Category Archives: Navel Gazing

New Digs

Posted on July 14, 2012 by | 2 Comments

With the help of Barron Barnett, I’ve moved over to WordPress. Hopefully I’ve managed to do enough of this correctly that the changeover will be relatively painless.

www.NCGunBlog.com

I’m still moving in. Pardon the mess.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Navel Gazing

Target Marketing FAIL!

Posted on October 13, 2011 by | 3 Comments
Once in a great while I will get direct email about my blog. Usually though, people will just leave a comment on the post. Today’s direct email was a doozy.
Hi Sean,
 I’m writing to let you know that we posted an article, “10 Types of Kisses and What They Mean When Dating”(Link deleted). I just thought I’d share it with you in case you thought it would appeal to your readers.
Are you freaking serious? You went to all the trouble to locate my email and get my blog name correct in the subject line, but you failed to pay attention to the fact that this is a GUN BLOG? My readers are more accustomed to reading about gun crime overseas, Felons Behaving Badly, Gunwalker T-Shirts for sale, and North Carolina gun law politics. I’m sure that they can figure out what a kiss means all by themselves, and if they can’t, reading your story isn’t really going to help them.
Fail, Fail, FAIL!
Now if you have a post about how to get all the parts back inside my brand new Ruger 22/45, I’m all ears. Stupid internet. Promises you instructions on how to install your new Volquartsen trigger and leaves you with a bag of random parts.

========================================================================
Do you RSS? Don’t know what an RSS Feed is?
Save time and read all the latest blog news first.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Navel Gazing

Happy Blogoversary to me

Posted on September 29, 2011 by | 13 Comments
Today I mark one year as a blogger. It doesn’t seem like that long.
Some interesting stats
Posts – 955, including this one.
Total Pageviews – 220,500+
Biggest referrers
Instapundit – 47,878
SayUncle – 19,129
Google (probably Reader) – 13,884
Ernie’s House of Whoopass (NSFW) – 4,453
Joe Huffman – 2,349
Breda Fallacy – 2,167
Top Posts
Biggest labels
NC Politics – 164
It’s been a lot of fun. And addictive, don’t forget addictive. Thanks for reading my rantings and saving my marriage. My wife could only take so much of it.
========================================================================
Do you RSS? Don’t know what an RSS Feed is?
Save time and read all the latest blog news first.

→ 13 Comments

Posted in About me, Navel Gazing

A strange convergence of opposite poles of the magnet

Posted on July 2, 2011 by | 1 Comment
While I was wandering through a list of the bills that Governor Perdue has signed into law I ran into a Militia bill. I thought it was interesting and posted about it. Then something really interesting happened. It got linked by two different bloggers. Sebastian, from Snowflakes in Hell, and Mike Vanderboegh from Sipsey Street Irregulars.
For those who don’t see the humor in that, Sebastian seems to consider Mike to be a wild eyed revolutionary, and Mike has basically called Sebastian a suck up and a tool of the NRA.  I think that the heat has cooled over the last couple of years. Sebastian has been at great pains to explain that he doesn’t see the problem with violent resistance to tyranny, but that point seems a very long way off. And for his part, Mike seems content to occasionally repost the famous “Sebastian wearing a fur hat standing next to a cannon” photo instead of his other favorite, the NRA weenie mobile.
I think the whole thing is overblown. Philosophically I am more aligned with Mike. Tell the SOBs that if they don’t leave us alone, they risk getting shot. Warnings are only fair. It’s kind of a dick move to stay silent and then suddenly attack your own government with no warning. If you give them fair warning backed by credible force, they might change their obnoxious behavior. By the same token, I’ve met Sebastian, and I really like him personally. I think he’s moved a lot closer to my point of view on Open Carry recently, and honestly, that was my biggest difference with him.
I’ve been reading Mike for a while now, and he makes a lot of sense. What he says, if you listen to him, isn’t really all that crazy. He’s a bit over the top sometimes in the way he says things, but I enjoy that. And then CSGV has spent countless hours of Ladd’s time trying to label every activist gun owner on the planet an “insurrectionist.” Given that everyone to the right of Pol Pot is some sort of counter-revolutionary to CSGV, from their point of view Sebastian and Mike are two peas in a pod.
In the end, we have two 90% allies snarking at each other over the remaining 10%. But you’ve got to admit, having both of them independently linking the same post on NC’s Militia law is hilarious.

