Angels

Well....Making progress on the desk.  One of the things I like about woodworking is there's a lot of hurry up and wait.  Get the wood cut into the approximate dimensions, then glue it together.  Then let the glue dry.  So, the Desk is about 1 hour of work per day, then an overnight.

Kinda like how the government works..

Only, I'm going to have some actual product I can put my hands on.

Thankfully, the phase of a woodworking project that every woodworker holds his breath in anticipation, sanding, is mostly finished.  When I walked in the house yesterday afternoon after a long session, Mrs J pushed me back out side and proceeded to start beating me.  OK, she was getting the dust off of me, but I think she was enjoying it.

Don't go there, juvat!

Not going there, aye, ¡Mi viejo sargento de la Fuerza Aérea con un ojo biónico!

So...There I was*....Waiting for glue to dry and realizing that Monday was rapidly approaching.  I also realized that Sarge had used up the weekly ration of Airplane photos, Nature photos and Haiku. Meanwhile, Beans had used up the Chant's entire monthly ration of Rants.  Which left me in a dilemma on what to write about this week.

What to do?  What to do?

I know! I'll write something hysterical.

You mean Historical, right juvat?

Sí, mi extremadamente antiguo sargento de la Fuerza Aérea, ¡histórico, no histérico! 

So, I powered up the wayback machine on YouTube and it suggested the video below. (Forewarned is forearmed, Language alert!).  Unintentionally, I learned more about Iraq in 4 minutes than I thought possible. 

But...Seeing as how Mr. Peabody answered all possible questions about THAT subject, I decided to visit the History Guy and see what he had around.

He suggested this.

Ok, well then...98 American Nurses are stationed in various hospitals in the Philippines in early December of '41.  Most are in the Army although some are Navy.  When the Japanese started attacking the PI on December 8th, they were recalled to Manila from their further afield hospitals.  When Manila was declared an open city, 87 were moved to the Bataan peninsula, treating the wounded in jungle hospitals.  11 Navy nurses stayed behind in Manilla to continue treating those too wounded to be moved.  They became POWs when Manila fell and were interred at the Santo Tomas Internment camp where they continued treating the other, mostly American POWs.

On Bataan, much like everything else happening in the PI at that point in the war, from an American point of view,  things are bad and getting worse.  They fall back to Corregidor and continue their efforts to treat the sick and wounded.

21 Nurses were evacuated by Float Plane and Submarine as the attacks on Corregidor continued.

When Corregidor fell, the remaining 66, along with the rest of the forces, were captured and became POW's.  They were placed in civilian internment camps and spent the rest of the war treating patients in those camps.  On average, they lost 30% of their body weight while in captivity.

Somehow, all 77 survived and were rescued when the Americans retook the PI in '45.  All received the Bronze Star for Valor. I loved this statement at 6:25 in the video,  "Everyone who was asked, denied they were heroes.  They all seemed to think they were merely 'doing their duty'."

Exactly!

Heroes "do their duty" no matter what their circumstances or costs.  That's what makes them heroes.

The last of these Heroes passed away in 2013 at age 98.

Rest in Peace, Warriors! 
*SJC

Flying your Freak Flag (it's safe for work, unless you are in California, or Massachussets, or New York, or New Jersey, or...)

First, I must apologize to my blogfather, blog brothers and blog sister, and to all you loyal readers. I, Beans, committed a blog sin (well, sin to me) in that elsewhere in the blogoverse, I used my rightly appointed blogname in a post that became, well, rather heated. Not too bad, but I promised to myself that I wouldn’t use my bloghandle elsewhere in any way that might bring negative feelings towards this blog. Forgive me, for I have sinned.

And that’s what this post is about. Like the joke I tell: How can you tell the difference between a Democrat’s and a Republican’s car? The Dem’s car is held together by bumperstickers, the Rep’s car has resale value. Get it? There’s a long-standing rule amongst the Bean household, instituted by Mrs. Andrew (for she is far wiser and smarter than me) that we would never put anything on our cars that might unhinge (further) the (already unhinged) leftists and idiots (sometimes, but not always, the same thing) and cause them to damage, due to their unhinginess, our modes of transportation.

That means… no clever phrased stickers (oh, like ‘One Big Arsed Mistake, America) especially about certain trigger points (Gun Control means Hitting Your Target) or stickers showing our political affiliation (what party or party’s candidate we support, just in case, yeah, right, up here, there is more than one candidate) or showing our membership in various civil rights organizations (hah, I won’t leave any clues, because if you can’t guess, you haven’t been reading my latest post) or any hobbies we have (I mean, if you can’t tell from the fact that there’s rattan polearms and shields strapped to the top of the van that I’m involved in weird stuff…)

We openly violated the rule when my lovely wife, Mrs. Andrew (for those at home not keeping score,) graduated from FSU (why FSU? Because the university in our home town was too snobbish to do on-line degrees, that’s why, so suck it Gator Nation) and we got a ‘FSU Alumni’ front vanity plate (because we in Florida only need one license plate, on the rear, it leaves the front spot open for all sorts of things.)

