Saturday, February 20, 2021

Southwest Florida Blogshoot - Saturday 27 February

We are a go for the February Southwest Florida Blogshoot a week from today.  The weather looks like it will continue "National Hate Florida Week" for another 7 days:

We have the range that we tried for last time - the one with a  25 yard pistol range and a 200 yard rifle range.  Miguel is going to sight in some rifles, so we can probably do a sighting in clinic.  I just sighted one in a couple months back and so have some reasonably fresh experience.

Florida's own Divemedic has graciously offered to give a "First Aid for the Shooting Range" overview.  And there's a surprise that Miguel is working on that's still under wraps, but should be really fun.  And The Queen Of The World is catering (again).  'Nuff said.

Many thanks to the three RSOs who have said that they'll help out.

Please leave a comment to confirm that you are planning to come on the 27th so we will have a final headcount.  Also, check back tomorrow for the form you will need to download and fill out (ah, where would we be without paperwork?).

The Venue:

When: Saturday, February 27 at 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

Where: Manatee Gun and Archery Club, 1805 Logue Rd, Myakka City, FL 34251

Facilities:  Some of our readers are bringing their betters halves (as am I) and the fairer sex will be relieved to know that there are proper, civilized facilities in the club house.   

Cost: $20 per person to cover range rental and sundries.

Dad Joke XXXIV

When a cougar gets so old that she needs a hearing aid, she becomes a Def Leopard.

(Hat tip to The Queen Of The World who suggested this one.  Maybe that makes it a Mom Joke ...) 

Friday, February 19, 2021

You don't tug on Superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind.  You don't pull the mask of that old Lone Ranger and you don't f*** around with Miguel. 

Srlsy, you don't do that.

Dad Joke XXXIII

If I were to wander around Italy, would I be Roman?

(I think this is the most Borepatch dad joke ever.  I have proof.) 

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Remember nostalgia?

Tam posts about the old, great manual film cameras and acknowledges that their day is long past:

These days when I look at "film cameras for beginners" lists, I see recommendations like the Nikon FM2, Olympus OM-1, or Pentax K1000.

These cameras are all-manual. Unless someone has a grasp of the exposure triangle...shutter speed, aperture, ISO (light sensitivity of the film/sensor)...they are going to be burning film trying to learn it.

Le sigh.  Whenever anyone brings up the Pentax K1000 I go from zero to sixty on the nostalgia dial in 4.2 seconds.  I loved my K1000.  I took good pictures with it, like this from Ostia Antica, the old port city of Rome.  There was a temple of Mithra there, and it looks exactly like this:

OK, confession time: I did a little enhancement on the scanned photo using The Gimp, a Photoshop equivalent (click through for the photo before modification).  But in a sense this proves Tam's point that you will burn a lot of film to learn the camera (and you'd still need a better light meter than the built in one) and you'd need to know how to triangulate light readings from different parts of where you're going to shoot.  I didn't in 1990 when I took that picture.

But man, I loved that camera.  And I did take a great pic of Florence at night from the hill across the river.  I used Kodachrome slide film because you could blow it up without getting grainy.  That photo hung in my living room for a long time.  After all, it ain't bragging if you can do it.

But it's weird to find me in the same boat as today's hipsters - I really liked the dials, and after a few years of shooting (and developing) lots of rolls of film I got better.  Once I added a Takumar zoom lens I could get lots of pictures framed properly and then set exposure and depth of field separately.  I even got pretty good "snapshots" like this one of a 4 year old #1 Son in a little village on the Moselle river in Germany, somewhere in 1997.  I had to set up the shot while he was looking away and then I called his name:


But by then we were already in the era of digital cameras - my next trip to Rome didn't see me dragging along the Pentax; rather it was a Fujifilm digital.  Now my iPhone takes basically all my snapshots and there's no film or developing cost.

But something is gained, and something is lost.  Like I said, le sigh.  I sure loved that Pentax, in a way I've never loved a camera since.

Dad Joke XXXII

I just finished a book on Stockholm Syndrome.  It was awful at first but by the end I really loved it.

(Analogies to the GOP's relationship with the Media sort of write themselves, don't they?) 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Dad Joke XXXI

What do you call an owl that does magic tricks?

Hoodini. 

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Laissez les bons temps rouler*

Happy Fat Tuesday to all our readers.

* Offer void in Democratic controlled locations, like New Orleans.

Dad Joke XXX

(Note, the three Xs in the title are Roman numerals.  Also note that this joke is funny in a Ha Ha Only Serious way ...)

Lately people have been making apocalypse jokes like there's no tomorrow.

Damn

We got another 24" of sunshine yesterday.


Remember, this is National "Hate Florida" Week ...

UPDATE 16 February 2021 10:18: Just a reminder that I've done my time, too.  This was five years ago:



Monday, February 15, 2021

Dad Joke XXIX

Dad: "What is a pirate's favorite letter?"

Daughter: "Arrrrrr!"

Dad: "No.  It's the Sea." 

President's Day - Best and Worst Presidents

I've posted this each President's Day for ten years but have found no reason to adjust the rankings.

It's not a real President's birthday (Lincoln's was the 12th, Washington's is the 22nd), but everyone wants a day off, so sorry Abe and George, but we're taking it today.  But in the spirit intended for the holiday, let me offer up Borepatch's bestest and worstest lists for Presidents.

