Desert Shooting

Took the family shooting up by Sugarloaf today.  Not too busy, only had to go past about 8 occupied shooting spots.

Best thing about desert shooting, folks who don't police their brass.  Picked up almost 200 pieces of brand new .45 acp brass off the ground.  Lots of 9mm as well, haven't counted it yet, but I'm gueesing at least 300.

I think the kids might have had as much fun "brass-hunting, as they did shooting.

You want to have a Conversation?

So the so-called progressives want to have a conversation do they?  All right;  Let's have a conversation.  Let's talk about how every single mass shooting in the past decade except for one happened in a "gun free" victim disarmament zone.  The sole exception was the Safeway Parking lot shooting in Tucson where Laughner was actually stopped by a concealed carry holder who tackled the shooter for fear of hitting innocent bystanders.

Let's have a conversation about how in Israel the terrorists blow up school busses full of schoolchildren because mass shootings are too damn difficult because the teachers shoot back.  Let's have a conversation about how the "gun free schools act" has done nothing but create shooting galleries of live targets for any and every whack-job out there.

Let's talk about the fact that in every mass shooting that is answered by deadly force, the average body count is 9 times lower than when the shooter is unopposed.  Oh, and let's talk about how the police and the government you adore so much have absolutely no duty to protect you or anyone else.

Let's finally admit to ourselves that no matter how good it sounds in theory, Gun Control simply does not work, and have a conversation about real solutions. 

Real solutions like repealing the Gun Free Schools Act.  Real solutions like arming the 10's of thousands of teachers in this country who are military veterans.  Real solutions like training children how to resist an armed attacker and bringing firearms marksmanship classes back into the schoolroom.  Real solutions like insisting that business owners who post no firearms signs be held civilly accountable for doing so.

And while we are at it, let's also have a conversation about how at the end of the day, there will always be evil, and evil has never been stopped by a sign, or a prohibition, or a law.  Evil is only stopped by good men willing to use force to do so.

You want to talk?  Lets talk...

Pro Choice - On everything

Being a libertarian means being Pro-Choice.  Not necessarily on abortion, but rather on everything.

Pro Choice on being allowed to join a worker's union.
Pro Choice on being allowed to NOT join a worker's union.
Pro Choice on being allowed to worship the religion of your choice.
Pro Choice on being free not to worship any religion at all.
Pro Choice on whether to own a firearm (or not)
Pro Choice on... well just about everything.

I am waiting with baited breath to see how the far left is going to explain how "Pro Choice" means that the government has to pay for all the abortions one demands, but somehow does not mean giving people the choice to NOT join what is essentially a political organization under penalty of being fired.

Oh, and when they try to make a "free riders" argument, I am simply going to point an laugh since they never seem to care about free riders in ANY other situation.

Hey there Obama

So this morning I realized that "Obama" has the same number of sylables as "Delilah"

Yeah...

Hey There Obama"

 Lyrics (c) Mark Horning 10/12/2012

Hey there Obama, do you like bureaucrat City?

There's 12 million unemployed, Barrack, your party's sitting pretty

Here's a clue... Carter wasn't half as bad as you

I swear it's true

Hey there Obama, don't you worry about the budget

Fifteen trillion's a big number, that's the debt held by the public

That you made... Listen to my voice, you can't evade

Folks are afraid

Oh, it's what you do to me, With, this bad economy

On, no more prosperity, Oh, it's the economy

That matters to me

Hey there Obama,  times are hard, you can't avoid

But believe me, sir, it's hard to pay the bills while unemployed

Well times are rough... And your agenda makes things tough,

We've had enough

Hey there Obama, Bush left messes, fair to say

But big bailout spending made things worse, you did it anyway.

Don't your recall... That our economy is in free fall?

I've made my call.

Oh it's the economy, Oh, no more prosperity

Not your foreign policy,  No it's the economy

            12 million jobless seems bizarre. 

            They've lost their homes and lost their cars

            I really do not like that other guy...

            I'd like to pick you once again, 

            but hope is not a fiscal plan

            We let you have a chance and have a try,

            Obama I can promise you, that by the time you get through

            The States will never ever be the same

            And you're to blame

Hey there Obama, Change and Hope disillusioned me

Four more years of this and when you're done , the dollar would be history

Yes it's true.   You know that it's all because of you

We will vote however we need to.

