Wednesday

Facing 75 years in prison

... for filming police officers - without their consent!

Saturday

Book Review: Mark Steyn's After America: Get Ready For Armageddon



I’m reading Mark Steyn’s latest book: After America, Get Ready for Armageddon. If you’re unfamiliar with Steyn, know that his talent is twofold (in my opinion). First he can make complicated topics much more understandable. And second, he has a wonderfully witty style that makes even reading about the end of Western Civilization enjoyable.

I heartily recommend this book, as well as his America Alone: The End of The World As We Know It

Here’s an excerpt where Styen elaborates on a quote from Tom Wolf’s essay The Me Decade:

[Wolf] “Most people, historically, have not lived their lives as if thinking, “I have only one life to live.” Instead they have lived as if they are living their ancestors’ lives and their offspring’s lives and perhaps their neighbors' lives as well. They have seen themselves as inseparable from the great tide of chromosomes of which they are created and which they pass on. The mere fact that you were only going to be here a short time and would be dead soon enough did not give you the license to try to climb out of the stream and change the natural order of things.”

[Steyn] "Europe climbed out of the stream. You don’t need to make material sacrifices: the state takes care of all that. You don’t need to have children. And you certainly don’t need to die for king and country. But a society that has nothing to die for has nothing to live for; it’s no longer a stream but a stagnant pool. How fair thou hast been – but only for the moment, and the moment is passing. Europe’s economic crisis is a mere symptom of its existential crisis: What is life for? What gives it meaning? Post-Christian, post-nationalist, post-modern Europe has no answer to this question, and so it has 30 year old students and 50 year old retirees, and wonders why the small band of workers in between them can’t make the math add up."

Thursday

The Stand - a Hunting Tale

This story was originally posted in 2004, but as hunting season approaches I tend to think more and more about getting in the woods.

You know, not every “hunting” story involves shooting a big buck. There’s a lot that goes into getting ready for hunting season, and this is one of those little adventures that precedes the ultimate adventure of getting that granddaddy whitetail.

Last hunting season I had placed a ladder stand along the St. Mary’s river. It was a 15-foot tall stand and I positioned it about 50 yards from the bank of the river. Recently I secured lease rights to a prime piece of property up around Milledgeville, Georgia, so it was necessary to go recover my best stand so I could take it up to my new hunting grounds. My 14 year-old son went with me to help retrieve it and I’m sure glad he did too because I’d have never been able to manage it alone.We drove up early on Saturday morning, and when we got to the boat ramp we were shocked to discover that the boat ramp, picnic area and parking area was all under about 9 feet of flowing water! The road down the hill to the parking area had become the de facto boat ramp. So we went ahead and launched my little boat there and proceeded on up river to where we thought the ladder stand would be.

The St. Mary’s was higher than I’ve ever seen it in ten years of exploring it in motorboats and canoes. The water had risen to approximately 14 feet above normal obscuring the banks on both sides. The river literally extended back into the woods and out of sight. Talk about current! Boy we had plenty of it, even back in the flooded woods. It was all my little 10-horse kicker could do to take us upstream.

When we finally reached the bend in the river where the stand was located, another problem presented itself. The piece of flagging tape that I had tied about 6 feet up a tree was completely underwater. With the river spilling over its banks to such an extent, nothing looked familiar. It took about a half an hour of cruising back and forth until we spied the stand back among the trees. I had fully expected to be wading in a couple of feet of water while retrieving the stand. Now I was shocked to see that only the top three or four feet of the 15-foot stand was visible above the water! Clearly this would be, at least in part, an underwater operation.

I aimed the boat at what looked like the best avenue of approach through the flooded trees, gunned the motor to get some momentum, and then killed the engine. We got to the stand with a combination of paddling and pulling ourselves along using tree limbs. There was actually a respectable amount of current to be considered as well so it was necessary to tie up next to the stand. I even dropped the anchor! Sitting there in the boat we were perfectly level with the seat of the stand. Obviously the floodwaters were over our heads.

Because of the hour’s drive followed by a twenty minute boat ride, I had emphasized to Josh that we needed to bring along everything we could possibly need while there. Toward that end I had even brought along a large pair of bolt cutters in case the padlock on the chained stand refused to cooperate after ten months of exposure and non-use. It was at about this point that Josh pointed out that we should have brought along some swim fins and dive masks if we wanted to be fully prepared. I could hardly argue with him.

We removed the chain with no trouble and while still seated in the boat. Thankfully the lock worked with no difficulty. So did the strap and ratchet assembly that secured the upper part of the stand firmly to the tree. However, somewhere down below the swirling water was another ratchet and strap coupled with a stabilizer pole that had to be dealt with, and there was no way to do that while remaining dry. So…Josh and I stripped down to our skivvies, and he led the way by climbing out onto the top rung of the submerged ladder stand and down into the dark water of the flooded St. Mary’s river. I toyed with him for a second by staying on the boat and urging him to hurry up and dissemble the stand. But his look of outrage at the very idea was enough to get me on down into the water.

As we both attacked the stand while treading water, I was struck by the thought that this would be exactly the time that we wouldn’t want to entertain any visits of the local reptilian variety, namely snakes and “gators”. I said as much to Josh and watched the look on his face change to grave concern. We continued working on disassembling the stand and after a few moments I extended my leg under water and purposely bumped him on the thigh. The response was immediate! He hollered and almost leaped vertically out of the water. My roar of laughter was enough to change his fear to anger, but later when we were safe and on our way home he agreed that I “got him good”.

Piece by piece we managed to deconstruct the heavy metal stand and get it into the boat. The final indignity was when it came time for me to hoist myself back into the boat without the benefit of having anything underwater that I could stand on. With just upper body strength I managed to heave myself aboard, but I was certainly pretty well spent by that point. I’m sure not as young as I used to be!

