Nielsen's ra(n)tings

Politics, guns, homeschooling for the gifted, scuba, hunting, farming and somewhat coherent occasional ranting from your average Buckeye State journalist/dad/farmer/actor.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Border crashers making mistake

Let’s say you’re a wedding crasher.

You’re at this wedding.with a couple buddies, scarfing down the free food and drink and enjoying some dancing with other unattached guests. No one cares because you’re not a focus of attention on such a joyous occasion – who cares if a couple people no one knows show up, right? You’re laughing and joking…it’s a happy occasion and everyone’s having a good time.

Now suppose a group of a dozen people no one knows crashes the wedding. There will probably be some unfriendly stares and maybe even unfriendly questions. Now what happens if those people show up en masse, occupy a section of tables and speak only to each other in a foreign language, demand the band play music more to their liking, shove invited guests out of the way to get into the food line and ignore civil requests to depart? At the least, they’re going to make the acquaintance of the local police force but it’s more likely they’re going to get their asses handed to them by outraged wedding guests.

That’s why it’s such a bad idea that the pro-illegal immigrant crowd is planning protests Monday with the intent of shutting down some big cities and showing the American public the strength of its backing. Here’s the bottom line: Like wedding crashers, they weren’t invited, but were tolerated as long as they were not disruptive. Become confrontational, and you run the risk of turning what has been a little-perceived annoyance into a full-blown threat to society.

And you know what happens to threats to society, right? They’re removed by any available means…often violent means. Think Eliot Ness and The Untouchables, and you get some idea.

As Americans, I admit we tend to arrogance. Most of us will tell you this is the best place to live. Likewise, we think our system of government is the best, out way of doing business is the best, our military and economy are the best and our social freedoms are unrivaled. We’re also proud of our allegiance to the rule of law, pointing to this as setting us apart from most other countries of the world. Present a military, technological or commercial challenge from abroad and we’ll kick your ass.

People want to come here to live; we understand that in our self-admitted arrogance…we’d want to live here, too, if we were consigned to some third-world hell. But other countries must understand that this is our country and we make the rules…and we’re pretty proud of the way things have turned out. Border crashers coming here from their third-world cesspools and then trying to tell us by force to remake our rules to favor them is going against our blueprint for America. It insults us. Raise enough ruckus and the problem escalates to the level of a threat.

“Threat level,” of course, is not a good place to be – particularly when you’re a threat to a nation claiming the most efficient military force in the world.

Illegal aliens here are living on a bubble, and they don’t seem to realize it. Their presence is tolerated because they provide cheap labor to businesses, because it would take some effort to kick them all out and because, as Americans, we tend to be generous with guests. Jump up and down too hard, making too many waves, and that bubble will break – our reasons for tolerance will disappear in the face of a threat to our way of life.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Candidate for "ugliest gun ever?"



Butt-ugly firearm

The Gunrunner Online Auction has a definite candidate for ugliest gun ever produced selling tonight to some (un)lucky buyer. The gun, a Swiss Vetterli .41 Swiss caliber bolt action military rifle, looks like someone built an ungainly gun, said "whoops! We forgot about the stock," and then slapped the stock underneath as an afterthought.

It oughta be in the gun makers freak show.

Wisdom from Newt

Newt Gingrich nails the solution ot the illegal immigration debaucle it in his Wednesday column on NRO.

From his column:

"First, control the borders with decisive legislation aggressively implemented with tight deadlines. Once we have stopped the illegal flow of people we will have demonstrated the seriousness necessary to gain both the credibility and the leverage needed to implement the next steps. Fortunately, a bipartisan consensus has emerged that securing the borders is indeed priority number one. Three national leaders have it right in their shared view that border control is the first step. Senator Frist is exactly right when he wrote recently that “to build confidence among Americans and Congress that the government takes border security seriously, we have to act to help get the border under control right now.” Senator Clinton is also right when she recently recognized the need for a “smart fence” along the border to enhance security. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is also correct when he said last week that “the first thing we want is tough border control.”

Accordingly, the Congress should pass a border-control bill immediately. There is no reason the Congress cannot immediately pass such a bill, and then concentrate on additional immigration reform measures later. The Congress should immediately act on this one aspect of immigration reform around which there is widespread agreement. America needs real border control immediately."

Word, Newtie. I have my doubts, though, whether anyone in Washington is listening or interested in what their voters think. Failing decisive border control action, they doom themselves at the polls in November.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Another one for DeWine

I'm not letting my senators off the hook on this latest "get tough on immigration" sham trying to soften up the voters for another run at a general amnesty. I dashed off a letter to Mike DeWine this morning and will send another to George Voinovich a little later.

The letter:

Senator DeWine:

I know I sound like a broken record, but there can be no planning for the illegal immigrants already in this country until the flow over the borders is SHUT OFF. As history has shown, amnesty and guest worker programs ENCOURAGE illegal immigration thanks to our country's porous borders.

If you and your fellow Republicans are unable to grasp the will of your voters on this issue, then we will find someone more in tune with our wishes. You owe your position to a lot of individual voters, after all, not to some some higher power.

