December 29, 2004
Via the light of my existence
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and etermination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
-- Calvin Coolidge
Posted by RobF at 01:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 28, 2004
Target of the Month - December 2004
this little tidbit has inspired a new special monthly feature here on Cocked and Locked. Every month, I will post a story about someone who has done or said something particularly loathsome complete with a free downloadable image suitable for target practice. Please note that I am not encouraging or condoning violence toward any of the individuals mentioned (or any other individual for that matter). This category is meant strictly as a joke, and to provide free pistol targets to my readers. The real challenge will be in only posting to this category once a month!
So, without delay, here is Cocked and Locked's Mr. December 2004, Jan Egeland (right-click the link, choose "save target as" then paste image in text editor to print).
“U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being ‘stingy’ with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised. ‘It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really,’ the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. ‘Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become.’”
I’ll give “his Excellency” credit, at least he’s not attempting to disguise his global one world utopian ideals. According to this maggot, our federal income tax should be determined not by the needs of the American taxpayer, but by the needs of the world community. This comes from an organization refusing to take responsibility and resisting investigation of the staggeringly corrupt and mismanaged oil for food program in Iraq. That’s right, money spent mostly by rich westerners, meant to fill the bellies of hungry Iraqi children lined the pockets of a murdering dictator and, most assuredly, corrupt U.N. officials.
I think it’s important to flip this over and take a long look at the diseased underbelly of Mr. Egeland’s supposition. What is lightly disguised as a plea for mercy during the season of giving in the Christian world, is really an outrage at being unable to dictate how much the U.S. and Western nations should be obligated to donate to U.N. relief funds. Taking this a step further, Mr. Egeland is clearly stating his discontent with our rate of taxation. Now, at the risk of sounding unsympathetic and snarky, what in the world gives this pompous gasbag the right to question our federal income tax rates? Why would we feel obligated to assume that the U.N. is the unquestionable authority on humanitarian aid when they have repeatedly shown that they are little more than an ineffectual debating society fraught with corruption and scandal?
This is, quite simply, one of the most infuriating statements I have read in a long time. The United States is easily the most caring, giving nation in the world. It’s time people wake up and see the United Nations for its string of failures and its internal corruption. We need to schedule continuous cutbacks in U.S. contributions until we see sweeping real reforms (not cosmetic). U.N. officials, including Kofi Annan, must be held accountable for past corruption and criminal actions. U.N. accounts should be open to the world body for scrutiny. U.N. employees should be held accountable under a strict code of conduct. The United Nations will continue to be the impotent world hot air society until serious changes are implemented or we turn off the spigot.
It’s time to rid the world of these presumptuous, arrogant, self-serving weasels.
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December 27, 2004
Earthquake Relief
Michelle at A Small Victory has a list of sites to donate and help the earthquak victims in Asia.
God bless and be with them, this one is horrible...
Posted by RobF at 08:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 23, 2004
The Wal-Mart Psychoanalysis Department
Thanks to Free Will and Right-Thinking for the heads up on this story.
“DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- Near the end of her short life, Shayla Stewart, a diagnosed manic-depressive and schizophrenic, assaulted police officers and was arrested for attacking a fellow customer at a Denton Wal-Mart where she had a prescription for anti-psychotic medication. Given all those signs, her parents say, another Wal-Mart just seven miles away should have never sold her the shotgun she used to kill herself at age 24 in 2003. Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world's biggest store chain for $25 million, saying clerks should have known about her daughter's illness or done more to find out.”
So selling guns at Wal-Mart requires a knack for investigative police work or the uncanny ability to psychoanalyze your customer base. It’s funny, I don’t know of any other retail sales position that requires such skills. Also funny, I don’t recall ever being asked about a history of mental instability while purchasing a length of rope or a utility knife.
"We know that if they had so much as said, `Why do you want this?' we would not be having this conversation because Shayla would have had a meltdown, said her stepfather, Garrett Bracy.”
