I was referred to this article of an entry on the Assault Weapons Ban by Say Uncle. This is the stupidest anti-gunner I have come across. Bang, Clinton 1994 assault weapons ban.

First of all, the guy doesn’t use a spell checker, or re-read his product. I found three misspelled or misused words. Not good for a supposed wordsmith.

Second, he doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on how the government works. He seems to believe that the actions by the Senate makes his wet dreams law. He seems to forget that a similar bill needs to pass the House and then be signed by the President, which doesn’t seem likely.

He also doesn’t seem to understand reality. I used to own a MAK-90. The only difference between my rifle and a banned AR-15 is the caliber of ammunition used and the style of stock. I could still fire my MAK from the hip in that “evil” fashion and still had a threaded muzzle for one of those “silencers.” Of course, you can’t silence a supersonic bullet.

Then he tries to give advice. Too bad he doesn’t know that using a rifle is the last choice in home defense. At least he tries by using G. Gordon Liddy. Too bad Liddy has a felony conviction and the only kind of handgun he can use is a black powder pistol. Of course he’s going to recommend what he has.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Here’s more on how our private lives are getting smaller. Like It or Not, RFID Is Coming.

Radio Frequency identification tags are the next wave of barcoding. With these devices, retailers will be able to track every item individually throughout the entire time it is in the store. Once these are in wide use, all you will need to do to check out is to walk through a scanner, which picks up the ID of every tag in the cart (plus the ones in your pockets if you didn’t take off the tag). If your credit cards are equipped with RFID as well, all you have to do is choose which card at the pay station without even taking it out of your pocket.

I am reminded of a commercial I saw a few years ago. It has a man going through a supermarket, stuffing things as he goes into his pockets, picking up nasty stares from the other customers. At the checkout, he walks through an arch which glows red as he walks through it. As he walks past the security guard, the guard says, “Excuse me sir… You forgot your receipt.”

But what kind of hazards exist for this kind of technology? Let’s just say for a moment that you have RFID equipped credit cards, ID cards and even a medical history card. After all, that is what the article talks about. All it takes is someone with a portable scanner to get close enough to you to scan your tags and they will have pickpocketed you without even touching you. With all of the rampant identity theft going on today, do you really want to make it that easy for them?

Same thing with cops. All they have to do is get near you to scan your RFIDs, then get an instant readout of any warrants, restraining orders, etc., on you before even talking to you. A police car could just go down the street, pinging everybody as they go along. This would include pulling over anybody who doesn’t give off a ping, since it is usually state law that you carry a state picture ID with you at all times.

Don’t think it won’t happen. It will. It already is.

Do you use a frequent customer card? Then that store knows you better than you know yourself. They could fill 90% of your order based on past purchases. Does your receipt have a barcode on it? Your purchasing habits just got tabulated. If you used a credit card, then your name is part of the data. Target or Wal-Mart can tell you exactly what you bought by credit card since they started barcoding the receipts, if not earlier.

With these methods, data miners can tell if you like store brand over name brand, at what price point will a sale appeal to you, even if the products on the aisle ends appeal to you or not. And that’s going on today.

With RFID IDs, stores can scan you when you enter. When you go through that magical arch at the entrance, it will look up your record and download specific targeted advertising and purchase suggestions to an on-cart computer display which will talk to you as you walk through the store.

It will happen, I promise.

Does any of this scare you? It scares the hell out of me.

Would you like fries with that?

I must admit that I am changing my position, kind of. After reading the latest article about the SCOTUS case about ‘Under God’ in the Pledge of allegiance, I have realized that I am incorrect.

I want the SCOTUS to hear the case and rule on it.

If they reject the case or tie 4-4 on it (Justice Scalia has recused himself), then the 9th Circus ruling against the words will stand.

When I wrote about it in my last entry, here, I asked for the case to be thrown out. I did not fully realize that this position would be counterproductive to the outcome I desired.

This latest article, Supreme Court to Take Up ‘Under God’, talks about polls supporting the words.

It seems 87% of Americans support the words ‘Under God’ in the Pledge.

This was not surprising:

The AP poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs, found college graduates were more likely than those who did not have a college degree to say the phrase “under God” should be removed. Democrats and independents were more likely than Republicans to think the phrase should be taken out.

So college grads, Democrats and Independents lean away from the words, while Republicans lean towards them.

Considering the 87% number, there must be a lot more Republicans than Democrats, or it’s a 99% for the Republicans and 50/50 for the Dems.

