Not another cent.

I received a pledge form from the RNC today. It reminded me of the promise I'd made to support my Party. I will be sending it back with only a letter asking why I should support my Party when it breaks its promise to me.

We were told the Republican Party would lead. I have to say I'll believe it when I see it. And that's when they'll see another check from me.
GBW

No good will come of it...

Well, the Democrats "caved" in the Senate. Well, not really. They gave up nothing and gained legitimacy for their erroneous position by the collusion of Republican defectors. Yes, that's what they are. The Republicans gained nothing and lost legitimacy for their correct position by the sabotage of Republican defectors. No, the up or down votes agreed on really don't mean anything. There will be a Supreme Court appointment in the near future, and unless it's Hillary Clinton, the Dems will filibuster.

Would have been much better to get it out of the way now.

If I were a Republican in the Senate, I'd be thinking about some new leadership. I'm a Republican in Ky, and I know that's what my next letter to Senator McConnell and Senator Bunning will suggest.

There's an envelope on my counter in the kitchen right now with a pledge form to the Republican National Committee. What to do??? HMMM.

Just one quick question. - who won the election, anyway? Right now, it sure doesn't look like we picked up nearly as many seats as it seemed on Election Day.
GBW

Details on the Rolling Block

From my cousin:

We started with an old military Remington action, and my gunsmith buddy completely reworked it to Sporting Rifle configuration. The barrel is by Green Mountain (highly regarded in our circles), full octagon, 32” long, chambered in .45-70. Stock is Remington Sporting Rifle configuration, English walnut, steel buttplate and forend tip. The action was engraved by Ken Hurst, of NC (used to work in the Colt Custom Shop). The metal finish is a combination of methods, all original to these types of rifles…the buttplate, forend tip, triggerguard, hammer, breechblock, and tang sight base were color-case hardened. The action frame is carbonia blue (think pre-war Colt blue-black), and the barrel is slow rust blued. Montana Vintage Arms tang sight and globe front with spirit level complete the piece.

GBW

New (old) Rifle

The pictures below show the current pride and joy of my cousin, G.P. (After his family, of course)
The engraving was done by Ken Hurst. The stock work was done by my cousin.
I'll have to try really hard not to covet this one. Right.
I've lost the details about the rifle, and G. is at a silhouette match in TN this weekend, so I'll try to post details Monday or Tuesday.
When Master Sgt. G.P. leaves the Army, he'll get to do this kind of thing all the time.
GBW

Beautiful wood.  

Completed rifle, right side of action. Look at that wood. 

The completed rifle, with proud owner 

In the white, right view. 

In the white, left view. 

The Nuclear Option according to Nick Anderson

This is another of the many reasons why I seldom read and never buy The Courier-Journal, the only daily paper here in the Peoples' Republic of Louisville Metro. Nick Anderson, prize-winning cartoonist at the C-J, has this take on some Senate Republican's efforts to get the Senate to do its Constitutionally mandated job and give an up or down vote to the President's nominees. While you're on this page, you can look at more of his work and get really steamed.

Oh, I know it's on the op-ed page, but really, if one of the major voices (picture's worth a thousand works, remember?) of the C-J can't see the difference between elected officials in the United States doing their job, and the Communist dictator of North Korea, why should I spend money on the rag, unless, of course, you are a moonbat. At least Anderson is a better artist than the poor-excuse-for-a cartoonist Joel Pett at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Louisville and the Commonwealth deserve a top-notch Conservative daily newpaper. Where o' where are you O' Voice of Truth and Reason?!?!?!?!
GBW

Those who can't do...

Nice article by Victor David Hansen in The American Enterprise Online.

I've often wondered at the level of willfull ignorance of the Left in America, but it pales in comparison to that found on the Continent. That and what I have always believed is rank envy.

The next time you think someone across the Pond is making a good point, just remember the surest prediction of the British elections: 40%+ minimum taxes for everyone in formerly Jolly Olde England. And the Continent is worse. Of course, that only applies to the small percentage who actually have jobs.

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Winston Churchill

GBW

More on the Hawpe view of Justice Sunday

(See Kadnine's fine post for links and comments.)
Funny, Mr. Hawpe calls it a crusade, but I thought it was called Civil Rights. Let's see.

Freedom of religion? Check
Freedom of assembly? Check
Freedom of speech? Check
Freedom to seek redress of grievances? Check

Hmmm. I wonder what part of that Mr. Hawpe doesn't understand.

Actually, Mr. Hawpe does understand it. It's just that he and his ilk don't like it because they don't like some Christians. Oh, the Marxist "Christians" and their liberation theology are OK. And the social justice "Christians" are fine, too. But those uppity fundamentalists, those right-wingers? Nah, no use for those poor ignorant, unenlightened souls. (And BTW, if this an abuse of politics and religion, where was Mr. Hawpe's indignation when John Kerry was making the rounds of churches on Sunday mornings during the Presidential campaign?)

