastructure including workforce capacity, lab systems, health info sys, etc.

PG 993 Government will establish school based health clinics. Your kids won't have a chance.

PG 994 School Based Health Clinic will be integrated into the school environment. Say government brainwash!

PG 1001 The government will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will you be tracked?

Mathew D. Staver*
Founder and Chairman Dean and Professor of Law
Liberty Counsel Liberty University School of Law

Offices in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Lynchburg, Virginia
(800) 671-1776 - Telephone (434) 592-5300 - Telephone

LC.org
law.liberty.edu

Those Were The Days

2009-08-02T07:58:00.001-07:00

Taking Chance

2009-07-16T16:22:00.007-07:00

What a difference 40 years can make. I remember vividly being in high school during Desert Storm, my history teacher asking the question:

"How do you think all of these stickers and ribbons in support of our troops make the Vietnam vets feel?" While on one hand he was proud to see his country finally salute its solders, he told us of his experience coming home to being spat on. This movie shows how we as Americans, every day, by simply acknowledging their existence, we pay them tribute. Watch this movie please and remember the fallen. (Read about Chance Phelps USMC here)

Thank you to all Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers. May you and your families find the peace you deserve.

Jason

Let Freedom Ring

2009-07-04T07:49:00.001-07:00

Justified, Part 4

2009-07-02T04:30:00.000-07:00

I have previously posted parts here, here, and here to little fanfare. I continue to relate my justification for descent. This will be link thick, read them, then come back.

Armed Citizen has an important essay here where he clarifies in layman's terms the pursuit of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Reverend Franz has some essential reading on "choices" here and here along with an IMPORTANT essay HERE

Now that you have absorbed these, if you have not yet, check out Anthony Martin's writings here

Caught up? Good. Lastly absorb knowledge here

Now you have a basis of my slightly off-center state of mind. I openly call for revolt, violent if necessary, against a tyrannical government. The reasons are posted above in detail. However I will attempt to simplify it here.

I am a husband and father first, patriot second, and follower of MY faith third. Sad as it is, I have been forced to have a discussion with those that I love and respect. The summary is that there is a time and place for how we act/react. If my hand is forced I will react in a way that causes my death, I am okay with that. May my sons grow strong in proud in the path they have been placed. On the brink of history to fight and kill, if needed, for Liberty. We have lost the vision of our Fathers, we have lost the visions of freedom. For pop culture we have forgotten the Spartans, William Wallace, Roland of Gilead, and Bob Lee Swagger. For purists we have ignored Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. We have all been taught (fooled) to believe that there is hope in a two party system. There is none. I do not recognise the rule of man. I do not blindly follow a nationalistic flag. I believe the founding fathers and their ideals reign true.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Do not follow the idea that barack obama is to blame, nor that george w. bush is. Not even bill, or jimmy c. It is a system that has been growing for generations, stripping us of truth and justice.

Soon we stand and we fight. Train, prepare, and tell those that you do that you love them. Say good bye. Hope that I am wrong, fear that I am not.

Jason

III

IAVA

2009-07-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Watch this video please, if you are not, get involved.

Re-post As We Enter Year II

2009-06-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

One year ago today I "published" my first essay. Thanks for reading and debating over the past 12 months!

I was reading some blogs and postings and noticed a general decline in the attitude of what I will call, people for change. (real change, not the socialist/fascist manifestos of politics today) People who see me a lot or know me well, will roll their eyes at my "power of positive thinking" rhetoric. You will have a hard time convincing people to change by telling them life (theirs or yours) sucks; they already have an opinion about that. Sell them on the "positives" of your new message. If all else fails read the "Federalist Papers" again, arm yourself with knowledge, and give them hope. Idealists change the world, for better or worse. The general population flows with the tide. Remember your history, not the one printed in High School books; the American Revolution was not brought on by "popular vote." The founders as we call them today were an assembly of small groups, consisting of some VERY intelligent and convincing men. They told of a powerful message, "liberty and rights." Liberty being your choices, and rights being UNDENIABLE by other peoples choices. That message is being heard again today, I thank Ron Paul for bringing it to the forefront of "mass-media" again. Our country has been in a downward trend for generations, since well before I was born, and needs to be rebuilt to what it was. Unfortunately, change can only come after tragedy, rebuild after destruction. Let us hope the tragedy is small and the change is large. Keep positive, keep informed and spread the words of our founders. Focus on the ability to reach total strangers across the globe in an instant, make your message heard. America can be the "Shining light on the hill" again. It will not come quickly or easily.
Jason

Cap and Tax

2009-06-27T22:42:00.001-07:00

STRIKE 2....

Somalia, we're comin back in!

2009-06-25T20:40:00.004-07:00

"An administration review of U.S. policy toward Somalia found an urgent need to supply the Somali government with ammunition and weapons as it struggles to confront increasingly powerful Islamic militants."

From HERE
2 Questions come to mind:
What could go wrong with this plan?

What about OUR need to confront increasingly powerful Socialist Statists?

Jason

III

Quote of the MONTH

2009-06-23T20:07:00.004-07:00

An open letter to our elected representatives from Arizona resident Janet Contreras, sent to Glenn Beck which he apparently read aloud yesterday. (I don't listen to Glenn, this was recommended to me.)

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.
Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.
I hope Ms. Contreras represents a growing number of voters, I really do.Please pardon me, though, if I doubt. Glenn Beck interviewed the author today, I think. From the transcript:
May I, may I make a prediction. Your letter, in the next 72 hours, will be a letter that is circulated through a good portion of this country on the Internet. I have a feeling your letter may become a rallying cry.
Just doing my part. We the People are coming.