The ride back to the boat ramp and the drive back home were uneventful, except that we decided we should go ahead and drive on up to the hunting lease and get our stands in position since hunting season’s opening day would rapidly be upon us. So early the following morning we made the four-hour drive to the area near my brother’s home outside Milledgeville in order to go ahead and place our stands. It was a beautiful morning, and the drive and the time spent with my son were both great. Evaluating the exact location for putting up the stands was now much easier since it wasn’t being done in the pre-dawn darkness of opening day. And even the short visit with my brother followed by another four-hour drive home was enjoyable since it was quality time spent with my boy.

I’ve hunted all my life, and I’ve had lots of great and some not-so-great experiences while hunting. At this point in my life, I’ve also learned that the actual experience of the kill is not the only enjoyment to be had. The camaraderie of being around other hunters, the preparation for and anticipation of the coming season, and time spent with your son, are all aspects of an enjoyable hunting experience. And now I’ve also learned one additional lesson: the next time I go to recover a tree stand placed along a river, I’ll take some scuba gear with me.

Friday

How to get off some of the people search websites

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the internet is full of people search websites that sell your personal information. There are a plethora of these sites like MyLife.com, Intelius, iSearch, White Pages, etc. And for a price, anyone can discover your age, address, cell phone number, shopping habits, etc.

Here's a page with information on how you can Opt Out of many of these sites. I haven't tried this yet - but you can bet I will over the next few days. So as always... your mileage may vary.

HOW TO REMOVE YOURSELF FROM PEOPLE SEARCH WEBSITES

Thursday

What the hell is wrong with people today!

Everyone seems to have a theory about the motivations of the London rioters. CS Lewis once said:

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful."

He was damn sure right!

We scoff of the idea of Sunday School for our children, and yet wonder why they lack a moral compass.

We have made an institution out of shifting responsibility for every human action, and wonder our young people refuse to accept responsibility for themselves. Consider the increasingly common phenomenon of grown and healthy adults who persist in a state of perpetual adolescence; living with their parents well into their 20’s or even 30’s.

We pretend there is no difference between men and women, and then stand idly by while social engineers emasculate and feminize whole generations of school boys.

We mock the idea of absolute values, and then have to gall to be angry at our politicians who dishonor their oaths.

We undermine the authority of our school teachers and principals by thoughtlessly taking the child’s side in any dispute with authority, and then can’t understand why little Johnny grows up with an attitude problem and cannot accept direction from anyone.

We shower our children with whatever their little heart’s desire (buying their love?), and then struggle with why they grow so readily into self-centered adults who appreciate nothing and expect everything to be handed to them for free.

We let the glowing electronic box babysit our children for years at a time, and then wonder why they have no ability to think for themselves.

The destruction of the family unit, and the rejection of the Judeo-Christian ethic of morality, is now bearing a bitter fruit. We are reaping what we’ve sown.

I added a new blog to my list of regular stops

This came to my attention thanks to the diligence of Concerned American over at Western Rifle Shooters Association (a MUST add to any list of regular stops in its own right).

The new blog (to me anyway) is called Whiskey's Place. There are two essays to be found there that are absolutely excellent regarding the current fate of the Former Great Britain, and the overall decline of Western Civilization in general. Do your mind a favor, tear yourself away from the GOOBERment's propaganda screen, and read:

England Falls

and ...

It wont be a Taxi Driver summer




Wednesday

There's a story here





Even in my current jaded and cynical state, this photo strikes a nerve in me.

Read the whole story here

May God bless the Republic

Monday

The Problem in a Nutshell

Thanks to Old Jarhead for pointing this out:

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH OUR GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM - - - -

The folks who are getting free shit,
Don't like the folks who are paying for the free shit,
Because the folks who are paying for the free shit,
Can no longer afford to pay for both the free shit and their own shit.

And, the folks who are paying for the free shit,
Want the free shit to stop.
And the folks who are getting the free shit,
Want even MORE free shit on top of the free shit they're already getting!

Now..... The people who are forcing the people who PAY
for the free shit to pay for ever more free shit,
Have told the people who are RECEIVING the free shit,
That the people who are PAYING for the free shit,
Are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So .... the people who are GETTING the free shit,
Have been convinced they need to HATE
the people who are PAYING for the free shit
by the people who are forcing the people who are PAYING
for the free shit into GIVING them the free shit in the first place.

And - - - - - that's the straight shit!

Wednesday

Tuesday

And the can tumbles a bit further down the road

They'll get their bill passed. Do you doubt it? Well, I only have time for bullet points this morning.

- No current CONgress can bind the actions (spending) of a future CONgress. So the PROMISES to cut X dollars over Y time is really just equal to BS.

- This is more of the same “Reductions to the rate of increased spending = Spending Cuts” nonsense.

- This bill creates a concentration of power in the form of a “Super Committee” that effectually shuts out the remainder of CONgress, and in so doing greases the skids for future spending increases. All this Kabuki Theatre-style debate slows things down – there’s MONEY to spend By God!

- The Tea Party, let’s face it, has utterly failed. The moment these freshmen CONgressmen and women hit the poison air inside the beltway, they’re instantly transformed into Gollum – no exceptions

- 80% of US T-Bills sold since 2009 have been purchased by … THE FED (with freshly printed fiat currency)

- The Chinese have asked us TWICE in about the last 30 days to stop devaluing our currency (and their assets)

- And when the crash comes, never you fear, because there’s a plan in place whereby the Imperial FEDGov will still be able to operate right on in the face of the “Emergency”: NSPD-51 (Thanks George W. Bush!)

The only question that remains is what are we going to do about it? More of the same?