This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves”

  • The Difference Between a Right and a Choice

    Seems there’s this desperate need to impress everyone, by people in the business of so-called journalism, being inflicted upon us these days with how simpatico they are, how in tune they are to whatever they think the current vox populi consists of.

    It’s baloney. It’s virtue signaling from a bunch of self-involved, attention-grabbing twits and nothing else.

    This involves the most recent column in the Chitown Tribune by someone named Dan Moran, a columnist, who says he inherited a bunch of guns from various members of his family. He says that he used to hunt when much younger, but doesn’t go hunting now. What this was leading up to was his desperate need to let the silly, whining, self-terrorized gungrabbers – people who are just positive that they will be next (and probably have wet dreams about it, too) – that he’s on their side, whatever that means. So he informs us, after a prolonged whine of excuses with examples, that he made a date with the local po-po to turn in his guns for destruction, and was assured they were put in the evidence locker, slated for destruction. He says he got a notice to that effect, too.

    “Hey, LOOK!” says he, “I got rid of all of those nasty, scary inanimate objects that can’t function without a live human handling them! I’m such a good guy!  Pat me on the back! Buy me a pizza! I’m on your side! I’m one of you!”

    He could have simply taken them to the nearest gun shop with his FOID and sold them to a dealer, taken home the cash, and walked away feeling maybe just as virtuous, but did he do that?  No. He had to broadcast to everyone what a wonderful guy he is for being so abundantly stupid that he missed that very obvious other choice. His excuse was that no one could get hurt by them now. He did not say whether or not anyone ever had been hurt by them prior to his Virtue Signaling Episode IIIa/IV(b).

    As stultifyingly dumb as that makes him, I took the time to peruse the language of the U.S. Constitution, trying to find anything that says ownership of weapons of any kind is a requirement for U.S. citizenship.  I found nothing. It is a choice we have. Some of us want them. Some do not.

    Here’s what I found with a little effort on my part: “….provide for the common defence….”

    That’s easy to understand. In Them There Olden Times, the militia ranks were filled by local people, the common people, who came here to escape the grinding tyranny of despotic rulers like Oliver Cromwell and Mary Tudor in the beginning of that exodus, and the Prince Regent later on, who succeeded his crazypants father, and the horrifying bloodbath that Robespierre inflicted on anyone who caught his eye. As time went on, as we know, coming here was to find a way out of famine and poverty when late blight fungus killed off the main source of food for the Irish and Swift wrote his snarky essay ‘A Modest Proposal’.  People came here from all over, set up housekeeping and started farms and shops and businesses, which is what this country was about then and always has been, no matter how much the leftreds want to chop it into splinters. But I digress.

    The phrase ‘for the common defence’ in that opening paragraph is preceded by “We, the People”, meaning all of us, not just certain ones.

    Many of Those in High Places now and in the past seem to think that this is inapplicable now, that they know better than we do what we need and/or want.. On the contrary: it is absolutely applicable now, more than ever. It gives us choices. Frankly, not one of those greedy, self-serving slobs in office has the faintest idea what I need or want.

    We have the right to decide what to do with our lives, what we want to do for a living, eat, wear, read, etc., where we want to live, and whether or not we want to serve in the military, among other things. Yes, we have had drafts in the past but at present we do not. Military service is a choice. I made that choice twice, and then the war was over, so I left the military and did other things.

    And that brings me to this bit of thoughtful prose: the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America: …the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.

    Read that carefully. It says the right…to bear arms. Nowhere in that Amendment does it say must bear arms.  It is a choice. You can choose to have weapons, or choose not to.

    As I have repeatedly indicated, a weapon can be anything from a 9-inch cast iron skillet and some hornet spray or cooking spray with flour, to a multi-round firing rifle that may or may not be useful for hunting in the autumn, winter and/or spring (turkeys!) I usually do my hunting at the grocery stores and farmers’ markets, although I have found a few turkeys in the aisles at the local bank and Walmart. I’m quite sure that I can use my short sword to carve a turkey, if I have to.

    Therefore, when I ran across that virtue-signaling, self-important half page op-ed by this Tribune twit, letting all of us know what a saint he is for being dumber than socks on an elephant, my response was to point and laugh, because Danny boy, you had other choices but you didn’t take them.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/opinion/ct-lns-moran-never-again-walkout-st-0314-20180313-story.html

    That does not make you virtuous, Dan. It makes you desperate for attention and praise which, in my view, you don’t deserve. You could have sold those guns to a dealership and donated the cash to a really good cause.

