American

5 Lessons from The Magnificent Seven

Kenn Blanchard (aka Black Man with A Gun) spells out for us the 5 Lessons all of us should glean (or should have gleaned) from the classic movie Western The Magnificent Seven.

(I suppose for poetic sake it should have been seven lessons…?)

Now, I’m not going to enumerate them all for you here, as you should be reading and/or listening to Kenn (on his podcast) anyway, but, I will give you a snippet:

~In this classic Western from 1960′s there are some messages and things I want to see if you caught when you saw it.  It’s the story of an oppressed Mexican peasant village that recruits seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.  The concept originated from a Japanese film the Seven Samurai  (Shichinin no Samurai) and its been used ever since.  I think, the A-Team and The Expendables today have borrowed from it.

Unknowingly, many pro-gun rights guys have fallen into the trap of allowing themselves to be promoted to the low ranks of a murderer. You have let the macho take over and have confused the facts. You carry a gun or choose to because you can, and have decided to for various reasons but you are not a killer. Gun ownership has moved into the realms of being a smoker. Less desirable. I am trying to bring you back.~

Please visit the link above, and read the whole piece.

Rev. Kenn Blanchard, aka the Black Man With A Gun™ is an internationally known figure in the gun rights community since 1991. He is a former US Marine, federal police officer, intelligence officer and trainer. He produces the Urban Shooter Podcast, voice overs, motivates, inspires and writes for the Blanchard Media Group. http://twitter.com/kennblanchard, blackmanwithagun@gmail.com

History Repeats Itself…

…not unlike chili after too many onions.

(an excerpt quoted from a guest commentary in the Albany, Georgia Herald c/o Free North Carolina blog)

The “War of Northern Aggression” that followed was an epic struggle in which the South outnumbered 3 to 1 and with most manufacturing located in the North fought heroically and valiantly for INDEPENDENCE from the tyrannical, despotic, and dictatorial North. Lincoln, Sherman, Sheridan, Hunter, Custer and other Yankee officers were WAR CRIMINALS of the most vile type. They murdered, raped, tortured, robbed, stole, plundered, pillaged, and burned their way across the South. After destruction of the South, Yankee terrorists and psychopaths carried out a war of extermination against the Native American Indians. Yet modern liberals and dishonest Northern historians have attempted to claim the “Moral High Ground” for the North because slaves were freed following the war by the 13th Amendment. The Northern radicals, fanatics, zealots, and hypocrites did not free the Southern slaves for humanitarian reasons. They freed them so they could be given the right to vote and be used and manipulated to keep corrupt Northern politicians and carpetbaggers in power.Former Confederates were prohibited from voting.

Fast forward to June, 2013.  Regardless what one may think regarding the above guest commentary, we now have a situation wherein American citizens must have identification to conduct banking transactions, purchase firearms, to drive, and obtain required insurance…but for voting it isn’t required, because doing so discriminates against the illegal aliens and Chicago residents who vote multiple times for the socialists mandating these policies.  And, of course, the illegal aliens are encouraged to move North to increase the voter rolls.  And obtain other benefits.

Funny how successful ‘policies’ of the past repeat themselves.

So much for Amendment the Third…

(not really – but I had you going there, didn’t I?)

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Sadly, there does seem to be an escape clause in the Amendment.  (but in a manner prescribed by law)

And there was even one relevant case -  Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d. Cir. 1982)

In 1979, prison officials in New York organized a strike; they were evicted from their prison facility residences, which were reassigned to members of the National Guard who had temporarily taken their place as prison guards. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled: (1) that the termowner in the Third Amendment includes tenants (paralleling similar cases regarding the Fourth Amendment, governing search and seizure), (2) National Guard troops count as soldiers for the purposes of the Third Amendment, and (3) that the Third Amendment is incorporated (that is, that it applies to the states) by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[4]

In an earlier case, United States v. Valenzuela, 95 F. Supp. 363 (S.D. Cal. 1951), the defendant asked that a federal rent-control law be struck down because it was “the incubator and hatchery of swarms of bureaucrats to be quartered as storm troopers upon the people in violation of Amendment III of the United States Constitution.” The court declined his request. Later, in Jones v. United States Secretary of Defense, 346 F. Supp. 97 (D. Minn. 1972), Army reservists cited the Third Amendment as justification for sitting out a parade. Similarly far-fetched arguments in a variety of contexts have also been denied in a number of court cases.^[4] Thus, Engblom v. Carey remains the only significant Third Amendment case law.  (Wikipedia)

You should go and visit the Wikipedia page, and perhaps do some other research on your own.  Every Amendment in The Bill of Rights has been, and continues to be under constant attack by those who think they ‘know better’.

