Dear Fellow Gun Rights Activist,
I would like to personally invite you to our 25th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC), which will be taking place September 24, 25, and 26, 2010 in San Francisco, California at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport hotel.
[blah blah blah & et cetera redacted]
Sincerely yours,
Alan M. Gottlieb
In response:
Dear Mr. Gottlieb,
Thanks, but no. I wouldn't go to San Francisco to judge a naked Russell Crowe lookalike contest with an open bar and free round-trip tickets, even if they let me keep the winner. Have a fun convention!
Sincerely yours,
Tamara K.
I almost choked on my roast beef sammich...
ReplyDeleteNow, now, I'm sure this is intentional. SAF and the Calguns Foundation are taking the fight to the heart of the enemy. California's going to be ground zero for lots of the lawsuits going forward. It's akin to renting a Moscow convention center for a human-rights conference during the Cold War.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't mind them having it there, so long as they don't mind me not coming. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy response will be: "I wouldn't go if they were offering me Diane Lane Nude but I am sorely tempted. Can you offer her nude Alan?"
ReplyDeleteI would actually choose to visit SF if it enabled me to avoid a "naked Russel Crowe lookalike contest," but that's just me...
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame you feel that way. Regardless of its politics, it's a great city to visit.
ReplyDeleteWater ejected intranasally = No need for that neti pot!
ReplyDeleteI was laughing so hard people came in to check on me.
ReplyDeleteGerry
If you spend enugh time at the open bar I start to look like Russel Crowe!
ReplyDeleteSaddly the wife don't drink! : (
If you spend enough time at a bar in San Francisco, the naked Russel Crowe look-alike (wannabe) will find you.
ReplyDeleteFor certain values of 'look-alike', anyway
I remember when S.F. was truly "Baghdad-by-the-Bay" back in the '60s. Stationed at Treasure Island, and then Mare Island, I spend many happy weekends in S.F. A marvelous place. Liberal then, insane now. And no, I wouldn't go back. Not unless it was to collect my Publisher's Clearing House grand prize, then back to Texas as fast as possible...
ReplyDeletecap'n chumbucket
I like California, it easily has the most beautiful parts of America. Too bad all the people are wretched hippies.
ReplyDeleteCap'n Chumbucket: I was there too, back when "Market Street Commando" was derisory. Now it looks like Manhattan. But cleaner.
ReplyDeleteI was out there for a wedding a while back, and I must admit it's a great place to visit, but I wouldn't.......
Actually, I would enjoy a few days there again. there are some lovely places there, along with about 31% of the best restaurants in the world, salt water, and that great boat rental place over the bridge in Sausalito.
Even the dingalings aren't as bad as up in Provincetown on the Cape, and I have to go there to get to the bluefish grounds out on Race Point.
Oddly enough, if you get up around Saints Peter and Paul Church, where all the northern Italians live who actually own San Francisco, it is the most straight and proper place in the world. I think Eisenhower is still President there.
And Gottlieb has done some brilliant work, for which we all owe him. Great guy.
So I'll post a reply somewhere in between the two extremes. I think Alan G. has some big ones for bearding the lion in it's den, and, like Disneyland, it's worth a visit, but I would find even the good parts would get old after two or three days.
But that little Mexican place across from the old Liberty Ship Jerimiah O'Brien, with the best huevos rancheros I have ever eaten, and the shellfish stew at that old scooner next to it, mindbending.
A gorgeous place. I wish it was still in the United States.
Memo to self: re-watch L.A. Confidential and see what suits Russell Crowe is wearing and then buy those suits.
ReplyDeleteShootin' Buddy
I live in California... It is beautiful... But I can't wait to leave...
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame, Tam. San Francisco's a fun place. You just need to smile past the "unusual" parts. Think of it as a maladroit pet - you can love it, even thought it occasionally craps on the patio.
ReplyDeleteAh, but would you make the trip to the lovely foothills of the Smokies to attend a camping/shooty thingy that we are going to put together very soon? Weekend before Memorial day ... yes?
ReplyDelete(Psst! There's another Lissa? Oh dear ... the world is in deep doo doo)
So P-Town is worse, eh Ed?
