Category: Patriotism

Range Report: July 4th Excursion

Good Stuff, Patriotism

Not my range visit, but from deep in the mountains of Tennessee (greenest state in the land of the free — sorry), Reader Mike S. sends me this fine account:

Loaded up magazines, a 50BMG can of 5.56, and my AR into the truck and headed to the range.

First pleasant surprise came when checking in the office.

“Hey, Ruger guy!” It was a fellow I met a few weeks ago and showed him my Mk II Standard and Mk III 22/45. He’d just bought a Mk IV 22/45 from the range. It was a range rental but no one was renting it so … he enjoyed shooting mine so got one of his own. *happy dance*

Off to the firing line.

At one point there were 5 of us with ARs. One was full auto. We let freedom ring!

During reloads we swapped info ‘bout makes, models, modifications… gun stuff. And yes, I had the oldest model (AR15A2) with fewest mods (trigger and stock replacement) except for the youngest shooter who had a new AR. He took notes on what we said. His girlfriend was reluctant to shoot the rifles so … boyfriend took her to the pistol range to fire his 9mm. She didn’t like that one either so once again my 22/45 came into play. She didn’t like the light trigger but enjoyed the light recoil. The Volquartsen mods are perhaps too much for a newbie. When they returned my gun and mags they included a box of ammo. Nice touch.

As the sun slid between the firing line cover and tree line it got a tad hot (stop laughing you Texans!). The rifles weren’t cooling down either. So handshakes all around and off to home.

Damn good way to spend Independence Day.

I’ll say.  And I have to say that as much as I enjoyed the story, what really got to me was the display of good manners by the youngins.

Maybe we’re not doomed.

Here’s What I Know

Patriotism

There has been a great deal of angst among conservatives about how the evil bastards on the Left have been trying with might and main to sabotage the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.  It starts from the childish petulance of artists refusing to participate in anything remotely connected with Donald Trump, and continues with other members of the Pissers & Moaners Set going on about how we have nothing to celebrate because we are really an eeeeevil rayciss patriarchal capitalist bunch of Bad People which has been exploiting and discriminating against homosexualists, Black people, transsexualists, people with blue hair…. the list goes on and on ad nauseam.

Okay, I’ll cop to the “capitalist” bit.

Here’s the thing.  Conservatives shouldn’t be worried about all these childish tantrums.  We Americans have a great deal to celebrate, even if the screaming loonies are howling all that twaddle on their iPhones, at BlueSky or in institutions like The New York Times — and please note the irony that they are able to do this because of that First Amendment to the Constitution (written by those slave-owning White men two centuries ago), which guarantees the freedom to say the silly bullshit they are putting out.  “Silly bullshit”, lest we forget, is absolutely one of the parts of speech protected, much as it makes my hackles rise.

And here’s what I know.  I’m going to wake up on Saturday morning, on that very 250th anniversary of our foundation, with a song in my heart and a deep, abiding sense of gratitude that I am an American citizen, and not a citizen of some other shithole country (pretty much all countries not the U.S., as it happens).

I’m going to post a celebratory entry on my website (First Amendment), and then I’m going to head off to Texas Legends shooting range (who have informed me that yes, they’re going to be open on July 4th even though it’s technically a public holiday and they needn’t be), and I’m going to exercise my Second Amendment freedom — something that I damn sure wouldn’t be able to do in all the other shithole countries, because my firearm of choice for the day is going to be the frankenpoodleshooter AR-15 (which is streng verboten  in said states of Shitholia).

(I would go to watch the fireworks later, except it’s Texas and even at 9 o’clock at night the temperature will still be set to “Broil”, so I’ll pass on that — but I’ll be there in spirit.)

Dinner will no doubt be extremely carnivorous:

I’m sure that the above innocent activities would no doubt piss off just about the entire population of the Left (also furriners, some overlap there), but there it is.

I don’t need those big public celebrations, in other words, because while they’re fun and all that, the real celebration is personal — an individual’s activity, said individuality being at the very heart of our nation and our Constitution.

We are a nation of individuals, not just cogs in some collective machine, much as it pains the Left that we stubbornly refuse to submit to that coercion (aided by that pesky Constitution thing).

We do have a great deal to celebrate:  never forget that alone among the nations of the world — past and present — we are a nation founded on an ideal, a principle, and not simply by being part of some kingdom’s fiefdom.

And we’ve survived and prospered — good grief, how have we prospered! — for two hundred and fifty years (and counting).  That’s worth celebrating, even if the Perpetually Aggrieved don’t think so.

Not A Problem

Patriotism

I know there’s going to be some kind of uproar about this:

The gold medal-winning U.S. women’s hockey team is turning down President Trump’s invitation to attend the State of the Union (SOTU) address, citing conflicting “academic and professional commitments.”

Actually, I’m going to file this under “Whatever”, because it doesn’t matter.  I remember when Michael Jordan turned down an invitation from Bill Clinton to visit the White House, giving as a reason the fact that Clinton’s latest tax increase had severely impacted his financial state.

