Wednesday, March 31, 2010

How to Understand Militias

From The Maddow Blog

Sociologist: How to understand militias


News Type: Event — Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:05 AM EDT



Amy Cooter, in the photo above, has spent the past few years getting to know people in Michigan's militia movement. Cooter's writing a sociology dissertation based on her field work at the University of Michigan. After Monday's news about the arrests of nine members of the Hutaree, an extremist Christian militia based in that state, she agreed to share with us some of what she's learned. Cooter writes:

"Probably the most important thing to know about the Militia Movement is that it is less cohesive and unified than we typically think of social movements or nation-wide interest groups as being. That is, groups of the Militia Movement even within a given state can vary as much or more than groups separated by state lines. There is really no such thing as the Michigan Militia as a result, although the highly visible Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia and groups with which it associates do have more in common than not. The beliefs and actions of the indicted Hutaree members, on the other hand, represent an extreme of the militia movement.

"This may be surprising, since most news stories on militias tend to focus on this very extreme, following a raid like this one, and represent it as the mainstay of the movement. However, in contrast to the stereotypes, the vast majority of militia members are married, have children, have steady jobs (some even work for the government), and are not religious. Most care deeply for their country, vote at every opportunity, and frequently contact the elected representatives to express their viewpoints.

"Why is it important to recognize variation in this movement? At a general societal level, it's a slippery slope to start limiting the rights of people who are not advocating violence or otherwise breaking the law. Practically, the more media and hate-watch groups confuse and over generalize the overall movement with its most extreme components, the more the movement may be pushed in that direction. We saw this after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 when it was falsely reported that the bomber was a militia member. In the aftermath, some groups did dissolve, but many others went completely underground where they became harder to monitor, and it became more difficult to discern which ones might become problematic.

"More recently, when the Department of Homeland Security released the 'Rightwing Extremism' report last April, veterans -- especially those recently returned from the Middle East -- felt the government was accusing them of being terrorists. Attendance at militia events in my area roughly doubled, and most new attendees had military experience. They talked of feeling offended and betrayed, and they were seeking an outlet for protest. Clearly, this was the exactly opposite the outcome DHS had wanted.

"Comparing the brunt of the movement to the extreme, in short, irritates its members. It further alienates the ones who see their militia involvement as a political statement against a two-party system that, in their view, does not adequately represent their interests. It makes them less likely to interact with the public, to hold open events, and, potentially, to cooperate with law enforcement."

Sociologist Amy Cooter is writing a dissertation on the militia movement at the University of Michigan.
The tone of the article indicates Ms. Cooter may be seeking to bring some balance and reality to an emotional subject. She implies that many of the "facts" about militia members as reported in the media are inaccurate. This is certainly in keeping with the revelations in To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's face by Robert H Churchill.

After reading Churchill's book I began to understand that the media created boogieman did not really exist. I hope this young woman can uncover more of the reality of the militias and I wish her luck in her research.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Don't Blame Obama, Blame Star Trek.

The Unwanted Blog has an unusual tongue-in-cheek explantion for the current mess in DC. He blames the replacing of the character Kes in Star Trek:Voyager with Seven of Nine played by Jeri Ryan.
Long story short, Jeri Ryan’s work on Voyager contributed to her getting a divorce. The divorce eventually led to Jack Ryan dropping out of a Senate race, which was then easily won by Barack Obama who used it as a springboard to the White House.
One of the lessons to be learned:
1) If the selection of a space-elf only a few years old to be the sex symbol on a Star Trek series can have massive and completely unpredictable long-term real-world consequences… then any long-term plan that relies on the future being predictable in detail stands a damned good chance of failing spectacularly.
Good advice. Too many folks who think an economy can be planned see the present situation as standing alone. They rob it of context and use it a starting point rather than a part of a history.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Tri State Raids

Mike Vanderboegh has a pretty good summary of the news so far here

I am leaning strongly toward this being the Administration playing the brinksmanship game. One side breaks a few windows; the Feddies respond with a show of force.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A Push, an Overreach and a Question

Mike Vanderboegh covers the first two in this short essay:

Marshal Kutuzov's Prayer: The last shove, the fatal overreach.

The question I have for all those who choose to be an enemy:

If I value Freedom more than my life how much do I think I will value your life in comparison?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Pot and Kettle

More from L. Neil Smith
Over the past couple of weeks, I have listened to dozens of hours of talk radio, most of it focused on the effort to impose, by force, a collectivized medical system on what is clearly no longer a free people.