ReplyDeleteLissa (without the Kay), I think we need to make a road trip...
Heh.
I won't step foot in that state on the principle that it might generate tax revenue for those dirty commies. I don't blame Tam at all.
ReplyDeleteNow, the NRA meetup is in NC, which would be completely worth the trip..
In 2008 the GRPC was 10 minutes away from my house, and the NRA meeting was two hours away. That was a good year.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they are in San Francisco they should get the MythBusters to show up.
@ Shootin' Buddy; added recommendation:
ReplyDeleteHaving taken note of Russell Crowe's appearance in several on-screen interviews and more recent films, eat more.
Once you achieve +10 degrees of added insulation, then go buy the suits.
Trust me, this'll work.
Guaranteed.
:)
word verification: traware
The tertiary stage of 'ware (aware, beware, traware) and a plausable comment on the foregoing "advice".
Having been to San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area a fist full of times, it is an absolutely lovely place to be and visit. The weather is very nice, the scenery is quite beautiful, there are many wonderful and cool places to visit.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame really, because it's such a nice place. If it weren't for the screwed up politics and whack-job hippies in SF, it would be a great place to live. Alas, they exist and subsist there, so I choose to subsist elsewhere and keep my visits short.
-Rob
Only a hippie would get all offended by that...
ReplyDelete;)
I'd go see SF just to see it with my own eyes, but I'm not going if I don't get to see the nuclear wessels, too.
ReplyDeleteJim
PS - It is reasonably close to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which is somewhere I need to go.
@Heath,
ReplyDeleteThe NRA show is probably as close as it will get to me anytime soon this year, I'm going. If you come, note that the arena its in was voted down by referendum by the voters, gov't built it anyway. Be sure to ride the spankin' new light rail system that came at the cost of new streets and repairs of existing ones. The city and county are broke and the current scare tactic is shutting down the library's and laying off school teachers. Bond ratings might go down, so all in all bring your money!
PS I don't live in the fair metropolis of the Queen City, but its at arms length.
I'm thirty-something minutes south and avoid The City almost entirely. I've been there only a few times in the past ten years. The most fun was dual-sporting through the Marina setting off Porsche alarms with my Supertrapp on the big XR and wheeling across intersections on Russian Hill. But I don't ride the street and I'm not into the Halloween-life 24/7/365 in a black turtleneck and high-top sneakers anymore, that was so 1981.
ReplyDeleteBesides the only *cough* 200-yard range is down here.
I like SF a lot it has a lot of great restaurants, scenery and a cool music scene as well as being motorcycle friendly. We can't afford to live there though because wrenching on cars just won't let us buy a house anywhere within 2 hours of the city. Then there is the taxes and the gun laws which put the final nails in the coffin. On the other hand the roads (oh lord god the roads, pure sport bike heaven) and climate make it really tempting sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThat's the dumbest thing I ever heard. You refuse to visit one of the most vibrant and beautiful cities in the country because of their politics?
ReplyDeleteYou really need to get out more.
> Mad Saint Jack said...
ReplyDelete> In 2008 the GRPC was 10 minutes away from my house,
> and the NRA meeting was two hours away. That was a good year.
Denver hosted the Gun Rights Policy Conference back in 1997, and the NRA convention in 1999.
Although the NRA convention was scaled down due to the Columbine H.S. shootings a few days before, I enjoyed both events -- especially since I was very active in the gun rights movement back then. It was a chance to meet a lot of the people who's work I was reading at the time. If it hadn't been cut back, I would have spent my 30th birthday at the NRA convention. At least I made it to the Heston speech.
But as much fun as it was (especially the GRPC), I wouldn't have traveled out-of-town for either -- no matter where.
I would, however, go to either one again if/when they come back to town, even though I'm no longer involved in the politics.
There are only 14 states in the America that deny me the right to legally carry a firearm and California is one of 'em.
ReplyDeleteHence, I never, ever spend my hard earned dollars in any of those 14 states.
The Founders and Framers of America would weep at the current state of the U.S. Constitution...
As a 16 year old, I first learned to drive a stick shift in my boyfriend's little convertible Fiat through heavy traffic on the San Francisco hills. Good times, good times.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I was back down that way, the filth and general decay in the area shocked me, but not nearly so much as the helpless attitudes of the people who live there. It seems I've become used to living in a civilized part of the country.
