All posts for the month February, 2013
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on February 8, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/08/todays-earworm-315/
Thoughts on the Day
- Irish Woman finally decided that enough was enough, convinced me to stay home from work, and got me off my butt and into the doc-in-the-box.
- I’ve only been sick since last Thursday. My immune system is just getting warmed up.
- Flu tests may violate the Hague Conventions.
- The doctor announced that I have the ick and should spend the rest of the day in bed.
- I figured the couch was good enough and besides, I can watch Sherlock Holmes on Netflix that way.
- If you put enough hot sauce in it, canned clam chowder is edible.
- You know, I’m getting tired of how every time some jerkoff commits some heinous act, the fact that they have military training is not only mentioned, but highlighted as a reason they’re especially dangerous.
- The military didn’t make me a jerk, I was that way before I got into the recruiter’s car to go to MEPPS.
- Not everyone who joined the military is a steely eyed, highly trained special warfare kind of dude. Most of us were just your average joe doing our job, which occasionally included some combat-type training.
- Intimating that because this dickhead has something special about him because he’s a veteran is like saying that the networking guy who murdered his wife will be hard to track on-line because he took a few programming classes in college.
- So, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, when our embassy in Cairo was violated and our consulate in Benghazi was in flames, with four American citizens being murdered, we are supposed to believe that either the President didn’t bother to reach out to his Secretary of Defense, or the Secretary didn’t think that it was noteworthy enough to reach out to the President to make sure he was informed of everything that was going on or to give him options.
- There is a third explanation, but no-one will ever have the means to find out if Panetta is lying. And to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if the amateurs who are playing jacks next to the nuclear button are just that incompetent.
- I’m not sure if I’m only just noticing this or if it’s something new, but I think Koshka is stalking the puppy. If I know my evil, psychotic Siamese, the puppy is in very real danger. Maybe he should get a restraining order?
- Walt Disney was an evil genius. We ordered a copy of Peter Pan the other day, and it just arrived. I popped it in as an after-school treat for Boo, and he was completely transfixed for the entire movie.
- It was released in 1953, when my mother was younger than he is now. Don’t tell me that some stories never get old.
- I’m not sure what Irish Woman has in mind, but the walls of my bathroom have lots of things sketched out in permanent marker.
- Either she’s summoning something, or I’m not even close to being done in there.
- There’s nothing like hearing a waterfall in the laundry room to get the old heart pumping.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/07/thoughts-on-the-day-94/
Messages to my State Legislators
Well, the wave of anti-gun rights legislation has struck the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
First, we have SB 92, which seems to be OK, but has a section that would have made automatic weapons, SBR’s and SBS’s, and “plastic fantastics” illegal. I wrote this to my state senator, Julie Denton:
Dear Senator Denton,
It was with some disappointment that I read section 2 of SB 92, which would amend KRS chapter 237 to make it a felony to possess automatic weapons, short-barreled shotguns and rifles, and any notional firearms which can be made transparent to security apparatus such as an X-Ray.
While the rest of the bill seems to be in line with the duty of the Commonwealth to protect the rights of its citizens and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, section 2 does nothing that will increase security and safety in the Commonwealth.
– Fully automatic firearms are already heavily regulated items, and possession of one without going through an extensive criminal background check or owning one manufactured since 1986 is already a felony. In addition, they are rarely, if ever, used in crimes in the Commonwealth.
– Owners of automatic weapons tend, in the vast majority, to be law abiding citizens who have a rather expensive hobby. In addition, events such as the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot bring in hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists to the Louisville area every year, along with their money. Making automatic weapons illegal in the Commonwealth would make the law-abiding citizens who own them divest themselves of an investment that cost them thousands of dollars, and drive tourism dollars away from the Commonwealth without having any positive impact on safety or security.
– Ownership of a short barreled rifle or shotgun also requires that the buyer undergo an extensive criminal background check. Possessing such a firearm without going through proper procedures is already a felony, so adding this law will do nothing that will increase safety and security to the Commonwealth.
– I challenge the authors and sponsors of this poorly thought-out piece of legislative tripe to give me a commonly found example of a firearm, assembled or disassembled, that does not have enough metal in it to set off a metal detector or be seen on the X-Ray machine at an airport or a courthouse. Even modern pistols that have bodies made with polymers still have a large amount of their parts, including the barrel and chamber, made out of steel. The existence of weapons that will not show up in security systems is a myth that has been thrown around by anti-rights extremists since the 1980s and they have yet to show an example of such an object.
