Every single Democrat candidate for POTUS 2020 has come out in favor of a mandatory gun buy-back program for so-called "assault rifles."
Now, you should first know that there are no "assault rifles" in the hands of the general public, regardless of what our honesty-challenged politicians and celebrities tell us. Assault rifles are fully-automatic (one trigger pull, multiple rounds fired) and only available to the military. Full-auto weapons have been outlawed in America since 1934. They are available only in rare instances and under special - and hard to get - Federal licensure. Got it?
Second, the weapons generally mislabeled as "assault rifles" are the AR-15-style guns based loosely on a 55 year-old design. It is semi-automatic, meaning it shoots once for every time the trigger is pulled. These rifles are so popular because they're small, light, modular, very flexible and inexpensive. As America's most popular firearm, there are more than 15 million of them in collections today. They are favored for target practice, hunting, competition and self-defense.
It should be noted that every one of these weapons that were purchased by legal citizens were obtained from a Federal Firearms Licensee. Your local gun store, as an example. They bought the gun from the manufacturer, and you bought the gun from them. Commerce completed. Then how, I might ask, would the Federal Government go about buying them back if they never owned them in the first place?
Ruminate on that for a minute. You simply cannot buy anything back from the Government that it never owned. So this whole "buy back" ruse would be nothing more than some bureaucratic sleight-of-hand euphemism designed to get you to turn loose of your firearm without unnecessary drama. Or bloodshed, presumably.
If Smith and Wesson, or Ruger, or Colt, or Remington comes a'callin' and wants to "buy back" any of the guns they made and I now own, I can tell you my answer: "No thanks!" And if the Federal Government comes a'callin' and wants to "buy back" something they never owned, my answer would be the same.
And something tells me a large majority of the other 100,000,000 gun owners here in America would respond in the very same way...
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
"Brown Privilege"
I've had it with this whole "White Privilege" thing.
Now, I didn't even know there was a thing called "White Privilege" until a few months ago, but then some "Progressive" weenie got "woke," whatever that means, and conjured it up (good weed, no doubt!), and thereafter all their brethren and sisteren (and "otheren?") have been spouting it as if it was a thing.
It isn't.
But even if it was, I'm soooo over it! Whatever benefit I might have gained by having been born White in a predominantly White America, I'm pretty sure has been sanded off by time and changing demographics and politics and "Progressivism" and "woke-ness."
So I now find myself an old, tired White guy who's had his privilege forcibly removed. Yet those who want me punished for possibly having had some in the distant past just won't leave me alone.
White privilege? Puleeeeeze! I live in California, friends, and middle-class White folks here are treated like the Uighurs in China! The Kurds in Syria! The Gypsies in Europe! The Republicans in Hollywood! Since about a decade ago when somebody determined that there were more Brown folks here than White ones, and that they just might be converted into brand-new voters, the die was cast; we've been declared excess. Unnecessary. Soooo yesterday's news!
And in the meantime, all the stops have been pulled out to make being here illegally soooo very attractive! Now illegals here get free drivers' licenses. And free food and free legal assistance and free rent assistance and free education for their many kids, which we pay to birth for free, and "no cash bail" arrests and no towing when they're found to be driving illegally (an illegal driving illegally...isn't that a hoot!).
And of course, they all get a "free" Social Security number, which they just steal and use without fear of retribution. All of them. Millions and millions of them! All felons! And nobody seems to care!
And now the last proud vestiges of citizenship are being erased as illegals are voting in San Francisco and Santa Monica and Lost Angeles. Oh yeah, and in New York, and Baltimore, and Seattle, and Denver, and, and...
Remember that "employer mandate" thing that Obama told us would save us money? The promise that the Washington Post called the Lie of the Year! The one that made us pay a fine if we didn't buy Obamacare? Well, that one was declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS, which it was.
But now, California's newest Governor, San Fran Nan Pelosi's nephew, just reinstated that mandate, but only for Californians! And that's not all; in the same breath he promised to give free health insurance to all illegal aliens, everywhere! To be paid for by those of us legal citizens! Imagine: if we can't afford health insurance for ourselves, we'll get fined, and those fines will go to buy coverage for our uninvited new voters! Boy Guv Newsom has already primed the new spending pump to pay for this with $90 Million of our tax dollars, with much, much more to come.
Who knows how much more this Obamanation will ultimately cost us? And how many legal residents will still be here when the dust settles?
So let's see here; legal citizens get bupkus, and illegal uninvited foreign nationals get, ummm, damn near everything! And we have to pay for it! How do I get rid of this White Privilege?
It seems to me, Pilgrim, that "White Privilege" has been replaced, here in CA at least, by "Brown Privilege." What do you think?
So, I'm working on a plan to fix this whole thing. I'm thinking that if a bunch of us were to just take a rowboat south around the Border at Tiajowannna and sneak back in, then ask for asylum, just like everybody else in this part of the world, we might be able to reinvent ourselves as newly-minted illegals! Illegals (us) who would then have all the benefits of citizens without any of the disadvantages: like paying taxes, following the laws and pretending to care about America.
Oh, we might have to add a "z" to our last names, but hey! Small price to pay to try and make this horrendous assault on the rule of law - and common sense - somehow more palatable...