A repost of Smallest Minority, I could not pick a quote so here is the whole deal.
Jason
III

Patriot or Loyalist

2009-06-14T09:58:00.002-07:00

We are again, in our short history, forced to ask ourselves where do we stand.
Thomas Jefferson in 1775 wrote:
"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Shortly after he drafted other words that echo through America:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
At this time the country (colonies) had two parties, with a large percentage of the population not fully believing or trusting either. But the basic mindset could be divided into "loyalist to the crown" or "patriot to the cause." Loyalty has been a guiding ideal in my life, like a dog I can be loyal to a fault. However, by the grace of God, I also have reasoning beyond that of canines. I cannot stay loyal to a master, but will be forever vigilant in my loyalty to a cause. As you lay yourself and your loved ones down, recall our proud history. As you read the news, and hear the words of your elected "leaders", no longer simply granted the title of representatives, remember our proud history. Stand loyal your ideals and mans judgement upon you is irrelevant. I for one cannot stay "loyal" to a government that, at every turn, tries to regulate as many facets of life that they can. Meet up face to face, build a network, expand that network. Share, teach and learn. Become a Patriot, and rally others to the cause. A storm is brewing, find shelter and support.
In the CRISIS No.1 Thomas Paine wrote:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
To this day his words ring true, I have some more reading to do!
Jason
III

Quote of the Day

2009-06-13T09:36:00.002-07:00

"Great. Now Napoltano will be sending emails warning of the Imminent Terrorist Threat posed by by Medicare recipient" -Posted By: RedsQMee @ 06/13/2009 10:38:57 AM

On an artilce about the "elderly criminal minds" HERE

Memorial Day

2009-05-24T17:39:00.003-07:00

Traveler, take this word to the men of Lakedaimon:We who lie buried here did what they told us to do.

Remember the warriors
Jason
III

Pride

2009-05-19T21:45:00.005-07:00

"Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity."
From here

For most of my life people have tried to teach me that pride is bad. If I display confidence it is regarded as arrogance, if I refuse to loose it is considered overly competitive or mean. I disagree. See we have been flooded with the ideals of the seven deadly sins, or even more recently with the negative side of pride. E.G. "white pride", "black pride", nationalism, and "gay pride."
This is being used to separate "us" into clicks and cliches. Pride in yourself is a fantastic tool, do not fall into the trap of a singular ideal. Stand up and have some pride in yourself, your life, your abilities or lack of. All of it defines YOU, take pride and strength in that fact. See no self respecting man who has pride in his life, and its position in the world, would stand for oppression. The greater good? I am that greater good because of pride. I am proud of my life, wife and children. I am proud of the accomplishments I have made. I am proud that I have carved out a little space on the Internet to vent and debate with others. Do I have pride, hell yeah. Is it sinful or bad? Not in the least. I learned a long time ago that if you want to appreciate life, you must accept death. That acceptance led to pride. I search for experience in what life I have left, and take pride in what i accomplish in that time. You may not agree with me or my life's choices, that's okay, I am still proud of it. Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1741-"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
I believe this at my core, pride is meant to be embraced it is your conscience and should be your driving force. Instill pride in your community and it thrives, instill pride in your children and they flourish.
Have faith, stand strong, stay proud.
Jason
III

Lucy, you gots some banning to do!

2009-05-17T20:57:00.007-07:00

Ricky Ricardo would loose his mind trying to esplain this to his red haired queen as she only want to protect "little Ricky"

Here are some real numbers of accidental child deaths per year:

Cause ......................Number (Ages 0-14) .............Number (Ages 0-4)

Motor vehicle .........................2,591..........................................819 Drowning .................................943............................................568

Fires and flames .....................593............................................327

Mechanical suffocation ..........601.............................................508

Ingestion of food, object.........169 ............................................169 Firearms ..................................86...............................................19

Source: Figures are for 2000. National Safety Council, Injury Facts: 2003 Edition, at 10-11, 129.

Sourced from here

GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM! There are much worse things to de doing with your children. Hell even the Clampet's undestand this

(This is SARCASM I do NOT believe in the government banning of any activity that does not directly harm or infringe another human being E.g. Murder)

Is The Military Coming For Us?

2009-05-11T18:53:00.005-07:00

Part of my weekend was spent enjoying time and conversation with friends. Some of which are current and/or retired military. The talk drifted to the current Mid-East as the battalions represented had recently returned from Iraq, and are set to deploy on an Afghan route by years end. Anyways during the clearing of Fallujah talk we were going over the adaptive rules of engagement as Marines were going door to door. Here is a brief rundown:
-Early on it was door to door looksey.
-Some would fight, most hostiles would flee a few doors down.
-After a while you get a build up in a single location, a severe fight ensues.
-Door to door becomes escalated with multiple frag grenades. More people run out sooner, dig in deeper.
-More severe fight ensue, and the escalation continues on and on, and involve rolling big boomers.

Here is my first thought, if the Marines do come for Threepers were fucked! We simply do not have a realistic defense against a squad with a full frag set up. The good news is I don't think we need it. See as I posed the question to the Marines, about citizen disarmament, the answer I got was (paraphrased) "we got some crazy assholes, but I would hope the MP's would say F that before the orders even got to recon." Essentially followed up by the hint that you would soon see Marines on both sides of the line with an overwhelming majority of the battle proven on the side of our citizens. Thanks for the reassurance of support, Semper Fi and be safe out there boys.

Jason
III

(PS not meant to dismiss ANY other branch of service, you all just weren't at the party. Thanks to all who have and do serve. May you and your families find rest and peace soon, you deserve it)

Hadji Girl!

2009-05-03T09:21:00.002-07:00

Math is FUNNY

2009-04-29T19:57:00.004-07:00

found here

H/T SayUncle

Not do be out done

Kaveman lets us know a little about the math of the "average" US gun owner here

Some people are smart and funny, god I love numbers.

