Of course I’ll become free of the Navy this year!

2012 and in particular December 21st are significant if you’re looking forward to everything from the end of the world with the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar or perhaps the timewave zero phenomenon. Society is rapidly changing and this year will be no different. Come on technological singularity!

Of course I’m also nervous to watch how Iraq unfolds now that we have withdrawn. For the record, I expect Iraq to crumble and dissolve into civil war. And last, but not least, we have the transition of power in North Korea and Iran rattling its sabre even more. Regarding North Korea, I’d like to share some funny/interesting images:

Heritage foundation is rather conservative so I’m looking for more stuff. I make almost 100k/yr and I don’t have cable, a DVR, or A/C. My personal opinion is that our cultural shift has put the living standard so high that the notion of not having all you want is considered insufficient, even if you aren’t qualified for or work a well paying job. Meanwhile OWS protestors wave their iphones around…

Interesting stuff.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is finally gaining main stream attention and with that, momentum. Through social media I’ve known about the protests for a little over a month but there was effectively a media blackout on the subject, which doesn’t surprise me because once people became more aware of the movement it grew and began to spread.

A list of protestor’s complaints is available here.

More importantly, their demands are availabe here. I’m very impressed with the intelligent and well thought out nature of the requests. Will it go anywhere? Who knows. I fear the 1% aren’t going to release their power that easily since the system is largely skewed in their favor and the retainment of that power. Such interesting times!

It is important to note that the demands are all proposed. The organization is growing and molding their requests. I’ve seen some absurd, extreme demands too. The organic nature of this transformation is fascinating to behold.

I once heard it said that America isn’t at war, 300,000 American families are at war. This isn’t WWII and the American people aren’t pooling together to support a war effort. There isn’t significant sacrifice. Boys unable to fight aren’t spending time straightening nails. Life has been reality t.v. as usual while wives wait at home for soldiers and sailors half a world away. I see a lot of hustle and bustle today, flag waving and such, but most of those individuals will go back to their lives tomorrow, read the news and focus on TMZ while bypassing the stories about our young service members fighting and dying. My Facebook feed today has been nothing but Football chatter. Meanwhile, a small percentage of American families undergo real sacrifice day after day.

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ll know that I’m skeptical of motives behind our power plays overseas and I want more governmental transparency. Regardless of those feelings though, if young men and women weren’t volunteering to fight someone else would be forced to. So today I honor them. I honor my brothers and sisters in the service, those lost, and the families who lost loved ones ten years ago. To everyone else, thank you for your support today. Please continue it tomorrow.

I remember “coming out” so to speak during my time on Enterprise. A challenge in its own way considering Navy ships signal bed time with an evening prayer.

The short and simple is that laws restricting the acquisition of firearms only affect individuals who already adhere to the law, hence victim disarmament. A million statistics from demographically aimed surveys can be used to support lobbying one way or another. All I’ll say is that a lot of my research, (and believe me I’ve read a lot on this) indicates that more stringent limitations on gun purchases DO NOT correlate to lowered crime.

Over the last quarter century violent crime rates have fallen to all time lows. Coincidentally the federal handgun waiting period expired in 1998, the assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and around forty states have right to carry laws up from 10 in 1987. More people have access to guns even though crime rates have fallen.

Remember, criminals will always be able to get access to weapons. So how did Laughner? He bought it legally, background check and all. Why was he able to get one? That’s a very good question and one which needs answering. (Tovah would add: Especially seeing as how Laughner’s immediate history includes being escorted off of his college campus THREE times by campus security for disruptions ultimately ending in him being expelled from school. He also threatened at least one teacher who gave him a “bad” grade. Warning signs were there and the bigger question beyond why was he able to get a gun was why wasn’t he at least referred to a counselor/mental health care provider?)

Instead of focusing on the fact that a clearly mentally disturbed individual was able to purchase a weapon lobbyists are planning to punish law abiding individuals. There is one proposal to require persons discharged dishonorably from the military or prohibited from joining due to drug use to be flagged to the FBI to ultimately prohibit firearm purchase. I’m fine with that. However taking guns away from law abiding citizens will just give criminals the upper hand.

