Go read the folks on the sidebar. I’ll get a post up if/when I can.
TGM- Twilight continues to trickle out the door, and the reviews are appreciated! Half way to that magic 50 reviews!!!
But it’s reviews like this that I truly appreciate…
As a retired law enforcement officer, I really liked this book. It shows there is no replacement for experience in the job.
If I can get reviews like this, it means I did a good job with the ‘vagaries’ of law enforcement, and the alpha and beta readers caught my mistakes BEFORE the readers did! 🙂
He makes some interesting statements, including the fact that he believes Heller was wrong, thinks 2A is a ‘relic’ of the 18th century, and supports banning semi-automatic ‘weapons’.
While I truly doubt that the 2nd Amendment could actually be repealed, the policy does exist in the form of Article 5 of the Constitution-
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
So, it would take 75 Senators, and 327 Representatives to start the process, or 33 states to call a Constitutional Convention. Then 38 state legislatures or 38 STATE Constitutional Conventions would have to ratify said voting. While some say there are ‘other’ ways to repeal an amendment, I doubt they would stand the test of SCOTUS. The procedure would be run by the Archivist, as stated in 1 US Code, 106b.
There has been one Amendment repealed, and that one was Prohibition, the 18th Amendment, which went into effect in 1920 after 16 years of trying. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.
You can go HERE, and see some of the proposals and proposed Amendments that have never been ratified…
What do I think will happen? I think the left/Dems/Libs will try to ban AR-15s through congressional action. And I believe that if they do so, the compliance will be as low as it is currently in NY and CT. My personal opinion is that their ultimate goal is to turn law abiding gun owners into criminals…
Am I wrong, or going down a rathole here??? Your thoughts?
Sooo… There is much ado about the Trump campaign PAYING for data from Facebook. It’s trying to be blown up into a major scandal, right? We’re seeing that plastered across the MSM almost daily.
But…
It appears Facebook violated Federal Election Laws in 2012 with the Obama campaign!
According to Carol Davidsen, the former media director for Obama for America, Facebook gave the 2012 Obama campaign direct access to the personal data of Facebook users in violation of its internal rules, making a special exception for the campaign. The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, reported that Davidsen saidon Twitter March 18 that Facebook employees came to the campaign office and “were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side.”
Full article, HERE. Of course the MSM isn’t covering it, and supposedly, ‘the statute of limitations’ has run out…
And in another oopsie, March for Our Lives ‘overestimated’ their crowd…
The March for Our Lives was big, just not nearly as big as organizers said it was.
The problem is that two separate expert analyses, using aerial imaging and photographs, put the march crowd in the 200,000 range, or about a quarter of the widely touted 850,000 figure.
Interestingly, this follows a pattern, if you will, of the left/socialist/MSM of grossly overestimating the crowds that attend various functions…
I remember the Everymom protest that was supposedly held AT the NRA in Louisville, that was actually in a totally different part of town, and they claimed ‘multiple hundreds’ of protesters. While actual wide shots of the protest showed maybe 100 protesters total. Of course the ‘explanation’ was that it was taken after the protest had ended, but I remember there was still a speaker at the podium when the picture was taken…
And a potential oopsie to come… The upcoming NFL season…
After two years of kneeling players and plummeting ratings, NFL owners are expected next week to put the finishing touches on an $89 million social justice package intended to defuse the sideline protest problem that began with Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and put the focus back on what happens on the field.
Full article, HERE, again from the Washington Times. But nothing about the players standing for the anthem… If they don’t, I personally don’t think the fans will put up with it, and even more will leave.
In the hopes of deterring violence, schools are turning to big data analytics to examine social media posts for the earliest signs of violence—depression, resentment, and isolation. Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Massachusetts has turned to Social Sentinel, a data analytics company that says it can use the type of threat detection police agencies use to identify students at risk. But experts worry student social media mining, even with the best intentions, is a slippery slope to treating students the way we treat suspects.
Are ‘we’ next? If you’re a 2A proponent, or a collector, or curio and relic person, or a military history buff, what are the odds that we wouldn’t trip their threat detector? And I find this quote rather interesting…
“We are not a surveillance tool; we are not a monitoring tool; we’re not an investigative tool,” Margulis said.
Looks to me like they ARE both a surveillance and monitoring tool! They claim 450,000 ‘threat indicators’, and approved ‘access’ to over 1 billion social posts a day. If they’re not ‘surveilling and monitoring’ those posts, what ARE they doing with them???
After the debacle with Cambridge Analytics, this is enough to make one wonder…
From reader Charles- Some good points…
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. Robert A. Heinlein
The more laws, the less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. Robert A. Heinlein I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater
I spent the morning watching the March for Our Lives gun control rally coverage on various networks. CNN and MSNBC were fawning, to put it mildly. Fox was at least balanced. The WAPO was all about the march, again fawning over the ‘poor children’. This was an interesting statement in the article in the Washington Times-
Before the speeches began, people bundled up against the cold, sipping coffee and dusting off sugar from powdered donuts donated by DC Vote. Several toddlers were seen running through the park holding the nonprofit’s statehood protest signs. The city’s Board of Elections also set up a table to register voters, including 16-year-olds who will be eligible to vote in the 2020 election. Organizers set up a giant homemade clock with the city names of mass shootings instead of numbers, and an AR-15 instead of a hand.
