Planet Gore posted this funny photo of a global warming protest.

One of the more egregious figures in the Obamination White House is Thief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel. In Congress, Emanuel earned an “F” rating from NRA, and while working in the Clinton Administration, he was known as the “point man on gun control.” He is an avowed enemy of the Second Amendment and will wield enormous power in the battle for the future of our firearm freedoms.

With the economy in crisis, this opportunity isn’t lost on the new president and his team. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives. He elaborated: “Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.”

Emanuel says these things as he thumbs his nose at the American Public.

Roll your mouse over Emanuel’s picture to see what the Ghost of President Ronald Reagan thinks of Rahm Thumb’s gesture.

About a year ago, we posted an article about U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). Hutchison led the charge in the U.S. Congress to get members of both houses to support the Second Amendment. She, and 54 other Senators, along with 250 U. S. Representatives and Vice President Dick Cheney signed on to one of the many amici filed in support of the Heller position in the landmark D.C. vs. Heller case.

I recently happened to look at the amicus prepared on behalf of Hutchison and the Members of Congress by Constitutional Expert and Attorney Stephen P. Halbrook. Halbrook’s amicus recalls that the Congress has a long history of protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Like the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment was proposed to the States by the Congress in 1789. On several occasions, in different epochs of American history, the Congress enacted statutory texts which explicitly declared its understanding of the Second Amendment as guaranteeing fundamental, individual rights.

The Second Amendment text is as follows:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

That’s good - the Founders boiled it down to specific, unambiguous language. In it, there are five key nouns - ‘militia,’ ‘state,’ ‘right,’ ‘people‘ and ‘arms.’ There are two key verbs - ‘keep‘ and ‘bear.’ Keep these keywords in mind as you continue to read.

The phrase “the right of the people” also appears in the First Amendment – “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The Fourth Amendment guarantees: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated . . . .”

Opponents of Second Amendment rights want you to think that this identical wording means something different in the First and Fourth Amendments. You can’t have it one way with freedom of dissent and freedom from search and seizure, and a completely different meaning when it comes to the ‘right of the people‘ to keep and bear arms.

The constitutional text distinguishes between “the people,” “the militia,” and the “States.” The Second Amendment refers to “a well regulated militia,” but the right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed to “the people.”

That’s quite clear: militia does not equal people. The ability of the militia to provide security on behalf of the state depends on the right of the people to own and bear arms. The ability of individuals to provide for their own security, likewise, depends on this right.

The Second Amendment refers to the right to “keep” arms (such as at home) as well as to “bear” arms (meaning to carry them). Protected arms include commonly-kept firearms that one can keep and carry for lawful purposes, such as ordinary rifles, handguns, and shotguns, and not crew-served or heavy weapons.

Despite laws to the contrary, every law-abiding citizen who has reached majority should have the right to own and carry his/her gun at all times.

And now, the meaning of “state” . . .

The Amendment declares a well regulated militia to be necessary to the security of a “free State,” which means a free country, and is not restricted to a State government.

Halbrook, in the Congressional Amicus for Heller, decomposes the language of the Second Amendment into its component parts to reveal the true meaning of the Founders. If you read the Complete Brief (PDF) prepared by Halbrook, you can discover some of the history about how the Second Amendment evolved into its present form.

Don’t forget to check out Stephen Halbrook’s Second Amendment Book Bomb.

We had an entertaining day at the range today. We were late today and the parking lot was full because there was an NRA instructor with some students in the classroom - but there were several booth still available in the shooting range, so we parked on the street and went inside. Shooting was pretty much the same thing, although Damsel’s Warthog is awaiting parts and didn’t make the trip today.

I took some video while Damsel was shooting and I noticed two sequences where she fired five shots. One of the two was her firing my Glock 30 where she metered out the shots in deliberate fashion to hit on or near the target center.

In the other sequence, she did her trademark 20 gauge rapid-fire, in, what I believe, is a record for her. I like when she ejects the last of the five expended cartridges with a flourish.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend on average twice as much money as women.

The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards.

Me? I’m sending you all this pretty red electronic rose! Special greetings to our men and women in the armed forces.

After the collision of two polar-orbit satellites this week, it is worth the time to take a look at just how crowded the ‘technosphere’ is getting. This graphic presents an interesting perspective of the situation. But, in reality, if the the relative size of satellites in this picture were in the same scale as the planet, none of them would occupy even a single pixel - that is to say, they would be invisible. Click for large image.

From today’s NASA Image of the Day:

A Beehive of Satellites

The launch of the first artificial satellite by the then Soviet Union in 1957 marked the beginning of the utilization of space for science and commercial activity. During the Cold War, space was a prime area of competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S.

In 1964 the first TV satellite was launched into a geostationary orbit to transmit the Olympic games from Tokyo. Later, Russian launch activities declined while other nations set up their own space programs. Thus, the number of objects in Earth orbit has increased steadily — by 200 per year on average.

The debris objects shown in the images are an artist’s impression based on actual density data. However, the debris objects are shown at an exaggerated size to make them visible at the scale shown.

Image Credit: European Space Agency

If the ’stimulus’ were a sandwich . . .

Lifted from Papa Mike’s website.

Conservative folks in South Carolina and everywhere, really, will enjoy reading the Columbia Conservative Political Examiner, now that The Welshman, of The Liberty Sphere, is writing articles.

Congratulations on the new enterprise!

It is slightly embarrassing that I wrongly placed a photo of the Limburg oil tanker bombing in the Never Forget Tribute instead of images of the USS Cole. The mistake was an honest one, since the image I lifted from the internet was labeled “cole.jpg.” It turns out that the Limburg was also bombed in October of 2000, probably by the same al-Qaeda terrorists that carried out the Cole attacks. One thing stands out is that neither the Clinton nor Bush administrations did much to avenge these acts of terror, just as the Obama administration is likely not to do in the future.

Image right: damage to the port side of the USS Cole - Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

After doing some research (which should have been done the first time), I located these two actual images of the USS Cole. I modified the Tribute again, this time with the correct images.

The image above shows the 40-by-60 feet hole blown in the side of the USS Cole. The blast hit the ship’s Galley, where crew were lining up for chow. The image to the left shows the USNS Catawba towing the Cole to be transported back to the United States.

Image left: Catawba towing the USS Cole - Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

Thanks go to Gary Swenchonis, Sr., who provided me with feedback on the Tribute. Gary is the father of Fireman Gary Swenchonis, Jr., who perished in the attack on the USS Cole. Gary has a couple of anti-terrorism websites set up:

Terrorism: Politicians and Victims
Remember The Cole!

Our dog, Bear, posed in the morning sunlight and I took this picture. One of our Second Amendment Bloggers, Welshman at The Liberty Sphere, thinks this is a very pretty dog. We think so, too.

Click on the image for a closer look at Bear.