Month: February 2014

Moms Demand Action Arts & Crafts Club. (Long Post)

Last night before calling it quits, I ran into this post from Moms Demand:
moms demand quiltA quilting project? Don’t get me wrong, being married to the South, I love quilts and understand the work behind it but…Gun Control Stitching?

It made me sit back and think about the many projects that Moms has had since it began a little over a year ago:

They started simply: Some  chalk art on a wall or sidewalk, some gouache paint on paper or a bed-sheet, but soon it started to evolve into more “complex” crafts:

“Across the USA…How do you wear your heart?” was hear-shaped cut outs with some cardiac-wrenching message and make sure to include the kids since we are doing this for them while they were still 1 Million Moms Against something or other:

With cute hearts come, of course, Valentine’s day and they marched on D.C. to present the hearts to selected members of congress:

Then, once they had morphed into Moms Demand Action, the campaign was renamed Have a Heart and went heavy with the use of kids doing their little paper hearts telling people (with a smile on their faces) that they were scared…huh?

This is the time we are starting to see the use of babies in carriages. The All Ohio Rally brought us this image:

We will see this amplified later.

Next it was the “Paper Dolls, Steel Resolve.” More work with rounded point scissors and that had some has-been celebrities:

and the usual gun control politician like Maryland’s governor Martin O’Malley:
 And of course kids because we are doing it for the Children!

 

No Joke, Moms Vote tapped int o the Street Artist vein by using chalk in what otherwise they themselves would call vandalism but it doesn’t apply to them ’cause the cause is righteous:

Stroller Jam was the next field exercise. Go=et your baby in a carriage with kid’s made signs and go bother a congrescritter at his/her office:

This one did not last long. Too much hassle to be trying to deliver their message, change & feed the baby and keep young Hillary quiet as she kept asking “Can we go home now?” over and over again.

For father’s day we were regaled with “Your Dad Has Gun Sense!” in which presented people (not just dads) with a paper cut-out of a tie. Really? A tie for Father’s Day? Cliche the hell much? I guess trying to make a cut out of an Old Spice bottle was too much.

Sen Bob Gordon with Moms Demand Action kiddos

 

with Congressman Van Hollen

And at least one upset Dad that did not get what he wanted:

“What? not even a gift certificate for the Waffle House? A paper tie?”

 

And then, we reach my favorite Moms Campaign: Moms Demand Action Lemonade Stands Across the Country. Nothing shows your resolve more than erecting  Lemonade Stands Against Gun Violence in the safest places you can find:

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Senator Harry Reid

 

Some of the stand were ….skimpy?

Philadelphia, PA

And you can tell the kids were all excited to be doing political crap rather than enjoying a summer of games:

Queens, NY

And even an Old School Stand was found…sans lemonade:

Hudson Valley, New York.

 

For the anniversary of Sandy Hook, they came up with Moms Will Not Be Silent with cute cut out bells.

Again, one of the Usual Suspects

And the kids…never fails:

It is kin of funny and sad at the same time that a Liberal group uses and “perpetuates” images and actions that they would generally eschew for being too conservative. If anything it tell us that they know they can’t use what they really think and feel because they are in the very small minority of the population and so off the charts nobody would pay attention to them even with the support of their new political husbands, Illegal Majors Against Guns A.K.A Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

It is my perception (although I could be wrong) that Moms Demand are not getting the traction they were getting just six months ago.  They will still get choice spots in the Six O’Clock news, but now only if the latest Hollywood scandal is not taking up much needed broadcast airwaves & ratings bonanza.

Moms Demand was never mainstream and if its members actually thought so, they were smelling way too much Elmer’s glue.

While we are at it, somebody please remove their safety scissors before they poke an eye out and somebody gets sued. or really, really upset.

 

Color me un-surprised again

It’s difficult to describe landing on a list of the nation’s most violent cities as a good thing, but for many localities on Law Street’s new list, there was cause for modest celebration.

Many of the towns saw their violent crime rates drop significantly in the first six months of 2013, compared to that same time period in 2012.

Law Street looked at towns with populations of 200,000 or fewer and compared data on murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.

via Most Dangerous Towns In America (PHOTOS).

Ten towns and two of them on Gun Friendly States.  But the Opposition will continue to ignore and create their own numbers out of thin statistical air.

