Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Read it and learn: why you arm yourself

This is a most excellent article by an intelligent woman (chair of the Washington County GOP) on why she armed herself.

In the article, she takes ownership of her most important job as a human, that being to protect herself and her family.

It doesn't get plainer than this, people.

Take charge of your life, and arm up!

FYI, Washington County is on the western edge of Portland.

Thank you, Hillsboro Argus, for printing her op-ed. You have done the entire community, and indeed the country, a favor by doing so. If I wasn't already subscribed to your sister newspaper, the Gresham Outlook, I would subscribe to the Argus.

Romney kisses Bloomberg's ring: a 2A fail?

According to this, via Uncle, Romney made an unannounced trip to visit Mayors Against the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights prexy, Bloomberg, yesterday.

The subject of gun control reportedly WAS discussed.

So, if the Romnoid was there to kiss the NYC Pope's ring and get an endorsement, what part of gun control did he just agree to follow Bloomberg's lead on?

This blog is now putting Romney in the anti-2A camp, despite his schmooze at the NRA meetings a while back. Unless and until Romney will publish a transcript of the entire discussion, including both his and Bloomberg's words on the subject of gun control, this blog now takes an anti-Romney position.

As I have said, sometimes it's better to have the enemy you know on the field in front of you than the ally you don't know on the field behind you.

Chris Christie, Islamist supporter

Don't take MY word for it, take this article at Rantburg to heart.

I've chastized Chris Christie in the past for sitting on his "record" of hammering public employee unions, all the while cozying up to other unions (dockworkers, for example), and yet trying to tell us that he is totally conservative, totally anti-union.

This info (not new, actually, just previously uncollated) now shows another side of Christie that seems to confirm my suspicions.

Christie is no conservative, and the only cause he serves well is Chris Christie's.

Take that to the bank.

Mitt Romney, if you choose this guy, I not only won't vote FOR you, I'll vote AGAINST you. Yes, I would rather have Obama than a Mitt/Chris combo. I know Obama, and how to handle him. You can't predict a jerk like Christie. Today, he sucks up to Islamists. Who will he suck up to next? Today he is a gun controller. Will he be put in charge of the Great Disarmament during a Mitt Romney Presidency?

Ready for Marx Day?

Tomorrow is Karl Marx Day, and the forces of the Left will turn out en-masse to disrupt the centers of cities all over the Nation.

Too bad. I wonder if anyone will calculate the lost productivity and send Valerie Jarrett a bill. My guess is that she's coordinating it, as far as it could be coordinated.

What! You STILL think that all that leftoid drama is un-planned?

Silly you.

Conflict management Rule One: avoid confrontation, but be able to get yourself out of the worst one you might unavoidably find yourself in.

Tomorrow, when I travel to Clackamas, OR for the MOAA meeting, I think I'll carry my Glock model 22, and it's companion carbine, the Kel-Tec Sub Rifle 2000, both in .40 S&W. Of course, the EBC (Evil Black Carbine) will be locked folded and out of action, but I figure I can get to it and put it into action safely by use of the pistol and 3 magazines if and when the need arises...

I'd pack some extra ammo and go to the MOAA meeting early, since the Sheriff's Range is one block away from the hotel, but I notice it's closed on Tuesdays, and most of the spare Deputies will likely be detailed to downtown Portland, where the fun is supposed to break out.

2A litmus test for Romney

Without further ado, here it is:

Fast & Furious, aka, "Gunwalker"

The House Oversight Committee has USAG Holder in their sights for Contempt of Congress, but according to Brit Hume, senior analyst for Fox News, who opined on this issue tonight on O'Reilly, there will be a behind-the-scenes game played by Issa and Holder, who will give just enough of the 92% of the documents subpoenaed, but not yet delivered, to keep the noose off of his neck.

This situation is ripe for waking up the US of A with, and Romney is the guy to do it. If he bumps up Fast & Furious to near the top of his agenda to hammer on Obama with, he will add some stiffening to the spine of Rep. Issa, and maybe Issa will be less likely to cave or make a "backroom" deal which would let the inventor of Gunwalker walk.

Holder, at least, and probably Obama, conspired to try to weaken the SCOTUS-strengthened Second Amendment by a false-flag operation that was supposed to show how US guns were arming the violent drug cartels in Mexico. With plenty of evidence to show that the cartels didn't need US guns, but had a better supply of (military) arms which they got from Central America and the corrupt military in Mexico, Gunwalker was supposed to smother all that evidence, and, at the very least, "close the gun-show loophole", if not allow an acceptance of AWB Two. When the Border Patrol agent got killed on duty with a "walked" gun, though (just bad luck, really; by the numbers, he should have been killed with a Mexican M16 or Central American M16 or AK), it blew the lid off of Gunwalker, and gave an actionable cause to Issa & Co.

