Okay, okay, I know Facebook is totally eeeevil, just plain oooozing eeeeevil. But I tell you, Ragnar’s Freedom Outlaw Facebook Page is amazing. In the few weeks it’s been alive, it’s received a whopping 2,000 likes (it’s within spittin’ distance of that this afternoon). It’s busy and lively and a great place to find some very funny freedomstuff. Better yet, you don’t have to join The Dreaded Facebook to view all that fun stuff. It’s got giveaways of pocket Constitutions and Freedom Outlaw wristbands, and other cool stuff (though you do have to join to compete for those). And now…
9 CommentsMonth: January 2013
In light of what I wrote about earlier today, I strongly recommend that everybody — every one of us — read John Steinbeck’s short, and now almost forgotten, 1942 novel The Moon is Down. Here’s the only free copy I could find online. Not a great one. UPDATE: That indefatigable archivist, Bill St. Clair, has put a much more attractive and easily readable version online. According to commenter Woody, Bill’s version can also be ported to Kindle and other devices (if you have Caliber software). Thank you, Bill! And here it is from Amazon in Kindle, hardback, paperback, and even…
16 CommentsI’ve been trying to return to Saturday’s theme. My aim: to celebrate a few great, inspirational reasons not to be afraid — to be hopeful. I intended to write about how “these are the times that try men’s souls”, but how they are also times of great creative defiance. But as I try to write about those reasons, I find post after abortive post going in a different direction. Not because the reasons to be hopeful don’t exist, but because they all lead to a conclusion I don’t want to conclude. It’s not a new conclusion. Others have reached it…
40 CommentsYou know how the FBI and DHS have been broadening … and broadening … and broadening … the definition of “domestic terrorists” for all these years? Well, now Esteemed Senator Mr. Lautenberg and company want to bring us the logical culmination of that. Let the AttyGen arbitrarily deny firearms to anybody who fits the one-size-fits-all definition. Due process? Does anybody in the fedgov remember due process? Or is it now purely “we do it, so it’s the process”? (H/T WL) Well whodathunkit. Tina Turner is Swiss. Woot! Seattle gun collectors turn a police gun buyback into a free-market curbside gun…
18 CommentsI hope to return to Saturday’s theme in a day or two. I have more upbeat thoughts than I wrote earlier. But deadlines and other realities got in the way. In the meantime, here are some good things for ya from other people: “Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm.” I knew from reading his biographical essays that playwright-scriptwriter-director-producer-Tony-nominee-Oscar-nominee-Pulitzer-Prize-winner David Mamet liked and is knowledgeable about firearms. I remember him writing with regret about missing out on getting some memorabilia of the Fabulous Topperweins. But I figured his was probably an uppercrust gunnery — the “sporting guns for me but…
18 CommentsSometimes I am so afraid. Since Newtown, I’ve been afraid — as I suspect we all have despite our anarchic bravado — of what the hoplophobes and control freaks will try to do to us with the deeds of one hopped-up wacko as their excuse. I’m not afraid of DiFi’s proposed “assault weapon” ban. Oh, don’t mistake me; I hate it, despise it, loathe it, and have many unspeakable thoughts about it. But I don’t fear it. It probably won’t pass. And as we know even better than the banners, even if it did, it’s all about cosmetics. We’d be…
39 CommentsYou probably won’t be surprised. Most folks might be. (H/T H.)
10 CommentsYet another example of “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” (Tip o’ hat to G, who was absolutely fulminating over this.) How do you have meaningful due process when everything is a crime? Glenn Reynolds answers in “Ham Sandwich Nation.” (Per J.) Everybody knows about the infamous “no-fly” list. But did you have any idea there’s also a “no-credit” list you can end up on if you happen to share the name of a suspected drug dealer, money launderer, etc.? And of course … it’s secret and you can’t appeal. Ah, the wonderful Land of the…
26 CommentsReed Exhibits has postponed the huge Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show — albeit using language so slimy the company should run for office. While they call it a postponement, there’s no date for a redo, so for now it’s an outright cancellation. Sez Reed’s official announcement: It has become very clear to us after speaking with our customers that the event could not be held because the atmosphere of this year’s show would not be conducive to an event that is designed to provide family enjoyment. It is unfortunate that in the current emotionally charged atmosphere this celebratory event has…
12 CommentsIn the dark days of the Clinton (and let’s not forget, Clinton-D/Dole-R) gun bans, a local activist-leader gave me a copy of the Brady Bunch’s organizing manual. Where he had come by it I don’t know and he wouldn’t tell. But his idea was that a young man and I should use it as a model to write an organizing manual for gun activists. We eventually did write that manual (for print only and now long gone, far as I know). I wrote under a nom de plume I occasionally used back then. But it took only minutes after opening…
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