Monday, July 31, 2006
IN 1835, THE TYRANNICAL GENERAL SANTA ANNA tried to disarm Texans. Big mistake. One group of people had a small cannon they were determined never to surrender. So when the general's men came for the gun, the townspeople greeted them with this:
Times have changed. Not many of us have cannons, except perhaps a rusty old one on the courthouse square. But modern Santa Annas still want to see us disarmed. So today Americans might respond with this:
Or, since they're now targeting the .50 BMG, perhaps this:
Which is the long & colorful way of announcing that, thanks to the bountiful generosity of David C. Treibs of Battle Flags, Etc., we have FIVE new auctions to raise funds for Rick Celata and family. The first four are full-size (3 x 5-foot) flags. Auction #5 is for a set of 4 x 6-inch tabletop flags in various historic (or updated!) designs.
Go and get 'em. These are three-day auctions, so don't delay.
- Flag Auction #1: The traditional "Come and Take It" flag
- Flag Auction #2: "Come and Take It" AR15/M16 design
- Flag Auction #3: "Come and Take It" .50 BMG design
- Flag Auction #4: Modern American flag
- Flag Auction #5: Four tabletop flags for rebel spirits
Posted by Claire @ 07:05 PM CST [Link]
THINK YOU HAVE TO HAVE 40 ACRES and a ton of money before aiming for self-sufficiency? From TC on a Higher Plane comes the inspiring story of the Dervaes family. They're more than 50 percent food self-sufficient on 1/5 of an acre in Pasadena. And part of that mini-acreage is taken up by a house. Awesome.
Geez, and here I was feeling good because after a lifetime of black-thumbism, I just harvested three tomatoes and a couple handfuls of strawberries. I can see I have a tad more work to do ...
Posted by Claire @ 11:33 AM CST [Link]
IF YOU OR I KILLED 56 PEOPLE, let alone if they were mostly women and kids from one extended family, we'd be considered among the most heinous mass murderers in history. Claiming that we were doing it in "self-defense" wouldn't wash. Promising not to do it again for a while wouldn't persuade anybody we were good guys.
Posted by Claire @ 11:28 AM CST [Link]
Sunday, July 30, 2006
GUN NUTS REALLY ARE ALL THE SAME. Blogispondent Ian here, and of course I use the phrase "gun nut" in the best possible sense.
Have you ever really watched what happens when two gun nuts meet? One (let's call him A) will usually have some interesting firearm that the other (who we'll call B) hasn't handled, but has heard of or seen somewhere. So B will politely but enthusiastically ask A to have a look at the piece. And then A, being a gun nut, will say something along the lines of "Sure - in fact, would you like to shoot it? We can use my range down the street" or "You bet, and let's take it apart as well, so you can see how it works". There's no hesitation or anything, and A is as eager to explain the gun in question as B is to see it.
What I've noticed, though, is that this basic interaction happens exactly the same way regardless of any factors besides both A and B recognizing each other as fellow gun nuts. [more]
Posted by Ian @ 06:35 PM CST [Link]
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. The other day I drew a slick & lucious glamor girl after somebody made a request. That girl coulda been right out of Playboy. (No, I haven't made her visible online; she's just for that one man unless he gives permission for me to post her.) This morning I decided to see what else I could do with the same model in the same pose. I don't think she'd recognize herself. But I kinda like her attitude.
A little scary posting this, knowing that most people will like it less than my earlier drawings. Well, so be it. She represents a technical advance for me in several ways, and posting her is also a needed experiment in courage for my budding inner artist.
Posted by Claire @ 02:04 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, July 27, 2006
ANYBODY WHO'D LIKE TO GET IN ON AN ORDER for the brand-new DullHawk flag, chime in here.
Also (teaser) one of the next Celata-family fundraising auctions will be for a time-honored flag donated by a patriot from Texas (that's a hint about what the flag might be). Debra should have that auction up soon.