Now, I didn't even know there was a thing called "White Privilege" until a few months ago, but then some "Progressive" weenie got "woke," whatever that means, and conjured it up (good weed, no doubt!), and thereafter all their brethren and sisteren (and "otheren?") have been spouting it as if it was a thing.
It isn't.
But even if it was, I'm soooo over it! Whatever benefit I might have gained by having been born White in a predominantly White America, I'm pretty sure has been sanded off by time and changing demographics and politics and "Progressivism" and "woke-ness."
So I now find myself an old, tired White guy who's had his privilege forcibly removed. Yet those who want me punished for possibly having had some in the distant past just won't leave me alone.
White privilege? Puleeeeeze! I live in California, friends, and middle-class White folks here are treated like the Uighurs in China! The Kurds in Syria! The Gypsies in Europe! The Republicans in Hollywood! Since about a decade ago when somebody determined that there were more Brown folks here than White ones, and that they just might be converted into brand-new voters, the die was cast; we've been declared excess. Unnecessary. Soooo yesterday's news!
And in the meantime, all the stops have been pulled out to make being here illegally soooo very attractive! Now illegals here get free drivers' licenses. And free food and free legal assistance and free rent assistance and free education for their many kids, which we pay to birth for free, and "no cash bail" arrests and no towing when they're found to be driving illegally (an illegal driving illegally...isn't that a hoot!).
And of course, they all get a "free" Social Security number, which they just steal and use without fear of retribution. All of them. Millions and millions of them! All felons! And nobody seems to care!
And now the last proud vestiges of citizenship are being erased as illegals are voting in San Francisco and Santa Monica and Lost Angeles. Oh yeah, and in New York, and Baltimore, and Seattle, and Denver, and, and...
Remember that "employer mandate" thing that Obama told us would save us money? The promise that the Washington Post called the Lie of the Year! The one that made us pay a fine if we didn't buy Obamacare? Well, that one was declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS, which it was.
But now, California's newest Governor, San Fran Nan Pelosi's nephew, just reinstated that mandate, but only for Californians! And that's not all; in the same breath he promised to give free health insurance to all illegal aliens, everywhere! To be paid for by those of us legal citizens! Imagine: if we can't afford health insurance for ourselves, we'll get fined, and those fines will go to buy coverage for our uninvited new voters! Boy Guv Newsom has already primed the new spending pump to pay for this with $90 Million of our tax dollars, with much, much more to come.
Who knows how much more this Obamanation will ultimately cost us? And how many legal residents will still be here when the dust settles?
So let's see here; legal citizens get bupkus, and illegal uninvited foreign nationals get, ummm, damn near everything! And we have to pay for it! How do I get rid of this White Privilege?
It seems to me, Pilgrim, that "White Privilege" has been replaced, here in CA at least, by "Brown Privilege." What do you think?
So, I'm working on a plan to fix this whole thing. I'm thinking that if a bunch of us were to just take a rowboat south around the Border at Tiajowannna and sneak back in, then ask for asylum, just like everybody else in this part of the world, we might be able to reinvent ourselves as newly-minted illegals! Illegals (us) who would then have all the benefits of citizens without any of the disadvantages: like paying taxes, following the laws and pretending to care about America.
Oh, we might have to add a "z" to our last names, but hey! Small price to pay to try and make this horrendous assault on the rule of law - and common sense - somehow more palatable...
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Bomb Free Zones...
I got to thinking. The recent church bombings in Sri Lanka and mosque shooting in New Zealand and the Wal-Mart shooting in Texas and the nightclub shooting in Dayton, all "Gun Free Zones," brings to mind a possible defense against such outrages, as the elected "leaders" of California have already discovered.
Or think they have...
Did you know there's almost no place in California worth visiting that isn't a "Gun Free Zone?" Yep, churches, synagogues, schools, colleges, universities, theme parks, hospitals, State and Federal buildings and bars and nightclubs statewide have legal prohibitions against entering with a gun. Or a weapon of any kind, for that matter. And the prohibition probably extends to include basketball courts and Scientology mind adjustment centers and maryjowanna dispensaries and radio stations and livestock abattoirs (that means slaughterhouses for you non-francophiles)...
I presume the decision to put up these signs was prompted by the belief that folks who've decided to take out a flock of children or worshippers or partiers in a hail of bullets would see them, realize that what they're contemplating is illegal (what a concept!), and then go on home to think about it some more. Presumably.
NOTE: To actually believe that this might work forces me to also believe that the use of mind-altering drugs among our political leaders here in Taxifornia is waaay more prevalent than I had previously suspected!)
So it struck me that if these "Gun Free Zone" signs are such a good idea, and our highly-paid elected leaders guarantee us that they are, GUARANTEE us, then why not expand the program to include other sorts of illegal, immoral and antisocial activity?
Of course, that sign didn't stop a killer from murdering scores of young people in a cowboy night club in Thousand Oaks last year. Or from murdering a couple of dozen in a school in San Bernardino awhile back. Or faithful adherents attending a synagogue in Poway, the Peoples' Republic of California. Or kids in a school in Colorado. All were - and are - clearly labeled "Gun Free Zones."
There's a certified, Grade A bozo named Kevin de Leon (D-CA) who's President of the CA Senate. He's one of those inveterate gun-grabbers you read about. He's on record as telling us that if the current crop of "Gun Free Zone" signs don't stop would-be assassins, then he'd remake them using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! I AM NOT kidding! God, I wish I was, but I'm not...
