July 6, 2010 - Tuesday | 8:08 AM, CST Howdy-ho, Pith Helmeteers! I hope everyone had a good Independence Day. Mine was interesting, although I didn't get half as many things done this weekend as I'd wished. Most of my fun-time activities were limited to the 4th. I stayed up all day on Friday after work, so I spent half of Saturday making up for the lost sleep. Kelly and I met up with Mom at the Chinese place for lunch on Friday. There was some dopey looking yay-hoo sitting at the table next to us with a shirt that read (if I can remember correctly) "No Borders No Nation Stop the Deportations!" Unfortunately, he left before I could say too many pro-Arizona comments obviously meant to be overheard. Later that night, Kelly and I watched "Legion." It was alright, I guess, but I'd wait until it shows on TV before wasting your money on a rental. God help the poor soul who forked over the serious cash to watch it in a theater. It seems that nobody can make a good movie these days. Lately it seems like whenever I finish watching a new movie, I'm left wondering what the hell the plot was supposed to be. We've had Netflix for a few months now, and we typically choose older movies, classics, documentaries, or hard-to-find indie films. The 4th had me up fairly early, as we had plans to celebrate our independence with the good old American pastime of shooting. We were supposed to meet at Joe's mom's house at ten o'clock, but I was running late and didn't get out the door until about twenty after. Apparently Joe and Bryan were running late as well, because when I arrived at 10:40, no one had shown up. I decided to drive around for a bit and wound up at Buswell cemetery. I found the grave of George Buswell, who was apparently a Confederate veteran. (Click here.) Joe tells me that Buswell cemetery is the only graveyard in the nation with an equal number of Union and Confederate burials. Joe and Bryan finally showed up a little after eleven o'clock. I brought out my 10/22, my SR 556, and my 870. I finally got my new Redfield 4-12 scope sighted in, and while I didn't shoot it that much, I was fairly pleased with the results. Here is a picture of Bryan firing at a clay with my shotgun. I can't remember if he made the shot, but considering that he is such a loser, we can safely assume that he in fact did not. And here is a picture of Joe and me with our assault rifles. I was considering attending the fireworks in Fowler that night, but decided on Watseka instead. Boy was that a mistake. We met up with William and Amy, who were just as clueless as Kelly and me as to where the fireworks were to be set off this year. It was a clusterfuck. Everyone I spoke with seemed to have heard a different location, and it took about a half-hour of searching to find the right place to sit. We wound up at the high school, and I guess it wasn't too bad of a show. It was about the size of the Iroquois display. Here is a picture of William and Amy sitting on the tailgate of their truck. After the fireworks, Kelly and I got a spur of the moment idea to run to Steak and Shake for supper (it was eleven or so by then and neither of us had eaten). Amy had to be at work early the next day, but William was up for the idea. We came into town to pick him up, and he pointed out an owl that had landed in his tree just a few minutes before we arrived. I don't think I've ever seen an owl that close before, certainly not close enough to photograph. Here's a picture of the three of us at Steak and Shake. I'd like to start recording my dreams again. On the ride home from Kankakee, the three of us were talking about strange dreams, and I began to realize that I just don't remember enough of mine anymore. Back when I wrote them down, I held on to them a lot better in my mind. Also, perusing my old dream descriptions helped me remember cool dreams that I had otherwise forgotten. Actually, the vast majority of my dreams are a recurring theme. I am either living in a haunted house, or driving around through cemeteries on my way to haunted houses. There are maybe about ten cemeteries that I dream about frequently, and perhaps three or four haunted houses where I live in various dreams. Most of the haunted houses aren't actually mine. It may interest both Andy and Nathan to know that they almost always make an appearance in my "spooky" dreams. Andy lives in the majority of haunted houses in my dreams, and the typical plot of my spooky dreams involves driving around on lonely, dark country roads, past old crumbling cemeteries to find the haunted house where Andy lives. Almost always during my drives I see Nathan slowly driving around the same roads in the old Silver Bullet. I'm not really sure why this is a recurrent theme, since I've never really associated Andy with haunted houses. I figure Nathan probably comes in from the number of times I've met him at random while cruising around out in the country. Oddly enough, I never actually see him in his truck... its only a dark silhouette faintly illuminated by dashboard lights.
I've been keeping up with the recent Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling of late regarding the Chicago handgun ban. I'm sure this has interested most of you as well. I'm not surprised that Daley is doing everything possible to try to minimize and negate the ruling, or that the rubberstamp city council voted unanimously to approve the new "ordinance." I guess I'm just a little disappointed (though still not surprised) that SCOTUS had four dissenting voters agreeing that a handgun ban was constitutional. Having been interested in Second Amendment legislation since I bought my first gun, I'd like to think that I'm pretty well educated on the issue. Of primary interest to me is the history of the Second Amendment, and the intent of the founders who actually wrote the amendment. I've read several books on the history, and trust me, it isn't any more clear that the founders intended the Second Amendment to mean exactly what it says in "shall not be infringed." The militia clause is basically a preamble, because back when the Constitution was ratified, lawmakers actually thought it necessary to explain why they were making a law. And since every able-bodied male was expected to contribute to the community's defense with a self-supplied firearm, the entire language of the Second Amendment couldn't be any more clear. So to have four supposed experts on Constitutional law blatantly lie and vote against the true meaning is a travesty. I think that when something is so completely obvious like this, there ought to be some way of recalling SCOTUS judges. The only problem arises with the fact that judges were meant to have lifetime appointments to prevent coercion. Normally this is a good thing, but when the language of a law is so clear that the average simpleton drop-out can understand it, something has to be done. And its salt in the wound that Obama's appointee Sotomayor claimed she viewed the Heller decision as "settled law." Its obvious now that she was lying in order to avoid any problems with her appointment. Kagan will be no different. Personally I think Senate Republicans should filibuster any Obama appointee to the SCOTUS regardless of their background. Clearly he can't be trusted not to put radical socialists up for nomination that let their own personal agendas interfere with their jobs. On that note, I heard on the news this morning that the new head of NASA, another Obama appointee, gave an interview with al-Jazeera. They asked him, as the head of NASA, what was his primary goal... His response? "To reach out to the Muslim world." So NASA's in the business of reaching out to the Muslim world these days, eh? Never mind space exploration, he said he wants to highlight Muslims' contributions to the sciences. Right... like the proper execution methods for hanging immodest women from construction cranes. Give me a break.
You may have noticed that I unlocked the journal archive. I think I'm going to take a "go fuck off" approach to random dingbats that have a problem with things I've written in the past. You may have also noticed that I'm getting more SPAM in my comments. I guess I'm either going to have to figure out sooner rather than later a way to protect it so that only legitimate users can post messages. Either that or disable it for now. We'll see how bad it gets.
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©2000-2010 Matthew | E-mail: mhavens at alcade.net | ICQ: 24626751
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