Posted by Claire @ 01:12 PM CST [Link]
SINCE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF THINGS OUTLAWISH ... RJT points us all toward the Fake Identity Generator. Using randomized data, it'll give you a complete faux identity including address, phone number, and believable (but unusable!) credit-card number.
It bills itself as being for those times you're asked to give info to a web site. You don't want or need to give the real dope, but you also want zip codes to be consistent with addresses & so on in case some little e-snooper checks (as they increasingly do).
Or sometimes you'll deal with a company that insists on having a credit-card number on file even though you never in the world plan to charge anything to that card. Perhaps this little online app has other interesting uses, as well. Be creative.
Posted by Claire @ 12:14 PM CST [Link]
BEWARE THE NEFARIOUS CANINE PLOT FOR WORLD DOMINATION.
Or you could join it. That would be fun. Obey the Pure Breed. LOL!
Posted by Claire @ 11:46 AM CST [Link]
IT'S BILLED AS A DEVICE TO COUNTER that particularly crude form of movie piracy where somebody points a camera at a threater screen. But hmmm ... could this camera neutralizer some day become useful in the battle of The People vs. the State? It works just as many of us have described an effective camera-confusing device.
(Thanks once again to SJ.)
Posted by Claire @ 11:38 AM CST [Link]
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
WOW. "Gadsden Girl" just went for $305 after some very heavy last-minute bidding. I don't know who you are, eBay member aloch, but I think I love you. ;-)
In fact, I know the identity only of one bidder (a man who, I just learned, helped push the bids all the way to the top). But winners and (there are no) losers, what a rush. I hope you enjoy the satisfaction of helping to raise a helpful sum of money for the Celata family.
-----
And the Bill Kipp self-defense package just went for $46.27 -- a pretty solid price for those items, with some pretty good bidding there also. Thank you eBayer 81valw98!
We should have at least two more auctions to come, both with cool items donated by people outraged by what the BATFE has done to the Celatas. I'll check with Debra to see if those items are in hand and ready to list.
Posted by Claire @ 01:13 PM CST [Link]
AND HERE IS YOUR BIG GIGGLE FOR THE DAY. Put down that cup of coffee, lest you blow out your keyboard or snort hot liquid up your nose.
In 1932, the year Franklin Roosevelt won the first of his four terms in the presidency, the Democrat Party platform called for:
- "The removal of government from all fields of private enterprise except where necessary to develop public works and natural resources in the common interest"
- "... no interference in the affairs of other nations" and
- "... curtail[ing] the extravagant expenditures of the Government"
Oh yeah, 74 years ago, they also "solemnly promised" sound currency, balanced budgets, an end to the influence of lobbyists, a better justice system, and -- where have we heard this before? -- campaign finance reform.
Okay, on that last point, the platform doesn't actually promise anything. It merely "condemn[s] the improper and excessive use of money in political activities." Yeah. Sure. (Wink, wink. Nod, nod.)
I found this political comedy act while researching paradigm shifts. I wanted to find the point at which the U.S. governmental paradigm clearly shifted from minimal government to maximal government. But I'm not using this info in the article I was writing. Truth is, those within government have almost never believed in minimal government. It just took some time to foist the idea on the rest of us. In the meantime, cheesy deceptions like the 1932 Dem platform were necessary to con blind placate us.
The platform is by no means libertarian. You can already see big government all over it. But it also by no means foreshadows the actions Roosevelt took immediately upon gaining office. Smoke & mirrors -- very old, very useful tools. The rubes fall for the illusion every time.
Posted by Claire @ 10:02 AM CST [Link]
IF YOU LIVE IN New York City, Chicago, Kansas City, Austin, or Tampa, you can now get tickets to see America: From Freedom to Fascism. This little film is still valiantly struggling for attention and distribution, but it was helped along this week by an overall good (if rather strange) review on Ain't It Cool News, a hot entertainment-news site.
Posted by Claire @ 09:49 AM CST [Link]
THERE ARE SOME FEELINGS THAT JUST CAN'T BE DESCRIBED. Try watching your daily freedom quotes arrive in your mailbox -- and finding your own name (and words) sandwiched between Alexis de Tocqueville and George Washington.
