Shared a picture on Facebook – Ain’t that the truth. Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
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Month: March 2013
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What It’s All About in the End
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My On and Off Switches
OK, time to take a break from the politicking for a bit, if for no other reason than to prove that I’m not a one-trick pony here.
I guess it’s time to jump on board this particular Xanga bandwagon. Never mind that this will be crossposted to what’s become my main blog site.
First the “bad news” . . .
My Turn-Offs
- Ignorance, especially the intentional kind. Even worse, people who are ignorant, yet insist that they have all the answers.
- Habitual tardiness. If you say you’ll be there at 7 PM, be there at 7 PM.
- Dishonesty. Especially when it concerns where a potential partner and I stand with each other.
- Head games about where I stand with a potential partner.
- Control freaks. I got it from both Mom and Dad as a kid and teenager – my brother and I were the little flags on the tug-of-war rope. I’ve seen that tendency in myself, as well, and I don’t like it. What is it that Alcoholics Anonymous tells the drunks – “Admitting you have a problem is the first step” ?
- Gangsta princesses, with the cheap-looking tattoos and cheesy dollar-store bling. That should be self-explanatory.
- Excessive makeup and jewelry. Less is more in this category.
- Insistence that I change my views, interests and preferences. Especially when I’ve already expressed a distaste for the expected replacements.
- Expecting me to provide what you want without giving me anything that I want in return
- Self-pity – no guy worthy of the name wants the question “Do I look fat?”
On to the good stuff.
My Turn-Ons
- General agreement and tolerance where my politics and religion (more accurately, lack of religion) are concerned. Better yet, you have similar interests along those lines.
- Similar tastes in movies, music, food and drink.
- Tolerance for the self-defense tech that I own and sometimes carry. Better yet, you have similar interests along those lines.
- Punctuality. If you say you’ll be there at 7 PM, be there at 7 PM. Or maybe even a little early.
- Flirting and teasing is more fun when it goes back and forth.
- Reciprocity – I give what I get. I expect to get what I give.
- A sense of humor similar to mine.
- The understanding that when you want to get something from me, you have to give me something in exchange. As Heinlein said, “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”
- A potential partner for workouts, sparring, those sorts of things.
In short, if you see that I makes your life better, tell me. And be specific. Figure out A) what I like and B) what I hate (I’m willing to tell you if you’re willing to listen), offer to do A and avoid B, AND STICK TO IT.
All I can offer here is the same deal – to figure out A) what you like and B) what you don’t like, then offer to do A and avoid B.
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
- John Ross – Ross In Range
- Advice to Women About Men, or JR Uses Your Wristwatch to Tell You the Time
- Understanding Women & “The Rules” For Men, or Think of it Like Driving in England
- Women, Teasing, Tests, One-itis, and Hope, or Ross in Range Stands in for Dear Abby
- Ask the Assassin, or The Advice Request Emails Won’t Stop Coming
- Ask the Assassin: Thoughts on Marriage, or Why the Hell Are You Asking Me, Anyway?
Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
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DFA Survey — What’s Most Important in 2013?
Recently I received via email a survey from the “left” “liberal” fascist group “Democracy for America.”
Chances are that they don’t actually care about what I think about the various issues – after I clicked the “Submit” button, a page asking me to donate ∅∅∅∅∅ came up. I suspect that’s all they were after all along, and that the “survey” was simply camouflage towards that end – “We care what you think. Give us money.”
Here at Democracy for America, members like you make our work possible — and that means you get to call the shots.
What are your top priorities for this year? What issues matter most to you? What candidates in your area should we endorse?
As we work to change our country and the Democratic party from the bottom-up, it’s important we hear from you — that’s what being people-powered is all about.
Please, take a moment and share your thoughts.
What is the most important issue to you right now?
Civil Liberties
If your top issue is not listed above, please tell us about it here.
Repealing and overturning unnecessary laws, stopping new bad laws from getting enacted in the first place
Is there a candidate in your area that we should know about?
Maybe Gary Johnson?
What other issues are you following right now? [My choices in boldface – MWB]
Big Business
Budget and Taxes
Campaign Finance Reform
Civil Liberties
Economy and Jobs
Education
Elections
Environment
Gun Safety
Health Care
Immigration
Labor and Unions
LGBT Rights
Medicare
Net Neutrality and Internet Freedom
Privacy
Social Security
Veterans
Voting Rights
War and Peace
Women’s RightsWhat state do you live in?
