Divemedic

One of the standard lines that you hear when discussing the Second Amendment as a tool for allowing the citizens of a nation to replace the government if it becomes abusive is that citizen militias are useless for opposing government tyranny, because the government owns all sorts of weapons like tanks, jet fighters, Aegis cruisers, and even nuclear weapons, and a citizen militia armed with what amounts to hunting rifles would be powerless against that kind of force.

Leaving aside the fact that making such a statement makes me believe that this is actually making a case for loosening restrictions on what arms the citizens can own, the belief that a citizen militia cannot beat a tyrannical modern military is a sign of unimaginative thinking. I will admit that a bunch of citizens armed with semi automatic rifles would be soundly defeated on a battlefield by any modern military employing those tanks, jet fighters, and artillery. It is a wise move to avoid any battlefield where such weapons are being used. That is when a smart militia redefines the battlefield.

The M1 Abrams is a fuel hog. A company of 14 of those tanks needs nearly 1,000 gallons of fuel to move 100 miles. The tanks break down every 250 hours or so. The F16 fighter uses an average of 7 pounds of fuel for every minute of flight, and requires 12 hours of maintenance for every hour spent flying. Both of those weapons need spare parts, as they are wonders of technological achievement. Therein lies the weak spot. Convoys of fuel trucks and spare parts are easy to raid, and a tank with no fuel becomes a fixed pillbox. A jet fighter on the ground threatens no one. So the military has to spend time guarding the convoys.

Then you attack the factories that make the spare parts, the electric lines bringing them power, and the supply trucks and pipelines that supply the factories and refineries. Now the military has to use the high tech weapons and equipment to guard those.

Let a military armed with tanks and jet fighters choose the battlefield and you will lose. A citizen militia would have to avoid allowing that to happen, but it can be done.

Captain Mike Fewless of the Orange county Sheriff’s office teamed up with Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, and Major Ken Davis of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office, and went to Tallahassee to lobby against SB 234. For those who do not know, SB 234 will allow those people in Florida who have a concealed weapons permit to carry a weapon openly. This law doesn’t change who carries a weapon, only how they carry it.

Fewless used his access as a law enforcement officer to research alleged members of a biker gang, take their pictures, and gave those pictures to the legislators on the Judiciary committee. He then told the judiciary that these are the types of people who would be openly carrying weapons, since these alleged gang members were CCW permit holders.

“I actually stopped by every one of your guy’s offices this morning and dropped off seven photographs of some biker outlaw gang guys that have carry and concealed firearm permits,” Fewless said to the committee.

In so doing, Fewless became a criminal himself. He violated more than one law in using his police powers to search restricted databases, and then released that information to the public. If it is true that the bikers would be permitted to openly carry firearms because they have concealed weapons  permits, this means one of two things: That the bikers in question have not broken any laws, or that they HAVE broken the law, and the cops themselves haven’t done their jobs. It is also illegal for public employees to lobby the legislature while on the clock.

According to Florida Statute, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must suspend the licenses of those persons arrested or formally charged with a crime that would disqualify an individual for a license until final disposition of the case, and a licensee who is under an injunction that restrains them from committing acts of domestic violence or acts of repeat violence. Finally, the agency must revoke the license of a licensee who have been found guilty of, had adjudication of guilt withheld for, or had imposition of sentence suspended for one or more crimes of violence within the preceding three years. So if those men are in fact criminal bikers, they should not have permits.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Major Ken Davis told of a recent traffic stop of six Tampa Bay Outlaw motorcycle gang members. “Although the six Outlaws were certified gang members, and had histories of criminal arrests, most were also concealed carry permit [sic] holders”, he related.

Note that he was being misleading: They had a history of arrests. So what?  Were they convicted? He doesn’t say. I myself have been arrested. I was innocent until proven guilty, and since I was never convicted, I have a concealed weapons permit.

I would also note that Fewless’ boss is Orange County Sheriff Demmings, whose wife is Val Demmings, the police chief of Orlando. She ‘lost’ her gun  in 2009, when she left it in her unlocked vehicle in front of her house. The two agencies have had nearly a dozen firearms stolen from unmarked vehicles in the past five years, including a suppressed machine gun.

It bothers me less that a biker gang member who has never been convicted of a crime has a weapon than it bothers me that the cops carry them. Cops kill more people every year than do biker gangs. Cops have stolen more money from me at gunpoint than have biker gangs. and biker gangs are not lobbying the state legislature to grant them rights while simultaneously attempting to restrict mine. I feel safer with the bikers.

The Republicans claim the largest spending cut in US history this weekend, by cutting $38.4 billion from the $3.7 trillion budget. This represents a one percent cut, and leaves us with a trillion dollar plus deficit. That is what we are left with- a one percent cut.
Putting this in perspective, it took George W Bush two and a half years to borrow a trillion dollars. It took Clinton three and a half years, George HW Bush three years, and Reagan did it in six. No other President has borrowed that much money. In fact, it took 204 years for the government to borrow its first trillion. 

Explain to me how Republicans are different from the Democrats, again.

In Florida, you cannot use the fact that a woman told you that she is over 18 as a defense to sexual molestation charges. Even if she produced identification that said she is of age. This guy may well be innocent, but he is going down.

Look what happened to this guy. The woman in that case was 13 years old. She said on her MySpace page that she was a 19 year old divorcee. Under Florida law, the belief that the girl is of legal age, and the girl’s promiscuity cannot be used as a defense. That is too bad, because this is the second time she has gotten a man thrown in prison because she lied about her age and had sex with him. The girl’s family admits that the girl still stays out late and has yet to delete her misleading MySpace page.

I had a discussion yesterday with an Obama supporter. I had made the comment that Obama had abandoned all the promises that he had made as a candidate. A nearby coworker jumped in and said that he had voted for Obama, and that the President was doing his best.
The conversation went like this:
DiveMedic: “Is this what you voted for? We are still in Iraq, still in Afghanistan, still have prisoners in Gitmo, and now we have invaded Libya.”
Obama Supporter: “Things are more complicated than that.”
DM: “He is the Commander in Chief. The way that works, is he picks up the phone and gives the order. The military obeys.”
OS: “He ended don’t ask, don’t tell.”
DM: “No he didn’t” (Obama signed a law in December that authorizes the President to end DADT, but the policy won’t end until 60 days after the President gives the order, which he hasn’t done, yet. You can’t give him credit for that one, yet.)
OS: “You just don’t like him because he is black.” There it is, the trump card. At this point, the discussion is over, because there is no possibility of having a discussion based upon logic at this point.