I’m sure that Mr. Bracy has been dealing with a lot and I’m sorry for the loss of his daughter but this sounds like typical bleeding heart liberal discharge associated with the unwillingness to accept reality. If I walked into my local Wal-Mart to purchase some ammunition (as I’ve been prone to do) and the person behind the counter asked, “why do you want this”, I’d probably tell smock boy to take a little less time asking me questions about my private intentions and a little more time filling my bag with sweet, sweet ballistics. The same if I was purchasing a shotgun. What makes smock boy so discerning as to what constitutes an acceptable answer anyway? By the way, the last time I checked, most schizophrenics did not feel compelled to walk around with signs taped to their forehead with, “I’m a schizophrenic”, spelled out in bright hunter orange. I also find it a bit hard to believe that most schizophrenics “melt down” when interrogated by a guy wearing a blue smock with a big yellow smiley face on it.
“The Bracys said Wal-Mart's gun department could have checked Wal-Mart's own security files or the pharmacy department's prescription records before selling her the weapon.”
Yeah, I’m sure it’s standard operating procedure at every retail store that sells firearms.
Smock boy: Well, I ran the background check, as required by federal law, and your name does not appear in the FBI database. Nevertheless, I think it would be prudent if we checked our own Wal-Mart security records just to be safe. Just what did you intend on using this shotgun for Mr. Nugent?
Customer: Kill my boss? Wait a minute, how did you… I never said that, it’s the voices, the voices in my head, they told me to do it. Please, take off the smock, I’ll come peacefully, for the love of God, make the smiley face stop looking at me like that!
Not to be overlooked, prescription drug records are confidential.
“Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the National Mental Health Association, applauds Texas' refusal to share information with the FBI database. He said it would not be fair to violate patients' privacy when there is no data to support claims that mentally ill people are more violent than others. The tragedies that families face when people are killed is terrible. And frankly I wish handguns were not so available in this country, he said. But it's not right, in our minds, to make social policy based on just a few cases."
Well, although I agree with the statement about social policy (someone should tell the Bracys) my BS meter went off as soon as he mentioned the availability of handguns in this country, which totally nullified everything he said afterward. Who said anything about handguns? Flipper blew her own head off with a shotgun, genius. Let's be glad she didn't decide to start shooting at the DMV.
“The suggestion that Wal-Mart should have checked prescription records infuriates Erich Pratt, a spokesman for the Virginia-based group Gun Owners of America. Does that mean mental illness prevents everyone on Prozac from owning a gun? Or women with PMS?”
No, but in my world, the people who are driving around with the “When Clinton lied nobody died” bumper stickers would be prevented from owning a gun. That way, when the poop hits the fan, we could kill them first. I’m just saying…
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York weighed in on the situation with her own stunning dollop of steaming nonsensical manure.
"When you see these deaths that could have been prevented it's a shame,"
Well Congresswoman, if I felt I was a bit low on my monthly quota of preventable deaths, I think I’d just march down to the local abortion clinic and feast on that little orgy of preventable murder. Better yet, perhaps it would be acceptable to ask some of those customers, “why do you want this?” but then according to you liberals in Congress, I would be INFRINGING ON THEIR RIGHT TO PRIVACY!!!
The end of the article sees Mr. Bracy weigh in with more lunacy.
"Lavern went to the store the other day to buy over-the-counter headache sinus medication and they limited the amount of sinus medication she could buy at one time, her husband said, his voice trembling with emotion. But Shayla can walk into a store and buy a gun and they could care less. That's got to change."
Yes sir, when someone comes along and takes a dump in my lawn I find it perfectly acceptable to encourage others to go ahead and take a dump next to it, and take a dump in my neighbor’s lawn, and the guy across the street. Nothing makes a steaming pile of legislation seem more commonplace than *several* steaming piles of legislation everywhere you look. Thank you Mr. Bracy, when life threw you a curve, you took a dump in public. Way to go sir…
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December 22, 2004
Opinions
If opinions are like belly-buttons, then mine is an outy the size of a manhole cover.