New Mexico
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the issues or elections you’re following in 2013?
How about the Democratic Party’s elected officials start repealing some laws for a change, and lessen the burden of government upon the rest of us?
Protecting the individual right to own and carry military-pattern weapons as is supposed to be protected by the Second Amendment is a big issue for me personally. The more likely a candidate is to support repealing the National Firearms Act of 1934, the more likely that candidate will get my support.
Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
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Patti Bushee and Pat Davis Hinder, Not Help, the LGBT Cause
Santa Fe City Councilor Patti Bushee and ProgressNow New Mexico’s Executive Director Pat Davis will tell you that they are all in favor of expanding the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. In reality, they are ultimately hindering the LGBT cause, as opposed to helping it.
“How so?” you might ask. After all, both of them have been rather outspoken in support of same-sex marriage.
In today’s Albuquerque Journal, Bushee was quoted (and her hand photographed) as “urging county clerks to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses.”[1]
And ProgressNow New Mexico joined in yesterday with an email blast and Facebook posting.[2]
Now remember that in 2005, Democrat Attorney General Patsy Madrid filed litigation against same-sex marriage licenses issued by Victoria Dunlap. Those with good memories for the political scene will note that Dunlap was the Republican County Clerk in Sandoval County at the time. After Dunlap left office, Patsy dropped the lawsuit she filed against Dunlap’s actions.
The lesson to be learned from this is the Democrats will treat people of the LGBT persuasion as a political soccer ball, to be kicked around at a whim. Why shouldn’t they, as LGBT people will vote overwhelmingly for the Democrat regardless of what Democrats do between elections?
And it should also be noted that both Bushee and Davis regard the rights of others not in their political circle as soccer balls, to be kicked around at their leisure. If not as flies to be swatted.
On the latter, I’m referring to one issue in particular, specifically the individual right of private civilians to own and carry weapons, for the purpose of self-defense.
On 20 December 2012, Bushee said that she would sponsor a ban on civilian possession of “assault weapons” – military-pattern semiautomatic rifles – within the city limits of Santa Fe[3]. Warbling in tune with Bushee, ProgressNow NM has kept up a steady flow of strident, hoplophobic catcalls on behalf of the victim disarmament cause[4].
Consider that since it was founded in 1971, the Libertarian Party has supported the rights of LGBT people to live their lives free from coercion just the same as we libertarians support the rights of conservatives to live free from coercion.
How many conservative-type people in New Mexico really care per se about LGBT people being of the LGBT persuasion? Probably not many. So when I bring up to them the idea that LGBT should be just as free as they are to live without coercion, my case is undermined by Davis, Bushee and their ilk clamoring to infringe upon other, equally-cherished rights. “Why should I care about their rights when they don’t care about mine?” goes the question.
In short, if Bushee and Davis want their cherished freedom to be LGBT to be upheld, it would behoove them to respect the rights of others to own and carry weapons, among other rights.
NOTES
- Albuquerque Journal: 20 March 2013 – City Attorney: Same-sex marriage OK
Santa Fe New Mexican: 19 March 2013 – Santa Fe leaders ask county clerks to honor same-sex marriage
- ProgressNow New Mexico – Facebook page post and email blast
- Albuquerque Journal: 20 December 2012 – Assault Weapons Ban?, 14 January 2013 – Coss Headlines Santa Fe Gun Control Press Conference
- http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/488185797897738
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/488015187914799
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/487840961265555
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/487719194611065
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/487713881278263
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/526701757382247
http://progressnownewmexico.pnstate.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=81426.0
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/487208071328844
http://facebook.com/progressnownm/posts/487207284662256- Original article
- Links to this post
- Reposted –
- Personal blogs – WordPress / Yahoo!
- The Weekly Sedition – WordPress / Yahoo!
- Duke City Fix
Copyright © 2013 Libertarian Party of New Mexico and Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++. Related articles
- Clerks urged to allow same-sex marriage (krqe.com)
- Santa Fe Mayor Says Gay Marriage Legal in New Mexico, Encourages County Clerks to Issue Licenses (towleroad.com)
- Marriage Equality Already the Law in New Mexico, Santa Fe Officials Say (advocate.com)
- Marriage equality to be recognized in Santa Fe, New Mexico (dailykos.com)
- Santa Fe’s city attorney: Same-sex marriage is legal in New Mexico (rawstory.com)
- LPNM Press Release – HB402 “Assault Weapon” Ban Tabled (weeklysedition.wordpress.com)
- LPBC Press Release about BCSO “Buy-back” Events (weeklysedition.wordpress.com)
- Albuquerque Journal: 20 March 2013 – City Attorney: Same-sex marriage OK
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The “Sequester,” The Budget and Other Goodies
Taking note of an article in The Weekly Standard – Reporter Asks Carney: Will Obama Cut Back on Lavish Vacations, Golf Trips?