Jason

III

Drug Control, WTF

2009-04-27T20:47:00.006-07:00

I have a persistent skin condition, Have had it since I was a child. Anyway here is the deal. I have:
-A rash (similar to shingles) on my eye lid.
-Due to location, it gets infected, inflamed at the time of breakout.
-White blood cells do their thing and build up in my lymph nodes.
-I require "prescription" antibiotics to fight the infection.
To get them I need to leave my job, create an appointment with a doctor to repeat the above symptoms, he/she will look at me, agree and fill out a little 4"x6" piece of paper. I then need to drive to a pharmacy and turn in the "script" and stand in line for 30+ minutes. Collect my pills and move on. Repeat 1-2 times a years. Bullshit... this is not medicine but control, control over my well being. Searching out homeopathic holistic remedies, any ideas? I am done with "western medicine." Drug laws similar to gun laws, and other behavioral codes are designed to remind us we are a lower class of people than those who have been "approved" and appointed. Taxing and regulating behavior is NOT going to stop behavior, only assert "control" over the average man/woman who has a life inside of the daily grind.

Jason

III

On a side note- The "swine flu," is THE FLU, stop panicking. It will go over and break in a few days. Quit getting flu shots, eat healthy and exercise. Practice basic hygiene and you will be OK.

F'n A Right

2009-04-22T18:35:00.005-07:00

Read about him HERE, announced today so content is mostly "coming soon."

2010, I am looking for some "change". Bye bye McCain. The shear fact he is going against the hypocrite traitor McCain gets my vote.

Jason

III

Right, Wrong, Indifferent

2009-04-20T19:46:00.002-07:00

I was one of a group that received an e-mail from a writer for the Washington Post referring to an article on Obamas comment about the 90% of guns in Mexico. On face value, as more than one person reminded me, the e-mail could have been an innocent attempt at providing us (bloggers) with a noteworthy link. I saw it to be different, and responded as i felt was accordingly.
If you would have bothered reading many of the sites you sent the article to you would know they are already all over the story, and it's inherent LIES. Please remove me from any further e-mails unless it is to renounce your "profession" and the lie it tries to sell to the American people. We are not "AUTHORIZED JOURNALISTS," simply stated we call em as we see em. Good luck in your endeavor, your article on the bats was entertaining. Flawed as the "global warming," giant fans are going to save us syndrome is. Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter.
Jason
III
I acted in a way that was entertaining to me for me. I "copied" everyone the original Wash Post email had attached and expected no responses. Oops. For the record I was at first flattered to be grouped in with blogs I read daily, for I neither have their content, readership or skill. That is what pissed me of at the same time, NO WAY would anyone put my Blog on par with theirs. More likely an email blast was created off of someones blogroll, and a spam was used to increase Wash Post readership. My site is for my entertainment and to occasionally provoke discussions I see as relevant. Childish yes, do I care, not really. I am still content with my response, but I did not intend to imply I was speaking for anyone other than my self.
Sebastian asked:
"What's wrong with a polite request be removed from his list?"
Nothing, just not in my personality, I occasionally feel like being an A-hole.
and "Why the need for lengthy exoriating screeds against journalists and journalism?"
Too be honest I had to look up the definition of exoriating, and no it wasn't necessary but it was entertaining, and I believe acceptable considering the source and the perceived intentions of the email. To be honest I do not accept elitism by title and call BS as I see it, I also felt the request was condescending in its content and spam like address bar.
D. Codrea stated: "To my knowledge, I coined the term "authorized journalist"--"
Would never mean to disrespect you or "steal" one of your ideas without credit being given. It was used off the cuff and ownership was not intended, I felt it fit the response perfectly. Similarly I frequently refer to your site and its reference to the "only ones" you track so well when it fits the discussion.
Others chimed in but the above statements I felt were directed at me and responded to here. Attention, easy come easy go. For anyone who did not originate the email, hopefully no harm no foul. As for the "journalist" that sent it I still say "Read the sites you mailed, they are top notch and full of things you could report on, things that matter."
Jason
III

April 19

2009-04-19T00:01:00.001-07:00

A year ago my friend wrote a post for the anniversary. Rather than trying to top his, I repost it in it's entirety here:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood;

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set to-day a votive stone,

That memory may their deeds redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare to die,

and leave their children free,

--Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raised to them and Thee.

RW Emmerson

April 19th is an important day in American history, arguably the most American day of all of them. Commonly called Patriot's Day, all but now forgotten, and only an official holiday in Mass and Maine. Today I thought id give a reminder to you of those who have gone before you, in this great country, that you might remember them, and learn from them.I think John Parker, leader and Captain of the Lexington Irregular Militia can do a better job than I of explaining what happened the morning and afternoon of that April 19, 1775, so ill let him speak first, before i try and explain what those happenings meant, and mean, to you.

"I, John Parker, of lawful Age, and Commander of the Militia in Lexington, do testify and declare, that on the 19th Instant in the Morning, about one of the Clock, being informed that there were a Number of Regular Officers, riding up and down the Road, stopping and insulting People as they passed the Road; and also was informed that a Number of Regular Troops were on their March from Boston in order to take the Province Stores at Concord, ordered our Militia to meet on the Common in said Lexington to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or make with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult or molest us; and, upon their sudden Approach, I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire:—Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us."

