Saturday, June 30, 2007

The Ten Ring is X-rated?

There's a little blog thing I've seen recently. It gives your blog a movie rating. I tried it out and was surprised to see this:

Online Dating

It is based on having "gun" appear 27 times, "hell" twice, and "bitch" once.

Since when do I live in a country where gun is a dirty word? I have tried, believe it or not, to keep the tone of this blog reasonable. I try not to swear too much, although Lord knows its a struggle. I don't even put up boobie pictures--or for that matter beefcake.

Well, in order to get a PG rating, I wll spell gun, g*n. I will use only respectable words like shit, cock, damn, motherfucker (yippee-ki-yay), and other such PG words. Just kidding of course.

Who the hell thought gun should be listed as a dirty word in the first place? Must have been some latte-sipping, Birkenstock-wearing, lamppost-hugging city dweller.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

No more voting for RINO's

Today, the U.S. Senate finally listened to the American people and denied the final cloture vote on the Senate Immigration bill.

Unfortunately, one of my Senators, Judd Gregg, voted for this shameful bill. I’ve known for some time that Senator Gregg is a squishy RINO ; he voted for an extension of the Assault Weapon ban.

However, I still voted for Gregg in the subsequent election because I felt that his opponent was much worse. No more.

In no way, will I vote for Senator Gregg again, even if his opponent is to the left of Hillary. I’m tired of voting for politicians who are only slightly better than their opponent. For now on, if I am presented with a choice between a RINO like Gregg and an avowed socialist, I will leave that choice blank.

Better a Socialist who actually stands for something than a wishy-washy RINO who will end up voting the same way as the socialist. If this country is going to go down the tubes, better a swift trip down the drain than the drip-drip of incrementalism.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

My Email to Senator Judd Gregg

Dear Senator Gregg,

I am writing to urge you to vote no on cloture on the immigration bill before the Senate. This bill is bad for New Hampshire and bad for the United States. The path to citizenship rewards people who have violated our laws and harms working Americans by driving down wages.

I feel strongly enough about this issue that I regret to say that I cannot support you in your next election if you vote for this bill. I voted for you in your last election and generally vote for Republicans, but I have to say that the direction of the Republican leadership in the Senate has been shameful on this issue and at odds with the wishes of the Republican rank and file and the American people as a whole.

Again, I urge you to not support this bill.

Respectfully,

----------------
----, NH

Update:

Senator Gregg voted for cloture on the amnesty bill.
NH needs to remove this RINO from office.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Musings and Camping

I don't have an essay today and don't really have much to say on gun rights. That's a problem with blogging on guns; no matter how many victories we win, and we do win some, there's always someone making emotional yawps and getting good press.

Gun control evokes the emotions--we have to do something about the violence and who needs something that kills anyway. I feel like I have said everything, made every argument, and dotted every "i" without doing any good.

So, instead of that, I'll blog a little about our weekend. Yosemite Sam, Cooper (the Ten Ring's Basset Hound mascot), and I went to Lake Umbagog State Park in northern New Hampshire. It's only a few miles from Errol, NH which is only a few miles from nowhere. We froze our asses off, to put it bluntly.

A thunderstorm crashed down on us Friday and night time temperatures were in the 40s with the wind coming off the lake. We stayed in a tent. Talk about cold. I woke up early Saturday morning with chattering teeth.

You see, I hate sleeping bags because they confine me too much. Maybe I have a few latent claustrophobia issues, who knows. So, I sleep on a cot with an open sleeping bag as a mattress and blankets for warmth. Somehow, I had kicked off the blankets. Talk about cold. I didn't know I could get that cold in the summer.

Saturday's day time was not much better, but it didn't rain. There we were, in late June, wearing jackets and long underwear like it was late October. Tell me why we live in New England again? Of course, Sunday dawned nice and warmed up to the 70s. It only did that because we were leaving.

We did get a lot of fresh air. All of us including Cooper managed to get some exercise. Time in the forest is worth some rain and freezing one's toes off. Saturday, I cooked a couple of rib eye steaks on an open fire and roasted potatoes in the coals. Something about a wood fire makes steaks even better. Needless to say, we didn't go into the forest unarmed, so I won't say it.

All in all, it was nice crawling into my own bed last night and not listening to the incessant whine of mosquitoes.

Monday, June 18, 2007

National Concealed Carry Licensing

Instapundit mentioned a national concealed carry permit and Say Uncle mentioned his concerns about such a license. He wondered how it would be administered (see comments too).

I don’t think we need a national concealed carry license. All we need is for states to follow the “full faith and credit” provisions of the Constitution. My driver’s license is just as valid in Florida as it is in New Hampshire where it was issued. My New Hampshire concealed carry license (CCL) should be just as valid anywhere in the country.