During all that time, plenty has been said about a wide range of related topics. Those I listen to are by no means monolithic in their views, but vary on details of policy, philosophy, personality, and attitude. Sometimes they differ to a startling degree, considering that the majority of them started out, more or less, as conservative Republicans.
Read the rest here

Those Ignorant of History...

In a fact deficient article entitled "Mike Vanderboegh asks Americans to vandalize Democratic party offices everywhere." the author claims that,
Free speech is one thing, but when you call for a campaign of organized vandalism against a political party and there are some people at various locations within the USA who are acting on that suggestion (five broken windows counted at Dem party offices nationwide this week) , shouldn't law enforcement get interested in you? Talk is one thing, but talk that requests ACTION is something else.

I recall a certain event in Germany in the 1930s that helped usher in the rule of the Nazi party: they called it Kristalnacht.
Kristallnacht was one name given to the vandalism committed by National Socialist Party supporters on the night of November 9 to 10, 1938. This was over five years after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on January 30, 1933. It did not help "usher in the rule" of the Nazis; it was an act of the ruling party directed against those it intended to destroy.

The "Window War" is not even close to being a Kristalnacht. The idiots claiming it is are grasping at fact-deprived straws: When the Democrats send Acorn (or its successor) to kick down doors, break windows and arrest people then they will have a historical parallel.

And those screaming about it now will, most likely, be cheering.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Billy Beck on the Republican Party Hopes

Original Here
I, for one, don't give a damn in the world who is the black-hat on some simpleton's scorecard in the wake of this. What I care about is what real, live individual human beings are going to have to live through under this atrocity. I don't give a runny shit about the prospect of Republicans' political profit at the polls: they can all go to hell unless and until they swear their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to ridding me of these commissars, and; I would not thank them for doing it, for it is only the right thing.

The Republicans have not had a single morally probative principle under them in all of the fifty-three years that I have been alive. They have been passively complicit in this whole disaster every step of the way, in their spineless stupidity, and I wouldn't care if they ended up painting Nancy Pelosi's toenails and feeding her bon-bons for the rest of their worthless lives.

Don't hand me any Novembers, god damn you. I will have freedom, or you will have my everlasting hatred. You and your stupid fucking polls.

Drop dead, and hurry up.
Amen to that.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

19 April 2010: Bring Your Sidearms and Longarms To The Banks of the Potomac

Originally seen at Western Rifle Shooters and later at Sipsey Street Irregulars


The latest on the April 19th "Restore The Constitution" rally on the Potomac:

As it stands now, [the above] is how I plan on attending the Restore the Constitution rally on 4-19 at Ft. Hunt and Gravelly Parks.

Pistol loaded, openly carried. Rifle unloaded, slung to rear. Bandoleer of magazines containing ammo. All in accordance with rules below. Please note that guidelines below are subject to final coordination with the Department of the Interior:

Participants and attendees are expected to know and abide by all applicable state and federal firearms laws. None of the information provided below is legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading or relying upon this information. If you have questions, then you are expected to know the applicable state and federal firearms laws before attending the event.

Anyone prohibited from possessing a firearm by state or federal law may not possess a firearm at this event.

Participants and attendees may not bring any firearm prohibited by state or federal law.

1. ALL rifles and shotguns carried by participants at this event are to be unloaded (chamber empty, no magazine inserted, no ammo inside the rifle or shotgun, no ammo touching the rifle or shotgun whatsoever) and slung to the rear or to the side, away from the hands.

Although the law does allow for carry of some types of loaded rifles and some types of shotguns in some circumstances, our guidelines are simpler and more strict due to the relative novelty of this event and the high level of attention it is likely to receive from law enforcement, government, and the media.

2. While we do ask that your rifles and shotguns be unloaded, you are perfectly welcome to carry ammunition and loaded magazines on your person if you so choose, so long as no magazines are actually inserted into rifles and so long as you are not prohibited from owning a firearm.

3. Open carry of a loaded pistol is allowed.

Concealed carry of a pistol is allowed for those with a valid Virginia concealed handgun permit or a concealed handgun permit from a state for which Virginia allows concealed carry in Virginia (See the Virginia State Police’s website for a list of those states; we do not vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of that list).