Hey there Obama, we'll miss you

Farewell to you

Oh it's the economy, Oh Sinking in the sea

Oh just flotsam and debris, Oh it's the economy

That matters to me.

It's the economy.

**

Edited because I missed a slant rhyme the first time. 

Free Advice for Rahm

Chicago Teachers make on average $76,000 not counting benefits.  That's more than most college professors make, 3 times what our state legislators make, and well within the upper 30th percentile of houshold incomes.  (top 10% if you have two teachers in a household)

They work 6 hr days, get three months off, and they are striking because a pay increase of 16% over 4 years isn't good enough for them.  So much for teachers being underpaid.

Here is my advice:  Emulate Calvin Coolidge, Emulate Ronald Reagan, fire every last one of the ungrateful wretches.  If you need someone to teach while hiring replacements have the Governor call up the Guard.  Any officer in the Guard has a bachelors degree and can probably teach better than these slugs anyway.

Voir dire as leading ecconomic indicator

Jury Duty:  Spent the day down at the Maricopa County Superior court.  It was an interesting experience.

The court complex itself is several tall buildings linked by skybridges, and some of the buildings are clearly, much older than others.  The entry building is very modern, and the Jury assembly area looks almost exactly like an Airport Gate Area at any of your newer more modern airports with large screen televisions, free WiFi, Juror check-in kiosks etc.  The only difference I could tell was there was no jet noise, the TV's run Home and Garden network instead of Fox/CNN, and they didn't make us take off our shoes going through security.

Parking is a lot like the airport too, there is a Juror parking garage several blocks away and a shuttle bus that runs every 15 minutes.

Around 10am my group got called.  This was a group of 60 people randomly selected as candidates for a criminal trial, in this case, the State was alleging armed robbery.

The first part of any Jury selection is where the jurors try to come p with any excuse why they should not have to be there.  Remember friends, the joke that "you have the right to a trial by 12 of your peers who are too stupid to not be able to get out of jury duty" is a lot closer to reality than it ought to be.

This trial would have been for approximately 3-4 days, depending on how long deliberations took, including the selection day.  So lets be clear that this would be for an additional 2-3 days.

A lot of people claimed economic hardship to get out of their responsibility.  Several of those folk worked on commission or piecework, and while I'm convinced several people were just making excuses I could tell that several of them would probably feel the pinch of being out of work for 2-3 days.  Let's consider that.  If being out of work for a couple days is a real hardship, so is needing a new tire (or any minor repair) on your car. 

One lady was practically in tears because she was afraid she would be fired from her new job for attending jury duty.  Seriously. Now obviously sacking someone for doing their civic duty is seriously illegal, but how do you prove that? (although I'm guessing a jury of 12 people who couldn't get out of jury duty wouldn't be that sympathetic to the defendant in such a case)

We also had a couple of teachers who were whining about not wanting to miss class during the first week of school. Hint ladies, that's annoying, it's not a hardship, you have a Union and you get paid either way. Hell, I DON'T have a union and I get paid either way.

So after all of that, the judge dismissed 28 of the 60 potential jurors. Most of the folks who were left were retired, unemployed, or college students.

That's economically telling, and that's the real take-away here.  Even folks who do have jobs in this economy are running scared.  They don't want to take any risks with their earnings (not even 2-3 days worth) even though I do think most of them understand why it's important to serve. 

Fear drives economic decision making far more than hope.  And the amount of fear I saw in 60 random people about their economic future is a very telling, and very bad, sign for the economy.

QotD - Thomas Sowel edition - again

Those who cry out that the government should "do something" never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something...

Thomas Sowel,


Yeah.

President vs. President

You know, I've been trying to decide what to say about Mr. Obama's inflamatory and frankly downright insulting statements the other day:

If you've got a business -- you didn't build that.  Somebody else made that happen.
Barack Obama - July 13th 2012

I have at last found the proper rejoinder:

I would like to have a crusade today, and I would like to lead that crusade with your help. And it would be one to take government off the backs of the great people of this country and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well, because you did them and made this country great.
 Ronald Reagan - Oct 28 1980 


Yeah.  Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the President...