OHIO House Bill 203 Status Unclear

So, here I was assuming that since we have a GOP house, a GOP Senate and a GOP Governor that HB203 and its needed CCW reforms would roll right on through to Ohio Law. However, it passed the House with flying colors back in November of 2013 and is now sitting unassigned to a committee in the Senate. In other words, its been pigeon holed. Some newspapers in Cleveland wrote op-eds claiming its a "stand your ground, kill the little kids law" (which isn't true) and now it looks like the Senate is going to stay away from it to avoid trouble in an election year that would see 1/3 of the Senate members up for re-election.
Great.

This law was supposed to:
1. Have all county sheriffs use the same application form
2. Make it easier for the Attorney General of Ohio to determine whether another state had reciprocity with Ohio's CCW laws.
3. Makes it simpler to prosecute anyone who lies on a CCW application.
4. Changes the training hours from 12 to 4. This is good since the 12 hour class I took was only 4 hours of information anyway. Making people sleepy doesn't abet learning.
5. Clearly states a number of things that CCW permit holders cannot do (citizens arrests, etc). The gun can only be used in lawful defense during legal activities. If you're a criminal breaking the law, you cant use self-defense as a defense in court for shooting someone whilst breaking the law.
6. Defines imminent danger.
##### THIS IS THE ONE THEY DONT LIKE #####
#7. You do not have a duty to retreat if you are anyplace you are legally allowed to be. Previously you had a duty to retreat if you werent in your home or car. Now the law corrects that problem, allowing you to defend yourself wherever you may be with your CCW, as long as you are legally allowed to be there.
This is not the same as the stand your ground law in Florida and certainly does not provide the legal defense shenanigans that the Florida law provides for. You can't chase someone down, you cant instigate the encounter, you cant insult, shout or be belligerent and THEN pull out your CCW.

This is a common sense piece of legislation and I hope the Senate takes it up soon.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=130_HB_203

Funny of the week: Act of Valor movie review

A little leap day smile from me to you by way of Tam, I wish more movie reviews were like this.  :)

Went to see Act of Valor at a matinee...from View From The Porch by Tam


Some thoughts:

•So none of the SEALs is Sir Anthony Hopkins. So what? I'll bet the Screen Actors Guild doesn't mail dues checks from Stallone and Schwarzenegger back un-cashed.

•The plot is not Hitchcockian: Some bad guys are going to try and do bad things to America. A bunch of SEALs are attempting to stop them, mostly by shooting them in the face. They don't sit around and anguish over the deep meaning of shooting terrorists in the face, either; they make like a Nike commercial and Just Do It.

•Wow.

•By the time the lights came up, you could hear a pin drop. It was a full five-Mississippi before anybody in the theater so much as moved to grab their coat.

•I am so used to watching gun handling in movies and thinking "You're Doing It Wrong!" that it was refreshing to see one that made me think "Huh. I'm Doing It Wrong."

•I will be going to see it again on the big screen. This is a big screen movie.

Rear Ended - FORD POS does have a 5 Star crash rating

So there I am stopped at a light yesterday, behind another car, just patiently waiting for the light to turn green when WHAM, I get rear-ended by some texting fool who never hit the brakes b/c they werent paying attention. Luckily little ones 1 and 2 were with their grandmother for the day post-Christmas and not in the backseat of my Ford P.O.S.
But, turns out that all my grumbling about how much I dislike the car (its a 2005 Taurus and rides fine, but I've never really liked it) didnt show the car enough respect. The little Korean hatch back slid under my rear bumper and scratched up my paint job and lifted my back end up and dropped me back on the ground. The import was accordioned in the front back to the wheels, with the radiator set back and the hood crumpled all the way back to the windscreen. Somehow her headlights survived unscathed. Maybe the Koreans should have built the rest of the car the way they did the headlights.
But, my ugly Taurus will live to drive another day. I'm not saying I'm falling in love with her (She's named Sandy) but I have more respect for her today than I did yesterday morning when I woke up, thats for sure.
So, I guess I have to admit my wife was right when she convinced me the 5 star crash rating was more important than fuel economy. Does that mean I have to tell her that?
:)

Want to push for change? Watch out for the fentanyl darts

This story outlines some really cool hi tech ways that the .gov can keep you from protesting using less than lethal devices.
The final paragraph caught my eye:
"Perhaps these less-lethal tactics for crowd control do result in fewer injuries. But they also severely weaken our capacity to enact political change. Authorities have ever more creative ways to manage dissent, at a time when the need for change by popular demand is vital to the future of our society and the planet."

