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I’m going to tread very carefully around this one:
An agent with the IRS is dead after being accidentally shot by another agent during a training exercise Thursday at a federal gun range, according to officials.
Arizona’s Family reports a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incident occurred at its gun range in the Phoenix area. The gun range was reportedly being utilized by multiple federal agencies at the time of the shooting through an interagency agreement.
Here are my thoughts on this rather touchy topic.
If this kind of training tragedy befalls actual federal law enforcement agencies (FBI, DEA, Secret Service, etc.) then I am truly sorry, and mourn their loss.
But far as all the other federal alphabet agencies (IRS, DoE — Education or Energy — BLM, etc.) are concerned: I don’t care. They shouldn’t be armed in the first place, and therefore have no business being around a federal firearms training facility.
My reason for saying this is quite simple: what the federal government has been doing for the past seventy-odd years is turning misdemeanors or regulatory infractions into federal crimes, and ordinary citizens into criminals every chance they get. But for all that, the latter agencies are not law enforcement departments, as much as the government would like them to be such.
Let me get specific.
It is a totally abhorrent idea that the IRS — who are nothing more than a bunch of accountants and debt collectors — should be sending their agents to get firearms training (on the use of, lest we forget, full-automatic firearms). Who are they going to use those guns on? And don’t insult me with the “self-defense” argument: we ordinary folk aren’t allowed to use automatic rifles and machine guns to protect ourselves; why should these jumped-up bureaucrats get special treatment? Let’s be honest: when an IRS agent is issued with an actual assault rifle — that would be a full-auto rifle, not some semi-auto AR-15 — it’s not to protect himself or his home from rampaging tax delinquents, it’s most likely because he’ll be ordered to storm someone else’s home or place of employment (that would be the very definition of “assault”). And by the way, that’s the job of the FBI, not the bean-counters.
So no: as much as I feel the suffering and loss of this agent’s life for his family, the plain fact of the matter was that he had no damn business being there in the first place.
And the fact that he was there is entirely the responsibility of the federal government.
By the way, should any of the alphabet agencies read this, you should know that my opinion in this is probably the mildest you’ll encounter among the vast majority of the population. Out there, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the popping of champagne corks. The federal government offers little comfort to the population of this country; they should expect little in return.
Update: both in Comments and by email, Readers take issue with my stance on the Dept. of Energy not needing guns, in that they have to guard installations like nukes and other such power plants.
No.
If those installations are so important to the national security (and they are), they need to be guarded by the military and not by the paramilitary. The point is that the military is Constitutionally restricted in terms of its deployment (against citizens), whereas a paramilitary force isn’t. I’d rather that power be held by the Army (and therefore by Congress) than by a bunch of bureaucrats.
Disturbing
I’m a little worried about all the hoopla surrounding the songs of latest phenom Oliver Anthony. (For those who don’t know who he is, here is his story, and here are his two latest songs: Rich Men North Of Richmond and I Want To Go Home. Listen to all of that, and what follows may make more sense to you.)
There are two points to be made here, the first being the more important.
Jeff Reynolds at PJM says that Anthony’s voice is evocative of American singers like Levon Helm, B.B. King and John Fogerty. I am fans of all of them, but I can listen to them sing all day. I can’t do that with Oliver Anthony, because there’s too much pain there, and it hurts to listen to him. His voice reminds me of Amy Winehouse, whom I also find difficult to listen to for precisely the same reasons.
It’s clear that Anthony will run the risk of ending up like Winehouse (whose tragedy I explored here): manipulated by others for their own purposes and benefit (whom, thankfully, he’s so far managed to keep at bay — not the least by telling the music industry to fuck off with their multi-million-dollar poisoned apples). I hope he stands firm.
The second part of this is that the agony of which this young man sings is clearly resonating with millions of Americans, because what he’s talking about is real. People are being fucked over by government and people who control the media, people are being fucked over by companies, and people are facing a future that is, frankly, as bleak and horrible as he sees his own.
And here’s where the second bunch of bloodsuckers come into the picture. Expect soon that the political types will step forward, trying to claim the ground that Anthony and so many others like him are standing on, and making politicians’ promises to fix the circumstances that they — all of them — have been complicit in the creation thereof.
I hope that Oliver Anthony tells them, too, to fuck off.
Here’s the takeaway from all this. The reason for Anthony’s runaway success is that millions of people not only feel his pain, but share his pain.
And unless I miss my guess, come 2024 those millions of people are going to vote for the candidate whom they think will best help alleviate it.
The political establishment had better hope that they do it through the vote, by the way, because the alternative is kinda messy.
Contrast
When faced with this:
Gary Puckett: “You’re much too young, girl.”
Jimmy Page: “Over there on the couch, darlin’.”
Lest anyone gets all hot and bothered by this:
- it’s a fucking joke, and
- here’s what young Maisie Smith looks like nowadays:
That’s her, in the middle.
By the way, her Mom is a total hottie:
Just so we all know where my proclivities lie.
Stupid Idiots
Some people just haven’t got the memo. Like senior hillbilly Asa Hutchinson [who? nemmind, just stay with me here]:
GOP presidential candidate former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump is in “serious jeopardy” of being found not to be qualified to be president.
…and the rest of his statement is all politico-legal jargon about “courts” and whatever.
You clueless idiot. Can’t you see that the more people line up against Trump — especially the DoJ, the White House and morons like yourself — the more likely that conservative voters who are just pissed off at the whole circus will just say, “Fuck all y’all!” and vote for Trump in still-greater numbers, just out of spite?
Regardless, Asa old bean, if Trump is found “not qualified” to be president (by whom? on what grounds?), then what does that make you?
Stunning Beauty
Over at Wristwatch_Revival, Marshall gets an old (1960s-era) Omega Constellation working again. And by the time he’s done…
I have no words. That tapered dial, the simple numerals… it whispers “elegance” like their newer bling-studded geegaws can’t (no pics: I don’t even want to put them on the same page as this beauty).
I would wear this watch every night of the week, and most especially if I were eating at a fine restaurant each night with, say, Nigella Lawson.
Am I alone in loving these things so much?
By the way, this is one of Marshall’s earlier shows, where he was still finding his way around the craft. There are a couple of mishaps, one hilarious.