BTW, Mr. Leon added the "de" to his last name to make it less apparent he's just a garden-variety Mexican. I think he'd prefer we think he's "Spanish." Like from Spain, doncha' know...
BTW also, he's on record as stating that we need a ban on high-capacity ammo magazines because "Once they run out of "clips" they're no good anymore." Kevin, my boy, you're a stain on the undies of humanity.
Yes, my friends, the degree of bozohood is that critical. And it appears to be a pandemic, given the bleating from politicians and news anchors and actors and the hoplophobic pantywaists nationwide (look it up).
But let's stop and think: Maybe he's right! Maybe we've just not fully implemented his liberal wet dream! Maybe we should even EXPAND it to include other illegal/antisocial activities! Such as...
... "Bum Check Free Zone"
... "Burglary Free Zone"
... "Speeding Free Zone"
... "Misogynist Free Zone"
... "Bad Joke Free Zone"
... "Pervert Free Zone"
... "Climate Chaos Free Zone"
... "Pedophile Free Zone"
... "Double Parking Free Zone"
... "Indecent Speech Free Zone"
... "Pickpocket Free Zone"
... "Bank Robbery Free Zone"
... "Triggering Free Zone"
... "Tax Evasion Free Zone"
... "Racist Free Zone"
... "Rape Free Zone"
... "Hate Speech Free Zone"
And in California these days...
... "Capitalism Free Zone"
There may be others we could focus our efforts on, but these would constitute a very good start. Then, if we learn that these signs actually DO thwart the named illegal or undesirable activity (cough, cough), then we can expand their use to include every. single. illegal. activity. Every one.
Or, should we learn that these signs don't work, don't reduce the occurrence of illegal activity, then we can stop the charade and TAKE THEM DOWN! Even if we don't replace them with well-trained, well-armed folks to dissuade illegal activity, at the very least we'd stop making a fool of ourselves to the perpetrators who think we're stupid anyway...
Remember: Criminals are known for not obeying our laws. That's why they're called "criminals." Duh! When we pass laws that criminals won't obey, we're just inconveniencing the honest, honorable law-abiders among us. Which we do every day. And also providing the impetus for rampant civil disobedience (good people don't like dumb laws!).
I'd like to say that one day, ONE DAY, common sense might somehow return to the District of Columbia and Sacrataxyou and the MainStreamMedia and Hollyweird and to those of a Progressive persuasion.
I'd like to say that, but I can't...
Or think they have...
Did you know there's almost no place in California worth visiting that isn't a "Gun Free Zone?" Yep, churches, synagogues, schools, colleges, universities, theme parks, hospitals, State and Federal buildings and bars and nightclubs statewide have legal prohibitions against entering with a gun. Or a weapon of any kind, for that matter. And the prohibition probably extends to include basketball courts and Scientology mind adjustment centers and maryjowanna dispensaries and radio stations and livestock abattoirs (that means slaughterhouses for you non-francophiles)...
I presume the decision to put up these signs was prompted by the belief that folks who've decided to take out a flock of children or worshippers or partiers in a hail of bullets would see them, realize that what they're contemplating is illegal (what a concept!), and then go on home to think about it some more. Presumably.
NOTE: To actually believe that this might work forces me to also believe that the use of mind-altering drugs among our political leaders here in Taxifornia is waaay more prevalent than I had previously suspected!)
So it struck me that if these "Gun Free Zone" signs are such a good idea, and our highly-paid elected leaders guarantee us that they are, GUARANTEE us, then why not expand the program to include other sorts of illegal, immoral and antisocial activity?
Of course, that sign didn't stop a killer from murdering scores of young people in a cowboy night club in Thousand Oaks last year. Or from murdering a couple of dozen in a school in San Bernardino awhile back. Or faithful adherents attending a synagogue in Poway, the Peoples' Republic of California. Or kids in a school in Colorado. All were - and are - clearly labeled "Gun Free Zones."
There's a certified, Grade A bozo named Kevin de Leon (D-CA) who's President of the CA Senate. He's one of those inveterate gun-grabbers you read about. He's on record as telling us that if the current crop of "Gun Free Zone" signs don't stop would-be assassins, then he'd remake them using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! I AM NOT kidding! God, I wish I was, but I'm not...
BTW, Mr. Leon added the "de" to his last name to make it less apparent he's just a garden-variety Mexican. I think he'd prefer we think he's "Spanish." Like from Spain, doncha' know...
BTW also, he's on record as stating that we need a ban on high-capacity ammo magazines because "Once they run out of "clips" they're no good anymore." Kevin, my boy, you're a stain on the undies of humanity.
Yes, my friends, the degree of bozohood is that critical. And it appears to be a pandemic, given the bleating from politicians and news anchors and actors and the hoplophobic pantywaists nationwide (look it up).
But let's stop and think: Maybe he's right! Maybe we've just not fully implemented his liberal wet dream! Maybe we should even EXPAND it to include other illegal/antisocial activities! Such as...