But, well, I’m reevaluating that position. Elsewhere, there has been much discussion on Open Carry LARPers (larper is a Live Action Role Playing person, basically, like, Star Trek re-enactors who play a scenario, or Ampgard who use foam swords and socks (spell balls) and other people like that.) who carry long guns openly in areas where they are allowed to. Specifically those Florida Carry people who showed up to the 2nd Open Carry Fishing Event (Okay, Florida has a ‘if you are fishing you may open carry’ law) over-carrying in order to prove a point. The point being that it’s legal to open carry while fishing (as I already said.) Why did they do this? Because the 1st Open Carry Fishing Event ended up with a bunch of LEOs who didn’t know the law freaking out because the open carriers were openly carrying pistols, rather than carrying them concealed. Who was freaked out? The Po-Po. Maybe a few ‘citizens’ who came from up north, but the very people who are entrusted to enforce the law! So Florida Carry said, basically, it’s the law, and went overboard at their second event in order to prove it.   In your Face!  Because it's the LAW!  And here's the law (hands pamphlet with correct FL statute outlined.)  Done all peacefully and with no malice, but done to 11 on a 10 scale because the first time they did it, the Dur-hur stupids freaked out (that being the police and local prosecutors.)(And much shame egg-yolk on their collective faces when faced with the actual law...)

And then there’s a picture at another blog, of 3 guys at a fast food joint, standing in line, clean, well dressed, two have pistols and one has a slung AR-ish type rifle over his shoulder and a pstol.

Does this scare you? Why? Essays due at end of class. You have 60 minutes and one bluebook each.
Prove with valid examples or you will fail. 

And extra-credit, does that AR make that guy's ass look fat?
from mcthag.blogspot.com/2019/09/which-is-scarier.html

What this resulted in was a bunch of pro-gun rights bloggers freaking out and calling the people who open carry basically anything from ‘stupid’ to ‘Enemy, REEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!’ (picture Donald Southerland from remake of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers.’) 

 

Yeah, like that.  Who's more scary, the person being pointed at or the person pointing?
from a still of the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" from some stupid website that didn't cite the original source, and my head hurts so if you want a valid citation, I'll get to it after my stupid head stops hurting.
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

 
Why? Because they (the pro-gun rights bloggers) feel that people asserting their rights is bad for allowing us our rights, or something like that.

And, me, Beans, couldn’t keep my fat trap shut. Because, well, it’s me.  And my head hurts.  And the restraining bolt that OldAFSarge installed was removed by some yokel at a moisture harvesting farm...

Okay, here it goes.

There’s a saying, in reference to one’s right to have a speedy trial, that ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ That denying an accused person a speedy trial is denying them justice. See? Simple, huh? People have been set free because the prosecution can’t get their stuff together and get a trial set. Because, justice delayed is justice denied. Simple, right?

Basically it follows the concept of ‘Use it or lose it.’ A rather simple statement, right? Well… therein lies the problem.

In the gun world, there is a huge feeling of ‘don’t rock the boat, don’t do anything that will get us noticed, else we’ll lose our gun rights.’

What ‘gun rights’? You mean, actually, the few parts of the whole ‘Gun Rights’ issue that we still have? They aren’t gun rights anymore. If someone can say what you can and can’t do, it’s an allowance. Like the money mommy and daddy give the kiddy to put into his or her piggy bank. By law, that money belongs to mommy and daddy. Why, because mommy and daddy are allowing the kiddy to hold it for them (kinda, it's weird, but you get the point, right?)

We don’t have gun rights anymore. We have gun allowances. And every year, more and more of that allowance is being taken back by mommy and daddy (government, of all varieties, from local, to state, to federal, to international (yeah, some of the arms treaties we are involved in actually restrict our gun rights here, no, seriously)) from us kiddies. Sure, we’re getting bigger allowances in some places, but we’re losing the allowance quickly in others. (Just this week, the NY attorney general sent out letters to 80% lower manufacturers and sellers saying they are in violation of NY’s stupid ‘assault rifle’ rules. An 80% lower is basically the semi-machined blank, basically a somewhat refined chunk of material, that has no screw holes, or pin holes or, magazine hole or anything that would allow it to function as a valid gun part. It’s just a modern sculpture until a lot of work is done.  Accurately finishing the unfinished part actually is more difficult than it sounds, needing special tooling and tools for the average person to correctly finish as a useable lower.)

So the Government acts like our gun rights, as stated in the 2nd Amendment, that whole ‘Shall not be infringed’ thingy, is actually an allowance by the government to us stupid peasants.

Thus, well, open carrying might upset someone and we’ll lose our allowance to open carry (the gun people call it a right, it isn’t any more. It’s an allowance.) because it might upset someone.

Ooooooooo. Booga-Booba. The way they are acting,  an Open Carrier walking down the street is scarier than the group of wildings playing the knockout game.  Or scarier than the open use of drugs and needles everywhere and people overdosing in public.  Or scarier than people pooping and peeing in the street. Or illegal immigrants forcing their way in to our country and demanding we take care of them. Or illegals suing us in our own courts in order to stay in this country, and force us to pay them lots and lots of money. Or politicians and bureaucrats and government employees openly violating the laws of this country and their oaths of office. Or a whole country blackmailing an industry (kinda like, oh, Communist China forcing Hollyweird to be even more anti-American than they used to be.)

