Every now and then I run across something on the Internet that I find worth posting as many times as I can, wherever I can, and this is one of them. I hope y'all find this as interesting -and relevant - as I do.
Gun Control 101
1. An armed person is a citizen. An unarmed person is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Gun control is not about guns; it is about control.
4. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
5. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
6. If you do not know your rights, you do not have any.
7. In the words of Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither."
8. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights reserved.
9. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
10. The second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
11. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
12. Guns have only two enemies: rust and liberals.
13. Know guns, know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
14. You do not shoot to kill; you shoot to keep from being killed.
15. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-prayer.
16. "Assault" is a behavior, not a device.
17. Criminals love gun control--it makes their jobs safer.
18. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
19. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
20. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
21. Enforce the "gun control laws" we have, do not make more.
22. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
23. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
24. "...A government of the people, by the people, for the people..."
More tomorrow. Class dismissed!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
"Man, that song really takes me back!"
We've all said that phrase at one time or another in our lives, and it seems that the older we get, the more we say it...simply because the older we get, the more we have to "get taken back" to.
So for a change, I thought I'd post some of the songs that take me back; besides, it'll be a nice break from my usual ranting and raving, don't you think?
So much like Mr. Peabody and Sherman, let's step into the "Wayback Machine" and take a little trip or two back in time, shall we? (What, you never watched "Bullwinkle?" Jeez, am I showing my age again? I guess you never heard of "The Banana Splits," either?)
"American Pie," by Don McLean
My absolute favorite song of all time, hands down. This one takes me back to the summer of 1971 when I was 14 years old and spent the entire summer bumming around Highland Springs, Virginia with my best friend, Mike Cooper. Every time I hear this song I immediately think of Mountain Dews, cheeseburgers and fries at Carneal's Drive-In, the Windham twins who lived on the next street over, and Mortimer Snerd. (That's a private joke between Mike and I, and will remain private, thank you!) It was also the last summer that I would spend both with Mike and in Highland Springs, because in June of 1972 my family moved to North Carolina. That summer was easily one of the best summers of my life to date.
"In The Summertime," by Mungo Jerry
This song takes me back to the same summer, only to a very particular part of it - the early morning hours, and by early morning I mean around 4:00AM or so. Mike and I were both paperboys and had adjacent morning routes, delivering for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. We had to be at the paper drop at the Colonial Store at the intersection of Nine Mile Road and New Avenue by four AM when the papers got there, and it seems like every single morning while we were sitting on the sidewalk in front of the store, folding papers and loading them in the big baskets on the front of our bikes, this song would always come on the radio that one of the five paperboys using this drop always had turned on. To this day, whenever I hear this song I can feel the damp morning air, hear the stillness of the sleeping town, and smell the dew on the cornfield on a property on my route.
"If Only You Believe (In Miracles)," by Jefferson Starship
With this song, the Wayback Machine stops in the late summer of 1975, specifically in the months of August through October. It was during this time period that I was in the Security Police Academy at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, learning my trade as an Air Force Security Policeman. I went on active duty 19 Jun 1975 and graduated from basic training on 4 Aug; I started the SP Academy two weeks later. This was my first time away from home, and I quickly got to learn to like being on my own. There were 125 airmen in my class, and the class was so big that they split my flight into two shifts. Half of the flight would have class from 6AM until noon, and the other half would have class from noon until six PM. Since I was the Flight Leader, I got to choose which class I wanted to take, so I took the early class. Sure, getting up at 4:30AM was a drag, but on the positive side you were finished with your duty day by noon and had the rest of the afternoon and the evening to yourself - which meant PARTYING! And man oh man, did I party! Most nights I was lucky to get in bed by midnight, and to this day I don't know how I graduated from the Academy since I don't remember studying much at all. But where the song comes in is simple - I had a clock radio that I bought when I got out of basic training, and each night as I hit the sack I'd set it to play for an hour before shutting off. It seems like just about every night, right before I'd drift off to sleep, this song would come on the radio like clockwork. Still one of my favorite songs to this day.