... "Bum Check Free Zone"
... "Burglary Free Zone"
... "Speeding Free Zone"
... "Misogynist Free Zone"
... "Bad Joke Free Zone"
... "Pervert Free Zone"
... "Climate Chaos Free Zone"
... "Pedophile Free Zone"
... "Double Parking Free Zone"
... "Indecent Speech Free Zone"
... "Pickpocket Free Zone"
... "Bank Robbery Free Zone"
... "Triggering Free Zone"
... "Tax Evasion Free Zone"
... "Racist Free Zone"
... "Rape Free Zone"
... "Hate Speech Free Zone"
And in California these days...
... "Capitalism Free Zone"
There may be others we could focus our efforts on, but these would constitute a very good start. Then, if we learn that these signs actually DO thwart the named illegal or undesirable activity (cough, cough), then we can expand their use to include every. single. illegal. activity. Every one.
Or, should we learn that these signs don't work, don't reduce the occurrence of illegal activity, then we can stop the charade and TAKE THEM DOWN! Even if we don't replace them with well-trained, well-armed folks to dissuade illegal activity, at the very least we'd stop making a fool of ourselves to the perpetrators who think we're stupid anyway...
Remember: Criminals are known for not obeying our laws. That's why they're called "criminals." Duh! When we pass laws that criminals won't obey, we're just inconveniencing the honest, honorable law-abiders among us. Which we do every day. And also providing the impetus for rampant civil disobedience (good people don't like dumb laws!).
I'd like to say that one day, ONE DAY, common sense might somehow return to the District of Columbia and Sacrataxyou and the MainStreamMedia and Hollyweird and to those of a Progressive persuasion.
I'd like to say that, but I can't...
Monday, August 12, 2019
A Sad STATE of Affairs...
For my friends back east who've called to ask how things "really" are here in Taxifornia, stating openly that they just can't believe what they're reading and seeing on TV and being told, I offer up this tasty snippet of info you can use.
First, I know you've heard about how the Loony Leftoids here are about turning illegals into voters and taxing the middle class and raising gas taxes to the moon and outlawing guns and taxing drinking water and eliminating plastic straws and trying to fix "global warming" all by themselves, but those things are just too unlikely for many of you folks to believe. I know. You've told me so.
So how about some things much smaller in scope that just might give you an insight into the quagmire of nuttiness into which this State has descended? Okay. Here goes...
The administration of California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), just emailed all its students a heartfelt apology. They apologized for having let the Border Patrol use their Career Center to advertise its job openings. They even went so far as to offer "...counseling and psychological services" to the students who were negatively triggered by this assault on their little snowflake senses. Woe is them! Woe is them!
Imagine: A state university, any state university, anywhere, apologized and offered counseling to students who they unfairly exposed to what, work? Reality? Real life? Adulthood? The consequences of violating our immigration laws? Or is it just that they didn't want to traumatize their pansy victims with the facts; you breaks the law, you pays the price. No matter your color.
Or at least you still do in some places...
And second, I just learned that the Mayor of San Jose, the town that surrounds Silicon Valley, and all its riches, and all its festering, insufferable preening liberality, demanded that his City Council pass a law requiring gun owners within his fair community to pay a tax if they want to buy them, or if they wish to still keep them. He said, "You have to have a license to drive a car, why not a licence to own a gun?" Yes, you got that right. That old tired meme again. With complete disregard for the niceties of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, no longer for this Mayor is it "...the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." For him it's infringement on steroids!
Hey Mr. Mayor! Isn't this a bit like the Old South's Poll Tax? You know, the one designed to keep Black folks from voting? Just another sachet around the 2nd Amendment designed to dramatically increase the cost of defending oneself? Since they're both the subject of Constitutional Amendments (you knew that, right?), do you still wish to try and make this leaky boat float?
Would you like to know what can happen when you let a bunch of overeducated, underexperienced, elitist, redistributionist, smug, otherwise-unemployable Progressive weenies take over the Castle? Freedoms will be eroded a bit at a time, day by day, hour by hour. Just like that proverbial frog and the pot of boiling water.
These are but two examples...
First, I know you've heard about how the Loony Leftoids here are about turning illegals into voters and taxing the middle class and raising gas taxes to the moon and outlawing guns and taxing drinking water and eliminating plastic straws and trying to fix "global warming" all by themselves, but those things are just too unlikely for many of you folks to believe. I know. You've told me so.
So how about some things much smaller in scope that just might give you an insight into the quagmire of nuttiness into which this State has descended? Okay. Here goes...
The administration of California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), just emailed all its students a heartfelt apology. They apologized for having let the Border Patrol use their Career Center to advertise its job openings. They even went so far as to offer "...counseling and psychological services" to the students who were negatively triggered by this assault on their little snowflake senses. Woe is them! Woe is them!
Imagine: A state university, any state university, anywhere, apologized and offered counseling to students who they unfairly exposed to what, work? Reality? Real life? Adulthood? The consequences of violating our immigration laws? Or is it just that they didn't want to traumatize their pansy victims with the facts; you breaks the law, you pays the price. No matter your color.
Or at least you still do in some places...
And second, I just learned that the Mayor of San Jose, the town that surrounds Silicon Valley, and all its riches, and all its festering, insufferable preening liberality, demanded that his City Council pass a law requiring gun owners within his fair community to pay a tax if they want to buy them, or if they wish to still keep them. He said, "You have to have a license to drive a car, why not a licence to own a gun?" Yes, you got that right. That old tired meme again. With complete disregard for the niceties of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, no longer for this Mayor is it "...the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." For him it's infringement on steroids!