So I guess a cut of ∅85,000,000,000[1] out of a budget of ∅3,800,000,000,000[1] really isn’t such a bad thing after all, is it? Maybe, just maybe . . . they could, you know, cut a bit more?
Dare I hope for such “slash and burn” legislation?
Never mind that no such budget has actually been passed by both U.S. House and U.S. Senate and been signed by Dear Leader Obama, as the U.S. Constitution supposedly requires?
Isn’t someone who was allegedly a “Constitutional law professor” supposed to notice things like these?
How is it that I, with ZERO formal schooling beyond the high school level in the law, the legislative process or the political process can notice this, but 535 people who allegedly swore to uphold and defend the Constitution blow it off without a second thought?
In my opinion, it would be worth it to pay Obama (and Biden, and Boehner, and the other 534 idiots) ∅1,000,000 a year, tax free, to do nothing but play golf all year around.
Just make sure that they understand that the deal is OFF the second any of them picks up any sort of writing implement or touches any sort of keyboard.
NOTES
- I have a habit of using the null set symbol (“∅”) to represent Federal Reserve Notes as opposed to the “dollar sign” (“$”), because the dollar is supposed to be backed by gold or silver, where the Federal Reserve Note is redeemable upon government demand from yours and my life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness.
- Original article
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Sir Mix-A-Lot — No Holds Barred
“No Holds Barred” by Sir Mix-A-Lot
“The police, urge people, to keep their guns locked up and unloaded”
“Congress today, seems on the verge of approving gun control”[Verse One: Sir Mix-A-Lot]
It’s, time to fight back cause the new jack black macks
ain’t did SHIT about that, whack, jackin
And I’m packin
Cause I’m down for the bank I’m stackin
And in a straight up brawl I’ll mall alla y’all
Ya try to crawl for Tylenol and I install
big fists in your face, the blow is well placed
Spray ‘em with mace in case mace is his taste
Throw up the dogs, the competition is fogged
Cause he was smokin the yang, iced and drink the 8-ball
Drunk, stumblin, threw him with the lean
I sweep him, then attack the spleen
Play the congas on his backbone
He’s funk baritone until I twisted his dome
Creep up on my house and try to roll me up?
And got STUCK IN THE GUT with a black, Glock
And he starts to wobble
Self-defense is what I’m claimin’, let’s squabble
I pick up a pipe to take plenty of quick swipes
One grazed his dome and sliced his eye whites
I don’t give a DAMN bout a stupid ass burgular
It’s all circular
The dope dealer sells dope to the dope smoker
The smoker breaks in and tries to choke ya
But I ain’t the one to run from ya son
This is MY HOUSE, and it’s FULLA GUNS!
I’m down for mine and my choke is nice and hard
When you jack the boss there ain’t no holds barred!No holds barred
No holds barred
No holds barred[Verse Two: Sir Mix-A-Lot]
I’m crushin most hoods like katydids
I’m pleadin guilty for the damage I did
This ain’t about random violence
The (?) crept into my house, FUCK SILENCE
Now most punks wanna run for the stun gun
Fuck a stun gun, I got the big one
Forty-four mag, automatic, CHROME
Mercury-tipped bullets, melt the dome
It’s the 1990′s, and crack is
talkin to the criminals, ever so subliminal
Some crackhead wants Mix-A-Lot dead
A jack move instead, another fool bled
I can’t cry cause my tears are nearly froze
My interior’s cold, it posess my soul
I’m on the paranoid tip
And each of my socks got a clip!
When my house got robbed, a top notch job
Cops laughed while my mom just sobbed
9-1-1 only works for the rich ones
So I collect GUNS!
So step right through if you’re down for the wrong move
Most crews are moved by my twelve gauge BOOM!
How can I love when I gotta
protect my neck from a punk suspect?