I must say that you (and the President for whom I voted) also insult my intelligence if you think a couple VERY HIGHLY PUBLICIZED immigration raids is going to convince me you're serious about enforcing existing immigration law. If the big raid at the pallet manufacturer was intended as a harbinger of things to come, you also should have made sure the majority of those arrested were not released, within hours of their arrest, on the promise they'd return for deportation proceedings.

Are you truly so insulated in Washington that the blatant and transparent nature of this "immigration photo-op" passed muster as a serious stab at enforcement?

Well, pass this on to the President, too...the people who elected you want the borders closed to illegal immigration. We don't want a photo-op; we don't want a feel-good guest worker program; and we sure as heck don't want to give amnesty to lawbreakers. Close the borders...then we'll rationally discuss what to do with the illegals already here.

The Rantmeister

Response from the DeWine Email Respondomatic expected in 3...2...1...

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Spring means tractors


Big blue in the big green

Here's one of the reasons for my light blogging as of late. In this picture, son and heir and Fabian-from-Germany are spreading fertilizer and pelleted lime on the field via my tractor and cone spreader. They spread half a ton of fertilizer and 500 pounds of lime on the main hayfield this afternoon...I'm sure the deer will love it!

Friday, April 21, 2006

Woodchuck with a bow?

I just added another animal to the species I've taken with a bow...this time a woodchuck.

I've killed a lot of woodchucks with a rifle...mainly at distances greater than 100 yards. My best shot on a chuck was a 378 yard laser-ranged shot off my back deck in West Virginia with a Ruger No. 1 in 25-06. My neighbor was watching with binoculars and saw Mr. Chuck go head-over-heels backward.

This was different, though.

Today's harvest was taken while walking along a drainage ditch at one of the farms my cousin's employer owns. The ditches are riddled with woodchuck and muskrat holes and they have the unpleasant habit of chewing on the new trees at the nursery. We decided to try to get some with our bows...he with Mathews, me with my new Hoyt Trykon. We saw a few within rifle range, but were shy on ones within bow range while walking each side of the drainage ditches.

I saw some movement, noticed a pointy nose in one of the holes and sent an arrow with a target point at the nose...krrruncchhh! An arrow going through a groundhog's head makes an awful noise.

We got four other shots...I came up embarrassingly short on a 40-yard shot and my cousin missed twice at 30-35 yards. He was also just short on a swimming muskrat. He had also missed two other times with his bow on earlier forays to this farm. I'm sure this fun hunt will be repeated many times over the summer.

Monday, April 17, 2006

The Easter...chicken?


Just a boy and his chicken

The Mace-inator munches some Easter goodies accompanied by his favorite chicken, a Blue Cochin that was one of the 50-plus day-old chicks that arrived at out house in March. McMurray Hatchery shipped 53 chicks for our order of 37, one died in transit and two more died two days later, but the rest have flourished. The chicks are all getting huge, and should make the move to the main chicken coop this week...thanks to the kids being off school for Spring Break and able to lend a hand.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Taftvision: Okay for me, not for thee

I was struck this week (again) by the hypocrisy of uber-goober Ohio Gov. Bob Taft.

Taft was successful this week in getting the Ohio Supreme Court to say he did not have to release all correspondence between himself and the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation regarding the scandal-plagued governor’s decision to invest in rare coins as a method of funding the bureau. The court said Taft did not have the “sweeping executive privilege” to make all his records private, but could shield ones he used to make a decision.

Let’s have a flashback, shall we, via the Go-Back Machine, to oh, say the winter of 2003/2004. Remember Bob Taft, that champion of open records, that dogged defender of open government, threatening to veto Ohio’s Concealed Carry Weapons bill because the media might not have access to the lists of permit holders….though a list is maintained and scrutinized by the state’s county sheriffs. Taft’s veto threat forced passage of a bill in which the media can request the names and county of residence for permit holders…ostensibly to ensure compliance with safety procedures. In reality, newspapers have used this “watchdog provision” to simply publish lists of everyone who gets a permit.

Now back to the present and Hizzoner the High-and-Mighty Hypocrite. In Taft-vision, wide open records are apparently good when you’re printing the names of law-abiding people who have undergone a criminal background check to apply for a license to exercise the Constitutional rights. Never mind the fact that some of those have good reason not to want their names and county of residence in the newspaper…women fleeing domestic violence comes to mind.

Conversely, Taft-vision discerns that wide open records are bad when they might actually show that tax dollars have been funneled by a corrupt governor into a shady deal straight out of late-night cable TV: “And for only 19.95 million, you’ll get this wonderful selection of rare coins. But wait! We’re not finished yet! If you call now, we’ll send you TWO sets for the same price…operators are standing by.”

I get it, now. Open records are good, when they gain Taft some support from the Ohio Newspaper Association, at the risk of privacy on the part of tens of thousands of law-abiding state residents. They are bad when they show wrongdoing and/or stupidity on the part of the goobernatorial galoot.