Top Five:

#5: Calvin Coolidge

Nothing To Report is a fine epitaph for a President, in this day of unbridled expansion of Leviathan.

#4. Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson is perhaps the last (and first) President who exercised extra-Constitutional power in a manner that was unambiguously beneficial for the Republic (the Louisiana Purchase).  He repealed Adam's noxious Alien and Sedition Acts and pardoned those convicted under them.

#3. Grover Cleveland. 

He didn't like the pomp and circumstance of the office, and he hated the payoffs so common then and now.  He continually vetoed pork spending (including for veterans of the War Between the States), so much so that he was defeated for re-election, but unusually won a second term later.  This quote is priceless (would that Latter Day Presidents rise so high), on vetoing a farm relief bill: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character." 

#2. Ronald Reagan

He at least tried to slow down the growth of Leviathan, the first President to do so in over half a century (see entry #5, above).  He would have reduced it further, except that his opposition to the Soviet fascist state and determination to end it cost boatloads of cash.  It also caused outrage among the home grown fascists in the Media and Universities, but was wildly popular among the general population which was (and hopefully still remains) sane.

#1. George Washington

Could have been King.  Wasn't.  Q.E.D. 

Bottom Five:

#5. John Adams.

There's no way to read the Alien and Sedition Acts as anything other than a blatant violation of the First Amendment.  It's a sad statement that the first violation of a Presidential Oath of Office was with President #2. 

#4. Woodrow Wilson.

Not only did he revive the spirit of Adams' Sedition Acts, he caused a Presidential opponent to be imprisoned under the terms of his grotesque Sedition Act of 1918.  He was Progressivism incarnate: he lied us into war, he jailed the anti-war opposition, he instituted a draft, reinstituted segregation in the Civil Service, and he was entirely soft-headed when it came to foreign policy.  The fact that Progressives love him (and hate George W. Bush) says all you need to know about them.

#3 Lyndon Johnson.

An able legislator who was able to get bills passed without having any real idea what they would do once enacted, he is responsible for more Americans living in poverty and despair than any occupant of the White House, and that says a lot.

#2. Franklin Roosevelt.

America's Mussolini - ruling extra-Constitutionally fixing wages and prices, packing the Supreme Court, and transforming the country into a bunch of takers who would sell their votes for a trifle.  He also rounded up a bunch of Americans and sent them to Concentration Camps.  But they were nice Concentration Camps - at least we're told that by his admirers.  At least Mussolini met an honorable end.


#1. Abraham Lincoln.

There's no doubt that the Constitution never would have been ratified if the States hadn't thought they could leave if they needed to.  Lincoln saw to it that 10% of the military-age male population was killed or wounded preventing that in an extra-Constitutional debacle unequaled in the Republic's history.  Along the way, he suspended Habeas Corpus, instituted the first ever draft on these shores, and jailed political opponents as he saw fit.  Needless to say, Progressives adore him.

So happy President's Day.  Thankfully, the recent occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue haven't gotten this bad.  Yet. 

Sunday, February 14, 2021

It's National "Hate Florida" Week


 Damn, it's cold everywhere but here.  That red colored little bit?  Yeah, that's where we are.

Dad Joke XXVIII

"Dad, I have a date for Valentine's Day!"

"Yeah, I know - it's February 14."

Tchaikovsky - Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet

This is arguably the most famous romantic music ever written and since this is the Feast of St. Valentine here's something to share with your sweetheart.  Relax, even if she's not a classical music aficionado , she knows this.  You do too.  I mean, it's been in literally everything, from Sesame Street to Wayne's World.

What's surprising is that Tchaikowsky's masterpiece was initially poorly received and he had to re-write it.  But the effort was worth it - this really made his reputation and as I said, this is the most famous piece of romantic classical music ever written.

If you want to cheat, skip ahead to around 8:50.  You should find yourself humming right along.


And now for a confession: I had searched for this for literally years, but to my shame didn't know who the composer was and didn't think about Tchaikovsky.  I mentioned this to The Queen Of The World and she found it in literally 5 minutes.  She's not just a pretty face, she's wicked smart.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Endorsed

Peter finds an ammunition manufacturer who won't sell to people who voted for Joe Biden.  Awesome.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Dad Joke XXVII

What do Winnie the Pooh, Alexander the Great, and Ivan the Terrible have in common?

They all have the same middle name. 

Thursday, February 11, 2021

On Governmental legitimacy

Here is a nifty summation of the subject from the late and very lamented Counting Cats in Zanzibar.  This is from 5 years ago but is newly fresh once again:

In this sense, the old Marxist Tony Benn had it about right when he raised the matter of the democratic deficit in the [European Union] during the European Parliamentary Elections Bill of the 5 questions that should be asked of anyone who sought to wield power.
  • What power do you have?
  • Where did you get it?
  • In whose interests do you exercise it?
  • To whom are you accountable?
  • How can we get rid of you?
Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system.
The fact of the matter is that despite the appearance of democracy in the form of the European Parliament, power within the EU does not reside with anyone who was directly elected by the people and consequently the people cannot “Throw the bums out”

 With a plurality (and very close to a majority) of Americans thinking that the last election was (ahem) fishy, we can replace the term "EU" with "Congress".  And that ignores the 95% reelection rate that the House of Representatives has enjoyed for decades.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

A comment on the (second) impeachment

Offered without comment because none is needed.