Gun control – I ain’t wit it
They banned the AK and any fool can STILL get it
The innocent have been beaten, bruised and scarred
But for this citizen, there ain’t no holds barred“It is an absolute infringement on my second amendment rights”
No holds barred
“When is this attack on gun owners going to end?”
No holds barred
“Education, versus restriction”[Verse Three: Sir Mix-A-Lot]
Hypothetical situation
Gun control starts sweepin the nation
Now you got a bunch of unarmed innocent victims
Gettin FUCKED by the system
Sittin at home with a butter knife, huh
Any fool could rape your wife
So what’s up when the criminals can’t be stopped?
The only one with guns are the COPS
But it’s hard for a brother to trust police
Huh, so the shit don’t cease
So I go downtown to buy a hot gun
I hated criminals, and now I’m one
Because I bought a gat to protect my house
The cops wanna bust me out?
So it’s illegal to protect yourself?
Hell, you either get killed, or you in jail
So when you vote
You better think about what I just wrote
And FUCK writin a note to yo’ Congressman!
You got the fool hired
Now help get the fool fired
A scary scenario
And I put it in your stereo
So when a fool tries to run up on my car
R.I.P., no holds barredNo holds barred
No holds barred
“They take aim, at the law abiding citizen, instead of the criminal”
[*applause*]
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The Armed Defense of Liberty by Dr. Alan Keyes
The Armed Defense of Liberty
By Dr. Alan Keyes – July 30, 1999
Despite the heroic efforts of Sen. Bob Smith to turn it back, the latest batch of irrational and servile restrictions on the Second Amendment continues to ooze its way through that allegedly deliberative institution, the Congress. Perhaps because the gun control debate is now so entirely drenched in the emotive sludge that is the principal intellectual food of our political establishment, this seems a good moment to recall the deep reasons, the fundamental context, that must inform any responsible deliberations on the question of an armed citizenry.
I believe that underlying all of the prominent issues of the day – abortion, the breakdown of the family and of our educational institutions, the betrayal of our national sovereignty and military readiness, and the ongoing expansion of government’s tyrannical claims to tax and regulate – we can discern what is essentially one moral challenge which manifests itself in many areas. Simply stated, that challenge has to do with the corruption of our understanding of freedom, which leads to the abandonment of respect for law and individual responsibility, the twin pillars which ought to under-gird true freedom.
As a free people, our way of life depends upon certain moral ideas. As a matter of personal conscience, I believe that Christianity most perfectly embodies those ideas. But since Americans come from many different religious backgrounds, in dealing with issues of public policy, we must derive these ideas from sources that are open to support from all the people.
Nothing meets this purpose more completely than the principles and logic of our own Declaration of Independence, so American citizens and statesmen should make it the explicit basis for dealing with the moral crisis we now face.
The Declaration is fundamentally a statement of the principles of justice that define the moral identity of the American people. It presents a certain concept of our human nature and draws out the political consequences of that concept.
All human beings are created equal. They need no title or qualification beyond their simple humanity in order to command respect for their intrinsic human dignity, their “unalienable rights.” The purpose of government is to secure these rights, and no government is just or legitimate if it systematically violates them.
But the Declaration is more than just an assertion of rights. It also makes a clear statement about the ultimate source of authority which commands respect for those rights. God, the Creator, the author of the laws of nature, is that source.
Thus the effective prerequisite for human rights is respect for God’s authority and His eternal laws. This is also the prerequisite for the idea of government based upon consent, which includes free elections, representation, due process of law, etc. If we accept the logic of our Declaration of Independence, this reverence for God is not just a matter of religious faith. It is the foundation of justice and citizenship in our republic.
Therefore, our freedom is derived from our respect for law, especially the highest law as embodied in the will of the Creator. Thus freedom, rightly understood, cannot be confused with mere licentiousness. It first of all involves the duty to respect its own foundations in the laws of nature and nature’s God. That’s why our rights are “unalienable,” which means that we do not have the right to surrender or destroy them by our choice or actions.
Indeed, if we make the judgment that our rights are being systematically violated, we have the duty to resist and overthrow the power responsible. This duty involves both the judgment and the moral and material capacity to resist tyranny. These principles constitute our character as a free people, which it is our duty to maintain.
It is in the context of these principles that we must understand the purpose of the Second Amendment, and the duties that it implies. The Founders added the Second Amendment to the Constitution so that when, after a long train of abuses, a government evinces a methodical design upon our natural rights, we will have the means to protect and recover those rights.