One issue that comes up is some states have a CCL that’s harder to get than in other states. Well, bully for them. Some states have stricter driver’s license permits than others and they still honor the driver’s license.

Some states have different marriage laws, but still honor a marriage license from other states (Massachusetts allows gay marriage and a gay couple’s license would not be honored elsewhere, so this is a difference now that will one day be adjudicated one way or the other).

I admit to certain concerns with licensing concealed carry. I’d prefer that we could, as a nation, adopt permitless carry, which works well in Vermont and Alaska. I know that it would not be feasible politically. We can say “…shall not be infringed” all we want, but laws are passed and enforced and not declared unconstitutional.

Therefore, I pragmatically accept the need to have a permit before I carry a gun, especially because I really don’t want to go to jail. I don’t like stale bologna sandwiches, public showers, toilets in my bedroom, and so much more.

Since I accept having to beg for a CCL, is it too much to ask that it be accepted everywhere in the country just like my driver’s and marriage licenses?

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Fred for President

The Ten Ring is proud to announce our support for Fred Thompson in his run for the White House in 2008. We think Fred will make a refreshing change from the current direction of the Republican Party and he is a steadfast supporter of our right to keep and bear arms. Click on the link on the sidebar if you wish to contribute to his campaign.

Monday, June 11, 2007

I've had all I can stand.......

In 2000, I learned that my now deceased Grandfather was not going to vote in the Presidential election. Grandfather was a man of strong opinions and was a staunch Conservative, much more than myself, truth be told. I learned that he was sitting out the election because he refused to vote for George Bush. In fact, he despised the entire family. At the time, I scratched my head and wondered: What was his problem with Bush? But now, I realize that, as with most things, he was 100% in the right.

I’ve never been a staunch supporter of George Bush. I’ve known, since he was my governor in Texas, that he was never, truly a Conservative. In fact I suspected that he held more than a bit of disdain for Conservatives. But given the choice between him and Al Gore, I, like many, voted for the better of two evils. I thought that he had to be better than Al Gore, who actually campaigned on expanding gun control. But, I have to wonder at this juncture, if we all would have been better off with Gore in the White House.

Stay with me here. I will explain.

It pains me to admit it, but the Left has been somewhat right about President Bush. Not about the Bush is Hitler thing (if he was, his critics would be in internment camps) but about his complete unsuitability for the office of President of the United States and his utter stupidity.

This man has virtually destroyed the Republican Party and has brought back the Left from the political graveyard.

Think back to the 1990’s. Capitalism and the Free Market had triumphed. The Soviet Union had fallen and the Left was in retreat all around the world. Even Bill Clinton had to make a speech about how the era of Big Government was over. Can you imagine any politician, Republican or Democrat who would say this today?

Now look where we are today. The Left is expanding everywhere. Latin America is voting in Leftist tyrants and Russia is returning to its old, thuggish ways. Things haven’t looked this grim since the late 1970’s when another idiotic, clueless man was sitting in the Oval Office.

George Bush isn’t completely responsible for these problems, but I believe he has to shoulder a lot of the blame.

Let’s start at the beginning.

The defining moment of George W. Bush’s presidency was September 11, 2001. Conservative’s cheered his defiant speech at the site of the World Trade Center and we thought: now here is a man who will get the job done.
For a while, that’s exactly what he did. In a matter of months, the Taliban in Afghanistan was defeated. President Bush then began to make the case for a campaign in Iraq. Iraq seemed to be a logical, next step in the War on Terror. Saddam Hussein was a supporter and financer of Islamic Terrorists (eg. the fund for Palestinian suicide bombers) and was a serial violator of the cease-fire agreement that ended the Gulf War.

Unlike the Afghanistan campaign though, Bush carefully attempted to build a coalition, with the help of Prime Minister Tony Blair and even went to the UN and got some resolutions passed. The UN balked about the use of force and eventually, a year after the initial hints about a campaign in Iraq, the U.S. military finally invaded. That campaign was a brilliant success and Baghdad fell shortly afterwards.

So what happened after that?

George Bush happened.

George Bush tried to run a politically correct war. Our soldiers were burdened with ridiculous rules of engagement against enemies who violated every rule of war. Instead of a quick firing squad that is the penalty under the Geneva Convention for combatants fighting out of uniform, we were subjected to Constitution bending military tribunals and detention camps halfway around the world from the site of capture.
But it’s not just about Iraq.

  • George Bush signed into law a blatantly unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment: The McCain-Feingold Campaign finance bill.

  • George Bush has supported government spending that would have made Conservatives scream in the days of Bill Clinton. His support of Ted Kennedy’s education bill is a particularly egregious example.

