From X-Voter.com
X-Voter.com, Inc.
Terrorist: a Word Without a Meaning
In our rush to spend billions of dollars that we don’t have (see 2005 proposed Federal Deficit) to defend ourselves from “terrorism,” no one has adequately explained to me what this word means that justifies so much additional costs and bureaucracy.
Peter Lynds says there is no such thing as time, that it is an illusion. Some say he is the next Einstien and some say he is crazy. With his definition of time, calculus will not work. Figure out who you believe on Wired’s website.
LOS ANGELES — Arizona schools have added a fourth “R” to reading, writing and arithmetic — rifles.
Students who choose to enroll in this new course learn the safe way to handle a gun and earn one credit — the equivalent to ceramics or photography electives. Critics are gunning the debate; they say handing teenagers loaded weapons equals trouble. more
Web Posting Claims al-Zarqawi Fled Iraq
By JAMAL HALABY
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – An Islamic Web site statement claimed Wednesday that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s point man in Iraq, has fled to a “neighboring country” with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot wounds to his lung.
Buy A Star Wars DVD for $1.20
Agenda Inc. Live Feed – Hollywood steps up fight against Chinese pirates
Ian Pearson, one of Britain’s leading forward thinkers, claims that the progress in computer technology is so fast that in 45 years they will be as complex and powerful as the human brain. This, claims Pearson, means that by that time a rich egomaniac may be able to load their conciousness onto a computer and live virtually forever. Poor people, of course, will have to wait until the prices come down.
NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert Vol. 12, No. 20 05/20/05
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
CONTINUES WORK ON H.R. 800
On Wednesday, May 18, the House Judiciary Committee met to continue debating amendments to H.R. 800, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” sponsored by Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.). The legislation has 254 cosponsors.
Anti-gun members of the committee offered a series of amendments that had no purpose except to try and score political points–including one by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) to eliminate the bill’s statement that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Scott and his supporters, including Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Maxine Waters (D-Cal.), argued that the Second Amendment wasn’t intended to protect individuals’ self-defense rights–a theory long discredited by modern Second Amendment scholars.
Pro-Second Amendment Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) led supporters of the bill in responding to the opponents, and soundly defeating all the anti-gun amendments.
Unfortunately, the “mark up” session was interrupted by other House business, but we expect the bill will be taken up again at an upcoming Judiciary Committee meeting. In the meantime, please continue to contact your U.S. Representative and Senators in support of H.R. 800 and its Senate counterpart, S. 397–without any anti-gun amendments.
To access the most up-to-date information on this issue, and to find out if your lawmaker is a cosponsor, please go to the “Help Save America’s Firearms Industry” heading at www.NRAILA.org. This function will allow you to easily send an e-mail or letter to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators. Please forward this link to your family, friends, and fellow firearm owners.
For additional information on effectively communicating with your lawmakers, please go to: http://www.nraila.org/CurrentLegislation/ActionAlerts/Read.aspx?ID=274 (Grassroots Alert, Vol. 12, No. 12).
OpinionJournal – Cross Country
Minutemen Are People, Too
Arizona rednecks win a round against the ACLU.
BY LEO W. BANKS
Thursday, May 19, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
TUCSON, Ariz.–Anybody who appreciates a good yuck was sad to see the Minutemen pack up their pickups and go home. After all, it wasn’t every day that we got to enjoy the spectacle of sunscreen-lathered ACLU observers chasing volunteer border-watchers through the desert. But in the media bonfire accompanying Arizona’s Redneck Revolt, we saw the cultural divide separating media elites from ordinary people–those with BlackBerries and $150 hairdos versus folks with tobacco bulges in their cheeks. more
More on this subject: Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona
An Internet audiotape posted Wednesday, purportedly by al-Qaida-in-Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, justifies the deaths of fellow Muslims in attacks against U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies by saying that jihad – or holy war – dwarfs all other concerns. more
I know I preach to the choir here but it needs to said and repeated. This is from 2004 and graphically shows the difference.
You probably think “So what! I dont live in Califonia.” Well, contrary to all the evidence that may indicate otherwise, California is still part of the union.