Please, please, rule in favor of ‘Under God.’ There is no separation of church and state in the Constitution, and even so, this does not preclude religion, merely a state mandated church.

Well, the link to the article doesn’t work any more, but it was all about drawing parallel lines between Neville Chamberlain of Britain and Zapatero of Spain.

I collect quotes for fun. It’s cheaper than collecting cars or stamps. Here’s the one that applies:

“Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian.” – Heywood Broun

Winston Churchill was also prescient when he said to Chamberlain, “You had a choice between war and cowardice. You chose cowardice and will get war anyway.”

Just look at your standard playground bully. He beats up kid A. Kid A comes back the next day with a roll of nickels in a sock and beats bully in the face with it. Bully then picks on kid B. Kid B comes back the next day and surrenders his lunch money without a fight. Who do you think the bully will continue to pick on?

bin Laden, et. al., is nothing more than your international bully. When he picked on us, We got some friends together and broke his kneecap and broke the collarbone of his best friend. He just picked on one of the weakest kids and got him to at least be neutral about this fight. Now Australia’s out-of-power party is talking about withdrawing from the coalition. Poland is climbing up onto the fence as well.

This is only going to get tougher, and we have to stick to it. To do anything less allows for making 9/11 a common occurrence.

I had a nice post on appeasement, but I lost it. I will repost it tonight or tomorrow. Gotta go to work now.

I don’t know about this. Federal Marriage Amendment Proponents Offer Compromise.

This story is about how the FMA would still define marriage between a man and a woman, it would leave the door open for states to individually allow for civil unions and such.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and all that.

I don’t like this compromise, because it allows what it is outlawing, if you know what I mean. There are some compromises that I can swallow, this isn’t one of them.

I like this idea. Ohio Requires DUI ‘Scarlet Letter’ Licenses.

If you get convicted of a DUI and get a restricted drivers license, you also get awarded a red on yellow license plate to show your fellow citizens that you are dangerous while on the roads.

Good Job, Ohio.

I think this picture says a lot:

How can you reason with a person like this? His worldview and mine are so different that I don’t know if we share the same language. We may both speak English, but the meanings of his words does not coincide.

Is there any empathy in this person, or do they torture gerbils in their spare time?

As you can see, you can’t see this persons face. It’s good that he hides it, otherwise he would get the shit beaten out of him. By me and a few of my friends.

I was perusing some websites this afternoon and found this article, FDA Wants Suicide Warning Labels on Antidepressants.

For those of you who haven’t read through my back blog entries, I became ill when I started taking Effexor in January 1999. I thought I was treating some “leftover” childhood ADHD, but it severely exacerbated an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder. Two weeks after starting to take it, I crawled into my hall closet, screaming and crying, banging my head and I haven’t been the same since.

It isn’t clear yet that the drugs actually do lead to suicide, the FDA stressed. But until that is settled, advisers to the FDA called last month for stronger warnings to doctors and parents that the antidepressants may cause agitation, anxiety and hostility in a subset of patients who may be unusually prone to rare side effects.

The drugs in question are: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Celexa, Remeron, Lexapro, Luvox, Serzone and Wellbutrin. I have been on Effexor, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa and Wellbutrin in that order. I have had over 12 suicide attempts, which started with me getting agitated and irrational, then violent, then suicidal once I see what I did.

Only the Wellbutrin seems to help, but because of my sensitivity to having my serotonin levels elevated, I am under close supervision to monitor me so I don’t go over the edge again. I have my case manager and the Mobile Crisis Team on speed dial on my cell phone.

It has taken me removal from my family and the right medication to stabilize my condition. Whether or not I can rejoin my family is unknown. I know that there are things that must change with my family before I can consider going back. We must all make changes in order to deal with my condition.

It is in ways like this where mental illness is like other conditions like alcoholism, it shatters families and lives.

On to personal matters. I hope you’ll be happy that my attacks are almost down to zero. I still get overloaded when writing for this blog, but it involves no closet time, just a few seconds hunched over with my head on the table.

So the Trileptal is really working, with the major side effect the I drool like a three-week old baby. I can’t say more than three sentences without having to stop and swallow a mouthful.

My Space Marines are ready to fight Saturday. I’ve gotten a couple of practice battles in over the past two weeks. The first time my opponent wiped the board with me, the second time I did a whole lot better. Every game has it’s own particular nuances as far as tactics goes, and I’ve learned a lot over the past two weeks. Maybe one more battle this week, but I’m as ready as I’ll (n)ever be.