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Happy Winter Kwahanumas
There is no question that the founding fathers of our great country held in great esteem, the values and principles of their Christian beliefs. Those principles can be found specific, and in great detail, in all of the major documents and proceedings leading to the founding of the republic. It would be a waste of time and bandwidth to begin to list examples. The laws, customs, and bedrock of our society is based on fundamental Christian values.
Such a society, the world has never seen the likes of, nor, I would guess, will it ever see again. The United States of America is the single greatest, most compassionate, and most accepting society the world has ever seen. It is this belief, that human beings are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that inspired our Christian forefathers and led them to create a society in which all people, from all the regions of the world, practicing all religions were tolerated and accepted.
Given our country’s well documented dedication to Christian values, it is no wonder that Christmas is, and has been for well over a hundred years, recognized as a federal holiday. By no means is our government forcing people to celebrate Christmas, they are simply putting forth the necessary infrastructure that allows most people to take the day off from work. Given that the majority of United States citizens consider themselves Christian, it is not outside the realm of common sense for the government to recognize Christmas as a national day of celebration.
In recent times, government recognition of Christmas has come under fire by groups such as the ACLU and renegade liberal judges with personal agendas. Our society affords black Americans the right to celebrate Kwanzaa, a holiday *made up* in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a black militant, Marxist, and convicted felon (shortly after the invention of Kwanzaa, Dr. Karenga was convicted of torturing two black women). Our society affords Wiccans the right to celebrate the Yule on Winter Solstice. This holiday commemorates the horned god dieing and being reborn as a goddess. I confess I really have no idea what this means. I know that this blog is in its infancy and has no real readership but, if by some strange coincidence, I happen to have a Wiccan reader, could you possibly cast a spell of understanding on me?
My intention is not to make fun of these religious practices (too much). If people want to celebrate horned gods of aromatherapy or take part in practices made up by a man who was convicted of forcing people to drink detergent while beating them with electrical cords and crushing their toes in a vice, then that is THEIR prerogative. If they can drum up enough support to lobby congress to pass legislation recognizing their celebration as a federal holiday, I’ll take the day off with pay. Personally, like generations of people before me, I choose to celebrate the birth of my savior and I resent the fact that small groups of minorities are spending millions of tax payer dollars to shut Christians and their meaningful customs in the closet. I will tell anyone that Christianity is the true faith and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I’ll tell them that The United States of America is a proud nation whose core values are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and it is that fact alone that makes this nation so great, so arrogant, and so right. As a Christian, I will never accept Muhammad, or nature as God, nor will I ever tell someone to have a happy Kwanzaa or a safe Winter Solstice. As a Christian, on December 25 I celebrate the Prince of Peace, proudly, loudly, and with the absolute certainty that Jesus is great and I am right.
UPDATE: SondraK at Knowledge is Power gives us this funny cartoon.
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December 21, 2004
Governator the Barbarian
“What is important in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian
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Rosie
Such a sweet little old lady… She likes her blankets and her naps. She has a chair in the corner of the dining room that she has claimed since the first day we received our gift. “Her” blanket lives there. If she’s not sleeping in the sun, sleeping on our bed, or sleeping on the couch, she is sleeping on her chair. The dishwasher is her favorite area of the house (where else can you lick leftovers off the silverware). She gets very excited about going outside and especially about going for rides or walks. The only noise she ever makes is when we put her “clothes” on. She runs to the door and makes excited little impatient noises. She likes to lie next to you and let you pet her. She likes attention but she gets a little overwhelmed when you give her a lot of affection. I roll her on her back and kiss her belly. She squirms, makes faces, and nibbles my ears and chin. She gets so excited, and then she runs away because she is not sure how to handle it all. She always comes back again. She gets nervous and licks her feet because she hasn’t always had it so good. I think that there was a time in her life when she licked her feet because it was the only thing there was to do. When we first got her we were shocked at how thin and dull she was. She was so fragile and her eyes seemed almost dim. It makes my heart hurt to think about what she must have looked like before Wanda saved her life. She dances for joy when it’s time to eat. Sometimes she dances right off her feet. Her coat is now so shiny. When she is running or dancing she opens her mouth and smiles like our other dogs. Sometimes, when the other dogs are not in the room and we’re all alone she’ll wake up and just look at me. Her little mouth is kind of crooked and the one ear that she can sort of hear out of is pointing forward. Her two long front legs lay out in front of her and they are criss-crossed with little scars from fighting or barbed wire or something in the far off past. She looks at me with those little brown eyes and she tells me that she’s finally made it home after all these years.
