The "Anti" Solution...

As I predicted, in and after the wake of the Virginia Tech slaughter, the anti-gun crowd is ratcheting up their sick spin like roosters after sun up.


My previous post dealt with New York state Representative, Carolyn McCarthy. As my kids would say, this lady is "whack". You only have to view the video once to understand that she is a small pawn in the liberal democratic wing. She carries forward, however, doing what is asked of her. Why? My guess is, because she is a new face on an old issue. Previously, Chucky "Cheese" Schumer - the Senior Senator from New York, carried the standard on this issue with Sarah Brady at his side. (The liberal media loves Sarah Brady.) But Chuck was smart enough to give it up prior to the last congressional elections as his admiring cohorts were easily defeated in most races. Chuck knows when to cut and run. But he's also smart, that's why Carolyn is front and center. She's new, she's fresh, and she's a woman who appeals to other women in her demographic- a group the Democrats desperately need to win over for the upcoming Presidential election.

My question to all of these people is THE quintessential question that sensible citizens should be asking:

"If passing more legislation will prevent future crimes committed with firearms, then why didn't the Brady Act prevent the Virginia Tech tragedy? Or Columbine? Or Ruby Ridge? Or Janet Reno's fiasco in Waco? Or the thousands of other crimes that occurred nationally, year after year, upon passage of this legislation?"

Because when backed against a wall with solid statistics and the fact that these crimes continue to occur, they have no answer.

Here's how to defeat this weak, ignorant argument from the Left every time:

"If guns are the cause of these tragedies, then we need to find a way to legislate all the fertilizer plants in this nation. After all, a fertilizer bomb killed all those folks at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City."

But the Left has never been given to common sense. I'm guessing they never will. They are in politics simply for themselves. That is not to say that a lot of Republicans can escape that same label, but most know when to admit they are wrong. And when they don't, they lose their seat at the feeding trough come next election.

Look for SHRILLary and (Osama) Obama to make this argument a key plank in their next public address. Once their private polling data is in, they will be sure to wave this flag right up to the '08 election. Mark my words....

The following short video of Carolyn McCarthy, is why liberal Democrats shouldn't be in positions of introducing legislation pertaining to firearms and the restriction thereof. Listen carefully as the reporter repeatedly gets her to explain clearly why the need for restricting "barrel shrouds" should be included in her proposed legislation:

Quotes from abroad on VT's tragic loss...

• Someone should have done something to prevent this...
• Where were the police after they were called to campus the first time?
• Why didn't the university do more to inform the student body?
• How could something like this happen?
• There should have been a better plan in place to handle such a crisis.
• The university should have had more police presence on campus.
• Students should be allowed to carry firearms on campus.
• The state of Virginia should have stricter firearm laws- this could have been prevented.
• The university should install hundreds of surveillance cameras on campus...
• I'm mad that the administration didn't do more to prevent this tragedy!
• How hard is it to find a gunman on a small campus once the shooting starts?
• Campus buildings should have stricter access requirements.
• How in the world did a Korean national obtain not one, but two firearms so easily?

The best quote I gleaned from a major news source this morning, The Wall Street Journal, summed up the tragedy succinctly and poignantly:

"...whose madness can't be explained by reason." (In referencing shooter Cho Seung-Hui)

Sad, but true. Madness can make such a mess of reason and post-event analysis. That's what makes madness so difficult to deal with. There are no parameters to neatly configure, analyze, scrutinize, justify, understand, comprehend or even to adequately assign blame. The press and a great majority of the public want that last part- badly. They want a swift, subsequent action as a result of a madness induced episode. This is not healthy. This does not help the victims' family grieve or come to grips with their horrific loss. President Bush was correct in his reply to NBC news anchor Brian Williams when asked, "What should we do about these guns?"

The President's immediate response was awesome: "I believe there...will come a time for political conversation about the issue, but now is not that time. We need to focus on healing and support those who are grieving during their loss."

For a guy who catches a lot of flack for his lack of quality communication- he nullified a non issue softly and poetically as anyone who cares for people who are hurting would do.

You've heard of Goat Ropin'?

A long time Stirman family friend sent this little tidbit to me after reading my last post. He was present when he heard the cowpoke tell his tale...enjoy!


True story...I was witness to the conversation. The Fowler family was
on vacation in Colorado in about 1955...stopped at a little store, Dad
was visiting with the old cowboy whose wife was running the store. They
got to talking about deer hunting and things, and the old salt offered,
'I did rope a bear one time.' Well, Dad couldn't resist wanting the
details, and it turned out that the guy had some odd circumstance and a
good horse, and actually tossed a loop around a black bear. And not a
particularly large bear, either. The bear resented the act, and after a
little test of wills with the horse, the bear set himself and PULLED the
horse to himself, paw over paw. the bear killed the horse, and the
cowboy escaped with his life. Dad, always the practical kind of man,
asked, 'But, why did you rope the bear in the first place?'

The cowboy shrugged and looked embarrassed. "I don't honestly know. It
seemed like a good idea at the time."

Lesson learned. Let sleeping dogs lie, and do not practice cowboy
skills on wild animals. They are meant to be shot, not roped. Unless,
of course, one has plenty of backup in place of brains.


Friends - don't let friends - rope bears!

Story of the Week

The following story I gleaned from a buddy of mine (not the one IN the story mind you), who found it on - yep, you guessed it - the internet. It was so entertaining I had to post on this blog for both of my readers to view. Enjoy!

My name is Gary and I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregated at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away) that it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, which had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes my deer showed up, 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED.

The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer....no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I originally imagined.

The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head.

At that point I had lost my taste for corn fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death.

I managed to get it lined up to back in between my truck and the feeder, a little trap I had set beforehand. Kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head, almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it.