Boy. Whoo.
Posted by Claire @ 09:41 AM CST [Link]
THESE ARE THE LAST FEW HOURS to bid on the "Gadsden Girl" pastel drawing and Bill Kipp self-defense book/DVD package. Both auctions are to raise funds for the Richard Celata family -- and to tell the BATFE exactly what freedom-loving gun owners think of their life-destroying tactics.
Awesome bidding you've already done, my friends. Thank you.
Posted by Claire @ 09:30 AM CST [Link]
Monday, July 24, 2006
THE PICTURE IS WORTH 10,000 WORDS. But the story is here.
(Thank you, TC for the lead and the laugh.)
Posted by Claire @ 01:49 PM CST [Link]
PRIVATE ARMIES profiting from government wars. Will these guys be with us, against us -- or merely on whichever side pays the most money?
(Thanks to kto for the heads-up.)
Posted by Claire @ 10:50 AM CST [Link]
THIS, MORE THAN ANYTHING I'VE HEARD OR READ, expresses the horror of what's being done to the innocent people of Lebanon. And once again "we" -- that is, taxpaying Americans -- are aiding the slaughter.
It's too hard to write about these horrors, so I'm glad other people can. But it does occur to me, over and over, that all these violent shows of power -- the U.S. in Afghanistan, the U.S. in Iraq, Israel in Lebanon -- are really shows of the most pathetic weakness. Can't bring the perpetrators of 9-11 to justice? No problem; just flail out and destroy entire countries to show how "strong" you are. Can't root out the agents of Hezbollah? No problem; just target fleeing families and a tragic country's newly rebuilt infrastructure.
This is "strength"? This is the sort of "strength" revealed by an abuser. Beat the weak because your actual enemies are less easy targets. Don't care who you hit, as long as you hit. Don't care what -- or whom -- you destroy, as long as you destroy. The credo of aggressive nation-states everywhere.
(And no, I'm not taking Hezbollah's side against Israel. They're guilty of the same barbarity -- just on a smaller and non-U.S. financed scale. A pox on all their houses. On a lighter note, the Mideast Morass (out of which we should damn well stay) reminds me of that cheery song, "The Merry Minuet.")
Posted by Claire @ 08:12 AM CST [Link]
Sunday, July 23, 2006
NEW WHEELS. About a year ago I began looking for a transportation alternative. My choice would have to be 1) affordable, 2) street legal with no drivers license, 3) street legal with no vehicle registration. In other words, a good Outlaw machine.
I wanted something that would replace my truck for around-town errand running -- that would haul groceries or library books up to Cabin Sweet Cabin and in a pinch haul a dog to the vet. It didn't have to be glamorous or speedy or high tech. Just useful.
It required a lot of help from my friends (special thanks to Dave Polaschek). It involved a couple of false starts and took much more time than I expected. But here it is: a recumbent trike hand-built by one of my neighbors. It has 14 speeds (supposed to be 21, but that's another story), rear disc brakes, front cantilever brakes, 24-inch rear wheels, and a 20-inch front wheel with a hub motor and wiring for electric-assist. All I need to do is add batteries. By next year I'd also like to have a trailer.
Boy, am I going to need that electric assist for hill climbing. I've tried only the most modest up-slopes so far and my poor legs! But so far I'm liking this.
The original TCF discussion of transportation alternatives is here. It contains a lot of ideas, should you be looking for a way out of $40 gas fillups. (Also contains a fair bit of useless but entertaining info.)
A bit more on my own adventures in Recumbent Trikeland is here.
Posted by Claire @ 12:20 PM CST [Link]
Friday, July 21, 2006
THANK YOU, ASINC 1022, winner of our first fundraising auction for the Celata family. And thank everybody who pushed the bid for the JPFO "Boot the BATFE" package up to $350!
An amazing group of bidders have also raised our "Gadsden Girl" fundraiser past $200. Wow. I mean wow. (wow.) Even the humble Bill Kipp self-defense auction (which we put up to give mere mortals the opportunity to stay in the bidding!) is at $31.