Got it.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Firearm temptation in Burton

Pretty piece of lever gun history up for bids in Burton


The Gunrunner
in Burton, OH has another 250-plus gun internet auction planned to begin April 20, and they’ve begun to post a handful of the sale guns on their website. There are a few that have already caught my eye, including:

I’m sure there will be many more to follow. I visited the store last week and it was packed with its regular stock plus the guns for the auction. There was barely room to walk…wheelchair accessible? Forget it.

Gunrunner owner Scott Weber usually has a huge variety of outstanding guns for his auctions, held several times a year, and this installment looks like no exception. You also get a Girls of the Gunrunner Calendar with purchase. I’m planning to consign a few unused, dusty guns from my safe to his May auction.

Behold the mighty flea!

People who read this blog know that I think the era of the media’s stranglehold on information is at an end…particularly the pre-eminence enjoyed by the daily newspapers. They can’t match the internet for speed, expertise, accuracy or range of viewpoints.

They’re dead or dying, feasting on memories of grandeur but consigned by technology to an agonizingly slow demise.

I guess that makes me a flea…as in one of the last fleas to jump off the dead (or in this case, dying) dog.

See, I decided that as long as I’m writing for my own enjoyment on this blog, I may as well write for others’ enjoyment too…not to mention a little money. So yesterday, I went to The Ashtabula Star Beacon (a daily paper at which I was a reporter almost 20 years ago) and offered my services as a freelancer. They immediately accepted. I’ll be providing meeting coverage and occasional features from the town in which I reside.

I found out the editor was the same guy who’d been there when I left in 1987…scary.

I went home and checked the township meeting calendar. Whoops! There was a meeting last night. So for the first time in probably 15 years, I broke out my notebook and pens and toddled on over to the meeting…ready to demand the answers people are looking for in the operation of their township.

The meeting was 20 minutes long at most and pretty banal. Apparently young hooligans at the skate park are taking glass from the recycling dumpsters and smashing it against the wall of the restrooms. Now who would have thought that skateboarders were an unruly lot? Donations were received and public compliments were awarded to civic groups and two local police detectives who helped bust an alleged plan to target civic leaders with pipe bombs.

There was even a little humor: The police chief said the detectives “did a bang-up job…no pun intended.”

Fifteen minutes after the meeting was ended, I was home. I had the story done in half an hour. I emailed the story to the newspaper this morning as I’d neglected to get the address for their email drop box when I interviewed yesterday.

And so I’m back to being a very part-time flea on the back of an ailing dog, writing not only for myself and readers of my blog, but for the community…and money.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Iranian bombshell

Nothing says "bomb me" quite like the ex-Iranian President proclaiming the country has successfully enriched uranium does it? Drudge Report has the story, complete with flashing light.

From the story:

"Iran has put into operation the first unit of 164 centrifuges, has injected (uranium) gas and has reached industrial production," the Kuwait News Agency quoted (former President Hashemi) Rafsanjani as saying.

"We should expand the work of these machines to achieve a full industrial line. We need dozens of these units (sets of 164 centrifuges) to achieve a uranium enrichment facility," he said.

Would you like fries with that bunker buster, Hashemi?

Quote of the day

This is definitely the quote of the day, from Hugh Hewitt:

"Bottom line: It is hard to see how the GOP is not like the Titanic, except it is aiming for the iceberg."

Hat tip: Instapundit.

Chewin' on DeWine

The more I read about the Senate immigration bill, and the defeated compromise which followed, the more ticked off I get.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has a nice website, which includes the text of a couple of his Senate speeches on immigration and, specifically, the legislation the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced to tackle that problem. In addition to being so riddled with loopholes virtually any illegal immigrant would qualify for citizenship, Sessions points out that the Senate never even looked at the potential cost of such a measure. From his speech:

“With those important caveats, estimated outlays are about $2 billion for the first 5 years--2007-2011--and $12 billion for the first 10 years--2007-2016. The final figures will be bigger than those. Most of those costs are for Medicaid and Food Stamp programs.

“They say those are not the final figures. The final figures will be bigger. It didn't include the earned income tax credit.”

And:

“…They also do NOT include revenue losses and outlays for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which we will be getting from the Joint Tax Committee and which results largely from the conditional non-immigrant provisions. Those revenue losses and Earned Income Tax Credit outlays may be significant.

“I will talk about the average salary of most of the workers who are here illegally today and those workers who will be regularized, placed on permanent resident status, given a green card, and placed on a pathway to citizenship. As you look at those salaries, you will see that they fall in the classic earned income tax credit range.

“I have had occasion for some time to wrestle with the earned income tax credit. A lot of people oppose it entirely. You file your tax return, and if you don't owe any taxes and you have a lower income, you get a tax rebate from the Government. You don't pay taxes; they give you an average rebate. I submit that salaries for these workers are going to be pretty close to the average recipient of the earned income tax credit benefit. The average recipient gets $2,400 a year by way of a tax credit. Persons who are working here illegally today are not currently getting the earned income tax credit, but if we regularize them and make them permanent residents, they will. That will cost us a lot of money.”