 


Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Ees Internet. Ees not safe

ASM826 pointed out that a town's water purification system was connected to the Internet, to make it easier to manage.  Hilarity ensued.

It is very easy to do that in this day and age, and so we can expect that for most things remote access will not be set up by IT professionals but rather by people who spell "security" with a k.  People seem to think that it's a big Internet, and what are the chances that someone will find their little device on it?  Well, the chances are pretty damn good:

Use Shodan to discover which of your devices are connected to the Internet, where they are located and who is using them.

Websites are just one part of the Internet. There are power plants, Smart TVs, refrigerators and much more that can be found with Shodan!

I've posted before about Shodan.  If something is connected to the 'net, Shodan finds it and you can browse their database. This is child's play - you can sign up for a free Shodan account and see for yourself.  The problem is that most people can't set things up to protect themselves.  As I wrote:

So what do you do?  One thing is simply not to get any of this sort of thing.  No Internet-connected webcams, security systems, light bulbs, refrigerators, TVs, etc.  Some of these products are frivolous, like Philips' Internet controllable light bulbs that change color via command from your iPhone app.

But others are not.  The Queen Of The World likes her Netflix and Amazon Fire TV, and we have a new TV that will give her than.  What's the risk?  I guess I need to figure that out.  What I'm thinking is to block outbound traffic at the Internet router.  Probably to do this I will need to build a box to put in front of that, with appropriate tools and logging.

That takes a pretty high skill set, and a lot of time.

It's a pain in the butt but I could set up a home firewall and put all the stupid Internet Of Things nonsense (like Netflix TVs and the like) on a separate WiFi that is essentially a DMZ.  At least that will keep Bad Guys from getting into the rest of the house network.  And I can have the firewall block any device I haven't explicitly enabled.

But what a pain in the tail end.  And not a lot of folks have a skill set like this.  While I am not a lawyer, it sure seems like IoT security is creating an "attractive nuisance".

Monday, February 8, 2021

Dad Joke XXVI

What did the mountain climber name his son?

Cliff.

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Three comments on the Superbowl

1. There is no question whether Tom Brady is the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT).  The biggest loser tonight is not Kansas City, it's the New England Patriots organization.  They worked hard to get rid of the GOAT.  Heads need to roll. 

2. How is Tom Brady like Donald Trump?  The are both going to sleep with supermodels tonight. 

3. I don't need another National Anthem.  I don't think I will ever watch another NFL game.  I've posted about the commercials in the past; all y'all are on your own now.

Here's what I don't understand about the Superbowl

What I don't understand #1:

Black National Anthem at the Superbowl.  I don't get it: did the Tuskegee Airmen who flew escort duty against Hitler's Super Race not have a national anthem?

What I don't understand #2:

Who took a knee for the Black National Anthem at the Superbowl?  It doesn't look like anyone kneeled down.  It's like those Tuskegee Airmen who flew escort duty against Hitler's Super Race did not have a national anthem.

Gosh, it's almost like someone wants to divide America or something.

UPDATE 7 February 2021 20:38: What I don't understand #3:

So when the Black National Anthem gets played, do we need to stand up, take our hats off, and put our hand over our hearts?  What about the Native American National Anthem?  Asking for a friend.


Saturday, February 6, 2021

Movies XV - The Bourne Ultimatum

I missed the Dad Joke for today so this joke is a twofer:

The CIA has three candidates, two men and a woman, for one assassin position.  On the final day of testing, the CIA proctor leads the first male candidate to a large steel door and hands him a gun.
"We must know that you will follow our instructions, regardless of the circumstances," he explains. "Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her."
The man is horrified, "You can't be serious! I could never shoot my wife!" "Well," says the proctor, "you're definitely not the right man for this job then."
The CIA proctor leads the second male candidate to another large steel door and hands him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions, no matter what the circumstances," the proctor explains. "Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her." The second man steadies himself, takes the gun and enters the room.
After three quiet minutes, the man exits the room with tears in his eyes. "I wanted to do it I just couldn't pull the trigger and shoot my wife. I guess I'm not the right man for the job."
Finally, the CIA proctor leads the female candidate to yet another large steel door and hands her a gun. "We must be sure that you will follow instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room, you will find your husband sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill him." The woman takes the gun, enters the room, and before the door even closes completely behind her, she's fired off six shots. Then all hell breaks loose behind the door cursing, screaming, crashing.
Suddenly, all goes quiet.
The door opens slowly, the woman exits, and wiping the sweat from her brow, she says, "Did you guys know the gun was loaded with blanks? I had to beat the son of a bitch to death with the chair!"

Take this joke and wrap it with the current political situation in this country, and then spice with a generous portion of American suspicion of government, and you have the 2007 film highlighted here.  Ignore the CIA-Superkiller-Agent thing; this film is packed with government secret agency gone bad vibe.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Dad joke XXV

What did the drummer name his three daughters?

Anna 1, Anna 2, Anna 1 2 3 4 

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Dad Joke XXIV

What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo?

A pouch potato. 

Southwest Florida blogshoot update

Some of the attendees at the last blogshoot are or were medic/EMTs.  Is anyone interested in giving a short (15 - 30 minute) talk on gun range first aid?  The RSOs will keep this range safe but having an overview of what to do if something goes wrong somewhere else might be pretty useful knowledge.  