The rest of the world may be happily going to hell in a handbasket, but the people in this little e-community are great.
Posted by Claire @ 08:57 AM CST [Link]
SNORT. CHORTLE. Jim Bovard (who's having a prolific week), goes after the Busheviks for their feeble "'Terrorist' Batting Average":
The federal government has inflated the ``No Fly List" to 200,000 names. But the list has nabbed more members of Congress than it has terrorists. US Senator Edward M. Kennedy and US Representative John Lewis have been inconvenienced by it, and anyone named David Nelson is likely to face a major interrogation each time he flies. Federal officials make it very difficult to correct the list, thus tormenting citizens who are guilty of nothing more than having a name resembling a name suspected sometime by some government official.
Two hundred thousand now on the no-fly list? Yegads, what an amazing lot of us shoe-bombers,hijackers, and suspiciously vocal critics of the Bush administration there must be out here.
Posted by Claire @ 08:36 AM CST [Link]
Thursday, July 20, 2006
BRAD, OVER AT McBLOG, does a spot-on hysterical job of mimicking the famous Mogambo Guru. Instead of frothing over the insanity of the money world as Mogambo does, the "Macumba Hacker" turns several shades of purple over Bill Gates and wonders even more colorfully why we aren't all using Linux.
LOL. Well, I loved the column, Brad. I couldn't have written it half as well as you did. You channeled Mogambo and dun him one better. But after just spending two full weeks coping with the crazoid insanities of both W*s and Linux, I can tell you why the zombified masses are still using W*s. I can tell you why only a bold, brave few non-geeks love Linux.
The fact is that all us non-geeks are just sitting around waiting for somebody to invent a really good operating system.
[more]
Posted by Claire @ 08:43 AM CST [Link]
IT'S NO SURPRISE THAT "CONSERVATIVES" WORSHIP THE STATE. Even back in the Cold War days it was pretty obvious many of them longed to set up a rights-free military zone in the name of "anticommunism." GWB's "protecting freedom" by destroying freedom isn't that much different. Still, at least in those days they still had enough chutzpah to oppose the welfare state. And those old-timers wouldn't have been so crazy about living on credit. (What would they have thought of their political descendents spending like FDR on a bender?)
But maybe there's hope. As Jim Bovard shows desperate "conservatives" are getting extremely nasty now. Confident people don't feel a need to demand the heads (and various other body parts) of anyone who disagrees with them. Maybe the seeming possession of the entire "conservative" wing by the malign spirit of Coulter is a sign they unconsciously recognize their own moral and mental bankruptcy?
And then there's this consideration, of course:
National Journal recently revealed that the Bush administration is continuing to pursue Total Information Awareness, even though Congress compelled the formal abandonment of that program in 2003. The endless threats of treason prosecutions against whistleblowers, reporters, and editors may be a last ditch attempt to prevent Americans from learning about secret presidential orders that would make the NSA wiretapping look like kids’ stuff.
Posted by Claire @ 07:54 AM CST [Link]
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
AND OUR THIRD FUNDRAISING AUCTION for the Celata family is a Bill Kipp self-defense package -- book and DVD from Paladin Press.
Posted by Claire @ 02:48 PM CST [Link]
OKAY, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU GUYS. If you've ever wanted to take home a hot, liberty-loving, redheaded babe, now's your chance. Our second ebay auction for Rick Celata and family has just gone live. And "Gadsden Girl" can be yours.
Because ebay has some fussy rules on fundraising auctions and because a friend alerted us that anti-gunners might report us for breaking them, we've downplayed our fundraising language. But as with the first auction (which concludes tomorrow), all funds beyond our actual costs will go to help the Celata family, whose lives have been blighted by the BATFE.
Posted by Claire @ 01:49 PM CST [Link]
BEING PART OF SOMETHING. Mostly blogging is just noise. It may be entertaining noise or informative noise. But not much of it is substantive noise.
