Over at 2AMusing, the subject of pink guns came up. I pointed out what Smith & Wesson had done with their pink gun. And I like how Caleb put it:
While Josh Sugarmann of VPC takes donations to pay his six figure salary, a gun company donates a portion of their profits to help save lives. Do you really wonder who the good guys are here?
Indeed.
First news story I read this morning is about Waco Dodge protesting the closure of Chrysler dealerships.
“This is mostly to say that the bailout didn’t work and there’s still people losing their jobs,” Waco Dodge General Manager Holly Dunham said.
It didn’t work? People are still losing jobs? That’s unpossible! Those “good” folks in Washington told us this wouldn’t happen if we just allowed them to flush everything down the toilet.
Though some in attendance say they don’t doubt the government had good intentions, the bailout didn’t work.
Hell is paved with good intentions.
“The taxation of the youth that’s coming up, they’re going to be paying for this big bill,” [Protester Wes] Hardin said.
This wasn’t realized months ago when all this bailout fiasco first raised up?
But for dealership employees, their dissatisfaction stems from government intervention.
“The government is involved in as much as there is a task force, the automotive task force who’s dictating the terms of Chrysler’s bankruptcy and telling them what they need to do and how they need to do it,” Dunham said.
She said Chrysler was told by the task force to cut back on their dealerships.
The government sticking their noses into everything. Yes, it’s always the positive and fruitful solution. What happened to “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” being the scariest words in the English language?
Dunham said before the bailout money got involved, a better alternative would have been for Chrysler to leave it up to the dealerships to stay open because naturally the economy would have forced some doors to close, and profitable dealers could have stayed open.
You mean let the free markets work things out? Gosh, what a concept.
To be fair, I do get the feeling those directly involved in this (the particular dealership owners, employees, etc.) actually have a clue that this bailout stuff was a sham from the get go. But to those that thought bailouts would solve things, that the government is the answer (not the cause) of all our problems, I offer up Exhibit A.
John Farnam writes on his experience at the National Tactical Invitational.
Some take-home points:
Good stuff.
You know the drill… gun “buy-back” programs, where you trade in a gun and in return get something (e.g. a gift card). It’s all an effort to get guns off the streets and keep children safe.
Basically, it’s worthless. Sure it collects a lot of guns, but almost all the guns collected are junk, inoperable, rusted out buckets of worthlessness. That is, it cost the collectors (ultimately you, the taxpayer) a lot of money to dish out these gift cards, and in return nothing of use was done. It makes someone in the PR department feel good, but that’s all we are now… about feeling good, not about actually accomplishing anything.
I also find it highly amusing. What do they think they’re going to get? Do they really thing the drug dealers and the gang members are going to go “Golly! I can trade in my gun and get a $100 gift card. Gee, Beav, what a deal! I think I’ll go do that right now! Golly!”
The author, Lou Pritchett, is a well-known public speaker who retired after a successful 36-year career as the VP World Sales for Proctor and Gamble.Lou Pritchett
Foremost Leader in Change ManagementLou Pritchett is one of corporate America ‘s true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world’s highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as “partnering.” Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me..
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America ‘ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector..
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do..
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
Lou Pritchett
And apparently, it’s legit.
While reading this article over at SailorCurt’s, it hit me.
We don’t see many “low powered rifles” … not many “medium powered rifles”. How about “extra-high powered”? “medium-high powered”? “medium-low”? “extreme high powered”?
Of course, would the main-stream-media and hoplophobes know the difference?
So Kimbo Slice is going to go to the UFC, by way of their The Ultimate Fighter TV show.
I think this is great!
Kimbo is an interesting phenomenon. You’ve got this huge, muscled, tough, big black dude. He does bare-knuckle brawling in backyards. Gets video taped. Tapes put on the Internet. The buzz builds about this guy. Next thing you know, he’s a star. I watched some of Kimbo’s fights before he hit it big and I was impressed with the guy. He came off rough and crude, but effective at least in his element. But I also noticed in the videos that he was a sportsman about things; he may have been aggressive and mean in his attitude, but you could tell under it all this was just sport to him.
So he hits it big. The short-lived EliteXC promotion basically builds a promotion around him, but the fights aren’t that great and really show how weak Kimbo is going up against even modest pro fighters. The first 2 fights Kimbo fought were wins, and certainly Kimbo could hit like a freight train (Tank didn’t look too good). But the 3rd fight against James Thompson really demonstrated Kimbo’s weaknesses, only winning due to the freak rupturing of Thompson’s cauliflower ear (which was mighty gross).
I will give Kimbo some credit. He does appear to want to learn. He does appear to want to get better and become more of a “legit” fighter. So I’ll give him credit for that. Going on TUF furthers that notion that he’s willing to learn, he’s willing to work his way up. And hey, he’s also willing to take the payday. The man certainly knows how to work his fame into fortune, and I can’t blame him for that either. And Dana White well knows this will make a lot of money for him as well. TUF has been floundering a bit, and this will certainly be a ratings draw. If Kimbo happens to win it, it’s going to really be a big story and big money. So really, this is a win-win situation for both parties, and should bring some spice and drama to the pro MMA scene.
Our TV’s await….
Just got back from seeing Pixar’s “Up”.
Boxers know it. The heavy bag is a great training tool.
Unfortunately I do not have a true heavy bag at home because I don’t have a means for mounting one. However, I do have a Wavemaster XXL, which is better than nothing.
I use the bag every so often in my workouts because striking something gives far more feedback than just “air striking”. But the past couple weeks I’ve been almost exclusively focusing on bag training in my at-home workouts. It’s been quite a workout too, and a welcome bit of variety.
The heavy bag isn’t just about working on your striking, but it can also help with your footwork and even defensive skills. This is where the floor-mounted bag like the Wavemaster is at a disadvantage, since the swinging of a true heavy bag is really needed to work these. Nevertheless, I still try to keep moving and do the best I can with what I have.
Check out rossboxing.com’s heavy bag training routines. Doing 3 x 3-minute rounds of skills, 4 x 1-minute rounds of power, followed by 5 x 30-seconds of speed is just killer. Another routine from Ross.
An overview/intro to bag workouts from bodybuilding.com.
Work the bag into your workout routine. If nothing else, sometimes hitting something is just great stress relief. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 