As if there was some confusion
I keep reading comments on Seattle’s 911 blog along the lines of:
If only he’d had a gun…
they could have taken it from him along with his money, or just shot him with theirs if he pulled it on them…
Or he could have run to a well-lit area and shot his assailants. He didn’t have the option because he wasn’t carrying; carrying a firearm adds options and forecloses others.
Tonight was the public forum on Seattle’s proposed ban of firearms on city-owned property; like most public meetings, this one ran hot, cold, and long. Props to the mediator for keeping the meeting clipping along; should you watch the rebroadcast, you’ll notice he has a fairly light touch for the most part. That he cut off pro and con at 90 seconds (even mid-word) was appreciated.
I did not speak tonight; when I signed up and saw the length of the list, I despaired of getting the chance before my bladder gave out. However, I’d like to pass along some tips to people that are venturing into public speaking for the first time.
First, when you hit a home run, quit; even though you have 90 seconds, you don’t have to fill it all. Several speakers hit home runs, waited for the applause to die down, and finished with a pop fly. Don’t be that guy (or girl).
Secondly, be on topic; the topic tonight was “Seattle ban on firearms on Seattle-owned property”. I don’t care what you think the queers are doing to the soil, keep to the point.
Thirdly, if you have nothing to say, don’t say it. Who got the first big applause of the night? The guy who said “Everything I was going to say has been said, so I’ll not bore you”. Be that guy.
Fourthly, practice. You don’t have to memorize your speech; you should, though, read it aloud a few times. Use a clock and see if you’re in the ballpark for the time allotted.
Lastly, if you are a god damn idiot, stay at home. I should have paid attention to this; that I went clearly marks me as a god damn idiot. Several of the speakers went right out in front of God and everybody and confirmed that they were idiots. The three I’m thinking of (one pro, two con) I knew were god damn idiots as soon as I saw them step to the mic.
I took a bunch of pictures; some of them even sort of turned out. Click through and see if you recognize anyone.
Best speaker of the night:
Moved from DC; 50 Cent, 2 Pac fan:
This gentleman was against Nickels:
This lady was passionate:
because they might encourage untrained people to fight fires, instead of leaving it up to the professionals. Apparently they build flats out of asbestos in Formerly Great Britain:
Dorset Fire and Rescue defended the move, saying: ‘Obviously, in some cases, an extinguisher could come in useful but, with new building regulations, every escape route should be completely fireproof.’
Looks like HS Precision hired “Teflon” Lon Horiuchi as a spokesman. Click for the full-sized ad:
It’s possible he’s merely being quoted instead of having been hired; either way, party foul.
Update: Yossarian said: I called them and asked about the endorsement. The lady who answered said Horiuchi knows the owner and confirmed the endorsement.
Need to read change.gov.
From service:
Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
From urban policy:
Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
Plenty more; just click around.
Because they have our best interests at heart (well, close to heart). At least, stuffing cash in your bra close to heart.
State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was arrested this morning following an 18-month, “painstaking” undercover investigation, during which she was allegedly caught on tape stuffing a cash bribe into her bra and taking payoffs to push through a Roxbury nightclub liquor license, according to a complaint.
In other news, age and sex are a disability when it comes to gun purchases in Delaware.
Delaware State Police stopped Alvina Vansickle from purchasing a .22-caliber pistol for self-defense because she was too old and a woman, said Superintendent Col. Thomas MacLeish.
The outrage that followed led to the revelation that Delaware State Police had been keeping lists of gun buyers for years; state law requires them to destroy these records after 60 days.
Color me shocked – well, no, don’t. There is so much wrong here I have nothing more to say.
John Jay has written an excellent series of articles called “The MSM misses the bout”: parts one, two, and three. He starts with a provocative point:
Take a look at the early 1960s, for example. If one is to go by the Boomer nostalgia for the period, the assassination of Kennedy is the watershed event for the period. In fact, the most likely (and I do not presume to have the final world on this) candidate for the seminal event of 1960 – 1964 is Kennedy’s commitment of troops to Vietnam. From this flowed a tremendous amount of history, and not just the further commitments of LBJ and the subsequent social upheaval in the US. If the officers I talked to in the late Soviet period are correct, the Vietnam War bankrupted the Soviet Union.
Further on:
But at the time, what were the great news stories, which still to a large extent dominate the thinking of historians about the period of 1960 – 1964? The assassination. The Bay of Pigs. Camelot. Useless drivel and a distraction to the serious study of history.
John then argues the most pivotal battle of World War II was one you have most likely never heard of:
“I remember well how, in the spring and summer of 1939, my curiosity was gripped by short newspaper accounts of an undeclared war that was raging between the Japanese and Soviet armies on a desolate stretch of disputed frontier lying between the client states of Manchukuo and Outer Mongolia.”
– Alvin D. Coox, Nomonhan
That battle, Nomonhan or Khalkhin Gol, depending on your perspective , was a watershed in the global conflict that rivaled its contemporary event, the invasion of Poland, in its significance:
All of this in terms of preface to his central thesis: what is most important is often not visible (at the time) in the media. If you recall (and I only have a fuzzy memory of it myself), there was a missing 727 somewhere in Africa after 11 September. John details the work of one man, Viktor Bout, and his behind-the-scenes lubrication of many of the armed conflicts since 11 September. Bout is either an arm of Soviet policy, taking money from all sides of all conflicts (including both sides of the Iraq war); a drug and arms smuggler working without explicit or implicit support of any state; or somewhere in between. I won’t steal John’s thunder; hopefully, you’ll find all three articles worth your time to read.
As I pointed out earlier, there was a small cluster of protection orders being violated in King County. The Seattle-PI noticed and wrote a short bit on it. Of course, they walk around the elephant in the room while describing the shadow cast in great detail. So close, yet, so far.
Q: A few nights ago, Seattleite Nate Molsee was driving south on Interstate 5 through Lynnwood just after sundown and came upon an SUV in the lane to his left without its headlights on. Rainy weather and the dusky light made the vehicle practically invisible, he said. He wasn’t sure what to do. “Should I have followed the example of some of the other drivers and flashed my lights, or pulled over and called 911?”
A: State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins says in a case like that, flash your lights once. If the other vehicle’s lights don’t come on, the driver may be drunk or under the influence of something else, “and it’s probably worth calling 911 from your cellphone.”
In Washington state, it is illegal to flash your lights at someone.
Someone yet un-named and Debra Lynn Bonilla have both paid the ultimate price for relying on the police to protect them.
A Seattle man has been charged with second-degree murder, accused of repeatedly stabbing his wife with a 13-inch barbecue fork in front of their two young children Friday.
What a sweetheart.
A man served with an anti-harassment order early Saturday morning is suspected of later killing the very woman he had been tormenting, then attempting to kill himself.
I hope he roasts in hell, too.
Unorganized Militia