"Copperhead Road," by Steve Earle
When I was at Dharhan AB, Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, the AFRTS (Armed Forces Radion and Television Services) radio station was located in my patrol zone, right across the parking lot from the command post for my sector. I got to be good friends with the midnight shift DJ, since we both were stuck working those hours of the day. I kept him supplied with MREs and soft drinks, and he in turn would play whatever I wanted him to play. I had first heard this song the year before when I was in Korea and immediately liked it, so I'd always have him play this song. When the station started a request program about a month later, for reasons I am unaware of this song became the #1 requested song. You were guaranteed to hear this song at least twice an hour! It got so bad that the Army - who ran the AFRTS in theater - actually removed the song from the playlist! The outcry was immediate, and two days later the song was back. So whenever I hear this song, that's where I end up - Saudi Arabia in the middle of the night.
And that's it for now. I've just sat here for the past ten minutes trying to think of more songs that take me back to someplace I've been, and I can't think of any more. So I guess my list ends with four.
For now. Tomorrow is, as they say, another day.
IHC
So for a change, I thought I'd post some of the songs that take me back; besides, it'll be a nice break from my usual ranting and raving, don't you think?
So much like Mr. Peabody and Sherman, let's step into the "Wayback Machine" and take a little trip or two back in time, shall we? (What, you never watched "Bullwinkle?" Jeez, am I showing my age again? I guess you never heard of "The Banana Splits," either?)
"American Pie," by Don McLean
My absolute favorite song of all time, hands down. This one takes me back to the summer of 1971 when I was 14 years old and spent the entire summer bumming around Highland Springs, Virginia with my best friend, Mike Cooper. Every time I hear this song I immediately think of Mountain Dews, cheeseburgers and fries at Carneal's Drive-In, the Windham twins who lived on the next street over, and Mortimer Snerd. (That's a private joke between Mike and I, and will remain private, thank you!) It was also the last summer that I would spend both with Mike and in Highland Springs, because in June of 1972 my family moved to North Carolina. That summer was easily one of the best summers of my life to date.
"In The Summertime," by Mungo Jerry
This song takes me back to the same summer, only to a very particular part of it - the early morning hours, and by early morning I mean around 4:00AM or so. Mike and I were both paperboys and had adjacent morning routes, delivering for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. We had to be at the paper drop at the Colonial Store at the intersection of Nine Mile Road and New Avenue by four AM when the papers got there, and it seems like every single morning while we were sitting on the sidewalk in front of the store, folding papers and loading them in the big baskets on the front of our bikes, this song would always come on the radio that one of the five paperboys using this drop always had turned on. To this day, whenever I hear this song I can feel the damp morning air, hear the stillness of the sleeping town, and smell the dew on the cornfield on a property on my route.
"If Only You Believe (In Miracles)," by Jefferson Starship
With this song, the Wayback Machine stops in the late summer of 1975, specifically in the months of August through October. It was during this time period that I was in the Security Police Academy at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, learning my trade as an Air Force Security Policeman. I went on active duty 19 Jun 1975 and graduated from basic training on 4 Aug; I started the SP Academy two weeks later. This was my first time away from home, and I quickly got to learn to like being on my own. There were 125 airmen in my class, and the class was so big that they split my flight into two shifts. Half of the flight would have class from 6AM until noon, and the other half would have class from noon until six PM. Since I was the Flight Leader, I got to choose which class I wanted to take, so I took the early class. Sure, getting up at 4:30AM was a drag, but on the positive side you were finished with your duty day by noon and had the rest of the afternoon and the evening to yourself - which meant PARTYING! And man oh man, did I party! Most nights I was lucky to get in bed by midnight, and to this day I don't know how I graduated from the Academy since I don't remember studying much at all. But where the song comes in is simple - I had a clock radio that I bought when I got out of basic training, and each night as I hit the sack I'd set it to play for an hour before shutting off. It seems like just about every night, right before I'd drift off to sleep, this song would come on the radio like clockwork. Still one of my favorite songs to this day.
"Copperhead Road," by Steve Earle
When I was at Dharhan AB, Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, the AFRTS (Armed Forces Radion and Television Services) radio station was located in my patrol zone, right across the parking lot from the command post for my sector. I got to be good friends with the midnight shift DJ, since we both were stuck working those hours of the day. I kept him supplied with MREs and soft drinks, and he in turn would play whatever I wanted him to play. I had first heard this song the year before when I was in Korea and immediately liked it, so I'd always have him play this song. When the station started a request program about a month later, for reasons I am unaware of this song became the #1 requested song. You were guaranteed to hear this song at least twice an hour! It got so bad that the Army - who ran the AFRTS in theater - actually removed the song from the playlist! The outcry was immediate, and two days later the song was back. So whenever I hear this song, that's where I end up - Saudi Arabia in the middle of the night.
