Thought for Today

"Chicago is known for good steaks, expensive stores and beautiful architecture. Unfortunately, the Windy City also enjoys a reputation for corrupt politics, violent crime, and some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere in the country."

~~~~~ Bob Barr

Thought for Today

"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

Thought for Today

"The more we come to rely on government, the fewer freedoms we will enjoy. Government will start dictating what we can own, eat and drive, how much of our money they will let us keep, how we run our businesses, how many – if any – guns we can own, and what we may and may not say. Oh, wait! They are already doing that. To preserve freedom we must fight for it."

~~~~~ Cal Thomas

Middle Tennessee Liberty Rally

A huge Tea Party rally on the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tennessee is coming soon. It's called the Middle Tennessee Liberty Rally, and it will be held at high noon on Monday, June 29th. If you live anywhere within driving distance and you can get away from work for a couple of hours, come join us. So far, the scheduled speakers are Nashville talk show hosts Phil Valentine, Ralph Bristol, and Steve Gill, along with Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt and Ken Marrero, the Blue Collar Muse. By the time of the rally, there may be one or two more.

Here's a brochure (click to enlarge):

For the most current information, and to sign up for the mailing list, go to the Tennessee Tea Party website.

See you there!

Col. Peters Is Furious ...

… and as a fellow military veteran, I can appreciate why. In response to the calculated and deliberate smear of veterans by our esteemed (NOT!) Director of Homeland Security, he wrote The Vet 'Threat': Gov't ID's Public Enemy No. 1. He begins like this:

HOLLYWOOD and countless professors warned us: Military vets are drooling trailer-trash who beat their wives and, at best, wind up as homeless street people -- at worst, as homicidal psychos deformed by war.

Now, thanks to our ever-vigilant Department of Homeland Security, the full extent of the danger has been revealed: Our so-called "war heroes" are rushing back to join right-wing-extremist hate groups to overthrow our government.

Let's not quibble about little things like evidence. The Obama administration just knows that vets are all racist, Jew-hating crazies waiting to explode. Thank God, DHS has a fearless leader, Janet-from-another-planet Napolitano, who isn't afraid to call white trash "white trash."

He then proceeds to let everyone know what he REALLY thinks.

I wonder how much Col. Peters' column had to do with Secretary Napolitano's subsequent lame, half-hearted attempts to extinguish the raging inferno of public outrage she had ignited.

Come to think of it, I also wonder if Janet Napolitano has any idea how utterly ridiculous she looks.

Hat tip: Lisa Benson and Townhall.com

Hat tip: Jerry Holbert and Townhall.com

Gun Control – The One's Real Record

Slublog points out that on the subject of our right to keep and bear arms, Obama has been less than forthcoming: The NRA vs. Obama.

"I am consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed carry." - Obama, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1994

"...just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right..." - 2008 Philadelphia primary debate

Is there anything this man has ever said that we can take at face value?

Criminals For Gun Control

These are brilliant!

Part 1: Home Invasion

Part 2: Carjacking

Hat tip: The Jawa Report

Thought for Today

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.

~~~~~ Patrick Henry

A Pleasant Surprise

If last night's debate has you feeling a little glum, here's a video that'll cheer you right up again. Watch this – then spread it around. Truly outstanding!



Hat tip: Jay Nordlinger of NRO

Stupid Crminals of America – Tennessee Chapter

Today's paper brings the story of what happens in rural Tennessee when a trio of worthless, bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking residential burglars get caught in the act. You can read all about it by clicking "Morning break-in leads to manhunt" (registration required, but well worth it).

Here's how it begins:

Morning break-in leads to manhunt

By HILARY TRENDA

Posted: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:39 am

June 20, 2008 – NORENE — Three area burglars didn't remember the Scouts' motto of "Be Prepared."

If they had, they may have been better equipped to handle being shot at by property owners and hunted not only by local law enforcement, but by United States Marshals on Thursday.

There's a nice color picture, too, showing their pickup sitting there in the ditch where it ended up after they tried to run over the homeowner's father.

I'll say no more, though, lest I ruin the suspense. If you want to know the details, go click the link, register, and read all about it.

Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe, probably the finest sheriff in all of Tennessee, handled this case superbly. Now, if only he'd start housing his inmates in tents and issuing them pink skivvies ...

Gun-Free Idiocy

Ten years ago, economist John Lott published a landmark book, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws, which set off a firestorm of criticism among the gun-grabbers. The book reported the results of well-designed and painstakingly documented studies which affirmed our common-sense belief that the presence of firearms in the hands of responsible citizens is a powerful deterrent to crime.

Of course, the liberals were outraged. Their publications – virtually all of the mainstream media – were filled with all of the expected anti-gun canards, along with articles vilifying Lott and questioning his motives.

Time has proven Lott's thesis, as expressed so cogently in the title of his book, to be correct. Today, he has written an op-ed piece for FOXNews.com, "Gun-Free Zones Are Not Safe", which powerfully reinforces his premise. He refreshes our memories by recounting the recent tragedies that were averted or minimized by the fortuitous presence of an armed citizen, and contrasting them with the far greater tragedies that occurred when the crazed gunman's victims were reduced to frantically throwing chairs at him because none of them had a gun. Says Lott,

Most people understand that guns deter criminals. The problem is that instead of gun-free zones making it safe for potential victims, they make it safe for criminals.

Of course, "most people" in this case does not include the liberals who run most of our governments and public institutions, nor their mainstream media handmaidens.

A Definition

Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

Mark Steyn's Latest

To me, one of the liberals' most annoying traits is their overweening smugness. They sincerely believe that they are the smartest, wittiest, most sophisticated people on the planet, and that all the rest of us should silently accept our inferiority and gratefully allow them to instruct us in how to live our lives.

All of us on the right side of the spectrum know instinctively that the liberals' high opinion of themselves is simply not justified by the facts. A few of us – and I fervently wish I were among them – are sufficiently articulate to puncture their balloon of self-importance regularly and consistently. Of that number, none is more deft and witty than Mark Steyn.

Check out Mark's latest column on National Review Online, in which he brilliantly skewers Barack Obama for his mocking, dismissive reference to ordinary Americans' predilection toward "God and Guns". Here's a pullquote:

I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: it benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today’s Europe — a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.

By all means, read the whole thing. Also, check out Mark's latest book, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, just out in paperback with a new introduction.

Incidentally, Mark, whom you've probably had an opportunity to hear and see in radio and TV interviews, never attended college and dropped out of high school at the age of 16. I wonder where he'd be today if he had taken the BS-MS-PhD* route. Most likely, we never would have heard of him.


*(The abbreviations were once explained to me thus: We all know what BS stands for. MS is More of the Same, and PhD is Piled Higher and Deeper.)

Liberal Logic

(Click to enlarge)
Hat tip: Jewish World Review

A Pro-Gun Control Quote

Here's a quote to motivate even the most fervent gun-grabbers to re-think their opinions:

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow subject races to possess arms... History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.

~~~~~ Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Restricting Hand-guns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, Don Kates, ed., North River Press, 1978