The NRA show is probably as close as it will get to me anytime soon this year, I'm going. If you come, note that the arena its in was voted down by referendum by the voters, gov't built it anyway. Be sure to ride the spankin' new light rail system that came at the cost of new streets and repairs of existing ones. The city and county are broke and the current scare tactic is shutting down the library's and laying off school teachers. Bond ratings might go down, so all in all bring your money!
ReplyDeleteThe NRA Gun Show is in Seattle this year>
Well, the first issue is that Tam would have to get on an airliner to get to SF, which I understand is pretty much a on-starter.
ReplyDeleteWe spent as little time as possible in Cali on the way to Reno for the Gun Bloggers' Rendezvous last fall. Drove back by way of Orygun and Idyho. About 150 miles longer, took the same amount of time.
Several years back we drove down to Santa Barbara for a wine tasting vacation, spent it at Fess Parkers' Wine Country Inn. Great vacation; on the way back we spent a couple of nights in Monterey, re-examining the scene of so much of my mis spent, um, early adulthood.
Lots of great folks in California, shame about the commies who run the place. They ought to draft Victor Davis Hanson for governor...
@ reflectoscope
ReplyDeleteThe nuclear wessels are in Alameda
Beatbox,
ReplyDelete"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. You refuse to visit one of the most vibrant and beautiful cities in the country because of their politics?
You really need to get out more."
It always shocks San Franciscans and New Yorkers (and Bostonians and Chicagoans, for that matter,) when one of us stupid cousin-humping rednecks avers as to how we may not really want to visit their fair burg. They usually respond with some charming bon mot such as yours, and then seem all butthurt when we don't change our minds on the spot...
Scott,
ReplyDelete"On the other hand the roads (oh lord god the roads, pure sport bike heaven)"
I'm pretty tough to impress in the roads department, having spent my entire riding life within 30 minutes of either Wolf Pen Gap or Deal's Gap.
In fairness to SF'an Beatbox, with a handle (heh) like that, he probably meant "vibrate and buttiful".
ReplyDeleteAT
I paid $17 to the state of California this past weekend, on account of they taxed my mad Jeopardy cash. I was not a happy camper.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the fee to file the return was more than what I owed in the first place.
Escaped CA and the Bay Area when my tour was up in 92. Have made one or two brief trips to CA since at Brides insistence and with proper medication throughout. San Francisco WAS wonderful when it was part of these United States. Perhaps if we liberate it I'll return, but not till then for all of the good reasons Tam cites - most especially NOT giving the city/county/state a single soon-to-be-worthless dime.
ReplyDeleteI've been around a good deal of the country and planet, there are PLENTY of other better places to spend my time and money now.
SF makes perfect sense. Otherwise you just preaching to the choir.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am not from SF, but have visited there...as I have visited many wonderful places in this country both rural and urban. I just don't think you should deny yourself those experiences just because of the places local gun laws. To me it sounds the same as anti-gunners who say they are going boycott starbucks lest they wet their pants when they see someone OCing.
ReplyDeleteI was born in California, and I grew up in California, and I was educated in Calfiornia (UCLA)and after my active military service fighting the threat of global communist hegemony I returned to California to live, and work, and marry, and go to medical school and residency....and all of my family is pretty much in California, as are a few very, very good friends.
ReplyDeleteAnd the happiest day of my life was when I left California for good. It's getting to the point that if my family wants to visit us, they can visit us: We don't need to go back to California and contribute to the delinquency of the minors or mental defectives running the place.
We visited last in 2008, and thanks to the very large tanks in my truck, didn't even need to purchase fuel there - I don't think we bought more than $100 worth of stuff for a week-long visit.
I grew up in what some call the most conservative county in America. (Kern County California) Haven't been back since 1999, not really sure I want to until the State is in better shape.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad thing what has become of the Golden State in my lifetime. Can't fault you for not going.
I just don't think you should deny yourself those experiences just because of the places local gun laws.
ReplyDelete1. What of those experiences are worth increasing the risk to my family and myself? i.e. not being allowed to carry increases the risk of being victims.