If Brit Hume was right, and he usually is, Holder and Obama will skate on Gunwalker until after the November election.

Romney could change all of that, give Obama a huge black eye, force him to throw Holder under the bus, and forever cement his creds with the gunnies. Heaven only knows those creds need cementing after Romney's anti-gun performance as MA Governor.

So, whichever readers are contemplating sending campaign cash to Romney (I haven't convinced myself to do that yet), consider putting the check in with a letter strongly urging Romney to start using the GOP treasury to highlight Gunwalker, and keep highlighting it.

If the GOP campaign smarties can do that, it will, at least, raise enough of a 2A ruckus that even if Obama wins a second term, he will be likely to have to forgo 2A Executive Orders, which would then be just too hot a topic for him to touch. In the best of scenarios, with Romney harping on Gunwalker, Holder might just be cut out of the herd, the GOP wolves getting their prey, and maybe, just maybe, he might cut a deal with Issa to stay out of the hoosegow. That deal, of course, would involve implicating his boss as having okayed Gunwalker.

Gunwalker could be the issue that brings down Obama, but to attain that status, it will need a boost by Romney. The One Big Question is: does Romney believe strongly enough in the 2A to give Obama the severe test he should get with Gunwalker?

I can't answer that just now, nor can I say that I really want Romney to win.

Only Romney could change that, and Gunwalker is his chance to do exactly that.

You have the Guidon, Mr. Romney

...and, in case you don't know it, the Guidon Bearer is supposed to stay out in front of the formation. You are now leading the Republican Party race for President, so let's look at the battle streamers on that Guidon, and how they may differ from your past performance.

Second Amendment: You were a big gun controller in your stint as Governor in MA. There is a battle streamer on your Guidon that says the Second Amendment MEANS WHAT IT SAYS, so you NEED to tell us that you will NEVER sign any kind of gun control legislation restricting the right of US citizens to keep AND bear arms. You did that in Taxachusetts. Your apologists say you yielded to avoid even more drastic gun control, but a Guidon Bearer never yields, never falls back, always stays in front. Tell us you WILL be a Second Amendment absolutist. Tell us you will have your DOJ go after all the Gunwalker people (if Obama doesn't pardon them all on his last day in office). Tell us that you will have your people bear down on the DeeCee Administration to move them off their position of resistance to Heller implementation. Tell us that you will put the DOJ into an aggressive posture to hammer places like NYC, Chicago, etc to get them to recognize that they can't disarm their citizens. You could start by cutting off Law Enforcement funding to any jurisdiction which does not meet a basic test of complying with the Second Amendment. Your predecessors did that for civil rights violations in the past, so just look at 2A compliance as a Civil Rights process.

ObamaCare: You started this ball rolling with your "RomneyCare" in MA. It will be your job, if elected, to erase ObamaCare, and that will take some work, because like an invasive weed, it has spread it's roots everywhere: into the tax system, into continuing funding laws, into the Pharma industry, into the very Emergency Rooms at all local hospitals. It's complete re-write of the way medicine is provided has and will screw up delivery of medical services for decades, even if you rip it all out, and do it quickly. Don't even think about leaving it partially in place, rip it ALL out and THEN make any necessary reforms, starting with draconian tort reform for malpractice, and a total cut-off of free ER care for illegals. You DO realize, don't you Mr. Romney, that the reason most states can't balance their budgets is that the cost of providing medical care to illegals has overwhelmed state budgets? In my State of Oregon, it is estimated that almost a third of education funding goes to illegals and over a third of Medicaid.

Immigration: See above paragraph, AND, Close the farging borders! Keep out all further illegals, use the military for that, THEN get to work on deporting the ones who are here. If you want to accelerate the right of naturalization for some, do that, but make sure that those individuals who are illegal now start their naturalization process by returning to their native country, waiting a determined period, then applying for a visa to return, and then they return via normal entry, just like I do whenever I leave the country and come back. Make sure all naturalization candidates declare their previous illegal stay in this country, and pay up all their back taxes they avoided by working under the table. They need to pay for any medical care they walked out of paying, too. This stuff CAN be tracked, so track it and start collecting those back taxes. If every illegal owes just $5K in back taxes, and there are 20 million of them here, that's 100 billion dollars, not exactly chump change and definitely NOT forgivable. Maybe some of them can work it off, but COLLECT what they owe, dammit!

Control the Economy: This may not sit well with most of my conservative buds, but there has to be some central control over the economy. This isn't "morning in America" like it was for Ronnie Reagan. The Global Economy had barely gotten started then, but now, we have robber barons controlling vital companies all over the globe. You can't just give them their head and let them run with our economy. They will continue to rob us blind and it will get even worse under your Administration. How about a basic principle of Everybody Pays Some Tax for starters? No business baron should be able to have his company pay no taxes. A small minimum tax will not cripple any business, and with all the regulatory burdens you are going to lift off these global businesses, they can afford to pay some taxes. Likewise, no individual gets off without taxes, either. Establish a minimum income tax of at least 5%. That will mean that the welfare-dependent might have to forgo a few cans of malt liquor per month, or keep that 42" flat-screen instead of upping their lifestyle to a 60", but DO IT.