And that's it for now. I've just sat here for the past ten minutes trying to think of more songs that take me back to someplace I've been, and I can't think of any more. So I guess my list ends with four.
For now. Tomorrow is, as they say, another day.
IHC
Thursday, March 19, 2009
"The Buck Stops With Me!"
Or so says our Fearful Leader, President Obama.
Well, hell yeah, I guess it does, O Great Leader, since you're the one who did it in the first place!
So just what am I talking about? What, you haven't been keeping up on current events? Well, then, allow me to fill you in....
Remember about two weeks ago or so when the news hit that all of those AIG execs were going to get those multi-million dollar bonuses, and everyone was outraged that the company that had received federal bailout assistance was squandering the money in such a manner? Remember a few days later when The Great Pretender released a statement saying that he was "outraged" at this? Seems a logical response, right? After all, it's the same reaction that all of us had when we heard it, right?
So, didja read the news yesterday in which Senator Christopher Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee Chairman, said that he had put language in the bailout bill specifically to PROTECT those bonuses and ensure they were being given, and that he did so at the request of officials in the Obama administration?
And now, our Fearful Leader is standing up and doing his best Harry Truman impersonation by saying, "The Buck Stops With Me!"
Lemme see......first, he says he's "outraged" - HIS words, not mine - at the bonuses being given, and once the news comes out that HIS ADMINISTRATION took steps to protect those bonuses and ENSURE that they were given, he stands up and says "if you want to blame someone, blame me."
A nice smokescreen, Mr. President, but it didn't work. Maybe the legions of Obamabots out there will believe it, but the rest of us won't. The fact that YOU and YOUR administration were responsible for the bonuses being given WITH OUR TAX MONEY absolutely will NOT be overlooked.
A nice smokescreen, Mr. President, but it didn't work. Maybe the legions of Obamabots out there will believe it, but the rest of us won't. The fact that YOU and YOUR administration were responsible for the bonuses being given WITH OUR TAX MONEY absolutely will NOT be overlooked.
Nor will it be forgotten. Enjoy your four years in office, because it's going to be the only four years you're gonna get.
So can you say "HYPOCRITE?" Better yet, can you spell it? It's easy: O-B-A-M-A.
IHC
Friday, March 13, 2009
"Be afraid..be very afraid!"
This was a tag line from a very popular movie released in 1986, that movie being the remake of "The Fly" with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. These were the prophetic words spoken by Davis to another woman whom Goldblum was about to get involved with, and if you ever saw the movie you know she was right on target.
Well, I saw something today that made me think that America is afraid....very afraid. Actually, what I saw today was the third something that not only made me think it, but verified it in my mind. See, my wife and I went to the local sporting goods store today to look at some personal protection ammunition for my Springfield XD(M) in .40 cal, and what we saw there absolutely stunned me.
The handgun ammunition shelves were empty. Not just some of them in selected calibers, but ALL of them. I overheard one of the salesmen telling another customer that they were out of ".22, 9mm, .38, .40, .45, and .357 and didn't know when the next shipment was going to come in because the manufacturers were running behind schedule in production due to the increase in demand since the Presidential elections in November!
It would appear that America is very afraid of what our Fearful Leader has planned for our safety and our Constitutional rights.
I said that this was the third something I saw; well, here's the other two.
The first weekend after the elections in November, there was a gun show scheduled at the local Shrine Temple. My wife and I always attend this particular show because it's the best held in the area. The show started at 9, and when we drove up on the building at around 9:25 or so the entire parking lot was full, the cars were parked on the street for nearly a mile in either direction, and the line to get into the building extended all the way out to the street.
The wife and I, both of us shocked beyond words, just kept on driving and went to the Harley dealership just up the road instead to drool over the bikes. But that image has stayed with me, and it absolutely will stay with me until the day I die.
The third something I saw was a post on a motorcycle forum that gave a link to a report from the federal government saying that private weapons - spelled "handguns" - purchases had increased 1,000% since the November 4th elections.
Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be that I'm not the only one who doesn't trust our new President, and has this gut feeling that once he gets comfortable and has a success or two under his belt that he's going to level his sights on the Second Amendment?
