In my area, most grocery stores have gas station near them or associated with them, e.g. Kroger, Wal-Mart, etc.

I want open gas stations near Whole Foods.  Call it “Complete Gas.”  Advertise my gas as gluten free and free range, pumped from only sustainable well heads.  I bet I could get $3.50 a gallon before anybody caught on.

Open carry is now legal in Texas.  I have the feeling it is coming to Florida pretty soon.

I’m not a big fan of open carry for several reasons, but I’m not going to get into that right now.

It has been just about 36 hours since open carry went into effect and the streets of Texas have run red with blood nothing bad has happened.  You wouldn’t know that from all the hand-wringing about open carry:

“We feel customers and employees will feel safer when people are not openly walking around with guns,” said Anna Kehde, the Texas chapter leader of Moms Demand Action. “It’s hard to tell who is a responsible gun owner and who is someone I should seek cover from.”

Well let me bestow upon those concerned, a little bit of advice:

“If you see a guy with a gun on his hip, as long as that gun stays in it’s holster, your’e fine.”

That goes for those with concealed carry permits too.  It’s really not that hard to understand.

I followed the news of the San Barnardino shooting terrorist attack.  As I understand what happened, two radicalized Islamist Jihadis, Mr. Farook and his wife, planned and executed a massacre in support of ISIS.  Mr. Farook’s neighbor, Mr. Marques, bought the guns used in the attack, in clear violation of federal law.  Mr. Marques was also radicalized and a Jihadi, and he had planned with Mr. Farook and his wife, a different attack which they did not carry out.  To me, this was a clear cut case of radical Islamic terrorism.

To other people, it seems, terrorism had nothing to do with San Bernardino.  It was the guns that were at fault.  Of course, because it’s the gun’s fault, we must ban the guns.  That is the usual train of thought that leads to gun control proposals after an incident like that.

It’s something that we in the gun community have faced before.

At the time of this post, some 917 people have decided to up the ante.  It’s not just the guns.  It’s the pictures of guns, and magazine articles about guns, and advertisements for guns.  They need to go because… moral outrage.

A writer for the Willamette Week published an op-ed criticizing Cabela’s for an flyer advertising $150 off the price of an S&W M&P 15 Sport.  Somebody elese started a Change.org petition to get the grocery store chain Albertson’s (which just so happens to be owned by Cerberus Capital) to stop selling gun magazines.  That petition has some 916 signatures.

What is the logic behind this?  Well, the ad and magazines depict the brand and/or type of gun used in the San Bernardino.

I cannot wrap my mind around the craven, milquetoast, spinelessness that it takes wittiness evil and say “ISIS- SCHMISIS, the real problem is print media about guns.”  Forget terrorism.  Forget radical Islamic ideology.  Forget the use of social media by ISIS to recruit people.  Nope.  The greatest threat to America is hobbyists who like to read about their hobbies and stores that like to advertise sales to their clientele.  If we can only get rid of the magazines and advertisements, we will have peace in our time.

I do not support Donald Trump.  I am not going to defend the things Donald Trump has said.

However, if your argument against Donald Trump’s rhetoric on Islam and Syrian refugees is:

“The things Donald Trump is saying will recruit more people to join ISIS inspire domestic Islamic terrorism against the US.”

Than you are seriously proving his point.

We gun owners and NRA members know you on the left hate us.  You call us murderers and terrorists.  You publish front page articles saying horrible stuff about us that would make you apoplectic if a Republican said the same thing about Muslims.

And after all of your terrible rhetoric and insults, how many radical gun nuts have gone on killing sprees to defend the Second Amendment?

None.

Why? Because civilized people in a civil society do not respond to insulting and ugly rhetoric with violence.

Think about that for a little bit.

I clicked on a link posted at Say Uncle, and a few clicks later I found this article on gentrification.  In a crazy nutshell, it likens gentrification to colonialism and says that it’s wrong and you’re a a racist.

It’s good to know that the ghost of George Wallace is still active in the left in America.  The author’s (who should probably be named Bull Dyke Conner) ENTIRE argument against the left’s most hated nemesis, gentrification, is “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”

The old hate was “Black people shouldn’t be allowed to move into neighborhoods that white people live in, because the black people will ruin them.”  That is racist.  The new, anti-gentrification movement is “White people shouldn’t be allowed to move into neighborhoods that black people/POCs live in, because the white people will ruin them.”  That’s progressive.

See, when even Slate comes out and says gentrification really isn’t bad for the poor, you know you don’t have an economic leg to stand on.  The reality is that gentrification doesn’t drive the poor/POCs out of neighborhoods.  In fact, it’s good for the poor.

It’s really a simple concept to understand.  When new people, people with money, move into a neighborhood, they bring their money with them.  They start businesses or cause business to move into the neighborhood.  Sure, there are the hipster coffee bars and micro-brews.  But also grocery stores, pharmacies, and other business that provide the basic necessities of life.  As an area gets gentrified, employment goes up (someone needs to stock shelves) and crime goes down.  The result of all of this is … most poor people stay in gentrifying neighborhoods to take advantage of the improvement in their communities.