If we make the judgment that our rights are being systematically violated, we have not merely the right, but the duty, to resist and overthrow the power responsible. It is very hard to do this if the government has all the weapons, something that our Founders and the generations before and after them knew from repeated and first-hand experience, as well as from a study of history. A strong case can be made, therefore, that it is a fundamental DUTY of the free citizen to keep and bear arms.
The claim that the Second Amendment is principally concerned with the maintenance of state militias – military bodies under the direction and control of state governments – is not just historically false, it is also fundamentally incoherent. It would make no sense whatsoever to restrict the right to keep and bear arms to state governments, since the principle on which our polity is based, as stated in the Declaration, recognizes that any government, at any level, can become oppressive of our rights. And we must be prepared to defend ourselves against its abuses. The gun control movement is incompatible with the sovereignty of the people, because it aims to eliminate one of the key material supports of that sovereignty.
This is not the principal danger of the gun control movement, however. Perhaps more important than the physical disarmament the government is attempting is the moral disarmament that accompanies it. If we accept the view that the American people cannot be trusted with the material objects necessary to defend their liberty, we will surely accept as well the view that the American people cannot be trusted with liberty itself. Why should a man who can’t be trusted to refrain from murder be trusted with the much more difficult and morally subtle task of choosing his leaders responsibly?
The advocates of gun control take as their first principle that the American people are morally incompetent creatures of passion. The America they envision for us is, accordingly, more like a national 24-hour day-care center than a self-governing republic of free men and women. If we agree to accept this apparently comfortable arrangement, we will have to check our citizenship at the door along with our guns.
If, on the other hand, we intend to exercise the duties of self-government and justice that are our patrimony as free and rational creatures, then we will need to think clearly and coherently about securing the means necessary to do so. We must defend the moral self-confidence of America by reasserting the capacity of our people to make the most important decisions and bear the most important responsibilities themselves. And we must retain the material means necessary to shoot the windows out of the national day-care center, if it comes to that.
Second Amendment rights are sacred because of their connection to higher rights and higher duties, which are the very substance of liberty and justice, and to the God that America has always acknowledged as the source of both. We cannot surrender our guns without surrendering the vision of human dignity under God which is our national soul. The slow erosion of our national understanding of this fact is continuing in the Congress. Only a citizenry armed with a clear understanding of what is at stake can ultimately save us from the civic imbecility to which the gun control movement leads. By disarming, we will confess to our government that we no longer aspire to sovereignty, and wish our rulers to take up this burden in our stead. We will be signaling with great clarity that we wish to be comfortable slaves – and slaves, at least, we will soon become.
The terrible history of the 20th century should make clear enough that subjection to unlimited government is not desirable. But a clear and thoughtful examination of our national principles teaches us also that it is our duty to shun such servitude. It is our right, and it is our duty, to remain free.
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Sundown at Coffin Rock
Sundown at Coffin Rock
by Raymond K. PadenThe old man walked slowly through the dry, fallen leaves of autumn, his practiced eye automatically choosing the bare and stony places in the trail for his feet. There was scarcely a sound as he passed, though his left knee was stiff with scar tissue. He grunted occasionally as the tight sinews pulled. Damn chainsaw, he thought.
Behind him, the boy shuffled along, trying to imitate his grandfather, but unable to mimic the silent motion that the old man had learned during countless winter days upon this wooded mountain in pursuit of game. He’s fifteen years old, the old man thought. Plenty old enough to be learning. But that was another time, another America. His mind drifted, and he saw himself, a fifteen-year-old boy following in the footsteps of his own grandfather, clutching a twelve gauge in his trembling hands as they tracked a wounded whitetail.
The leg was hurting worse now, and he slowed his pace a bit. Plenty of time. It should have been my own son here with me now, the old man thought sadly. But Jason had no interest, no understanding. He cared for nothing but pounding on the keys of that damned computer terminal. He knew nothing about the woods, or where food came from . . . or freedom. And that’s my fault, isn’t it?
The old man stopped and held up his hand, motioning for the boy to look. In the small clearing ahead, the deer stood motionless, watching them. It was a scraggly buck, underfed and sickly, but the boy’s eyes lit up with excitement. It had been many years since they had seen even a single whitetail here on the mountain. After the hunting had stopped, the population had exploded. The deer had eaten the mountain almost bare until erosion had become a serious problem in some places. That following winter, three starving does had wandered into the old man’s yard, trying to eat the bark off of his pecan trees, and he had wished the “animal rights” fanatics could have been there then. It was against the law, but old man knew a higher law, and he took an axe into the yard and killed the starving beasts. They did not have the strength to run.
