Monthly Archives: November 2008

A Day of Remberance

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On this day, in 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act into law, requiring purchasers of handguns to pass a background check. From Wikipedia…

The Brady Bill Act initially required purchasers to wait up to five days for a background check to occur before being allowed to purchase a handgun. If the background check was returned before the five days had elapsed, then the transfer could occur at that time, and if the check had not been completed in five days, then the transfer was not allowed to occur. In some states, proof of a previous background check could be used to bypass the wait. For example, a state-issued concealed carry permit usually included a background check equivalent to the one required by the Act and could be used in place of the Act’s check. Many states passed shall issue concealed carry laws in the wake of the Act’s passing. The Act applied only to transfers from a dealer licensed to sell guns by the Treasury Department to a private individual. Sales between private parties could not be covered under the Act because the federal government had no jurisdiction to restrict intrastate commerce. The provision in the Act that mandated local law enforcement officials to carry out background checks was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997 because, the court ruled, it violated the Federalism provisions of the Constitution (see below). In many jurisdictions, no attempt was made to process the background checks, and the Act became a simple five day waiting period.

The waiting period provision of the Act expired in 1998 when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) came online. NICS is managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The system runs database checks on criminal records. A handgun purchaser may still have to wait for up to three business days if the NICS system fails to positively approve or deny his or her application to purchase a firearm; if the denial is not issued within those three days, the transfer may be completed at that time. State alternatives to the background check, such as state-issued handgun permits or mandatory state or local checks, may still bypass the NICS check.

As usual with Gun Control schemes, this act did little to curb handgun crime. Instead it just placed additional hindrances in the path of law-abiding citizens who wished to exercise their Second Amendment rights. The one positive result of this act was to hasten the spread of Shall-Issue Concealed Carry throughout most of the United States. As of today, only two states do not allow some form of concealed carry for personal defense. With the election earlier this month, many fear a return of more gun control schemes whose sole intent is the negate the Second Amendment. If any such attempts do occur, the blacklash from those efforts may well turn around to a further expansion of concealed carry and wider adherence to the spirit as well as the letter of the Second Amendment.

A number of years ago, Missouri, in the first attempt to pass concealed carry, attempted to pass the Vermont Option. In Vermont and Alaska, there is no state prohibition from concealed or open carry. That attempt lost in Missouri. The second and successful attempt to pass concealed carry in Missouri won conclusively and now Missouri has one of the most liberal Concealed Carry provisions in the nation.

The day after…

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My wife and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Our daughter and SIL went to his folks place. His two brothers and their families were in town from Dallas and Nashville. They left this morning.

The two of us had our turkey with our favorites, then following a long tradition, went to the movies for the Twilight Special. This time there were several movies suitable for viewing with the family. In some years past, we looked at the marquee and went home. We just don’t care to watch a movie whose only memorable features are sex and foul language. I’ve heard enough cussin’ and verbal pollution to last me a lifetime. After the first few words, folks just repeat themselves. If they’re not any more articulate than that, they should just keep their mouths shut.

Today was our day with the daughter, SIL and the three grandkids, the youngest being three weeks old. By consensus, we wanted something other than Turkey, so we went to Genghis Khan, a Chinese/Mongolian BBQ for dinner.

If you’ve never been to a Mongolian BBQ, you’ve missed something unique. Basically, it’s roll your own. You pick up a bowl and go down a line of ingredients picking and choosing as you like. I picked up some water chestnuts, onion greens, egg and flour noodles, sliced beef, chicken, pork and a few shrimp. Next section is the liquids. I usually add some rice wine, onion oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, garlic water, sugar water, a bit of hot sauce, chopped peanuts, plus some other ingredients that looked good. At the end a grill cook takes it and then it’s just waiting until it’s done.

At the table, add some steamed rice, egg-drop soup, some crab rangoon, chicken wings and you’ve a feast. If you’re still hungry after finishing all that off you can go around again. For four adults, drinks, and two kids, we got out with a tab of $65, tip included.

The best part was on the way home. We’d stopped off at the Sprint Store to update my wife’s phone. Hers was several years old and she wanted one with a bluetooth headset to answer calls while driving. With Sprint you get $150 upgrade discount after eighteen months. Add some additional discounts and we spent $151 for new phone, regularly priced at $299, a bluetooth headset normally $39, and clear carrying case valued at $30. All for $151. Not a bad deal!

We were pulling out of the lot and I asked my wife what was scheduled for tomorrow. She usually works at a free clothing store on Saturdays, but tomorrow it will be closed because of the holiday at the weekend. “Let’s go to the range,” she said.

Now that’s a Holiday! Quiet time home. A movie. Eating out with the kids. Afternoon at the range. Couldn’t ask for more!

Missouri still a Red State

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An bit of information to reflect upon in this post-election period.

Obama did NOT win Missouri.

ACORN was very active in metro Kansas City. Robin Carnahan, the Missouri Secretary of State gave lip service to investigating the voter registration abuses by ACORN. Saint Louis, in this election as well as the last two national elections, had more voters in some metro districts than were registered voters. Kansas City and Saint Louis have long histories of vote fraud leading back to the Pendergast era and beyond.

With all that in his favor, Obama didn’t carry the state of Missouri. I guess not everyone was taken in by the Chicago empty suit. And, speaking of empty suit, isn’t it strange that the Clinton’s seemed to have won afterall? Obama is bringing back the Clinton Whitehouse, one staffer at a time. **Snicker!**

Today in History.

