United States

Easy-Peasy! TAKE ACTION NOW!

Ruger Firearms has a web page dedicated to YOU taking action to contact our elected officials with regard to the issue of gun control.

They suggest you contact these people NOW, and provide the means do so.

If you are too lazy to visit their website, I’ve copied the text and links below.  You may call the folks, email ALL of them simultaneously! (based on your address and zip) and forward the links to your friends.

Easy-Peasy.

Step one: Please click on one of the buttons to the right for an easy way to tell your legislators you care about gun rights. The Take Action Now! button allows you to send a prepared email letter quickly and easily. The Find Your Representatives button has detailed contact information for each of your legislators so, if you prefer, you can call them or write them a more personal letter.

Step two: Get all your friends to help support our rights; ask them to click on the link and send letters too. Click here to email this web page to your friends.

More: Many elected officials have been looking for an opportunity to curtail our gun rights and think they can win now if they move quickly while emotions are high. In Washington D.C. and in state legislatures across the country, anti-gun forces are gathering and conspiring in an effort to pass bad legislation that goes beyond anything we have ever seen. At least one legislature is discussing making public the identity of all pistol permit holders, treatment typically reserved for convicted sex offenders.

Reality seems to be lost on these folks. Cities like Washington D.C. and Chicago, with some of the strictest gun laws on the books, are hotbeds of violent crime. Nationally, violent crime involving firearms has declined since the expiration of the Federal “assault weapons ban,” while lawful ownership of firearms has increased. More lawful gun ownership, less crime.

To help your voice be heard, we have set up this special service on our website. By clicking on the Take Action Now! link, you can contact your legislators.

Please act now, before it’s too late.

FTC – Ruger Firearms gives me nothing, save an easy way to get my voice heard in Washington and my State Capitol.  Now go away.

h/t Traction Control

Big Brother is Watching You DRIVE!

Instapundit brought us this little noticed gem (after the NDAA passed the Senate - quietly)…

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU DRIVE: Feds Requiring ‘Black Boxes’ in All Motor Vehicles.

If you don’t like the idea, you can submit comments here.

Coupled with Progressive Insurance’s Snapshot, both the private and public sector can now monitor your driving!

Don’t you feel safer, now?

h/t Glenn Reynolds

Constitution? WHAT Constitution?

“They: The makers of the Constitution: conferred,
as against the government, the right to be let alone –
the most comprehensive of rights and
the right most valued by civilized men.”

-  Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

What the Hell ever happened to this concept?

For the past seventy years (or more) there has been an eating away at the substance that used to be American Culture.  Not just political correctness, multiculturalism and unreasonable inclusion, but who we are as individuals.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.^[1]

Except:

The USA Patriot Act, NDAA, FISA, no-knock warrants, cameras on every corner, warrants unnecessary for GPS attachment, sobriety checkpoints, citizenship checkpoints, TSA rifling through personal belongings and groping etc., etc.  And this from an NSA whistleblower:

Perhaps the degree to which you’re being watched is surprising: this former NSA agent says “Everyone in the U.S. is under virtual surveillance.”

They’ve apparently turned it up to 12, and it’s accelerating, he says. Scary stuff.

More from the whistleblower:

“The problem is if they think they are not doing anything that’s wrong, they don’t get to define that. The central government does, the central government defines what is right and wrong and whether or not they target you. So, it’s not up to the individuals. Even if they think they aren’t doing something wrong, if their position on something is against what the administration has, then they could easily become a target.“

(emphasis in original post)

We’ve devolved from Norman Rockwell to George Lincoln Rockwell.  Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?

h/t Rev. Paul

The right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the federal constitution…

In the United States the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the federal constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging “the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Although often overlooked in favor of other more famous freedoms, and sometimes taken for granted,^[1] many other civil liberties are enforceable against the government only by exercising this basic right.^[2] The right to petition is a fundamental in a Constitutional Republic, such as the United States, as a means of protecting public participation in government.^{[1](Wikipedia)}

Way Up North  (and now Tam) brought to our attention (in demure fanfare, as is their tradition) a movement regarding individual States of these United States petitioning for peaceful secession from the same!

I went to the All Petitions/whitehouse.gov website, and was amazed!  First, that such a group of petitions existed and second, that ‘the government’ had allowed such behavior, given their track record on such things!

By my count, there 24 States, including mine, with listed petitions!

Is this treasonous, or simply the right to petition?