So, there you have it, that's the gist of it.But what were soldiers doing in Lexington, and why were they worried about irregular militiamen, plainclothes farmers who carried rifles once or twice a week, drilling in the town squares and in fallow fields?Well, you see, by the mid-1700s the New England colonies had already begun a long legacy of self reliance and self government. Due to the great distance to the old country and its own government, they had been accustomed for generations to managing their own affairs, with little oversight from England.Because England had incurred a great deal of debt from its frequent wars with France, the British Parliament decided in the 1760s and early 1770s, to try to raise some revenue by taxing the colonies directly, something it had not done before. These taxes were not terribly burdensome, but a great many people were disturbed by the principle: the colonies had always governed and taxed themselves, and they resisted the idea of having to contribute to what they saw as an "external" government. When ordered by the Royal Governor not to hold a town meeting, the Boston representatives held it anyway. A local crowd harassing a group of young British soldiers was fired upon in what came to be called the Boston Massacre. For several years these tensions built and built, until they came to a head in the first few months of 1775.Parliament had ordered the Port of Boston closed, a heavy economic burden for a major trading center, and had ordered the towns to cease holding local meetings. Massachusetts was effectively put under military rule, but since there was only one major garrison, in the city of Boston itself, most of the people in the countryside ignored the orders and continued to act as they always had. They did, however, begin to collect arms and ammunition, and to reactivate their militia system that had fallen into disuse since the end of the French and Indian War a decade earlier.The collecting of muskets, gunpowder, cannon, and other arms for use of the town militia was a violation of the orders of the military governor, General Thomas Gage. Gage was aware that these stores were being collected, and his garrison had carried out several missions to confiscate them in the months prior to April 1775. On one occasion, troops had successfully marched from Boston and captured a large supply of colonial gunpowder that was being stored in the nearby town of Somerville. This maneuver enraged the local population, as much because they had been caught off guard as because they had lost their powder. Determined never to let that happen again, the towns refined their elaborate system of alarm riders who were responsible for spreading word of troop movements throughout the countryside. The system was mobilized in February when another military force was sent by ship to the coastal town of Salem to seize a store of powder and arms. Advance warning to the local population allowed them to raise an intervening drawbridge and move the munitions away, and the troops arrived late, and left empty handed.As the spring came, General Gage received orders from Parliament instructing him to take decisive action to put down the rebellious town governments and to capture those inciting the rebellion. In response to these orders, Gage decided to make another move into the countryside to capture the largest colonial munitions supply, the one at Concord in Middlesex County, about eighteen miles west of Boston. The plan was to move quickly soon after dark with complete secrecy, be at Concord by dawn to seize the supplies, and then return to the garrison in Boston by midday before the colonists could even spread word of what had happened. But the colonists were watching too carefully, and in the small space of Boston secrecy turned out to be impossible.With advance warning of the government raid, the systems put in place after the Somerville raid sprung into action, from flags to rowboats to gunfire signals through the woods, by the time soldiers reached Lexington, no sign of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize was found. The town's civilian militia, numbering 38, expecting the British before dawn had gathered on the square, in formation, in the middle of the night. When the government soldiers arrived, shortly after dawn they drew a battle line across the green from them and they ordered the militia members to lay down arms and disperse.Some began to disperse at once, being outnumbered by nearly 130 men, but some hesitated, and none layed down their arms, simply walking off towards the town halls. The situation of course was very tense, and there was much yelling to disperse, lay down arms at once... etc, When, suddenly, without warning, and of unknown origin, a shot rang out. Whatever its origin, that first shot started the soldiers firing, without orders, into the dispersing militia. They were immediately ordered to seace fire, but it was too late. When the smoke cleared from those very few minutes of confusion, eight Lexington militiamen had been killed and nine wounded, some bleeding on the steps to their homes facing the green.The soldiers, who weren't quite sure what they were doing at this point, or what their main objective now was, having never been briefed before marching, grew increasingly nervous as they were now told they had to march another several miles to concord, reaching concord about 7am, even as militia members and citizens gathered on the other side of the bridge having heard, no doubt, that something was afoot at Lexington. Again the government soldiers found nothing of the majority of the muskets, balls and powder they were sent to seize. The larger and mostly immobile artillery pieces they were particularly eager to seize at concord, and expected to find in the usual place, on or near the central green, had been whisked into predug holes in nearby fields and plowed over. As the numbers of those gathering near the bridge broke 100 armed men and women, the safety in numbers the military men had previously held began quickly to erode, as tensions built.In the center of the town the government search parties set fire to some smaller gun stores they found, and the militiamen assembling near the North Bridge saw the plume of smoke and believed the troops were beginning to burn the town. They marched forward to the bridge positions held by the soldiers, and the troops again opened fire. The Militiamen returned fire, and several more were killed on both sides.The government soldiers were driven back to the center of the town, and soon the entire force began to march back the way it had come, down the long road to Boston. Even as the regular army fled these citizen soldiers, word of the attack spread through the system of alarms and ready systems now in place. By the hour, more and more militia companies and citizens were arriving from the surrounding countryside, and the troop's retreat turned into a brutal route, a battle three hundred yards wide and eighteen miles long. At every turn of the road a militia company was waiting and fired into the soldier's ranks. The soldiers ordered out by General Gage were fired upon from many houses along the road, and in response their advance parties began burning nearly every building they came to. In the village of Menotomy, between Lexington and Cambridge, the fighting was especially fierce, and the exhausted and terrified British soldiers forced almost every house along the road and killed all the inhabitants.About eight o'clock on the evening of the nineteenth, the column finally reached the safety of its own lines across the river from Boston.They had been marching for almost twenty-four hours, through the night, the last six hours under heavy fire, They had suffered more than 272 casualties, including sixty-five killed. The fighting civilians had suffered ninety-four casualties, including fifty killed.Twenty-three separate towns had at least one member of their militia killed or wounded.No one had called it, and even, perhaps, no one had known it at the time, but the American Revolution had begun. It began in these few new england towns, but soon, it would spread across what would soon be a new nation.Within two days, 15,000 men from across New England had assembled and surrounded Boston, and the soldiers of the crown were never able to move more than a short distance off that small peninsula again. Three months later, at the request of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, a Virginian rode north to take command of that citizen army that had laid siege to the city. His name was George Washington, and the 15,000 New England militiamen became the American Army. Eleven months later, the garrison at Boston was evacuated by sea and was never seen in New England again.In a day where news often took weeks to to travel even a few hundred miles, news of this battle spread at almost supernatural speed. By the evening of the nineteenth—the same day—the news of Lexington had reached New Hampshire to the north and Rhode Island to the south. Within four days it had reached New York City, two hundred miles away. By April 26th the news of Lexington had arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. New Bern, North Carolina, heard the Lexington alarm by May 3rd, carried via ship from Newport, Rhode Island. Wilmington, North Carolina, heard by May 8th, and Charleston, South Carolina, by May 9th, also from the sea. The Shenandoah Valley on what was then the western frontier received the news overland about the same time. And when it reached a far western hunting camp on another part of the frontier, the hunters decided to name their camp "Lexington." That camp today is the city of Lexington, Kentucky.A forty-year-old Massachusetts lawyer named John Adams, who had been arguing for some time for a political separation from Britain, heard the news on his farm in Braintree that afternoon, and immediately went to see for himself what had happened. He rode that evening along the battle road for many miles, and saw burned out houses, groups of people burying the dead, and refugee families trying to escape farther into the countryside. Adams remembered that day's ride as a turning point in his life; it convinced him that "the Die was cast, the Rubicon crossed." Within a year he would be working with Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence, and would go on to become the second President of the United States. Thomas Paine in Philadelphia had previously thought of the argument between the colonies and the Home Country as "a kind of law-suit", but after news of the battle reached him, he "rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England forever." George Washington received the news at Mount Vernon and wrote to a friend, "…the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched in blood or inhabited by slaves.Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"One of the men in Concord on the nineteenth was the town's minister, the Reverend William Emerson. His house that day became a sanctuary for frightened women and children trying to escape the fighting. More than sixty years later his grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, would write one of the defining pieces of American literature for a ceremony commemorating the battle at the North Bridge, that poem with which began this history."The fight had been the hinge," said the novelist Henry James, many years later, "on which the large revolving future was to turn."As JAMES M.NICHOLS wrote in his own remembrance of those who fought at Lexington and Concord, in his history of the revolutionary war, in 1886:It was one of those great days, one of those elemental occasions in the world's affairs, when the people rise, and act for themselves. Some organization and preparation had been made; but, from the nature of the case, with scarce any effect on the events of that day. It may be doubted whether there was an efficient order given the whole day, to any body of men as large as a regiment. It was the people, in their first capacity, as citizens and as freemen, starting from their beds at midnight, from their firesided, and from their fields, to take their own cause into their own hands.Such a spectacle is the height of the moral sublime; when the want of everything is fully made up by the spirit of the cause, and the soul within stands in place of discipline, organization, resources. In the prodigious efforts of a veteran army, beneath the dazzling splendour of their array, there is something revolting to the reflective mind. The ranks are filled with the desperate, the mercenary, the depraved; an iron slavery, by the name of subordination, merges the free will of one hundred thousand men in the unqualified despotism of one; the humanity, mercy, and remorse, which scarce ever deserts the individual bosom, are sounds without a meaning to that fearful, ravenous, irrational monster of prey, a mercenary army. It is hard to say who are most to be commiserated, the wretched people on whom it is let loose, or the still more wretched people whose substance has been sucked out to nourish it into strength and fury.But, in the efforts of the people -- of the people struggling for their rights, moving not in organized, disciplined masses, but in their spontaneous action, man for man, and heart for heart, though I like not war nor any of its works, there is something glorious. They can then move forward without orders, act together without combination, and brave the flaming lines of battle without entrenchments to cover, or walls to shield them.No dissolute camp has worn off from the feelings of the youthful soldier the freshness of that home where his mother and his sisters sit waiting, with tearful eyes and aching hearts, to hear good news from the wars; no long service in the ranks of a conqueror has turned the veteran's heart into marble; their valour springs not from recklessness, from habit, from indifference to the preservation of a life knit by pledges to the life of others. But in the strength and spirit of the cause alone they act, they contend, they bleed. In this, they conquer.The people always conquer. They must always conquer. Armies may be defeated; kings may be over thrown, and new dynasties imposed by foreign arms on an ignorant and slavish race, that care not in what language the covenant of their subjection runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and sale is made out. But the people never invade; and, when they rise against the invader, are never subdued.If they are driven from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and everlasting hills are their castles; the tangled, pathless thicket, their palisado; and Nature-God, is their ally. Now he overwhelms the hosts of their enemies, beneath his drifting mountains of sand; now he buries them beneath a falling atmosphere of polar snows; he lets loose his tempests on their fleets; he puts a folly into their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their leaders; and never gave, and never will give, a full and final triumph over a virtuous, gallant people, resolved to be free.So, remember, this patriots day, lest these actions, and the lessons they beget, be forgot.

