Savage Republican

By now, I’m sure you’ve read of the murder of Todd Bachman and the vicious assault on his wife Barbara in Beijing where they were attending the Olympics. Todd Bachman was the CEO of Bachmans here in Minneapolis.
You’ve read my many blogs about the 8th Air Force Historical Society. I was introduced to the Society by the fact that my great uncle John and Larry Bachman were board members at the Masonic Home. Larry flew B-24’s in WWII. Larry came back from the war and became an executive of Bachman’s.
Todd Bachman is Larry’s second cousin (Larry’s brother and his only sibling Roy, was killed in WWII in the Pacific). When I heard the news early this morning and heard the last name “Bachman” I only thought fleetingly about a relation to Larry or maybe Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. It wasn’t until this afternoon I heard a reference to Bachman’s. Larry is my very good friend. I called him immediately after I heard the reference to Bachman’s on the radio. We talked a while about the call he got early this morning from his son Dale.
Larry told me that Todd lived next door to Larry and his wife Louise, who recently passed away, and that Louise was nearly a second mother to Todd as his mother worked at the store.
Please remember Todd’s family and all the Bachmans in your prayers. And pray for Todd’s widow Barbara as she is fighting life threatening wounds.
For more information, Bachman’s has established a website.

In case you are wondering why Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats need to adjourn instead of actually voting on an energy package – Uncle Jay will explain why they need rest.

All this week Rush has been celebrating his 20th Anniversary. He done some flashbacks, played recordings of people who’ve called in to congratulate him all week congratulating him on his spectacular radio career.
My first blush with Rush (oh my, the poet comes forth) was in 1993. It was June, just after my Dad had passed away. A number of my friends were asking me if I heard , on the radio, this guy with a strange name. I said no, I hadn’t. But one afternoon I tuned in to AM1500 and heard this guy named “Rush” something. Hey. This guy is saying what I’d been thinking and had been taught by my Mom and Dad. Well, I had never had a reason to listen to AM1500, but now was there each day. After Rush came Joe Soucheray who had a brand of what used to be common sense living we called conservatism (Joe called it “Garage Logic” figuring most problems could be logically discussed and figured out in the garage). About a year later a new guy appeared at 5:00pm. His name was (and is) Jason Lewis. Another guy named Dave Thompson filled in over the hours. This was now my entre into talk radio.
Now, here in Minneapolis we have five talk radio stations (six if you count failed 950 Fresh Air). I’ve left AM1500 behind. Joe Soucheray just got too sophomoric. His “bits” became poor locker humor episodes. He also lost me when he fell over for Carl Pohlad’s stadium robbery deal (Joe is also a sports guy over at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He also does NOT live in Hennepin County and so doesn’t pay a damn dime for the stadium he wanted). Added to that was when AM1500 lost Jason Lewis and proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly with schedule and on air personality changes. So, now I listen to AM1280 , KTLK and Glenn Beck on the internet.
In 1999 I got my first computer. And shortly thereafter I discovered Al Gore’s greatest invention (no, not man made global warming, though he has and does vigorously imagine it). No. I mean the internet. And I discovered a whole new world where the MSM didn’t reign and didn’t control. I found out that Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and their ilk had been either lying or deceiving me and the rest of America. I found that Big Education had created a generation of ignorant bobble head children imbued with hating America. I found that there was truth out there. And I was angry! I could do more research in an hour on the computer that I could in a month in a library. I could email hundreds of people. With a blog I could write my thoughts (BTW, SavageRepublican.com gets well over 1,000 hits a day). The monopoly and the back of the lefts grip on “truth” was broken. I’ve also bookmarked Victor Davis Hanson, Michael Yon, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and Hot Air (following my friend Ed Morrissey) just to name a very few.
So, when you hear about a divided America, it’s because people like you, people like my brother, my sister,my friends and fellow lovers and defenders of liberty like me have discovered where we can find the truth after having been lied to and deceived for decades.
And we’re fighting back.
And it started with Rush.
Congratulations Rush.
And thanks.