Not only is it not going to be a good time to be white in America, it also looks like it's not going to be a good time to be a gun owner either.
Time will tell.
In the mean time, I still need some ammo for my .40.........
IHC
Well, I saw something today that made me think that America is afraid....very afraid. Actually, what I saw today was the third something that not only made me think it, but verified it in my mind. See, my wife and I went to the local sporting goods store today to look at some personal protection ammunition for my Springfield XD(M) in .40 cal, and what we saw there absolutely stunned me.
The handgun ammunition shelves were empty. Not just some of them in selected calibers, but ALL of them. I overheard one of the salesmen telling another customer that they were out of ".22, 9mm, .38, .40, .45, and .357 and didn't know when the next shipment was going to come in because the manufacturers were running behind schedule in production due to the increase in demand since the Presidential elections in November!
It would appear that America is very afraid of what our Fearful Leader has planned for our safety and our Constitutional rights.
I said that this was the third something I saw; well, here's the other two.
The first weekend after the elections in November, there was a gun show scheduled at the local Shrine Temple. My wife and I always attend this particular show because it's the best held in the area. The show started at 9, and when we drove up on the building at around 9:25 or so the entire parking lot was full, the cars were parked on the street for nearly a mile in either direction, and the line to get into the building extended all the way out to the street.
The wife and I, both of us shocked beyond words, just kept on driving and went to the Harley dealership just up the road instead to drool over the bikes. But that image has stayed with me, and it absolutely will stay with me until the day I die.
The third something I saw was a post on a motorcycle forum that gave a link to a report from the federal government saying that private weapons - spelled "handguns" - purchases had increased 1,000% since the November 4th elections.
Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be that I'm not the only one who doesn't trust our new President, and has this gut feeling that once he gets comfortable and has a success or two under his belt that he's going to level his sights on the Second Amendment?
Not only is it not going to be a good time to be white in America, it also looks like it's not going to be a good time to be a gun owner either.
Time will tell.
In the mean time, I still need some ammo for my .40.........
IHC
Sunday, March 8, 2009
So do we have a President, or do we have a black President?
I'm beginning to think that we may have a black President, and that all of the people who voted for Obama just because he was black may have been right after all. I really, really, REALLY hope I'm wrong, but I kinda get the feeling that I'm not. And here's why.
Last week at the monthly meeting of my Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting, our guest speaker was the former Commander of the South Carolina division, and he gave a very interesting talk on the monument that another South Carolina camp is getting ready to erect at the Bloody Angle on the Spotsylvania, Virginia battlefield honoring the four South Carolina regiments that fought there. At the end of his presentation, he said that a good friend of his who happens to be a State Senator from South Carolina made the statement that if the camp that was erecting this monument had tried to get this project rolling now or any time during the next four years, it would be a "total waste of time." He said that his Senator friend stated that with the things he had heard from some of the people in Washington, DC associated with the Obama administration, it's not going to be a good time for the next four years to try and do ANYTHING to honor ANYTHING Confederate. He said this because the Spotsylvania battlefield is a part of the National Park Service, so approval for the monument had to go through the federal government.
That was my first clue. The next, and most important, comes from the mouth of our black President himself.
In a speech Obama gave on February 18 during Black History Month, he addressed the comment that his Attorney General appointee, Eric Holder, had made earlier when Holder said that when it came to discussing race, America was "a nation of cowards." (Which I agree with, by the way, but for entirely different reasons.) So here's what our fearful leader said, and I quote:
"I think the point that he was making is that we’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict, and that we could probably be more constructive in facing up to the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination."
Okay, so help me out with this: the Congress outlawed slavery with the passage of the 14th Amendment (illegal though it was, the intent was still there - see my much earlier post on that), Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment which was signed into law by LBJ, a black man gets consideration over a white man in favor of the color of his skin when competing for jobs and education benefits, our children are being taught the Yankee version of American history which states that the War Between the States was fought for only one reason, that being the elimination of slavery (which is total bullshit, by the way, as any historian knows), Confederate monuments are being taken down nationwide, schools named after Confederate heroes are being renamed after black "heroes," streets and bridges are being renamed from Confederate heroes to almost universally "Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard/Bridge," and every time someone displays a Confederate battle flag you see someone on TV complaining about it - and that someone is ALWAYS black.