Shoot me an email if you have the background and are interested.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Fighting back against the H.R.127 Gun Control bill

The bill is a nightmare.  So this is an opportunity for us.  We all know a bunch of people who aren't really hard core left or right, people who live in the vast squishy middle.  The Democrats presented Joe Biden to these people as "a return to normalcy".  OK, let's hold them to this.

I posted this two years ago, but am rolling it out for our discussion with these folks in the squishy middle.  Here are some suggested tag lines to hit them with:

Is it fair to tax someone $2000 on a $1000 rifle he bought years ago?  Why?

What will this tax do to poor people?  What will it do to poor minorities in bad neighborhoods who have watched the murder rate go up by 30% last year?

What problem do you think Congress is trying to solve with this bill, because it looks like it will disarm (especially) poor minorities?  Is it worth it?

Basically, force them to grapple with the question is it dumb or is it evil? 

Remember, we all interact with lots of people, especially on social media.  This is a perfect opportunity to make these people look at the ugliness of what the Democrats are proposing.  Make them own it.

(originally posted March 2, 2018)

A Gun Rights Mind Virus

You meet different sorts of people who advocate for gun control.  Some of them are hard core control freaks who just want to crush flyover country, but if you're like me you don't run across them very often.  Mostly you run across people who aren't shooters or gun owners, who haven't thought about the issue very much, but who are disturbed about the constant media drumbeat about shootings and who just want to "do something".

We need these people on our side, or at least standing on the sidelines.  How do we separate them from the gun control pack.

My last post was how I approach this: I'm not opposed to gun control, I'm opposed to stupid and useless gun control.  This is a mind virus that I'm trying to infect them with.  I want to sow seeds of doubt in their minds to get them out of the gun controller's camp and onto the sidelines.  Hopefully (if the virus really takes) it will begin the process where they actually start to think about things and they may even end up on our side.

It's a battle for the (very large) middle ground.  In the long run, we're not viable without it.

My experience has been pretty good with this.  Most of these folks are decent people.  They want to be fair, and they know that they don't know much about this topic.  My mind virus is a challenge to them - is what you're proposing dumb?  Will it work?  Is it fair?  Nobody wants to be dumb, or unfair.

This is especially true with the sentence that has had more impact than any other I've used with folks like this.  When they say (and they will say it) "But we have to do something", I reply:
Do you want to do something stupid and useless?  That doesn't sound right.
Quite frankly, our choice is to build bunkers or to convince the middle.  Building bunkers makes us look like the dumb (and dangerous) ones.

Yes, the people at the heart of the gun control battle are, well, evil.  No getting past that.  But we don't win without the vast middle.  We don't win by starting from "Gun controllers are evil" (they are wishy-washy gun controllers after all).  We don't win from "Molon late, bitches!" (this seems to make people nervous.

We win from a mind virus that starts to get them to ask themselves the right questions.  Truth is on our side; we can lead others to truth if we want.

UPDATE 3 February 2021 21:45: Every single comment to date has been basically "Muh Second Amendment!!11!!!eleventy!!"  These entirely miss the point of my post.

The point of this post is not to try to establish a framework for our rights (note: rights that I not only agree with but which I have supported for the entire life of this blog).  If you don't realize this, then read the literally hundreds of posts at that link.

If you do realize this, then please don't post any comments that boil down to "Muh Second Amendment!!11!!!eleventy!!"

The point of this post is this from the text of the damn post: 

Basically, force them to grapple with the question is it dumb or is it evil? 

"Them" is your neighbors, acquaintances, and family.  Challenge them - your neighbors, acquaintances, and family - with this exact question.  If you won't do this and want to post about "Muh Second Amendment!!11!!!eleventy!!" then (as Aesop likes to say) you're not tall enough for this ride.

Dang it, this has made me cross.  I normally only delete comments that are spam, but if you don't read for content here and post some more "But muh Second Amendment!!11!!!eleventy!!" I will delete your comment without mercy.  Cathreda mea, regulae meae.  And if you need help on that translation, you really aren't tall enough for this ride.

UPDATE 3 February 2021 22:27: The Queen Of The World points out to me that I should have been more explicit that this was an assignment to all y'all.  This is what you should challenge your friends, neighbors, and family with to force them to confront the evil at the heart of the Democratic proposals.

She points out (correctly) that all of us here are basically of the same belief.  She also points out (correctly) that this point is suggesting how to effectively communicate with those people who are not of this same belief but who are undecided and who believe in fairness.  This may open their eyes.

Monday, February 1, 2021

Words of wisdom from a wiser past

Pretty much every word here is a rebuke to social media hatemongering and what passes as "States craft" in this degraded age.


 

Dad Joke XXII

What is the sleepiest fruit?

Napricot. 

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Dad Joke XXI

Why is it a bad idea to have a wedding in the winter?

Someone might get cold feet. 

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Vince Gill - One More Last Chance

The Party of Youth and New Ideas has appointed the ever youthful John Kerry to be Climate Czar.  His Czarness is introducing new ideas to address the challenges of our age, most notably his remark that the UK Climate Summit is the World's "last best chance".

We've heard this song before - actually over and over.  Remember Al Gore's warning that we have ten years to save ourselves from Global Warming?  That was in 2006.  Ah, but this is one more last chance.  There's a country music song about that.