The buck finally turned and loped away, and they continued down the trail to the river. When they came to the “Big Oak,” the old man turned and pushed through the heavy brush beside the trail and the boy followed, wordlessly. The old man knew that Thomas was curious about their leaving the trail, but the boy had learned to move silently (well, almost) and that meant no talking. When they came to “Coffin Rock,” the old man sat down upon it and motioned for the boy to join him.
“You see this rock, shaped like a casket?” the old man asked. “Yes sir.” The old man smiled. The boy was respectful and polite. He loved the outdoors, too. Everything a man could ask in a grandson . . . . or a son.
“I want you to remember this place, and what I’m about to tell you. A lot of it isn’t going to make any sense to you, but it’s important and one day you’ll understand it well enough. The old man paused. Now that he was here, he didn’t really know where to start.
“Before you were born,” he began at last, “this country was different. I’ve told you about hunting, about how everybody who obeyed the law could own guns. A man could speak out, anywhere, without worrying about whether he’d get back home or not. School was different, too. A man could send his kids to a church school, or a private school, or even teach them at home. But even in the public schools, they didn’t spend all their time trying to brainwash you like they do at yours now.” The old man paused, and was silent for many minutes. The boy was still, watching a chipmunk scavenging beside a fallen tree below them.
“Things don’t ever happen all at once, boy. They just sort of sneak up on you. Sure, we knew guns were important; we just didn’t think it would ever happen in America. But we had to do something about crime, they said. It was a crisis. Everything was a crisis! It was a drug crisis, or a terrorism crisis, or street crime, or gang crime. Even a ‘health care’ crisis was an excuse to take away a little more of our rights.” The old man turned to look at his grandson.
“They ever let you read a thing called the Constitution down there at your school?” The boy solemnly shook his head. “Well, the Fourth Amendment’s still in there. It says there won’t be any unreasonable searches and seizures. It says you’re safe in your own home.” The old man shrugged. “That had to go. It was a crisis! They could kick your door open any time, day or night, and come in with guns blazing if they thought you had drugs . . . or later, guns. Oh, at first it was just registration – to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals! But that didn’t work, of course, and then later when they wanted to take ‘em they knew where to look. They banned ‘assault rifles’, and then ‘sniper rifles’, and ‘Saturday night specials.’ Everything you saw on the TV or in the movies was against us. God knows the news people were! And the schools were teaching our kids that nobody needed guns anymore. We tried to take a stand, but we felt like the whole face of our country had changed and we were left outside.”
“Me and a friend of mine, when we saw what was happening, we came and built a secret place up here on the mountain. A place where we could put our guns until we needed them. We figured some day Americans would remember what it was like to be free, and what kind of price we had to pay for that freedom. So we hid our guns instead of losing them.”
“One fellow I knew disagreed. He said we ought to use our guns now and stand up to the government. Said that the colonists had fought for their freedom when the British tried to disarm them at Lexington and Concord. Well, he and a lot of others died in what your history books call the ‘Tax Revolt of 1998,’ but son, it wasn’t the revolt that caused the repeal of the Second Amendment like your history book says. The Second Amendment was already gone long before they ever repealed it. The rest of us thought we were doing the right thing by waiting. I hope to God we were right.”
“You see, Thomas. It isn’t government that makes a man free. In the end, governments always do just the opposite. They gobble up freedom like hungry pigs. You have to have laws to keep the worst in men under control, but at the same time the people have to have guns, too, in order to keep the government itself under control. In our country, the people were supposed to be the final authority of the law, but that was a long time ago. Once the guns were gone, there was no reason for those who run the government to give a damn about laws and constitutional rights and such. They just did what they pleased and anyone who spoke out . . . well, I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“It took a long time to collect up all the millions of firearms that were in private hands. The government created a whole new agency to see to it. There were rewards for turning your friends in, too. Drug dealers and murderers were set free after two or three years in prison, but possession of a gun would get you mandatory life behind bars with no parole.
“I don’t know how they found out about me, probably knew I’d been a hunter all those years, or maybe somebody turned me in. They picked me up on suspicion and took me down to the federal building.”
