Iran is persecuting some of its blogging citizens for speaking out against the governemnt. Reporters Without Borders is reporting that journalist and blogger Arash Sigarchi was arrested last month and his website blocked from access within Iran. Committee to Protect Bloggers reported on his arrest last month and is calling for people to contact the Iranian government and demand his release.

A second blogger, Saminejad has been freed, but is still facing charges.

Is it really charity when the government gives your money to aid the needy? A recent example is the $350 million President Bush has promised for Tusami relief. Walter E. Williams examines this question in his column.

Tennessee Rep. Col. Davy Crockett, in speech before the House of Representatives, said, in protest against a $10,000 appropriation for a widow of a distinguished naval officer, “We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity, but as members of Congress, we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.”

I have been thinking along these same lines myself. I feel compasion for the victims of this huge natural disaster, but I feel no pressing need to donate money when the government has already done so on my behalf and without asking.

One of the Boomershoot precision rifle clinic instructors, SGT. Adam Plumondore was just killed in Iraq. You can read about him at Rivrdog, Kim du Troit and take a look at pics from Deuce Four Recon photo gallery.

My prayers go out to his family and friends. I am thankful for his sacrifice.

update: Here is rivrdog’s report on the memorial service at Ft. Lewis. And Sgt. Plumondore’s Battalion Commander Eulogizes him and another fallen soldier.

This came in from Free Muslims Against Terrorism, a group that I don’t totally agree with but is doing a heck of alot more work than most muslim groups.

On February 10, 2005 Saudi Arabia will hold its first ever municipal elections.
The anticipated election is part of a drive to introduce political reforms in Saudi Arabia.
You probably haven’t heard as much about the upcoming elections in Saudi Arabia as you did about elections in Iraq and Palestine. However, these elections are a big deal in a kingdom where democracy is not practiced at any level of society.

…
Recently however, Saudi government officials have indicated that women may not be
allowed to participate in the elections. The official reason given was that there wasn’t time to work out the logistics and that they might not be able to work it out in time for the next elections scheduled for 2009. The Free Muslims Against Terrorism take
issue with barring women from voting.

Seems like the Saudis need to go talk to the Iraqis, they seem to have done a pretty good job with their elections. While they’re at it they might want to give a Constitutional Republic a try.

I’ve got some advice for all of you. If you’re going to get drunk don’t play with your guns. Even if your sober its not really a good idea to go ‘passing a gun around’ the table. And finally, if you do you damn well make sure it is unloaded and the action is open. Personally. Don’t take anyone elses word for it.

KOMO reports on a shooting where the real culprit for the so called accident was stupidity mixed with a liberal dose of alcohol.

Professor Williams has this to say about our ‘democracy’ -

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn’t the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we’ve become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.

You can read the rest of Professor William’s essay at his website

I must admit that I sometimes use these words interchangably. I do know the difference, and much prefer our republic to the inevitable chaos of a true democracy.

According to this report the terrorists in Iraq have tried to make good on their promise of reprisals against people who voted in last weekend’s historic elections. But in at least one case the voters are fighting back

MARK WILLACY: That’s right, Tony. The Iraqi police have investigated a case in the village of al-Mudhariya, which is just south of Baghdad. The villagers there say that before the election insurgents came and warned them that if they voted in last weekend’s election, they would pay.

Now the people of this mixed village of Sunni and Shia Muslims, they ignored the threat and they did turn out to vote.

We understand that last night the insurgents came back to punish the people of al-Mudhariya, but instead of metering out that punishment the villagers fought back and they killed five of the insurgents and wounded eight. They then burnt the insurgents’ car. So the people of that village have certainly had enough of the insurgents.

Stand up to a bully enough times and he’ll go away. Kill enough terrorists and eventually they’ll all be dead and you will be left with a free country.

The ‘blogs are alight with accusations that George Bush kills children (what else is new), their evidence is a shooting that happened in a town in Iraq named Tal Afar, where the parents of 6 children were killed when they failed to stop for a patrol after dusk. You can read the account of the photographer, who was there and took the heart-wrenching pictures of the children that are spreading across the net like wildfire. Sites like National Catholic Reporter and WarBlogging are trying to use this incident to claim that Iraq is no more free than it was before the US Liberation.