So just what more do we as a nation have to do to face up to our nation's past? Yes, we had slavery - all the way back to the days of our Founding Fathers, who had a chance to eliminate it when they drafted the Constitution but didn't; yes, slavery was a factor in the WBTS, but not THE factor; yes, the Jim Crow laws existed and they were just as wrong as slavery was in the first place, and yes, our children are being taught the politically correct version of American history just as Confederate General Patrick Cleburne said they would be. All told, the black man in America has a better chance at just about anything he chooses to get ahead in life just because he's black. (If a white man had those chances, it'd be called RACISM, you know.)
So please enlighten me, President Obama - just what more do you think America has to do?
Or more to the point, just what, exactly, do YOU have up your sleeve?
Time will tell, but I get the feeling that it's getting ready to be a bad time to be white in America. And I'm sure hope I'm wrong.
IHC
Last week at the monthly meeting of my Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting, our guest speaker was the former Commander of the South Carolina division, and he gave a very interesting talk on the monument that another South Carolina camp is getting ready to erect at the Bloody Angle on the Spotsylvania, Virginia battlefield honoring the four South Carolina regiments that fought there. At the end of his presentation, he said that a good friend of his who happens to be a State Senator from South Carolina made the statement that if the camp that was erecting this monument had tried to get this project rolling now or any time during the next four years, it would be a "total waste of time." He said that his Senator friend stated that with the things he had heard from some of the people in Washington, DC associated with the Obama administration, it's not going to be a good time for the next four years to try and do ANYTHING to honor ANYTHING Confederate. He said this because the Spotsylvania battlefield is a part of the National Park Service, so approval for the monument had to go through the federal government.
That was my first clue. The next, and most important, comes from the mouth of our black President himself.
In a speech Obama gave on February 18 during Black History Month, he addressed the comment that his Attorney General appointee, Eric Holder, had made earlier when Holder said that when it came to discussing race, America was "a nation of cowards." (Which I agree with, by the way, but for entirely different reasons.) So here's what our fearful leader said, and I quote:
"I think the point that he was making is that we’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict, and that we could probably be more constructive in facing up to the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination."
Okay, so help me out with this: the Congress outlawed slavery with the passage of the 14th Amendment (illegal though it was, the intent was still there - see my much earlier post on that), Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment which was signed into law by LBJ, a black man gets consideration over a white man in favor of the color of his skin when competing for jobs and education benefits, our children are being taught the Yankee version of American history which states that the War Between the States was fought for only one reason, that being the elimination of slavery (which is total bullshit, by the way, as any historian knows), Confederate monuments are being taken down nationwide, schools named after Confederate heroes are being renamed after black "heroes," streets and bridges are being renamed from Confederate heroes to almost universally "Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard/Bridge," and every time someone displays a Confederate battle flag you see someone on TV complaining about it - and that someone is ALWAYS black.
So just what more do we as a nation have to do to face up to our nation's past? Yes, we had slavery - all the way back to the days of our Founding Fathers, who had a chance to eliminate it when they drafted the Constitution but didn't; yes, slavery was a factor in the WBTS, but not THE factor; yes, the Jim Crow laws existed and they were just as wrong as slavery was in the first place, and yes, our children are being taught the politically correct version of American history just as Confederate General Patrick Cleburne said they would be. All told, the black man in America has a better chance at just about anything he chooses to get ahead in life just because he's black. (If a white man had those chances, it'd be called RACISM, you know.)
So please enlighten me, President Obama - just what more do you think America has to do?
Or more to the point, just what, exactly, do YOU have up your sleeve?
Time will tell, but I get the feeling that it's getting ready to be a bad time to be white in America. And I'm sure hope I'm wrong.
IHC
Thursday, March 5, 2009
"Those who forget history..."
"...are destined to repeat it." I've heard this saying many times over the course of my life, and I believe it more and more as each day goes by. Seems to me that the same things keep happening in the world over and over again, and the only things that change are the faces and names of the people involved. It's like watching the same play over and over again with only the actors changing...you just know what's coming next.
So what prompts me to say this today? Simple: I just read an article on how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the "nationalization" of an AMERICAN-owned and AMERICAN-based company that is operating in Venezuela. This company, Cargill, is a food-manufacturing company which manufactures, among other things, parboiled rice. Chavez's penny-ante dictatorship has ordered a tax on rice production a few years ago and has now ordered the nationalization of the company's operations in Venezuela because he seems to think that Cargill is manufacturing "specialized forms of rice in order to evade price controls."