And being me, I had to bring this to the attention of Sen. Mike DeWine, my senator and one of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee responsible for bringing this turd before the Senate.

Sen. DeWine:

You've got to be kidding me...you have a personal Senate website with an issues tab and NO policy points on immigration? Are you hoping that if you ignore the entire matter, it will simply be forgotten while the Senate is out of session?

If you're in need of policy direction, may I suggest you proceed to the website and policy matters delineated by your fellow Senator, Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He cuts through the doubletalk, examines in detail the dreck on immigration YOU HELPED come out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and admits the results of such legislation would be amnesty for most people here illegally and a spiraling bill for those people on the path to citizenship.

Now that you're (presumably) away from the Beltway, do you actually HEAR what your constituents are saying? Close the border...then we'll have frank and open discussion about what to do with the people already here.

The Rantmeister

Expecting a response from the Senator’s Email Responsomatic in 3…2…1…

Monday, April 10, 2006

Democrats: Reuniting Mexico and Texas?


Was there any doubt who stands to gain votes if the hordes of illegal aliens are granted amnesty? And reuniting Texas with Mexico?

I guess this just shows the depths to which politicians are willing to go to win votes. The fact that they'd link Texas and Mexico, suggesting one large country, turns my stomach. I'd like to know who paid for this leaflet, and if it's the Texas Democratic Party, I hope the voters make them pay the price come election time. Picture from Michelle Malkin's site...she's been on top of the immigration protest coverage so far.

As I warned in my earlier post, these protests are going to backfire. They're going to rouse the American public and will end up costing the Democrats votes, as the party becomes known as the one seeking to protect people who have flouted our laws - the illegal aliens. There are a lot of dedicated Democrats who have a big problem with these people who have chosen to ignore our national sovereignty and the governmental officials who are enabling them.

This one won't make the news

A blogger had his camera destroyed by the "peaceful" amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants protesters yesterday in Dallas (at Random Numbers.) Chances of it making the news? Between slim and none. Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

Lawyer: The other white meat

Via Kim DuToit's The Other Side website, some new Texas Hunting Regulations sent in by a reader. An excerpt:

Attorney Hunting Regulations. (Regulation 370)

Sec 370.01 Any person with a valid in-state rodent or snake hunting license may also hunt and harvest attorneys for recreational and sporting (non-commercial) purposes.

Sec 370.02 If an attorney gains elective office, it is not necessary to have a license to hunt, trap, bag, shoot or possess same.

Sec 370.03 Taking of attorneys with traps or deadfalls is permitted. The use of United States currency as bait, however, is prohibited.

Sec 370.04 Stuffed or mounted attorneys must have a state health department inspection for rabies and vermin.

Sec 370.05 The willful killing of attorneys with a motor vehicle is prohibited, unless such vehicle is an ambulance being driven in reverse. If an attorney is accidentally struck by a motor vehicle, the dead attorney should be removed to the road side and the vehicle should proceed immediately to the nearest car wash.

Now who do I have to see to get a similar set of regulations making their way through the Ohio legislature? This is definitely an idea whose time has come!

Protest march a bad idea

Millions of people are expected to hit the streets today in 90 cities nationwide for the National Day of Immigration Rights.

Do I need to say that this is a really bad idea?

Immigration rights, of course, translates to rights for people who are in this country illegally. If there were no illegal immigration, the House bill provoking so much anxiety among illegals would be a non-issue. At most, it would be an item for idle intellectual discussion. “So, Representative A, if we had some people sneaking into the country illegally, which of course would never happen, but if it did, hypothetically, how do you think these imaginary, non-existent, lawbreakers should be penalized?”

And in addition to the people here illegally and their friends who are demanding improvement to their non-citizen’s rights, the protest has been joined by most of the other perennially-protesting groups. Michelle Malkin has a roundup of protest photos from a kickoff event in Dallas yesterday which featured such luminaries as the Black Panthers and the Che Guevara cultists.

I can see there is emotion on the pro-illegals side of things…it’s been there for some time. But protests like these do not win you friends among the average, disinterested, American voter…they move people from the “do not want to be bothered” column to the “holy crap, this must be a big problem" column. As Americans, we respect our laws; we do not respect those who break them. We tend to side against those who have knowingly broken the law…especially those who have broken the law and then march by the hundreds of thousands to demand entitlements in place of punishment.

If organizers were worried by the backlash of voters against the Senate bill last week, just wait until the fence-sitters get an eyeful of the protests today. Expect another surge of disinterested citizens to realize the scope of the problem, get off their duffs and begin to demand our legislators do something to close the border. The protests only succeed in moving the topic from amnesty/ rights to closing the border firmly. And, as I’ve said before, there should be no discussion about what to do with the illegals here until the BORDER HAS BEEN SHUT!

