Ravings of a Desert Rat

A lone voice crying from the Sonoran desert.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Heller v. DC

So the SCOTUS sided with individual rights on Heller. I'd like to say nasty mean spirited things to Sarah Brady. I'll refrain but I've got a running chorus of them in my mind at all times!

But every person who values liberty needs to realize this does not close the debate on individual gun rights. Governments, of all shapes, sizes and municipalities can regulate them.

What many don't realize is the Heller the man named in the suit still will have mucho problemos getting a gun in D.C. because the district regulates gun stores. There are no legal FFL's (for those that don't know that's who you have to go to, in order to buy a gun) in the D.C. And since it's illegal to buy a handgun outside of your state... Heller is still S.O.L.

But what does that mean for the rest of us. It means congress can still regulate Caliber i.e. 50 BMG 'the Airline killer', the 5.7 'cop killer'. Both serve minimal purposes but are heck a lot of fun and are legal. For now. The BMG is so expensive as to be counter productive for any illegal activity. The 5.7 you can't buy the armor penetrating ammo. It's not available. Only the military and cops can get it; remember that next time a cop gets killed and they claim cop killer bullets, if they are around they came from outside the U.S. (a felony and should have no bearing on our internal politics except for border security), or are from the cops or stolen/from the military.

Government can also regulate ammo capacity, i.e. the 94 Clinton Gun Ban. they can say 5 rounds (not likely but possible) and even your antique revolvers would be banned. Or they could say 7 rounds and then we have neutered magazines again. Or we can go back to the old standby of 10rds.

Even more fun they could ban all sales of "military calibers." This is the law in Mexico and most South American countries. So instead of 9mm people carry 38 Super or .380. Say goodbye to your 9mm or .45 your AR in .223/5.56 and your .308. Not likely but I really want people to understand the depth to which Heller truly does not limit our government.

Politics - The Devil is in the details

Be alert, be active, be vocal, be prepared!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

19th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Today


May we all take a moment and reflect upon government in our lives.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

What Happens When The World Turns

Well last night in Vermont they still had 18 inches of snow on the mountains and people are still skiing. Unfortunately the skiing season is slowing down and Vermonts hiiking is supposed to be gearing up. BTW if you've never had a spring hike on a beautiful Vermont spring afternoon? Your missing a great pleasure in life! The Green Mountains are beautiful. But sadly all that snow is causing issues with their hiking season. Bummer on that whole global warming thing eh?

Steven Soderbergh is making a movie about the life and villainy of CHE Guevera. How much do you want to be that this will show the blood and cowardace of this pathetic footnote that should have been lost to history? Yeah Hollywood won't take that bet.

A group of fifteen women were burned to death by mobs that suspected them of witchcraft. Not to be contrary but the religion of peace stones and butchers women for much more petty "crimes" than this. No suprise but I do feel for the children of these women. Heck next to servitude to that, witchcraft looks pretty good!

California's state supreme court has opened the floodgates for homosexual marriage. I've already heard rumblings from Arizona's community who are planning marriage/honeymoons starting next month. And I hear that many are then (I would assume almost all) planning on sueing for Arizona to recognize their marriage. Personally I believe it's between you and god who your get intimate with. But where states are already persecuting organizations, including churches who WON'T recognize homosexuality and homosexual marriage, then I have a problem. So much for freedom of religion.

Ted Kennedy went sailing today now that he's out of the hospital. I know if I were dying I'd want to do something fun before I died. But I hope he's starting to sweat for all the crap he's put on this country and so many individuals and everything he's going to have to answer for. Mary Jo rest in peace.

God Bless America we need it more than ever

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

BOLL MUST BE STOPPED!

I like video games and I like good versions of the movies that are made based upon them. So if your like me you've been waiting a long time for a good video game movie transfer. If you like video games then you must know something of vast importance, Uwe Boll is the devil. This is the man responsible for the following horrible movies:

House of the Dead
Bloodrayne 1,2,3
Far Cry
Alone in the Dark

All four of these franchises were good to great. And very easily could have been transferred to a movie. It's a really simple process. Take the main summize of the game and make a movie with that same premise. Instead Mr. Boll feels that he is smart enough to recreate the entire story that gamers know and love. I could forgive him for Alone in the Dark as it wasn't my cup of tea. I could survive Bloodrayne, sort of. But I loved House of the Dead and Far Cry and he has and will continue to destroy easy entertainment. He must be stopped.

With that in mind there is a petition to convince him he must. Or at least to convince studios not to hire him.

So far 140k people have signed the petition. At 9 bucks a pop of people who will not watch a Uwe Boll movie. If I did my math right that's a lot of money studios lose by hiring Dr. Boll. So please sign this petition because He must be stopped!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

More Snore Gore

Why can't this guy have faded into the netherworld like Dan Quayle? I mean he's a public embarrasment, the only reason he was not publicly laughed out of office (remember POTATO?) after the "inventing the internet" comments? Well we all know he is now the ballooning prophet of man made climate change doom!

AH WE'RE ALL GOING TO MELT!
oh by the way how much record snow fell in colorado this year?

Now he's comparing doubting Global Warming to the lunatic fringes of the world.

They’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the earth is flat. That demeans them a little bit, but it’s not that far off,"


Ok so what about all the scientists who actually have degrees in Climate, Meteorology and others that DOUBT Mr. Gore? What about England that the courts ruled his film such propaganda they can't show it unedited? What about the new data showing the world is actually cooling? In fact we've lost 1 degree of the mean tempereture of the earth, that negates the entire argument of global warmings raising the temperature half a degree.