Posted by RobF at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"I want my anger to be healthy"
Unprovoked acts of violence should stir anger in the hearts of brave men. Given an enemy that hates us, if we are not angered to hate in return, we will be killed. Our collective must hate the enemy if we are to kill the enemy. We must seek to kill our enemy and treat those who betray our efforts of self preservation as enemies also. It has become increasingly popular to blame societal ills on anger and claim that hate is always bad. On the contrary, in some situations, anger is necessary, hate is healthy.
Posted by RobF at 04:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Coffee for our heroes
As the temperature plummets in Afghanistan, Michelle Malkin points out a worthy cause. Direct link here.
"To warm up the troops, Move America Forward and the Cornerstone Coffee Company have set up a program to donate coffee to members of our armed forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq".
This deserves our attention...
Posted by RobF at 03:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bin Laden's sensitive side
What's with these "mainstream themes" interlacing the new Bin Laden tape recordings in place of the usual evil terrorist hell-bent on destroying America vibe? This article over at Exit Zero disagrees with the intelligence community's theory that Bin Laden is attempting to take a more statesman like approach while turning his supposed intentions on the Saudis.
“I believe that bin Laden is what he has always been – a piece of sh** cockroach that should be exterminated by any and all means possible. What the hell are our ‘intelligence’ agencies doing, treating this crap with respect it doesn’t deserve? Who cares what this cockroach wants? Our only goal should be to discover his location and target him - and his supporters. Are our intelligence agencies still so accustomed to reflexively treating Saudis kindly that they’ve forgotten 9/11?”
We laughed at John Kerry’s more sensitive war on terror, yet the mainstream media increasingly gives credence to those who would seek to understand Islamic fundamentalism. There is very little to understand about these pathetic excuses for human DNA. Islamic fundamentalism preaches hate and bends the minds of young children and adults alike to murder and destroy those who oppose their evil agenda. As far as I’m concerned, images of desperate Americans leaping from a burning World Trade Center just before the catastrophic collapse is the only thing I need to understand about Bin Laden and Islamic fundamentalism. We are at war, not with an individual (Bin Laden) or a country (Iraq) but with a philosophy. These people have one goal, dead Americans.
Those who know me and read this blog will laugh because I have said this a hundred times since the death of Arafat. I saw a sick little microcosm of the Islamic establishment as the helicopter carrying Arafat’s body landed in Ramallah. Throngs of adoring mourners surrounded the aircraft and simply refused to give the Palestinians enough room to unload the coffin from the helicopter and into a neaby Jeep Cherokee. Long tense moments passed as the armed Palestinians pleaded, then shouted at the crowd to make room. Finally, the driver of the Jeep began to ram the vehicle back and forth with no regard to the mob. Immediately, a large space opened up around the Jeep as people realized they were about to be smashed into pulp. The space remained vacant long enough for the Palestinian armed guards to unload the coffin and place it on the roof of the Jeep.
These people understand one thing, deadly force. We were attacked by a religious philosophy that knows no political bounds. We have continued to show our soft side, even in combat, with these animals. From the very beginning of the war in Iraq, our Soldiers and Marines have faced terrorists operating from inside Mosques. If, from day one, our young men had simply been given the orders to completely destroy ALL buildings in which the terrorists were operating I would argue that their sacred buildings would have been the last place these dogs would have been hiding and shooting at our troops.
