“A liberal is a man who will give away everything he doesn’t own.” —Frank Dane
“Every day you meet a delegation going to some convention to try and change the way of somebody else’s life.” —Will Rogers
Tag: liberty
Digital “rights” management company Macrovision has completed its acquisition of Israeli-based Midbar Technologies, and will now take its copy-protection experience into the audio space. For those of you who may not have paid attention to any DRM stuff to this point, this is a bad thing. Fellow ATPM staffer Eric Blair, during a staff discussion, summed up my sentiments perfectly:
“The music industry continually finds new and interesting (or, in this case, warmed over and old hat) ways to shoot itself in the foot. It just kills me to watch the record companies take steps that actively push people towards piracy.
“…If the record companies actually look at the source of their problems, they’d see that costs are too high and most of the crap out there is, well, crap.
“…Honestly, I think the only solution is to embrace the Internet. Make the CDs reasonably priced. Make singles available for download at a small cost. Accept the fact that some people are never going to pay for what you’re selling if they don’t have to, but the majority of people will if you’re not actively trying to hose them.”
(Thanks, Lee)
For all of you who think the federal government doesn’t focus enough on domestic issues:
“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore…never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” –Thomas Jefferson
Proving once again that they don’t get it and do not deserve the benches they sit upon, a three-judge panel of the left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the 2d Amendment is not an individual right, but a state right.
Gee, I guess that the framers of the Constitution, oh so concerned with individual rights, would have made 9 of the 10 amendments listed in the Bill of Rights specific individual rights, but mark down number 2 as a state right? Please.
And as for Mr. Lockyer’s statement, the 2d Amendment has never been about hunting or target shooting. It has been from its publication about defense; of one’s person and property, and of one’s country. Do your homework, Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Nosanchuk, 9th Circuit judges. See what the Founding Fathers each had to say about firearms and the government beyond what they wrote in the Constitution. Not once do they mention hunting. Not once do they mention “sports shooting.” Defense, defense, defense. Of one’s person, of one’s property, of one’s nation.
And just because something looks like one thing, doesn’t make it that thing. In other words, just because a firearm looks like the same kind of firearm used by the military or police does not make it the same firearm used by the military or police.
This week’s “Keen Sense of the Obvious” Award: “The Bush administration often seems to be completely engrossed with the campaign against terrorism.” —Peter Jennings, ABC News (from The Federalist)
Ummmm. . .yeah. Could it be, Peter, because the primary responsibility of the federal government as set forth in the Constitution of the United States of America is defense of the nation from enemies foreign and domestic? That’s right, contrary to what the Left would have you believe, the federal government’s primary duty is not to provide free or discounted health care, prescription drug benefits, prop up the stock market, or finance late-night urban basketball leagues. Your tax dollars should be spent building the strongest military and finest intelligence services in the world. And can we please stop listening to whiny, leftist Canadians? (With apologies to the non-whiny, non-leftist Canadians I call friends. If only there were more of you.)
And on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Great War ended with an armistice. November 11th was officially honored as Armistice Day from 1926 to 1954 in the United States. In 1954, the holiday was changed to Veterans Day, and we honor all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have served and sacrificed.
A special thank-you to my dad and my uncle for their service in the Navy and Army, respectively, during the Vietnam Conflict. Thankfully, neither had to serve in the Southeast Asia theater of operations.
So if you live next door to, work with, go to church with, or simply just know of, a veteran, take a moment today to shake their hand and thank them for serving their country.
“Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.” –John 15:13
“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” –George Washington, First Annual Address, January 8, 1790
Veterans Day is Monday, November 11th, and this is National Military Appreciation Month. The Department of Defense has set up a web site where you can go and digitally sign a big thank-you to our men and women in uniform. The message, with names, will be distributed at the end of the month. These soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are at the forefront of preserving our national security and defending our liberty. Let them know you appreciate it. (Thanks, Dad!)
Update: Congress approved May as National Military Appreciation Month in May 1999. Looks like my original fact was incorrect.
For our friends in the ACLU and other leftists opposed to profiling in our current war on terrorism:
- In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, Israeli athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Korbut
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 - In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 - During the 1980s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked, and a 70-year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1985 TWA Flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a U.S. Navy diver was murdered by:
a. Captain Kid
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary, to distract attention from Wild Bill’s women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked and destroyed and thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 -
In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
So can we get this through the thick skulls out there? Only one segment of world society has shown, since World War II, the propensity for terrorism and violence shown above: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
Mothers with small children, 80-year-old grandmothers, pilots with the proper credentials, artificial-implant patients, and Medal of Honor winners are not boarding planes with the intent of hijacking them. Let’s stop harrasing millions of perfectly innocent people who are simply trying to get from point A to point B, and search the folks who actually fit the profile of terrorists.
You do not have a right to not be offended. If you look like, and have a name similar to, Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40, you should expect to be searched at the airport. Repeatedly.
You can bet your behind that if the IRA had pulled off what a bunch of Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 did on 9/11/01, then every white male in America would be getting stopped at the airport, especially those named Patrick, Kelly, et al. The terrorists with a grudge against the United States have a profile, yes. It’s about time we started using it. (Thanks to Kelly for the quiz via email.)
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle appeared on Fox News Sunday this past week. During the interview, hypocrite Daschle remarked: “Well, it’s not necessarily the position in that legislative approach that I think is the concern. It’s the attitude. It’s the way that we have gone about foreign policy, especially, Tony, this unilateral approach to foreign policy, dictating on a unilateral basis what the United States’ position is going to be and expecting, really, all these countries in a very autocratic or very authoritarian way to comply.”
What hypocrite Daschle fails to remark on is why he’s voted in favor of all the U.S. policies he discounts as “dictatorial” and “unilateral.” It couldn’t possibly be because it’s an election year, could it?
“Saddam won a 100 percent victory in an uncontested election Tuesday to remain the nation’s leader for another seven years.” —CNN
followed by:
This week’s “Leftmedia Buster” Award
“Iraq is holding a sham election today, in which citizens ‘vote’ on whether Saddam Hussein should serve another seven years as president. Under the watchful eye of Saddam’s thugs, these ‘voters’ must sign their names to the ‘ballots,’ and any who dare vote ‘no’ can expect to be executed. It’s a mystery why Western news organizations insist on portraying this as if it were an actual election.” —James Taranto (from The Federalist)