The Wandering Minstrel

Mark Alexander offers only two rules when debating liberals in his weekly essay on The Patriot Post. To understand the entire concept, you should read the entire essay, as Mr. Alexander greatly expands on the principles behind rule number one.

The definition of leftists and liberals in rule number two should be intuitively obvious as you read the outrageous bullshit from morons in the media.

When Debating a Liberal, Start With First Principles

Rule Number One: You must define the debate in terms of First Principles, which is to say, you must be able to articulate those principles.

Rule Number Two: You must distinguish between liberals and Leftists. The former subscribe to a plethora of contemporaneous solutions, while the latter are bona fide “useful idiots,” those Western apologists for socialist political and economic agendas that terminate with the institution of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism masquerading as regulation and taxation.

Well, sort of . .

The Better Half took this photo while we were driving in Lennox, CA, yesterday.

Clickable image - check out the mirrors, rabbit ears, bike horns, spare wheels and Li’l Ray’s chrome name placard. Total weirdness brought to you by the Kalifornistan Kookery.

The Better Half got this photo of an exceptionally clean 1959 Chevrolet that passed us in traffic this morning. I normally pixelize the license tags on vehicles shown here, but I didn’t think that this one would reveal any secrets we don’t already know. Clickable image - check out the little scale model of this very car displayed in the back window.

As a concerned American citizen, I worry about the ever-increasing overreach by the Federal Government. Last spring, we received the American Community Survey, randomly sent to households. Therein they asked too many questions dealing with information that I do not wish for the Government to know. Not that we have anything to hide, but I believe it’s none of their business.

Our household will fill out the census as is required, but again, we have some concerns about some of the questions. One of those deals with the races of individuals in the household. Mark Krikorian, on The NRO Corner suggests how to answer the illegal race/ethnicity question on the 2010 census.

Question 9 on the census form asks “What is Person 1’s race?” (and so on, for other members of the household). Answer Question 9 by checking the last option - “Some other race” - and writing in “American.” It’s a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes.

The only thing the Founders required was a headcount. I despise giving anything beyond that.

UPDATE: Krikorian expands his thoughts.

Several months back (a year maybe?) my digital keyboard gave up the ghost. I have been thinking about a replacement, so I went on-line and ordered this one. It’s a Yamaha PSR E413 61-key synthesizer. It got very good reviews and was priced around $270 USD including shipping and accessories. Plus, it’s way more sophisticated than the 15 year old keyboard that crapped out.

I started playing piano when I was five years old and I have almost always had a piano or organ, so I sort of missed having one around. I’m looking forward to learning all the features of this nice new shiny rig when it shows up in a week or so.

I know this doesn’t relate to the gun and classics oriented discussion normally seen here, but it does have a built in gunshot sound effect. Does that count?

Clickable image.

The never ending campaign mode continues tonight, when John Walsh, known for using his show to capture bad guys, will relinquish some time for an interview with the obamination. I’m not sure what the Obaminable Showman has to say, and, frankly, I couldn’t care less. It’s predictably going to be a combination of congratulating Walsh for the 1000th show and some of the usual “look at what a bitchin’ job my administration is doing about crime.”

By trying the 9/11 terrorists in New York City? Right.

The Better Half, no doubt, will steer the satellite tuner somewhere else during the interview, like the Outdoor Channel to watch some turkeys getting their heads blown off while the obamination shoots his mouth off.

The Better Half snapped this as we passed the classic Packard. It’s not as pristine as some of the old classics we see around town and could use a little TLC. It’s in good enough condition that it would clean up really nice.

This car reminds me of the 1937 Packard I remember my folks driving when I was a small child. Theirs was an old car by the time I was riding in it. Clickable image.

Mark Alexander, who writes for the Patriot Post, wrote an exceptional essay today on the right to keep and bear arms. The article is entitled Second Amendment — Still ‘The Palladium of Liberties’.

The article begins with this insightful quote from Founder James Madison:

“The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition.”
— James Madison

Toward the end of the article, the topic of how gun rights reduce the violent crime rate leads the author to this interesting conclusion about violence:

After all, violence is a cultural problem, not a gun problem, and certainly not a Second Amendment problem.

The article is certainly worth taking the few moments to read it.