Vince Gill needs no introduction to music lovers.  Front man to Pure Prairie League in the '70s, super star in the '80s and '90s he has 21 (!) Grammys to his name.  This video is just plain fun, with a cameo by George Jones riding a John Deere.


One More Last Chance (Songwriters: Vince Gill, Gary Nicholson)

She was standing at the front door
When I came home last night
A good book in her left hand
And a rollin' pin in the right
She said you've come home for the last time
With whiskey on your breath
If you don't listen to my preachin' boy
I'm goin' to have to beat you half to death

Give me just a one more last chance
Before you say we're through
I know I drive you crazy baby
It's the best that I can do
We're just some good ol' boys, a makin' noise
I ain't a runnin' 'round on you
Give me just a one more last chance
Before you say we're through

First she hid my glasses
'Cause she knows that I can't see
She said you ain't goin' nowhere boy
'Til you spend a little time with me
Then the boys called from the honky tonk
Said there's a party goin' on down here
Well she might've took my car keys
But she forgot about my old John Deere

So give me just a one more last chance
Before you say we're through
I know I drive you crazy baby
It's the best that I can do
We're just some good ol' boys, a makin' noise
I ain't a runnin' 'round on you
Give me just a one more last chance
Before you say we're through

Friday, January 29, 2021

7 Types of People At The Range

This is a few years old but I just ran across it.  I have to say I LOLed a couple times.


 

Although I must say that I've never been muzzled as horrifyingly as they show here. Yikes!

Dad Joke XX

 What's the best way to talk to giants?


Use big words.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

The Paths to Secession

It looks like a national divorce will be very difficult to avoid.  On one side is the political establishment who look like they stole an election and who seem determined to dominate and impoverish the working class.  This attempt to dominate has been going on for decades, as American manufacturing has been off-shored and millions of illegal workers have flooded the labor market.  This combination of cheaper foreign and domestic labor has fattened corporate bottom lines but it has hollowed out entire regions (c.f. the "Rust Belt").

The Biden Administration looks to be dialing this up to 11, perhaps because they fear the 2022 elections when redistricting will eliminate a bunch of Democratic House seats.  Or maybe they think that after stealing an election they don't have to respect the traditions of unity and governing in the interests of all citizens.  But the agenda is radical indeed, not just banning oil drilling on federal lands but preventing oil drilling at all in the country.

Doubling the price of gasoline is a massively regressive tax.  Combined with the loss of millions of jobs, it's hard to see how those on the losing end would want to stay in a union with a party who they suspect did not legitimately win the election, and who they seeing as governing illegitimately.  And so to the "What comes next" part of the question.  What will come next will be very, very messy.  You see, we're not divided along "Red State/Blue State" lines, we're really all mixed together.


This is a map of the 2020 election returns by county.  The size of the circles represents the number of votes for Joe Biden (blue) or Donald Trump (red).  What you see are very few states that are almost all one color or another.  A few, yes, but not many.  And so to the breakup scenarios.

The Slovenian Option

On June 25, 1991 the province of Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia.  The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) invaded the province but were defeated in a shockingly short 10 day conflict.  Slovenian police blocked key road junctions and blockaded JNA barracks.  The JNA forces never were able to establish unit or territorial cohesion.  You could see something similar playing out in, say, West Virginia.  Even though it is only an hour or so from Washington D.C. most of the state is very rough terrain.  Local sheriffs would likely be able to block passage to unfriendly forces.  The Slovenian option is the cleanest option, but is also the most limited - a fairly cohesive population (almost all red, almost no blue) combined with difficult terrain make this unlikely for most of the country.

The Croatian Option

 Fighting in Croatia actually started before fighting broke out in Slovenia, when Serbs opposed to Croatian independence pre-emptively seceded from the province of Croatia.  Things escalated and by the summer of 1991 it was a full scale shooting war between the JNA and the Croatian forces.  This was no 10 day war; fighting continued into 1995 and much (perhaps most) of the ethnic Serb population became refugees.  We might be able to term this the "Texan Option", where multiple enclaves of Blue voters exist in a sea of Red voting neighbors.

The Sarajevo Option

The siege of Sarajevo lasted four years and destroyed much of that city.  It was famous for attacks on the civilian population, and indeed thousands of civilians were killed in the conflict by artillery and snipers, among other horsemen of the Apocalypse.  This is what Civil War would look like in Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburg, and Denver.  The ugliness here will be proportional to just how hard the Democrats push the working class red state populations - and right now it looks like they want to push pretty hard.

The Mixed Option

Nothing says that these options are mutually exclusive.  Indeed, they would probably all be seen although in different locales.  But looking at the map it's hard to see a stable Blue government outside of New England/Mid-Atlantic and Pacific Coast.

In Yugoslavia something like 150,000 dead and 4M refugees were the result, from a starting Yugoslav population of 24M.  It's hard to extrapolate those losses into what we would see but it's hard to imagine that there would not be many millions - maybe tens of millions - of refugees and hundreds of thousands dead.  That's quite a butcher's bill for today's Progressive Left who seemingly will not just leave half the country alone.

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

A note about politeness on this blog

I know that lots of things are up in the air and that emotions are running high.  But please note the message at the top of the comment box: Remember your manners when you comment here.

That also applies to those of you who email me directly. 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Dad Joke XIX

I wasn't quite good enough to get admitted to the prestigious marionette school but I knew someone who could pull some strings for me. 

