addendum to previous entry-pics

I realized I forgot a couple of scenarios a would be intruder might face:

Justice from the old Eastern Bloc - Soviet SVT 40



The Spooked White Trash Reaction - Antique Double Barrel Shotgun



I could do a hundred of these.

Taking a life

I haven't touched on the death penalty in quite some time. There is something I want to get out into the open before anything else. Many people who are secular minded oppose capital punishment for various reasons. That, however, doesn't mean we are doormats or easily intimidated. I'll just say it: I'm opposed to a government having the power to kill it's own citizens. That being said there are a few occasions where I see no problem with justifiable homicide. One very clear line in the sand on my beach is entering my home uninvited. Assuming they get past my two mastiffs, one of which is 225 pounds, and assuming they don't get the drop on me there are a couple of possible outcomes for the intruder. Both of these would likely be the last thing they see.

Or


(For the curious: Colt AR-15, .45 AMT Longslide) Now for a word or two about gun ownership:
I grew up around firearms and know how to use them. If you even think you'll shoot at a shadow in a self defense situation, then just don't even get one. Not until you take proper training courses or have an experienced marksman show you how to shoot...and when not to. The last thing you want to do is panic and shoot at a shadow only to find out it was your teenage child sneaking back into the house or the simple minded fellow from down the street who mistook your house for his own. I keep a handgun where I can access it in a hurry. The clip for it is nearby and also accessible in a hurry. I can have it loaded with a round chambered in under 8 seconds. Both are hidden and if the nephews are over it goes in the gun safe until they are gone. No guarantees I'll survive a home invasion or the like, but I'll take whatever reasonable odds I can get. Also, for fucks sake, never leave a loaded gun laying around in a night stand or anywhere else. Its true that you can effectively render the chance of an accidental discharge to near zero. However if someone chances onto your handgun while snooping the last thing you want is for them to turn your own loaded gun on you. Everyone has their own views on that kind of thing though, I prefer being as safe as I can. Now, if you aren't sure that you could pull that trigger and drop someone then simply don't use it. Again, things aren't going your way if you hesitate and some asshat takes your own gun from you because you hesitated to pull the trigger. No knee capping, either. Unload the whole clip into the son of a bitch(it's not like in the movies where one shot sends them bouncing all over from wall to wall and then dying instantly). As far as I am concerned the second someone breaks into another's home they forfeit their life on the spot. Thing is I will not shoot someone who is running away, nor will I after it is clear the danger has been abated. There is a time for lethal force and it must never be treated lightly. So if I have no problem with going Scarface on intruders and afterwards having a sandwich while I wait for the authorities to arrive, why am I so opposed to the death penalty?

This is where all of the yay-hoos who get hard at the thought of mixing projectile weaponry and Pabst Blue Ribbon lose their hardons for me.

1) I have no problem with lethal force being used to defend oneself or others when being subjected to a violent crime. Use of excessive force and torture are wrong, but if the safest and fasted way is to waste the criminal then so be it.

2) Like I said earlier I have an ethical issue with a government being able to kill it's own citizens. I just do. Police action and such are obviously not what I am talking about here. I am talking about executions.

3) The reason I frown on executing people is the same reason I frown on shooting someone in the back when they are running away. Taking a life is serious. The ripple effects on the lives of those involved are nothing to balk at. If the danger is no longer present then killing someone is murder.

4) Killing after the fact is murder. Vengeance is murder. If we are going to live in a society of laws where life is respected then that needs to stop.

5) There is no practical reason for the death penalty. Our justice system by it's very nature is not set up for it(which is a good thing). It doesn't clear jail cells nor does it save tax dollars. Neither of those are good enough reasons to kill someone, anyway, if you ask me. If we want to clear jail cells then there are mountains of ludicrous politically motivated and counterproductive laws which actually create criminals which could be abolished.