Tempus Fugit.
Posted by ReverendFranz

Remember the past my Friends.

Jason
III

What Constitution?

2009-04-18T14:45:00.003-07:00

What Constitution? They can beat a Pastor because they said so.

Watch yourself boys and girls,
Jason
III

For more offical evil deeds in AZ CLICK HERE

12 Years and Counting

2009-04-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

12 years ago today, my wife and I joined into a llifetime contract.

"I, take you to be my wife, to have and behold from this day on, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until death do us part."

I hold true to that word and feeling today, thank you for my beautiful children and my wonderful life. You are my love and my life.

Jason

From Comments Come A Post

2009-04-08T17:39:00.006-07:00

From HERE, which you all should be reading daily:

This comment caught my attention:

Why is it, exactly, that if I disagree with you as to how to interpret the Constitution and various related documents, I somehow don't understand them? Is your interpretation the right one and anyone who doesn't agree with you somehow either ignorant or corrupt?...I want everyone to take a step back and consider that the founding fathers may have been wrong on some things. Is that such a terrible thing? Does admitting that they have flaws make me somehow dead-set against this nation? Is it possible that the comments about the consistent need for bloodshed ("The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants") were made at a time when Jefferson was enraged over the treatment of the colonies?... Mayor- if you truly believe that the government has no role in protecting its citizens, do an experiment. For the next 12 months, suspend all police activity in your town. If, a year from now, your citizens are safe, happy, and prosperous, perhaps you're right. If, instead, violent gangs are present, burglaries are omnipresent, and the murder rate has ballooned, perhaps government has some duty to protect its citizens? I'm anxious to learn the results.

