Going away for a while...

I took a look at all I need to be doing between now and Christmas break when this semester will be done at A&M:

1. Find a house, negotiate, and buy.
2. Move all our stuff.
3. Plan a wedding.
4. Get married.
5. Go on Honeymoon.
6. Keep working 40 hrs/wk.
7. Keep up with assignments, projects, and papers in class.

The only way this is all getting done is if I buckle down and get ahead in my classes; Put my nose to the grindstone and don't let up. That's going to cut down my free time I was spending blogging, but I'll try and chime in every couple of days anyhow.

To be honest, I'm not mortified at the long list. I've gotten to the point in my life where I don't worry about being grossly incompetent about the world, I figure nothing's going to come my way that I can't handle. Besides, if there's something I don't know, I just ask the Robot. The Robot knows everything. :) The other 2/3 of the equation are hard work and determination, and I've got the market cornered on those. Wish me luck.

HR 218 -- Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act

I made a remark to Cam Edwards & Co on NRA News the other day when someone from the Law Enforcement Alliance of America was a guest that I thought I'd clarify with a post here on my blog:

I'll start by saying police do a valuable service. They get the bad guys off the street, keep law and order, pursue fleeing criminals, storm into places of illegal activity that I wouldn't dare go, and generally deal with human filth day-in-day-out. I don't dispute that in our revolving-door criminal justice system, a criminal that is arrested on Monday might be out of jail on Tuesday with an axe to grind with his arresting officer. I believe police officers have just as much right as anybody else to defend themselves and their families against violent crime. It's a dangerous job, and I'm glad somebody is doing it.

When it comes to violent crime, though, police are more historians and detectives; trying to determine what has happened and who is responsible AFTER THE FACT. The rank-and-file police officers support the concealed carry movement that is sweeping the nation state by state because they know that they're not always there to protect citizens when their lives are in danger, nor can 95% of people afford their own private security. When was the last time you called 911 DURING a car accident? Situations where a person may have to defend his or her own life happen quickly, and home invasions in the middle of the night already put the resident at a great disadvantage, even if (s)he is armed: waking up from a dead sleep to realize (hopefully not too late) that someone who wishes to do them harm is ALREADY IN THEIR HOUSE. The police response time to such incidents, whether they be on the street or at a private residence, are several minutes even in the best circumstances. That's too long when an armed person is threatening your life or the lives of your loved ones RIGHT THEN.

However, the police aren't always our friends. It's common for police officers to know little or nothing about firearms laws in their state, due to poor training. It is also common for the police chiefs in urban areas (and some not) as well as the Fraternal Order of Police to be decidedly AGAINST the peoples' individual right to keep and bear arms and concealed carry. They've come out for renewing the Clinton Gun Ban, and the FOP's local state chapter opposed Missouri's recent Right-to-Carry legislation.

To boot, police aren't obligated to protect YOU individually. Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of this type. Two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third woman, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate's screams had stopped, they assumed the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs they saw that in fact the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers." The highest D.C. court ruled the "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen."

So what's all this hubbub about?, you're asking. It's pretty simple to me. I believe that police would be needed much less, and an overgrown governmental bureaucracy could be drastically reduced if people would arm themselves and take care of business rather than using the SNiVeL method.

Furthermore, I know for a fact that off-duty and retired police officers were able to protect themselves just fine before HR 218 came into existence...they could apply for carry permits just the same as us "civilians" [a term they frequently use to refer to we lowly subjects. Anybody who is not active military is a civilian, bub, and that includes you]. Hell, some states give discounts to retired police, judges, etc. when applying. I understand there are a few states that do not issue carry permits at all, but was CREATING A SEPARATE CLASS OF CITIZENS NATIONALLY the way to go about it? Were the police too lazy to work with other concerned citizens to enact this sort of legislation at the state level? I think granting off-duty and retired police rights the rest of us citizens don't have is scary at the very least, and unconstitutional at the very worst. There was a reason that in the formative years of our nation, police officers were seen as no less than a standing army. With the recent years' push towards gun registration and outright confiscation, it's an awfully terrifying prospect.