Which is pure bullshit, of course.
When the leader of a country takes steps to nationalize a privately owned company which is owned and operated by another nation, to me this spells nothing but trouble. With Chavez, this is just one more act of a never-ending, ludicrous play in which the self-appointed "president for life" (free elections? please!) takes center stage. He seems to think that the whole world, specifically the United States, is out to get him and is doing everything he can to protect himself. He is doing this, of course, by taking absolute and total control of every single aspect of life in Venezuela. He's silenced ALL opposing newspapers by closing them, he's taken over - "nationalized," he called it - ALL of the opposing TV stations, and now he's moving to take over all of the manufacturing taking place in his country. He's already gained total control over the Venezuelan military and has the vast majority of the people on his side by telling them what they want - and need - to hear, and has them all believing that he's the Great Savior, the Messiah who will lead them to prosperity.
Does all of this sound vaguely familiar? To those members of "The Greatest Generation" who are still with us, it will sound VERY familiar.
The last person to do something like this was Adolf Hitler. Hugo Chavez is doing exactly the same thing.
Of the two most popular lunatic dictators we currently have in power worldwide, I don't know which one scares me the most - Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutjob who is in charge of Iran.
Both of them bear very close watching, and I see a major smackdown coming in both of their futures.
I just hope our Fearful Leader in DC is paying attention.
IHC
So what prompts me to say this today? Simple: I just read an article on how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the "nationalization" of an AMERICAN-owned and AMERICAN-based company that is operating in Venezuela. This company, Cargill, is a food-manufacturing company which manufactures, among other things, parboiled rice. Chavez's penny-ante dictatorship has ordered a tax on rice production a few years ago and has now ordered the nationalization of the company's operations in Venezuela because he seems to think that Cargill is manufacturing "specialized forms of rice in order to evade price controls."
Which is pure bullshit, of course.
When the leader of a country takes steps to nationalize a privately owned company which is owned and operated by another nation, to me this spells nothing but trouble. With Chavez, this is just one more act of a never-ending, ludicrous play in which the self-appointed "president for life" (free elections? please!) takes center stage. He seems to think that the whole world, specifically the United States, is out to get him and is doing everything he can to protect himself. He is doing this, of course, by taking absolute and total control of every single aspect of life in Venezuela. He's silenced ALL opposing newspapers by closing them, he's taken over - "nationalized," he called it - ALL of the opposing TV stations, and now he's moving to take over all of the manufacturing taking place in his country. He's already gained total control over the Venezuelan military and has the vast majority of the people on his side by telling them what they want - and need - to hear, and has them all believing that he's the Great Savior, the Messiah who will lead them to prosperity.
Does all of this sound vaguely familiar? To those members of "The Greatest Generation" who are still with us, it will sound VERY familiar.
The last person to do something like this was Adolf Hitler. Hugo Chavez is doing exactly the same thing.
Of the two most popular lunatic dictators we currently have in power worldwide, I don't know which one scares me the most - Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutjob who is in charge of Iran.
Both of them bear very close watching, and I see a major smackdown coming in both of their futures.
I just hope our Fearful Leader in DC is paying attention.
IHC
Monday, March 2, 2009
Nah, I'm not dead
Just haven't found anything that motivated me enough to want to write about it. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I guess, because most of the time the things that motivate me to write are things that have pissed me off to one degree or another.
But nothing like that has happened in the nine days since my last post. And like I said, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Like most other bikers, I'm just sitting around patiently waiting for Mother Nature to change from her winter clothes into her spring ensemble. And with the snowstorm that hit parts of the South yesterday, it doesn't look like she's ready to change quite yet.
And speaking of bikers, as I type this the Spring Rally in Daytona, Florida, also known as "Bike Week," is under way. Yeah, I wish I was there, but I've heard that the crowds for the spring rally are REALLY unbelieveable, and judging from what I saw when my wife and I rode down there for Biketoberfest in October, 2003, I believe it. Besides, the weather at this time of year in Florida has a tendency to be kinda wet; for the past few years the rally has gotten rained on, and there's nothing quite as miserable as a bike rally in the rain. Unless it's a beach in the rain. Or both. Yeah, that sucks.