So. Does open carrying of a rifle or pistol, where it is legal to open carry, bother you? If so, why?

Because, well, to me, to deny a person the chance to open carry because it scares or bothers you, where it is legal to open carry, is to deny that person or persons their rights. Thus you have turned a right into an allowance. And you are mommy or daddy punishing the poor kid for doing something he is nominally allowed to do.

Follow that? No? Okay, if you’re butt-hurt because some Open Carry LARPer is open carrying because the law says it is legal to open carry but you don’t agree with the law and you see the open carrier as the problem, well, you’re wrong. You are the problem. Whether you are a leftist, treehugging, gender variable, radical vegan, or a supposed gun-rights author, you, if you deny a right, are the problem. Not the right. The right isn’t the problem. The problem is… You.

If you say you are for a right, yet you deny any aspect of that right, you really aren’t for that right. You are for an allowance.

The first step in getting a right acknowledged as a right, and not as an allowance, is to exercise that right, where it’s allowed.

Like not wearing a helmet or safety gear while riding a motorcycle.

Or wearing bondage gear openly.

Or wearing a Che! Shirt.

Or calling for impeachment just because your butt hurts.

Or supporting the Florida Gators.

Or… Open Carrying.

Just because it bothers you or it's terribly stupid (like supporting the Florida Gators) doesn’t mean it’s not legal.



Do I think open carry is good?  Well, yeah, done correctly.  I mean, there are just some places that a nice 3lb field howitzer won't be appropriate, like at a restaurant or a movie theater, just like that Martini-Henry isn't appropriate.  But a nice M1 Carbine?  Or an AR-M4gery?  Or a pistol?  Carried while not raising hell, while acting appropriately?  And as the law of the area allows?  Whatevs.  It donna fach me.  6" belt knife?  Tomahawk? A full set of Samurai swords including all the daggers and a No Dachi?  Whatever.  Just keep it to yourself, dude, and there isn't going to be an issue.

Seriously.  I have been around armed (with live, real weapons) people of all stripes for a good portion of my life.  And I have never seen someone use the live, real weapons for anything inappropriate.  Why?  Because the other people armed with weapons would enforce said unstated statute of acting appropriately, by force if need be.  So, to me, seeing someone dressed nice, wearing arms, doesn't bother me at all.  

Some mope with his pants around his knees and a gun shoved in his crotch screaming at me for being in the wrong section of town?  Yes, that bothers me.  And really makes me wish I could open carry, legally.  While I get out of that section of town.



So.  Back to the 'flying freak flag' thing, well, dang it.  I've been fudding as much as some of the gun-rights fuds have.  Why?  Because I haven't put the stickers on my car.  I don't wear pro-2A tshirts or hats.  I don't fly my freak flag in other people's faces.  And sometimes, dangit, the freak flag must fly.   Well, as long as Mrs. Andrew allows it.


Boy, this was a convoluted post, wasn't it?  Imagine what it's like inside my head 24/7/365/6!

Sadness...

Wicca

She was old, nearly fourteen, and had been in ill-health for some time.

Her suffering has ended.

She was The Naviguesser's and DIL's cat. It's my grandkids' first encounter with death. We've all been there. Whether it's a beloved cat or dog, our furry friends become family. They share in our joy and in our sadness.

A trip to the vet had been planned, Wicca had her own plan. She cuddled with the DIL and the grandkids for a while, then at some point in the night, when everyone was asleep, she found a place to lie down one last time.

She was loved, she will be missed.

Farewell my furry grandbaby.

I cry for an old friend and for my son and his family.

She was a good cat.

Virtual Reality

(Source)

I have written of this place once or twice, Tuna wrote about the place, even juvat chimed in recently on his and Mrs. juvat's tour of the Gulf Coast, sort of a there and back again chronicle. Now Tuna has a direct personal connection, he was, after all, a Naval Flight Officer (NFO) and they do a lot of their initial training at NAS Pensacola.

Tuna in his old "office"

My own connection isn't as direct, but it's definitely personal.

Your Humble Scribe, The WSO, and The Missus Herself
On the occasion of The WSO's winging at NAS Pensacola, in the museum as it happens.

Your Humble Scribe and a relative of an old friend

North American T-2 Buckeye, The WSO, and Your Humble Scribe
On the flightline at NAS Pensacola

Anyhoo, that big bird up top, yes, the Coronado, is apparently the last of her kind. Yes, the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola provides a home for the old girl. You really should chase that link under the photo if you haven't already. Tells the story of that particular airframe. We'll wait here until you're done.

See, I told you it would be interesting.

So the museum has a number of virtual tours of both the museum itself and a number of virtual cockpit tours as well.

View from the pilot's seat in the museum's Coronado

With the Coronado, you can tour the entire aircraft! I did and it is pretty awesome. Before I give you the link to the tour, check this out...

When you're on the virtual tour, click the arrow in the circle (depicted above) to move to the next compartment of the aircraft

During the tour, hold down the left mouse button (sorry cell phone commandos) or whatever the iPad has, to turn your virtual head in the direction you move your mouse. Left, right, up, down, it's all good. It's almost like being there.

Now go, enjoy, explore the rest of the museum while you're over there. I'll see you later.

Ciao.