UPDATE 26 January 2021 18:14: Here's a bonus Dad Joke:

Q. Why can't dogs dance?

A. Because they have two left feet.

Amazing origami


What's even more amazing is that the artist is from Finland.  Check them out.

I wish this didn't look so plausible

Six years ago I posted The Inevitability of Secession which laid out how it seemed that the wheels were fixin' to come off the Republic.  Donald Trump - despite the insanity suffered by the left - gave a 4 year breather for this, by directly addressing the legitimate grievances of those most likely to leave the Union.  Now with the Democrats back in the White House and Congress - and the insanity not one whit less than before - it looks like we're maybe going to accelerate into a great national divorce.

As with all divorces, it will be very, very messy.  I have some thoughts on that for a later post but for now this looks pretty prescient.

(Originally posted 20 March 2015)

The inevitability of secession, part 1: Introduction

Chief Justice Salmon Chase was wrong.  In Texas v. White (1869), he wrote the majority opinion on secession:
The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form and character and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these, the Union was solemnly declared to 'be perpetual.' And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained 'to form a more perfect Union.' It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not?
Except the Republic did not date its governing principles to the Articles of Confederation, which were clearly a failure - a failure clear at the time, in fact.  Instead, it dated to the Constitution.  That was ratified by all original thirteen States, and it is clear that it would not have been ratified if the States hadn't thought that they couldn't leave if they had needed to.  Indeed, the ending of the Articles of Confederation were essentially an act of secession.

Chase was an interesting bird.  He founded the Free Soil movement - "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men".  It was an unabashedly abolitionist party, and reflected what was very probably the real cause of the American War of Southern Independence (the "Civil War" to you Yankees).

And Chase wasn't just one of the chief proponents of the political position, he was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  One of the charges leveled at the post war Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals was that it was "Victor's Justice"; America had an 80 year history of Victor's Justice, dating back to Texas v. White.

And so secession was ruled illegal.

The problem, of course, is that it was only illegal because "Honest Abe" Lincoln determined that it was better that 10% of the military age population be killed or wounded in battle than a set of States should choose to leave the Republic.  For a while, it worked.

For a while, the Fed.Gov demonstrated that it could deliver - more growth, more prosperity, freedom increasing through the 1960s.  In 1969, the Fed.Gov landed a man on the moon.  It was the high water mark of government legitimacy.

What we've seen since then is an intentional fracturing of the Republic, based on race, gender, and class.  Political careers have been made for those who have done this - Al Sharpton is a particularly loathsome example of this, but he is by no means alone.  Barack Obama may be the most successful of these, parlaying racial themes of guilt and offered redemption into two terms in the White House during which he has thoroughly politicized the Federal Agencies.  Eric Holder was the chield law enforcement official in the land but ran the Department of Justice along racial grievance lines.  If you have any doubts about this, read up on the New Black Panther Party, George Zimmerman, and Ferguson MO.

Obama reflected a small but well organized segment of society determined to fundamentally reshape society.  Unsurprisingly, this hasn't turned out to be popular with much of society who overwhelmingly voted Democrats out of House and Senate seats - historical defeats for Obama's Democratic Party.  The voters gave significant majorities to the Republican Party in both houses of Congress, because GOP candidates ran on a platform of overturning Obama's overreach on health care, immigration, and general weakening of the USA on the international stage.

So how's that working out for GOP voters?
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck on Wednesday announced he is leaving the Republican Party.

“I’ve made my decision — I’m out,” Beck said Wednesday on “The Glenn Beck Program,” his broadcast on TheBlaze.com. “I’m out of the Republican Party. I am not a Republican. I will not give a dime to the Republican Party. I’m out.”

The host said Republicans lost him with their inaction on both ObamaCare and illegal immigration.

“All this stuff that they said and they ran and they said they were doing all of these great things and they were going to stand against ObamaCare and illegal immigration — they set us up,” Beck added. “They set us up. Enough is enough. They’re torpedoing the Constitution and they’re doing it knowingly.”
Can't really argue with any of that.  And he's not the only one:
Yes, Establishment GOP, you can teach us that you will always lie to us, stab us in the back, humiliate us and crush us; but if you teach us that, be aware we are learning another lesson, too. Not just that "The Establishment Will Always Crush You," but the lesson that There is no hope in any kind of conventional politics for those of us who want better than this Pile of Shit the two parties give us.
And the mutterings have been going on for years:
1. Many inner-circle strategists in the Republican Party machine basically believe the game is over demographics wise. They’ve believed this for a long time. Call them the “We Are Doomed” Machiavellians, trying to make a barely-palatable lemonade out of some very nasty lemons.
2. Privately, personally, they probably agree with everything Richwine and all the rest have ever said. But it doesn’t matter, because, on the strategic time scale, we’ve already crossed the Rubicon.
3. Tactically, short-to-medium term, you could follow the Sailer Strategy and, maybe, squeeze out a few Revanchist wins for Republicans, but it would be counterproductive. The Cathedral (they don’t call it that, of course) would make easy hay of “the hateful white party” in due time, and it would go the way of the Know-Nothings in Boston – permanent obsolescence.
4. So, the best you can do, if you care at all about the long-term survival of anything like even a fake opposition party in out decadent democracy, is to embrace the Latin American / Texan model, an increasingly Brazil-esque society, but one in which, in some places, at some times, you can still get some Hispanics to feel fondly about and vote for the Republicans.
5. To do this, you must absolutely, positively, and, most importantly, preemptively cave to everything you think the Democrats could possibly leverage against you. Which, in practice, means being the volunteer auxiliary PC-enforcer on your own side. It also helps when you’ve got big business on your side.
Salmon Chase had been a member of the Whig Party, which fractured under the strain of abolitionism.  The Republican Party looks like it's headed for the same crack up.