Hey Mr. Mayor! Isn't this a bit like the Old South's Poll Tax? You know, the one designed to keep Black folks from voting? Just another sachet around the 2nd Amendment designed to dramatically increase the cost of defending oneself? Since they're both the subject of Constitutional Amendments (you knew that, right?), do you still wish to try and make this leaky boat float?
Would you like to know what can happen when you let a bunch of overeducated, underexperienced, elitist, redistributionist, smug, otherwise-unemployable Progressive weenies take over the Castle? Freedoms will be eroded a bit at a time, day by day, hour by hour. Just like that proverbial frog and the pot of boiling water.
These are but two examples...
Thursday, August 8, 2019
The Right to Choose...
Do you think people have the right to choose?
You know, as they tell us, the right to decide for yourselves between polar extreme issues? Often unpopular ones? Often ones that much of our population finds egregious? A binary choice?
Good. Then we've set the stage for an interesting little discussion here. The "right to choose" meme is usually presented in the context of a woman's decision between aborting her unborn fetus and carrying it to full term. Or some portion thereof. And those in favor of women having such a right can look for support to "Roe v. Wade," a 1973 decision by the Supreme Court arising out of its having somehow ferreted out a well-disguised right of "privacy" between the lines on the hallowed pages of the Constitution.
However well meaning - or flawed - that decision was, it has fostered a never-ending debate over that self-same "right to choose." And it's been inculcated and ingrained into our societal consciousness ever since. And I'm comfortable it shall never be overturned.
Okay? Got that? Now then, if you support a woman's "right to choose," do you also support that woman's "right to choose" how she should defend herself? Whether she should be able to choose to buy, own, use, keep and bear a firearm? A firearm that that self-same Supreme Court has decided we each have an inherent "individual Right," apart from any militia, to keep and bear (Heller v. District of Columbia)? A Right that has been codified for the ages as the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution? Not just a Supreme Court decision, a Constitutional Amendment?
(NOTE: As I'm sure you're aware, the word "abortion" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence or the "Federalist Papers" or "Common Sense" or any other document from the era. Nor was there any discussion or reference to anything even remotely concerned with that topic by our Founding Fathers.)
You simply cannot have it both ways. If you wish the right to choose to end a prospective life at will, which more than 60% of our population abhors, you must also accord others their Rights to make equally polarizing decisions, even though you may find them similarly abhorrent. Even if their "right" was magically conjured up while attempting to discern what our Founding Fathers were actually thinking when they wrote the Constitution, and that other "Right" was clearly and simply stated as an Amendment in the Bill of Rights, according it the force of law?
Here's a thought: I'd guess those who champion gun rights wouldn't interfere with others' "right to choose" if those others would simply choose not to infringe on their "Right" to keep and bear arms. And if you're one of those who refuses to accede to this request, I'm pretty sure far fewer people will die while they exercise their Rights than will while you exercise yours...
You know, as they tell us, the right to decide for yourselves between polar extreme issues? Often unpopular ones? Often ones that much of our population finds egregious? A binary choice?
Good. Then we've set the stage for an interesting little discussion here. The "right to choose" meme is usually presented in the context of a woman's decision between aborting her unborn fetus and carrying it to full term. Or some portion thereof. And those in favor of women having such a right can look for support to "Roe v. Wade," a 1973 decision by the Supreme Court arising out of its having somehow ferreted out a well-disguised right of "privacy" between the lines on the hallowed pages of the Constitution.
However well meaning - or flawed - that decision was, it has fostered a never-ending debate over that self-same "right to choose." And it's been inculcated and ingrained into our societal consciousness ever since. And I'm comfortable it shall never be overturned.
Okay? Got that? Now then, if you support a woman's "right to choose," do you also support that woman's "right to choose" how she should defend herself? Whether she should be able to choose to buy, own, use, keep and bear a firearm? A firearm that that self-same Supreme Court has decided we each have an inherent "individual Right," apart from any militia, to keep and bear (Heller v. District of Columbia)? A Right that has been codified for the ages as the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution? Not just a Supreme Court decision, a Constitutional Amendment?
(NOTE: As I'm sure you're aware, the word "abortion" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence or the "Federalist Papers" or "Common Sense" or any other document from the era. Nor was there any discussion or reference to anything even remotely concerned with that topic by our Founding Fathers.)
You simply cannot have it both ways. If you wish the right to choose to end a prospective life at will, which more than 60% of our population abhors, you must also accord others their Rights to make equally polarizing decisions, even though you may find them similarly abhorrent. Even if their "right" was magically conjured up while attempting to discern what our Founding Fathers were actually thinking when they wrote the Constitution, and that other "Right" was clearly and simply stated as an Amendment in the Bill of Rights, according it the force of law?
Here's a thought: I'd guess those who champion gun rights wouldn't interfere with others' "right to choose" if those others would simply choose not to infringe on their "Right" to keep and bear arms. And if you're one of those who refuses to accede to this request, I'm pretty sure far fewer people will die while they exercise their Rights than will while you exercise yours...
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Do You Like Drag Racing?
I do.
Always have. Probably always will. I was fortunate to grow up smack in the middle of America and smack in the middle of drag racing heaven. So much so that I chose to invest most all my winnings from a successful career as a pool hustler into semi-professional career as a drag racer.