While I kept it busy tearing the hound out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that when an animal like a horse strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously such trickery would not work.

In the course of a millisecond I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and three times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now when a deer paws at you and knocks you down it doesn't immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is tear at your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and eventually the deer went away.

Now for the local legend. I was pretty beat up. My scalp was split open, I had several large goose eggs, my wrist was bleeding pretty good and felt broken (it turned out to be just badly bruised) and my back was bleeding in a few places, though my insulated canvas jacket had protected me from most of the worst of it.

I drove to the nearest place, which was the co-op. I got out of the truck, covered in blood and dust and looking like I'd just come from a bar-room brawl. The guy who ran the place saw me through the window and came running out yelling "what happened!?"

I have never seen any law in the state of Kansas that would prohibit an individual from roping a deer. I suspect that this is an area that they have overlooked entirely. Knowing, as I do, the lengths to which law enforcement personnel will go to exercise their power, I was concerned that they may find a way to twist the existing laws to paint my actions as criminal. I swear, not wanting to admit that I had done something monumentally stupid played no part in my response. I told him "I was attacked by a deer." I did not mention that at the time I had a rope on it.

The evidence was all over my body. Deer prints on the back of my jacket where it had stomped all over me and a large deer print on my face where it had struck me there. I asked him to call somebody to come get me. I didn't think I could make it home on my own. He did.

Later that afternoon, a game warden showed up at my house and wanted to know about the deer attack. Surprisingly, deer attacks are a rare thing and wildlife and parks was interested in the event. I tried to describe the attack as completely and accurately as I could. I was filling the grain hopper and this deer came out of nowhere and just started kicking the hell out of me and BIT me . It was obviously rabid or insane or something.

EVERYBODY for miles around knows about the deer attack (the guy at the co-op has a big mouth).

For several weeks people dragged their kids in the house when they saw deer around and the local ranchers carried rifles when they filled their feeders.

I have told several people the story, but NEVER anybody around here. I have to see these people every day and as an outsider, a "city folk", I have enough trouble fitting in without them snickering behind my back and whispering "there is the dumb-*** that tried to rope the deer".

I just thought I should perhaps pass this along in case any one else thought this was an intelligent thing to do...

Don I Mus Apologize 100 Times...

Wow- Don Imus (for once) is in the hot seat. No surprise, really. His career is based upon his sharp tongued response to guests who frequently appear on his show. Too, his comments always come as a response to national and global events that occur in the world. He's a talking head. That's what he's supposed to do. But, he offended some young people who happen to play basketball really well and the fact that the 'victims' are minorities, has stirred up a hornet's nest among those who have ready access to big media. Here is the latest AP story to date about the unfortunate incident:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/ap_en_tv/imus_protests

While I personally do not condone the statements that Imus made in calling the Rutgers' women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's", he has apologized for his crude remarks repeatedly on the air and in front of television crews. Not only did he meet and apologize in person with two of his biggest critics, Jesse Jackson and Al (I ought to be promoting a boxing spectacle in Vegas) Sharpton, the turmoil in the media continues. It continues largely because of the ensuing saber waving of Jackson and Sharpton who cannot accept (or don't want to accept) the man's apologies. How many times must he be publicly taken to task? 70 times 7? Come on guys, enough is enough.

Forgive me, but why are Sharpton and Jackson the appointed judge and jury on all things relating to an exercise in poor judgement when it comes to racially motivated comments? Shouldn't the apologies have been made to the Athletics Department of Rutgers and specifically to the young ladies on the basketball team that he offended?

Old wounds run deep, some have said. Comments that pertain to racial bigotry and hatred are difficult to overcome with a simple apology others have said. Well, I must ask: At what point is the apology enough? At what point does the "offendee" reach forgiveness from the "offended"? What act of contrition is a high enough price to pay for words that cannot be taken back but for which numerous apologies have been publicly offered?

Apparently, the judge and jury say the answer is for Imus to be fired. Forget about 1st Amendment freedoms in this country. When it doesn't further Jackson's or Sharpton's agendas, or it doesn't fit another minority's agenda - we just look the other way and demand that a man lose his livelihood.

While despicable and deplorable, this man's constitutional right to say whatever he wishes on the airwaves is guaranteed by that raggedy old parchment in Washington, DC. Certainly, the body that oversees the regulating of public airwaves can censor him, fine him, even remove him from the airwaves for a time, but the last thing anyone wants is to bring the litmus test of the 1st Amendment to the forefront over racially oriented material.

Jackson and Sharpton need to get over it. They need to return to whatever activity occupied their world before the television lights and microphones were turned on. Like moths to a flame.

My two cents worth today.

Product Liability...

A co-worker of mine recently ordered one of those doo-dads from the SkyMall magazine. You know the one- its usually tucked into the seat pocket in front of you when flying on a commuter aircraft whose seat is overpriced, smells of stale sweat, and usually performs an adequate job of getting you from point "A" to point "B" - with absolutely NO frills.

When my coworker received his 'item' by mail there was a little something extra in the package. It was a promotional gimmick. A freebie. Here's what he received:



For most, the labeling on the package is concise but just to be sure - the manufacturer put cartoons on the wrapping so that illiterate, hygienically-challenged folks would understand what to do with said product. Then, the manufacturer quite obviously submitted the artwork to a serious product liability firm for legal counsel. Here is what they came up with:



Do we need to be told, "Do not use for personal hygiene or as a baby wipe."?

The front of the package said to use it on glass, but the lawyers seem to think someone would wipe their posterior with it? Ummm...is there a precedent here I don't know about? This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase:

"We're gonna wax your butt!"

Ever see this before?