The Left's problem with Justice Sunday is that some Christians have moved out of the sphere of action the Left's view of Christianity allows. The namby-pamby version of Christianity they allow narrowly focuses on the "love" and "turn the other cheek" teachings of Christ to the exclusion of the teachings about the wrath of a righteous God upon Sin, and is not the Christianity of the Bible, but of liberal deconstructionists who neutered the Gospel to suit a social agenda. Kind of like the Left today.

Well, this is still the United States of America, there's still a Constitution, and the rights enumerated therein still apply to all the citizens, yes, even people of faith, and not just the ones that agree with Left Wing newspaper editors, Senators and seminarians.

If the members of Highview Baptist Church want to host a meeting and broadcast with Dr. Mohler, Dr. Dobson, and Mr. Colson, that's their right. If Senator Frist is invited to participate, that's their right. If the people who participate at the church and around the country via satellite can convice enough people to join their point of view, and they in turn can convince elected representives to listen to them, and changes in governance result from it, well gee whiz, that's just the way a representative democracy works.

So, with respect, my advice to Mr. Hawpe and all the others who are frothing at the mouth over this exercise of democracy is simply this.

Wipe the spittle from your chin. Suck it up. Get over it.
Of course, they won't.
GBW

I hope the Dems don't read this...

Of course, if the Dems did read this piece (Taking Faith Seriously: Contempt for religion cost Democrats more that votes.) by Mike Gecan, not enough would get it to make a difference. Just read the article to see what I mean.

Mr. Gecan's article shows a heart of America the Leftist elitists cannot countenance because of their snearing disdain for people of faith, indeed, for God.
GBW

Human Fallibility

Digital Video Recording, DVR, took all the fun out of the NCAA Tournament for me this year.

Well, I don't know much about basketball, so when I can see a foul, I figure the referees will be all over it. Now I understand that they can't see everything, but come on. Take the game last night. Using DVR, I can do my own slow-motion replays. Over and over, I saw obvious fouls committed where one or more of the referees were at least looking in the same direction. I rolled back the recording and looked at the slo-mo, and sure enough there was an obvious, sometiimes blatant foul.

I'm not talking about the subtle fouls, there isn't much subtle about basketball anymore. I'm talking about hacking, punching, pushing, and tripping. And while I'm on the subject, I was taught basketball was not a contact sport. What has happened to the game? I've seen street brawls where there was less contact.

I don't expect the referees to see everything, but is it too much to ask they control the game to keep it from being so physical? With all the pushing, hand-checking, etc. that goes on, I don't see how the refs can even figure out what to call a foul. They've also apparently forgotten how to count to three and how to call turning the ball over.

No, they can't see everything, but after watching some of the games from this tournament in slo-mo, I expect to see lines of college referees waiting for LASIK procedures. Maybe while they are standing there, they could review the rules of basketball and get the game back to something Naismith would recognize.
GBW

Catching up.

Well, Spring has sprung and I am finally getting over my pneumonia. Fits of hacking are confined to a couple of fairly predictable times a day and getting up to walk across the room no longer requires a rest stop. Also found is a clarity of mind that I had forgotten existed. (Or what passes for clarity in my case, reminds the Wonderful Wife.) So here are some observations about recent events.

Terry Schiavo
The most striking fact about this entire ordeal is the lack of generally accepted facts about the health of Ms. Schiavo. Ask five people about her condition and what was being done for her and you'd get seven different answers. The courts' greatest failure was not ordering an independent medical evaluation of Ms. Schiavo's condition before condemning her to death. I expect to see the fallout from this in State legistatures. Oh, and Michael Schiavo is a jerk of the first order.

Living Wills
My wife is an R.N. and has spent many years working in intensive care units. Her observations through the years have stopped me from signing a living will. What I would like done at age 50 may be radically different than what I would prefer at age 80. We tend to think of what we want done in those latter years, but an automobile accident tomorrow may activate conditions in a living will that might prohibit life-saving measures that are quite reasonable under the circumstances. I can't begin to think of all the different things that might happen, so I have chosen a renewable medical power-of-attorney that delineates who makes decisions when I can't. Since it has to be renewed, periodic revisions could reasonably be expected to avoid the estranged spouse issues we saw in Florida.

Red Lake School Shooting
This is an incident which wouldn't have been averted by any gun-control measure that isn't blatantly unconstitutional. The preoccupation so many have blaming guns for every shooting like this obscures the personal tragedies that cause them and the societal issues that contribute to them.

Officer Grignon killed in Louisville
Why was this young man on the street? The person(s) responsible for the officer's death are the ones that allowed the boy that pulled the trigger to remain at large. Breakdowns in the system are inevitable, but why do they happen so often?

Social Security and Taxes
It's broke. Fix it. I like privitization and I like the National Sales Tax, but I'm open to other ideas. Just don't say it doesn't need fixing.

The Pope's death.
I am not Roman Catholic, so I really don't understand it from that viewpoint, but I admire him for his stand against Communism and his role in promoting freedom in the former Soviet satellite states.

Alaska National Wildlife Refuge
Drill.