Note that I never got really famous for either, except in my own mind. Well, maybe the pool part...
Anyway, I raced competitively in the American Hot Rod Assn. during the 60's. I held several national records in Super Stock. But that was back during the days when you drove to the track, raced, and then drove on back home.
Now? It's a whole different deal. A cubic money deal. Please allow me to cite some examples.
Starting at the top, AA/FD, or Fuel Dragster, is like a hole into which you throw money. Bushel baskets of it.
Each dragster has a wheelbase 300 inches long. They are made of carbon fiber and titanium and forged aluminum and fiberglass. Sort of like a 25 foot long tube made of "unobtainium" with huge tires attached. They must weigh at least 2,350 pounds, including the driver. Their huge rear "slicks" (tires designed for maximum traction) are 17.5" wide and 32" tall! They have airfoil "spoilers" both front and rear that provide unbelievable amounts of down force. At full song the car will produce more than 12,000 pounds of downforce! It would literally run on the ceiling if you could get it up there!
Each dragster uses a 500 cubic inch forged aluminum "hemi" V-8 engine. These engines are so high-tech they can now be "printed" using enormous 3-D printers. And it only takes about five x 24 hour days to print one.
Each cylinder is the size of a tomato can. Each is custom-designed and built to withstand the enormous stresses and pressures these cars undergo. When loaded with 85% nitromethane (oxygen-rich fuel), and pressurized by a huge GMC supercharger at 60 lbs./boost (5 x normal atmosphere), and fueled by a pump that could empty your pool in less than five minutes, and a fuel line the size of a garden hose, these engines can produce more than 11,000 horsepower at 8,800 rpm, and 8,000 pounds of torque!
NOTE: No one knows exactly how much power they make because there's no dynamometer large enough to measure them.
These cars will accelerate from zero to 100 miles per hour in 0.8 seconds! And they will run 285 m.p.h. in 1/8th mile and more than 338 m.p.h. in less than 3.70 seconds in 1,000 feet! Their drivers experience a positive 6 g's during acceleration, and up to 7 g's when their parachutes pop out to slow them down. Retinas have become detached in so doing. That, my friends, is fast!
These engines routinely burn 12 - 13 gallons of nitromethane during a single run. Their tanks hold 17 gallons. They burn 11 gallons per minute, so you get the reason for urgency in staging, and in seeing that "green" light. In other words, you've got about a minute and a half - only - to start it, stage it and run it down the track.
Once a run is over the car's engine is completely rebuilt. The engine is fully disassembled by a crew of 7 or 8. The crankshaft and pistons come out, the heads and supercharger comes off, and then inspected, then new parts installed, and finally its all screwed back together. This can happen in as little as 20 minutes. The all-time record is 9.82 minutes!
Lemme' say that again: Imagine disassembling a red hot motor, down to the spark plugs, and then putting it all back together and starting it in less than 20 minutes. Yeah. I thought you'd be impressed...
What does all this cost? As they say, if you have to ask, you definitely can't afford it. Here's a sampling for your motoring pleasure:
- Engines (bare forged aluminum block):
$58,000 each.
- Superchargers:
$17,000 each.
- 42 gallon barrel Nitromethane:
$1,195.
- Cost for Nitromethane per 1/4 mile run:
$400.
- Cost for each rear slick:
$700 (good for 4 runs only).
- Carbon fiber car body:
$72,000.
- Cost in parts for each engine rebuilt:
$5,000.
- Estimated cost in parts and fuel for each 1/4 mile run:
$10,000.
- Cost of a race-ready car:
$500,000 up. Often waaaay up.
- Cost to campaign an AA/TF dragster, 26 races:
$2 - $10 Million a Year.
In addition to the big boy AA/FD, there are dozens of lesser classes for everything from Model T Fords to the one step below AA/FC (Funny Cars). They are so named because they look funny. Really. There are even classes for motorcycles. And, maybe even most importantly, a ticket to get in to the race is a ticket to the pits. That means you can get up close and personal with the stars of this sport. As in, shoulder to shoulder. You talk to them, they talk back. They're famous, but they don't seem to know it yet. There's no other sport with this level of access to their stars.
Now, if watching one AA/FD dragster tear down the track, picture two of them! 22,000 side-by-side horsepower, sucking Goodyear blimps worth of oxygen out of the atmosphere, depressing your chest with the waves of air pressure as they go by, and screaming with the howl of a thousand banshees, doing their best to homogenize all those dainty little inner ear parts and pieces you hope to keep hearing with. Not kidding on the noise. Deafening. Think two 747s taking off 50 feet away. Yeah.
So, if this tweaks your interest, and it certainly should, be sure to check out the NHRA's Finals in Pomona in early November. The experience is unforgettable...
Always have. Probably always will. I was fortunate to grow up smack in the middle of America and smack in the middle of drag racing heaven. So much so that I chose to invest most all my winnings from a successful career as a pool hustler into semi-professional career as a drag racer.
Note that I never got really famous for either, except in my own mind. Well, maybe the pool part...
Anyway, I raced competitively in the American Hot Rod Assn. during the 60's. I held several national records in Super Stock. But that was back during the days when you drove to the track, raced, and then drove on back home.
Now? It's a whole different deal. A cubic money deal. Please allow me to cite some examples.