To which I replied with:

The argument, at least mine, over the Constitution being living is over the existing amendments interpretation. They say what they say, period. Most that were added were IMHO unnecessary clarification. Equal rights are established in the preamble and the DOI. The separation between today and the times of the founding is our desire to say everything so that it is so clear, that we get laws/bills that are not read and then passed covering every possible detail that they can imagine.Sadly the imagination is lacking in a lot of cases. The conventions of the 1770's and 1780's debated every word, ensuring it said was was needed and nothing more. We only debate party support or PORK trade offs now. Before anyone says it, ALL PARTIES are guilty of this, and no it is not specific to our current or most recent admins. Our representatives are struggling for power and sound bites, not liberty for individual citizens. I personally find no fault with the original document, only the way its reading has been butchered in the past 100 years. And no the country cannot simply come for our guns without removing the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 10th. That is not adaptation, but disintegration. Besides the 2A argument is not about "guns" only, it is about the right of self defense, the right to remove consent of the governed, the ultimate check and balance the equalizer between predator and prey. As for the idea of "For the next 12 months, suspend all police activity in your town"... Would you be willing to grant me and a small group the "privileges" of LEO's? I would love that opportunity, and it would be truly transparent. Look at Chi-town, NYC, DC... do the Police really make you safer? Why would you not be willing to step up in the defense of YOUR community? Read Warren v. District of Columbia, or "Domestic Violence -- When Do Police Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect?" Special Agent Daniel L. Schofield, S.J.D., then look at the past of BOTH recent cop murdering scat of these past few weeks. Rehab does not work for child molesters or "violent" criminals. As the old saying goes "I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy," or "911, when seconds count Police are only minutes away," if you prefer.

The retort-

The ratification of the Constitution was far from unanimous - in fact, it barely happened. If the founding fathers themselves could not agree that the document was pure, flawless, why do you assume it to be so?Jason - no, I do not want to give you the power of law enforcement officials. I never claimed that you could do the same job as the police. The mayor suggested that government control of citizens was not necessary. I just want him to put into action his rhetoric. And, despite how horrible our inner cities are, they are in a better condition than if there was no police presence at all. Jason, I understand that you want to protect yourself from the child molesters and violent criminals. But what happens when they protect themselves from you? And you then protect in return? If we allow a police force, a force that keeps us from destroying each other, we can all survive. If that police force has problems keeping order, that does not mean that they are evil or trying to eliminate you. Perhaps they don't have the resources they need? Perhaps we are having a problem with society that we can address with better education and improved social support (which is far from new - such problems have occurred every few decades for about as long as there have been societies). Taking the law into our own hands solves nothing - in fact, it exacerbates the problem.

My final comments on this particular essay:

Thank you for some reasonable and intelligent discussion about topics that can quickly become emotional. I believe the central core of our few but important disagreements is that you recognize and support the "power of the state" while I believe the state should have NO rights greater than her citizens. I agree that with the laws of "today" the Mayor could not survive without the resources of his local PD. But that is the problem with a gov't that has subservient citizens. We have lost the ideals of true civil service. We do not need a police "force" with full time SWAT teams, the charge to stop Charles Whitman was lead by citizens. Police are not held to the call of "protect and serve", that is fine, but do not restrict me from protecting. That is my crux so to speak. For my entire life I have been no threat. If I was in possession of fully automatic firearms and/or a shotgun with a less than 18" barrel that will not change. It is an education and a way of life, raised on hero worship, honor codes and the way of the warrior. Police officers come from the general populace, (as we both agree I believe carries the good, bad and ugly)my main question/point is: why do they get the "right" to have a fully automatic M16, carry concealed without a permit in some states, or carry on an airline? I am trained, safe and responsible, more so than some officers. I am not trying to besmugde law enforcement, but their "title" makes them no better or qualified than I. In closing I believe you illustrated my point rather than disputed it by citing the portion you did. I am not saying compromise is bad, IF it is compromise. We as citizens are instead force fed 2 choices a GOP of high taxes/low liberty, or the current progressive DEM platform of high taxes/low liberty. Yet the arguments of modern elections are STATE not Federal issues. We have moved to a very federalist country that is empowering the exec. branch with more power than we have ever seen before. I for one cannot cite when that power has been returned to the people without following Jeffersonian ideals, his most radical ones at that. I realized before the first key stroke that at the end we would have to agree to disagree, so once again thank you all who took place in this discussion, H/T to you Mr.Martin for starting it, it was a pleasurable discourse.

Jason

III

I re post these here because I feel that it was a pleasant discussion of opposing sides without resorting to crap like this the following day:

That's right tea partiers. The Soros-Kos-Acorn-Lefties are plotting to infiltrate your mad-hatter festivities.You people are so demented it transcends parody. I hope you are all shaking in your boots and tin-foil hats. BOOO!

To which bait I bit:

"I hope you are all shaking in your boots and tin-foil hats. BOOO!" Yeah, unless you forgot, we got the guns. We are all blood thirsty, racist rednecks who want blood to run down the streets. Or is that analogy to last year for the always cool minded liberals. Yes we independent members of the community who openly speak of the possibility of our role in a VIOLENT overthrow of government, we are afraid of some liberal professor, or union rep who has no scars. Think again. What we are concerned about is one of you a**hats causing trouble and disrupting a peaceful, Constitutionally protected right to free assembly.

Let's try to keep it civil, yet get our points across.

Jason

III

Why did TARP Happen, a Televised View(s)?