Civilian firearm ownership is a core tenet of freedom (Thomas Jefferson has a lot of good writings on this subject). That said, I’ll finish by elaborating on the “Switzerland paradox.” Switzerland has some of the highest firearm ownership rates in the world and the lowest crime rates. Why? They are well educated and prosperous. I love the following quote from BBC, “Despite the lack of rigid gun laws, firearms are strictly connected to a sense of collective responsibility.” Good old responsibility — unfortunately too absent in America. I would rather our politician’s time be spent better educating and improving America so that we can be a society more like Switzerland as opposed to gerrymandering and restricting individual liberty.

I could say so much more but I feel this post is already a little disjointed. Please educate yourself. Please recognize atrocities committed with guns are already illegal and that we should look at why someone would do something horrible and learn to identify that person. Lastly, let me remind you that 9/11 occurred because terrorists took over the plane with box cutters.

Me fired up!

What am I upset about? I’m pissed about the renewal of the Bush tax taxes recently passed by congress. Many articles covered it in the news. I read several from various outlets. This one nicely captures my frustrations. Now let me preface this by saying that I’m in many ways a libertarian at heart so that said I should be enthusiastic for lower taxes. Ordinarily, I would be and I support significant cuts in Federal spending to balance the budget and begin to whittle away at our deficit (at least preclude its increase). However, when our nation’s financial foundation is in extremis I can support letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire. Why? The the need to get our country on firm financial footing and the stratification of wealth between the rich and poor.

Firm financial footing: ordinarily efficient and moderate Federal spending can be support by low taxes. We’re not there. Thus I supported not letting the cuts expire so that decreases in spending couple with more tax revenue could lessen the deficit.

Stratification of wealth: I attribute nearly all of our societal problems to that wealth dichotomy (by extension, many of the world’s problems are attributable to the wealth differences between nations). The disparity has reached 1926 levels. Nearly half the members of congress are millionaires and fifty-five of them have wealth over ten million dollars. Shocker: they gave themselves a nice little $700,000,000,000 gift (count the zeroes, that’s seven hundred billion) in the form of the tax cuts for the wealthy they passed.

What’s to come: If we do not repair our broken economy the house of cards will crumble. When that happens a lot of ignorant and angry people are going to be shocked by the welfare economy coming to a halt will be very angry. Some will starve, some will riot, and many will resort to crime. I don’t want that.

It’s all crap. Vote in the politicians which will bring about change. Voice your disapproval. And learn to be independent and self sufficient.

BONUS: This has nothing to do with the above post. I just wanted to share my new favorite youtube video! Enjoy.

The problem is that we’re at a point now where we can’t solve the problem with cuts alone or just tax hikes (not in a way which would ever make it through congress and the house anyway). Any successful proposal will require cooperation between both parties. So what happens when these ideas are put out there? Nancy Pelosi dismisses them outright. Way to be a mature leader; no compromise, no “that’s a great start, lets talk about this.” Our political system has become so fractured and inept by strict adherence to the party line that we can’t accomplish anything for the good of the country.

So it looks like we’ll continue to borrow against ourselves and delay the inevitable and every year we wait we force the eventual fiscal balancing to become more dramatic when it eventually happens — and it will happen. Our present economic path is not sustainable and eventually the house of cards will tumble.

What is that you ask? It’s a Glock 26 in a Blackhawk holster with a magazine extension and an extra 17 round magazine, that’s what! I am totally in love with it. The Glock 26 is affectionately known as the “baby glock” because it is the smallest of the Glock subcompacts. With LxHxW measurements of 6.29″ x 4.17″ x 1.18″ it nearly fits in the palm of my hand.

Up close and personal.

Here you can see the stock mag, next to the mag with the grip extension, next to full size 17 round mag.

I debated in the store for over an hour as whether I wanted the Glock 26 or Glock 36. The 36 is smallest of the .45 ACP Glocks. I shot both and they both were excellent. My spreads nearly identical. The biggest difference between the two, beyond the larger bullet for the 36, was capacity: The Glock 36 only holds six rounds and larger magazines are not available for it. People may suggest the Glock 30, a 10 round version in .45ACP but that gun is quite a bit larger than the 26 and I wanted this pistol for concealed carry.