They have to know they are losing the public perception battle and that is why we will see more attempts via state legislatures to push Colorado and NY SAFE act-style restrictions.

We cannot afford to get comfortable and lazy. Check with your State Gun Rights organization and if you have not joined, do so.

 

Twenty Five years ago….

It is 12:22 am as I write this. 25 years ago I was  standing guard in my family’s property with a single shot shotgun, about 20 rounds of buck & slugs, a Walther PPK .32ACP with a spare mag and perhaps 25 extra rounds for it. 24 hours before I would have thought I was well prepared for the usual contingencies, but at that time I realized I was woefully under-gunned.

Why standing guard? We were in the middle of what is euphemistically called a total breakdown of society. Riots and looting were everywhere and people were breaking into neighbor’s houses to steal, kill and set everything on fire.  My parents, God bless them, always believed in the good of people and believed we would be spared by the Grace of God. I was more of a Doubting Thomas and decided that I trusted God, but it also paid off to make sure nobody else behaved un-Christian toward us.

By morning, the country was deep into chaos and I was jittery with so much coffee intake. The smell of smoke was heavy and shot were ringing everywhere. I was in shock as I thought “this could not happen here! What the hell is going on?”

Rumors were flying, the news was showing that we were pretty much on our own as the government appeared to be paralyzed and unable to come to grips with the situation; no law enforcement to speak of anywhere. Vandals were the only force out on the streets and were not shy about using their new-found power in the vacuum.

Somehow my hazy brain realized that there was an option to increase our chances to stay safe: Bathtub Napalm. I was partial to the gasoline and soap (real soap,not detergent) but I also realized that I was not in the best frame of mind to be as careful as I needed to be to come up with the optimal mixture. I ended up creating molotov cocktails with soap shaving added for flavor. They did not work as well as my previous concoctions, but they could still do plenty damage. I just needed an extra to keep the crazies away till some semblance of order came back… and it did, with vengeance on day 3.

It took the Government  two more days to get the situation under control and not without a lot of violence. The official toll was 276 killed and many (me included) laugh at that shortness of that number. Monetary losses were never quantified and the country pretty much lost its previous innocence.

Fortunately, we were spared from damage & idiots. OK, so Mom’s & Wife’s prayers worked.

I learned a lot from those days: Mobs are stupid, temperamental and lose any decency that they may have as individuals. Governments are blunt tools that have no qualms exercising power with extreme prejudice when it suits them. The result is this last picture, also from those days:

 

Feast Day of Saint Gabriel Possenti & Shooter’s Prayer

Imploring the intercession of St. Gabriel Possenti is always a good idea too.

via Musings Over a Pint: Shooter’s Prayer.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Gabriel Possenti, the patron Saint of handgunners.  David of Musings over a Pint has a very cool prayer which I have abused into a pictorial form:

shooter prayer

 

Hat Tip to Fill Yer Hands for the reminder.

Once again: Paper ain’t bulletproof

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CSGV 5 dead virginia restraining

GLADE SPRING, VA (WJHL) –
According to people who knew the Palmers, domestic abuse had been going on for years in the Palmer family.

“About six years ago when I was called to Virginia High School to meet with her, she had a broken nose and black eyes,” Johnson said. “She appeared to be very scared of her husband and afraid to go back to the situation, but she was also equally scared to not go back.”

Then six years later, the abuse still happening, Kristin Palmer told law enforcement about instances of recent abuse.

Kevin was arrested for domestic abuse last week, but then posted bail quickly after and was released. Kathy Johnson, executive director of Abuse Alternative said they urged Kristin to file for an order of protection.

On February 24, the day before Kristin and Griffin died, she filed an order of protection.

“It’s extremely hard to monitor that individual, once he’s served, basically they’re put on notice to not have contact with that individual and again were hoping that they abide by the guidelines of that protective order, that won’t happen,” Washington County, Va. Sheriff Fred Newman said.

via Glade Spring, Va. man accused of abuse prior to early morning sh.

Today is turning out to be a very depressing day. At least the sadists at CSGV got to bake their cake and eat it too: “No dear woman, you shan’t be armed as you may dies by the gun or kill your innocent misunderstood husband. But in case you get murdered, rest assured we shall use you like a bloody rag-doll. “