We need to stand firm not just on the Second, but the entire Bill of Rights.  Tyranny is insidious.

“A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.” - Thomas Jefferson

We need to maintain vigilance.

ALL HAIL Puritanical America!

The Ultimate Answer to Kings brings to us a discussion regarding what many of us thought was a non-issue:  different genders (or the gender-confused) using the wrong public toilet.

Raise your hand if you never drowsily wandered into the wrong bathroom in a public building. Personally I consider the embarrassment to be punishment enough, but some politicians don’t agree.

SB 1432 would make it illegal to enter a bathroom if signage indicates it is exclusively for the opposite sex. Authorities could charge violators with a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail.

Of course I’m misstating the purpose of this bill, which has nothing to do with criminalizing a lack of situational awareness and everything to do with making, er, gender mismanagement a matter of public concern.

I personally don’t think it’s the government’s business.  If a crime is involved (lewdness, rape, assault, child molestation) then certainly it becomes the government’s business.  Otherwise, they’ve enough to contend with.  And they’re already in our computers, cell phones, automobiles, bodies and bedrooms.  I’m drawing the line at JBTs getting a warrant to check my underwear!  (Although they already do it warrantless at the airport – sigh).

Many of my liberal friends cheered when the Phoenix City Council recently passed an ordinance guaranteeing non-interference with transgender and other folks who utilize the public restroom labeled with the gender they most identify.  An anonymous commenter on Joel’s blog succinctly addresses the actual issue of Puritanical-Victorian America with the statement below:

There are lots of first and second world countries that have unisex public restrooms. They don’t seem to suffer for it.

Amen.  Perhaps we Americans need to simply grow up.

+1 on Mr (or Ms.) Anonymous

Not exactly a glimmer…

…but all is not, yet, lost…

Judge rules secret FBI letters unconstitutional

 SAN FRANCISCO — They’re called national security letters and the FBI issues thousands of them a year to banks, phone companies and other businesses demanding customer information. They’re sent without judicial review and recipients are barred from disclosing them.

On Friday, a federal judge in San Francisco declared the letters unconstitutional, saying the secretive demands for customer data violate the First Amendment.

The government has failed to show that the letters and the blanket non-disclosure policy “serve the compelling need of national security,” and the gag order creates “too large a danger that speech is being unnecessarily restricted,” U.S. District Judge Susan Illston wrote.

She ordered the FBI to stop issuing the letters, but put that order on hold for 90 days so the U.S. Department of Justice can pursue an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The DOJ said it is reviewing the decision.

FBI counter-terrorism agents began issuing the letters after Congress passed the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

More at the above link.  Apparently, not everyone in government supports the push toward totalitarianism.

Funny how the congress keeps passing more legislation ‘to protect us’, and instead constrains us.

PHEW! That was close!

threedonia, in the midst of all the horrific news regarding the ever-fascistic encroachment of government bring us good news…

The TWINKIE is returning!

The new owner of Hostess Brands Inc’s snack cakes hopes to have Twinkies back on U.S. store shelves by this summer, according to a member of the purchasing group.

“Our family is thrilled to have the opportunity to reestablish these iconic brands with new creative marketing ideas and renewed sales efforts and investment,”Daren Metropoulos, a principal at his family’s private equity firm, told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

“We look forward to having America’s favorite snacks back on the shelf by this summer.”

I guess this means when we complain about the sardine-seating in the cattle cars headed to the ‘re-education’ camps, and are told  “Let ‘em eat cake!”  we will again have another choice of chemically enhanced sponge cake tubes, with cremey filling (no dairy involved – hence the spelling creme) from which to choose!

That, and a 16+ oz. soda to celebrate Freedom’s return!  Or not.

As it’s Presidents’ Day…

(a holiday designed to give federal employees another three-day weekend…)

I found a list of 99 Interesting Fact About The Presidents.