And speaking of bike rallys, those of you who were planning on attending the Myrtle Beach Spring Rally better start looking for other hotel reservations - the city of Myrtle Beach has apparently turned its collective back on the thousands of bikers that come to that city twice a year by passing more than 15 ordinances that will make it nearly impossible for 99% of the bikers who attend to get away WITHOUT getting a ticket for something. To me, the silliest of these ordinances and the one aimed at running off bikers the fastest is the helmet ordinance - in order to ride a motorcycle in the city of Myrtle Beach, you now must wear a helmet.
And this in a state that does NOT have a helmet law. You tell me what the city fathers were thinking.
I wonder if they stopped to realize that when they run off the bikers, they run off the REVENUE the bikers bring as well? Apparently not.
Well, all is not lost! The rally will go on, because the organizers are relocating ALL of the events to spots OUTSIDE of the city limits. And the city of North Myrtle Beach is rolling out the red carpet to bikers, telling one and all that they and their loud pipes (and their dollars, of course) are more than welcome in their city. I have a feeling that Myrtle Beach's loss is going to be North Myrtle Beach's gain.
Once upon a time, Myrtle Beach was a nice little seaside town where bikers gathered to party and enjoy themselves twice a year, and it was these two rallies that helped bring Myrtle Beach the prominence - and the wealth - that it now has. But, of course, along with money comes attitude, and the attitude of the now-wealthy and self-proclaimed "blue blood" of MB have decided that they no longer want the crowds of drunken, slovenly, loud bikers in their fair city.
Okay, no problem. We'll just toddle on down the road to your sister city and spend our money there instead. No sweat.
I have a feeling that about three or four years from now, the nice folks in Myrtle Beach are going to be sitting around asking themselves, "What in the hell were we thinking?"
IHC
But nothing like that has happened in the nine days since my last post. And like I said, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Like most other bikers, I'm just sitting around patiently waiting for Mother Nature to change from her winter clothes into her spring ensemble. And with the snowstorm that hit parts of the South yesterday, it doesn't look like she's ready to change quite yet.
And speaking of bikers, as I type this the Spring Rally in Daytona, Florida, also known as "Bike Week," is under way. Yeah, I wish I was there, but I've heard that the crowds for the spring rally are REALLY unbelieveable, and judging from what I saw when my wife and I rode down there for Biketoberfest in October, 2003, I believe it. Besides, the weather at this time of year in Florida has a tendency to be kinda wet; for the past few years the rally has gotten rained on, and there's nothing quite as miserable as a bike rally in the rain. Unless it's a beach in the rain. Or both. Yeah, that sucks.
And speaking of bike rallys, those of you who were planning on attending the Myrtle Beach Spring Rally better start looking for other hotel reservations - the city of Myrtle Beach has apparently turned its collective back on the thousands of bikers that come to that city twice a year by passing more than 15 ordinances that will make it nearly impossible for 99% of the bikers who attend to get away WITHOUT getting a ticket for something. To me, the silliest of these ordinances and the one aimed at running off bikers the fastest is the helmet ordinance - in order to ride a motorcycle in the city of Myrtle Beach, you now must wear a helmet.
And this in a state that does NOT have a helmet law. You tell me what the city fathers were thinking.
I wonder if they stopped to realize that when they run off the bikers, they run off the REVENUE the bikers bring as well? Apparently not.
Well, all is not lost! The rally will go on, because the organizers are relocating ALL of the events to spots OUTSIDE of the city limits. And the city of North Myrtle Beach is rolling out the red carpet to bikers, telling one and all that they and their loud pipes (and their dollars, of course) are more than welcome in their city. I have a feeling that Myrtle Beach's loss is going to be North Myrtle Beach's gain.
Once upon a time, Myrtle Beach was a nice little seaside town where bikers gathered to party and enjoy themselves twice a year, and it was these two rallies that helped bring Myrtle Beach the prominence - and the wealth - that it now has. But, of course, along with money comes attitude, and the attitude of the now-wealthy and self-proclaimed "blue blood" of MB have decided that they no longer want the crowds of drunken, slovenly, loud bikers in their fair city.
Okay, no problem. We'll just toddle on down the road to your sister city and spend our money there instead. No sweat.
I have a feeling that about three or four years from now, the nice folks in Myrtle Beach are going to be sitting around asking themselves, "What in the hell were we thinking?"
IHC
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