The title for this piece is probably the most discordant at first glance title I’ve ever put together. But, there is logic in my seemingly incongruous heading.
I just finished reading an entry over at Hot Air where my friend Ed Morrissey writes. There is an article about the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) and the danger to the US and the region that the ISI loyalties are engendering. There are comments about the ISI and a nuclear Pakistan and A.Q. Khan that can be made later. What caught my eye was in the comments section by a contributor called “coldwarrior“. He makes mention of the diminishing Pakistani middle class. He states that they are leaving Pakistan and had at first gone to the UK. Their reception there was less than warming and so they’ve started to come to the US. And any country can not survive well with only an elite and a lower class. The movement of this population gave me pause however.
I restate the obvious when I talk about illegals coming from primarily Mexico to the US. Again it’s no secret why they come to America. But what a horrible indictment of the Mexican government! That your citizens find it necessary to leave their birthplace because of no discernible economic hope of improvement. And they come knowing that that is hostility towards them, that they may very well be exploited. And yet they come. But, here was where I tied the Constitution into this immigration scenario from two widely divergent countries: The Founders put great emphasis on individual and states rights. They envisioned and created a federation of individual and therefore fairly autonomous structures called states. The rights of the states were well protected within the framework of the Constitution (read the IX [aka 9th] Amendment to the Constitution). The Founders created a framework of territories (states) where if a citizen found a state inhospitable or not to his or her liking, they were able to move to a state that they found more agreeable. That as a moral and educated people, as long as neither force nor fraud were employed in any activities, we were free to be about our business as best we saw fit to pursue it. Truth be told, that if the Founders wrote a Constitution that did not guarantee that sovereignty to the states and individuals, there would have been no ratification potential by the states at all! This was the idea behind federalism. That idea is now moribund. With an overarching federal government, there is now no place to go to escape bad and crushing federal laws, bloated and “badge heavy” bureaucrats and bureaucracies with bad rules and even worse outcomes. This is not what the Founders had created. They created a constitutional republic. We now live in a functional democracy administered by a class of bureaucrats. They Founders abhorred the idea of a democracy.
And so, the Pakistanis and the many Mexicans exercise a type of international federalism in coming to the US, legally or otherwise. But they do come.
And where do we Americans go to escape a tyrananny federal government?

Joey Chestnut retain the Mustard belt.
Take that World.

OK kids, put your life on the line! Risk being arrested and tried for treason and being executed! Step up! Sign the Declaration of Independence!
Now, a quick history refresher:
What does the 4th of July commemorate here in America? (Insert Final Jeopardy interlude music here). It commemorates the PASSING of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, not its signing.
Anyhow, here is what the final product looks like:

Your signature appears at the bottom of the far left column.
So, there I am, Amendment X, risking the calling down of the furies for high treason against the Crown.
So be it. Bring it on!
By the way, here is the story of the Declaration of Independence and what happened to the signers.
Brave men indeed as there was no prohibition against “cruel or unusual” punishment. And high treason was punishable by drawing and quartering.

He was a B-17 ball turret gunner. What he did was called “flying the ball”. It, along with the tail gunner position were considered to be the most dangerous positions for the B-17 air crew.
His completed tour was supposed to be 25 missions that were upped to 30. But, he was shot down and served as a POW (prisoner of war). When being transported , the train he was on was strafed and jumped the tracks. Trains were considered “targets of opportunity” for fighters and it was not uncommon for American fighters to strafe POW trains as they were usually unmarked. He and a few other POW’s, on seeing that they weren’t being guarded after the derailing, took off and walked for five days, without food, and crossed the border into Switzerland where he was interred for the rest of the war.
He flew B-29’s in the Pacific after being liberated in Europe, then flew B-52’s.
I met Don at the Wednesday lunches for the 8th Air Force Historical Society, a group of many WWII vets including, but not limited to air and ground crew from the 8th, 15th, 9th, 12th, 7th and 20th Air Forces. We also have Navy and Marine ground and air personnel from the PTO. We also have vets from Korea, Vietnam, first Gulf War and now the second. And we have hanger-ons like me.
A couple of years ago Don was too ill to drive, so he asked me if I would pick him up for the lunches. Of course. I can’t refuse a vet. How could I?
Well, I heard a bit of a different story about Don’s career as a POW as we drove to Bloomington. He told me that he and a few others were fairly dissatisfied with their treatment in the Stalag. And he commented that the cuisine left much to be desired next to Mom’s meatloaf. So, he said “We decided to leave. They weren’t treating as nicely as we thought they should, and we heard the food was better in Switzerland. So, that’s where we went.” It was only later that I heard about his being on a POW train that was strafed.
And of course there was another story that took the entire twenty minutes on our second drive.
After Don was liberated, he got orders to report to California. He flew to, I believe, San Francisco. His next orders were to report to Hickam Field near Pearl Harbor. His next orders were to report to, again I believe, the Philippines. In all these orders he was never told the end point.
On that the far Pacific airbase he was told which officer to report to. The officer told him to suit up, which he did. Don, being an enlisted man, learned early on never to question orders or officers (who usually gave orders). Don suited up, was driven out to the flight line and was told to board one of these bad boys:

It’s a Northrup P-61 Black Widow. And off to combat they flew. In combat, the pilot’s screaming at Don “There’s a Zero. Shoot the bastard!!!!” “Sergeant, what the hell’s wrong with you? They’re Japs all over the place and you haven’t shot a single round!!! What the (very strong expletive here staring with ‘F’) are you doing?!?!?” Don’s reply “I’ve never been trained as a P-61 gunner. Only a B-17 gunner!” Oops. Seems that some REMF (Rear Echelon Mother [Same expletive as before] military slang for someone behind the lines) had seen that Don went to gunnery school, was a combat experienced air crew gunner, and off he was ordered to the Pacific. To be the gunner on a P-61. Ain’t the military bureaucracy grand?
Don flew B-29’s afterwards,where his experience was much more relevant. And he was much happier. And the B-29 pilot didn’t scream at him with nearly as much vigor (or as much colorful language) as did the P-61 driver. I failed to ask if the Air Force food was better than Swiss victuals. An oversight on my part, but a question for which Don would have had a wry answer.
Don had been in failing health over the past few years. He had gone from being old to being frail as are more and more of my WWII friends. He was on oxygen.
About two weeks ago Don fell and broke his hip. Rushed to the hospital Don was successfully operated on. All pinned up and on the mend Don was cracking wise with the hospital staff. But there was clot from the surgery. It broke loose,went to his heart and killed him.
His funeral service was Tuesday.
One of the members of his POW group led the prayer. He talked about our liberating God. How He liberated Moses and the enslaved Israelites. How He liberated Daniel from the lions’ den. Liberated the three Israelites from the fiery furnace, the Israelites from Babylon and Paul and Peter from prison. Liberated Jesus from the grave. Liberated me from the consequences of my sins and my self-purchased first class one-way ticket for an eternal trip to hell.
Seems that the only acceptable currency for the purchase of liberty is blood. For us and our sins, it’s the Blood of Jesus. For the luxury and liberty of being able to write, in English, and read this small memorial to Don, in the greatest nation on earth, the currency was and is the blood of soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen.
The blood of Don’s brothers-in-arms.
And I feel the emptiness in my chest from missing him already.
So, go out and honor Don and others by fighting for liberty. Don and all those brothers-in-arms of his who risked all their tomorrows so we could have today.
Celebrate what he and millions of others fought and many died for.
Happy 4th of July.
By the way, here is a picture of Don and his air crew. Don is in the back row, third from the right.

I had been anticipating the D.C. v Heller decision for some time. My friend Dr. Joseph Olson was one of the members of Heller’s legal team in the oral arguments phase before SCOTUS.

You know some of my background when it comes to the 2nd Amendment (leadership team member for MNCCRN/GOCRA , AACFI Instructor , permit carrier under the former and present statute. I’ve been instructed by and shot with an Army Ranger, Air Force Intelligence officer, SWAT Sniper, member Delta Force, BCA certified Range Officer [the one responsible for teaching firearm techniques and range certifying police officers ] to name a few).

I’m not going to review the Heller decision. There are many sites that will do that for you (Second Amendment Foundation, the NRA and you can read Justice Scalia’s majority opinion).

I am pleased at the Heller decision. I am also concerned. For the first time there is a SCOTUS decision that the 2nd Amendment means what it has always meant. This a significant victory. I won’t discount that.The concern: it was a 5-4 decision on a case that absolutely should have been 9-0.
Now, in the late 1780’s, as we were still waiting for Marconi to invent radio and Al Gore to get that internet thing up and running, the only available mechanism to broadcast the proposed Constitution was the printing press. To be sure that the citizens understood what the document meant, it was written in plain, common everyday language for the late 18th century. The federalists wrote a series of articles that collected were called the Federalist Papers that explained in detail what the framers meant. The Anti-Federalists were very concerned about this federal government, having just finished fighting the most powerful central government in the world, the British monarchy and Parliament. The Anti-Federalists were responsible for the Bill of Rights to ensure redundancy in the preservation of liberty. The Bill of Rights was also written in the common , everyday 18th Century vernacular so as to absolutely clear about intent and meaning. And with all that, there were four Supreme justices who found a new and completely contrary meaning in those 27 simple and direct words. Justice Breyer wrote :”In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas.” Justice Stevens wrote that there was a “settled” precedent regarding the regulation of firearms for militia use. He then wrote:”The Court’s announcement of a new constitutional right to own and use firearms for private purposes (emphasis mine) upsets that settled understanding.” A “new” constitutional right. Unlike the old right of habeas corpus for foreign enemy combatants that these four plus Justice Kennedy magically “found” and “announced” this session, that somehow my copy of Constitution doesn’t contain.

Justice Scalia wrote about the interest in keeping firearms out the hands of the mentally unstable and felons. And therein lies the fight: how is “mentally unstable” defined? How are they “prevented” from owning or having firearms? How well has gun control kept firearms out of the hands of criminals? The left will never, ever give up. Always remember,evil only compromises to establish the new negotiating point. Evil always wants it all.

As I told a friend of mine last night this a very important decision. But, it is only a single victory for a single battle, albeit an important battle ,as was Gettysburg, in the never ending war the left wages on America, liberty,freedom and good. How the significance of this decision plays out will show itself over the coming decades with state judges and legislatures, the federal judiciary including SCOTUS and Congress.

It bears repeating and certainly remembering: Heller was a 5-4 decision. It hung on a single Justice , Kennedy, who was also the swing vote for the child rape law and the enemy combatant/habeas majority opinions . Plessy v Ferguson established that “separate but equal” as being constitutional was overturned 58 years later by Brown v Board of Education.
Heller can also be overturned.

Some additional thoughts I posted at Hot Air.

To honor Barack Hussein Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Maurice Hinchey and all left wingers ideas for energy policy, I humbly present the following more than appropriate musical tribute:

And ya know the irony of it all? The modern state of Russia is gloming onto, drilling for, mining and scraping every bit of oil/gas/uranium/coal that they can find. The Russians are better capitalists than the majority of Americans in Congress!
Go figure.