    But you didn’t.

    That, you butthead, makes you so stupid you don’t even know you’re alive.

  • Attention on Deck! Listen Up!

    In the wake of last week’s heinous episode of destruction of human lives, and the howling to “DO SOMETHING” that predictably succeeded it, I spent some time digging up some information.

    There are at least eleven (11 federal statues on the books regarding guns and control, including the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. – Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_the_United_States

    Since there are 50 states, there is gun legislation specific to each state which should certainly be sufficient to prevent crimes, shouldn’t it? There is a chart at the bottom of this Wiki link for each state. I don’t know how up to date it is, but the charts do summarize the state laws. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state

    In all of this, in the screaming, frantic screaming to DO SOMETHING, the hysterics and fear underlying this squawking are not being addressed.  Don’t misunderstand me. Fear generates anger, which generates this scrambling call to ‘DO SOMETHING!’, when there is already plenty of ‘SOMETHING’ done and in place.

    This is never addressed by the media because they can milk the fear and agony caused by these events into oblivion, and they know it. They count on it. They should be barred from doing surveys and interviews until the people who commit these crimes are arrested and awaiting trial.

    If you will recall the social morons who twittered out Tsarnaev’s mugshot after he was caught, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, thousands of teenaged girls couldn’t believe he was one of the Boston Marathon bombers because he was too cute. This was milked to death, as was the search to find him, and the frantic scramble by media mavens to get in the way of law enforcement so that they could get the story. And what happened? Who got blamed for that? The pressure cookers were blamed for the Boston Marathon bombing. Tsarnaev was just a part of the sideshow. Pressure cooker purchases were monitored. Anyone who bought more than one was suspect.

    McVeigh and Nichols used a rented truck and farming chemicals and kerosene to build devastating bombs that blew away most of the Murragh Building in Oklahoma City, and killed and/or injured hundreds of people. Once they were caught, truck rental was blamed for a while for that tragedy. And farming chemicals – that was monitored, too.

    Not so very long ago, a bunch of disgruntled idiots with a hair up their asses hijacked four passenger planes fully loaded with passengers and fuel, and used them to kill thousands of people in three different locations. Thousands of people. All planes were grounded, because the planes were at fault, weren’t they? (If you can’t detect sarcasm in that, you are dead between the ears.) Yes, and back in the 1990s, a bomb tucked away in a radio buried in a suitcase blew up a Pan Am passenger jet over Scotland, so radios were to blame for that, once that was figured out.

    We’ve got the crazy bastards who took guns to Columbine High School and shot their classmates, so the guns were at fault there, not the teenaged hellions who committed those crimes. The nutball who shot up the movie theater in Aurora, CO, killing 12 and wounding 70 others wasn’t responsible because he was crazy, right? No, it wasn’t his fault. It was the guns’ fault that he planned that for weeks, maybe months ahead. Despite warnings by many people, there was never any attempt to stop him before he carried out his threats. The fact that he’s still a whack job is immaterial.

    All of these criminals gave out warnings and nothing – not ONE DAMNED THING – was done about it.

    In Orlando, FL, the nightclub Pulse became a slaughterhouse because one antisocial shithead coward decided to use it as a place to shoot fish in a barrel. But it was the guns he used that were blamed for that, not the fact that he hated everyone in the world, including himself. And that nutball who shot Congressman Scalise and tried to do the same to others – was he really blamed for it? I don’t think so. The focus was on what kinds of guns he used and where he got them, not so much on his hatred of GOPer politicians. That shooter was a Democrat, you know. He was out to get GOPers, so the guns were to blame for that, too, if the media reports were to be believed. Ditto the whack job at Las Vegas – it was the guns and the bump stocks that were to blame for the injuries and deaths, not the shooter who created panic.

    So this latest episode of one freak taking his anger and self-hatred out on everyone around him turns into another circus of blaming the object, a gun, an inanimate object which can’t act without an enabler, instead of blaming the jackass who committed the crime.

    I’m going to blame politicians on both sides of the political fence for this, especially those with the biggest mouths and the most pressing need to stand at a microphone in front of a TV camera and threaten the rest of us with a dictatorship, because if we let them get away with it, that’s where we are headed.

