Insulation

The notion of a collective right to bear arms is alive and well in the insulated liberal domains around the US. This veiw is contrary to my view, and in my opinion, that of the people that wrote the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers. Portland, Oregon, New York, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles are areas that you can live your entire life and not here a contrary/Conservative opinion. I've spent extensive time in all but New York. It's hard to keep an open mind when everyone just smiles and nods their heads everytime a liberal/democratic talking point is bandied about.

A good example was a conversation that happened last Christmas. I was in another room while my wife witnessed the following. A person whom I've had extensive political discussion was lamenting to her dinner guests that everytime she tried to make a political point, I would counter with a fact that had citations and research behind it. In other words, scientific method. In her words, science and facts. The local liberal scientist said to her not to worry, science had uncertainty and that you can't really prove anything. Everyone around just nodded their head in agreement (except for my wife, thank God). My jaw dropped. Here was a man that I respected. He is a professor of electrical engineering at a local college. To prove his point and denigrate mine, he was willing to tell all of these people that you really can't be sure of anything. And they, to their shame were willing to agree. I agree in a way, I can never be 100% sure of anything. However, I can be 99% sure of most things. That's good enough.

There's a joke that I was told in my early electrical engineering education. There is a school dance. On one side the girls are standing waiting and on the other is a mixture of engineering and math students. The rule is, at the bell you can advance exactly half the distance to the girls. The math students gave up in disgust. They knew that they would never get there. The engineering students stayed and the math students asked them why they bothered. One of them answered, we may never actually get there, but we'll get close enough.

I guess the point is, no matter what your belief, especially political, seek out differing opinions. I'm not talking about who is better, Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich.

Next post, range report on my accurate M1A and my new purchase, the Keltch SU-16 CA.