  • George Bush has been no real friend of gun owners. The only real pro-gun act of his administration was Attorney General John Ashcroft’s decision that the 2nd Amendment was in fact an individual right. The current Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales wants to expand the powers of the ATF. George Bush also cynically used the support of gun owners when he stated that he would sign a renewed assault weapons ban even though he knew fully well that it would never pass the Republican Congress. With friends like this….

  • George Bush has presided over the most enormous expansion of the Federal Government in my lifetime. If Clinton had even tried to expand the Federal Government at the scale that Bush has over the last 6 ½ years, the Republican would have been up in arms.

  • and finally, the cause of this post and the straw that finally broke the camels back, Illegal Immigration. Bush’s pandering to the Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party on this issue is bad enough, but his patronizing and condescending attitude to those who had been his most stalwart supporters is too much to take. I find it impossible to support a man whose administration thinks that a gun store owner that makes a few minor paper work violations should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but feels that people who have blatantly and arrogantly violated our immigration laws should be forgiven and even praised.

So there you have it. As I said above, I believe now that it would have been better for America if Al Gore had become President in 2000. When I told this to Denise, she was flabbergasted. But let me explain. If Al Gore had become President, I suspect he would have been a disaster after the September 11 attacks. He would have sought the Diplomatic route and would have made an attempt to find out why they hate us. Islamic attacks would have increased and this method of dealing with terrorism would have been shown to be a failure. The Republicans would have won overwhelmingly in 2004 and a new Republican president would have robustly attacked Islamic terrorism with the country more or less united behind him; thus, no anti-war movement and no revanchist Left.

Compare that with where we are today.
The Democratic Party holds the House and Senate where the Speaker of the House is a far Left moonbat from San Francisco.
The Left is on the march and has expanded into formerly staunch Conservative bastions like New Hampshire. Where in 1992, the Democrats had to run as Conservatives to win (remember Bill Clinton’s promise of a middle income tax cut), they now run openly as Leftists and have a good chance of winning with that tactic.

In conclusion, George W. Bush has been a disaster for the Republican Party and for the United States of America. His lack of leadership, his utter lack of eloquence and sheer stupidity has made the immediate future grim for Conservatives, Libertarians and believers in limited government. I hate to agree with Jesse Jackson in anything but I have to say that he may have been on the something when he warned America to stay away from the Bushes.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

New York City Thoughts

I've been in New York City on business for the last couple of days. Jeez, what a place. It's nice enough to visit, but I couldn't live there. It's too noisy, too dirty, too bustling, and too much everything. It's one of the world's best cities and it beats Boston hands down. But, I'm still glad I live in a small town in New Hampshire. I'm also glad I live where I can own guns and shoot them with a minimum of fuss. Unlike New York or Boston.

It made me think of a book I read recently; Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She talks about relearning how to grow their own food and poultry. It partially inspired this post. Kingsolver is more than a bit of a leftist and I soon tired of reading about global warming, evil corporations, and other cant. Still, some ideas were quite good and I agree with her that it doesn't make sense to transport a watermelon from New Zealand during watermelon season in the United States.

One thing she mentioned was her family's decision to move from Tucson to rural Virginia. She was concerned about "sustainability" in Tucson pointing to water use and other issues. There may be some validity, but all cities are not "sustainable" whatever that really means.

Look at New York City. It's a hotbed of statist thought and practice. It's the home of the United Nations, Michael Bloomburg, and so much else that's a challenge to anyone who believes in individual rights and self-reliance. It's also the home of many environmentalists who decry logging in Oregon, water use in Las Vegas, drowing polar bears, and anything else that pops their corks.

These so-called environmentalists can't eat a meal unless it's brought to them. They can't live without corporate trade and support. They fear guns and want to take them away from the rest of us. They view hunting as a savage necessity at best or something that should be banned. They barely tolerate the "hicks and rubes" from flyover country that make their city-bound lives possible.

If they look in the mirror, they'll realize that they are ones who have a truly "un-sustainable" lifestyle. Yet they're always blaming someone else for global warming, corporatism, and everything else they consider wrong.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Challenge to a Governor

I was driving to work today listening to the radio, my mind more or less in neutral. I work in Massachusetts and Governor Deval Patrick high-pitched voice came on the radio. It was an ad extolling the state’s business virtues. He was talking to the president of an industrial tool company who praised Massachusetts’ work force, business climate, etc., etc., etc.

Patrick has done other ads with other company including high-tech. I have nothing against the ads. Massachusetts is losing jobs and people to other states where an even better business climate can be found.

I hope he appears with the president of Smith & Wesson. After all, it’s one of the states best known, oldest, and successful companies. C'mon, Governor give Smith & Wesson some airtime.

I’m not holding my breath, not with the state's and Patrick's anti-gun attitudes.