Speaking "truth to power" redux

"Seriously, where does he get off thinking how many bullets’ are in my magazines is any business of his? Vobis non me dux, Ed* — you ain't the boss of me. That's why I own guns in the first place: to make sure nobody, from the mugger on the corner to the King of England to some washed-up political has-been from the Keystone State can come force me to do things against my will without me at least having a chance to shoot back.” [Claire Wolfe @ Paladin Planet blog]

And so there it is.

(H/t to Bill St. Clair)

* Former Philadelphia mayor, ex-Pennsylvania governor, and ex-Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell being the "Ed" referred to here. Here's a YouTube clip of Rendell explaining his views to a TV reporter. Note the nuance and logical deductive skills evidenced by Rendell's remarks.

Pot-shots

>>>The Ann Arbor Chronicle's Mary Morgan tells us what it is like to live a car-less lifestyle in this town. She does own a Honda Ruckus scooter though. I've often contemplated getting rid my mini-van and getting a scooter too. Kinda impractical if you have kids, dogs, and such though.

>>>I'll bet the problems in Syria right now would be resolving themselves a whole lot differently than they are now if the people there were armed. If they were better armed the rebels wishing to overthrow the Assad family dictatorship would still be taking the brunt of higher casualties and the suffering would still be horrendous, but successful uprisings tend to go that way, at first anyhow. Eventually though, if the resistance is competent and the people are dedicated, the rebels usually win. Bottom line: My druthers would be for America to stick with having an armed civilian population even with the associated carnage that this sometimes entails.

>>>Quicken Loans the Detroit-based national mortgage company has pulled its advertizing from Rush Limbaugh's radio program over his remarks calling a woman a slut because she wants other people to pay for her birth control prescriptions. Sheesh. Given his own history (three divorces and Rx drug abuse) Rush really isn't in any position to be calling other people out on their moral failings in my opinion. I don't want to pay for other people's meds either but that's a matter of politics not a moral judgement on their sex lives.

>>>You can conscript, kidnap, draft, enslave, or otherwise make unwilling blokes join your armed struggle group, but how do you make them serve? Well it depends. This academic working paper I happened on to at the Social Science Research Network website explores this issue. Sadly the author's affiliation and bio were not provided although I note that he has a McGill University email address listed. - "Can You Home Again? Desertion And Control of Hometowns in Civil Wars" by Theodore D. McLauchlin

>>>Ex-Michigander Ted Nugent endorsed ex-Michigander Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary election it seems. Sheesh. Nugent and Romney both moved on to greener pastures a while ago and so their Michigan bona fides are a little weak these days. More than a little actually.

I don't have to justify what I "need" to Sarah Brady

...or any of the rest of the nannies, scolds, shrews, harpies, buttinskies, kvetchers, control-freaks, and the rest that ilk. And the Scumfuck Living In Babylon blogger puts it even more bluntly than I do. To wit:

"I'm sick of pretending", says the SFLB, "that there are sporting purposes to my shit. I'm a survivalist and my weapons are for killing motherfuckers in a theoretical Mad Max future, and perhaps most importantly of all I don't have to justify shit to you, god damnit."

Indeed. Μολὼν λαβέ you bastards!

(Via the End the War on Freedom blog of Bill St. Clair)

"Those who hammer their swords into plowshares, will plow for those who do not."

Indeed. I don't know who said it but I fully agree.

In your face bitch!

Libyan militias now want to keep their arms after all. Go figure?

When the armed-struggle phase of the anti-Qadaffi uprising began and the Libyan state aresenals were being liberated those people and groups making off with all the guns and ammo vowed that they'd turn them all over to the new government when the revolution was successfully concluded. Now it seems that they're having a change of heart about disarming themselves.

It seems that after nearly a century or so of foreign occupation (the Italian Fascists) and misrule by both an unelected King (Idris II) and a bat-shit crazy dictator (Qaddafi) the people of Libya don't trust governments or political elites. Go figure?

That being unarmed renders one contemptible in the sight of one's rivals is a reality of practical politics in unsettled places like Libya; A practical point of existence that you won't learn of at places like the Kennedy School of Government or the Sorbonne. 

NYT story link here.