And I’m not the only person who thinks so. From the Christian Science Monitor story cited above:

"Each time immigrants have these giant rallies, the more they infuriate the rest of the American population with the idea that those who break the law get to march and somehow be rewarded," says Ira Mehlman, L.A. spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform. "We have seen in France what happens when you try to bring in millions of people ... in many cases who are hostile. We saw there that it didn't work, and it won't work here."

And as the protest has roped in many other fringe groups, expect coverage of the marches to include some pretty kooky images to grace our nation’s media, further eroding the credibility of the core cause. Of course, the organizers have learned some things and are advising marchers to leave the Mexican flags at home…they should have learned to accept the status quo rather than taking to the streets and alerting the sleeping American voters to the scope of the problem posed by illegal immigration.

Indifference was their best ally.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Tall in the saddle


Our German foreign exchange student, Fabian, takes advantage of the sunny weather to take a ride on Bonnie, one of our very-muddy horses. Not having had much work this Spring, Bonnie decided she'd rather stay in the field with the other horses and didn't mind bucking to show her displeasure. We decided a multi-horse outing, abetted by some roundpen time, would be a better way to get the horses back on track for more Spring riding.

Grunt work...for the good of the theater

We started the day today with some grunt work.

Rabbit Run Community Theater in Madison, the old barn theater which has hosted such luminaries as Dustin Hoffman, Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy on its stage, is getting a bit of a facelift in term of new seating. This morning we removed all 225+ old seats, storing some at the Rabbit Run Community Arts Center building in Madison and others on-site at the theater.

The cast iron and plywood seats were very heavy, particularly the end portions of the seating row which have a large, decorative cast-iron plate. It was sad to see them go, but the new seats will be an improvement. We had a minor ulterior motive in the work detail, too: the blog-wife and I have large parts in the first two shows of the season, Born Yesterday (I’m Sen. Hedges) and Enchanted April (we’re Lottie and Mellish, respectively). For those unfamiliar with the show, Lottie is the main female character and starts the show with what amounts to a three-page monologue…Mellish is her husband, the lead male character, and should be fun to play.

Rabbit Run is an outstanding summer theater venue, known for sellout performances and top-quality productions. We’re really looking forward to getting to work on the shows.

On archery and the Amish

Yesterday, it all started with a strange smell coming from my hunting closet.

It ended with a new bow.

See, I’ve been doing some bow shooting for the last few days, tuning myself up on my Hoyt Vortec target bow for some archery groundhog hunting with my cousin. I decided to shoot my hunting bow some, too, to get a workout with the higher poundage. Aha! Found the smell…a mouse nest and two dead mice in my soft bow case. One of the mice appeared newly dead and the other was somewhat desiccated…of course, I haven’t touched the bow since early January.

The stink from the dead mice was bad enough, but I also noticed they had chewed nearly entirely through the string on my 70-pound Hoyt Vortec. There was one strand of bow string between that bow and the *sproing!* of disaster. A quick trip to the bow shop was in order.

I looked first for the bow shop in Burton, across the street from The Gunrunner gun store. The bow shop was no longer there, but since I was already parked and in town, I decided a trip to The Gunrunner was in order. Holy crap! That store is filled to the breaking point with guns, 300 or more of which will be sold through an internet auction beginning April 20. I found a couple that would like to find a home in one of the Rantmeister’s gun safes.

But no bow string. I remembered there’s another Hoyt dealer five or six miles away in Middlefield, a strongly Amish community, so I jumped in the truck and headed there. I soon had another bowstring, complete with re-installed peep sight and string loop.

While waiting for the store to install the new string, I browsed through the store…mentally adding to my list of “must-haves” for the upcoming hunting season. I also watched the Amish customers milling around in the aisles and was struck by the huge contrast between their appearance and shopping habits. They’re Amish, right, preferring to do things the simple, old ways? Well, not these guys. They were shopping for laser rangefinders, handheld GPS systems and cutting-edge compound bows…not the gorgeous traditional stick bows in stock.

There must have been a dozen Amish boys and men passing some time in the relatively small store…it was Friday, go to town day, after all, and the women were buying groceries and supplies. I’m always struck by the apparent contradictions in the Amish lifestyle: they eschew cars, but will hire people to drive them; won’t use electricity, but will use a battery; won’t have electric power tools, but will use a gasoline engine to power an air compressor to run air tools; and they will use electrically-powered tools at a job away from home. It seems to me they follow a system of convenient anachronism…they use elaborate adaptations at home to ensure comfort and interpret their religion generously when they must interact outside their community. It’s a charade carried out for some unknown benefit.

Anyway, back to the store…the compound bows…and my undoing.

I turned the corner from one aisle into the next, a blazing shaft of sunlight from Heaven came down and illuminated the only Hoyt Trykon XL in the store, which just happened to be in my draw length and the poundage I desired. After bowing and genuflecting at the altar of this gift from the heavens…this Hammer of Thor…this pinnacle of archery innovation (you get the picture)…I carried it to the counter in a daze and passed over my debit card still shrouded in wonder.

The Amish folks went about their business, unaware of the near-religious spectacle taking place with yards of them.