Oh, every once in a while you get The Power of the Blogosphere behind some story or scandal. Or along comes the occasional Radley Balko, who's done such dogged work on the Cory Maye case and on the whole issue of police-state SWAT raids. But without taking any credit away from his superb blogging, Balko is being paid by the Cato Institute to investigate police-statism. So awesome though he is, I doubt he's risking his doggies' kibble to dig deep for this life-saving data.
Now and then, somebody will pass along to me a lead on an important story developing somewhere in the world. Once in a while, it's solid, documented, but little-known information. Often as not, though, it's a rumor. Or a hint of a rumor. Or something the sender's brother's cousin witnessed. [more]
Posted by Claire @ 07:50 AM CST [Link]
TODAY'S THE LAST DAY to bid on the auction of JPFO items to help Rick Celata and his family. The bid's already at a nice figure, but it's been holding for a while.
Oh, I spoke too soon, sorry. You can actually bid through TOMORROW MID-DAY.
More auctions coming soon.
Posted by Claire @ 07:29 AM CST [Link]
YESTERDAY'S SELF-INDULGENT RANT about the lures and snares of the Internet produced some useful discussion, including some very clever and funny links from Cowardly Lion. Boy, if we could harness Procrastination Power, we could probably move the world. (But later; after I finish reading this article about Tom & Katie & the mysteries surrounding their new baby.)
Posted by Claire @ 07:22 AM CST [Link]
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
BEING BACK IN THE WORLD. And not wild about being here.
Three weeks ago the local Internet cafe closed without notice, leaving me with no means of getting email. I could still surf at the local library, but their systems are set up to allow little but surfing.
The Internet cafe had been key to the success of my Year of Silence (a year without home Internet or landline telephone). I had to choose between an extremely effortful and crippled Net experience or returning Internet service to Cabin Sweet Cabin.
Several friends were very helpful. But in the end, one was instrumental in setting me up with satellite Internet. Internet without telephone. It was a compromise.
A lot of people have noticed that in the last six months with no home noisy-boxes, I've become contemplative, peaceful, and a deeper writer. Now here was my Netly nemesis, right in my home again.
It's been 12 days. And I haven't handled it well at all. [more]
Posted by Claire @ 01:53 PM CST [Link]
Saturday, July 15, 2006
MY LATEST (NON)HARDYVILLE HARDYVILLE COLUMN is now online.
And I do hope that limb I'm creeping out onto doesn't crack and go crashing to the ground.
Posted by Claire @ 10:42 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, July 13, 2006
OKAY, GUYS. GET THOSE BIDS READY. Our first eBay auction to raise funds for Richard Celata and his family has just gone live.
This one is for a fat package of goodies from JPFO: tee-shirt, lapel pin, DVD, novel (autographed!) -- AND membership in the Producers' Circle for the upcoming film, The Gang: Using the Law to Destroy Your Freedom and Security. Total value: more than $300. Go!
And all you gun-bloggers, if you want to pick this announcement up and run with it, you go, too!
P.S. It's too late to get it into the auction listing (you can't change eBay copy once bidding has begun), but Aaron wanted us to note that the Producer's Circle membership for The Gang includes a DVD copy of the finished movie and a copy of the third edition of Gateway to Tyranny, which is soon going to press. So that part of the auction package will bring the winner more than just fame & glory. ;-)
Posted by Claire @ 06:18 PM CST [Link]
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
WITH A LITTLE HELP from Andy Lochridge, Gary Marbut, JPFO, Debra Webmistress of the Dark, and the wonderful people of TCF, we're going to help Rick Celata of KT Ordnance out of the dire straits Our Beloved Government put him into.
The first part of the fundraiser is a simple "pass the hat." I didn't realize it until a couple of days ago, but the BATFE and FBI essentially blew away ALL of Rick's income. (Yeah, they can ruin a person and put a family with pre-school kids in peril without even charging anybody with a crime. That's what they've tried to do with Rick.) Once he's got enough to keep the phone connected and the lawyer from walking out on him, we'll follow up with eBay auctions.
