September 11th 2009

It was the 8th anniversary of the largest attack on American soil in 0ver 60 years. This year I chose to celebrate our nation and what it represents by attending a 4 day practical pistol course at the Front Site firearms resort.

I had been planning this for nearly a year, I took advantage of the gun and gear offer they were running. I had always wanted a .45 and now I had one. As a matter of fact, it was the pistol I used for the entire course. It was an XD45 and after 800 rounds out of the box with no cleaning it never missed, despite the fact that we trained several time during the 4 day course to address type 1, 2 and 3 malfunctions.

Over the 4 days we worked on everything from presentation to the 3 secrets(sorry, I wont tell you here) to tactical methods for entering and clearing a room. It opened my eyes to what I didn't know despite having been trained in the US Coast Guard and having owned a pistol for many years. The Front Site course was definately the Cadillac of weapons handling courses.

Enough of the sales pitch... The reason I am writing this in the hopes that many more Americans will read this and become as avid about gun ownership as I have. The most important things I learned at Front Site were not about weapons handling. During this course I learned why I wanted to be a gun owner, and proficient at its use.

The gun is a tool... it is the most stark example of a mans desire to protect himself from others who would take from him. The decision to use a gun in the act of self defense must be thought through. The cost of this decision can be high.

The cost can be physical or emotional and I have decided to rank them 1 is the lowest;

1. Knowing you caused another human being to die

2. A night at the police station

3. Legal Costs (sometimes up to $15k)

4. Jail Time, Criminal Record

5. Debilitating Injury, Death

Some of you would think that killing a person is the highest price... I disagree, most people know what is right. Being maimed or killed by the bad guy isn't right.

The chance of being killed while defending yourself or others is greatly reduced with profiency. Almost every bad guy you might come across is not very bright and is very likely untrained. The trained lawful citizen has a significant edge because of training. The real multiplier of proficiency is, to quote Dr Piazza, "the combat mindset". If you are not prepared to win the fight regardless of cost, the bad guy will.

The 3 costs in the middlehave been manufactured by people who want to disarm the general public. Some believe that guns are the cause of violence... to them I say, join me for a weekend at Front Site, don't make judgements based upon a fear or popular media, experience it for yourself.

The rest of those who desire to remove guns from law abiding citizens are elitists. Several of whom are gun owners, CCW permit holders, or have the money to hire armed security. These people are not to be trusted, this is America. We are a nation of free people with equal opportunity for all, this includes the right to self defense.

The following letter read on Glenn Beck's show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice. Once you read this, you will want to forward it to all of your friends...

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona . She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership:

"I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.
There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you No, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down! Fix only what is broken -- we have the best health care system in the world -- and test any new program in one or two states first.

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes -- how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs -- and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot.
There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans?
We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented.. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you?

We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone... and we are now looking at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them.. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.
If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming."

It seems that we have a famous historical figure living in the White House. Many people have heard of Marie Antoinette, well her long lost cousin is married to our president. Yes Mrs. Obama commented on her trip to Copenhagen this week to aid in Chicago's pitch for the 2016 olympics.

"As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days," the first lady told a crowd of people involved in the Chicago...

So according to the first lady, her trip to pitch for a sporting event in Chicago;
1. At the expense of taxpayers,
2. While America is experiencing the greatest economic downturn in over 40 years
3. Will cost more money than Chicago can afford

Is sacrificing for the children of Chicago... What???

So lets look at the similarities:

Marie Antoinette, "Let them Eat Cake!"
Michelle Obama, "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me..."

I would say narcissism runs in their family...

So I dub thee "Michelle Antoinette Obama" elitist extroadinare.

Those of us who have been Disney fans for many years have heard of the "Prarie Home Companion" by Garrison Keillor. It was a charming series of stories about small town adventures and misadventures. Often time quite funny.
Now it seems that Mr Keillor is not as charming as his tales. In his editorial today at Salon.Com (Cut Republicans Out of Healthcare) he opines that Republicans should be cut off from healthcare once the public option is passed.

He focuses on the age old caricature of Republicans as wealthy old white men. He state's "Old men shouldn't be allowed to doze off at the switch and muck up the works for the young who will have to repair the damage. Get over yourselves. Your replacements have arrived, and you should think about them now and then."

Garrison Kiellor the elite wealthy old white man has no understanding of who is truly behind the opposition to the healthcare debacle. So to him I say the following...


Mr. Keillor,

I read your Op Ed… Guess what, I am not an old man. I am 36 Years old with 3 very young children. Your arrogance blinds you to reality. The replacements for the next generation are people like me. I am terrified of having ANY government intervention into the care of my 3 beautiful children. Most young future leaders in my position are in agreement with me. We have seen what your generation is preparing to leave us and we will have a big enough mess to clean up without rationed healthcare.

Mr. Keillor, Get over yourself old man.

Cops jump on swine-flu power: Shots heard 'round the world

Cops jump on swine-flu power: Shots heard 'round the world

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Provide for the National Defense...

If you asked many Americans the primary responsibility of the president they would leave out Commander in Chief of the US military. The executive branch is supposed to execute laws enacted by the congress. He is to represent our nation, included is the power to provide for our defense.

It seems however, our current commander in chief has abdicated his responsibility. His actions to bring avowed Islamic terrorists into our prison system and treat them as criminals shows he has no real belief in the threat posed by them. He seems to believe he can woo these violent men, women and children (yes, the enemy uses all three) by seeking to understand their plight. He is dead wrong.

Thomas Sowell wrote about the actions being taken to investigate and criminalize the actions taken by the CIA to gain information to protect my Brothers and Sistes in arms as well as my fellow citizens. The Obama administration is taking these actions while admitting that the terrorists are not protected by the Geneva Convention.

