LTC-A Acquired

I picked up my LTC-A, Large capacity recently.  The painful 3 month wait and massive invasion of privacy is almost worth it.  Next step is to start buying guns, while I still can.  It’s ridiculous the cowtowing one has to do to “the State” to get these things.  I can kill people with my hands, my jacknife, and my swords.  Do I have to get a license for each at the whim of the state?  No.  But ohhh, you want a gun, well, now, you’re a criminal, we just haven’t arrested you yet.  Grr.

Switzerland, the epitome of an armed society.

A past post covered how Switzerland has remained neutral since the 14th century, especially with major wars going on around it (World War 1 and 2). They’ve managed to keep an expceptionally low murder and crime rate, yet have the highest quantity of guns per capita. And they don’t just have handguns, they have fully automatic machineguns in their houses. They have incredible defenses built around the country to slow invasions and survive nuclear attacks. Perhaps it works because of national unity, or perhaps it works because everyone is armed. The old saying is, “An armed society is a polite society.” Of course, this could mean that no one speaks up because everyone lives in fear–not my preference for a society to inhabit. I need to do some more research into the Switzerland reality.

Blind trust is dangerous.

A surgeon in Seattle has written about why bowing to the NRA is dangerous. He uses the logic that no one has a need to own a weapon, as “it is far more likely that a young boy finds a loaded handgun in his parents’ bedside table and either he or a playmate gets shot while playing with it.” These parents deserve to lose their kids. Idiots do these things. Would you let your kids play with knives or gasoline and matches? I mean really.

Just because your little slice of the world wants to completely trust the local law enforcement, and disarm themselves, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. There are cops that are nothing but bullies with badges. There are cops that are great. There are cops that love guns. Jeez. Who’s house are you going to rob? An unarmed wimp? or a known gun owner? Chances are the former is selected by all but the stupidiest of burglars.

Trust us, there’s a law. You have to comply.

John Gilmore has been fighting the govt since 2002 to prove why we have to show an ID to fly.  It turns out, if you don’t want to show an ID, you are subjected to additional screening.  While that bothers me, it’s a trade-off I am willing to make.  What does the additional screening entail?  Will the data gathered during the screening be stored for future screenings?

The larger problem is the courts upheld that sufficient notice about the requirement is enough to enforce a law that you cannot read, nor know the actual text.  This is basically, “trust us, there’s a law, you have to comply, we cannot prove it.”  I don’t trust the government that much.  If you can’t show me a law on the books, it doesn’t exist as far as I’m concerned.  If I have to give up my privacy and have my life analyzed to the minute detail, so does the government.  I understand state secrets for a period of time, but for something as mundane as showing an ID for flying?  How about this:  The TSA gets one chance to guess where my ID is on my person.  If they guess right, I’ll show it to them. If wrong, I will only state “wrong” and not show it to them.  Trust me? Didn’t think so.

ATTENTION: War supporters – your country needs you.

The military is begging for volunteers. In order to meet the demand for the new “surge” plan in Iraq:

Quote:

The president must request a substantial increase in ground forces end strength. This increase is vital to sustaining the morale of the combat forces by ensuring that relief is on the way. The president must issue a personal call for young Americans to volunteer to fight in the decisive conflict of this generation.

Honestly, I’d join up if I wasn’t over the age of enlistment. Half my family is in the military, the other half is retired. All these young kids graduating college and pro-Bush, pro-war should put up or shut up.

American Taleban

The privitization of the military and police are dangerous trends in America. As bad as the US Government can be, there are checks and balances in place to control any one branch or department getting out of hand. Private companies don’t have such checks and balances. When the US Govt outsources critical functions as policing the populace
and military functions to private companies, who checks these companies? If I found a company to provide an awesome product, and then donate billions to the NRA, would that make things any different? The company seemingly exists for itself first, for the NRA second. The biggest problem with Afghanistan and the Taleban Government was that it was a theocracy. It appears the Christian Right is heading America down that same path. The easiest way to sidestep the checks and balances is to used private companies with sympathetic leaders.