I have a solution on Climate change, I think it has a lot to do with Mr. Gore's frequent private lear jet travel, and the fact that the exhaust from one trip in that overwhelmes the difference in roughly 20 hybrids being driven for ten years. Good luck with that you BIG FAT LIAR!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Beowulf - Review

I watched Beowulf this week.

For those of you who don't know, the movie is CGI directed by Robert Zemeckis, the guy responsible for Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Forest Gump and more. It uses the same tech as The Polar Express and Monster House.

I was so excited when this came out in November as Beowulf has been my favorite story/novel since I was a kid. I read the abridged version when I was 11 and a mythology nut. I read the unabridged version at 16 and it just reaffirmed to me what a fantastic story this was. A bit of history for those that don't know it, Beowulf is the oldest written western, ... ANYTHING! It predates any other written text from Europe except the bible. It is the oldest non religous text in the world. Of course there are older stories passed down by oral traditions but were not written till later. This is a viking story.

I had extremely high hopes for this film. It seems like everyone saw this movie in the theater, and those that didn't are buying the dang thing on DVD!

Robert Zemeckis gave the entire world the shaft on this movie.

For starters the movie starts off with Hrothgar in his kindgom initiating a new throne room. The characters act like, well, a bunch of freaking vikings. Loud, bawdy and gregarious. Kind of like a wierd grissom family reuinion with more alcohol. Immediately after they are terrorized by Grendel. Grendel for the uninitiated is a demon, the devil, an ogre, a monster etc.

Grendel for all intents and purposes kills every able bodied male in the room except Hrothgar (getting to that) and his advisor (played by a skeevy John Malkovich) who hides.

Hrothgar proceedes to burn/bury the dead and then bar the doors to his great hall as he believes THATS WHY GRENDEL ATTACKED.

Enter Beowulf on his ship with his men fighting through a rough storm but they persevere and land. Talking about how great Beowulf is (sorry I was bored by this point). Honestly the whole messenger part of the story reminded me of a great movie, 13th Warrior. Sadly the similarities end there.

Beowulf then talks to Hrothgar who is just excited to see a real man around, although with the fame Beowulf is packing he should have hidden his wife a little better. Beowulf demands booze and they start another party. Here's where I got a little upset. John Malkovich's character shows up and starts questioning Beowulfs heroism (a sea race) and we go back in time to check it out. We now get to see a super cool race between Beowulf and another Hombre who apparently is pretty tough dude.

They are swimming and Beowulf narrates the attack of several Sea Monsters. I'm thinking ALRIGHT some action! Let's kill some monsters! Beowulf kills several even digging through ones EYE! I'm so remembering that the next time I'm fighting a sea monster, get swallowed and EXPLODE OUT OF IT'S EYE SCREAMING MY NAME! Too freaking cool! Unfortunately the magic ends with Beowulf getting entranced by a mermaid and we get the impression he's sowing some oats because he drops his dirk under water. Back to Hrothgars hall. As Beowulf now BLOVIATES about how great he is, his captain starts grumbling about how he killed fewer monsters the last time he told the story. WTH?! If this guy was any kind of friend/captain, or any kind of a viking he'd be shouting Beowulfs praises and then looking for women, gold or booze!

Talking between the king and his queen, his advisor (John Malkovich is brilliant but still a skeeve) and Beowulf resumes. And talking between Beowulfs men. The grunts were much more interesting almost like hanging out with the football team again. Yeah it was that raunchy.

Hrothgar leaves and Beowulf gets naked. He WHAT?! Yes he gets NAKED! Something about fighting the monster as god intended. WTH? In the poem he fights without his sword but naked? Thats a stretch. So of course the fight scene is needlessly complicated because the camera constantly must put something oblong in front of Beowulf's nethers. This makes it the most frustratingly difficult to watch fight scene I believe that has ever been put to film.

From there EVERYTHING goes downhill. Beowulf goes to fight Grendels mother who happens to be a naked Angelina Jolie who he then sows some more seed because she's lost her baby and wants a son. Hrothgar kills himself because Grendel is dead (oh by the way he's grendels daddy). Beowulf becomes the dragons father and he kills the dragon by cutting through a thin slip of skin at the base of the neck and then (extremely painfully) cuts his own arm off to rip the heart of the dragon out to save his wife (Hrothgars old one) and his mistress.

Then he falls to the beach and dies.

This movie sucked in so many ways I can't begin to exclaim. Beowulf was a classic hero, meaning great and boastful powerful and strong. All the things that the Vikings and Celts would have respected and expected in their heroes. Not this crappy Beowulf who doubts himself, is vain uncertain.

This does win the award for the best rant.

I am Ripper... Tearer... Slasher... Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength... and Lust... and Power! I AM BEOWULF!


This also wins hands down for one of the most beautiful movies or CGI movies ever! I've been wanting another adult themed CGI movie since Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Sadly we're still waiting for a great one, because this Beowulf leaves much to be desired.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

To Protect and to Serve...

This is the description of a request for equipment for agents of the BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives). They are requesting a series of Leatherman brand multi tools, the Micra model. The key is they want them engraved with ATF - Assett Forfeiture "always think forfeiture." Great slogan for our federal government. This explains a lot as this >>>clowns are the same ones responsible for Ruby Ridge, Waco and dozens of other abuses of power. So much for due process in our country. Your worried about the 2nd Amendment, there goes the 4th! We can add this to the list of government abuses with the Rico Act, the Patriot Act, Supreme Court Immanent Domain rulings and more. YEAH FOR AMERICA! WE WIN AGAIN!

http://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOJ/BATF/APMD/840400000029/Amendment%20to%20Combined%20Synopsis_Solicitation%2003.html