The death of a Democratic Republic

If some of the more progressive states have their way, they will forgo the Electoral College in Presidential elections and award their states electoral votes to whomever wins the popular vote nationwide. This means that California, for example, could give its electoral votes to someone who DID NOT WIN THE POPULAR VOTE IN CALIFORNIA. How about them apples Cali voters?
You don't even need to vote in California apparently, and candidates now have no reason to campaign there either. You'll just auto-award your votes by proxy to the candidate that wins most of the rest of the country. Boy, there's an ideal situation.

Debt reduction via hidden taxes

Joe Huffman, who I like even if he is a Microsoft guy, has some interesting thoughts on how the .gov is going to raise revenue.

Tam has a round up of other topics of note

and
Uncle has some news on the whole Fast and Furious debacle

So, to sum up, the EPA and OSHA are looking to start generating revenue instead of you know, doing their job watching out for us, 4 guns and a box of ammo is considered an arsenal in England, the US is allowing cocaine into the country in exchange for information and my head hurts.

This country is going down fast, Linoge sums it up

Linoge has an interesting essay on the video I posted earlier, its a good read on how we can't expect things to get better b/c everyone wants what they feel is coming to them.
My generation and the generation coming after are all about "show me the money" and damn the consequences. When we hit a wall with the global economy eventually, its going to be sad seeing them all standing in soup lines saying "this isn't right, wheres my check?".
 None of them, including my own kids, comprehend whats going to happen due to the unstoppable deficits and debts being left them by the baby boomers. I stay up at night worrying sometimes, but I don't think I can do more than put away a few more cans of soup in the basement.

Well, every PERSON should, not just men, but you get the point

Everyone should carry a pocket knife

You never know when it will come in handy.

Monster Hunter Alpha has shipped!

Amazon says it will be here on Monday, so I may have to call in sick to work on Tuesday....feel a cough coming on.....ooohh, my throat.....yeah that's the ticket.
See more info here 

Proud member of the

Slick Willy actually has some good ideas

Bill Clinton is actually outlining a dozen or so (ok 14 if you must know) easy steps that will help the economy. He isn't saying these steps will solve all our problems, he just points out most of them are easy and would help. Since the first one is decreased government regulation prior to construction starting and #12 is Cut Corporate Taxes, I'm all for it.
Check out the whole list here, its worth a read.
I like them all  except #3 plus #14 isn't really an idea, its an idea to get together and find other ideas.

Its worse than you think

If you read anything this week, it should be this
"Please soberly consider the implications of the National Debt, and think through what it means for you and your children. In the years to come, we can expect to see higher taxes, a panoply of new fees and fines, decreased pension benefits, and orchestrated currency inflation. Simultaneously, we will face a declining standard of living, shortages, riots, higher property crime rates, labor protests, currency devaluations, currency expatriation controls, bank runs, forced redistribution of wealth, and "social justice" programs that will nationalize entire industries and expropriate productive farmland. This may very well spin out of control until the wealth redistribution and social engineering schemes resemble those in Pol Pot's Cambodia, or Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe."
James Wesley, Rawles
Survivalblog.com

Buy Monster Hunter Alpha

Larry Correia writes some of the best fiction out there these days, and he needs support to keep his full time job as 'writer'. I already own the previous two Monster Hunter titles and have pre-ordered the 3rd at Amazon. The books are cheap and you can read them again and again and enjoy details you missed the first time.
As Linoge says "Buy the book today"

I will personally send you mental hugs and warm wishes if you buy a copy.

Commercial message ends here.

Why do we care about the wrong things?

We just don't seem to care that the country is falling apart.....