Carry that Guidon, sir, and carry it proudly. If you do, the troops will follow you, and that's all you need to begin to turn this Nation around.

Is lynching OK now?

Some in the race-pimp business (very lucrative business, that) think so.

Item: The MFWIC of the New Black Panther Party put a "reward" on the head of Zimmerman.  USAG Eric Holder gave him a pass. Bad move, this attracted the local cops, who arrested HIM as a felon in possession of a firearm.

Item: Spike Lee today tweeted what he thought was the address Zimmerman was staying at (he was wrong, Zimmerman wasn't there and hadn't been), but Spike Lee apparently thought it was OK that his peeps, numbering 250,000, should respond to the address and fetch Zimmerman (to the nearest oak tree, one surmises). Why hasn't Spike Lee been arrested for criminal conspiracy, across state lines? Seems that Eric Holder gave Spike Lee a pass, too.

Item: A bunch of kids, mostly black as noted by the surveillance cameras, skipped school at their high school to "protest Zimmerman not being arrested", but after skipping out, decided to do a flash-mob invasion of a local store and loot it. Note that that surveillance video showed a lot of hoodies being worn by the looters. Remember my advice? 

Rivrdog's prediction: There is a bad attitude afoot here. It is being exacerbated by the race pimps and the United States Attorney General, and there will be riots over this issue, I'm sure.

People will die in those riots.

Will you die? Not if you're prepared to defend yourself. Prepare your mind now for defense. If you follow the advice in this blog, you already have the appropriate arms.

At some point, when the rioting starts or, hopefully just before that point, I will warn you in these pages. At that point, you adopt your highest level of personal-threat reaction preparedness.

Stand by.

The FL "stand your ground" case

After hesitating some (and they should have hesitated more), all the anti-gunners have jumped on Race Pimp Sharpton's "Hoodie Hoopdie" and are in full cry.

Problem is, all the facts aren't in, so they are all jumping the gun, so to speak. Jumping the shark, too.

I have gleaned one important trend from this case, since it's not dependent on understanding the entire chain of facts.

When your opponent's hoodie goes up, you pull your pistol.

This entire hoodie thing bears some looking into.

The hoodie, or hooded sweatshirt, is a piece of casual athletic attire. The hood is meant to ward off the chill of a cold breeze on your flushed head after exertion, since more body heat gets radiated by the head and neck than any other body part.

That's the science of the hoodie. Everything else is custom and emotion.

The hoodie was adopted years ago by the hip-hop generation as their symbol of rebellion from the preceding generations. From there, it was adopted by the gangsta-rap pukes as their symbol (when they weren't wearing formal pimp attire).

So, the idiot race pimp Sharpton does us all an unintentional favor, by highlighting the hoodie thing with his "million hoodie march".

Get this straight, people: the hoodie is meant to intimidate.

OK, if it is meant to intimidate, be properly intimidated.

What do you mean, 'Dog, "properly intimidated"?

What I mean, is that in every defensive shooting situation, or even in cases where you just pull your pistol and don't have to use it, there has to be a justifying factor. The hoodie is that factor. Your opponent wears a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up for only two possible reasons: he has just exerted himself and wants to keep from chilling down too fast, or he is trying to intimidate those around him. If he's been exerting himself, you'll likely see sweat, or heavy breathing, or some other sign that he has. If you don't see those signs, and especially if it's warm out, he's wearing the hood up to try to intimidate. Your state of mind now turns to stronger defenses, if you are thinking tactically.

Now, consider aggravating factors: your opponent, who has been walking away from you, turns towards you, advances on you AND pulls up his hood. Pilgrim, if you DON'T take that as immediate aggression on his part, you are about to be a victim yourself. No race involved. In my part of town, there are few blacks, but all the pukes of all races wear hoodies or hooded parkas in their gang colors.

So, thanks very much, Sharpton. You're not smart enough to avoid these pitfalls, so now you've brought the whole hoodie thing out into the open. If there ever WAS a "cool" factor in wearing hoodies, and I don't believe there ever was, it was a rebel factor, there isn't now. You, "Reverend" Sharpton, have just helped to remove the "cool" factor of that garment.

The hoodie is about intimidation, that is all. Take that to the bank AND the Grand Jury.

Besides, the hoodie makes your opponent more closely resemble that silhouette target you practice and qualify with at the range. Three shots, two to center of mass and one to the head.

Bang-bang, beak. practice it.