Oil Prices.
My monthly gasoline bill has gone from about $70 to over $120. So we went to Iraq for the oil? Right. Just keep saying it, Moonbats, as the prices keep rising. So much for traveling this summer.

If I haven't made you made today, I'll try harder next time.
GBW

Among these are Life...

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

All rights enumerated in the Constitution are predicated by the assumption that those who would enjoy their God-given rights are alive. Dead people don't have rights.

Terry Schiavo's most basic civil right has been violated. Convicted felons sentenced to death receive more consideration in the appeals process than is available to Ms. Schiavo, who has been denied recourse to the Federal courts.

Believe what you want, but beginning with Roe v. Wade in 1973, the Baby Doe incident in the 80's, assisted suicide laws, etc., the U.S.A. has been sliding down the slippery slope of devaluation of human life to the point where you should fear being incapacitated in an accident or medical situation. In Europe, euthanasia is common practice in delivery rooms and, if stories I have heard from some Europeans are true, hospitals and nursing homes.

Terry Schiavo should receive judicial relief on the principles of basic civil rights. To do otherwise is to declare her a de facto non-person as the Florida courts have done. Hmmm. Non-person. Where have we heard that kind of terminology before?

It doesn't matter what her husband or parents think. There is a higher moral issue here that transcends the emotion we see on both sides. Terry Schiavo deserves to live, no matter the quality of that life, because she has a right to live that should not be abrogated, even with the cooperation of the courts. Expediency and emotion have no place in this decision.

Let us hope that those who hold Terry Schiavo's life in their hands will choose life.
GBW

Atlanta and Wisconson Shootings

I wonder how long it will take for someone to start talking about more restrictions on firearms because of the prisoner who took a deputy's gun and shot several people or the man that opened fire during a church service.

If you think more laws restricting firearms would have averted this tragedy, tell me how that would work. Then explain how this infringement on the civil rights of law-abiding citizens would be justifiable if applied to freedom of speech and religion.

Restrictions of the freedoms of all because of the actions of criminals and madmen demonstrates an egregious misunderstanding of freedom and the responsibilities of a law-abiding citizen.
GBW

Relapse

Sorry to be so delinquent, but I didn't have my facts straight before. Instead of getting better, which lasted less than one day, I found out I still had pneumonia. Apparently my bugs didn't pay any attention to the Z-Pack.

So, having had pneumonia for the better part of the last month (or the worst part, depending on how you look at it), I have benignly neglected my blog. I hope to do much better in the coming days as it seems the new antibiotic is doing what it is supposed to.
GBW

Something else to worry about

Imagine the economic devastation if almost all the electronics on which we depend (phones, computers, cell phones, basic electric service, electronic instruments, automobiles, lights, etc.) were all disabled in a few milliseconds. A single medium yield nuclear device airburst about 300 miles over the center of the U.S. (a ship-borne SCUD ballistic missle from North Korea or other rogue state), or several smaller devices detonated at lower altitudes (by terrorists) would shut us down in much less than the proverbial New York minute.

The president of The Claremont Institute was interveiwed by Bill Bennet this morning on Morning in America. He mentioned the danger of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to national security. Do you know what EMP is? Take a look at this link for an interesting page with basic explanations.

Those of us who live around busy airports commented on the quietness after 9/11. Try to imagine what it would be like if you didn't hear any cars or trucks, any airplanes, any refrigerator motors or furnace fans, no television or radio, no air-conditioner hum, no motorcyles, well, you get the idea. Few electronic devices or devices which depend on electronics would be of much use. .

Try to imagine the loss of life if we had an EMP event in a cold winter. No heat, no transportation, and little, if any, chance of restoring either for a long time. Not to mention that every traffic light would fail, every plane in the air would crash, and every patient whose life depended on electricity would die.

I don't know about you, but I don't have a source of water that isn't dependent on electricy and six months of food. Expect millions to die of thirst, exposure and starvation. In fact, if you aren't in a position to survive with the technology of rural late 19th-early 20th Century America, you'd be in a world of hurt.

Unthinkable you say? Unrealistically alarmist you think? See this link for a Heritage Foundation paper that references testimony to Congress by The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. Not a question of if, but when. If someone had told you on 9/10/2001 about the events of the next day, you would have laughed at them. Until the first plane flew into the World Trade Center the next morning.

Just something else to worry about.
GBW

Out of the fog.

I have to admit to having almost no serious thoughts about anything for almost two weeks. A very nasty flu turned into bronchitis turned into pneumonia and the concurrent fevers pretty much shut down the old gray matter. Of course, I'm told by some that a brain scan would be necessary to tell the difference from when I'm well.

Isn't it amazing how small the issues that usually occupy our minds seem when we are ill? Suddenly, budgets, political races, court cases, outrageous comments that would generate immediate praise or condemnation are not even placed on the back burner, but thrown out in the back yard for the duration, if, indeed, we even really hear them. I barely had the gumption (that's a good country word) to check my email every couple of days.

But, like my slowly returning appetite for food, so returns my appetite for news. And with that, a slowly returning desire to say something about whatever piques my interest. I wonder what will be next?
GBW