Will Coin Use Be Eliminated Quicker than We Think?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve developed the habit of not carrying cash or coin in my daily life.  Most of my large transactions (like paying bills) are online, and the smaller day-to-day stuff (bagel shop, grocery, gas) uses my debit card.  When before I was disabled, I used to use cash and throw my change into a jar.  And sometimes cash it in when times were tough.  They are tougher now, but, I don’t generate any more change! 

I know.  In TEOTWAWKI, I’m screwed.

Not that cash has real value as a medium of exchange, anyway.

SO, if you want a truly depressing read, go to the link here from Charleston Voice.  Then start continue hoarding canned and dry goods, water filters, ammunition, silver and medication.  Oh, and toilet paper!

If you can afford to.

Those Pesky Executive Orders!

My friends over at Mental Floss (brethren/sistern of Neatorama and Miss Cellania) have come up with an old essay regarding the power of the President, specifically, Executive Orders.

Much had been made in the blogosphere with regard to recent E.O.s (like the one about the so-called Dream Act) and other actions taken by this and previous Presidents.

Is it LAW?  Is it overreaching and/or unconstitutional?  Is it both a dessert topping AND a floor wax?  (sorry)

They reach into their archives to bring us author Chris DesBarres history and humor regarding this very serious and complex subject.

Examples:

Critics call them “legislation by other means.” Supporters defend them as a necessary tool for leading the country – especially in the face of a Congress unwilling or unable to make tough choices. Whatever your position, the Executive Order has been used by presidents for good, for ill, and sometimes for just plain odd reasons.

Constitutional Basis

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution contains a vague reference to executive orders, giving the president the power to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.” Strict constructionists interpret this phrase to empower the president only to enact laws approved by Congress, but presidents have shown a remarkable mental flexibility to overcome this potential obstacle. Executive orders have covered every topic from school desegregation, to starting wars, to providing political supporters with cushy government positions.

These orders went largely unchecked until President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 10340, which placed all U.S. steel mills under Federal control. The Supreme Court ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority because he attempted to make law rather than clarify an existing piece of legislation. Justice Hugo Black, concerned that his majority opinion had offended the President (which it had), invited Truman over for dinner. Truman, overcome by the Justice’s hospitality, remarked, “Hugo, I don’t much care for your law, but, by golly, this bourbon is good.”

Patronage: Is that civil service exam too hard? Not a problem if you’ve got friends in high places. Presidents have frequently used executive orders to award jobs. Theodore Roosevelt seemed particularly fond of this hiring practice, doling out over two dozen jobs to clerks, engineers, doctors, and administrators. Of note, his Executive Order of June 23, 1904, appointed Dr. William L. Ralph as curator of the section of birds’ eggs in the National Museum, and his E.O. of November 2, 1903, made Mrs. Roy L. Quackenbush a permanent clerk in the Post Office.

Go to the link above and be both disgusted and amused.  As I am simply by seeing the name Quackenbush.

h/t Miss Cellania

The Immigration Debate

My good friend Lonnie (who was awarded two Bronze Stars in South Vietnam) forwarded me an email which had been forwarded to him.  He doesn’t send me a lot of junk, and most is of an historical/military nature.  But this email was a little different.

My personal opinion is that The United States is a free nation, and it’s no surprise others from other more-oppressive and less prosperous nations wish to emigrate here.  We are indeed made up of the melting pot, and folks who can contribute to the Nation and the economy should be welcomed.

In a few words, the email outlines some of the issues and frustrations regarding The Immigration Debate.

In part it says:

National Treasure

I don’t consider myself old; older, perhaps, but not old.  I was born in the early 1950′s, like so many of my baby-boomer brethren.

Most of us grew up pledging Allegiance to both the Flag and the Republic, and loving Our County unabashedly.
This didn’t mean blind love.  As we grew, we saw the injustices perpetrated against minorities, and some of us questioned different military and political adventures overseas.  Some were valid, some questionable, but all worthy of intelligent discussion and debate.
This is who we are.
Sadly, some of the debate stopped being intelligent, or discussed.
But most of the people here, whether native-born or legally-adopted, felt a love for the United States, for her history, her culture, her soul.
We were and are Americans.  And persons who moved here wanted to assimilate, to become as we.  E Pluribus Unum.
Not just long-term visitors from a foreign land demanding we speak their language or adopt their culture.

President Theodore Roosevelt said it best,
“In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans. A hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts ‘Native’ before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
 
I’ve Irish and German heritage.  I’m proud of having both.  But, I’m an American.  This is who I am.