From the NRA-ILA
CALIFORNIA
The California Assembly will consider Assembly Bill 352 at anytime. This legislation could essentially ban all semi-automatic pistols commonly used by California gun owners. AB 352 expands the definition of “unsafe handguns” to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with an array of microscopic characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol by imprinting the characters on each cartridge case when the firearm is discharged. Please continue to contact members of the Assembly through Monday, May 16, and ask them to oppose AB 352. Assembly Members can be reached at (916) 319-20 (plus your 2-digit district number for the last two numbers). Senate Bill 357 would establish a program requiring serialization of handgun ammunition to be enforced by the Department of Justice. The manufacture, transfer, and possession of non-serialized handgun ammunition after July 1, 2007 would be c! onsidered a crime. SB 357 would also require ammunition vendors and manufacturers to register with the Department of Justice. This anti-gun legislation is waiting to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Please continue to contact members of the committee at (916) 651-4101 and ask them to oppose SB 357.
Reading the previous post got me fired up yet again, frustrated at the, to use Q Ball’s parlance, “ineptitude†of government. Notice I said government not our government. Because all any government is, is a group of people. And let me say this, people are stupid, people are careless, people are selfish, people are greedy, people are mean and people are evil. Not all, not most, but enough to make life in any free society very frustrating. And in places where freedom is not protected, life can be downright dangerous. Dangerous unless you are wiling to just keep your mouth shut and do as you are told. Since I said “where freedom is protected†I have to add that most people in this country seem to think that freedom is a natural state that mankind will always move toward. That couldn’t be further from the truth and brings me back to my point. These little inconveniences at the airport, the invasive nature of parts of the Patriot Act, the insistence on a national ID card are all part of an incremental erosion of the protections of personal freedom that one day are going to bite us in the ass. Have you read the Patriot Act? Its not easy. Try reading it and see if you don’t agree that it is very hard to figure out all of that document’s intent, let alone the unintended consequences that may result. There is no doubt that some of the Patriot Act was badly needed legislation. But even a lay person such as I can see there is some onerous stuff in there. Look at the definition of a terrorist in this law. And incidentally, most of these things are not protecting us from terrorists.
“Well,†you say, “ if they are not protecting us from terrorists then why is the government doing this? Are you saying that the government wants to take away our freedoms?†No, I’m saying the government is people and people are stupid. Case in Point. NASA is part of the government, ostensively a particularly smart part of the government. NASA spent years and millions of dollars to build a spacecraft. They launched that spacecraft, flew it all the way to Mars and then crashed it smack into the planet because they screwed up the conversion from English to Metric measurements. They didn’t mean to do it. I’m sure they are very sorry they waisted our time and all that money. Never the less the spacecraft did incinerated in the atmosphere of Mars. Thank God it was just time and money that we lost on that occasion.
We all need to support the war on terror because its real. However, since most of us cant actively participate in this war it is up to us to fight for our way of life and freedoms in another way. We have to stay vigilant and tell our representatives how dissatisfied we are with the TSA, the Border Patrol and every other government agency that has its own self interest at heart instead of those of the American people.
Want to get angry? Read these two articles.
Abuse of Government Power
Faced with the obvious problem of not being able to locate plastic explosives carried on the body, the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) — with its now expected ineptitude — has decided that, usual standards of morality be damned…more
Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona
U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers…more
The TSA has once again demonstrated its ineptitude, by not allowing a dude with a small camera that resembles a Zippo lighter, to board an aircraft.
Get ready for a national ID card. “Zeeze paperz are not in order!”
Wired News: No Real Debate for Real ID national ID card.
Xbox: Pre-E3 2005: Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
This is the coolest game commercial I have ever seen. Click on the video link at the bottom of the page to stream it in Windows Media.
From NRA-ILA:
CALIFORNIA
SB 357 would establish a program requiring serialization of handgun ammunition to be enforced by the Department of Justice. The manufacture, transfer, and possession of non-serialized handgun ammunition after July 1, 2007 would be considered a crime. SB 357 would also require ammunition vendors and manufacturers to register with the Department of Justice. SB 357 passed out of the Senate Public Safety Committee and is on its way to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Please contact members of the committee at (916) 651-4101 and urge them to oppose SB 357. AB 352 is expected to be heard on the Assembly floor May 9. AB 352 expands the definition of “unsafe handguns” to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts, which are then transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired. Please contact members of the Assembly at (916) 319-2800 and ask them to oppose AB 352.