It was their loss. Of course, the probable reason that there was only one Trykon XL in the entire store is those Amish men have already purchased theirs and are simply waiting for the infra-red terrain mapping sight package to come in. Their lifestyle may look primitive, but the boys still have to have their toys.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Shameless puppy plugging III - just wait until they wake!


This week's installment of shameless collie puppy pushing. This litter of smooth collie puppies, fathered by one of my sister's dogs, will be available for sale soon. Contact her through her website, Mandalay Collies, for more information or if you're interested in purchasing a collie puppy. At her kennel in Indiana, she also has another litter of future champions available for sale which hit the ground (I'm sorry, whelped just sounds painful) the same day.

Making journalism pay - or else!

D'oh! I KNEW there was money to be made in journalism...somewhere...otherwise, why would all those people do it?

Someone at the New York Post seems to have discovered a way. Of course, it's probably not going to work out for him this time, but just watch - another billionaire playboy will come along who's just dying to be blackmailed. And come on...$220,000? That's pocket change to a billionaire. He should have asked for...extended pinky to corner of lip and best Doctor Evil leer...one MILLION dollars!

Extra deer weekend gets OK

The Ohio Wildlife Council has approved the extra weekend of Buckeye State deer hunting. From the Buckeye Firearms Association website:

  • Ohio hunters will have expanded deer hunting opportunities this fall, with an extra weekend of deer gun season Dec. 16 -17.
  • Statewide muzzleloader season is Dec. 27-30.
  • Early youth upland season is Oct. 21 -22 and Oct. 28 -29.
  • Early youth deer season is Oct. 18-19.
  • Commercial fisherman on Lake Erie must notify the Department of Wildlife 30 minutes before they dock. They can no longer mix fish from Western Basin and Central Basin on the same boat.
  • September 1 is opening day for hunting squirrels, doves & Canada geese.

The Nielsen Plan

So the “compromise” touted by Senators Reid and Frist has fallen through, huh? New definition of compromise: minority power gets everything it wants, majority gives ground and is prevented from amending.

Those whacky conservatives are the problem…they keep insisting on things like felons and multiple-misdemeanor convicts not being placed on the path to citizenship. The unreasonably insist that people who break our laws should not be rewarded for their dubious initiative. They want the US borders to mean something and have absolutely no interest in rolling out the red carpet for the “huddled masses yearning to break our laws” performing a slow invasion on our southwestern states.

Many lawmakers have attacked the idea of border enforcement as unfeasible. “Can’t build such a fence…can’t be done,” they say. So enforce penalties against people who employ illegal aliens, say critics; you shut off the jobs and you shut off the flow of illegal visitors to our country seeking them. Can’t do that either, the nattering nabobs of negativism intone, that’ll kill businesses or force higher prices.

Well, in the spirit of compromise so in vogue among our legislative betters, I offer The Nielsen Compromise…conceived in anonymity and dedicated to the proposition that all things being equal, I’d rather be in Tortola.

High points of my plan:

  • More border enforcement to minimize threats from terrorist entry
  • Let employers hire whoever they want to pick their lettuce, *but:*
  • Minimum wage enforced across the board…no cash-and-carry employment
  • Employers must provide low-deductible healthcare for all “undocumented” employees and their families, thereby easing the burden of uncompensated healthcare
  • They must also pay Workers Compensation Insurance fees for all workers
  • No path to citizenship for people here illegally…citizenship can only be granted through the traditional route.
  • Immigration quota increased and priority for immigration to include criteria for education and job skills; allotment does not favor Mexico over all other countries.

So, there it is…a workable solution. Oh, I forgot…we’re not looking for a workable solution…we’re looking for a feelgood message, not any real change. You see, the businesses employing illegals like their supply of cut-rate labor. The legislators like the wheelbarrow-loads of cash they get from businesses to keep the illegals flowing. The Democrats like looking the other way, hoping an amnesty will shore up the declining ranks of their supporters. Government is…well…government, and couldn’t efficiently enforce a policy on opening a can of Spam, much less immigration.

Here’s a tip, government-type dudes: The internet has made your little feelgood gestures transparent…they’re shredded as fast as they’re conceived. Discussion of the Important Topics of The Day no longer depends on the mainstream press, either…your gatekeeper is obsolete. Don’t bring us an amnesty wrapped up with meaningless platitudes about border enforcement and expect us to believe you.

The key to operating in this new age is honesty and efficiency…something our current government players know precious little about.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Back from the future

Dan Simmons has an absolutely chilling science fiction/time traveling entry up at his website. Read the whole thing (and learn some history in the bargain.) Hat tip: LGF.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Tale of Two Immigrants - Polipundit

A Tale of Two Immigrants, courtesy of Polipundit.

Excerpt:

Vikas
is a highly educated, experienced computer software engineer from India. He obtained a good job with a US company that was looking for certain specific high-tech skills. In order to obtain a “H1-B” visa to the US, Vikas went through an arduous process, which included waiting in line from dawn to dusk at the US embassy, and dealing with a quota system that limits H1-Bs to 65,000 visas/year. The quota is usually filled on the very first day every year; so you have to file a year in advance. The processing fees run to thousands of dollars, and extensive documentation must be provided.