2009-04-02T21:53:00.005-07:00

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

If FOX can call it, how F'n scary is that. Look at the "facts" that are presented. World economical collapse due to "friends" in the industry. This is not rocket science folks. Good ideas draw funds bad ideas drain them. Too big to fail, my ass.
Jason
III

Must READ Examiner Article

2009-03-30T21:44:00.004-07:00

One blogger in particular, who portrays a modern-day Thomas Paine in a series of popular You Tube videos, decries the assault on liberty by the Obama administration. For this he was summoned to the White House to 'give an account.'
Read the whole thing here
All over this video below:

Jason
III

The Math of American Death During Revolution

2009-03-24T09:32:00.007-07:00

"I confront thou shall not kill each time I aim and pull that trigger and fight for our freedom."

From the movie Shooter

As usually happens when I am not working I spend time shooting/cleaning, watching a movie or three, doing some light reading and finish up with some sort of impromptu lesson for the kids. I am a firm believer in "Peace Through Superior Firepower," sadly from my side of the fence so does my government. By attempting civilian disarmament they are inviting bloodshed. I do not believe it is their goal, yet it will be another unintended consequence. I hope and often look for ways to prove I am wrong, but that is sometimes a chore. As Americans we have a history of both resistance to tyranny, and deadly proficiency when we put our minds to something. Only twice before have we as a people directed that proficiency at ourselves, and the can help us to hypothesize future results.

The first time we won our independence from King Georges rule. That cost an estimated 50,000 plus lives directly and approximately twice that in indirect casualties.(My numbers from sites like this) There was an estimated 2,418,000 population in the American colonies in 1775. That is a casualty rate of just over 2% of the population.

When we went "brother vs brother" in the War Between the States that number skyrocketed to over 500,000 direct deaths.(My numbers again from sites like this) I could not find even an estimate of the indirect casualties. Estimated population of both Republics was a combined 31,000,000. 1.6% of Americans died in those 4 years.

Using these historical events as a benchmark and today's US population at an estimated 305,000,000 persons, 1.8% direct deaths..... that is just under 5.5 million people dead. Add to that the cost of "collateral damage" and we are looking at a very bloody country. I am not even looking at the actual money, psychological, or logistical problems that would result. The stand off is building, 5,500,000 will lay dead. What have you done to prepare?

Jason

III

234 Years, True Words Still

2009-03-23T18:39:00.003-07:00

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....

READ THE WHOLE SPEECH
Thanks for the reminder of history from Western Rifle Shooters

Patience

2009-03-22T13:46:00.004-07:00

So some people voted for "Hope, Action, and Change", now they are told:
"Change doesn't happen overnight," Obama said at a town-hall style event in California on Thursday, seeming to acknowledge the difficulty in translating campaign pledges into actual policy. Obama said: "Patience."
He followed up with the poignant
"We are moving systematically to bring about change. But change is hard."
"It's hard work," where have we heard that before

Hope and change.... still waiting for the first change. Why do we even have campaigns anymore they are all BS. I am getting tired of politicians believing that no one remembers yesterday

Jason

III

Inspired by the AP article here

My New Toy

2009-03-21T16:30:00.003-07:00

Before

After

2007 Jeep Liberty

Had it for a while, but finally got my lift and Goodyear MT/R's in.

Consequences and Repercussions

2009-03-10T22:12:00.004-07:00

"To all elected officials, sheriffs, deputies, marshals, constables, sundry law enforcement officers, and military personnel. As a Vietnam era veteran and former peace officer myself, I respect your service and understand that most of you value our Liberty as much as any citizen. For the few who may not fully comprehend what that means, this is a reminder that as a condition of your employment as one of our public servants, you were required to swear an oath to defend the Constitution of these United States of America. We the people who employ you, take this oath seriously and regard any breach of same treasonous.
Be advised that hereafter your sovereign employers will consider any order to disarm private citizens, in any jurisdiction within these United States, a brazen act of treason. Further, any officer who obeys such a treasonous order, and attempts to confiscate our arms, is himself engaged in an act of treason. Keep in mind, “I was just following orders…” never has been, and never will be, considered a valid defense for treason. Anyone receiving such an order has the solemn duty to arrest immediately the traitorous fool who made it; and, most regrettably, any fellow officers inclined to execute it. Failing that, it would be advisable to resign and get out of a conspicuous uniform immediately."

Read the whole thing here
Jason
III
h/t Western Rifle Shooters

Random Math for Liberty

2009-03-07T13:17:00.005-07:00

9+12= 21...2+1=3... I Am 3

"9-11 left us all stunned and horrified, but there was a 9-12. That was the day when we decided that we weren't defeated. That was the day when we weren't concerned about Red and Blue states, political parties, or our differences. That was the day we stood up as Americans, united and determined.

We stood with those who mourned. We stood with those who served. We stood against our enemies. We stood up for freedom.

We are faced with yet another attack on our freedoms. This one doesn't come in the form of airplanes, but is an assault on our core freedoms, principles and values. Our Constitution hangs by a thread, our economy has been sold, our rights trampled, our future compromised. So we are faced with a choice: Do we bury our heads in the sand and trust in our leaders to make everything right? Do we sit in stunned silence as our country falls down around us? Or do we rise from the ashes and again resolve to stand together as Americans?"

From Here

For an explanation of 3 read here

"History, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities. We are one such minority. So too are the current enemies of the Founders' Republic. What remains, then, is the test of will and skill to determine who shall shape the future of our nation.The Three Percent today are gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any further circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked. We intend to maintain our God-given natural rights to liberty and property, and that means most especially the right to keep and bear arms. Thus, we are committed to the restoration of the Founders' Republic, and are willing to fight, die and, if forced by any would-be oppressor, to kill in the defense of ourselves and the Constitution that we all took an oath to uphold against enemies foreign and domestic."

Stand True and Vigilant. Remember who you are and where we come from.

Sic Vis Pacem Para Bellum

Jason

III

H/T Dustin

Finding G.O.D.

2009-02-28T18:04:00.002-07:00

Days of our Trailers: Did you know that starting a church is...well, goddamn easy?