The virtual tour of the PB2Y-5R starts here.

Stranger in a Strange Land*

新宿御苑

Twenty-three years old, fresh out of Weapon Control Systems school for the F-4C and F-4D Phantom aircraft, February of 1976 and I'm sitting in an airliner at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport, somewhat bedazzled by having seen Mount Fuji from the air, even more bedazzled as I look out the aircraft window to see an airport building with a big "WELCOME TO TOKYO" sign and a blazing red sun going down in the distance.

I'm not in Vermont anymore.

After another hop (Tokyo to Naha, on Okinawa) and a bus ride to the MAC Terminal at Kadena Air Base and I'm at my first real duty assignment. Where I wait for a few hours before the Security Policeman (SP) at the terminal calls my shop and threatens to arrest the shift supervisor if he didn't "get his ass to the MAC Terminal and pick up your airman right effing now!"

My first interaction with an Air Force SP was rather positive. (They would not all be so positive over the next twenty-four years.)

The next day I'm out and about on the base, walking around to get my bearings, amazed that I'm in short sleeves, in February. Now most of the other folks out and about are wearing their field jackets. The civilians are also wearing winter coats. In my head I'm thinking, "WTF, it's gotta be 55 degrees out here, what's up with these people? It ain't that cold!"

Bear in mind that I had gone from a snowy cold Denver, Colorado, to a frigid snowy Vermont, then halfway around the world to a kinda-semi-tropical island in the Pacific in less than a day. So to me it was warm. Fast forward a year later and I too am wearing a field jacket in 50-degree weather. Perspective, it makes a difference.

Fast forward seven years, I'm no longer a single Airman, I'm a married Staff Sergeant with one kid. We're driving up I-91 from Bradley Field to the ancestral casa and I'm amazed that all the road signs are in English. Nearly seven years of all the signs being in either Japanese or Korean, sometimes with English on them, and I'm back home, amazed (again) at how different my world is.

Truth be told, after that long stretch in Asia, I'm once again a stranger in a strange land.

All of my days are

Only glimpses of a hazy

Future, beyond thought

Sarge

* With apologies to Robert Heinlein, yes, I read the book, yes, I liked the book.

In the Air

Aerial view of Mount Everest and surrounding landscape
(Source)

Tip of the hat to Peter...

Oh yeah, full screen for best results. 😉

If you're not reading Bayou Renaissance Man daily, you should start.

Today's poem -

Some say they can recall a thousand years

Some say they have already visited the next thousand years

On a windy day

I am waiting for a bus

고은

I rather like that.

Alive

The Wild Swans at Coole

William Butler Yeats

The trees are in their autumn beauty,

The woodland paths are dry,

Under the October twilight the water

Mirrors a still sky;

Upon the brimming water among the stones

Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me

Since I first made my count;

I saw, before I had well finished,

All suddenly mount

And scatter wheeling in great broken rings

Upon their clamorous wings...

But now they drift on the still water,

Mysterious, beautiful;

Among what rushes will they build,

By what lake's edge or pool

Delight men's eyes when I awake some day

To find they have flown away?

I'm alive.

A bit of Yeats seems in order.

Per Valory's suggestion, I'll be checking in most mornings. (Juvat, Beans, Tuna, et al, don't let that stop you from posting.) I'll avoid reruns, but I'm also going to avoid politics. Think pictures, poetry, music, and the occasional profound observation. (Very occasional on that last bit, and probably accidental.) If I have something else, and it doesn't require a huge effort, you might see it here.

Stay tuned.

X is "for the birds" *

Last week was an up and down kind of week.  We had the Grand Dog with us while MBD and SIL took a long weekend for some alone time.  (Which we HIGHLY encourage as "Grand Dog" isn't the only "Grand" life form Mrs J and I would like to have in our lives .... Ahem ... Hello? ... Anyone listening?)

Tallulah (pronounced (by me) Cholula). 

 As with most puppies, and Lieutenant Fighter Pilots, she's "All velocity, no vector".    Canine flight handled her generally well, a few growls and an ugly face or two seemed to convey their intended message.

Feline flight however, decided an extended stay in their closet loft was advisable.  But their humans are well trained,  water and kibble was delivered to their door.

We also paid off the remainder of the mortgage on this house.

2014 Texas Hills Vineyard Tempranillo  Most Excellent!

That called for a bit of a celebration.

But.....There's all those THINGS on Social Media and what passes for the news nowadays.  Makes one wonder if it's all going to 4377 in a hand basket.

I mean really...They want to impeach the President because he negotiated with the Ukraine? Isn't that what he's SUPPOSED to do?  Did he sign a treaty without the advise and consent of the Senate?  Where's the THERE there?

Apparently, one party is all frickin' in on "Hell yes, we're gonna take your AR-15".

Well, folks, I think you should read this document . I believe you'll find it interesting.  It begins with

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...

 You say we can't leave?  We did it before, when "some people did something" and decided we didn't need our weapons.  In fact most of the reasons for leaving delineated in that glorious, wonderful document are becoming factors again.  So...Not being a constitutional lawyer, I think we just re-sign it and deliver it to Congress.  Done and Done.

As I said, an up and down week.  So, I get up this morning and head in to confer with the Big Guy.  Walking out to the truck, I see this sight.