Sure, leftists like to point to cities like San Francisco and the problems they have with gentrification.  But here’s the kicker.  Those problems are THE DIRECT RESULT of left wing, anti-gentrification, drawbridge mentality.  San Francisco doesn’t build new homes, so the smallest lofts go for huge bucks.  The liberal San Francisco solution to housing the working class and POCs is to stick them on the other side of the bay in Oakland, then wring their hands and attack Google buses for bringing billions of dollars in revenue to the city social justice.

If you were to shove all the poor blacks into the ghetto and say “that to keep them away from our nice homes and stuff.”  You’d be destroyed as a racist (and rightfully so).  But if you were to say “we should respect the authenticity of that working class, minority neighborhood and not go in and develop it.”  You’d be praised for your awareness of social justice and might even be on the San Francisco zoning board.  You’d also be a racists, but I repeat myself.

I was watching bits and pieces of the Democrat Primary.  My goal was to get something to talk about regarding guns and gun control.

What I caught was the Democratic candidates talking about business and the economy.

Now, I believe that the issues of the intersection of business and politics is something that we need to discuss in America.  We’ve seen how business regulations, and institutions like Obamacare have affected the economy.  How bad regulations led to the housing bubble and bust.  How corporate taxes in America have driven American companies overseas, on paper, to save money.  We are still stuck in an economic slump with 37% of Americans not in the workforce.  Issues like “too big to fail” and trillions of dollars in bailouts and stimulus that failed to simulate have made the national debt skyrocket.  Cronyism, whether it is G.W. Bush with Halliburton or Obama with Solyndra and green energy, is a real problem, with the tax payers left holding the bag for corporate inefficiency or malfeasance.

I want a president who can tackle these issues.  I want a more level economic playing field, where the government doesn’t pick winners or losers, handing out buckets of subsidies, no bid contracts, or hobbling business with anti-competitive regulations.  I believe it should be easier to start a business, grow a business, hire people and make more money.  I am a student of Milton Friedman, and believe that capitalism has raised more people out of poverty and improved the lives of more people than any economic system on Earth.

Then I saw this clip and it blew my mind.

Q: “Will a corporate America love a President Sanders?”

A: “No, I think they won’t.”

*Audience laughs and applause*

A (cont): “The CEO’s of large multinationals may like Hillary, they ain’t gonna like me, and Wall Street is gonna like me even less.”

HOLY SHIT!

For the first time in American History, has a primary candidate from a major party run on the platform of “F*ck Business!”

That is horrifying.

The fact that Sanders platform of “F*ck Business!” got whoops and applause is even worse.

I love Han Solo.  He is, by far, my favorite character from the Star Wars universe.

The force is useful and light sabers are cool, but the training, discipline, and self denial of a Jedi held no appeal.  Han Solo was a cowboy, a gunslinger, a survivor.  He was the original Malcolm Reynolds.  He IS chaotic neutral.

Bill Whittle does a great Afterburner on Han Solo.

So, I’m was watching TV and saw a Star Wars The Force Awakens TV ad.

It’s a commercial, whatever, I’ll see it after Christmas, and then 7 seconds in … the wisdom of Han Solo.

Han: *Handing a blaster to Rey* “Here, take this.”

Rey: “I think I can handle myself.”

*action sequence*

Han: “That’s why I’m giving it to you.”

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!

Rey is self reliant, independent, and tough.  Of course she needs a gun blaster.  Of course it was Han Solo to give her one, they were cut from the same cloth.  Just as the lightsaber was the defining weapon of the Jedi, the blaster pistol was Han’s defining weapon.  It got him out of countless jams.  It was his peacemaker.  His defense against the universe.  Have blaster, will travel.

For all the emphasis Star Wars puts on the lightsaber, the only people (Creatures? Characters?) Luke kills with his are a hand full of Jabba’s goons out in the desert.  Han Blasters his way through quite a lot of Storm Troopers.  This is historically accurate.  The knight and the samurai were both relegated to the dustbin of history by the musket.  The lightsaber may be an elegant weapon for a more civilized age, but the blaster wins the day.

I don’t think J.J. Abrams or George Lucas realized just how much of a pro-gun message that three second, throw-a-way joke was.  But it’s accurate.  Arms are, and have always been, a key tool for independence and self reliance.  Guns are what have allowed the common man to throw off the shackles of oppression.  The ability to defend oneself is right made much easier when armed, be it at home, in a city like Detroit, or any in other wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Star Wars is an epic love song to good guys with guns, and Han with his blaster was the hero.  Forget the farm boy on a epic quest.  It’s a guy, with gun, who just doesn’t want to be bossed around.  That’s a character so many more of us can relate to.