    Why do they do this? Well, part of it is the attention they get. Part of it is the money that it generates for them – yes, it does – and part of it is because the sooner they can get rid of the one thing they fear most, an American populace that is full of free people who can think for themselves, the happier they will be. They might even say they’re afraid of being assassinated, although I can’t think of even one of those attention-whoring idiots that’s worth the cost of a bullet. It doesn’t matter one whit that we can do quite well without them. They could all just lock their office doors and go home and not one of us would miss them, but they have to have that limelight.

    What does matter is this: the US Constitution gives us certain inalienable rights and one of those is to have the means of defending ourselves against tyrants. And everyone of those stumpsucking jerks in Congress is a potential tyrant. Think about that for a second.

    Not one of them has blamed the shooter in this most recent. If they did that – blame the human – they’d have to admit they are failures and all the legislation passed on gun control has been pure, unadulterated failure because no one enforces it. Those recent reports that NICS missed posting 1100 people in the ‘no guns’ list are evidence of that. So they blame the gun, the inanimate object and the bump stock, also inanimate, which the shooter used, instead of blaming the live human scumbag who did the damage.

    Well, we are not a nation of sheep, no matter what the Congress Critters think. We have a right to demand that they enforce the laws already in place and stop wasting our tax money on legislating more of this nonsense until they ensure that enforcement of existing laws happens.

    If they are not going to do what they were hired to do – and remember, it’s supposed to be a temp job, not permanent – then fire their asses and start over from scratch.

    They work for US. We need to let them know that by firing them if they don’t perform.

    They all need to be reminded that this country belongs to US, not to them. They just work here.

  • Nos morituri….

    There I was, at the front of the line, putting together arms and armor for a mighty battle, when it occurred to me, as the puzzled but willing leader of this loosely knit band of tramps, humans, humanoids, and various alien species, that I had no pep talk at the ready. No rousing oration to stir the blood. No ‘Nos morituri te salutamos’ sort of thing. So I had to put down the sword polish and go and consult with the best speechifiers I could find, which took a bit of time, time travel and digging.

    There is, of course, the internet in addition to the videos available, both of which make the job of cobbling a pep talk together so much easier. But will it answer that question: what stirs the blood?

    I always liked this part, from Jack Kennedy’s inaugural speech:   Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.

    We have bits and bobs of Patton’s actual speech, in various videos. This one isn’t too bad:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ULAFxlrvY

    Then there’s Marco D’Aviano’s speech on the hill in ‘Day of  the Siege’, a so-so movie about the Siege of Vienna. The movie itself is kind of slow, but the delivery of speech by F. Murray Abraham as the monk D’Aviano is stirring, with the Polish King Jan Sobieski and his Winged Hussars attacking the Turks at the end of it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKYICdbwA4

    Theoden, King of Rohan and the Riddermark, made a rousing battle speech at Isengard:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryy5U2mNTJU

    Aragon made another speech at the Black Gate, just before Sauron (who was afraid of Morgoth, who was afraid of the Balrogs) disintegrated when the One Ring melted.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17_ImViPryQ

    Crassus wanted to know who Spartacus was. He sorely underestimated the people he faced, misunderstood what it takes to truly lead people, and was assassinated by the Parthians when he also underestimated the desert of the Middle East and the pure skill and will power of the Parthian army. And in the end, everyone was Spartacus:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q

    So just what is it that stirs your slow, tired blood?

    What sends chills up your spine?

    What is it that makes want to you get off your duff and follow them into the thick of it?

  • More SJW Stupidity

    Just when you think the perpetually outraged special snowflake SJW crowd can’t get any more moronic, you see something like this.

    Critics Attack Mother’s Day as ‘Offensive’
    Because It’s A ‘Gendered Holiday’

    Yeah, you read that correctly. GMAFB.

    Dunno if this means we’re in Heinlein’s “Crazy Years” or not. But it just might.

  • Military Chaplains Picket Weinstein’s HQ

    On a bright, clear Monday morning, a large group of military chaplains gathered together at the headquarters of Michael Weinstein to protest the mischief being done by the self-appointed RAHIC through his insistence on removing Christian religious symbols from military bases.  They noted that he has been targeting just about anything that even vaguely resembles a cross, including two sticks blown down in a windstorm, while completely ignoring other denominations.

    Deeming it gravely unfair to focus on one religious group alone, they have formed a Syneaudde Premarius to get signatures on a petition to force him to acknowledge all branches of religious persuasions or give up his campaign and stop whining.