Admittedly That risk does range from negligible to high depending on the particular locale, and I do attempt to avoid the latter types of places. Still, what's so special about that or any other GFW locale that overrides my responsiblity to my family?
2. Why should I waste my time with, and give my money to, people have no respect for me as a fellow citizen? Particularly when there are so many civilized places I have yet to visit?
As I stated in another thread, I've been to SF on Uncle's dime, and saw nothing good that I can't more and better of in more welcoming areas, with less of the not-so-good.
Yeh the City is just vibrant with homeless bums pooping in the Villancourt Fountain or threatening you in the Haight. It's dirty and stinks, and the good motorcycle roads (the diefied Sunday Morning RideTM notwithstanding) are all in the Santa Cruz mountains way to the south. The City itself is not that moto friendly with slick-steel manhole covers in every wet and greasy corner, and the car-drivers in the city are pure imbeciles.
ReplyDeleteCrawler,
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole point. Within a year I expect we'll have won shall-issue CCW in California (the lawsuit's already filed) and reciprocity with other states' CCW permittees shouldn't be a problem after that, I would imagine.
Used to be I would normally only go to SF on a bike, due to the parking situation. Then, they decided to start ticketing bikes that weren't occupying a car parking spot (can you say stupid?). Haven't been back since, although I have passed through it a few times.
ReplyDeleteI think this right here:
ReplyDeleteThanks, but no. I wouldn't go to San Francisco to judge a naked Russell Crowe lookalike contest with an open bar and free round-trip tickets, even if they let me keep the winner. Have a fun convention!
is the quote of day. Sent it to my wife early this AM.
> What of those experiences are worth increasing the risk
ReplyDelete> to my family and myself? i.e. not being allowed to
> carry increases the risk of being victims.
Going to work, going to school, flying anywhere, going to a gun show, etc.
Kali gas prices from my recent Road Trip to AZ: Needles, CA = 3.59/gal, just down US 95 at Quartzsite, AZ, 2.73/gallon.
ReplyDeleteEED was high, but I still paid $3.30 in Pasadena off the Foothills Fwy...
You go to "alternative weapons" in Kali...lessee...place is full of wasps, so I keep a wasp bomb in the car...shoots flammable, petro-based, methy-ethyl-badshit 30 feet in a pressurized stream. No one fights through it unless they're all goggled up.
Then, if you have a trailer ball attached to your pickup bumper, it will work loose occasionally, so you carry a 16" box-end wrench to tighten it with, weight about 2 1/2 pounds, in your door pocket. Truckers will carry a tire-thumper of some sort...
Lack of imagination and research are the only limits to being well-armed in Kali or other GFW places...
See, it's not "I want to go to California, but I'm not because the laws are stopping me", it's "I don't want to go to California."
ReplyDeleteThere's an important difference.
Look, I don't need to go to CA just to see rocks, trees, water, a bridge, and hippies; I can go down to where Westfield crosses the Canal and see all that.
Going to work, going to school, flying anywhere, going to a gun show, etc.
ReplyDeleteI have to work, don't have to travel to see another example of urban blight. Besides, my work environment allows me to leave a CCW piece in my vehicle, and the building itself has armed security.
My state allows me to pick up and drop off my kid at school while carrying so long as I don't get out of the vehicle.
I don't fly commercial (i.e Greyhound with wings) anymore. Between the Security Kabuki of TSA and airliners less comfortable than flying in troops seats on a C-130, well there's no place I need to be in that much of a hurry.
I don't do gun shows often anymore, and the local guns stores encourage personal responsibility.
But, addressing your point, some compromise is necessary in life. I agree.
However, traveling to SF,or any other GFW locale is NOT necessary in my life, so I see no reason to compromise.
Still lots of open spaces and small towns with real scenery, GOOD food and civilized attitudes to visit in TX, NW, WY, CO, ID, MT etc. that I need to see long before another overcrowded urban feces pile.
yea verily etc.
ReplyDeletewhy bother going to California,
When like the bully in the bar,
california will follow you around, trying to force you to do it's evil will.
30 minute lead time and you can't pay for a beer in Houston. And your little friend too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I get the conf code woopi!
The gods of karma may be smiling at me.