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I’m sitting here taking a break from work. I have been remotely coordinating the installation of circuits at two locations and there are cable issues at each site.

**Sigh**

Seems these small details are always overlooked even when they are on the project plan.

So during my break I noticed that on this date in 1863, the Union Army won the third and final Battle of Chattanooga. Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederate forces lead by General Braxton Bragg and opened the door for Sherman’s march to the sea via Atlanta. This advance split the Confederacy and was a direct precursor to the defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia some seventeen months later.

In 1034 “ After Malcolm II of Scotland died, Duncan, the son of his second daughter, instead of Macbeth , the son of his eldest daughter, inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.

Also in England in 1120, William Adelin, the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England, drowned in the White Ship Disaster, leading to a succession crisis which would bring down the Norman monarchy of England.

Reading history can be an awaking. Just when you think something new has come down the pike, you realize it’s all happened before. Perhaps not in the same exact way but close enough to see the parallels.

I have a strong interest in England, Scotland and Ireland. My Father was born in New Castle, UK. My paternal Grandfather was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and my paternal Grandmother was born in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland just outside Dublin.

I’ve never visited the UK. Given the rising stupidity of the UK socialist government, I’m not sure now that I’d want to. So much of our heritage has been destroyed. The legacy of free Englishmen, Welshmen, Scots and the Irish is no more.

Local radio host in hot water with ‘pub Senator and Automaker

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Chris Stigall is a conservative radio host on Kansas City station KCMO. He is NOT in favor of the automaker bailouts being supported by Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond. Bond has come out proposing immediate aid to automakers. That is something even Nancy Pelosi disagrees. She says the automakers need a plan before getting any money. Not so for Senator Bond.

Stigall, on his Friday, November 21, 2008 show had a parody about bailing out the automakers. Bond and some local automaker execs didn’t care for the remarks. Bond went on a tirade against Stigall claiming he was sabotaging the bailout effort and wanted the auto plant in Claycomo, MO (Ford) to close contrary to Stigall’s actual remarks. Some auto execs at the plant monitored the Friday show and called an un-named contact in congress (Rep. Cleaver, D-MO, perhaps?) and complained about Stigall. Their stance, it appears, is that anyone who is against the automaker bailout is somehow un-American. Bond directed a tirade directly against Stigall in comments over the weekend.

On this morning’s show, Stigall proposed that perhaps Bond is more interested in courting the democrat and union vote in 2010 than listening to his conservative base. He reminded the Senator that even after the last election, Missouri is still a red state and perhaps Bond should listen to his party’s base rather than emulate democrats.

I’m inclined to agree. The main reason the Republican party lost this last election is that they tried to match the dems as pseudo-liberals. They ignored the conservative base and when they noticed they were headed for the dumper, brought in Palin to regain conservative votes.

It almost worked. But, it was too little, too late. More Republicans voted for Palin than McCain. Other conservatives, especially the evangelicals, sat out the election. The result was a overall democrat win.

If we are to regain conservative control once again as we did with Ronald Reagan, the Republican old guard must go. Bond must go. The RINOs must go. All of them. The Republican party must go and the party return to its roots. As it stands now, we’ve just one party in Washington since the Republicans are doing their best to behave as democrats. That benefits no one.

Cold weather at the farm

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My parents moved from town to the farm in 1953 or 1954, I’m not exactly sure which year. I have a vivid memory of being at the town home in 1953. I also remember being at the farm when my sister was married in 1954. So we moved sometime between those events.

The house on the farm has a combination of two buildings resulting in a two bedroom house with a pyramidal roof. The ceiling of the front bedroom and living room was two feet below the ceiling level of the rear bedroom and the kitchen/dining room.

That first year, we had no indoor plumbing. Water came from a hand-pump and a cistern under the rear porch filled by rain water. If the cistern ran low, Dad would pump water from a second cistern about thirty yards from the house.

The sanitary facilities were more crude. In warmer weather, we used an out-house some forty feet from the house. In cold weather, there was an enameled chamber-pot on the back porch only somewhat warmer than the out-house. Oh, man, was it cold! I still get the shivers thinking of it.

There were some advantages to that cold porch. We didn’t have a freezer until Grandma joined us a few years later. When cold weather arrived, Mom used the porch as a refrigerator. At one point, our refrigerator kept blowing fuses, so Mom unplugged it and we just used the back porch. We waited until warmer weather before a friend of Dad’s, who was a jack-leg electrician, replaced the electrical panel.

One of my more vivid memories was a meal Mom made. She was cooking on a coal stove that doubled as our central heat. She was fixing fried round steaks, roasted potatoes, some navy beans and bread & butter. After setting the table, she went out to the porch and poured glasses of really cold milk for all of us. The milk was so cold that little ice slivers floated on the surface and the glasses would start to frost over. Ice cold milk! Delicious!

I love those memories. I’m glad I don’t have to live under those conditions now. Hardships make strong memories, but we didn’t think of them as hardships at the time.

Gas prices still dropping

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I work at home. When I feel the walls closing in, I go out to run some errands or grab a quick lunch. When I went out a few minutes ago, I noticed that the gas prices at my friendly local gas station had dropped again. Todays price was $1.499 for unleaded regular. At the same time the radio annouces the prognosis for unemployment for this time next year is 9%.

There’s rough times ahead. Obama dithers and the market waits and drops while Wall Street continues to tank and everyone waits for BO to announce his plans—if any.