Methinks the top brass are in it for themselves, and now that they have carry rights nationwide we're going to lose what little support we were getting from them to begin with. Why is it most organizations or groups will gladly grow stronger at the expense of the American people?

The GOP and gay unions

"The GOP's full platform committee, seeking to appease party members who support gay or abortion rights without embracing their positions, adopted language later that states Republicans "respect and accept" dissenting views.

'We are the party of the open door,' said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who led platform deliberations on social issues."

---

"Party of the open door" my ass. If the Republicans continue with this catering to the Christian Right the way they do, they're going to start losing voters left and right in this new age of science and reason. They need to broaden their target voters and bring in those conservatives and swing voters that take little or no interest in theology. What are (most) Christians going to do, anyways? Switch parties? Doubtful. Don't "try to put lipstick on the pig" as Christopher Barron said.

Teacher to class: 'F--- God'

Before anybody gets their panties in a wad, let me say I'm appalled at this professor's choice of words and impropriety. The sheer ballsyness of the professor's statement got an initial laugh, but even as an atheist I have limits.

There are a myriad of other avenues in which to question the beliefs of a student in the interest of class discussion. This was just plain wrong. It wasn't logical or brought about through rational thinking, it was profanity and insult. Very unprofessional.

Paris Celebrates Liberation

Funny thing is, they hardly mentioned the Americans at all...just to say that the 4th American Infantry Division was there at the liberation party. No mention of how the French practically threw up their arms at the sight of the Nazis or how thousands of our men died storming the beaches and fighting in the forests to give them their country back. It ought to be "Kiss America's Ass Day".

Vengence is mine, sayeth the Lord

Well so much for a loving, caring God. Anybody who thinks this war in Iraq or the trouble in Israel has anything less than a strong religious base is a fool. It's a continuation of the crusades from the standpoint of the Muslims over there, and you can't tell me the US support of Israel is just because they're the underdog in a war between terrorists. Here's a collection of quotes to chew on from the Quran and the Christian Bible:


The Old Testament

Punishment for sin:
• So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the Earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the Earth.” Genesis 6:13

• So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt — worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.” Exodus 11:4-6

• The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God. 1 Chronicles 13:10

References to violence:
• The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the man of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time. Judges 12:4-6

• When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the desert where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day — all the people of Ai. Joshua 8:24-25

• If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Deuteronomy 13:6-9

The New Testament

Punishment for sin:
• And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8

References to violence:
• I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the Earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beast of the Earth. Revelation 6:8


The Quran

Punishment for sin:
• (As for) those who disbelieve in Our communications, We shall make them enter fire; so oft as their skins are thoroughly burned, We will change them for other skins, that they may taste the chastisement; surely Allah is Mighty, Wise. 4:56

• (Some) faces on that day shall be downcast, Laboring, toiling, Entering into burning fire, Made to drink from a boiling spring. They shall have no food but of thorns, Which will neither fatten nor avail against hunger. 88:2-7

• On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of hell, then their foreheads and their sides and their backs shall be branded with it; this is what you hoarded up for yourselves, therefore taste what you hoarded. 9:35

References to violence:
• Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people. 9:14

• And how many a town that We destroyed, so Our punishment came to it by night or while they slept at midday. Yet their cry, when Our punishment came to them, was nothing but that they said: Surely we were unjust. 7:4-5


It's just damned silly.

Hoplophobic pant-wetters

If you suffer from low blood pressure, just check out this mindless, pant-wetting rant on liberalforum about the sunset of the Clinton Gun Ban. Why is it people refuse to listen to reason?

"...for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill..."

It would be so exciting to own my own town, GIVE all the (law-abiding) residents guns and firearms training, call it New Freeland, and tell people to get off my land (ever watched Mr. Show?).

A Skeptical Approach

Great site that builds a fairly convincing case against Christianity. Not for the faint of heart.

This will get a permanent link as soon as I learn HTML. ^_^

Don't bother me while I'm taking a dump.

A New Orleans man is cretidted with thwarting an attempted robbery at a Wal-Mart while on the "throne". Lucky bastard, IMHO.