Follow the above link, or go direct to Gary Marbut's KT Ordnance page for the "pass the hat" portion of the fundraiser.
One bit of good news. According to JPFO, it looks as if KT Ordnance might be able to resume sales of its legal (but loathed by the BATFE) parts kits. I'll ask Rick about that. (Follow-up: He says his lawyer indeed okayed it, but he doesn't know if or when he'll be able do it.)
The BATFE does not belong in a free country. Hell, that pack of jackels doesn't belong in any country. JPFO and Rick Celata are right. It's time, and past time, to Boot the BATFE. FOREVER.
Posted by Claire @ 02:35 PM CST [Link]
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
ONCE AGAIN, GOVERNMENT ID CARDS AID KILLERS. It happened in Rwanda, where tribal classifications on government-issued cards enabled Hutus single out Tutsis for slaughter. Now, in Iraq, Shiites are identifying Sunnis by the names on their mandatory government IDs and singling them out for death. Sunnis have done the same in reverse.
So Sunnis are desperately seeking life-saving fake ID cards. And Shiites are seeking new Sunni-sounding names so they can work without fear in Sunni-dominated areas.
The linked article (sent by Jon Ford of Paladin Press, my new editor) never even mentions the word "mandatory," never even asks the basic question: Why are people carrying any document that might get them murdered? Do we take it so much for granted now that everyone on earth must carry government ID?
Other people's religious slaughters always look like mind-bogglingly idiotic folly from a distance. But the biggest folly of all is any government imagining that "official" ID will solve more problems than it causes.
Posted by Claire @ 02:05 PM CST [Link]
Monday, July 10, 2006
"ON MY COMING EXPATRIATION." No, not mine. The Dunedan's. He's leaving the U.S. for what he sees as freer places. His explanation is eloquent.
I've heard so many expatriate friends and acquaintances talk about the same phenomenon -- the sense of oppression and paranoia that lifts when they settle in a country where the police aren't prowling for harmless people to arrest and where the airport security apparatus is some old guy smiling as you pass through a metal detector.
Sometimes I think, "They're merely experiencing the lightness of being in a new place. Wait'll they settle in and discover the checkpoints, the bribe-taking, the anti-gun laws, the four-month waits for government phone service" -- or whatever. But one after another, they keep telling the same tale. They keep saying that the U.S. has become a brutal, paranoid security state where citizens creep around in fear of The Authorities, and that we don't really see the fullness of that violent insanity until we step out of it.
Sometimes I think my dogs are the only thing keeping me here. Well, that and the fact that while a lot of countries may truly be more laissez faire in an everyday sense, the U.S. still stands (however precariously) on sounder principles. Increasingly, though, I find my mind following those who go.
Posted by Claire @ 11:41 AM CST [Link]
Sunday, July 9, 2006
SERIOUSLY NOW. Do genuine terrorists plot openly in chat rooms? Once again, the media trumpet a dramatic fedbust. Yes, our Homeland Heroes have saved us from mayhem. Yes, we must submit to the Total Security State to preserve freedom against a world full of deadly enemies.
Then you get to the middle of the article. Hm.
Posted by Claire @ 05:14 PM CST [Link]
Just a light summery something after a photo I found on the Net.
Posted by Claire @ 04:52 PM CST [Link]
HAPPENINGS THIS WEEK:
1. KT Ordnance's Whiskey Day Memorial Machine Gun Shoot and Ice Cream Social. It begins Saturday, July 15 and runs through the 23rd. Following the recent BATFE/FBI raid, some planned features have been scaled back or revised. But the event goes on. (And yes, I'm proud to say Rick named the event after Hardyville's similar shoot and social. And I believe I stole borrowed that name from machine-gunner friend UnReconstructed. So we're all just passing on a great new tradition.)
2. A volunteer will match donations to Aaron Russo's new film project through July 13. Details are behind the "More" link. [more]
Posted by Claire @ 04:36 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, July 6, 2006
THIS LOVELY YOUNG WOMAN is the veterinarian who takes care of my dogs. And her heart is just as beautiful as her face. I gave her the original pastel this morning.