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IMMEDIATE UPDATE: After posting this blog, I note that Geraldo Rivera is thinking along the same lines.

Common Sense Gresham - UPDATED!

...the organization (MY organization), not the mythical local state of mind hereabouts, is reviving itself, thanks to an Editor of the local bi-weekly paper.

This popinjay had the gall to question my motives in a recent letter I wrote panning the paper for publishing a local pol's brag-piece about what he did in the recent Legislature (which was a waste of time and taxpayer's $$$, IMHO).

He made the mistake of tossing in a gratuitous insult with his questions.

I fired back.

He replied, pretending that he had never insulted me.

I fired back again.

This whole exchange will be posted here if it turns out to be appropriate to do so, just a teaser today.

The Editor is seriously undergunned in this running sea-battle with your Rivrdog. My broadsides have already dis-masted his sloop and killed his quavering gun-crew. He stands alone on his quarterdeck, completely amazed that there is someone out there who can WRITE and is not an Ivory Tower Journalist, but he refuses to strike his colors. I guess I'll have to close and grapple, and take him alive. Someone might just want to ransom him, but Zounds, I can't, for the Life of me, figure out who that might be. Arrrgh, mates!

It's fun!

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UPDATE: 032112 1145 PDT:  Mr. Editor struck his colors. He published my letter, which can be seen here.The other writer, Don McIntire, is a local anti-tax activist who lays the wood to local goverment but good in HIS letter.

Long time no blog - UPDATED!

So, let's catch up:

In the past week of no blogging, I have:

• Just deleted 6 spam comments, from Canada, New Zealand, France and the US of A. I guess I am definitely read all over the world! WhooPee Farge!
• Went to the MOAA Portland dinner last week, met the Professor of Aerospace Studies at Portland University, a Catholic institution which has been responsible, in the past 60 years or so, for introducing eleven hundred new butter-bar officers to the Air Force and Army. Got a briefing on the ROTC Summer Camp, which appears to be not much changed from when I did the OTS version of it, only for 90 days, in 1967, to get MY butter bars. Your blogger was one of the last, true, "90-day wonders".
• Been coming around to the conclusion that we have, at this point in the War On Terror, farged up said War so badly we probably ought to just abandon it and wait for a new Commander in Chief before even thinking of starting it up again. When we first went into the 'Stan a decade ago, we sent in one division, together with some TAC air support, and blew the Taliban and Al-Qaeda off the map in about 3 months. They were unprepared for us, and it wasn't that hard a job, especially for the Tenth Mountain Division, which is built for that combat. Since then, we have installed and tolerated a complete crook of a President Karzai (similar to the crooks we installed and tolerated in MY war, Vietnam), we have saddled our troops with the most outrageous and inane Rules of Engagement ever heard of in any modern conflict, we have made STUPID mistakes, like failing to have a Muslim Imam help with the destruction of defiled Qurans, and now, tolerating certifiable Loonies (how many other of these ticking time bombs are there over there).
• Just a few minutes ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's aircraft was approaching Bagram MOB for a landing, when a stolen base vehicle took to the runway, apparently in an effort to kill the landing aircraft. The pilot aborted landing, and the vehicle's suicide-driver failed in his mission. How bad has our security gotten when we can't do enough OpSec and CommSec to keep the SecDef's ingress into the war zone a secret?

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UPDATE: 031412 2146 PDT: The Patriot Padre notes that US and Brit troops attending Leon Panetta's speech to the troops at Camp Leatherneck were told to disarm in his presence. Hmmmm.

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Our military is screwed up to the max. This security breach tells ME that the solid leaders have already all been replaced or retired, and now the military is led by fools and incompetents both at home and in the war zone. We need to get the HELL out of  'Stan before we waste any more US lives. Yes WASTE those lives. The probability of our actually accomplishing any WOT objective over there is long gone, and anyway, there is a high likelihood that we have encouraged/permitted Karzai to butter both sides of his toast, and he has reached an accomodation with the Taliban by now, which means that our men and women over there are all in great danger from ANY association with the Afganis.

When those troops come home, it is MY job and YOUR job to welcome them back, but never stop reminding them that it was Obama who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The WOT veterans are a powerful force, and if properly advised and reminded, give us the power to maintain our Constitution, since with their help, we could take the field against the government if that became necessary to save the Constitution. Note that this berserker incident will be used to try to get into the heads of all those returning vets, and the Obama Administration will try to convince them that they are ALL crazy, so they should be denied their 2A rights, be subjected to mandatory whacko treatment, etc.

When the first signs of those plans begin to appear (second signs, actually, the first sign appeared after Virginia Tech 5 years ago and the NRA kowtowed to it), we must all raise one very loud voice, at least as loud as the voice we have raised over Fast and Furious.

Yeah, your Rivrdog is still here, still blogging. Now, back to the WillBoat job.