Starting at the top, AA/FD, or Fuel Dragster, is like a hole into which you throw money. Bushel baskets of it.
Each dragster has a wheelbase 300 inches long. They are made of carbon fiber and titanium and forged aluminum and fiberglass. Sort of like a 25 foot long tube made of "unobtainium" with huge tires attached. They must weigh at least 2,350 pounds, including the driver. Their huge rear "slicks" (tires designed for maximum traction) are 17.5" wide and 32" tall! They have airfoil "spoilers" both front and rear that provide unbelievable amounts of down force. At full song the car will produce more than 12,000 pounds of downforce! It would literally run on the ceiling if you could get it up there!
Each dragster uses a 500 cubic inch forged aluminum "hemi" V-8 engine. These engines are so high-tech they can now be "printed" using enormous 3-D printers. And it only takes about five x 24 hour days to print one.
Each cylinder is the size of a tomato can. Each is custom-designed and built to withstand the enormous stresses and pressures these cars undergo. When loaded with 85% nitromethane (oxygen-rich fuel), and pressurized by a huge GMC supercharger at 60 lbs./boost (5 x normal atmosphere), and fueled by a pump that could empty your pool in less than five minutes, and a fuel line the size of a garden hose, these engines can produce more than 11,000 horsepower at 8,800 rpm, and 8,000 pounds of torque!
NOTE: No one knows exactly how much power they make because there's no dynamometer large enough to measure them.
These cars will accelerate from zero to 100 miles per hour in 0.8 seconds! And they will run 285 m.p.h. in 1/8th mile and more than 338 m.p.h. in less than 3.70 seconds in 1,000 feet! Their drivers experience a positive 6 g's during acceleration, and up to 7 g's when their parachutes pop out to slow them down. Retinas have become detached in so doing. That, my friends, is fast!
These engines routinely burn 12 - 13 gallons of nitromethane during a single run. Their tanks hold 17 gallons. They burn 11 gallons per minute, so you get the reason for urgency in staging, and in seeing that "green" light. In other words, you've got about a minute and a half - only - to start it, stage it and run it down the track.
Once a run is over the car's engine is completely rebuilt. The engine is fully disassembled by a crew of 7 or 8. The crankshaft and pistons come out, the heads and supercharger comes off, and then inspected, then new parts installed, and finally its all screwed back together. This can happen in as little as 20 minutes. The all-time record is 9.82 minutes!
Lemme' say that again: Imagine disassembling a red hot motor, down to the spark plugs, and then putting it all back together and starting it in less than 20 minutes. Yeah. I thought you'd be impressed...
What does all this cost? As they say, if you have to ask, you definitely can't afford it. Here's a sampling for your motoring pleasure:
- Engines (bare forged aluminum block):
$58,000 each.
- Superchargers:
$17,000 each.
- 42 gallon barrel Nitromethane:
$1,195.
- Cost for Nitromethane per 1/4 mile run:
$400.
- Cost for each rear slick:
$700 (good for 4 runs only).
- Carbon fiber car body:
$72,000.
- Cost in parts for each engine rebuilt:
$5,000.
- Estimated cost in parts and fuel for each 1/4 mile run:
$10,000.
- Cost of a race-ready car:
$500,000 up. Often waaaay up.
- Cost to campaign an AA/TF dragster, 26 races:
$2 - $10 Million a Year.
In addition to the big boy AA/FD, there are dozens of lesser classes for everything from Model T Fords to the one step below AA/FC (Funny Cars). They are so named because they look funny. Really. There are even classes for motorcycles. And, maybe even most importantly, a ticket to get in to the race is a ticket to the pits. That means you can get up close and personal with the stars of this sport. As in, shoulder to shoulder. You talk to them, they talk back. They're famous, but they don't seem to know it yet. There's no other sport with this level of access to their stars.
Now, if watching one AA/FD dragster tear down the track, picture two of them! 22,000 side-by-side horsepower, sucking Goodyear blimps worth of oxygen out of the atmosphere, depressing your chest with the waves of air pressure as they go by, and screaming with the howl of a thousand banshees, doing their best to homogenize all those dainty little inner ear parts and pieces you hope to keep hearing with. Not kidding on the noise. Deafening. Think two 747s taking off 50 feet away. Yeah.
So, if this tweaks your interest, and it certainly should, be sure to check out the NHRA's Finals in Pomona in early November. The experience is unforgettable...
Friday, August 2, 2019
I Have a Few Questions:
Perhaps you can help me here.
I'm kind of wondering why we call "American-Indians" the "American" part first, and the Indian bit later on?
And why we call "Indian-Americans" Indian first, as in "from India," you know, "red dot," not "Whoo Whoo," and "American" second?
And why we call "Mexican-Americans" Mexican first, and "American" a not-so-close second?
And why we call "African-Americans" African first, and "American" only an after thought? Shouldn't they be called "American-Africans?" Or, perhaps even better, just "Americans?" Unless they're still Africans, that is.
Are they?
In fact, Mr. and Mrs. (and all the other genders, of which I'm told there are now 52) America, why do we Americans engage in such population dividers? Why do we separate people into little boxes? Or allow others to do so? Yes, I know my question is rhetorical, as separating people into little groups is what the Democrat Party does for a living. And what we Americans should resist with every fiber of our being.
