There's a lot of chatter across the gun blogs about the Scott Brown win, ranging from "w00t!" to "Yeah, so?"
I suppose it's a measure of my concern over how thoroughly ObamaCare and Cap'N'Trade would trash what's left of the economy that I found myself cheering for the victory of someone who is, at best, a milquetoast Northeastern Republican who is ideologically a lot more Rockefeller than Goldwater. Let's not kid ourselves: This is a Band Aid on a sucking chest wound.
I turn 42 on Sunday and I don't have kids; at this stage in the game, my goal is to not spend my dotage as Patient #462,865 in State Retirement Hospital 73, because I'm allergic to gruel and American Idol reruns. My expectations are not particularly lofty; I'm not expecting any great return of freedom to these shores in my lifetime, but I'll settle for the place not turning into Sweden with NASCAR.
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Well conservatives here in Mass. have very few options. Mr. Brown was a huge (and I do mean HUGE) step in the right direction. Will he be perfect? No, but who is? At this point in my life (I'm a tad older than you... grumble...) I'll take what I can get. Just so you know how big a deal it is here, of the registered voters in Mass. 40% are Donkeys, 10% are Elephants, and 50% don't know who they are.... BTW - I read your blog daily. Keep it up.
Jaime
Happy upcoming birthday! I remember 42...it's how old I was the first time we inaugurated 43 :)
It will take a while to turn this ship of state around. In the meantime, let's hope Scott Brown wasn't just a flash in the pan.
"This is a Band Aid on a sucking chest wound."
Excuse me. I just thought it would be better if this were said twice.
"I'll settle for the place not turning into Sweden with NASCAR."
Isn't that already Finland?
Childless, too, 41 next month... if you need a neighbor in the boonies that appreciated fine American IPAs, and expect to into his dotage, let me know. But you know we'll just reminisce about Ultraman, Marine Boy, and B&W Gilligans Island when we're sitting in rocking chairs, age 80.
Re: patient #462,865. If I ever get to that point I'll keep one gun and one cartridge.
Be of good - or better, anyway - cheer Tam, ObaMao's agenda has taken a BIG hit and we're offered a reprieve, perhaps even a permanent one, from the total government takeover of 16% of the economy. Perhaps there's a layer of plastic wrap and duct tape over the band-aid.
Bride had her 42nd three months ago and is doing fine. Buck up lass!
I'll be 45 on Sunday. Childless. Saving a bullet.
Oh, don't be so gloomy. I've heard Sweden is quite nice.
Er...actually I think Hillary told me that. Never mind.
I'm heading for Nicaragua...
Just enough Anarchy to keep me on my toes, and at least the socialists call themselves socialists...
TBG
I like to think of it as how antacids work. They're not actually basic, but being less acidic they help to bring your stomach back from where it was. Brown's like that: if his election can make the people of Massachusetts realize that they actually do have choices then both parties will have to react. This may mean that Kerry is replaced by, say, a rabid socialist who nonetheless favors national concealed carry (and really, don't we all want to conceal Kerry?), but it may also mean that we get the next Reagan as well.
Is that a typo Tam? Shouldn't it be 24? Happy Birthday.
Or, that the Ds get all stealthy and active again.
I've had the thought before, that I'd rather trust a Texas Democrat than a Yankee Republican, at least before I heard about that "loyalty oath" before the DNC will bestow their blessings on your candidacy as one of them. (The "oath" demands that, in return for their party endorsement of you proclaiming yourself a Dem, you will support every other Dem candidate out there, no matter how much you think they're a scumbag.)
I had not heard anything about Scott Brown's gun views. I don't that election really had anything to do with that though. It seems to me that most in MASS have nearly universal health care, and they did not want to pay for the added cost of different syste?
Cheers! Ricco
webulite.com
"I had not heard anything about Scott Brown's gun views."
Very Mixed. Seems to be OK with Concealed Carry, but is against private sales. The huge problem is that he sees no problem with registration and license to own (i.e. current MA laws).
Make no mistake: Brown is a Masshole Republican, NOT a conservative. In most of the metropolitan northeast, 'Republican' just means fiscally responsible Democrat, and 'Democrat' means: Socialist who can't stand to look at themselves in the mirror.
What makes this a win is that someone who doesn't hold full-on socialist views was elected in a state where Dems outnumber Repubs 3 to 1.
The BEST part is the Dems seem to be in near total denial about WHY this happened... which means they won't learn anything from it, and the mid-terms could go very well for freedom.
I don't know why I thought you were in your late 20s or early 30s. Well, congrats!
And I am trying to moderate my excitement. I know Brown is more of a conservative Democrat than a real conservative but for MA he might as well be the furthest right wing nut (at least in liberal eyes). I'm just thrilled that MA spoke up and against the craziness than is Obama.
I turned 58 yesterday; 42 sounds like a good age to be right now; mature, but still young.
In advance, happy birthday, Tam!
45 next month, childless, & not liking this high-school-play version of "Atlas Shrugged."
It seems the Brown election has rearranged something, anyway. The Hill reports - Pelosi announced the House does not have the votes to pass a HealthCare bill right now.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77289-pelosi-house-lacks-votes-to-pass-senate-bill
Apparently they need to wait for a bill to give themselves pay raises, then add ObamaCare as an amendment.