Anti-gun, anti-NRA, anti-Republican. No mention of the Broward County Sheriff’s failures, the FBI’s failure, the failure to have the shooter committed… Nope, ALL anti-gun, all the time… They want ‘comprehensive gun legislation’ (not specified), a nationwide ban on AR rifles, erroneously calling them assault rifles. They also want to ban ‘high capacity’ magazines, whatever that is…
Those kids had some professional speech writers, and they must have rehearsed a LOT!!! And it’s becoming easier to see the puppet strings being pulled… And, IMHO, the kids are now pawns in a bigger game.
They brought people out of the woodwork from previous shootings, even from 9/11 to get up and spout their ‘agenda’.
$3.5 million ‘committed’ by various ‘organizations’ to ‘help’ with the marches, e.g. the puppet masters…
The anti-gunners have stolen a march on us with this one, astroturfing the hell out of the gun lobby. And congress approved the Fix-NICS act as part of the omnibus bull, er bill.
AND they want people to register to vote, since they want the power to make those decisions others ‘won’t make’- Like banning guns and shutting down the NRA. The underlying message, at least to me, was vote democrat and vote often. At school, at home, etc.
Sadly, there was no discussion, at least that I heard, of the mental health issues, hardening the schools, etc. The teachers interviewed were ALL against arming teachers, saying it wasn’t their jobs. No counter interviews were on any network.
And these folks aren’t even being covered by the MSM…
So much for a real ‘discussion’ of the issues… Sigh…
Can’t find anything positive to post, so you get humor…
Not many people know that Land Rovers attempted to market a computer. Why did they stop? They could not find a way to get it to leak oil!
A Land Rover doesn´t leak oil, it marks it´s territory. Did you hear about the man whose Land Rover didn’t leak oil? The factory took it backand worked on it until it did.
Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner “How can you tell one switch from another at night? They all look the same. ” – “He replied, “It does not matter which one you use, nothing happens !”
The Lucas motto: “Get home before dark.”
Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
Lucas – Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
Lucas – Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
The three position Lucas switch – Dim, Flicker and Off.
The Original Anti-Theft Device – Lucas Electrics.
>Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices
Lucas systems actually uses AC current; it just has a random frequency.
“I have had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou…”
If Lucas made guns, wars would not start.
A friend of mine told everybody he never had any electric problems with his Lucas equipment. Today he lives in the countryside, in a large manor with lots of friendly servants around him an an occasional ice cold shower…
Back in the 70’s, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.
Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators
Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone.Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: Check the position of the stars,kill a chicken and walk three times clockwise around your car chanting:” Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant..”
And one more…
One day while on their way to get married, a young couple were involved in a fatal car accident. The couple find themselves sitting outside the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven.
While waiting, they begin to wonder: Could they possibly get married in Heaven?? When Saint Peter shows up, they asked him.
Saint Peter says, “I don’t know. This is the first time anyone has ever asked. Let me go and find out,” and he leaves.
The couple sat and waited for an answer……for a couple of months. While they waited, they discussed that IF they were allowed to get married in Heaven, SHOULD they get married, what with the eternal aspect of it all.
“And what if it doesn’t work out?” they wondered, “Are we stuck together FOREVER?”
After yet another month, St. Peter finally returns looking somewhat bedraggled. “Yes,” he informs the couple, “You CAN get married in Heaven.”
“Great!” said the couple, “But we were just wondering, what if things don’t work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?”
St. Peter, red-faced with anger, slams his clipboard onto the ground.
“What’s wrong?” asked the frightened couple.
“OH, COME ON!!” Saint Peter shouts, “It took me three months to find a Judge up here! Do you have ANY idea how long it’ll take me to find a Lawyer?
Walter Williams posits an interesting point in his article in Townhall…
One of the unavoidable tragedies of youth is the temptation to think that what is seen today has always been. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in our responses to the recent Parkland, Florida, massacre. Part of the responses to those murders are calls to raise the age to purchase a gun and to have more thorough background checks — in a word, to make gun purchases more difficult. That’s a vision that sees easy gun availability as the problem; thus, the solution is to reduce that availability.
One other point I would make is that if our parents/grandparents could come back, they would be amazed and horrified at the restrictions on gun sales…
This ad is from a 1950s Sears Catalog! They were still selling guns in their catalog into the 1970s!!!
And this one is from Boy’s Life (Boy Scout’s Magazine in the 1960s).
As teenaged Boy Scout camp counsellors in the 1960s, we were allowed to handle both BB guns and .22 rifles. We also taught safety classes to the campers, and took them to the range at the camps. And of course, ‘we’ had to make sure all the rifles worked… 😀
So no… What is happening ‘today’ is not the norm, if you’re an adult. Even less so, if you’re an older adult… Sigh…