    A group at a roundtable discussion included the following indignant dignitaries:

    Rev. Vic Vickers, the Vicar of Viccmoor Parish

    Rev. Juan del Bautisto, Eglisia de los Muertos

    Rabbi Shlomo Herschell

    Dr. D. B. Cooper, DDV

    Asriel Biegattmie, Pagan Society/Wiccans United

    Corbyrne Maelwrydd, Thornborough Druidic Campagne

    Deogredde de Mantua, Knights of Malta

    Sprig Musumba Diego, Nicenian Pastafarians

    Dilbe Agnew, High Priestess, Isle of Lesbos Temples

    “We feel that he’s discriminating against less well-known sects like ours,” said Her Priestessness Dilbe Agnew. “It’s unfortunate that, in these times of open societies, someone like Michael Weinstein is picking on one group only, the poor old Christians who’ve been picked on for 2,000 years. Even the Romans gave us the occasional nod, y’know.”

    “We’d like to point out that focusing on a single view of divine divinity is unfair to the other orders,” said Ms. Bigattmie, waving her wand around. “We witches have had our share of misery, but it’s all fluffy bunny stuff now, and it’s because of him and his obsession with crosspieces. He probably pickets factories that put crosshairs in targeting scopes, too.”

    Thornborough Druidic Campagne spokes-Druid Maelwrydd agreed while he was handing out leaflets about portable stone circles. “We’ve been hanging mistletoe on every base at winter solstice for years, and he’s never once shown up to picket the bull sacrifice. It’s the only time of year we eat a lot of meat, too. His negligence is noted. We don’t think he’s even remotely earning that nearly half-million big ones  that he gets as a paycheck. That money could buy a lot of bulls and oak groves, you know.  Maybe our stuff isn’t so spectacular, but we’re open to everyone. Those stone circles are everywhere. We just build a fire, sing some songs, roast wienies, and chase away the Dark Forces at Hallowe’en. How cool is that? And he’s ignoring us. It’s  completely unfair.”

    What the group of protesters is looking for is fair representation in Mr. Weinstein’s campaign of snubbing, picketing, and dissing religious preferences.

    “Either it’s all of us, or he stops his exclusive targeting now,” Sprig Diego said. “We Pastafarians welcome everyone at the table, especially on Pasta Carbonara night. We’ve sent invitations to him to join us and hear our side of the plate, but he’s ignored all of us. That hurts our feelings.”

    When asked for an opinion about Mr. Weinstein’s preference for sniping at crosses and wanting those images removed, Vicar Vic Vickers speculated that it may have had something to do with not getting as many toys during the holidays as he was expecting when he was 10 years old.

    Rabbi Shlomo Herschell seconded that opinion, reflecting that “a lot of adult angst has to do with not getting that pink Barbie bicycle you were expecting.” He added. “It’s sad, but true. Must have hit Mr. Weinstein the hard way.”

  • In Regards to the Military

    Well, well, well. Just look what popped up in the news on Reuters this morning, and look at which attention-whoring ‘attorney’ is right up front there, in the thick of it, grinning like an ape at the cameras.  

    Attention-whoring at its finest, isn’t it? And yes, I could do some real cat-dancing on Gloria, but that’s a waste of time.

    Something I learned awhile back is that the more you posture for attention, the more likely people are to respond in an uncivilized, vile way.  Uncivilized behavior seems to be the usual response of the current younger generation, somewhere between 18 and 28 years old. I blame their parents for it, parents and schoolteachers both, and anyone else who let them get away with it.

    Those two women with Allred may have a valid bone to pick, or maybe not. If, as one of them says, the photo she submitted to Marines United was of her fully dressed, not inappropriately provocative, that’s not quite the same thing as posting online images of yourself in your birthday suit.

    But let’s take a hard look at this. Rough talk and pure vulgarity is not something new in the world. I have yet to find a man with a permanently prissy mouth who had anything but a limp backbone. Cursing is as old as human speech. Denying that aspect of our history is refusing to face reality. Even the most mild-mannered fellow can be moved to sputter ‘sonuvabitch!’, if it’s appropriate. He might apologize afterwards, which is fine, but I’d take no offense.  I’ve been known to let fly myself.