Get to church and sit down and pick up the prayer book to read this week's reading (for to better understand the Priest's sermon among other things).  The first reading is Amos 8 4-7.

"Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
    and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
    and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,  and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."

Ahhh. I say to myself.  It has always been thus.

Which pretty much summed up the Priest's sermon.  He's new-ish here, came from the Congo. Has a bit of a French accent, which I like, I have to pay attention to understand. He's also got a different point of view on how things are here compared to back home.  Which got me to thinking.  (Always a good thing in church).

Maybe, just maybe, things aren't so bad.  Maybe they're just being spun up and then brought to our attention to further someone's agenda.

Which is not to say that some things aren't actually bad, just that they're being blown completely out of proportion.  And people are over reacting, some intentionally.

So, I come home and start looking for a subject to post about.  When I come across this video

Which I think is exactly what's going to happen.  They're going to pick and pick and pick (peck if you wish), until a line is crossed.  Then Bang! They're exposed for the nothings they are.

So, again, another input from a seemingly random source.  Then I read this article.

Well, I mean really, if we're supposed to be at each other's throats, why didn't the driver keep it all for himself?

As I continued my daily perusal of the usual suspect bloggers, I stopped at Borepatch's.  I won't embed the video I found there, so go and bump up his visitation numbers.  I think you'll like it.


Finally, I'm walking back to check on Mrs J. (She's working on a trip for MBD/SIL's family) and brush across our bulletin board knocking some useless information off, and revealing a document that had been put up long ago.  It reads:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen."

Okay, Lord...Got the message!  Will (attempt to) comply.

Besides,  Politicians and their enabler's are...

More Birds

All puffed up and strutting.  Who needs them?  Pretty much useless.  Except for the above...Around Thanksgiving.

Initial Sizing complete

I'm  going to spend some time in my shop.  Current project is a desk for my sister.

Or sit on the porch and watch Hummingbirds do Basic Fighter Maneuvers.

OR.....

Spend some time teaching my youngest how to drive.  Which will be important as Mrs J and I become older.  She's pretty good now, but her choices are steering or using the pedals, not both.

And taking care of someone I dearly love.

Because much like this morning...

Tomorrow, the sun will come up, and I will do what's necessary to take care of things that need taking care of.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender!



*  Values of X
Politicians,
The Press,
Bureaucrats,
School Employees
Communists, Socialists, Democrats (But I repeat myself)

The Right to Keep and Harm Hairs, Flairs, Bears, Chairs, Whatevs.

Okay. I am tired of the Gun Fuds. All of them. Always screaming about ‘The Gubmint coming to take muh Gunz, oh, dur, hur…” Sick of them. All of them. Especially the writers of gun mags and gun articles and gun blogz. Totally sick of them. Done with the whole lot of stupid, inbred, incompetent idiots.

Why?

Well, in the Bill of Rights, we have the 2nd Amendment, which says,

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Further analysis of 18th Century writing style shows that the primary statement is, “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Which the gun fuds all think is about, well, guns.

NO.

NO IT IS NOT.

CAN’T YOU (bleeping) READ? OR COMPREHEND?

Apparently not!!!!

So where am I going with this?

Well, a couple days ago… in the comments to this blog post: http://oldafsarge.blogspot.com/2019/09/guest-post-john-in-philly.html#comment-form , one comment peeved me off. Royally. Heavily. 


RHT447September 20, 2019 at 7:47 AM    Slippery slope indeed. For some years now in Kalifornia, a misdemeanor conviction denies you your constitutional right. Scroll to page 2--
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/pdf/cfl2016.pdf
Now we have this--
https://www.newsweek.com/gun-control-hate-crimes-house-bill-1458826
Stay frosty. If anybody here needs technical advise on the AR platform, I'm available.
Are we being monitored? Ya think? I like the story G. Gordon Liddy told about back in the days of dial telephone. When they heard the "click" of the wiretap, they would yell into the phone "EFF J. EDGAR!". Works for me.

Reply

Replies
OldAFSargeSeptember 20, 2019 at 9:02 AM I will state it again: all gun laws are, by their very nature, unconstitutional. I say again, ALL GUN LAWS.   (no, OAFS, I am not picking on you, just... well... It really wasn't you.  It was reading this comment after all the other stupid GUNFUD stuff I have been reading about for the last couple of weeks and I love you like a brother but your comment was just the last straw on an already broken back and I am so sorry I am using you as an example but please don't be angry with me but...)


 
And now you know maybe what I am peeved about.

ARMS. All Arms. As in:

  Arms /ärmz/ noun plural noun: arms

      1. 1. weapons and ammunition; armaments.

      Similar: weapons (of war) weaponry firearms guns ordnance

I know, you’re saying, “So? What’s the big deal?”

Well, yeah. That’s it. That’s it right there. Arms are, well, arms. Things that one uses in a way to, well enhance one’s arm or foot in causing damage to things or creatures.
Like, well, David’s SLING re: Combat Between David and Goliath (Goliath being the armed representative of an overbearing government.)

Or, well, Robert de Bruce’s SWORD re: Robert vs English Armies (English armies being the armed representative of an overbearing government.)

