The Hazards of Wildlife Photography, Pt. 1

One day I was photographing the Canada geese at a nearby industrial park. A small flock of geese took flight and flew away, but as they did, one goose broke off from the group and flew in my direction. I was jubilant until I realized that the goose was, um, up to no good.

"Approaching target."



"Bomb bay doors are open..."



"BOMBS AWAY!!"



"See ya!"



"Wouldn't wanna be ya!"

Actually, I didn't realize what had happened until after I looked at the pictures. He missed, by the way.

The Military, the Militia, and the Second Amendment

“Amendment 2
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Militia referred to in the amendment doesn’t refer to the Army or the National Guard. People in the military don’t have a Constitutional right to keep and bears arms as individuals. In fact, they don’t actually have all the same Constitutional rights as civilian citizens because they are under martial law and are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). As a private in Marine boot camp I literally slept with my rifle every night. It was locked to my rack (bunk), and when ordered to, I carried it in close-order drill along with everyone else in my platoon. But nobody had ammunition except while we were at the range, and every single round was monitored and accounted for with fanatical, obsessive ferocity by the Drill Instructors and Range Officers. My MOS was not a combat specialty and I served most of my enlistment in headquarters garrisons where I was rarely issued a weapon, and when one was, it was kept at the battalion armory and I wasn’t allowed to have it unless authorized by my commanding officer. We were only allowed to draw weapons from the armory when it was required for inspections, parades, or range qualification. If you want to see “gun control”, it is rampant and pervasive in the military. Only certain people get to carry guns, and even fewer get to carry ammo, too. That’s why the recently uncovered plot to attack Ft. Dix in New Jersey had such potential for death and destruction. Soldiers in garrison are usually not issued weapons and are almost never issued live ammo. Those six or 10 guys could have murdered hundreds of soldiers and wouldn’t have been stopped until they ran out of ammo.

The people are the Militia, the law abiding citizens of a community. Armed thieves, robbers and gang members don’t qualify as “the people” because they are criminals who prey upon the law abiding, peaceable populace and operate outside the law. They are one of the elements that the Second Amendment is designed to protect us from.

Another element the amendment was meant to protect us from is foreign invasion. And for the most part, it has worked quite well. Early in World War II, military commanders of the Japanese Empire seriously considered and began planning for an invasion of the U.S. mainland. The emperor himself ended that discussion when he said “There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass!” The invasion of Alaska was a diversionary feint designed to draw U.S. troops and resources away from their main thrust in the Pacific.

Another problem the 2nd Amendment in particular and the whole Bill of Rights in general was designed to prevent is the usurpation of power by a tyrannical government, whether local, state or federal. Theoretically, if there are sufficient arms in the hands of the people, a tyrannical government can’t rise and usurp power and enslave or oppress them. But nowadays we’re subjected to a creeping form of tyranny called “nannyism” where government officeholders, including unelected bureaucrats, take it upon themselves to legislate, dictate, regulate and bureaucratize every aspect of human life in order to protect us from ourselves. As the current Speaker of the House has famously said, they do it “for the children”. The result is that all our liberties are infringed upon and abridged and the people are yoked with the ever increasing burden of supporting, sustaining, maintaining and complying with a burgeoning mountain of regulations, laws, requirements and covenants, to say nothing of the taxes required to support the administration of all this nonsense. And the problem this creates is that it promotes waste and corruption, because the administration of all this government requires a colossal budget that can’t possibly be meted out with adequate oversight. As a result, waste and corruption are rampant in the halls of Congress and the rest of Washington as well. Republicans have been vile and wicked in this respect, but the Democrats are proving to be every bit as corruptible.

Not that we aren’t already oppressed and enslaved in a very real sense. Don’t believe me? Just withhold your taxes from the state or federal government come next April, and see how long it takes them to seize your property and imprison you.

In spite of all the nonsense, the U.S.A. is still the greatest nation on earth. I mean, even the poor people are fat, for crying out loud. But we can’t get complacent, because if the nannies don’t get us the jihadis will.
Have a nice day.

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day, and to honor the memory of all who have died in battle or been wounded or maimed in combat, and all who have served honorably and do now serve this great nation, we’re flying the flag today here at 648.
As long as we are a free nation, it is never illegal, politically incorrect or insensitive to properly display and fly the flag. Some communities have regulations or "covenants" that prohibit displaying the flag, but those are places where the Constitutional rights of the people have been improperly usurped by city councils, home-owners organizations, or bureaucrats.