I’m going to be running demos and games both Friday and Sunday, so little or no posting Friday and a big report on next Monday.

I’ve also taken a big step in making this apartment my long term home. I went out and bought myself a chair. So now I actually have three places to sit, my computer chair, my fold up outdoor recliner and my papasan chair. I also got a book case to hold up a bunch of stuff that used to be on the floor.

Also, after this tournament, I’ll be looking at continuing my work on my Level 2 rocket, with a May or June launch date. If I fail in this attempt, I’m done with it as I don’t have the financial resources to build a 3rd HPR rocket. I have the one that was given to me, but I can’t use it for certification because I didn’t build it.

That’s it for now, enjoy the rest of my posts.

I have written about this before, but blogspot lacks a search function for me to go back and easily dig up my old posts. Michael Newdow is currently under review to see if he even has standing to bring his case to the SCOTUS at all. He is a sperm donor, a non-custodial parent who isn’t even married to the mother. Hopefully the case will die on those grounds. Pledge of Allegiance Case Could Hinge on Child Custody Dispute.

When Conservatives talk about a secular government, we talk about one that has no mandatory religion, or one founded by the government, such as the Church of England. It does not mean that we have no reference to God.

The very basis of our freedoms come from Him, no matter what you want to call Him, be His name God, Allah, Jehovah, Yawyeh or whatever. As long as you believe in a single God (outside of Satan, et. al.) who grants powers to man and not government, you’re just fine with me.

Atheist activists, on the other hand, want all reference to God removed from anything government, for they have no religion and believe no one else should have any outside of their respective churches. I don’t know what they think about the order of (God)-Man-Government, but it seems like more and more people are of the mind that government should be over the people instead of the other way around.

If this case wins and “Under God” is removed from the Pledge, then the presence of God on our money will be next, followed by government buildings, chaplains in government service and right on down the line.

It would be a disaster for a small minority to change the direction of the country so radically. Any time that such a minority has leverage like this over the majority is wrong.

While some people would consider this as ‘tyranny of the majority,’ it is not. The God-man-government order of this is upon how this country was founded. It is our greatest strength and it is why we are the most powerful nation on Earth. No other country has the mindset that the government derives its powers from the people, and the people have the power to revoke those powers it has given to the government.

Please, please let this case be thrown out for lack of standing.

UPDATE: Family Dispute at Heart of Pledge Case

Hamas is barking up the wrong tree this time. Hamas Threatens U.S. After Israel Kills Terrorist Leader.

The defecation will really hit the rotary oscillator if Hamas decides to pull off an attack on the US and actually succeeds.

I can just imagine an American division air-dropped into the West Bank from Germany. If Hamas wants American involvement, they can have it, but they won’t like it very much.

Big Brother is running just a little late. TSA’s ‘Trusted Traveler Program’ Heralds Big brother.

If you want to zip through airport security, all you have to do is give up your personal information to Big Brother. It’s voluntary. Considering the incrementalism of Social Security and income taxes, it won’t be too long until everybody has to do this. After all, isn’t that what CAPPS II is?

And when Ben Franklin uttered this remark more than 200 hundred years ago, he could not have imaged how prescient he would be: “Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.”

Franklin is clearly turning over his grave after recent proposals to make America “safer.”

Consider the federal government’s efforts to increase security in the months and years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. One could easily argue some of the methods Uncle Sam is employing are Orwellian, to say the least, and liberty killers at their worst.

I’ll never fly again. Not only will I not surrender my personal information, but even if I did I would be red flagged due to my mental history. They wouldn’t want me flipping out in the middle of a flight.

And any system can be hacked, allowing terrorists to ‘breeze’ through security, allowing for a sequel of 9/11.

There now, don’t you feel safer, now that a significant portion of your freedoms have been taken away?

In yet another intrusion into personal rights, California is starting to restrict smoking at public beaches. No-smoking forces taking new territory: the beach.

I don’t associate with very many people who smoke. I can smell it when someone lights up 50 feet away. But I don’t complain about it as long as they do it outside. I simply move upwind.

I also don’t understand about the logic of this. Municipalities like the tax money that comes from tobacco, yet they restrict how it can be used to the point of extinction? There are places that would make it unlawful (illegal is a sick bird) to smoke in your own car or even home. They like this tax, but don’t give the consumers any place to use it. If they get rid of smoking entirely, how are they going to get this tax money?

Sheesh.