“Son, those guys did everything they could think of to me. Kept me locked up in this little room for hours, no food, no water. They kept coming in, asking me where the guns were. ‘What guns?’ I said. Whenever I’d doze off, they’d come crashing in, yelling and hollering. I got to where I didn’t know which end was up. I’d say I wanted my lawyer and they’d laugh. ‘Lawyers are for criminals’, they said. ‘You’ll get a lawyer after we get the guns.’ What’s so funny is, I know they thought they were doing the right thing. They were fighting crime!”
“When I got home I found Ruth sitting in the middle of the living room floor, crying her eyes out. The house was a shambles. While I was down there, they’d come out and took our house apart. Didn’t need a search warrant, they said. National emergency! Gun crisis! Your grandma tried to call our preacher and they ripped the phone off the wall. Told her that they’d go easy on me if she just told them where I kept my guns.” The old man laughed. “She told them to go to hell.” He stared into the distance for a moment as his laughter faded.
“They wouldn’t tell her about me, where I was or anything, that whole time. She said that she’d thought I was dead. She never got over that day, and she died the next December.”
“They’ve been watching me ever since, off and on. I guess there’s not much for them to do anymore, now that all the guns are gone. Plenty of time to watch one foolish old man.” He paused. Beside him, the boy stared at the stone beneath his feet.
“Anyway, I figure that, one day, America will come to her senses. Our men will need those guns and they’ll be ready. We cleaned them and sealed them up good; they’ll last for years. Maybe it won’t be in your lifetime, Thomas. Maybe one day you’ll be sitting here with your son or grandson. Tell him about me, boy. Tell him about the way I said America used to be.” The old man stood, his bad leg shaking unsteadily beneath him.
“You see the way this stone points? You follow that line one hundred feet down the hill and you’ll find a big round rock. It looks like it’s buried solid, but one man with a good prybar can lift it, and there’s a concrete tunnel right under there that goes back into the hill.”
The old man stood, watching as the sun eased toward the ridge, coloring the sky and the world red. Below them, the river still splashed among the stones, as it had for a million years. It’s still going, the old man thought. There’ll be someone left to carry on for me when I’m gone. It was harder to walk back. He felt old and purposeless now, and it would be easier, he knew, to give in to that aching heaviness in his left lung that had begun to trouble him more and more. Damn cigarettes, he thought. His leg hurt, and the boy silently came up beside him and supported him as they started down the last mile toward the house. How quiet he walks, the old man thought. He’s learned well.
It was almost dark when the boy walked in. His father looked up from his paper. “Did you and your granddad have a nice walk?”
“Yes,” the boy answered, opening the refrigerator. “You can call Agent Goodwin tomorrow. Gramps finally showed me where it is.”
Editor’s note: “Sundown at Coffin Rock” is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual events or to actual people, living or dead, remains to be seen. – Mark Pixler
This article was originally posted to the Internet by “Annonymous”
This story originally appeared in “The Blue Press” (a catalog / magazine put out by Dillon Precision Products, Inc., 7442 Butherus Drive, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, phone 602-948-8009.) The editor, Mark Pixler, was kind enough to allow distribution on the Internet.
This story may be reprinted as long as due credit is given to the author and publisher.
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Scott Ostrander: scotto@cica.indiana.edu
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LPBC Press Release about BCSO “Buy-back” Events
LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF BERNALILLO COUNTY RESPONDS TO COUNTY-SPONSORED
GUN “BUYBACK” EVENTS OF FEBRUARY 9th AND 23rd, 2013FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3/2/13)
Contact: Mike Blessing, County Chair – 505-249-1248
Alternate: Elizabeth Hanes, LPNM Press Secretary[ALBUQUERQUE] – The Libertarian Party of Bernalillo County New Mexico (LPBC) strongly condemns the use of taxpayer money to conduct so-called “buybacks” of firearms in Bernalillo County. Such activities constitute a waste of tax dollars and do nothing to serve public safety.
“First, this wasn’t a buy-back event at all. The word ‘buy-back’ assumes that you originally owned the guns and are buying them back, when the truth is that the firearms purchased by BCSO weren’t owned by Bernalillo County in the first place,” said LPBC Chair Mike Blessing. “Second, this event was advertised and reported upon as some sort of ‘public service,’ in order to ‘get the guns off the streets.’ This is code-speak from the victim disarmament crowd for getting firearms away from private citizens, whom as ‘we all know,’ ‘can’t be trusted’ with any weapon more powerful than a plastic straw loaded with spitballs.”