I respectfully request that you work to have section 2 of SB 92 removed from the bill, and if it is not, to vote against it in the event that it comes to a vote on the floor of the Senate. Our rights, both those that deal with firearms and others, have already had enough abuse. We should not be restricting them further.
Respectfully,
Daddy J. Bear
——————————
Not to be outdone, the House has also had a bill, HB 265, introduced that will require universal background checks, “safe” storage, and a plethora of other anti-rights measures. I wrote this to my Representative, Ron Crimm:
Dear Representative Crimm,
Daddy J. Bear
——————————
If you’re in Kentucky, now’s the time to make your voice heard.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/07/messages-to-my-state-legislators/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on February 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/07/todays-earworm-314/
Picture of the Day
For those of you who wanted to see my high school pictures, here you go.
I don’t know where MicroSoft found them, but I wish they hadn’t Photoshopped all that text and stuff onto it.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/07/picture-of-the-day-6/
Musings
- Boo will be facing the gom jabbar on Saturday as we try to get him into the school that Irish Woman wants him to attend.
- I’m saying that he might be human.
- I’ve been instructed to be on my best behavior, so I’ll be making friends and influencing people. Heck, I may smile a little.
- I had to tell Girlie Bear that a story where the protagonist fights against a repressive government dead set against the free expression of rights was probably not what her teacher was thinking of when she assigned a children’s story for a writing assignment.
- I should have named Moonshine “Lamont”. That way when he messes up, I could look at him and say “You big dummy!”.
- He’s actually a good puppy, and is not as destructive as he used to be, but I swear that if you look hard enough at his eyes, you can see the back of his head.
- I was advised today that I am not allowed to use the question “Are you illiterate or did you just choose to not read what I wrote?” when talking to co-workers.
- I am also not allowed to ask a co-worker if they are deaf or just stupid.
- Yeah, it was one of those days.
- Apparently we are going to be getting faster broadband in the near future, so my goofing off will be happening much more quickly.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 7, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/07/musings-4/
Reminder
If you’re in the Louisville area and want to get involved in the Friends of the NRA, the meeting tonight is at the Heart of Fire Community Center, 5101 Bardstown Road in Louisville. The meeting begins at 6:30. Hope to see y’all there!
Posted by daddybear71 on February 5, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/05/reminder/
An Update
Alternately titled “Don’t Eat Your Own”.
The other night, I mentioned that I’d seen a news report on gun control on the local news, and that the reporter said that the ownership of one of my local ranges was in favor of universal background checks. A few local people almost immediately asked me if I’d seen it and what I thought of it. It was pretty much an instant “WTF?” moment via the magic of social networking. Anyway, I took my tired, already in a bad mood self to the webpage of OpenRange Sports and sent off rather abrupt, if not downright rude, demand for clarification. The next morning the owner of OpenRange contacted me and clarified his position.
His position pretty much boils down to an objection that he, as a business owner, has to put his customers through a background check when he sells a firearm, but a private seller does not. That is a much more nuanced response than the “The owner of this successful gun range in Louisville supports universal background checks.”.* It’s not as far as I go, which is to oppose any new restrictions on gun ownership, but it’s not outright support of the President, either. Chalk one more example up for “Be careful of what you say to the press, and be wary of what they say to you.”
I emailed back and forth with Mr. Laws, and at first, it was very evident that he was very wary of me as a blogger. It seems that when he first opened his business, which was the first firing range on that side of Louisville in at least as long as I’ve lived here, he took a lot of heat from some people on-line over his facility and the fees he charges, and that colored his initial response to my, admittedly, less than friendly request for clarification. Eventually, we were able to agree that, even though we differ on this issue, we are both doing what we can to further the cause of gun rights. Mr. Laws has put up his life savings and years of his life putting together a good place to shoot, made it accommodating to families and women, and puts on some of the best basic-skills training I’ve seen. I have taken another path, part of which is my bloviations here, but we are both working toward the same goal.