=============================================================================

Do you RSS? Don’t know what an RSS Feed is?
Save time and read all the latest blog news first.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Navel Gazing

I give in to peer pressure

Posted on July 1, 2011 by | 11 Comments
I’ve given up. I’ve gotten too many complaints about my white lettering on black background.

For those who don’t know, I am a historical re-enactor. I have a suit of armor and I fight in it.

As you can see, my shield is painted purple white and black, so I thought it would be cool to make my blog the same colors. Unfortunately, what works well in heraldry doesn’t work well in print. Well, it looks like enough people can’t read it that I’ve decided to go to a more conventional black lettering on white background. Hopefully you guys like it.

=============================================================================

Do you RSS? Don’t know what an RSS Feed is?
Save time and read all the latest blog news first.

→ 11 Comments

Posted in About me, Navel Gazing

The victims of crime are frequently on the wrong side of the law as well

Posted on May 21, 2011 by | 2 Comments
Here’s a post that will show you two things. First, that often the victims of crime are the same group of people who commit crimes. This stands to reason as people who are too lazy to get a job are often too lazy to look outside their own group for suitable victims. The second thing that you can learn from this post is some basic internet research tactics.
A man was stabbed early Friday morning in Wilmington, NC
Read the whole story. Note that the story does not give the name of the victim. This is often the case. It does, however, give you a street address of the crime. The responding agency appears to be the Wilmington Police Department, so I went to the Wilmington PD’s website and used their “Search for Events” feature. By plugging in the date and the street, I received this police report.

The report gives me the crime, Assault w/Deadly Weapon Inflicting Serious Injury, the time, address, and the victim’s name. It also tells me that the victim is homeless and that alcohol was involved. In addition, it tells me that the victim is a black male, 48 years old.
I take that info and enter it into the Department of Corrections website and it spits out this guy. Habitual felon, Drugs, DWI, Assault on a Female, Driver’s license permanently revoked, Larceny by Public Employee. He only just got out of prison in October after over 7 years. And here he is, drunk, homeless, and getting stabbed.
This info is already out there. The reporters frequently only tell you half the story. I mean, anyone could get drunk and stabbed in Wilmington. Did the reporter leave out the fact that the victim was a convicted felon just out of prison because he didn’t know? Or because he didn’t think you should know?
Let’s be clear about some things. Just because someone’s a felon doesn’t mean that crimes committed against them are any less serious. It’s also not blaming the victim to point out that he was drunk at 1am on a pretty seedy looking street, and that he’s homeless after being out of jail just over 6 months. Drunk, stumbling down a seedy looking street pretty much defines “Condition White.”
One more thing you can learn from this story. Once you give your life to drugs and alcohol, forever will it dominate your destiny. I want drugs to be decriminalized. I think that the benefits will outweigh the costs. But this man is an example of what they cost. His life appears to have been wasted because of drugs and alcohol.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Felons Behaving Badly, Navel Gazing