And:

Oswaldo
is a high-school drop-out from Mexico. Oswaldo paid a “coyote” $2,000 to smuggle him over the US border. Along the way, Oswaldo’s group trashed an Arizona ranch and accidentally started a forest fire where they camped. Oswaldo made his way to North Carolina, where he paid a forger $100 for a fake Green Card and a fake Social Security card. Using these forged documents, Oswaldo found work at a construction site. Oswaldo has now been violating US laws for seven years.

Read the whole thing...it's well worth it. Then call your representatives.

Narnia: Brilliant

I picked up a copy of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday at Sam’s Club and the whole family watched it last night.

It’s one movie that certainly lived up to its lofty billing.

Surprisingly, I had never read the series of books by CS Lewis. Doc-wife, that intrepid soul, said she had read the first book in the series, but found it scary and lacked the courage to proceed to the others. My 11-year-old daughter, of course, has read the whole series a couple times.

I thought the script and acting were terrific. The messages also came through loud and clear: there are consequences, sometimes dire, to our actions; war is horrible, but sometimes unavoidable; sacrifice is sometimes required to ensure the success of a just cause. The Witch was glacially brutal and her minions equally debased – no moral equivalence here. The witch’s forces were comprised of bad guys, not good guys struggling under poor conditions. The Lion was regally noble, but gave no thought to compromise with the Witch to avoid the war – one does not give ground to evil.

Monsters and animals died in the conflagration; not all of whom were magically reborn. Yet the world was left a better place for their struggle. That’s a lesson I want my children to know…there IS value in struggling to do what’s right, even if the easier and more popular course is to compromise.

What is this!?!


What happened to Spring? Bonnie, our chunky breeding stock paint mare, got in some turnout time this morning amid the snow showers. The forecast calls the snow to continue, with temperatures reaching 41 degrees. Warming temperatures through the weekend are the recipe for a huge mudfest at our farm.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Free speech...Singapore style

Singapore is expected to hold general elections within a few weeks, so the government is taking steps to make sure things run smoothly...including attempting to muzzle the bloggers.

From the story:
Senior Minister of State for Information, Communication and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan said regulations governing the use of the Internet during elections would remain to prevent online debate from veering into "unreliable and dangerous discourse".

In remarks to parliament released late Monday, Sadasivan said bloggers could face prosecution if they consistently espoused a political line during election periods.

I think their efforts are a fool's quest - despite their best attempts at censorship, the internet discussion and electioneering will go on. Censoring or prosecuting one particular blogger will only guarantee more activity by others. It's like a line from Serenity: "You can't stop the signal, Mal, it's everywhere."

I think expansion of the internet spells doom for totalitarian governments. Much of the power of such governments relies on being able to control the flow of information and limit the opportunities of its citizens to meet and discuss public affairs. Absent that, such governments can only survive through brutal intimidation...to do otherwise is to risk a political fall to widespread rebellion. But even such repressive tactics are only delaying the regime's demise...the voices of the people will go out (remember, the signal is everywhere,) will be passed from internet post to internet post and will eventually result in an international outcry and pressure to reform.

In Singapore's case, I guess I can see the case for limiting slander and lies immediately before an election, but saying "Individual bloggers must not 'persistently propagate, promote or circulate political issues relating to Singapore,'" as the minister said, is going too far. It's like trying to eliminate idle discussion in the town square...it can't be done.

Better to let the internet police itself - falsehoods, distortions and slander are quickly run down and discarded in this digital town square, where reputation for accuracy is the going currency.

Monday, April 03, 2006

More from DeWine:

I just heard back from Sen. Mike DeWine's office about my previous email. His pandering reply ticked me off, so I had to write again. My letter:

Sen. DeWine:

I received your (office's) reply to my previous email in regard to illegal immigration. From your reply:

"To tackle this problem, we must have a comprehensive immigration plan that toughens our borders, documents illegal immigrants, and provides for American labor needs. On March 28, 2006, the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, passed immigration legislation out of Committee.
The legislation is the first step toward comprehensive immigration reform."

Let me make this perfectly clear...no guest worker or path to citizenship concessions UNTIL AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HAS BEEN SHUT OFF. We were promised after the amnesty in 1986 that illegal immigration would be halted...well guess what? It has increased exponentially.

Conservative voters...your voters...have been yelling for years to cut off the flow of illegal immigration over the border. So we're supposed to trust that enforcement will now be forthcoming? Save your "comprehensive immigration reform" until after you have staunched the flow of illegals - quit trying to turn a clearcut law enforcement issue into a feelgood measure favoring people who have chosen to flout our laws!


The Rantmeister

Update: I received the same form letter back in reply to this letter. Better read your mail, senator, it probably contains some warnings about your chances in the upcoming election.

Deep thoughts...