But it doesn't really matter: it's clear that the citizens of this Republic will not vote themselves out of this mess.  The Establishment is united - across both Parties - against the population which holds them in increasing contempt.

So if there's no way to vote in representatives who will represent the will of the People, what remains?  It's hard to see any alternative to the country splitting into two or more parts that will eliminate the Washington D.C. Establishment as something that can impose unpopular laws on them.

Not everyone believes this will happen:
Secession was tried before in the US and it failed. If part of the US tries to secede, the Protestant-Hippie-Communist-Jesus types get offended and their blood lust knows no bounds. They were fine with the death of hundreds of thousands to prevent secession. Then they took property, installed new governments and destroyed local economies for the better part of a century.

Secession in the US is only a long, drawn-out suicide. 
This time, it's hard to see a politician willing and able to sacrifice 10% of the military age population in a War of Secession.  And so Chief Justice Chase's decision is more or less irrelevant.  He had the legitimacy imposed by a victorious army at the point of the bayonet; the current Establishment doesn't have that and doesn't seem to be fixin' to get it anytime soon.

And so if reform is not possible, exit is the obvious result.  The Republic has large parts what are tired of having a left wing ideology rammed down their throats - and an ideology that enriches Wall Street and the big banks, at that.  These people have played the game the way it has been laid out, by the rules that were what everyone had been told were just - one man, one vote.  And that vote clearly is a waste of time.

Okay, then.  But things will not continue as they have.  

Monday, January 25, 2021

Dad Joke XVIII

Did you hear about the buffalo who lived 200 years?

He just celebrated his Bison-tennial. 

Dog Beach

We took Wolfgang and his niece Birdie to the Venice (Florida) dog beach yesterday.  It's a great facility - fenced so the dogs can run free in the waves, and they have hoses to wash the pups off when you leave.  Wolfgang even met one of his German Shepherd buddies from the dog park there.

Birdie liked to play bathing beauty in the pavilion.


Driving back, the pups had a nap - all worn out from playing in the surf.


If you are in the neighborhood with a four footed friend, the Venice Dog Beach is a really fun time.

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Dad Joke XVII

What type of shorts do clouds wear?  Thunderwear. 

Friday, January 22, 2021

The thought for the day

You can define "privilege" as not suffering from consequences.  We have watched our "Elites" imposing restrictions on us for decades - shutting down whole towns to "save the Spotted Owl", driving oil prices higher by banning drilling (and the high paying jobs that go with that industry), and most especially opening the borders to drive down incomes - it's not just hourly workers suffering from this now, it's also computer programmers put out of work by H-1B visa holders.

We've listened for decades about how "free trade" grows the economy and that everyone will be better off in the long run if we just keep up these policies - all the while watching whole towns, counties, and states wither as jobs flee and the population sinks into poverty.

In 2016 the people who were sinking into poverty actually stirred themselves and voted Donald Trump into office.  It was finally consequences for the "Elite" class.

And we saw how they reacted - with disbelief, rage, contempt, and ultimately destroying the norms that had sustained this Republic by stealing an election.

Privilege in action, right there.

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Tech that rats you out

ASM826 is doing a great job on how the authorities use your cell phone location data to track you.  E.M. Smith wrote about burner phones (among other things; go read if you already haven't).  Here are some other personal technologies that collect all sorts of data on you.

Cell Phone apps, particularly Facebook and Google apps.  These companies are notorious about accessing all sorts of data that they really have no business grabbing (like location data).  Apple just changed the rules about what apps have to disclose about this to you.  Interestingly, Google hasn't updated their apps to do this, even after a month.  

Alexa, Google Home, and other voice-activated devices.  Don't ever let any of these into your house.  I mean, stop and think about it: they have to send all your voice recordings to the cloud for analysis.  How else will they know that you said "Alexa, am I a lazy bum?"  You have no control over what they do with that data and there is evidence that they save this.

OnStar and other online car services.  Combine all the security nightmares of Alexa with all the security nightmares of your cell phone, and then add in the ability of the service to shut down your car.  What could possibly go wrong, amirite?

Ring doorbells (and competitors).  Miguel just posted about this so that I don't have to.  The local Po Po have access to all the video, for all time.

Internal cameras.  I mean, you're kidding me, right?  In the link above Miguel talks about a decent approach to cameras when you're away, but while you're there?

"Smart" TVs.  I've posted a bunch here about the sewer that is "Smart" TV security.  Don't turn this on.

I'll gather my thoughts and put together a Best Practice for personal privacy.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Anonymity, Privacy, Security

Maybe you don't have to pick two out of three.  E.M. Smith has a long and detailed post with a bunch of tips, and will be adding to this moving forward:

The Open Software Community has fought hard to maintain some degree of Privacy, Security (even against Government Agents and TLAs), and Anonymity. I’m still fighting that battle for myself, though at a low level as I’m mostly “out of the business” now. It is VERY hard to fight BOTH the Government TLAs and their laws (while complying with them), while also keeping the Black Hats out. Yet that is what we must do to have Anonymity, privacy, and security.