Felons Behaving Badly – Your turn

Posted on May 10, 2011 by | 2 Comments
This could also be titled “Easy blogfodder for when you’re unable to come up with better.”
I’ve had a lot of blog posts about felons reoffending, sometimes in spectacular and grisly ways. The “label” is “Felons Behaving Badly.” The basic point is that, generally speaking, if a person murders another, they usually have a prior criminal record. This contrasts with the average CHP holder who has no record at all, plus almost never commit a crime. Of course the gun-grabbers want to pretend that the average CHP holder is just a twitch of the finger away from mass murder.
You may have noticed that almost all of my “Felons Behaving Badly” are North Carolina stories. This makes sense for three reasons. Firstly, this is a North Carolina blog. Secondly, I only know how to look up criminal records for North Carolina residents. (well, I know how for PA, but I don’t live there any more) The third reason is because North Carolina supplies me with a plethora of felons without having to look outside the state at all.
Here’s where you come in. Look up the websites of all your state’s TV news stations and larger newspapers. Read the crime news. Take all the names in each story, both victim, suspect, and witnesses, and plug them into you state’s public criminal records website. Then report the ones that pop. What you will find is that the nastier the crime, the more likely that your suspect and victim are previous guests at the State’s fine establishments for the correction of wayward citizens.
The Left, the Media, and the gun-grabbers (but I repeat myself) want to pretend that there isn’t a dimes worth of difference between violent criminals and concealed carriers. They repeatedly tell stories about violent criminals in order to try to disarm you and me. Strike back by publicizing those many, many criminals who are still running around terrorizing the public instead of having paid their debt to society and reformed their ways like we are told.
The big danger is that you will start to read the criminal records and realize that so many criminals are convicted of big crimes and sentenced to very little jail time. It’s frustrating to see how few people get serious sentences until they actually murder someone. You start to wonder if the system is set up that way on purpose. They leave the criminals out on the street to terrorize us, and then they attempt to disarm us in order to make us more dependent upon the State for protection. We give up more and more civil liberties in order to “give the police the power to fight crime.” I know, that’s crazy talk. But look at it this way. The criminals are happy because they are free to do what they want. The government is happy with increased power. We aren’t.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Felons Behaving Badly, Mythbusting, Navel Gazing, Sean gets Results

CSGV takes ball, goes home

Posted on April 30, 2011 by | 1 Comment
So what happens when you lie on Twitter? You get slapped down hard. What happens when you’re outnumbered on Twitter 10 to 1 and you lie? You get bitch slapped hard, fast, and often.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Ownership has spent quite a bit of time making up stupid things to say on Twitter, and various gun bloggers have had a fun time slapping them down. Well CSGV couldn’t have that. Today, the first day of the NRA Convention, after spending a lot of time calling for a “GunConversation,” they just blocked us. I guess they didn’t like what we had to say.

Here’s a clue-by-four. If your claim is that gun owners are a small minority, and that gun control supporters are a large majority, you shouldn’t be outnumbered in blogs and on Twitter by several orders of magnitude. It’s one thing to be a fringe wacko. It’s quite another to be a fringe wacko who’s being an obnoxious ass while trying to infringe on other people’s rights.
On a side note, if you want, you can follow me on Twitter. I’m not very good at argument by haiku, but it’s entertaining.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Navel Gazing

HB-650 Page

Posted on April 10, 2011 by | Leave a comment
I’ve finished my look into HB-650. In order to gather all the posts in to one place, I’ve created an HB-650 Page that you can see on my sidebar in “Important Posts.”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Navel Gazing, NC Politics

Roberta was right. I was wrong. Mea Culpa

Posted on January 21, 2011 by | 8 Comments
Roberta warned me. I didn’t listen. Stupid me.
When you go debating an anti, you are teaching them. Knock it off! Address their questions and concerns, if you must, on your own blog where they are unlikely to go. In the spaces they control, you’ve got to cut them off at the knees. Don’t touch their asinine points, don’t give them new factiods to miscontrue or practice at framing their hoplophobic, nannying notions. Instead, hit our hard truths — ask them Joe Huffman’s Just One Question, ask why it is they don’t want skinny cheerleaders, grannies and gayboys to be able to fight back when baddies try to beat them up, why a retired African-American man should be denied the right to defend his home and family from thugs. Make them confront their wickedness because the antis are in the wrong; they are against human rights and they empower thug rule, bullies, beatings. And we need to call ‘em on it. Every time. Every damn time.
I’m done with japete and Baldr. These two have no intention of changing their anti-gun opinions. They think we are stupid and that they are here to educate us, to bring us into the light. I have deleted them from my RSS feed reader, and I will not be following their comments like I have been previously. I’m done sending them traffic, and it would be nice if everyone else stopped as well. I think it’s time to let them wither away. Japete claims that she writes for an audience larger than us “gun guys.” Well she can see if they can fill up her comments section.

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Joan Peterson is ignorant, Navel Gazing