Or, well, William Tell’s CROSSBOW and Bolts/Quarrels re: William vs German Conquerors (German Conquerors being the armed representatives of an overbearing government.)

Or, well, getting the picture? 

Back in the early days, arms meant sticks, rocks, stuff like that.  

Then the world got technologically better and we get sharpened sticks, knapped rock or glass (obsidian) spear and arrow and atlatl points, stick and rock maces, hatchets and axes and other ‘advanced weaponry.’ 

Then, the wonders of metallurgy come about, and we get metal versions of the previous stuff, and new things, being copper, bronze, iron then steel versions of daggers and swords and maces and spears and bows and crossbows and ballistae and onagers and trebuchets and warships armed with rams and chariots and lances and pikes and all sorts of stuffs. 

Then gunpowder was invented in China (well, they say it was invented there, they say everything was invented there…) and then Europe made it useful and we get guns and cannon and petards and mortars and flying witches in mortars (if you’re Russian, and she’s flying around in the food-processor type of mortar, not the gunpowder type of mortar) and grenades and aerial bombs and rockets and all sorts of stuff like that, including zip guns and stuff. And then some smart Frenchmen (they had them before they lopped off everyone’s head) invented the first practical air rifle, and there you go, first instance of “Tu vas mettre ton oeil avec ça, gamin!” 

Meanwhile, civilians get access to all sorts of mil-tech, like swords, axes, cannon, muskets, organ guns, mortars (not the flying ones, the other ones) and such because, well, pirates and oppressive governments and rascally natives and rascally neighbors and just rascally rascals everywhere. Pretty much the same thing as the military of whatever country one supposedly belongs to is using. And also a lot of stuff that’s better than mil-tech, like rifled muskets and stuff like that.

Industry gets industrial, and we get steam powered stuff like locomotives and ships and carriages and tractors and all sorts of stuff, which the military starts using usually after some civilian decides to make an uparmed and uparmored version FIRST, no, seriously, artillery tractors by the French invented by civilians and that type of stuff.

The age of flight appears, first in gasbags of one form or another then by powered gasbags of one form or another then by planes (thanks to two bicycle makers from Ohio) and then autogyros (vs auto-gyros, a self-eating sandwich with tadziki sauce) and helicopters and rockets and missiles and orbital death platforms (thanks, USSR, for weaponizing Space, you dirty commie bastiges!!!! No. Really. An early version of a Soviet orbital platform had a gun, which they shot, mounted on it. Against all treaties. Wow, who would have thunk that the USSR would cheat on a treaty, amiright? Shocking! Not!)

And chemicals were used by civilians against others, then by the military against everyone, and that turned out real well, so they were banned by everyone civilized, which is why terrorists and Iraq and the Soviets created and kept huge stockpiles of them even after we got rid of them (in the late 1990s…) and bio weapons have been used since time immemorial in the form of tuna casserole or dead bodies or plague blankets or stuff like that (See movie “Flesh and Blood” for a good representation, and Rutger Hauer.) Long before the modern militaries got their hands on Small Pox and Anthrax (the powder, not the band) and other wonderful deadly things like Ricin and such and before we all got very smart and got rid of all the stockpiles of Small Pox and Anthrax and other biologicals (well, except for those blown up in that Russian lab last week, geeze, what is it with Russians and lying about getting rid of stuff, amiright?)

And ships and boats starting with the first logs all the way up to nuclear powered subs and flying subs (well, at least on TV) and all sorts of stuff.

All of those are Arms. Weapons and weapon systems. 

Including brass knuckles. And switchblade knives. And, well, weapons and arms and weapon systems and armaments and ordnances and all that.

So, now, we have a country – The United States of America – and quite a few states within that country – like Florida – who have as part of their premiere laws – like the Bill of Rights (for the USA) as enshrined in the 2nd Amendment (see above, oh, heck, here it again) “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Right (granted by our creator, GOD) of the people to keep and bear (carry, wear, strap on, stand on, swing from, handle, fold, spindle, mutilate) Arms (weapons, weapon systems, armaments, weapons platforms of varying types and degrees) shall not be infringed (DO NOT EVER ATTEMPT TO STOP SOMEONE FROM OWNING OR HOLDING OR FONDLING OR CARRYING said Arms(et al.)) 

Got that. If’n it’s an Arms, we here in the US of A should be able to own and have it.
Knife? Yep.
Brass Knuckles? Yep.
Pistol, wheellock, flintlock, caplock single shot, caplock revolver, caplock revolver with a center mounted shotgun barrel, modern revolver, modern semi-auto, modern gyrojet, gauss pistol, et al? Yep.
Shotgun, (see above for variants possible)? Yep.
Shoulder arms (see above…) Yep.
Phase Plasma Rifle in a 40watt range? Yep.
Fully automatic weapons? Yep.
Cannon, old old style? Yep.
Cannon, old style? Yep.
Cannon, modern? Yep.
Cannon, rail gun? Yep.
Cannon, particle or meson accelerator? Yep.
Fokker DVII with working machineguns? Yep.
P-47D with 8 fully functioning Browning M2 machine guns and a wingload of ordnance? Yep.
F-84G with God’s Lightbulb in junior form hanging underneath? Yep…. As long as GLiJF is maintained properly following all state and national regulations as to storing nuclear material, but, really, if you can afford it and want it and maintain it and store it safely (not in your bathroom in an apartment building, geeze… do you trust your plumber? Well, do you, punk?)
F-4 Phantom fully loaded? Yep. Same with F-105s if the friggin Congress hadn’t ordered the engines destroyed… bastiges)
A nice Gearing class destroyer, fully loaded? Yep.
Heck, a German class XXI submarine, fully loaded? Yep.
M3 light tank fully loaded? Yep.
M3 Medium tank, fully loaded? Yep, even better if haunted by Bogie’s ghost!
M1 Abrams, fully loaded? Yep.
Paladin gun system? Yep.
V2 with warhead? Yep.
Me163? Yep. Just… you better be storing your T-Stoff and C-Stoff correctly, like, better than the EPA (hwack-ptoie) would store them.