Think minor tactical victory (or even a draw) with major strategic implications. Brown wasn't Midway, but he may have been The Battle of the Coral Sea.
Could all still go either way, but at least there was a line that they could not pass at this time.
First, an early Happy Birthday!
I'm 48 with one biological child (a son, age 7) and an adopted daughter (age 3).
There's an old adage to the effect that being a parent is a hundred times harder and a thousand times more rewarding than you can imagine. That is true in my experience, but I'll offer a close friend's corollary: To be a parent is to be worried.
I fear for my children and I fear for their future, for reasons clear to anyone paying the slightest attention to events these days. We've been destroying every element of what was once America for generations now, right down to our ability to reason, and the process appears to be accelerating.
I can't imagine any return of freedom to these shores either, unless that can be supplanted. I can hope for a Second Enlightenment, but I have no reason to expect one in my lifetime or that of my children.
My wife and I would have shrugged long ago, were it not for them. As it is, we drag our butts to the office every day, navigate an insane system run by bureaucrats and try to earn a living that will give our kids what advantages we can salvage.
Scott Brown was elected. Yes, great news and all that. A little more time before our obstinate solo medical practice is assimilated by the Hive; a few more years to work in the best interest of my patients rather than following mandatory "guidelines" in order to be paid.
A few more years to show my kids, firsthand, how things are supposed to be and how they once were. A little more time for them to watch, ask questions, learn how to reason and perhaps grasp what this odd and outmoded principle of freedom means, and why my grandparents gave up everything to come here in 1939.
It isn't much, but it's all I have and the best that I can do.
Hell, if it turns to Sweden with NASCAR, I'd be hard-pressed not to just go see how it is in Sweden.
52 last Sunday - I share your concern and like what Woldfwood said, if his election can make the people of Massachusetts realize that they actually do have choices then both parties will have to react. We need a lot of that here, where the Evil Party has only been abetted by the Stupid Party in their Dance of Somnambulism.
I've been to Sweden, despite all the Bikini Team crap they're a bunch of uptight moralists - even my dad the Preacher thought so. Last time they were there he just couldn't "drive 55" - but while passing another car or two on the highway he got the stinkeye glare from those he passed: "Better slow down like the rest of us," was the unspoken command. They might have a race track or two for the wild and crazy social misfits, but there's no NASCAR there.
I reckon there is a difference between aging and getting old.
I further reckon that you're aging, and I mean getting better with it the same way wine does.
Happy birthday.
Jim
I digress...
"I turn 42 on Sunday"
Happy birthday, you are now the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Tam,
It's Chinatown.
Seriously, it's Massachusetts. What did you expect? Reagan?
Actually, he's not at all bad on firearms, and likely to drift right on the issue, if his support and seriously close personal links with the Tea Party folks is any indication.
He shot 4 position smallbore in High School, is a serious duck hunter, and has 30 years in the National Guard, with two deployments out of country.
Also, he's a Mustang, who started out a private, worked his way up through NCO, and at present is a Lt. Colonel. I would have been happy with a lot less.
Again, the open acceptance of aid from the Tea Party folks is what brought in the independents, and just might herald a reawakening of common sense in the Republican Party.
Bottom line: If they want the T.P. support, they'll have to offer them something, like an at least quasi-conservative party platform.
Cautious optomism, from someone who went out and made contact with the Tea Party folks last night. I'll let you know how that goes.
I was going to be coy and flirtatious, but I decided not to as I would like to live to see my kids get married and have kids. Happy Birthday Lady Tam
I'm 41, & what Mark said. Too bad I did not find you 15 years ago, but my wife is doing you proud, she had her motorcycle license & Ducati at year 2, and carry permit at year 9, woulda been sooner but we lived in the Brady republik (Maryland) for a spell. Keep up yer good work.
He's better than the alternative and God knows he's better than the murderer he is replacing. I'll be 60 this year and it don't get easier.
52 next month, two kids, one of which is in Iraq for the second time. And yeah, what's been happening to this country has pissed me off enormously.
Even if he's squishy on the 2nd, he's a vast improvement over the alternative. But God-dammit, I am SICK of having to support lesser evils.
Best wishes on your Birthdaymonth, and may your regrets rest lightly upon you.
And while you're all feeling so creaky, remember that I can beat most, if not all, of the numbers posted with my freakin' cane. HR says not to divulge specific numbers. If I can find my oxygen. Just sayin'.
Warthog beat me to it.
What did our parents do wrong, that there's such a lot of us who chose not to have kids?
I'm 44, never married, no kids. My girlfriend is 46, never married, no kids. IMO, raising children is the only argument for marriage in modern society. I chose not to have kids because I chose not to get married. I chose not to get married because I didn't want to raise kids. Oh, and because I didn't want to loose half of my assets in a divorce!
People are a little too sensitive to RINOs now. I think that Brown manages to hold down his conservatism a lot better than Scozzafava. If he were a tax raising, union boosting, dailykos endorsed, social liberal, then I could see that point. I would not push him for POTUS, but he's pretty good where he is.
Oh, and Sweden Sucks!
http://www.backpacking.se/grfx/MemberPictures/sweden_sucks3.jpg
42? I'm pushing 59. In my youth, I used to inspect nursing homes. Think you'll find me as a patient in one? As to Brown, he's a hell of a lot better than the alternative.
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