Various Topics

Disarmament

There is always a drum-banging noise from the progressive left in America demanding that the population be disarmed by the government in direct contravention of the Bill of Rights - and the Constitution.

This blog has discussed Venezuela and the abominable position that the people voted themselves into by preferring a communist/socialist tyrant to freedom. Now they are reaping the same reward that all nations who follow that path eventually receive. 

Consider if you will how Venezuela, which allowed privately owned firearms, banned and confiscated those arms (BBC report). Free people are armed, slaves are not. Free people can resist a tyrant, and slaves find it much more difficult. Consider the American experience with English tyranny in the New World.

US States with Constitutional firearms carry laws:

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho (residents only), Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota (residents only), Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming (residents only. 

Where is Texas?

Global Cooling

It's real. It's settled science, and all of you climate deniers out there who don't believe in the coming ice age, just settle back and wait. Meanwhile, there is a roaring (wood) fire at the White Wolf Mine in Arizona where we're expecting somewhere on the order of a foot of snow tonight.

Military Intervention?

USGOV pulled all personnel out of the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. Some see this move as a prelude to military intervention to relieve the suffering of 23 million Venezuelans. Others consider it to be merely precautionary since embassy personnel and their dependents are coming under increasing jeopardy as Venezuela disintegrates.

Should we send in Marines? Is this our fight? Or should we simply hand out firearms and ammo to the Venezuelan people and let them decide to handle it?

Snowbound

A friend of mine who is a retired USAF Col., fighter pilot, Distinguished Flying Cross, shot down in Vietnam flying A-1 Skyraiders (Sandys), lives near me in the Arizona high country. He was snowbound on his way home a week or so ago, couldn't go anywhere and took a hotel room for he and his wife in Payson, AZ. There he sat. The restaurants and stores were closed. No food on the shelves, and nobody could get to him, really. There was between 3' and 4' of snow on the level. They subsisted on candy bars sold at the hotel front desk. 

My question to you is what sort of food do you carry with you as emergency fare in your cars/trucks? I have a lot of 'stuff' but I think that I need to pack rations in case that happens to me. I figure that between all of you, there are a few good ideas.

Thinking of Venezuela

Socialism has not worked out for the people in Venezuela. I realize that those of you who follow this blog will understand the situation there. The Venezuelan government, naturally, blames the United States for all of misery going on. A quick read of Animal Farm or 1984 will confirm that totalitarian governments must always have an outside influence to blame for their failures. 

The nationwide electricity black continues and looks indefinite. On the fifth day of the blackout, on 11 March, the government declared a national holiday, closing government offices and schools. It also has placed the electrical power system under military protection.

Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said that the armed forces had begun a "system of aerial reconnaissance" to protect the country's electrical system from "future aggressions", according to a post by Venezuelan state Venezolana de Television (VTV) on 10 March.

The Defense Minister said, "We have received instructions from the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, to continue the deployment of the whole of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), which has occupied all the electricity stations and sub-stations to advance and guarantee the supply and to protect the system from any other attack which might be being attempted to undermine the spirit of the people."

The defense minister added that the Venezuelan military were helping the Maduro government to "protect the people in all its needs", such as in deploying water tanker trucks and other support to logistics and communications.

Venezuela has suffered a major nationwide power outage crisis since 7 March, when a serious failure was reported at the country's main hydroelectric generating center at Guri, in southeast Bolivar state.

From outer space it looks like North Korea, a dark spot on the globe. It's funny how this never seems to happen in capitalist countries. The dark is emblematic of the state of affairs under the dictatorship.

The Venezuelan government has blamed the outage on "sabotage" by its domestic and foreign "imperialist" opponents, meaning the US. The Venezuelan opposition has blamed the power crisis on corruption, neglect and mismanagement by the Maduro administration.

One of the immediate effects of the outage has been a spike in crimes against property –theft and looting – at night in all the major cities. 

Power engineering experts say that the prospects for restoring the system are not positive. For one thing, inspectors have to work through the army. For another, spare and repair parts are lacking. Most importantly, the Guri power plant supplies more than 60% of Venezuela’s electricity, including Caracas. There is no national back-up system.

A prolonged electrical outage is particularly prone to incite civil disorder because no amount of self- help or neighborhood cooperation can satisfy needs and wants. The Maduro government’s practice of blaming is not only irrelevant, it is annoying. People want the government to fix the problem and restore the power.