BiggAndyy the Magazine

According to this test, my Political Profile looks like this:

Overall: 95% Conservative, 5% Liberal

Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You? Take the test and find out. Post your results here on BA.
http://www.blogthings.com/howliberalorconservativeareyouquiz/

The newly authorized $1,000,000 Canadian Gold Coin.

No, really.

The “mega-loonie” as it is being dubbed, has been voted on and passed by the Federal Cabinet and orders the Mint to produce the $1,000,000 gold coin.

The Royal Mint will only comment that it has permission to mint the coins. No word was given on how many may be pressed or for how many years the program has been authorized.

According to CBC News the coin is not designed for commerce but for collectors and for the notoriety to have issued a $1,000,000 coin.

Maybe Jim Zumbo would rather have been run over with a Zamboni than weather the firestorm his blog created last month. No sponsors, no magazine, no outdoors show. The Gun Community, and all of its internal factions, united as one swarm and completely engulfed the life of Jim Zumbo in a matter of hours.

But let’s keep a level head about all this; it was not the people, nor the hunters, nor the collectors, nor the bloggers, nor the NRA, that pulled the trigger on Jim’s career. It wasn’t even Jim himself. Only the people who sign the paychecks at the magazine and the factory and the station had the final say so in whether Jim would remain on staff.

In the final analysis, the firing of Jim Zumbo will not be an issue of Constitutional rights but it will probably be seen as a financial business decision. Jim wasn’t fired because he betrayed the Second Amendment in public. Many so called “gun supporters” trample over the Second Amendment publicly everyday. But the outcry from the gun community was so swift and so startling that the sponsors terminated him in fear of public boycotts and defections to competitor products.

Some folk that I respect have commented that they were heartened to see such a swift and unified response from the gun community. That the Second Amendment crowd “bared its teeth” and showed it was not afraid of a fight, even from one of its own. But who blinked first?

It has been pointed out that Jim has never connected his apology with the Second Amendment, but then again, his comments were never connected TO the Second Amendment. His comments were about hunting and what should and should not be allowed on the field. Most states have regulations prohibiting one form of firearm or another from the hunting field. So what was the difference with Jim’s statement?

Was it his condescending attitude he, as a game hunter, has towards those who collect and fire military styled or surplussed weapons that set everyone off? There has always been a simmering animosity between “hunters” and “shooters”, but in this case both sides piled on Jim.

Was it the fact that he called people who enjoyed owning and shooting military surplussed weapons “terrorists”? That is more to the hunter/shooter tension, much more rude, but still solidly in that camp.

I think if we toss in the mix that many states are sending up trial balloons of some sort of AWB legislation and stir everything together we get the recipe that sent Jim Zumbo to the unemployment line.

In the immortal words of Chuck Noll, “Maybe he’s ready for his life’s work.”

Remember 74 year old Kenneth Englund? He was charged with FELONY ASSAULT for chasing down a criminal stealing gasoline. Kenneth was armed with an unloaded shotgun. The charges were then reduced to misdemeanors. Still an outrage.

Finally this comes via AOL News, “Charges Dropped Against Vigilante Farmer.”

Vigilante? Since when is protecting your property “vigilantesim”? Are the hoplophobes on the left so fearful of a strong willed man that if he “dare protect his property with the mere threat of violence”, well then, he must be some sort of bloodthirsty vigilante out to kill anyone for any reason.

CAMBRIDGE, Minn. (AP) - Charges were dropped Tuesday against a retired farmer who earned widespread accolades for chasing down a gasoline thief while wielding a shotgun.

Kenneth Englund, 74, was initially charged with felony assault, though those charges were reduced to two misdemeanors - pointing a gun at another person and disorderly conduct.

Isanti County Attorney Jeffrey Edblad said Tuesday that his office no longer believes it can prove the case, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.

Englund’s attorney, Brian Toder, had sought dismissal of the charges, saying his client was within his rights.

The retired farmer and his dog came upon Christian Harris Smith, 28, and a woman Oct. 15 near Englund’s place as Smith was taking gasoline from a vehicle. He then chased their vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.

Smith pleaded guilty this month and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. According to a transcript of an interview at a prison where Smith is serving time for an unrelated drug offense, Smith said Englund did not point a gun at him.

Englund said he is thankful for support from as far away as Canada, California, Ohio and Florida and is “very happy” with the outcome.

“I will still be a vigilant person,” he added. “But I’ll leave my dog and shotgun at home.”
Associated Press

Hooray for Mr. Englund for beating an obvious bad rap and a rousing Jeer for County Attorney Jeff Edblad for even considering to try Mr. Englund on ANY charges. What every government sycophant needs to realize is that we, as Americans, do not take the law into our own hands, we ARE the law.

However, Mr. Englund, you keep on toting your shotgun, everyone who sent you well wishes and prayed for you has your back.

Winter in Pittsburgh is always interesting.

Pittsburgh, situated in the Pittsburgh Plateaus Province of the Appalachian Mountains, has lots of rolling hills. Some of the topography can make for fairly steep and extended drop offs. So at the top of Lydia Street in Greenfield down to Greenfield Avenue that 200 foot downgrade can be pretty extreme in places.

At the top of another high point in the area, around Beacon and Wightman in Squirrel Hill, a small wave of atmospheric energy passed over the area around 8:30 AM bringing a quick burst of precipitation. It was snowing those little “pellets” of snow, like miniature snowballs. And it was coming down really quickly for a few minutes. As the bus I was riding descended down Forbes Ave to S. Bellefield Ave the precipitation had time to pass through more of the warmer atmosphere.

During the trip down Forbes Ave the snow pellets had changed to a wet snow about half way down the hill, and at the bottom the precipitation event had changed entirely to a wet drizzle. As the moisture was falling through the atmosphere in the higher elevation it was frozen but as it had more time to pass through the warmer air in the lower elevation it melted to a cold but wet rain.

As we passed the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh I thought of the fact that someone looking out of a 40th floor window would see snow yet someone else simultaneously standing at the base of the Cathedral would be rained upon.

Winter in Pittsburgh is always interesting.