http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEJRph9km0&feature=player_embedded
18th-century guns were notoriously dangerous. The powder could go off when rammed in; the ramrod could break off and be incredibly hazardous to remove; the load could get jammed so the powder would blow the barrel apart when fired; the powder might not catch immediately when the spark hit it (especially if slightly damp), only igniting some seconds later when the soldier turned the gun around to see what was wrong; etc. There is a good reason why gunpowder factories were made of isolated buildings surrounded by earthen ramparts.
On the plus side, though, you were far likelier to die of Smallpox, Typhus, or in childbirth than from gunfire, either enemy or your own.
Aaron Swartz killed himself in his Brooklyn apartment Friday. His girlfriend found Swartz’s body hanging from a belt, sources said.
The 26 year old internet activist was facing federal charges for allegedly hacking into MIT’s journal archives.
Swartz was a wizardly computer prodigy, a savant who designed his first website at age 13, and at 14, helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users. The RSS program, that alerts users to new blog posts and allows users to subscribe to online information, is nearly ubiquitous. He later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available.
Aaron founded Demand Progress, an Internet group that was instrumental in fights to keep the internet open and free, and in the battle to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act. His long list of influential efforts includes the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, Wikipedia and the Recap collection of legal documents. Aaron was a flash point in the debate over whether information should be made widely available, in the face of governments and corporations that argued that some information must be kept private for security or commercial reasons.
Aaron Swartz dropped out of High School after just one year, and was admitted to Stanford as a sociology major, but dropped out after a year there as well, citing the academic apathy of his fellow undergrads. He would become an Internet folk hero, a cyber Robin Hood, pushing to make much Web content free and open to the public. Swartz co-founded a company that merged with Reddit, a user-generated social news site, one of the most highly trafficked news sites in the world. He had a financial windfall in 2006 when Reddit sold to Conde Nast’s Wired Digital.
You’ve seen this gruesome dude, first profiled in Raw Story. He is James Yeager, the “CEO” of a Tennessee company that specializes weapons and tactical training in Tennessee who threatened to “start killing people” if President Barack Obama moves forward with gun control measures, posting it all on the internet. Because who doesn’t want to take tactical training from a guy who proposes indiscriminate rage-shooting whenever you disagree with a legal decision reached by a democratically elected politician? In a surprise move – because you, know, Tennessee – the State of Tennessee suspended Yeager’s handgun permit.
I mean, way to craft that image, Tactical Response dude, the folks are mightily damned impressed with the measured and intelligent statements made, and even your local government has taken notice of your professional demeanor. Of course, your post facto admission that you were over-heated, over-emotional, and over-reacting in your first video, should in no way be compared to with would have happened if you had had a firearm in your hands instead of a video camera at the time. I suppose we can expect 24/7 media coverage of your blood-soaked rampage through Tennessee in retaliation. I hope they don’t pre-empt coverage of any NFL playoff games this weekend!
Man i’m having a hell of a time wrapping my head around this gun debate. Hearing the NRA psychos wheel out their arguments against things like a registry of gun owners, background checks to weed out lunatics, banning machine guns and other assault weapons, banning large ammo, etc. I’m floored by how ridiculous and easily refutable they are. How fucking powerful the gun lobby must be to have gotten its way in so many extreme ways for so long. and how ridiculous it is that so many of us have to live by the diktat of Antonin Scalia and the angry inbred yokels who don’t know how to call 911. You would think someone in the “gun biz” would at least be trying to sound rational and professional these days – weeks after 20 5-year olds were riddled with bullets at school. You would think people would be paying attention to folks with lots of guns making threats. I’m restricted from buying fucking spray paint and the good Sudafed in the city of Los Angeles – with an obscene murder rate – yet it can’t restrict guns. No wide-nib paint markers for you! No Sudafed 12 hour relief! And no contraception! No abortions!
You gotta be pretty fucked for TENNESSEE to take away your carry permit. It’s guys like you, James, that makes me wish your paranoid ravings about jackbooted government stormtroopers were real. The first wave of rabid gun nuts like yourself going up against the G-team, that’d be a reality show I’d actually watch. And it’s funny cause you will never see or hear the drone that hunts you down and kills your ass. And really James, if anyone has moved his house to the front of the drone attack line it is you. Smart move, what else can you teach us.
Joshua Boston was in the Marines from 2004 through 2012, making it all the way to corporal. Corporal Boston sent Senator Diane Feinstein a letter, explaining why he will never register his assault weapons, and why he will not be told what to do by “some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object.”
Gun Rights Debate OVER.
Senator Dianne Feinstein,
I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma’am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.
I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America. I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.
I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.
We, the people, deserve better than you.
Respectfully Submitted*
Joshua Boston
Cpl, United States Marine Corps
2004-2012
*respectfully submitted,” totally cancels out all the ridiculous rudeness of this nonsense.
Don’t get Corporal Boston started about the fucking travesty that is the act of having to register his automobile down at the DMV every year!
Um, how can we have a WELL REGULATED militia if you don’t register your fucking guns? And how can you really claim “I am the man who keeps you free.” if you’re not in the armed services anymore? “I am the man who keeps you free” and “I am the person whom you serve” more than adequately demonstrates his understanding of the chain of command. What is it about former Marines that makes them obsessed about having been Marines, so that they always talk about it, and act as if that somehow makes them better and more important people than the rest of us? Is it because they were all ritually abused and taught to become killing machines, and we should all respect that?*
*Except when the marines turn around and kill us, and then, “mental health”, Hollywood Jews and video games are to blame.
I absolutely loved watching Huell Howser’s show. For those of you outside of California, Huell was a giant weirdo Marine Corps veteran from Tennessee who traveled all around California, inspecting seemingly banal things with the fascination of a 6 year old. No man in the world could find so much excitement in a rock or a dried up bush in the California desert as Huell Howser. He was an equal opportunity enthusiast who would get just as excited over a dog who eats avocados as he did by the moon landing.