6) One innocent person executed is too many. We've gone way beyond that and what is even more terrifying is that there are quite a few politicians who have no issues with this...nor do their supporters "It takes balls to kill and innocent man!". Unfortunately it takes no brains to vote, either.

7) The numbers indicate that the death penalty is no deterrent to crime. We need to join the rest of the first world and put and end to it.

Before anyone chimes in with a story about how I'd "change my mind if..." then adds some story about broken glass, a weed whacker, and an infant you need to know a couple of things. My family has had it's share of crimes committed against us, a couple of them would have easily justified killing the perps at the time of the crimes had that been possible. So save it. No matter how I feel emotionally my ethical code still states that killing after the fact is wrong. The whole point is to keep emotions in check when considering things like law and order, not give in to them and behave like methed-out soccer moms who watch FOX news 24 hours a day. If eye for an eye is what you require to feel better then about the only thing I can recommend to you is to move to some war torn African nation or somewhere in the theocratic middle east. Then you really WILL know the meaning of "Just because you haven't done anything wrong doesn't mean you have nothing to worry about."

Update to my previous post

When I posted that link to a petition about Rush and AOL supporting him after his comments on women and birth control the count was just under 14,000. Now, it's over 50,000 just several hours later*. That one petition alone. People are making a difference. His advertisers are dropping him, quite a few of them, not just a couple. The outcry is serious enough to make a real dent here. Every link you post to a petition, every person you inform about this kind of thing has a cumulative effect. Never tell yourself that you can't make a difference. It's a snowball effect and shows the power of the internet in making a difference about things like this.
I for one am quite happy to count myself among the staggering amount of people who are speaking out against this kind of hatred towards women. It fucking needs to stop. No more excuses. Not just for Rush, either, but for every politician who misrepresents the bulk of their voter base by seemingly being determined to drag us back into the dark ages where revealed knowledge trumps reality.

I have a message for all of you: over my rotting corpse

 *lack of time difference here is from a copy and paste from my other more private journal.

If Rush angered you with his birthcontrol comments...

Then hit him where it hurts. He's already offered a nonpology as it were. That won't cut it, not even close.
http://sumofus.org/campaigns/aol-limbaugh/ (opens in a new window/tab)
He often goes over the line with rhetoric. Fine, we have that right here in our nation. You know what? That is a good thing and worth fighting for. It goes both ways though. We can't shut him up from a legal standpoint on his opinions, nor would I want to. However his comments about women and birth control are beyond the pale and we need to send an unmistakable message that this kind of hateful misogyny will NOT fly without repercussions. It's already working, advertisers were and are pulling their ads from his slot. It needs to keep going until the message is clear. AOL needs to know how a lot more of us feel about this than they or Rush could imagine.

If you don't think that women who use birth control which has been covered by healthcare should be required to record their sex acts and offer it online free of charge so we all can jerk off to it as compensation, then sign that petition or one of the dozens just like it. Yeah, he really said that. Jokingly or not, enough is e-fucking-nough with these hyper conservative attacks on women which numbers show the vast majority of our country's citizens abhor.

Album Cover Ferox

I have a special place in my heart for Bloodbath, that Swedish Death Metal super group. The largest reason(s) being it consists of death vocal god Mikael of Opeth and damn near half of Katatonia. I don't care for death vox much, I tend to ignore them/tolerate them. Mike is one of the few whom I enjoy hearing it from and genuinely like. I've heard it put best this way: he actually sounds like a demon, not someone trying to sound like a demon. Well, not that there are actual demons to compare him to...but hey, point made. They also have a particular album cover I am quite fond of:

It pretty much illustrates what anyone needs to know about it.