For those who are not familiar, the accomodations specified in the Geneva Convention are to protect the rights of UNIFORMED SOLDIERS in the field of combat. The intent is to recognize that war happens and one soldier killing another in combat is not a crime. Despite the horror that is war, it is supposed to be conducted with honor.

The middle eastern islamic terrorists simply are not uniformed soldiers. They hide behind women and children, they represent no government, and they are too cowardly to wear uniforms. During WWII America was infiltrated by NAZI spies. We caught these people, and their punishment was death. Throughout history a soldier that performed infiltration, espionage, assassination has been considered outside the normal realm of combat and capture meant death.

A few months ago it seemed like America had lost it's will and was going to slowly commit suicide. Recent events with Americans standing up for their rights and their country have convinced me that we still have the will. It is our government that has become too cowardly to call an Islamic Terrorist what he is... A murderer, a baby killer! If we simply made it policy to treat all un-uniformed enemies as spies, this battle would end much quicker.

BUT the damage has been done... over the next generations we will have to be prepared to fight harder, and perhaps be more brutal than our fathers. The children of the baby Boomers will have to do what our parents had no stomach for. We have so weakened the security of our country that I don't think we wil be able to prevent any more attacks. So it is time for my generation to prepare to defend our homeland should Islamic Terrorists start to poke his head around here.

So my message to un-uniformed Islamofacist, terrorist, cowards... you may think my government is too weak to take the fight to you and treat you like the dogs you are... but there are millions of us here that will not simply lay down should you try to harm our homeland again. The American people when angered are very dangerous. My grandfathers beat the NAZI's in spite of their superior technology, and the Japanese inspite of their suicidal mentality... We are more than ready to end you.

Civil Disobedience...

The Cry of the sixties... Heck No We Won't go!... was often accompanied by sit-ins, handcuffing to a fixed object, and making humans into roadblocks. These were all the tools of the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, and the environmental movement. The objective was always the same, create havoc and disruption. Most of the young people of the period had little to loose. Jobs were scarce and the wealth we see in most communities today wasn't even concievable.



One commonality for all the movements of the period was the protest against the american government or industry. Both were percieved as the great evils of the day. The government was killing babies overseas, oppressing people of various ethnicities and industry was polluting the environment.



I am a generation X child, and as I read through various historical acounts I am finding that many of the things protested in the 60's were distortions of reality. While some address of civil rights was needed, our Troops were not in the business of killing babies and the levels of pollution by Industry were correctable in a very short time.



So why am I spending so much time on this? Because today we are seeing civil disobedience across the country. People are making noise at Townhalls, Tea Parties are becoming a common occurrence and the elected leaders of our nation are recieving letters and phone calls in numbers not seen previously.



These things are great for the national debate, and our citizens are becoming reeducated on the nature of our fragile republic and what it means to defend liberty. However, I don't think that civil disobedience of this type will be suffice. Chanting and Holding signs, protesting in the streets will do little if the Democrats in Washington choose to endrun the house rules to pass legislation. Right now they are planning to ram the Socialized Health Bill (HR3200) through in the reconciliation committee. We will likely see this bill passed before the end of the year.



The good news is that this manuver will destroy the power monopoly held by the democrats in 2010, of this I am certain. But, the damage will have been done. So what does this have to do with civil disobedience you might ask. Well, it might be time to try something closer to what the founding fathers did. Maybe we really do need to pour tea into the sea.



We need to decide what are our most important issues are. We need to define how the laws being pumped out of the federal government undermine our Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Once we can clearly communicate this we need to be prepared to fight against the law through civil disobedience.



As an example,

- National Health Insurance Act (HR3200) has provisions for Taxation through the IRS and a mandate to carry health insurance. We must be prepared to reject health insurance and refuse to pay any IRS taxation or Penalties in connection to this bill. This Bill is unconstitutional as it Impinges upon everybodies Life, and Liberty.

- Blair Holt Firearm Act (HR45) has requirements for law abiding citizens to register their weapons with the state and federal attorney generals. Prohibits any youth from coming into contact with a firearm before 18 and imposes prison terms on citizens failing to comply. This bill infringes upon Life and Liberty. It is also countrary to the 2nd amendment.



We are law abiding citizens of the United States of America. We must not pay for insurance penalties or pay taxes to give others insurance. We must not register our firearms except as required by our state regardless the consequences. We must force the Federal Supreme court to decide that our liberties are being taken.



This all changes if the Democrats should ever get to change the court from where it is now to a fully activist court. In that case God Help us all and God Help America, that is the day we declare the Rule of Law Dead.

I begin to join the fight...

I have been silently watching events in this country since my political awakening in 2000. Many people believe we are losing the battle. Many have given up, and even more simply don't care. I join this war of the words today because I believe that we are on the edge of regaining more of the liberty we had when this country was new. The American People have more resources than ever before to gain access to information and understanding. As the internet grows and more Americans gain access to that huge store of knowledge we also gain more control of our lives.

Many will say I am hopelessly optimistic. I will tell you that the Socialists, Liberals, and Progressives are more shrill than ever. This gives me the optimism I am expressing. These people have discredited ideas, and emotional/narcissistic motivations. Information and facts are to them what garlic and holy water are to Vampires. The availability of information today is accelerating the effects of their policies. We are seeing a repeat of the policies of FDR at 4X speed.

We the American People must continue to press our elected officials. Make them realize that they serve us, not the other way around. We must seek knowledge in order to keep our Republic. We must not sacrifice our liberties for security and give our congress an opportunity to repeat the fall of Rome.