At the event, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office reportedly confiscated 333 firearms, some of them assumed to be stolen property. Criminals turning in stolen weapons were subsequently compensated – no questions asked – using taxpayer dollars, thereby creating great incentive for these lawbreakers to target law-abiding gun owners for burglary.
“The LPBC decries this waste of taxpayer money, not only the $50,000 paid out to individuals surrendering firearms but also the wages of law enforcement officers conducting the event,” Blessing added. “The LPBC will continue to work to abolish this sort of nonsensical activity by our county officials.”
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ABOUT THE LIBERTARIAN PARTIES OF NEW MEXICO AND BERNALILLO COUNTY
Established in 1972 by Margaret Mathers in Farmington, LPNM is the third-largest political party in the state. LPNM seeks to preserve personal liberty and freedom by opposing new or more restrictive laws, new or more expensive spending programs, and new or higher taxes. Guided by the Non-Aggression Principle, which opposes the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals, Libertarians promote peace, personal freedom, and unfettered capitalism.
The Libertarian Party of Bernalillo County was started in December 1997 as a county-level affiliate of the LPNM.
Official LPNM website: http://lpnm.us
Official LPBC website: http://lpbcnm.blogpsot.com
Copyright © 2013 Libertarian Party of New Mexico and Libertarian Party of Bernalillo County, New Mexico. All rights reserved.
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LPNM PR — City Oversteps Bounds in Attempting Minimum Wage Enforcement
CITY OVERSTEPS BOUNDS IN ATTEMPTING MINIMUM WAGE ENFORCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3/1/13)
Contact: Mike Blessing, State Chair
Alternate: Elizabeth Hanes, Press Secretary[ALBUQUERQUE] – The Libertarian Party of New Mexico (LPNM) strongly condemns the decision by Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry and City Attorney David Tourek to pursue legal action against Route 66 Malt Shop regarding wages allegedly not paid to an employee under Albuquerque’s minimum wage law.
“It’s not the city’s job to enforce wage and hour law,” said LPNM State Chair Mike Blessing. “This responsibility falls to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions. In fact, the DWS website provides clear guidelines on how to file a claim. Why isn’t the city attorney directing the complaining employee to these proper resources?”
In various statements made to the media, Tourek has claimed the city flip-flopped on the issue of representing former employee Kevin O’Leary in an action against Route 66 Malt Shop because “no one was coming forward to help him.” Tourek had previously stated the city should not intervene in the dispute and that O’Leary’s only recourse was to “hire a private attorney.”
“The assertion that O’Leary – or any employee – with a wage and hour claim needs to ‘hire a private attorney’ in order to resolve the issue is patently false,” Blessing said. “First of all, the DWS provides a wage claim procedure specifically available to ‘any employee who cannot afford an attorney, and has not been paid his/her earned wages.’[i] Not only does DWS spell out on its website the exact procedure to be followed to make a wage claim, it provides a specific form for Albuquerque employees[ii]. Furthermore, any claimant can represent him– or herself pro se in an action against the employer in Metropolitan Court.”
Tourek claims the city’s decision to represent O’Leary is “an exception.”
“We can only ask ourselves why O’Leary should receive assistance from the powerful resources of the City Attorney’s office when so many other Albuquerque employees are denied such assistance,” Blessing said. “The bottom line is the city has no business intervening in a wage dispute, period, let alone doing so selectively – presumably based on the high-profile nature of the case.”
The LPNM opposes any mandatory minimum wage law as being contrary to the principles of free market economics.
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ABOUT THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW MEXICO
Established in 1971, LPNM is the third-largest political party in the state. LPNM seeks to preserve personal liberty and freedom by opposing new or more restrictive laws, new or more expensive spending programs, and new or higher taxes. Guided by the Non-Aggression Principle, which opposes the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals, Libertarians promote peace, personal freedom, and unfettered capitalism.
[i] http://www.dws.state.nm.us/Mobile/Business/Resources/WageClaimProcedures
[ii] http://www.dws.state.nm.us/Portals/0/DM/Business/Wage_Claim_Albuquerque.pdf
NOTES
Copyright © 2013 Libertarian Party of New Mexico and Libertarian Party of Bernalillo County, New Mexico
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