Nyquil no more

 In the past, whenever I did get sick (once every 2-3 years), what I would look forward to is popping some Nyquil and feeling real good before passing out in bed.  Fast forward to now, and a few days ago I got the chance to take some Nyquil gel caps.  Being that it's been a while since last having some, I figured I would go with just half the recommended dosage, just 1 capsule.  I woke up the next morning with swollen, sensitive, red lips and my tongue was the same way too.  I've had that reaction to a sleep aid pill before so I knew what happened.  I went over to the box and looked at the active ingredients.  Sure enough the culprit, doxylamine succinate was on the list.  I thought Nyquil used a different ingredient before but it doesn't matter now.  The ironic part is the ingredient I am allergic to is the antihistamine!!  How can I be allergic to the ingredient that's supposed to be preventing allergies?  Rayne fail.  So now that there is absolutely no upside to getting sick, I better figure out a way to never catch anything again...lol.

The Gun is Civilization

I ran across this short essay at this site (http://www.boresightsolutions.com/index.php/my-2c). It was an interesting read and I agree with what the author (Marko Kloos) has said.

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.

Handling a pistol!

 Stumbled across this vid and this guy swears a lot so I'll put up the NSFW tag just in case one of the two people who reads my blog doesn't read what I typed...lol. It's a pretty funny vid.

The Power & Danger of Iconography

I ran across this vid on YouTube just earlier today and didn't think I'd watch the whole thing (8 minutes) because my attention span keeps shrinking...lol.  But it did manage to hold my attention and I thought it made sense.

Gun confiscation in the USA?

 This happened about 2.5 years ago, but is still really scary when you think about it.  Text is copied from the info accompanying the video on the YT site.

In case my web imbedding skills suck, here's the link to the video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4

The video you will see on this web site is horrifying. The crimes committed against law-abiding gun owners are beyond comprehension. The arrogance of anti-gun politicians and government officials and their hate of freedom will churn your stomach.

The law is the law, the Constitution is the Constitution. If ONE local mayor or police chief can decide what the Second Amendment means, it opens the door to tyranny—where ANY mayor or police chief can say what the Second Amendment means.

You've seen this brand of abuse of freedom in the history books—in the pages about days of gun confiscations leading to the terror of Stalin, Mao and Hitler. But you'd never in a million years think it could happen in America.
Well, it can and it did. And it will happen again unless we take action today.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Police Superintendent P. Eddie Compass unleashed a wave of confiscations with these chilling words:
"No one will be able to be armed. We will take all weapons. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns."

Thousands of firearms were then confiscated from law-abiding gun owners. The police gave no paperwork or receipts for those guns. They just stormed in and seized them.

With your help we're going to make the first time in New Orleans the LAST time in America. Thank you!

Now, one year later, these crimes against gun owners have snowballed into a far greater threat to our freedoms.
Even though NRA secured a court order demanding their immediate and unconditional return, almost every single confiscated firearm remains locked in government trailers.

With the stroke of a pen, Mayor Nagin and Police Superintendent Compass are getting away with "murder"—a savaging of the second, fourth and fourteenth amendments of our Constitution. And they have put America on notice that they're going to keep seizing lawfully owned guns under any pretense.

New Orleans gun owners are showing up at these trailers, with serial numbers of their firearms, expecting Mayor Nagin and his band of anti-gunners to respect the Federal courts.
They are met by stony-eyed bureaucrats who say serial numbers aren't enough—and that gun owners now need PROOF OF PURCHASE of these firearms.
How many of those gun owners do you think had original receipts for those firearms? And even if they did, how many do you think could find those receipts in the wreckage of a hurricane?
Many of these firearms were passed down from father to son, generation to generation. Some are precious heirlooms. Some are collector's pieces won in our wars. And they were all lawfully owned and they must be returned to their owners.
With your help we're going to make the first time in New Orleans the LAST time in America. Thank you!