I’ve seen many ballistics gelatin studies of 9mm vs .45 and I’m of the opinion that proper shot placement wins out. And in the rare event I need to draw a concealed weapon I’m sure nervousness and a tremendous adrenaline rush will significantly impair my aim. In that situation having those extra rounds means a lot. Factor in the lower cost of the 26 compared to the 36, 9mm being more affordable to shoot, and the ubiquity of 9mm and I knew the 26 was the smart choice–even though the “guy” side of me wanted the BIGGER BULLET. In home defense situations I have bigger toys anyway (hello Mr. 12 gauge!) And, my next purchase, some variety of semi-automatic rifle is going to be a M1a in 7.62 vice the AR-15 in 5.56, so I’ll get bigger bullets in one form or another.

Fully field stripped (it only takes about 7 seconds to do so, which is awesome)

My usual choice of t-shirt and shorts. Hard to hide something right?

Ready to support should it ever be needed.

Why concealed carry? What am I, a paranoid freak? No, I’m not paranoid. I’m a highly educated and trained citizen. I could go on and on, so I’ll make this somewhat short.

Concealed carry is only half for my defense. It’s also for the defense of others. There are over 80,000 rapes in the U.S. each year. Imagine if all women carried guns? Guns are the great equalizer. I’m a very fit 225lb male with over ten years of martial arts training. If I was sick in the head and wanted to rape a woman I doubt there is much she could do to stop me, unless she had a snub .38. So you’re thinking, “Clark, you’re not a woman.” I know, but if I ever came across someone in need of help and I was limited in my ability to do something because I was afraid to carry or simply chose not to I’d….feel really bad to say the least.

School shootings, Virginia Tech, etc. Hell, a Law Enforcement Officer on a routine stop where the suspect goes nuts and gets the better of the Officer. All reasons to carry. Our society has become terrified of conflict. Several years ago when I stepped in to stop a guy from further assaulting a girl he had just hit I was the only person to do anything that night as dozens of other patrons sheepishly hurried past on the way to their cars after a movie. Cowards.

Beyond all of that I wanted to get my permit simply to exercise a right. The more I come in line with libertarian political philosophy the more I feel it is important to exercise the remaining rights and freedoms we have (speaking of, I recently wrote a letter to a congressman regarding something. Darn that felt good!).

Lastly, one of the many responsibilities associated with carrying is being able to accurately use your firearm. Well, see for yourself:

35 feet or so. The three that are wide off center were left hand only shots fired in short succession.

I’m no Olympic marksmen but I think that will do the job. Center of mass with a Speer Gold Dot 127GR +P 9mm will do the job just fine.

A Facebook friend and I recently enjoy a back and forth discussion regarding all kinds of good things, namely the US Constitution, Christianity, and the founding fathers. I thought one of my responses poignantly captured many of my beliefs and frustrations with the current system. I’m initially talking about and refuting the claim that we were founded as a Christian Nation:

…one can draw comparisons between the synoptic gospels and the tenets put forth in the constitution, but I’d call them vague and general similarities. Influenced? Sure, I guess, seeing as Christianity was the dominant cultural ideology among the founding fathers regardless of their specific beliefs. Either way, plain and simple damn good ideas!

I don’t however, believe I should “be happy” that I don’t get stoned by the populace, I should expect it. There are some insane Christian fanatics here man, just as far gone as any jihadist, that would like to stone me (or at least deport me) but they can’t because of law. Ahhh, the kind and sympathetic religious mind.

Going back to one of my original points, I think it is a sad thing that a politician would fail miserably if he/she claimed atheism. Too much of the population doesn’t understand things like how Darwinian evolution is the only justifiable explanation for apparent irreducible complexity, they cling to gaps in the fossil record like life preservers in a storm, and selectively choose arbitrary passages from the Old Testament to enforce political will (Proposition 8 for example). I’ve taken graduate level Christian theology classes, I understand atomic physics and the evolution of every major ethical system, but because I’m an atheist and am well read on Richard Dawkins I’d lose in a political race to someone who seriously believes the earth is 5000 years old because of religious belief alone–there is something wrong with that.

I’ll be the first to say that the New Testament (primarily M, M, & L) has some amazing guidance on living a good, kind, peaceful, and happy life. The problem is that it doesn’t stop there and people 100% believing the miracles of the New Testament runs counterproductive to scientific understanding….