He just doesn't get it!

I'll admit, I watched the entire Obama speech last night and, man, can that guy give a speech. He sure knows how to say what people want to hear. If he wasn't such a freaking Socialist, I might actually consider voting for him.

Before you start in on me about how moderate his platform is now, I'm not looking at what he is saying now. I'm basing my opinion on his extreme left voting record in his short stint as a U.S. Senator and an Illinois Senator. Every liberal to run for office moves to the middle at election time. A blonde can dye her hair black, but she is still a blonde.

While I don't consider myself a single issue voter, there are a few issues that I hold near-and-dear to my heart, one of which (go figure) is the Second Ammendment. Here is what Obama said in his speech regarding the 2A:

"The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals."

When are these people going to learn... The Second Ammendment has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH HUNTING!

He won't take guns from hunters, but then again, hunters don't need those nasty semi-automatic pistols and rifles anyway. (SARCASM!)

We already have laws and regulations to keep "AK-47s out of the hands of criminals". We just need to enforce those laws and crack down on the criminals, not the guns or lawful gun owners.

It was a win! Sort of...

I have to say, yesterday's ruling on the DC vs Heller case was a win for the Second Ammendment, but I can't help but feel that it was a bit hollow. A 5-4 decision is technically a win, but it still means that 4 of the 9 most influential people in our government still just don't get it.

The purpose of the Supreme Court is to scrutinize the lower courts' rulings to make sure they fit with the framework set forth in the Constitution, not legislate from the bench based on political leanings. Still, we seem to get a lot of decisions that are obviously split on the party lines. That really scares me, and it should scare you too.

The next President of the United States is probably going to have the opportunity to appoint one (or more) Justices to the Supreme Court. One more left-leaning Justice would've made yesterday a completely different day for millions of gun owning Americans... Think about it.

Today is the day!

The DC vs Heller decision should be coming down in about 29 minutes! For those not familiar, this is arguably the biggest Second Ammendment case ever to come before the Supreme Court. I've been following it pretty closely, and I'm pretty confident that the SCOTUS is going to overturn the DC handgun ban. That's good but, depending on how wide or narrow the ruling is, this could be HUGE for gun owners. From my perspective, the decision could be good, or REALLY good.

I guess we'll see in about half an hour.

The old "flip-flop" trick, eh?

It was only a matter of time before the Democrats started setting their sights on McCain and his, um, "policy reversals". The latest accusation is that he is no longer "for the environment", because he is "for drilling for more oil". They are saying that is a "flip-flop", but I say...

WHO THE HELL SAYS THE TWO THINGS HAVE TO BE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE?!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a big fan of Mr. McCain (but I like Obama even less), but come on! Why does drilling for oil automatically equate to ruining the environment? We have the technology to drill for oil without disturbing the surroundings much at all. Rest assured, we (the USA) will be infinitely more careful with the OCS drilling than the other countries Cuba is leasing rights to. We can't drill within 125 miles of the Florida coast because of some whacky environmental policy, but China, Vietnam, et al will be drilling 60 miles off the same Florida coastline before long. Umm. Yeah. They'll be a lot more careful to preserve the fragile marine eco-systems than we will.

Right.

AWOL

It probably seems like I went AWOL again recently. I've been really busy around the house and with work, so it hasn't left much time for blogging. A lot has been happening in the world while I've been AFK, though. Where do I begin?

My beloved Crew has been backsliding. They've been on a 4 game winless streak (3 losses, 1 tie), 5 if you count the Open Cup loss to Chicago last night (penalty kick in extra time). Now I've been following MLS for a while now, and at this point in the season a lot of teams start falling apart due to injury. The Crew is no exception, as they are currently missing quite a few starters. If they can get healthy for the back end of the year, they could still easily make the playoffs.

So... I built a deck last weekend. I've been meaning to do it for quite a while and I finally got around to it. Sydney's birthday is coming-up in a couple of weeks and we really need the outdoor space for people to be. We've got a HUGE patio already, but the deck will allow us to accomodate even more people in the yard. Maybe I'll post a picture or two when it is actually finished. Then again, I keep wondering if I really need steps or not :-)

On a firearm related note: Our illustrious Governor signed Ohio's "Castle Doctrine" (aka "Defense of Habitation Law") into law the other day. Basically, what that means...

A Castle Doctrine (also known as a Castle Law or a Defense of Habitation
Law) is an American legal concept derived from English Common Law,
which designates one's place of residence (or, in some states, any place
legally occupied, such as one's car or place of work) as a place in which
one enjoys protection from illegal trespassing and violent attack. It then
goes on to give a person the legal right to use deadly force to defend that
place (his/her "castle"), and/or any other innocent persons legally inside
it, from violent attack or an intrusion which may lead to violent attack. In
a legal context, therefore, use of deadly force which actually results in
death may be defended as justifiable homicide under the Castle Doctrine.

The bill also included some tweaks to our existing concealed-carry regulations which were sorely needed and long overdue. It's kind of strange to have a Democrat Governor who is so pro-gun. Not that I'm complaining or anything!