From the comment section here:
A prayer
"By the muzzle flash we have seen the light, tread on us and expect a fight.By the lock, the stock and the barrel as well, may all G.O.D.'s foes go straight to hell.My your hand be steady, your aim be true, one ragged hole may your rounds pass through. May rust and politics curse thee not, may your shots not string when your barrel gets hot.May you have each week, each day, each hour, peace through superior firepower.So until the lord calls us to Heaven, his will be done with a 1911."

WTF, The best?

2009-02-21T10:14:00.004-07:00

"WASHINGTON - Just days after Americans honored the 200th anniversary of his birth, 65 historians ranked Abraham Lincoln as the best U.S. president."

Full Story

This is why the education of this country is in the pipes. I will not waste my time or yours rewriting the reasons Lincoln was a HORRIBLE President.

"After Lincoln, the academics rated George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the best leaders overall."

While George Washington belongs in the top 5, FDR is a NO good socialistic pig. Historians my ass. Propagandists without a practical knowledge of life. JFK snuck into the number 6 position, does anyone understand what bad happened in the early 60's under this mans "guidance"? I have more that I could say but this has really struck a nerve in me.

Full Rankings

Attention Arizona

2009-02-16T19:48:00.003-07:00

The AZCDL has been instrumental in passing positive gun legislation in OUR state. They need our help now. Please read the following document below:

Read Here

Then foward your comments to the leaders and your local reps

The Senate leadership consists of:

Senate President, Senator Robert “Bob” Burns

Majority Leader, Senator Chuck Gray

Majority Whip, Senator Pamela Gorman

President Pro Tempore, Senator Thayer Verschoor

Find your local House Rep here

Find your Arizona State Senator here

If not now, when?

Outside the "blogasphere"

2009-02-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to check out the "examiners" daily
Anthony G. Martin
David Codrea
Kurt Hofmann
and they guys I don't read as much as I should.
Austin: Another Brady hallucination: More guns, more ‘gun violence’ (Part 1)
Charlotte: Phony gun groups, Part 3: 'American Hunters and Shooters Association'
Cleveland: News from the weekend illustrates futility of gun control schemes
DC: DC City Council enables residents’ easy access to mail order handgun carry permits!
Denver: Granny, get your gun
Los Angeles: Gun Control: the very first pig with lipstick on it.
Milwaukee: Time to change our attitude about guns
Minneapolis: The folly across the river

Keep em feed, help them spread the word

What did YOU do today...

2009-02-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

Contentment vs. Complacency

2009-02-07T22:25:00.004-07:00

I was having a discussion the other day about my lack of passion for "corporate advancement", "title", or the normal keeping up with the Jones'. Not that I do not enjoy certain things, or even desire to own them ( a Barrett M82 comes to mind) but I do not have LUST for physical or material things. The above question was posed. My thought is that you can not have one without the other, and neither is bad as long as they are not taken to excess. When the follow up question was asked "Then what do you want out of life?"

I could not help but grin and respond "To be left alone." I wonder if I should have been more detailed, but I do not believe so. However this is not a statement of non-emotion, I still need to search for Liberty, Freedom, and choice. Once again you cannot have one without the other.

Jason

III

**Addition** Was having the Sunday talk with my father and general discussion led to the economy and politics. He is considering buying ammo so that the "new" Indiana law designed to "save" him will turn him into a criminal. More improtant though, we were talking about the personal budget being tight, not alone there, and he mentioned that with my salary and a family of 4 I am "entitled" to gov't access med care for my kids. That turned a pleasant conversation to the son preaching to the father that NO ONE is entitled to anything except death, the rest we earn.

Bailouts, Stimulus, any Tramps of the Bill of Rights

2009-01-29T21:07:00.001-07:00

Nuff said,

Jason

III

21Guns,Salute

BATFE Oversight Hearing

Train to Win

Busy, Busy...Please Read

Why I Love the Gun Business

Reporting from the "depression"

Tango Down?

Train

Kinks in Design?

Spreading the Word, Said Better Than I

Fatherhood

AZ- A Side Thought

Bean bags vs. AK-47s

Oh hell NO!

Are You Honest?

Consequentialism?

Semper Fi Devil Dog, 11/07/2010

WTF?

An Open Letter to Sheriff Paul Babeu

Submission to the Federal Reserve Board Members

3 Points Recon

All my bags are packed, guns are good to go...

DOJ sues Arizona...why you ask????

Yeah, What They Said....

TheAZCDF (Arizona Civil Defense Force)

RISK(s)

3 More off "The List"

Memorial Day

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration

War on Drugs QOTD

Is it "Terrorism" yet?

Arizona Constitutional Carry

The Taxman Cometh

Posting Edits

The Cookbook is BACK!

Drug Costs, the bigger picture

The unanimous Declaration

Quote of the week

Enemies. Foreign and Domestic

Early Valentine Gift

9/11: Science and Conspiracy (NAT GEO)

Open Letter(s)

SHOT Show, final day

SHOT Show day 2

SHOT Show day 1

SHOT Show day (-)1

Second Amendment IMHO

Merry Christmas

Have you ever....

1,000 Cranes for Krista **Update**

Redemption

1,000 Cranes For Krista

My only comments on Fort Hood

Revolutionary Suicide

Sheriff, A moment of your time please....

PLANTIFFS request such other and further relief as...

Hugh Kealer? AZ Governor wanna be...

Gilbert Constitution Fair - AZ 2009

Friday Night "Semper Fi"

At Least SOMEBODY Tried to "Proof Read"

Those Were The Days

Taking Chance

Let Freedom Ring

Justified, Part 4

IAVA

Re-post As We Enter Year II

Cap and Tax

Somalia, we're comin back in!

Quote of the MONTH

Patriot or Loyalist

Quote of the Day

Memorial Day

Pride

Lucy, you gots some banning to do!

Is The Military Coming For Us?

Hadji Girl!

Math is FUNNY

Drug Control, WTF

F'n A Right

Right, Wrong, Indifferent

1,000 Cranes for Krista Update