I didn’t care then, and I didn’t care now.  Some time ago, I think I asked the question about getting an invitation from Obama or Biden to visit the White House, and being surprised at the vitriolic response.

And yes, I know that these girls were representing the United States, and how dare they turn down an invitation from the President of the United States.

To borrow a line from the Left:  he’s not a king, and the invitation is not a Royal Summons.

Al that said, however, I do find it difficult to believe that every single member of the team has an “academic and professional commitment” which would make accepting an invitation impossible.  My question is:  who first suggested that these kids turn down the invitation as a team, rather than allowing individuals to make up their own mind?  Or do all the team members hate Trump that much?

And let’s be honest:  an invitation to attend the SOTU address would be a way for these kids to be recognized and applauded by the nation, on prime time TV.  If they want to be churlish and tun down that opportunity, well, there’s no law against bad manners.

Finally, I think it would e very wrong to think of punishing the team, its members or the USOC in some way – e.g. by cutting off their funding or something like that.  Now that would be churlish.

It’s not the end of the world.  Forget about it, and them, and let’s focus on more important matters.

All that said, I’m glad to see how the gold-winning men’s team has responded to the same Presidential invitation.  The above article makes no mention of that, but here’s one that does:

The president went on to extend an invitation to have the team at his State of the Union address on Tuesday, to which a chorus of players immediately answered, “We’re in!”

One player asked if they could have help getting to Washington, DC.

“We’ll get Kash or we’ll get the military to get you guys over,” Trump replied, garnering more cheers from the athletes.

At the end of the call, Trump said, “We love you guys. Congratulations… I’m going to shake hands with everybody, but I got to shake hands with that goalie!”

There ya go, and the hell with the chicks.

Turning The Tables

Funny Stuff, Patriotism

For those of you who’ve been away vacationing on the Planet Zarg and you have no idea who “Amelia” is, let Jamie Wilson ‘splain everything in her own inimitable style:

The British government’s Prevent office, housed under the Home Office (think Department of the Interior, but allergic to dissent), partnered with a media nonprofit called Shout Out UK (like a PBS focused on preventing “radicalism”) to come up with a clever new way to re-educate British youth.
The concern, as always, was “radicalization.” They thought the solution was inspired: a choice-based video game. Kids like games. Games involve decisions. Decisions shape values. What could possibly go wrong?
Thus Pathways was born, a government-funded interactive morality play designed to gently shepherd British children toward being properly antiracist, properly accepting, and properly enthusiastic about the ever-increasing number of migrants reshaping their country. Civics class, but fun. And digital. And corrective.
As part of this effort, the designers introduced a character named Amelia, a cute, purple-haired, vaguely goth girl who carries a Union Jack and talks about Britain being for the British. She was meant to function as a warning, a living illustration of how nationalism can look attractive, even charming, and yet be dangerous to the impressionable youths of Britain who may not have fully internalized the idea that Brexit is bad and they are to obey their elitist overlords.
What they did not anticipate was that the public would take one look at adorable, charming Amelia and decide she was the good guy.

To be honest, I’m howling with laughter at this whole thing.

Wasn’t it that little Commie tit Saul Alinsky who suggested using your enemy’s own rules and weapons against them?

It’s Not Hyperbole

Food & Drink, Marketing / Advertising, Patriotism, Trades

When I first referred to Jeremy Clarkson as “The Greatest Living Englishman”, it started off as a nod to his unflinching honesty when it came to everything he looked at, such as his (non-)review of some Vauxhall car model back in the 1990s:  “If they’re not going to bother to make an interesting car, I’m not going to bother to review it.”

That caused Big Business (in this case, Vauxhall’s then-parent company General Motors) to go apeshit, because that’s not the way car reviewers are supposed to behave.

It’s that same unflinching honesty that he displayed in his first bumbling efforts at farming which turned his Clarkson’s Farm TV show into a runaway smash hit, and along the way almost single-handedly changed the way the British regard both food and the farmers who produce it.

So when he turned that same agricultural ignorance towards brewing beer — simply because he had a barn full of unsold barley which he needed to sell — one might think that it was just another celebrity using their name to sell a product.

In this case, one would be not only wrong, but spectacularly wrong.  And if you want to see a case study in marketing that, in hindsight, never had a chance of failing, then I implore you to watch this video.

Time and time again, “the experts” believed that Clarkson was making a mistake, and every single time he proved them not only wrong, but spectacularly wrong.

He turned a few thousand pounds’ worth of unsold barley into a £75 million company, and in the process, changed the way British people think about farming, about beer and about the people who farm and the people who brew beer.

And he did it all with his usual unflinching honesty and openness, which gave the lie to the usual corporate veneer of respectability and care for both their employees and their customers.

Which is why he truly is the Greatest Living Englishman.

I can’t wait to try it the next time I go over to Britishland.