This is the first portrait I've done in decades and the first full-color portrait I've ever attempted. I can't get over it. Four months ago, I literally couldn't even do a competent telephone-pad doodle. Now old, choked-off skills are rushing back -- and then some. Man, I cannot convey what a thrill it is, breaking through a barrier that has held me back in miserable frustration all these years. If this is possible, then surely freedom must be possible.
Posted by Claire @ 03:29 PM CST [Link]
WHEN RICK CELATA OF KT ORDNANCE WAS RAIDED by the BATFE and FBI, the agents in charge sneered at the "suspicious and subversive materials" he was planning to discuss with his local sheriff. Rick -- who still roams free -- sent 'round this photo of those "subversive" documents.
I'm proud that my own (and JPFO's) Innocents Betrayed is front and center in subversion. Another "suspicious" item is public domain footage of Nazi death camps published by JPFO. But most dangerous of all, of course, is the Citizen's Rulebook, which contains (gasp!) the Bill of Rights -- ALL ten amendments! Shocking. Simply shocking. It's a wonder they didn't arrest that man on the spot.
Posted by Claire @ 03:22 PM CST [Link]
LAST WEEK I BLOGGED ABOUT THE SPACE PLANS of four tech-billionaires. The NPR report I linked to specified the mysterious & secretive nature of Jeff Bezos' project. But the mystery is being uncovered (in part thanks to all the gummint paperwork they have to file :-( ), as SJ discovered.
Posted by Claire @ 03:15 PM CST [Link]
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
LAST NIGHT I STOOD ON MY DECK AND WATCHED fireworks blooming all over the valley below. Our town doesn't have an "official" Independence Day display. But last night and Monday, dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of locals put on an impromptu show. Some booms were nearly as impressive as "real" Fourth of July events. These weren't the whimpy sparklers and kiddieworks sold locally, but the hot stuff brought illegally from the res.
I haven't celebrated this occasion in a few years. Seems there's not that much left to cheer. But this felt good. Miles and miles of "the [bottle] rockets' red glare" -- every blast set off by a mini Freedom Outlaw.
Posted by Claire @ 12:56 PM CST [Link]
Monday, July 3, 2006
WEARING A TEE-SHIRT WHILE QUIETLY DRINKING A CUP OF COFFEE is "protesting"? For which you can be arrested? Geez, I wonder if my "Property Protected by Owner" tee (which shows an old lady in isosceles stance pointing a pistol at whoever's standing in front of me) can be considered assault with a deadly weapon? Or how 'bout that RebelFire shirt? Could it be treason? Sedition? Terrorism?
Hey, guess I'm gonna keep on wearing 'em and see what happens.
Posted by Claire @ 02:39 PM CST [Link]
NEW BOOKS IN THE WOLFESBLOG AMAZON.COM STORE.
With advice from a number of helpful TCFers, I added the following books and DVDs to our Amazon.com bookstore today.
The new page will be online as soon as Debra can ftp it to the site, something I can't do here on the library's wireless system. But all the relevant links are in this blog entry. They join 100+ existing titles -- so browse, enjoy, and (if you're so inclined) buy.
Kill or Get Killed (close combat, with or without weapons)
The Debate on the Constitution, Volume One
The Debate on the Constitution, Volume Two
V for Vendetta (graphic novel hardcover)
V for Vendetta (graphic novel softcover)
In a new department headed "Creativity, Spirituality, and Philosophy":
The Artist's Way (hardcover)
The Artist's Way (paperback)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
And in the DVD section:
V for Vendetta (special two-disc set) (for pre-order)
V for Vendetta (one-disc widescreen) (for pre-order)
V for Vendetta (one-disc fullscreen) (for pre-order)
I'm collecting more titles and will probably add another selection of books within the month. Unfortunately the availability of some of my own books seems a little iffy right now. Three of my four Loompanics titles are now available via Paladin-Press (and the fourth should be; I think stocks ran out). But Amazon still lists Loompanics as the publisher. Dunno what effect that will have on orders.
