Random post: I'm back.

Still interested in gunsmoke and still interested in burning rubber.

Been shooting a lot recently.  Still total crap with a pistol unless I'm up close, and still deadly with a carbine near or far.  Been posting a lot on various forums as well.  I'll transfer some of that here.

My Nissan had a road-race cage put in it.  No, I don't plan on racing it, but a cage built for racing is a cage that will withstand anything my open track day and time attack efforts will throw at it.  It's different than most cages that you see in cars such as mine, and it's unique in that I've spent about as much as anyone can spend on a quality cage.  The seating position is moved back so I'll have a better feel for what the rear axle is doing.

Since I last wrote about my 240SX, I've changed the entire outlook of the car- it's now a complete and total track car.  It now has an S14 rear subframe, different rear links, I've changed the FLCAs, replaced the front and rear bumper supports, removed the quarter windows to replace with lexan, shaved more weight out of the car, purchased a COT wing, etc.  The goal is a strange one- make a Miata out of a 240SX before making a fire-breather- learn how to drive a car with downforce and with an effort toward momentum preservation (which requires the ability to walk a fine line between just-fast-enough and too-fast) before driving a car that covers my mistakes with raw power.

The car will move forward after I finish moving and I will make the front airdam subframe and the rest of the aero bracketry.  Figure I might as well learn to weld, as the field I may or may not work in may or may not involve welding of some kind.  I'd like to expand my repertoire of skills.  I may document my attempts here.

CHANGE OF DIRECTION

The idea that gun owners must have some sort of desire to kill is ridiculous.  I own firearms, I know how to use them, I am willing to use them- but I hope and, as much as an agnostic can do so, pray that I never will have to.  The taking of life, be it animal or man, is something so important that one cannot treat it with any disrespect.  The thought of extinguishing the flame of life is disturbing to me- the very idea that at this point in time there are people dying from man's doing sets my stomach boiling and my sadness grows.

We don't need to kill each other, and yet we do.  For money, for power, for fear, for retaliation, for being different... the only time one can kill justly is if one has had force initiated against oneself.  War is a repugnant, vile thing, and yet we see it all the time.  I very nearly weep for these atrocities committed by every side- the people killed are husbands, wives, sons, daughters, children.  I am appealing to the heart by saying such things but what else can we do; it cannot be moral to kill an innocent in the judgement of the guilty, can it?

This is cathartic.  I've said it before, but I should do this more often.

Times are Tough and We're Softies

   I'm not a happy person. My beliefs, my ethics, my life.... all compromised by living where and when I do.  It's hard to be happy when you realize how little freedom you truly have.
  
   This is my life, and I want to live it my way, says the selfish man.  This is my life, just let me live it, says the free man. It isn't the government's life to own, to protect, to force to serve. I am not a goddamn number, I am not a goddamn cow for the milking, I am not a goddamn sheep in need of shepherding.

   If I succeed, I am taxed more. If I succeed, my success is shared with those who have not succeeded. I will not glorify my life and pretend I have done anything particularly special with it, but my success has been the result of, at times, very hard work which is taxing on the mind and body. This success is gratifying, but the fact that it will be shared is infuriating.  The fact that I must share it is further infuriating.

   I live in a society, I understand that. I was born into a society, raised by parents living in a society. However, I owe society and you, the reader, nothing.  I did not choose to be born, I did not choose where I was born.  Society does not define me.
 
   You may think me selfish. You may think me childish or entitled. Do you think of me in shackles? Shall I be forced to work and give up the fruits of my labors?

   How is it fair that Americans are spending more on paying their taxes than on shelter, clothes and food combined?

   How is it fair that we never get to own anything- eminent domain and the perceived "right" of the State to take one's house should one not pay property taxes ensure homes and land are never truly owned, registration fees and purchase taxes ensure cars are never truly owned, the government's perceived "right" to sell one's possessions ensure TVs, computers, etc. are never truly owned, the government's perceived "right" to kill you because you have violated their corrupt laws but refuse to give in means your self is never truly owned.  We are trapped by the system, we will never be free any longer. Free men have a luxury none of us have ever known- no claimants.  Free men know fairness- we do not.  Free men have only thieves to guard against, we have governments.

   Do you understand the Leviathan?  It owns you, can claim your belongings or your life at any point.  We read books about people rebelling against it, we support movies suggesting its dismantling, while gladly paying the taxes it has enacted.

   Look around.  There is nowhere free anymore.  Everywhere has been claimed.  There are no more frontiers.  Christ, that's a sad thought, innit? 

Rand Shrugged

This post was about Atlas Shrugged. I changed my mind.

Now it's about the justice system.

How perverse it is to call this current penal system a "justice" system. How perverse it is to consider it just to imprison a man for possessing the leaves of a plant or bringing into the state or assembling within the state a firearm magazine with a capacity over 10 rounds. How perverse it is to give a person time in prison for assembling a firearm in a certain way but never taking it out of the house. How perverse it is to unlawfully arrest someone, force them to drain their life savings to fight the charges in court, then refuse to be held liable for the court costs.

There is no justice in this system. There never will be. There is just a disgusting disdain for reason and a heaping helping of non-First prior restraint.

I have no respect for ANY police officers because they work for this system. They have sworn an oath to the Constitution first, everything else last. They ALL forget it. They ALL are useless government stooges.

One cannot work for a corrupt government without becoming corrupt. All government workers, military branches especially included, are useless human beings who live on the back of others. We pay their paychecks through taxes and regulations, fees and tariffs. They are part of the leviathan, and they are part of the problem.

We should have no standing army, and the bloodthirsty imperialists who join the armed forces are useless except to kill innocents. You claim you fight for "liberty" but you work for a government who fights against it. You are not patriots. You are misguided soldiers of fortune, mindless drones who derive honor from disobeying our country's heritage and imposing the will of America on countries that are not America, don't want to be America, and will never be like America.