Help Yourself to an Abandoned Russian Tank? Why Not?

A few days ago, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty [RFE / RL] re-posted a video clip ("Ukrainian Tractors Versus Russian Armor") on Facebook and YouTube —

So when the hoplophobes and victim disarmers start screeching "u think you should be able 2 own a TANK?!?!?!!!!!!" because you support civilian ownership and carriage of handguns and military-pattern rifles, you can simply point to those Ukrainian farmers making off with abandoned Russian tanks, BMPs, and trucks.

Never mind that in the controlling precedent from American case law that "supports" their "argument," United States v. Miller, Justice James McReynolds said that the National Firearms Act of 1934 was "Constitutional" because the sawed-off shotgun possessed by Miller didn't qualify as a "militia weapon" protected by the Second Amendment because it didn't have "military utility."

Never mind that the sawed-off shotgun could be said to have "military utility" as it was in military usage by American and ANZAC troops in World War I in the Western Front trenches. Or that many military and law-enforcement agencies have been using short-barrelled shotguns as breaching and entry weapons for close-quarter-battle stuff for the past few decades.

Never mind that the AR-15-pattern and M4-pattern rifles that the hoplophobes and victim disarmers demand that you turn in for pennies on the FRN because they're "weapons of war" are almost functionally identical to the M-16 / M-4-type rifles used by the U.S. Armed Forces should also be protected by the Second Amendment as per U.S. v. Miller.

Never mind that in the same conflict that spawned the above-embedded video clip, the Zelenskyy Administration is handing out not only AK-pattern rifles and handguns (basically the same sort of rifles and pistols that the above-mentioned hoplophobes and victim disarmers want to take away from you) but also belt-fed machine guns and anti-tank rocket launchers to anyone who can carry them and is willing to use them to shoot at Russian troops.

Side note: I have one simple question for the hoplophobes and victim disarmers who are so bravely cheering on the Ukrainian civilian resistance, yet are so insistent that American civilians voluntarily disarm:

Why is OK for the Ukrainians to carry rifles, pistols, belt-fed machine guns and anti-tank rocket launchers, yet you have all sorts of problems with my owning or carrying my 9mm pistol here in the States?

Actually, I suspect that there are several reasons:

1. The Ukies are OVER THERE — several thousand miles away, out of sight and mind, with plenty of terrain features, the curvature of the Earth, etc., between them and the local Starbucks, where I, on the other hand, could be right outside that same Starbucks. No chance of them being "triggered" by the sight of armed Ukies.
   
   
2. The Ukrainians are shooting at Russians, who are operating under the aegis of the 21st century Hitler, Vlad Putin. Trump isn't a ready target for their ragefest, so they have to make do with Putin for the time being.

And it seems, contrary to what the First Drooling Child-Sniffer said in 2020, American private citizens DID own not only cannon but also warships in the 18th and 19th centuries^[1].

The power of the sword, say the minority ..., is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every terrible implement of the soldier are the birthright of Americans.
— Tench Coxe, Letter to the Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 February 1788

Still, if you DO decide to get yourself any sort of tracked armored vehicle, have fun changing track segments and road wheels.

---

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. American Institute for Economic Research [AIER] — Private Cannon Ownership in Early America by Robert E. Wright. Retrieved Saturday, 19 March 2022.
   
   The Washington Post — Fact Checker ⋅ Analysis: Biden's false claim that the 2nd Amendment bans cannon ownership by Glenn Kessler. Retrieved Saturday, 19 March 2022.
   
   PolitiFact — Joe Biden's dubious claim about Revolutionary War cannon ownership by Louis Jacobson. Retrieved Saturday, 19 March 2022.

NOTES

1. Published at The Libertarian Enterprise [TLE] — #1,148: Sunday, 20 March 2022 [Facebook page]
   
   
2. Approximate reading level — 13.7
   
   
3. Reposted —
   
   
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs — Bastyon / Diaspora* / Ello / Facebook page, profile / Flote / Gab / Gettr / Gorf .pub, .space profile / Liberty.me / Minds / Retalk / Spreely page, profile / Twitter / VK / Wimkin page, profile / Wordpress
      
      
   2. Absurdist Discordian Party of New Mexico — Facebook page / Spreely page / Wimkin page
      
      
   3. Albuquerque Liberty Forum — Facebook page / Spreely page
      
      
   4. Discordian Absurdist Party of New Mexico — Facebook page / Spreely page
      
      
   5. Egg McMuffin for President — Facebook page
      
      
   6. KCUF Media — Facebook page / Spreely page
      
      
   7. Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus — Facebook page / Spreely page
      
      
   8. New Mexico Dissent and Expose — Facebook page / Spreely page
      
      
   9. New Mexico Libertarians — Facebook group / Facebook page / Minds group / Spreely group / Spreely page / Wimkin group / Wimkin page
      
      
   10. "No One Wants to Take Your Guns" — Facebook page / Wimkin page
       
       
   11. Resist Marxism New Mexico — Facebook page
       
       
   12. Stupor Bowl Sundae Feetball Shoot — Facebook page / Spreely page
       
       
   13. The Old Drunken Old Irrvelivents — Facebook page / Spreely page
       
       
   14. The Weekly Sedition — Facebook page / Spreely page / Twitter / Wimkin page / Wordpress
       
       
   15. Vote Dumpster Fire — Facebook page
       
       
   16. Vote the Air — Facebook page
       
       
   17. Wood Chipper — Facebook page

---

Copyright © 2022 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepadqq and Notepad++.

Book Review -- SSN, by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

SSN by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

Berkley mass-market edition – Feburary, 2000, softcover, 351 pages

ISBN 0-495-17353-4

When Tom Clancy takes a direct hand in writing the books with his name on the cover, they're usually pretty good. When the writing task is handed off to someone else, it's a crapshoot as to whether you'll end up with a good read. Luckily, SSN seems to be one of the former.

SSN was based upon a CD-ROM game of the same name^[1]. Both the book and game are concerned with the U.S.S. Cheyenne^[2], a Los Angeles class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the U.S. Navy, commanded by a Captain Bartholomew "Mack" Mackey, as the Cheyenne goes into combat against the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, which is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army^[3].

The Cheyenne starts off by engaging a Han class submarine^[4] near Hawaii, but most of the book takes place as the Cheyenne goes up against various subs and surface ships of the PLAN in and around the Spratly Islands, as China wants to establish oil-prospecting operations there.

For what it's worth, the Spratlys are currently claimed by not only China, but also Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan. Most if not all of these nations are after the oil and natural gas deposits that are suspected to be under the Spratlys^[5].

The "interview" (more properly called a "conversation" or "chat") at the back of the book reveals that the game the book is based upon offers fifteen (15) different situations for the user to undertake, playing the role of "Mack," and that while completing all of them successfully won't qualify the user to actually command an attack sub in rela-life combat, they will get a taste of what it's like. One of the participants, a Captain Doug Littlejohn, CBE (retired) from the British Royal Navy, says that the main liberty taken with the game (and thus the book) was that of time compression – tasks that take hours or days in real life are squeezed into seconds and minutes for the sake of the game, simply to avoid putting the user to sleep.

All in all, it was worth the ∅2 that I paid for it at the used bookstore.

---

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. Tom Clancy's SSN (CD-ROM game)
   
   
2. U.S.S. Cheyenne (SSN-773)
   
   
3. People's Liberation Army Navy
   
   
4. Han class submarine
   
   
5. Spratly Islands

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   
   
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / Wordpress / Xanga

---

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

bomb gun firearm steak knife Allah Aryan airline hijack