    My response to this childish nonsense is simple: if you don’t want to be hammered by a bunch of uncivilized slobs with mouths like sewers, then do not assume they’ll like you just for you. If you are dumb enough to post nekkid photos of yourself online, you have a problem. Exhibitionism is a mental disorder. Putting ‘nekkid-look-at-me!!!’ images of yourself online is a symptom of exhibitionism.  Did you not think about the consequences before you put that crap online? Or did you even think, period?

    There are far too many people with internet access looking for someone they can prey on. Posting that crap online puts you right in their laps. Some of them, as we already know, are not the kind of people you want as next-door neighbors.

    The only time anyone should see you buck nekkid is when your parents bring you home from the hospital after your mother finally pushed you out and she’s changing your diapers, or when you’re in the privacy of your home and your signif other and you are engaged in bodyslamming each other.

    When someone insists on nekkid photos of you, you should kick his/her ass out of your life and find someone else. And change the locks on the doors.

    Since you can’t change human nature with lectures and powerpoint snooze sessions, it’s way past time the military drops that useless crap and focuses on doing its job – defending this country – instead of doing each other.

    In regard to the prissy responses by all levels in the militarty, grow up. It was bad enough in the 1960s, but the internet has magnified it.

    And yes, I do mean MILITARTY.

    You’re a bunch of tarts, hypocrites, and scabrous whoremongers. You talk out of both sides of your mouths. I don’t believe anything you say. While you DORKS at the top are barking your protests and trying to cover your laps as well as your asses, you really do need to admit that you are exactly as bad as the lower levels.

    Wanna see that photo of GEN “Chipmunk” Petraeus and his rank-climbing, whining ex- girlfriend Broadwell again?

    You mean if I lay for you, I’ll get promoted? Gee, I already took the Miltest and the rate test and passed both of them. I get promoted with or without you, slimeball. Why should I drop my undies for you, you piece of whale’s offal? Oh, wait, if I DON’T lay for you, that makes me a lesbian, huh? Sure, okay. What else you got, dimwit?

    When you in the Militarty  decide to stop lying and admit that YOU — both men and women — use sex to get ahead, let me know.  You’re wasting my tax money.

  • Gee . . . Thanks, SCoaMF

    Iran recently tested a new and highly sophisticated air defense system.  They obtained the system from Russia.

    The system is based on Russia’s S-300 missile.  The NATO designation for the original system is the SA-10; since the original version was first deployed in the late 1970s, Iran doubtless received a more modern variant.  The first linked article is unclear regarding precisely which S-300 variant Iran received.

    The S-300/SA-10 system and its descendants are quite capable.  They are regarded as some of the best currently-deployed air defense missile systems in the world.

    So, why do I say – completely sarcastically, of course – “Gee . . . thanks, SCoaMF” in the title above?  Read on.

    It seems that Iran and Russia signed the contract for Iran to purchase the system back in 2007; the system was to cost Iran $800 million.  However, international sanctions associated with Iran’s nuclear program prevented delivery.

    The US-Iran nuclear      giveaway      “deal” removed those sanctions. That in turn allowed Russia to deliver the system to Iran last year.

    And anyone with the common sense to pour p!ss out of a boot knew a priori exactly that would happen.

    In other words:  the previous       gang of utterly naïve imbeciles screwing things up “by the numbrs” in  DC        Administration in effect approved delivery of that system to Iran.  So in the event of hostilities with Iran US military aviators will now have to face one of the most sophisticated SAM threats in the world – a threat that wasn’t present prior to the US-Iran nuclear      giveaway       “deal”.

    Oh, and that $40 billion in Iranian assets we released in the Iran nuclear     giveaway      “deal”?  That was 50 times more than the $800 million cost of Iran’s new S-300 system.  So not only did the previous       DC gang of feckless fools        Administration green light installation of Iran’s new SAM system, they also reimbursed Iran for buying the damn thing – 50 times over.

    Hell, the $1.7 billion cash ransom the US paid Iran to release 4 US citizens a bit more than a year ago alone paid for Iran’s new system – more than twice!

    I know I’m repeating myself but I’ll say it again anyway:  “Gee . . . thanks, SCoaMF.”

  • Tuesday Open Thread (Temp)

    Geez, youse guys are impatient.

    2/17 Air Cav wants to know about Claymore and Jonn.  I don’t have any word on Claymore, but if he posts something HERE ON THIS THREAD, I’ll answer.

    AS  TO Jonn, the news I have from The House of Jonn is positive, and I ain’t sayin’ nuthin’ more until he chimes in himself.

    Meantime, go ahead and do your worst.