Get the idea? If’n you can potentially use it offensively or defensively, you can have it, according to the Mighty 2A (some assembly required, some items may be subject to a storage fee or storage requirements, may require maintenance…)

Seriously. Arms. What you use to whack-bonk your enemy. From close up to, well…

Nowhere does it say you have to use or store or carry said weapons of whack-bonkiness in a responsible manner. Why? Because the founding fathers didn’t think we’d be raising a bunch of brain-dead idiots, that’s why.

And, really, if there were no restrictions on the 2A by any local, state or federal agency, a lot of the bullscat done by brain-dead idiots would have been self-corrected or forcibly corrected by others by now.

So, well, juvat should, if he has enough money, and the space, be able to go out to the boneyard and snag an early model F-15 off the government auction lot.

Which, actually, he can. But… Because our federal government is scared of us, the citizens of these United States of America, Congress has passed laws saying that all military equipment will be de-milled, which means, cut up, chopped up, all neat stuff like engines and guns removed, and mangled and destroyed. 16” rifle barrels for an Iowa? You can buy them, if you cut them up into mangled portions that can’t be reassembled. B-52? Yep, cut into mangled chucks by the world’s largest guillotine. Tanks or APCs?  Yep, chopped up into little chunks.  Machine guns? Plasma cut into little bits, and, if not already listed as a machine gun prior to 19whatever with the ATF, then you can’t giggle-switch it even if you manage to reassemble it. (which, well, is patently illegal according to the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights.)  

And, well, let’s get into all the gun control acts that have been passed, illegally, by the Federal government. Lawdog, a wonderful LEO blogger from Texas who, like Peter Grant or Kim du Toit, hails originally from Africa (does that make him African-American? One wonders, because one is a jerk…) first stated the obvious and then it was done in a comic form and here’s the link to both:


http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2017/10/gun-rights-cake-analogy.html


Basically, Screw all Gun Control, it’s wrong, it’s illegal, and we want our rights back, you Anal circular-muscles, you.

What is it about the 2A that people in Government can’t understand. It was intended to Protect US against an evil, oppressive government that would enact laws like, oh, mass sterilization of undesirables or forced internments of ethnic populations or forced massacres of ethnic populations or forced removal of grazing rights so the Senator from Arizona can sell the land to foreign buyers or or or or or…

Wait? You think I was talking about maybe the USSR or Red China or the Ottoman Empire or the NAZIs? Noooo. More like the treatment of American Indians by the Federal and State governments, Treatment of Blacks and other ethnics by Woodrow Wilson’s administration, or German-Americans during WWI and WWII or Italian Americans during WWII or Japanese Americans during WWII or the Bundy’s or Waco or Ruby Ridge or…

So what is so scary about us citizens that our ‘elected betters’ who are protected by all the above weapons and weapon systems don’t want us to have?

Funny that.

Our Elected Officials. Most of them are self-serving jerks who would be better dangling off the upper levels of the Capital building, along with a whole host of bureaucrats and other thieving evil government workers. 

They forget that they are supposed to serve us, the people. They only think that they are better than us, and treat us as royalty has always treated the peasants and subjects of kingdoms and countries where royalty rule.

But that’s just it. We aren’t subjects. We don’t have a ruling class. We are CITIZENS. We are mostly all equal (varying differences due to criminal records and such) WE are the Rulers of this country. It’s just that we are all too busy doing stuff that we elect representatives to do the crap-work and to follow our instruction and do the stupid stuff that keeps this country going.

So… They (our elected officials and the faceless bureaucrats that control them (ooops, did I say that?) who are supposed to serve us are scared of us and pass laws and regulations to keep us from getting our hands on anything more deadly than a kitchen knife just in case we the people get so tired of the situation that we take armed means to stop the thieving bastiges…

So. Well, I hope you understand what I just tried to say. Hopefully.

I want my rights back. All of them.  And I stand for my God-given right to Keep and Bear ARMS!

And I know, what about using stuff in a bad way?

Well, there's a host of laws against assault, battery, murder, killing, torturing, mutilating, defenestrating, etc.

None of them I have or will (hopefully) ever do, because, well, they're WRONG and ILLEGAL in God's Eyes and in the People's Eyes.  Not the Politicians' or faceless bureaucrats' eyes, the People and God, you Feckless BASTIGES!