Anyone carrying their pistol openly or concealed cannot have in it a magazine capable of holding over 20 rounds and cannot have a pistol designed to accept a silencer or suppressor.

Participants and attendees are required to keep all pistols holstered. Participants and attendees are required to keep all rifles/shotguns slung over their shoulder, muzzle-down, unloaded, with the safety on, and with no magazine inserted. Brandishing of firearms is prohibited by Virginia law. Under Virginia Code Section 18.2-282, it is unlawful for any person to (a) point, hold, or brandish any firearm in such a manner as to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another or (b) hold a firearm in a public place in such a manner as to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another being shot or injured. Do not engage in any horseplay, demonstration of firing positions, or exchange of or other handling of firearms at Fort Hunt, Gravelly Park, or any other location or vehicle of transportation associated with this event.

By federal law, firearms are prohibited in federal facilities (defined by federal law as a building or part thereof owned or leased by the federal government, where federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties).

Do not transport a loaded rifle or shotgun in any vehicle on any public street, road, or highway during this event.

Participants and attendees are not to consume, possess, or be under the influence of alcohol or illegal substances at this event.

Again, these guidelines are, as of now, subject to final coordination with the Department of the Interior.

More info asap.

Spread the word!
I won't be there but I wish them all the best of luck.

I only acquired an EBR -- a Enterprise Arms FAL -- a month ago and I'm still getting used the weird handling. That pistol grip is a real pain in the arse to an old rifle shooter like me. I guess if you start out with one it's OK but it changes the whole ergonomics. It's almost like starting all over again. Some of the skills transfer but positions that are perfectly natural with a rifle are impossible with the pistol grip and big-assed magazine in the way.

Also, I don't own a pistol except for a couple of 22's. I have plenty of revolvers but I don't think a bolt or lever action slung across my back and a 357 revolver at my hip will have quite the desired effect.

(Edited on 03/09/2010 at 23:00 to add)

Quite a few poster at the two sites referenced above are criticizing the organizers of this protest.

Fair enough.  If you don't think this gathering will do any good then try something better.  You all think you're the inheritors of the Sons of Liberty so go break some windows, vandalize the houses of Loyalists,  tar and feather some bureaucrats.  The original Sons of Liberty did that and more before the real fighting broke out.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Blair Holt Bill

Recently I've received a few emails about the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. This bill would burden firearms ownership (the "keep" part of the Second Amdendment) with licensing, registration and taxes (called fees but they're not fooling most of the people)

It is always important to keep an eye on the license loving fascists in Congress and this is the kind of bill that might be sneaked through in a midnight session. Nevertheless, pro-gun activists, while vigilant, don't seem worried about it. The bill has no co-sponsors indicating of a lack of enthusiasm for it among other congressmen. Politicians, above all things desire power and, historically, it is true that to exercise total power requires the gun owing members of the populace be rendered ineffective to resist. If every Jew in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle, 20 rounds of ammunition and the will to use them, National Socialism would probably be a minor footnote in the history of the Weimar Republic.

As things stand right now, an overt gun control bill would cause the so-called "progressives" to lose power in the upcoming elections. Their leadership (in both parties) is egotistical, openly fascist and would undoubtedly love to waco every decent gun owner in America but I seriously doubt they are stupid enough to risk the ire of the 80 million gun-owning citizens newly energized by the Heller decision and the probable incorporation of the Second Amendment in McDonald. I suspect that the House Democrats will allow the Blair Holt bill to die in subcommittee rather than risk the ire of pro-gun voters. If not then, "Cum ulla sella in pugno taberna."

Any chair in a bar fight.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Puritans are Still At It!

This time it's in New Jersey.
RAHWAY --She was a frosty Venus de Milo, but one Rahway family’s snow-packed tribute to the Greek goddess of love and beauty was another person’s pornography.

Maria Conneran and her family worked feverishly to fashion their armless, nude snowlady from last week’s heap of snow, grabbing attention and photographs on Rahway’s Colonia Boulevard.
Not all the attention was good, however.

Among the visitors was a patrolman dispatched to the Conneran household after Rahway police received an anonymous complaint "of a naked snow woman," said Sgt. Dominick Sforza.
Read the rest here

Can there actually be a person alive today who has never seen the Venus De Milo? Un-phucking-believable!

That last remark is for the assholes in California