This is the first of many postings to come on this theme. I’m going to move, step by step, through a re-implementation of all of it (with the possible exception of the Mail Box and Pre-Paid card steps) with the intent of giving enough detail that a Noob can be relatively secure in things like buying a VPN, ordering a pizza, and maybe even leaving a conservative comment on a blog… without fear of a horrible reprisal.

 You should mosey on over and bookmark him.

After ten years, we're all TJIC

I don't think that any single post did more to attract attention to this blog than I Am TJIC, posted this day ten years ago.  TJIC had his guns seized by the People's Republic of Arlington (Mass) for posting about the Gabby Giffords shooting.  There was no better illustration of how vague gun control laws are applied in Blue states.  Now the Congress is promising more of the same* and even Florida has a bunch bad bills under consideration.  Ten years ago it looked like gun rights were ascendent, now it looks like we all may end up like TJIC.  My comment about Heller and MacDonald looks pretty naive right now, as the Republic slips into Banana Republic territory. 

* To answer Sarah Hoyt's question, molon labe is pronounced "moh LOHN la VEH".

(originally posted 19 January 2011)

I am TJIC

I've linked several times to posts over at the blog Dispatches from TJICistan.  TJIC is an outspoken (some might say extremely so) advocate of smaller government.  He's also a firearms owner in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.  While he owns guns, it appears that he's no longer allowed to possess any:
ARLINGTON (CBS) – A blog threatening members of Congress in the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shooting has prompted Arlington police to temporarily suspend the firearms license of an Arlington man.
It was the headline “1 down and 534 to go” that caught the attention. “One” refers to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in the rampage, while 534 refers to the other members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Police are investigating the “suitability” of 39-year-old Travis Corcoran to have a firearms license
Let's ignore for the moment how many people were investigated for making similar comments about George W. Bush.  Let's look at the "logic" being exercised by the Arlington Po-Po, shall we?

They claim that Corcoran is so dangerous that, while he has done nothing more than put up a blog post, he must be restrained from possessing firearms.  However, it appears that it's not worth it for the police to follow him, or stake out his place, or arrest him.

Huh?

Look, guys, if you think that his speech rises to the level of an actual threat of specific harm to specific persons, he should be in jail.  If you're not sure, then do the leg work to establish whether it is or not.

So, what do we know about the Arlington Police Department?  We know that they're lazy - nobody assigned to watch over this "dangerous" suspect.  We know that they're biased - Arlington is a hotbed of George W. Bush hatred, and the last decade would offer a wealth of examples of similar or worse speech, none of which was investigated.

And we know that they're idiots.  It's not like there isn't a ton of case law on how the First Amendment applies to threats of political violence.  Arlington will lose this, if it ever gets to trial.  Post Heller and McDonald, they'll lose even worse.  Idiots.

But this is, as JayG points out, an attack not only on the First Amendment, but on the Second as well.  An attack of this sort - groundless in logic, and arguably mendacious in nature - is an attack on all.  And so I have to stand with TJIC.


I am TJIC.  So are you.  If you blog, you are hereby authorized to use this image (created by your humble host, using The Gimp, not that it took any skill).  Please link back to this post.

It would be one thing if the law were applied equally to all.  It's not, and it will be applied disproportionately to us, because we hold views considered by some in power to be Double Plus Ungood.  Lefties in particular, this is your moment.  You say that you stand for good governance.  Prove it.

It was not a famous Massachusetts citizen who said We must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.  Benjamin Franklin was more circumspect than the men from Massachusetts, such as Sam Adams, who said this:
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
Eliminationist rhetoric right there.  Clearly, the Arlington Police would have seized his firearms.  What a sad, degraded state for a once proud Commonwealth.  It seems that I got out just in the nick of time.

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Dad Jokes XIV - XVI

Yeah, I've been busy - my excuse it that it involve targets at 300 yards.  But I've missed a bunch of Dad Jokes.  Lucky you, they're all here for you now.

Dad Joke XIV:

Dad! Leave me alone!

Okay, how much do you want? [This one hits a little close to home] 

 Dad Joke XV:

I'm like the fabric version of King Midas.  Everything I tough becomes felt.

Dad Joke XVI:

Snowmen always get hurt when they play sports.  The never warm up before play.

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Southwest Florida February Blogshoot - update

The private range is not available on February 20, but it is available on Saturday, February 27.  I have a verbal commitment to reserve it - there was a mix up last time but the range will be available this time around.  It will give us not only a 25 yard pistol range but a 200 yard rifle range as well.

Please leave a comment to confirm that you are planning to come on the 27th.

Also, if you are an NRA certified RSO can you please email me with your RSO cert which the gun club wants.

The Venue:

When: Saturday, February 27 at 10:00 AM (until 4:00 PM)

Where: Manatee Gun and Archery Club, 1805 Logue Rd, Myakka City, FL 34251

Facilities:  Some of our readers are bringing their betters halves (as am I) and the fairer sex will be relieved to know that there are proper, civilized facilities in the club house.  

Waiting

The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too.He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marveling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true.

We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.

- Hilaire Belloc


It's such a relief that we have the fiercely conservative Republican Party manning the battlements.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Dad Joke XII

The furniture store keeps calling me but I only wanted one nightstand.