Month: October 2009

Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others.

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

From SayUncle I discover this little gem from the Brady Campaign. You see, a pastor in Kentucky, Ken Pagano, gave up 30 years in the pulpit so he could focus on issues of the Second Amendment and church-security. So what does Paul Helmke say about that?

As for Mr. Pagano, Mr. Helmke said, “Maybe he should be more concerned about the Fifth Commandment than the Second Amendment.”…

That Commandment is that you shall not murder, often mis-translated as kill. So Mr. Helmke, what are you saying about us?

People have “this idea” that Christians have to turn the other cheek?  Where in Heaven’s name did they get that?

Oh, right… from Jesus Christ:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Nobody ever said emulating Christ would be easy, least of all the man himself….

Casting stones, Paul?

Maybe you should do a small bit of research and learn about how Christianity actually views such matters.

The title of this post? It comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.

Interview with Forrest Morgan, part 2

/ hsoi

Ikigai has posted part 2 of the Forrest Morgan interview.

When I was reading part 1 of the interview, a lot of it hit home. Again, Mr. Morgan’s answers to questions in part 2 hit home.

Continue reading →

Getting a little nostalgic

/ hsoi

Wandering around YouTube last night I stumble upon this video:

The song they are singing is Arirang (아리랑), the most popular Korean folk song.

I remember growing up and hearing my mother and other relatives singing this song. Even in watching the video, seeing Halabugi (the grandpa, the “old man” in the video)… wearing that white tank top, and I thought of my own Halabugi and how he’d often just be wearing a white tank top.

It’s hard to explain… but just watching the video made me smile, made me remember my grandparents, and brought a bit of a tear to my eye both a sad one and a happy one.

Fiddle with twitter

/ hsoi

I’m just not into Twitter, only because it doesn’t have a place for me. I mean, only 140 characters? You’re killing me! 😉

Nevertheless, I do have a Twitter account. I mainly snagged it to ensure I got “hsoi” and no one else squatted on it. A few weeks ago I set it up via twitterfeed.com to hook the blog to the twitter account to post when my blog updated.

Now it seems WordPress.com can do it automatically.

So I’m going to try switching to it.

Obviously another terrorist

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

So we had a 6-year-old Cub Scout suspended from school because he brought camping gear on school grounds. Zero tolerance.

Now we have a 17-year-old Eagle Scout suspended for 20 days because he had a 2 inch knife in his car. Why did he have a knife in his car?

Matthew Whalen, a senior at Lansingburgh Senior High School, says he follows the Boy Scout motto and is always prepared, stocking his car with a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal — and the knife, which was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town.

He lives in upstate New York, so getting caught out in the snow is a real possibility. So he keeps things in his car, ready in case of emergency. Good for him.

And so why is this all being done? Because they have to apply policy. Because they have to make an example out of him.

Whalen said he does not know why the 15 days were added, but he said a school district employee told him it was because the school wanted to apply its policies consistently.

“I’ve been told by someone who works for the district that they had to do it, because if someone else had a knife and they saw that I didn’t get a suspension, that it would look bad for the school.”

What looks bad isn’t Matthew Whalen. What looks bad are stupid school administrators making asinine rules. I thought schools taught critical thinking… but I guess they don’t need to apply it.

Interview with Forrest Morgan

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

There are lots of books on martial arts, most being “how to” and not always worth a darn. While I certainly do read some of those books, what I find myself more drawn too are martial arts books on a more esoteric or philosophical level. Good books in that realm are harder to find. One of them is Living the Martial Way: A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Should Think by Forrest Morgan.

Ikigai has an interview with Mr. Morgan. Part 1 is up. It contains some background information, and I found a few things striking a chord with me. It sounds so much like my own relationship with Kuk Sool Won.

Continue reading →

Introducing children to firearms

/ hsoi

A nice video about when and how to introduce your children to firearms:

They cover important things like safety, selecting an appropriate rifle, and having fun.

Safety is of course the most important thing, followed by having fun.

Again, Tam says it best

/ hsoi

So I posted about open carry. I’m all for the restrictions being lifted. But I’m just not sure it’s right for me because of the potential for hassle. Yeah maybe 99 times out of 100 I won’t get hassled, but all it takes is one time to irritate me. I’ve only got so much time in a day and I’ve got other things I’d rather spend it on.

And yet again, I see Tam voices things quite well:

For the record, I’ve no real position on it one way or the other. I don’t generally O.C., mostly to avoid excessive face time with the Po-Po and conversations with the occasional goober that can’t resist a “Hey, you got a gun there! You ‘spectin’ trouble?” or “Did you know that your gun’s cocked?“