Azazel
Belial
Abaddon
Leviathan

Call upon
Call on those we scorn
Raze their faith and feeble ways
Mute the son
Deliverance bygone
Mute the mouth of empty praise

~Mouth of Empty Praise

Finally, my pink shirt

Finally, well, sort of. In the X-Files in the episode where Mulder and Scully check out that nutty homeowners association, Duchovny wears this pink Lacoste shirt which I fell in love with. This was like 7 years ago that I saw this. So anyway, rather than jump online and get exactly what I wanted, which turned out to be a Lacoste Flamingo Pink, I just pined away for it. Well, today I went to the local mall with my nephew. He's 16 and actually has quite an eye for fashion and things like that. We walked into American Outfitters and right by some shirts when I said "Oy! That's my shirt! Well, kind of!". Close enough. The Lacoste shirt is a hair lighter in color. So much so that they need to be next to each other to see the difference...and no alligator. It'll do for now. One day though....
The pic is a tad on the gamma side but fuck it, it's almost 3am.

You can probably see it, I'm still leaning to the left a bit from that whole broken right foot thing over the summer. It'll pass.

Those radical girlscouts II

Who kicks girl scouts out of church? St. Timothy Catholic Church in Chatilly VA, that's who. This is ripe, man, and you know I am going to whip things up into a tempest. Here is the meat of it:

"Several Girl Scout troops in Chantilly, Va., have been banned from meeting at a local Catholic church and a neighboring school.

St. Timothy Catholic Church said that scouts won’t be allowed to meet or wear their uniforms on church property. The edict also applies to the adjacent St. Timothy School, which enrolls students from preschool to eighth grade.

According to the Arlington Diocese, the pastor did not believe the National Girl Scouts membership to the World Association of Girl Guides & Girl Scouts aligned with the message of the church, stemming from a perceived connection between WAGGGS and Planned Parenthood.

The Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital said its parent/national organization is not  WAGGGS, but instead Girl Scouts of the USA, which does not have a relationship with Planned Parenthood."

Looking into this a bit it was more than a simple perceived connection to planned parenthood which made this pastor back step further into the dark ages. You see, in recent years the girls scouts have made a concerted effort to welcome both gay and transgendered individuals into their ranks.

 A spokesman for the diocese released a statement that says in part:

“Every pastor in the diocese has the responsibility to determine how best to use their parish facilities, consider the requests of outside groups, and reconcile such requests with the needs and mission of their parish community.”

Whether or not this parent organization has ties with planned parenthood is irrelevant if you ask me. The mere perception that they are, that is in fact hearsay, doing things like providing age appropriate sex education is enough for this goat to unilaterally kick these girls out of the church. A place which, by the way, several troops of these girls have held meetings at for some time. Way to go jackass. It's certainly your prerogative to do this but I don't want to hear one word about your mission telling people of your church's message of love. You've just permanently revoked your standing to complain about how young people are now disregarding your religion in favor of more secular oriented values in unprecedented numbers. With one maneuver you have displayed what you and your belief system are all about and no amount of back peddling or vapid excuses for exclusion like "loving the sinner, not the sin" will make a bit of difference. For a lot of these young ladies girl scouts is a very positive and influential part of their lives. This is directly in the prime of their formative years and you just gave them a clear and horridly unambiguous message that "those people" aren't welcome in your house of love and god.

Listen, jerk, and that is not an ad hominem attack on you, it's directly applicable and the reason this ire is being directed at you. Social progress is being made at an increasing pace. Your captive audiences of children are now privy to alternative and more ethical sets of values like they never have been before. The vast majority of these girls are good little people and want nothing to do with the bile and hatred you spew forth when doing things like this. They are perfectly capable of seeing how this kind of exclusion is wrong and you better believe that they are going to notice. You are a vile human being and people like you are the exact reason why your religion is wilting like a parched weed baking in the summer heat. Your lot has no standing to lament on this, you did this squarely to yourselves. What is that saying you lot are fond of saying to the unrepentant...ah, I believe its goes like this: You reap what you sow. Have fun harvesting your blow back in the form of ever dwindling attendance and bankrupted churches. Those of us who genuinely love these girls and want nothing but the best for them will take care of everything. Just don't you worry and go back chanting incantations to the ones you deem worthy. We'll be fine, we never needed you anyway. Your kind hold all of us back.