To me the photographer’s account clearly describes a tragic situation where the soldiers did their best to stop a car, but in a country where car-bombs are one of the terrorists weapon of choice you quickly reach the decision point where you have to save the lives of your troops. The facts as presented: This happened at dusk. There is a curfew (I am not sure when it is in effect, but dusk is traditionally when you want everyone inside). The car appeared to be accelerating. It did not stop after warning shots were fired. So far this year (in less than a month!) 5 car-bombs have attacked check-points in the area.

ed.

On Sunday 14 year Iraqi police veteran Abdul Amir al-Shuwayli gave his life so that his country could be free. As people lined up at a polling place Abdul recognized the dress of a homicide bomber as he approached. He rushed the bomber, pushing him away from the voters and into an intersection where the bomb detonated, killing both of them. Amazingly the voters continued to line up, and according to Capt. Firaz Mohammed Ali “Residents began coming out of their homes and lining up in even greater numbers after the explosion.” You can read the full heroric story here.

ed.

You would think that at the least a Government school would teach kids about the government, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Especially with the majority of the teachers leaning to the left you would think that a good understanding of the 1st Amendment would be taught.

But that’s not the case, according to this Yahoo News article -

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get “government approval” of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

Asked whether the press enjoys “too much freedom,” not enough or about the right amount, 32% say “too much,” and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little

Given this lack of understanding of the 1st Amendment I dread the results of a survey on the other 9. How about the 2nd, 4th and 5th? All 10 are the basic building blocks of our Liberty, but these 4 should be taught to every 1st grader. Remember that the point of the Constitution was to limit the powers of the government, not to grant rights or control citizens. How many High School students understand that simple but essential fact?

ed.

Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership has a new video available that details how the BATFE tries to convict an innocent gun owner for manufacturing and owning a ‘machine gun’. Claire Wolfe has seen the video, although I have not. Read the JFPO Alert here, and their background info on the case here.

I wish they had posted some of the video to the web, or at least some still shots from it. I really don’t want to spend $18 for it without a preview.

With the WA State Legislature and Congress back in full swing now is a good time to examine ways to quickly analyze their new attempts to curtail our freedom. Joe Huffman came up with a great test back in 1999, the “Jews In The Attic Test”, which asks the basic question – will this law/reglation make it difficult or impossible to protect innocent life from a government intent on their imprisonment or death?

That pretty well sums it up for me. Take a look at the slew of new gun restrictions that the WA State Dems. want to inflict on the innocent citizens of this state and put them to the test.

Joe is also the inventor/instigator/coordinator of Boomershoot, on of the coolest annual shooting events. His blog, The View From N.Central Idaho is a good place to visit.
ed.

Here’s some of what it takes to keep us free. Here’s a Marine who was shot and blasted with a grenade saving some of his fellow Marines (and killing some terrorists in the process):

from Sgt Grit’s Marine Forum. Notice he still has his M9 Beretta 9mm in his hand (finger properly off the trigger of course). Keep up the good work guys, get well soon!

ed.

Sorry I didn’t post about the Iraqi election this weekend, congratulations to a new democratic country! I hope that you can keep it that way. With freedom breaking out all over the place we sometimes forget that it isn’t everywhere. No, I’m not talking about more privacy abuses by John Ashcroft, I’m talking about Nepal. The little country that we only seem to hear about where there’s an expidition to Mt. Everest. According to this Yahoo News story their King has declared martial law in their Consitiutional Monarchy (there’s a contradition in terms!) and cut off all connections to the outside world.

In an announcement on state-run television, the king accused the government of failing to conduct parliamentary elections and being unable to restore peace in the country, which is beset by rebel violence.

“A new Cabinet will be formed under my leadership,” he said, accusing political parties of plunging the country into crisis. “This will restore peace and effective democracy in this country within the next three years.”

Sounds like the usual drivel you hear from a budding dictatorship. I hope that the people of Nepal can throw off this Monarchy and return to their democratic ways.

ed.