There’s a lesson here for everyone: We should not demand orthodoxy from our own side, and we should be at least as courteous to our own side as we try to be with the other. We are going to disagree on details; there’s no way around that when you put together a group that believes in individual liberty as much as we do. We are all part of the same movement, but we are going to work toward our goals in different ways, and that’s a good, healthy thing. Mr. Laws and other entrepreneurs are living a dream that a lot of us have, but he is also bearing the responsibilities and risks that come with it. A lot of us would love to go to a shooting range and gun store every morning to earn our daily bread, and in so doing bring new shooters to the sport and put a good public face on our side, but are we ready to put up with the regulation, cost, and trouble it takes to do that?
We have to exercise the same respect and restraint our best ambassadors use when they are talking to the neutrals and lukewarm anti’s when we speak with the people on our side who differ with us in small ways. Asking for everyone on our side to get into lockstep runs counter to what I mean when I say that gun rights are about rights. Someone who has the right to side with us and do good work toward our common goal also has the right to believe differently from us. When we turn on one of our own, we do ourselves a disservice. We must take care to not give our anger and frustration with the current situation a vent when we believe someone on our side differs with us. We’re better than that, and we must always remember that we gain strength from everyone’s work, not just those who march to our tune.
Disclaimer – I have no connection to OpenRange Sports other than being a member of the range and a customer.
*I tried to find the video or text story from the TV news the other night, but it doesn’t appear to be on their website. If I find it, I’ll update this with the video or a link to the article.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 5, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/05/an-update/
News Roundup
- From the “Taxdollars at Work” Department – The state of Washington obviously hasn’t cut its budgets quite far enough, because they’re spending taxpayer dollars to comb through their laws to find examples where gender-specific words, like ‘fireman’, are still on the books. Talk about your bottomless pit of government money. Once all the things that might be valid are taken care of, I can see this dragging out for years while they look to remove those phallic semicolons and sexist curly braces.
- From the “Butterfingers” Department – Police in Georgia are seeking a woman who dropped a bag of methamphetamine while checking out at Wal-Mart. My only surprise in reading the story was that she didn’t try to pay for her purchase with it. Citizens are advised to be on the lookout for a 100 pound woman who is walking around twitching and mumbling “I just had it. It was right here”.
- From the “On the Stump Again” Department – President Obama, the campaigner in chief, has decided to take his gun control show on the road for a multi-city tour. Opening for him will be that new boy band “PSH”, singing their new hit single “Girl, I Just Messed My Jeans”. President Obama is trying to convince middle America to believe slanted polls that supposedly show a consensus among gun owners that we’ve been wrong all these years and really ought to just surrender and do what the President says is right. Remember, the President pinky swears there won’t be any unexpected consequences from this law, and that gun control zealots will never, ever, ask for anything else ever again.
- From the “WTF?” Department – A cleric in Saudi Arabia has decreed that baby girls should be covered in head to toe clothing in order to prevent sexual abuse. Apparently the sick bastards who abuse little girls in Saudi Arabia will be deterred by placing the wee babes in a flour sack. Obviously alternative methods of deterring pedophiles, like the death penalty or amputation of the offending dangly bits, won’t work.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 4, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/04/news-roundup-174/
Thoughts on the Day
- It was very nice to finally meet Freiheit and his family today. I must get the recipe for his wife’s cake.
- Notes for the NFL:
- The children from Sandy Hook Elementary did indeed sing very beautifully. It was good to see that the tragedy they lived through doesn’t keep them from being used to score cheap political points.
- Jennifer Hudson did the best Ray Charles impression I’ve ever heard. Well done.
- Alicia Keys gets an 80 on her rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”. She didn’t appear to lip synch, she seemed to be accompanying herself on the piano, and she hit the notes. If she could have made it not sound like cool jazz at the end, I’d have scored her higher.
- I can’t say I’m sad I missed Beyonce performing during half time.
- Did anyone perform at the Super Bowl that hasn’t supported President Obama?
- I saw approximately 8 minutes of the Superbowl tonight before it was time to go in to work for a couple of hours.
- I walked back in the door about a minute after the end of the game.
- No, I don’t own a DVR.
- I normally double the amount of time I think I need for a task when I’m doing my planning. I think that may be too conservative.
- The local news just showed an employee of my indoor range speaking in support of universal background checks. I’ve reached out to their management to see if that is indeed their position on the new gun control issues.
- I hope that this was just someone popping off. The person they spoke to is not the owner or his wife, and to be honest, I didn’t recognize him.
- I’ll name names once I hear from their management.
Posted by daddybear71 on February 4, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/02/04/thoughts-on-the-day-93/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 