There are 3000 American reasons why we should do nothing less than find the terrorists and all those who support or fund them and kill them all. No understanding, no negotiating, no trials, no peace process. I say we put this diesel rig in reverse and we stomp on the accelerator, then we slam it in first gear, and we mash the peddle to the floor, repeating the process until we have room to operate.
Posted by RobF at 01:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 20, 2004
Wind
Howl, moan, in mysterious despair
a voice? a question? beckon below
do you wake? do I disturb?
I can taste you vulnerable
you are all alone some time
Creak, protest of blessed shelter
can I find a grip? pry pull and fling
what fear can I provoke?
arise from peaceful warm quiet cotton
to perch upon jagged cold crag of naked blue alone
Lashing, whistle through brittle wood fingers
silent, placid - alarm bell, scream
devil's phone call, tragic, wrong turn death
nail bomb scream on evening news
lick, pinch, hiss, darkness and smell of burnt wax
Frost exhale of everything unalive
scratch and scrawl, long to get in
groping, gnawing to chill from inside
Hell is a frozen place
Icy tears, wailing at my bedroom window
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My Favorite Things
Aaaah, the thermometer has dipped just in time to exponentially increase the already dangerously probable rates of road rage incidents. Couple that with our region’s propensity for directing traffic from the driver’s seat, rubber-necking at some poor schmuck changing a flat tire in the slush, and their bizarre belief that tunnel entrances could, at any time, suddenly dart to one side or the other, and you have the annual traffic nightmare that is Pittsburgh during the holiday season.
Michelle at ASV points out a few strange seasonal traditions that I, having grown up in Syracuse, can appreciate.
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December 19, 2004
Preparedness
"We did indeed know much about your preparedness. We knew that probably every second home in your country contained firearms. We knew that your country actually had state championships for private citizens shooting military rifles. We were not fools to set foot in such quicksand."
-A Japanese Admiral explains why Japan didn't invade the US mainland in WWII.
Thanks to Free Will for this one...
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Every kiss begins with...
Tis the season… For those pretentious jewelry store commercials that run endlessly on radio and television. A few weeks back, while Sharon and I were sipping our morning coffee and watching the news, that maddeningly annoying ad comes on where the man and his girlfriend are walking through some European city and he begins to caterwaul “I love this woman”. His girlfriend stifles him in embarrassment and then the boyfriend produces a new diamond at which point she becomes rapturous and breathes, “I love this man, I love him, I love him, I love him”.
I shudder to think of how many women are glaring accusingly at their boyfriends/husbands every time one of those guilt inducing propaganda pieces usher in the “holiday spirit”. Nothing says love and commitment like some expensive bauble that serves no functional purpose whatsoever. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of buying my wife something pretty and useless, I’ve done it before, and I’m sure I’ll do it again. However, these commercials that insinuate happiness through the gift of jewelry are just galling.
In any case, on this particular morning, Sharon turns to me and says, "no big rocks for me, get me a Glock 33".
Actually, I ended up buying her a new Springfield XD.
I love this woman. I love her, I love her, I love her.
UPDATE: Frank J. from IMAO apparently had the same gift idea, only the means of delivery differed producing some interesting, if not comedic, results.
Posted by RobF at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 18, 2004
Disclaimer
This blog is intended, solely, as a means to express the opinions of the author and does not, in any way, represent the thoughts or opinions of anyone being linked to from this blog or on the Cocked and Locked blogroll. The author utilizes this blog as a means of self expression and will not succumb to pressures or hate speech emanating from individuals who would suppress free speech. The author would like to encourage those who enjoy reading this opinionated self expression to visit frequently. To those who disagree with the author's rhetoric, or who would otherwise engage in behavior detrimental to the author or the author's rhetorical freedoms found herein, the author points out the following. As an American citizen, the author believes strongly that all human beings are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. It is the opinion of the author that all of the aforementioned troublemakers should exercise said natural rights bestowed upon them as a gift from God, and GO AWAY!
Thank you,
-RF
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