Some Thoughts About Amendment 2

I’m sure most of you have seen this. It’s a billboard sponsored by an as-yet unnamed businessman in Missouri. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the others highlighted in this diary at Orange too.

I find it incredibly offensive, but only because it’s coming from the WingNut faction. I figure if the government targeted in these public advertisements actually cared to enforce the law against sedition then they’ll do so before tomorrow morning. If not then it’s open season and somebody up there approves. I mean, it’s not like the feds don’t know who paid for it, whose company billboard it’s sitting on, and even who designed and printed it out and pasted it up. That’s what all this post 9-11 spying on Americans is all about, isn’t it? And the WingNuts love them some NSA spies rooting around in their email, business dealings, bank accounts and cell phone conversations. Or, they did when Shrubbie was POTUS, since he started it.

Which brings me to what is offensive here. It’s coming from those who served as tireless cheerleaders for wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the blanket abrogation of Constitutional and human rights here at home, for war crimes, the rendition and torture of prisoners of war in blatant violation of Geneva, for limitless government spying on innocent citizens and, finally, for the unaccountable billions and/or trillions printed to bail out Wall Street, the banking sector and even the Fed itself when the IMF began its long overdue audit of America’s books on The Day The Economy Fell. All the while unconcerned about trillions in deficit spending to support not just those illegal wars and the largest expansion of Big Brother in our history, championing Greed Gone Wild that brought this nation and the rest of the world to its knees.

So yeah, I’d be happy if the feds took down these billboards and charged some WingNuts with sedition (then let the courts handle it). Deal is, I suspect they won’t. I believe it’s all just more distraction encouraged by the government that should otherwise be concerned. They’re hoping to foment violence in the streets because it will serve to keep everybody scared more of their own neighbors than of the government itself, despite what the billboard says. Let’s face it – wacko WingNuts aren’t going to target the actual government – they’re yellow, the lot of ’em. They’ll be targeting those they’ve been carefully taught to target. Democrats, liberals, gays, blacks, non-Christians of all varieties, the “wrong kind” of Christians, etc., etc. Less a revolution than a civil war that’s really only a murderous insurgency of crazy people.

Frightened city and state officials will dispatch the riot troops, crack some heads and probably kill some folks, and while it will be ugly, it won’t threaten the inner-beltway/Wall Street status quo one bit. That’s just what ‘they’ want – an outlet for the anger that’s reached a boiling point. Rather we shoot at each other than at them.

That bit of anti-government, anti-WingNut ranting out of the way, look at what the billboard actually says.

1. Starve the Beast, keep your money.

I don’t have much money, am already behind in taxes because we don’t have much money. If they force us to purchase insurance or fine us on taxes, I’ll owe more they can’t get because we don’t have it. Check on #1, I’m way ahead of these folks.

2. Vote out incumbents. Duh. We did quite a bit of that last November, and this November locally. I’m all for it, have been engaged in trying to do that very thing regularly ever since Jesse Helms. Ask Liz Dole how well that works. Check on #2, it’s a regular way of voting.

3. If steps 1 & 2 fail?

PREPARE FOR WAR – LIVE FREE OR DIE

Ummmkay. Having had some actual experience of wars and military and such in my lifetime, I am not stupid enough to take on the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines with grandpa’s shotgun. Since I suspect the WingNuts aren’t that stupid either as a group, it looks to me like it’ll be THEM I’ll have to defend against with grandpa’s shotgun. And luckily, I can.

Amendment 2 of the US Constitution reads:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I’m not a militia, well-regulated or un-regulated. Nor am I of a mind be, having done my time already. But I am a “people” and I keep and bear arms. Specifically, grandpa’s shotgun. I also have not one but two nifty homemade trigger-operated spudzukas that are awesomely fun. Trigger’s a piezoelectric grill-starter mechanism hard-wired to the trigger, fuel is StaticGuard, and ammo anything from actual spuds to rock-hard dried pears to… well, you COULD load it with just about anything that’ll fill the PVC barrel well enough to fly out when it fires, including a sack of nails. That’s sort of up to ones’ imagination.

I could buy a pair of pearl handled six-shooters like the ones my Dad taught me to shoot tin cans with when I was 11, down at the old strip mine. I really liked them, was a very good shot. But we always had kids around until recently, so didn’t keep handguns at all. I liked the Uzi 9mm my friend in Miami let me shoot once just to see if I could (I did better than him). I could buy one of those in the city if I wanted. We had an SKS for awhile after we moved here, but quickly found the shotgun was much better for our purposes (scaring wildlife and/or hunters), so we sold it when we were broke. I could get another. There’s a nifty kit for the shotgun we’d like to buy, makes it look really bad. Ever seen the ads in The Shotgun News?

Deal is, I have a right to bear arms. I have that right out here in the boonies just as I’d have it in a city or town. And “arms” isn’t limited to guns either – we have grandson’s large collection of medieval maces, hatchets, swords and spears, plus several nice long and compound bows and a couple of crossbows. We’ve several friends locally who are armed to the teeth. Actually, pretty much everybody who lives in these parts is armed. They’re no more dangerous than I am. Which I guess is T-H-E point.

I am a person so liberal I probably qualify as “socialist” way more than Barack Obama does or ever will. A genuine lefty here, but no pacifist. The same is true of everyone in my family that lives (or has lived) here. And all our friends. Neighbors not so much, but they aren’t the type to come up here armed and looking for trouble any more than we’d go looking for trouble bearing guns at their places. No reason to be afraid.

It’s just that I think the wacko WingNuts out there buying into all this “revolution” shit should probably be made aware of their false notions of us lefty liberal types. A lot of us are armed and will protect ourselves if they make us do so. Maybe it would help curb the craziness somebody is fomenting among them, and NOT for their greater good. Heck, if they could be made to wake up even that much, they might find that their frustrations and anger aren’t all that unique, and not exclusive to them and their winger friends at metal-church.

Or not. Either way they won’t be getting far around here if they do come looking for trouble. Perhaps just knowing their chosen targets aren’t near as helpless as they’ve been hypnotized by FoxNews to believe would go a long way toward nipping this manipulated insanity in the bud.