Democrats primary donors to 527s

How interesting. The Kerry camp continually chides the Bush administration for having rich fat-cat contributors and its association with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. WorldNetDaily reports that of the top 25 contributors to 527s, only 2 of them are giving to GOP interests.

"Broken down by amount, it means 24 high rollers gave $56,193,000 to left-leaning groups, while two donors gave $1,520,000 to Republican groups."

Chew on that awhile.

Barbecue Sauce Nazis

You know, it's a shame after 60 years politicians are still exchanging Hitler insults. I thought I might have heard the end of it after Moveon.org's ad and Bush's (oh, I never meant THAT!) ads that mixed in a little Hitler footage in case anybody forgot...enter that murdering bastard Kim Jong-il. Even the Koreans are jumping on the Hitler bandwagon these days: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3589766.stm.

Sorry, fellas...Hitler is so...well, so last century. Get your marketing people to get something more edgy, you know, to suck the kids in. Hitler just isn't doing it for me anymore. It happens when you run something into the ground like that. How about we reserve calling someone a fascist murdering bastard for the real fascist murdering bastards, not the drive-thru clerk who tells you extra dipping sauce will cost you extra.

Latest in Najaf

I know the US is supposed to be morally superior to the insurgents we're fighting in Iraq. If that includes not bombing a building into the Stone Age where a known insurgent is hiding in his cowardice just because we're afraid of insulting somebody's imaginary friend in the sky, then I don't care one whit about being morally superior. Bottom line, we've lost our tactical advantage. We've let Al-Sadr slip away in the night and who knows if we'll be able to pin him down again like that in the future. I don't care if the people over there think it's a magic building or not...right now it's being used as a military fortification filled with enemy combatants, and we need to treat it as such. Do you think if things were the other way around they would hesitate to blow up a Christian church just because world opinion of them would suffer? I doubt it. If the insurgents are so pissed off because of the "foreign occupation" then join the democratic process we've started there already and turn it into whatever kind of religious fundamentalist "democracy" (cough, cough) you want after we leave. It's going to happen anyways. You're just slowing up the process of the US getting out.

Sue Me

From WorldNetDaily

The Kerry campaign is threatening to sue television stations that are running the new ad by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Regnery Books, the publisher for the SBVFT's book, Unfit for Command.

You have to be friggin kidding me.

If you can't take the heat, Senator, get out of the kitchen. In case you've been asleep for the last 6 months, Bush had to contend with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and didn't resort to whining and threatening legal action...give it a rest and maybe just shut up (like Bush did) if you're not going to address the accusations directly. You don't have to, if that's your prerogative.

Tom Ridge to Ted Kennedy: Have your people call my people

From SFGate.com

Somehow Drunken Master Ted Kennedy got on the secret government "no-fly" list and isn't pleased about it. Cry me a river, Teddy, just don't drive your car off into it.

Crack Haiku

My buddy sent me this link--someone has way too much time on their hands...

It's no wonder...

we can't have rational political debate in this country any more. Here's just one example of the rabid speech coming out of some liberals' mouths these days.

Cipel's Show

Why is everybody so hung up on sexual orientation? If McGreevy wants to have gay sex in his off-time, then I don't think it's anybody else's concern except his wife's. He spoke up promptly and that, at least, is to be respected. It's more than Clinton did, arguing over the definition of "is". He's also probably doing the right thing keeping quiet what with the extortion charges still pending and all.

Why are the Republicans making such a big deal about when he'll actually step down? Do they really think that a special election will yield a Republican governor when McGreevy's polls have gone UP since the scandal broke? More moralistic posturing from the Right, in my opinion. If he's stepping down just because he's gay, or because he got nailed for an extramarital affair, then shame on him. If you love the cock, just say so, McGreevy, get on with it, and shut the hell up.

What makes me laugh is that Cipel is saying he's not gay. Could have fooled me!

Quit yer whinin' !...

From WorldNetDaily

Kerry's campaign is requesting that Regnery publishing withdraw from distribution the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth's new book Unfit for Command as it contains falsehoods and blatant smear against Senator Kerry's war record.