Thoughts on Great Men in History TRUE LEADERS

I am a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt and truly believe he was one of our greatest presidents, if only he were alive today....
Well, with the 4th of July weighing on my mind, I also wanted to share some history of Ted Roosevelt Jr, Brigadier General US Army. He fought in both World War I and II and was the only General to land on the beaches at Normandy, and to top it all off, he landed with the very first wave of troops. He personally directed troops for hours and was given much credit for establishing the first US beachhead in France. General Omar Bradley was quoted as saying the bravest fighting he had seen during the war was Ted Roosevelt on Utah Beach. Pretty amazing praise considering Ted Jr never fired a shot himself that day.
When he was informed the boats had come ashore a mile off course, he famously shouted “We’ll start the war from right here!”.
We could use more of that spirit.

More of the same old same old

Obama thinks he can step in and offer the same old tired dialogue of spending cuts and raising taxes on the rich to fix our deficit and debt ceiling problems.
Man, when is DC going to wake up, realize the country is not pleased with their performance and do WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!

Drastic problems require drastic solutions.

Carry your gun, someones child may thank you some day

1. If you have a concealed carry permit, or live in a state where one is not required, keep your gun handy. Not all dog owners are good ones, and a 7 year old boy might want to keep his face.
I hear having a face is a good thing. Also, if you don't carry a gun, look into carrying a brick, apparently.

2. If you are the parent of small children, keep your eyes open. Bad things happen quickly.

I have two wonderful kids and I have had to ward off dogs plenty of times while walking in our neighborhood and in parks. Only once did I ever have to actually touch a dog in question; it tried to bite my daughter and my yelling at it and waving my arms wasn't scaring it away. Eventually I resorted to grabbing it by the scruff of its neck, and drop kicking it a few feet and it ran away. A nice .380 in my pocket would have left me with other options if the situation had gotten worse.

KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE

Hat tip to A NC Gun Blog for the story.

Florida, They know how to handle things....

Reporter asks Sheriff why his deputies fired 68 rounds at a man who was suspected of having killed an officer during a traffic stop and fled from other officers in a police cruiser;
Sheriff replies "Because that's all the ammo they had..."

From wirecutter:

They only had 68 rounds? That's budget cuts for you...

I need to move back to the South,
in Ohio they would have a recall election for the Sheriff for his comments and the family of the deceased would have sued for a civil rights violation since he wasn't given a fair trial.

Why does the MSM use such odd analogies for measurements?

Why, in stories such as this, do we equate liquids (concrete) to olympic swimming pools and solids such as steel, to the number of Eiffel towers?
These aren't units of measure that help explain anything better than the cubic feet and tons that were used in the article. If people don't get cubic feet, so be it, but I don't think telling them it would fill up a football field to a depth of 10 feet really gets the point across any better.
Chalk it up to my scientific background, but that sort of thing in articles annoys me.

Best way to sum up the article? This bridge is really long and makes getting to an island 20 minutes faster.
There, no crazy analogies needed.

The question is whether free peoples will choose to remain free, or to submit.

Interesting read about how Iceland basically just shrugged off any chance of joining the EU b/c the Government and its people have voted, again, not to repay money lost by PRIVATE BANKS to foreign citizens.

Let me repeat: The EU is declaring financial war on Iceland b/c the Icelandic .gov won't repay money that PRIVATE BANKS lost to non-Icelandic citizens.

They are going to be denied entry into the EU, banks and brokers are downgrading their bonds and they will be made a pariah on the international stage b/c they aren't willing to jump on the same band wagon as other 1st world governments who all says "banks are too big to fail".

Man I wish my country had balls like this.

On a side note, if Iceland has to live with itself, at least the average Icelandic lady looks like this

Alan Greenspan says we're screwed, S&P says we're boned, Obama says things are looking up!

Greenspan says we are likely headed for another recession (this one ended at some point?) if a major economic bump in the road such as a Greek default, hits us anytime soon.

S&P says they are again warning the .gov that a downturn in their credit rating is in store if they don't stop playing games and fix something quickly

Obama and his financial gurus would have you believe things are getting better

Some folks who are big in the markets are calling for drastic changes soon to avoid Greek-style riots in the streets here in the good 'ol US of A. That's never good.

All I know is that between gas for my car and cereal for breakfast, I have no 'extra' funds for what life throws at me like I used to. Here's hoping a major appliance doesn't croak any time soon.