And why do we call colored people "people of color?" Is "colored people" now a pejorative? If it is, why isn't "people of color?" Do we now avoid any claims of racial animus by simply playing this little word game?
And how do we compute the "National Association for the Advancement of 'Colored People" if "colored" is pejorative? "Colored" was to have been an "advancement" over "Blacks," since "Blacks" was pejorative during the 60's and 70's (remember the "Black Panthers?"). Yet, "Blacks" is apparently now an advancement over "Colored." Shouldn't the folks responsible for talking to Black people stop calling them "Colored?" Is a slight adjustment of descriptive semantics enough to assuage the "Progressive" tendencies of those who would otherwise be outraged at any other term? Just tweak the verbiage a tad and racial tensions are sure to subside? Really?
Remember when Blacks were called "Negroes?" That was when this, the then preferred and even most polite term for this class of folks (I was there; don't argue with me), was the order of the day. And that was mucho better than the alternative back then, if you'll recall (!).
Except for hip hop artists, who would have nothing to say if it didn't start with "N."
But we as a society have (at least publicly) purged our tendency to use descriptive terms that demean and diminish people. And the incessant "word police" will excoriate anyone who fumbles such a term. And "social media," such as Twitter and Instagram and those other time-wasters, make it soooo easy to screw up and mislabel somebody or other, and thus cause people to dig their own public graves...
Think back over the past few years. Just try to recall all the instances whereby politicians and celebs and bizz-types stepped in it big-time over their too-casual use of their little Twitter-er-er. And then had to publicly and painfully walk back their intemperate or injudicious commentary in front of all to see.
If fame is so fleeting, and so fickle, why would anyone want it?
I have a suggestion: From this day forward let's all just start calling everyone American first, and everything else concerning their lineage later. If they're here from Lichtenstein and decide to apply for citizenship, I say we should then call them "American-Lichtensteiners." Or if they're from Zimbabwe, I say we call them "American-Zimbabweans." And if from Tuvalu, then I suggest "American-Tuvaluans." It would cost us nothing, it would give America the first-place in the equation it truly deserves, and it would show the World how we view our wonderful Country.
Unless there are some of us who truly don't value their Country, that is. And now, as we find ourselves deep into the next election campaign, don't you think it's finally time to find out?
I'm kind of wondering why we call "American-Indians" the "American" part first, and the Indian bit later on?
And why we call "Indian-Americans" Indian first, as in "from India," you know, "red dot," not "Whoo Whoo," and "American" second?
And why we call "Mexican-Americans" Mexican first, and "American" a not-so-close second?
And why we call "African-Americans" African first, and "American" only an after thought? Shouldn't they be called "American-Africans?" Or, perhaps even better, just "Americans?" Unless they're still Africans, that is.
Are they?
In fact, Mr. and Mrs. (and all the other genders, of which I'm told there are now 52) America, why do we Americans engage in such population dividers? Why do we separate people into little boxes? Or allow others to do so? Yes, I know my question is rhetorical, as separating people into little groups is what the Democrat Party does for a living. And what we Americans should resist with every fiber of our being.
And why do we call colored people "people of color?" Is "colored people" now a pejorative? If it is, why isn't "people of color?" Do we now avoid any claims of racial animus by simply playing this little word game?
And how do we compute the "National Association for the Advancement of 'Colored People" if "colored" is pejorative? "Colored" was to have been an "advancement" over "Blacks," since "Blacks" was pejorative during the 60's and 70's (remember the "Black Panthers?"). Yet, "Blacks" is apparently now an advancement over "Colored." Shouldn't the folks responsible for talking to Black people stop calling them "Colored?" Is a slight adjustment of descriptive semantics enough to assuage the "Progressive" tendencies of those who would otherwise be outraged at any other term? Just tweak the verbiage a tad and racial tensions are sure to subside? Really?
Remember when Blacks were called "Negroes?" That was when this, the then preferred and even most polite term for this class of folks (I was there; don't argue with me), was the order of the day. And that was mucho better than the alternative back then, if you'll recall (!).
Except for hip hop artists, who would have nothing to say if it didn't start with "N."
But we as a society have (at least publicly) purged our tendency to use descriptive terms that demean and diminish people. And the incessant "word police" will excoriate anyone who fumbles such a term. And "social media," such as Twitter and Instagram and those other time-wasters, make it soooo easy to screw up and mislabel somebody or other, and thus cause people to dig their own public graves...
Think back over the past few years. Just try to recall all the instances whereby politicians and celebs and bizz-types stepped in it big-time over their too-casual use of their little Twitter-er-er. And then had to publicly and painfully walk back their intemperate or injudicious commentary in front of all to see.
If fame is so fleeting, and so fickle, why would anyone want it?
I have a suggestion: From this day forward let's all just start calling everyone American first, and everything else concerning their lineage later. If they're here from Lichtenstein and decide to apply for citizenship, I say we should then call them "American-Lichtensteiners." Or if they're from Zimbabwe, I say we call them "American-Zimbabweans." And if from Tuvalu, then I suggest "American-Tuvaluans." It would cost us nothing, it would give America the first-place in the equation it truly deserves, and it would show the World how we view our wonderful Country.
Unless there are some of us who truly don't value their Country, that is. And now, as we find ourselves deep into the next election campaign, don't you think it's finally time to find out?
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