Profound, Deep, Metaphysical-kinda Thought of the Day on illegal immigration:

It's like being a plumber...you've got to shut off the water to all the leaks before you can fix the problem.

Range report

The entire Nielsen clan got some substantial range time yesterday. Doc-wife wanted to blow the crap out of some targets and who was I to argue?

We descended upon my father’s house (and his brand new 400-yard rifle-range-in-progress) for some practice in the fine art of triggernometry (term shamelessly stolen from Western books by British cowpoke JT Edson.)

Guns in hand:

We went through about 200 rounds of 230 grainFMJ .45acp rounds, 125 rounds of 145 grainSWC .38 special ammo and 20 rounds of .380acp ammo. Shooters included The Rantmeister, Doc-wife, our 17-year-old German exchange student and my 13-year-old son. We were also joined, for the first time, by my 11-year-old daughter, who shot the Sig P230 with very good accuracy.

Favorite guns were the Ruger revolver and the One-Pro. Some family members had a problem with the One-Pro misfeeding. That was solved when we realized the gun is very sensitive as to how it’s shot – any “limpwristing” will result in a misfeed or incomplete closure of the chamber. I must say it’s the easiest .45 I’ve ever shot when it comes to ripping off an entire clip (10 rounds) in a hurry and achieving good accuracy at the same time. The gun is an uncommon, high-quality, Swiss-made weapon, which was imported by Magnum Research for a while.

We had also taken the Bushmaster Varminter AR-15 to shoot, but the blog-son left the ammo sitting on top of the gun safe. That will have to wait for another day.

Sensing a theme

I’m sensing a theme in world events these days.

I think I’m going to call it the Tom Clancy factor. Fanatics using airplanes as flying bombs…mad mullahs working to create international outrage and, so, limit U.N. action…and now, Earth-firsters opining that the planet would be much better off if most of the people were dead.

Remember that Tom Clancy book? In Rainbow Six, Clancy writes about a bunch of enviro-whackos who decide to polish off most of humanity by releasing a biological agent, “Shiva,” at the Sydney Olympics. Of course, they don’t include themselves in that little doomsday offering to the Earth Mother; they’re safely tucked away in their little enclave, provisioned with food and antidote to the plague.

University of Texas professor Eric Pianka is not advocating, exactly, a planetary elimination of the human species, but he sounds delighted at the prospect:

That’s 5.8 billion lives — lives he says are turning the planet into “fat, human biomass.” He points to an 85 percent swell in the population during the last 25 years and insists civilization is on the brink of its downfall — likely at the hand of widespread disease.
“[Disease] will control the scourge of humanity,” Pianka said. “We’re looking forward to a huge collapse.”

Note to world: Please keep Professor Pianka away from the infectious diseases lab…just a thought. It might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on some of his students, either:

(An opposing scientist) tells the story of a Texas Lutheran University student who attended (Pianka’s) Academy of Science lecture. Brenna McConnell, a biology senior, said she and others in the audience “had not thought seriously about overpopulation issues and a feasible solution prior to the meeting.” But though McConnell arrived at the event with little to say on the issue, she returned to Seguin with a whole new outlook.

An entry to her online blog captures her initial response to what’s become a new conviction:

“[Pianka is] a radical thinker, that one!” she wrote. “I mean, he’s basically advocating for the death for all but 10 percent of the current population. And at the risk of sounding just as radical, I think he’s right.”

Today, she maintains the Earth is in dire straits. And though she’s decided Ebola isn’t the answer, she’s still considering other deadly viruses that might take its place in the equation.

“Maybe I just see the virus as inevitable because it’s the easiest answer to this problem of overpopulation,” she said.

Somebody PLEASE check Brenna’s lunchbag when she heads home after a hard days work at the old biolab. And read some Tom Clancy…he’ll provide some tips to successfully counter the kill-humanity-to-save-the-planet crowd. After all, he’s already beaten them once.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Reply to RNC spam

I received a bulk email from Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman bragging up the RNC's latest video lampooning the Democrats' home security efforts. It struck a nerve with me. Here was my reply:

Mr. Mehlman:

Keep America’s families safe? Don’t even talk to me about keeping America’s families safe until the Republicans make concrete progress on closing the borders to the flood of people illegally crossing from Mexico.

And don’t you dare ask me to continue to support your candidates and agenda until you’ve demonstrated to me your commitment on this issue. It seems from recent news that you’re willing to sell out the wishes of the American public for the concerns of the business community and a few votes on the illegal immigration issue…shame on you for your actions and shame on me for supporting them. I may not vote a straight ticket for the Democrats this Fall, but as things stand, I’m sure as heck not going to vote for Republican candidates who blatantly ignore the will of the people.

The Rantmeister

Think I'm off his Christmas card list now?

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Metamorphosis


What a difference a couple weeks makes. Remember those cute little fuzzy chicks we got in the mail in March? Well, they grew up quickly. While still not fully feathered, the chicks look more like chickens than fuzzy peeps. This chick is an Aracauna hen, one of the birds known as Easter Egg Chickens because they lay blue, green and pink eggs.