That's What's Up - Some Freedom!


Supreme Court finds individual right to own guns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, for the first time in the nation's history, that individual Americans have the right to own guns for personal use, and struck down a strict gun control law in the nation's capital.

The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years that the high court has addressed whether the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, rather than a right tied to service in a state militia.

Here.


Court rules in favor of Second Amendment gun right

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

Here.


Court: A constitutional right to a gun

Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the majority stressed that the Court was not casting doubt on long-standing bans on gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, or laws barring guns from schools or government buildings, or laws putting conditions on gun sales.

In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington’s strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one’s home, and a requirement that any gun — except one kept at a business — must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed.

Here.


Court rules in favor of Second Amendment gun right

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision goes further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

Here.

George Carlin - Aw shit, I'm dead.


George Carlin on wikipedia.

Story of his death and life.

You've Got My Vehicle!

So you've got the accuracy-while-moving down pat with your wrist crossbow, the most important question still lingers - what will you be driving around in while you move from town-to-town skimming the convenience-store shelves for that last can of chick peas?

It is a question we Raiders often discuss and just recently my father-in-law forwarded me an online article from WIRED magazine answering this very question.

Here's the list they came up with:

1. Toyota FJ40
2. Unimog
3. Ural Patrol (Motorcycle)
4. VW's Concept T
5. ATF Dingo
6. A Unicycle
7. Jeep CJ
8. The Interceptor
9. Stryker
10. Volkswagen Beetle

Now as a fella who has owned a CJ Jeep (1982 - CJ5), a Land Cruiser (my fav: FJ-60), tried to convert a 68 Mustang into the Interceptor (good Lord, if I got a nickel for every bad idea . . .), and is currently learning how to "ride" a unicycle (background for a short story - long story), I think I can add a few comments here:

1) Motorcycle should be a Rokon - these things are unstoppable, also 2-wheel drive, have a side car option, have enough torque to drag a fallen tree out of a road, and also have an optional mount for the back of your truck - so you can have a "back-up" vehicle when your Ford Expedition craps out.

Jordanian special ops on a Rokon.

2) VW - I like the idea of mod'ing out a dune buggy into a poor man's version of the Navy SEAL "Doom Buggy"

3) Whatever you end up using, you'll need to modify it with versatile "big tanks" to hold all of the extra gas you'll need to make it through the Wasteland.

Although I am a subscriber to Wired magazine, I am notoriously behind on my reading, so I hadn't the article before he sent it over.

I hope to see that this made it to print in the June issue - maybe sometime around September.

Bateman

In honor of the upcoming release of The Dark Knight - one of the best recuts on YouTube.

Random stupid on the new GI JOE Movie

Ok - I know it's really hip to say how bad things are, everything sucks (remember how cool this made you feel back in high school?), but there are some things that should never be touched.

And one of those - is the mission of GI Joe - A Real American Hero.

Apparently, this is more than liberal, USA-hating Hollywood can stand, and thus, the producers of the new GI Joe movie have made some slight alterations:

Paramount has confirmed that in the movie, the name G.I. Joe will become an acronym for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity" — an international, coed task force charged with defeating bad guys. It will no longer stand for government issued, as in issued by the American government.

That's awesome, because there really is a world standard for who the "bad guys" are. Hmm . . . do we give it an Eastern angle, and support the status quo of the world superpower in that region, or do we base it on natural resources and thus look out for the interests of the Middle East?

I know . . . we can all have a vote and then decide on what's best - oh, wait . . . most of the world's countries don't believe in silly concepts like "God-given rights," "freewill," and freedom to worship and express yourself.

No - they're too busy dragging political dissidents off to gulags, harvesting their organs, or chopping the arms off of their neighboring tribes.

Oh, wait . . . that's right - we're supposed to be the "bad guys" now. Bringing all that awful foreign aid to all of the good countries of the world, selfishly being first to provide medical support and supplies in times of disasters, and adopting unwanted children from other countries that just throw them away if they are unlucky enough to be born female instead of male.

The word is that in the current political climate, they're afraid that a heroic U.S. soldier won't fly.

I first saw this on AintItCool.com, but here's the full article on Fox.

Thanks, Hollywood . . . but didn't you already made this movie?

Road Warrior Reality - Part 1

A few weeks ago I was getting a part for my ailing Land Cruiser (FJ-60) at the local auto parts store. Since I live in a semi-rural area, it's always a crap shoot on whether or not they'll have the right part, and if they do - it's often offered at mining camp "company store" prices.

There was a woman in line ahead of me who was buying a locking gas cap for her car. She decried the higher cost of gas prices and mentioned that it would be to help prevent folks from stealing the gas out of her car.

I smiled to myself and thought this is how it begins. With a whisper - and some soccer mom buying a gas cap lock at the auto parts store.

Then gas is $5 and everyone flips out. I mean, hell, that's real money, right? A few years go by and we'll be talking about the "good old days" when gas was only $4.75.

Get up to $10 a gallon and stealing gas is not just an inconvenience, it becomes a daily part of life. Either that, or we shut down.


Here is just one example of what will be the new normal. My emphasis below:

Fuel Thieves Targeting Truckers

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thieves with some type of pumping mechanism are targeting truckers, stealing hundreds of dollars worth of fuel.

"There is so much of it being taken, to the tune of hundreds of gallons, that it has to be through some type of pumping mechanism," Daytona Beach Sgt. Bill Rhodes said. "This seems to me to be well organized."

Detectives said the thieves are targeting truck stops near Interstate 95 in Florida.

"You have to watch where you park your truck or leave it," trucker Rick Morgan said. "If somebody is watching you at a truck stop, when you go inside and shower or eat, they are stealing fuel right out of your truck."

It can cost more than $750 to fill up many 240-gallon tanks on big rigs, Local 6 reported..

Morgan said truckers are also robbing each other because the price of gas is so high.

"It has gotten real bad," Morgan said. "Some of our owner operators at our company have fueled up and awaken in the morning to find their tanks empty."

Many truckers said they are trying new gas locks, Local 6's Tarik Minor reported.

More - http://www.local6.com/news/16484653/detail.html

Well, folks that's it.

The moment we've all been waiting for.

Pull out your football pads and strap on the wrist crossbow.