If someone uses their Sherman to blow their neighbor away, they'd better have a darned good reason, like the neighbor was using his Flak 36 to shoot the 1st neighbor's cows or something.

So, once again, I want my God-given right to own and coon-finger any arms I can afford to own.  From swords to maces to M3 grease guns.  Any.  Because it is my right as an American Citizen. 

(And, hah, was cruising over at Angus McThag's place after penning this missive and he had much the same to say, though his was aimed at the gunfuds who are wanting gun people to stop pushing the envelope and freaking the mundanes even though it's legal to do what the gun people are doing.  I'd say 'Right ON, McThag, but he's got his comments turned off, so he's really pissed right now.  So, well, Angus, if you're reading this, I support 100% what you said and I am tired of all the gunfuds out there, too.)

War Paint

The Battle of Zorndorf
Wojciech Kossak
Charge of the Prussian Cuirassiers led by Seydlitz at the Battle of Zorndorf 25th August 1758

Out of town all weekend, no time to blog. Starting to lose the energy to blog.

Thought I'd share some paintings I like.

Back later.

Maybe. I might need to take that sabbatical after all...

The Battle of Valmy
Horace Vernet
Won by General Kellermann over Prussian and Brunswick troops in 1792.

Le Rêve
Édouard Detaille
Soldiers of the French Third Republic dream of the glory of their predecessors.

The Battle of Bunker Hill
Howard Pyle

Washington Crossing the Delaware
Emanuel Leutze

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
John Trumbull

Battle of Gettysburg
Thure de Thulstrup

Battles of Jena and Auerstädt 14 Oct 1806
Édouard Detaille

Haut les têtes, la mitraille c'est pas de la merde!
Louis Lepic and the Grenadiers à Cheval at Preussisch-Eylau, 1807

Napoleon's return from the Island of Elba, March 7th 1815
Charles de Steuben
(Source)

1807, Friedland
Ernest Meissonier

Have a nice weekend.

Guest Post - John in Philly

We're here for your bang sticks...
(Source)

Editor's Note: Why yes I have been rather out of sorts as of late, thank you for noticing.

All kidding aside, I have been busy, busy, busy doing stuff, mostly work and health related (the latter to include eating, sleeping, and putting in the effort to exercise at least 3 to 4 times a week, which is ∞ times more than I have exercised in several years, if not demi-decades).

I did, briefly, consider quitting the blogging thing for a time, a sabbatical of sorts, but that thought is anathema to me. I mean, I love you guys, in a manly, non-confrontational, brotherly way. Stop looking at me like that...

Anyhoo, Occasional Reader* John in Philly sent me an interesting email t'other day which I decided, con permiso, to share with you. It's what I do, I share. Stuff in italics is from moi, Your Humble Scribe. Without further ado, John in Philly...

Cedar Sanderson. 

A few years ago my wife and I had dinner with Cedar and her husband Sanford when we were visiting the Museum of The Air Force. A year or so before our trip, she had blogged about aircraft nose art and she mentioned how much she enjoyed her trip to the MoTAF. I asked her for advice on how much time to allow, and she graciously answered. Then she astonished me by saying that when we were in the area, we should meet them somewhere for dinner. It was a wonderful and memorable dinner, they are great people. I checked on her blog today to find she'd written some thoughts on the upcoming bad times. (Here.)

I decided some years ago that humans fall into two broad types. First, those who practice Live and Let Live. I've found that those people don't really care what you do, as long as you don't hurt others. The second group insists on controlling every part of another person's life. 

Painting with broad strokes? Admittedly yes. And I've found out that the touchstone for figuring out which group people are in is to mention guns.

I believe that Beto told the simple truth of what the anti-gun movement has wanted all along. 

I know that The Hunt for Red October is a novel, but Fred Dalton Thompson's statement when he was looking over the flight deck is applicable to today in many ways. Admiral Josh Painter : "This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

From Selco at The Organic Prepper.

"In my case, it did not start with war. It started months before. It started when authorities took legally owned guns from normal folks, all in the name of law and order and keeping the peace. And everybody agreed with it because it was the law. And people who did not agree with it were portrayed as troublemakers, warmongers, terrorists… And every single weapon was tracked down and registered in local police stations. It was the law."

And if you are positive that the Constitution protects your rights, place yourself in the position of an American citizen with Japanese ancestry in 1944 as you stand inside a detention camp and stare out through the barbed wire. The Supreme Court said that doing that was Constitutional. (Here.)

Reason TV has a short video that answers the how to ban guns question and it's a couple of minutes that is well worth your time. It is called, How to Create a Gun-Free America in 5 Easy Steps.

I think that Red Flag Laws are the beginning of a very slippery slope, and once started downward they will be no turning back.

I am worried and deeply concerned. 

You and me both brother, you and me both.

I don't know if things will get worse before they get better or if they will simply go straight to shit (PMF**) and stay there for a very long time. I'm sure the Russians thought they were getting a great deal when they dumped the Tsar. Seventy-four years later they dumped the Commies and they're still trying to sort things out over there.

Will I stay bitchy and whiny for a while longer? Hell, I hope not.

Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, thanks John, good email, made me think. Now my head hurts...

* A Lexism, more here.
** PMF = Pardon my French