Below are a few snippets – you might visit the link above to read the whole 99!

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is the only U.S. president who was also a licensed bartender. He was co-owner of Berry and Lincoln, a saloon in Springfield, Illinois.^b

Lyndon Baines Johnson “LBJ”(1908-1973) affectionately called the many women he slept with his “harem.” He even had a buzzer system installed that rang inside the Oval Office so that Secret Service could warn him when his wife was coming.^c

The three best known Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon.^k

Robert Lincoln is the only man in U.S. history known to have witnessed the assassinations of three different presidents, his father, James Garfield, and William McKinley. After he saw anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoot McKinley, he vowed he would never again appear in public with an incumbent president.ⁱ

Gerald Ford – Cosmo

Gerald Ford worked as a model during college. He also worked as a forest ranger at Yellowstone National Park directing traffic and feeding the bears.^a

h/t Random Facts, Mental Floss

Cochise v. Geronimo

Cochise

Geronimo

When I was growing up (in Arizona) my father made certain to show me evidence of Western history and culture.  Western as in cowboy.  50s/60s TV helped.  Not balanced or historically correct.

And, living in Arizona, we got to travel around the State and visit places like Montezuma’s Castle and Tombstone.  And I really wanted to own a horse and become a cowboy.  At age 5.

Part of what was taught to me was the difference between Cochise and Geronimo.  Cochise initially fought the incursion of people from the East Coast, but eventually acceded to what was called manifest destiny and gave up.  I was taught he was a great hero of his people.  (See the 1950 film Broken Arrow for the politically-correct story).

But Geronimo was another matter.  A warrior to the end, he never gave up fighting for his people, and was eventually captured and made a prisoner of war.  He died in captivity.  Some say he was murdered.  I was taught he was a rebel and criminal who deserved what he got.  We called these battles The Indian Wars.

Between the Indians co-existing with us as citizens, having their own ‘nations’, and being given special status and benefits from the government (based largely on our guilt for never honoring treaties and mistreatment of them), AND, the ever-popular meme of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Noble Savage (the idea that as they were primitive cultures they were automatically more pure than we ‘cultured’ euro-trash) it’s a pretty complex relationship.  Until the 1700s, many conquering forces simply eliminated those who didn’t assimilate.  Less complex but barbaric.  We did do some of that.

Special status, in spite of the whole melting pot meme; E Pluribus Unum, and equal rights for all.  Some people are more equal than others.

Purportedly, Geronimo’s last words…

“I should have never surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive.”^[27]

As a youth, I admired Cochise for his peaceable acquiescence to federal government authority.  I tend to be siding more with Geronimo, now.

h/t Wikipedia, IMDB

The NRA

Mama Liberty commented on my post yesterday, mentioning the National Rifle Association’s flip-flopping with regard to various issues involving federal law.  Specifically the whole ‘no guns in school’ thing.

It seems they initially supported such a thing, then became wiser.  They’ve done the same thing with regard to other gun control laws and politicians (giving some folks a Grade of A, when they voted mostly in the anti-rights tent).

In short, they’re wafflers and inconsistent, at best.

I’ve thought on more than one occasion about sending back my Life Membership Card (which I paid for in monthly installments!) with a better-than-terse letter regarding many of these inconsistencies.

But I’ve not yet done that.  Why not, you ask?

Well, because, in spite of their failings, they’re still one of the best tools we have in this battle.  There are others:  The Second Amendment Foundation and Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership come to mind.

Find the group or groups you can support and do so.  Four-and-one-half million people coalesced into a lobbying force is remarkable!  47% of American households reportedly possess firearms.  The NRA and other pro-rights groups memberships should be even larger.

Yeah, they aren’t perfect.  But…

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”  -  Benjamin Franklin

God Bless John Moses Browning!

One of the most prolific and innovative inventors in history, JOHN MOSES BROWNING was born on this date in 1855.

The next time you rack your semiautomatic pistol, remember the slide mechanism was invented by Mr. Browning.  Otherwise, we’d be stuck with Georg Luger’s toggle top!  Seen many of those designs, lately?

Every time I first touch off my one remaining prized 1911, I try to intone, “God Bless John Moses Browning!”

For a succinct biography of the man, please go to 1911.org