Give me a break. If we can all tolerate Farenheit 9/11, then we can tolerate a book by SBVFT that not near as many people will read. F 9/11 was a much more available media to the American public. I don't think Unfit for Command is going to make that big a splash.

All The President's Spin

I've never read a "current events"-style political book, but I think I'm going to read this one. I caught Ben Fritz on The Daily Show the other night and he made quite an impression. He basically praised the Bush administration for being so meticulously clever with how they present what's going on and deal with crises. He was very dispassionate and seemed to focus on the psychological aspects of the PR facet that have worked so well. It looks more tolerable than the obvious propaganda like in Farenheit 9/11. I'd call it a tactics study.

By my figuring there's about a nickel's worth of difference between 95% of the politicians that have made it far enough up the food chain to be in national elections. Don't get me wrong, some are better than others, and there are honest and passionate civil servants at all levels...just the higher up you go, the more you compromise your ideals and engage in the political back-scratching.

I think it'll be an interesting read. I'll chime in again when I finish it.

Japanese Consipracy Theory

Ok, I might as well start off with my lame-brained conspiracy theory about Japan.

As many of you might not know, Mobile Suit Gundam is a televised Japanese anime series that was aired in 1979. The idea of Mobile Suit came from the powered suit of Starship Troopers, a novel by Robert Anson Heinlein (my all-time favorite author). The original Mobile Suit Gundam takes place during the One-Year War in the year Universal Century 0079 (U.C. 0079). During this time period humans live in orbiting space colonies called Sides. The ruler of Side 3 declares war against the earth for the independence of the colonies. The story is about a crew of Earth Federation Space Forces on a space ship called White Base that fight against the Principality of Zeon using human shaped weapons called Mobile Suits. The crew of White Base fight Zeon using an advanced Mobile Suit called Gundam, that is more powerful than any weapon that Zeons have previously produced. In the process, the Gundam's pilot, Amuro Ray, and the other draftees are exposed to the harsh conditions of war, participate in many brutal battles, and experience the tragic trials and consequences of the conflict. (from wordiq.com)

Given that the people of Japan have been bombarded with the concept of Mobile Suits as future military hardware for the last 35 years, it's no wonder that the Gundam Pilot Academy was started in 2002...

2-22-02---- First Mobile Suit Pilot Training Simulator From Mistubishi - Banpresto - Sotsu Agency
From Newtype Asylum:
February 22, 2002: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), in asscoication with Banpresto and Sotsu Agency, has produced Gundam Pilot Academy (tentative title) - the demonstrative version of the first ever mobile suit pilot training simulator in history, which is currently on exhibit and free testing for customers at "The AOU 2002 Amusement Exposition" (International Exhibition Hall 2 "General Zone") from February 22-23, 2002 at the Makuhari Mess, Chiba City, Chiba, Japan. The training simulator - with simulates the cockpit of RX-78 Gundam during the classic 'Jaburo Invasion' as shown in Gundam 0079 animation series - has a maximum of four players capacity, in which the MS piloting and shooting will be handled by the two front row players, and all four players will experience the training inside the simulator, which is equipped with 100 inches big screen image with picture generating equipment powered by high-speed processor, and the 24-bit digital sound source for high quality stereo surround sound; Each pilot's seat can experience the training fully in front, rear, left, right, plus shakeing up and down with maximum acceleration of 0.5G, all courtesy of a 6-axis electric motion base which are used in actual operation simulator for airplane.

And then only a few months later, Mitsubishi made it back in the Japanese news by The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) granting Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. a prime government contract; developing the H-IIA Standard Type Launch Vehicle:

NASDA

Hence my name: Mobile Suit Pilot X

I know this is old news but it's a "theory" I've held for a while now. Anybody else see a pattern developing here? It's a lot of dots to connect. :) I'd move to Japan if it weren't for their complete ban on private ownership of firearms. At any rate, Go spacenoids! ^_^

What subject is worthy of a first post?

I won't think too hard about it. Let's just make sure I'm not retarded and can use the software. :)