A BUNCH OF PANSIES, AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT

A FLAT OF COLORFUL PANSIES ON THE COFFEE TABLE

Wednesday, 8:30 AM,  32 degrees F at the ferry dock, 29 on the back porch.  Wind NNE, very gusty.  The sky is cloudy and overcast, and it is raining ice pellets, the humidity 95%.  The barometer is steady, predicting more of the same.  We have an appointment in Duluth this morning, and it promises to be a fun drive.

'"IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER"

   Spring annuals aren't in at the local garden centers yet, so we picked up a flat of pansies in Milwaukee on the weekend, and will enjoy them inside on the coffee table for a few days before planting them out in the garden; it definitely adds a touch of spring while we await the arrival of the real thing in northern Wisconsin.

OFF THE CUFF

   The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is the guarantor of all of our other constitutional rights, as the founders obviously realized.  It is the last defense of a free people against kings, despots, and dictators of both the right and the left.  

   We have seen over the years, and most recently again in Venezuela, that disarming the population is among the first steps in the advent of a dictatorial regime. Hitler disarmed the German people,  Stalin the Russians,  Mao the Chinese, and so on, and Maduro the Venezuelans.  

   It is often done insidiously, in the cause of stemming domestic violence.  But the confiscation of firearms is never done completely,  only the political opposition being disarmed. The supporters of the dictatorial regime are left armed, and able to quell their opponents without the government actually doing so, which all the while looks the other way.  That is exactly what is happening in Carracas; Maduro's armed supporters, like Hitler's Brown Shirts, are able to intimidate, destroy and even kill their opponents at will in the streets. 

   The next time you see masked left wing rioters dressed in black ninja suits setting fires and breaking windows and attacking others with baseball bats, think of all the whiles that are being used to cajole Americans to give up their guns.  At first they only want to register your gun, or have an onerous permitting process, or only want to confiscate pistols, or semi-automatic weapons, or clips holding so many rounds, or guns of a certain style.  But once they have one victory they will go for another, and so on, until the Second Amendment has been gutted.  

   Don't give up the right to defend your life, your family, and your freedom with your own guns, and never trust the government to do it for you, as the "sadder now but wiser" people of Venezuela did.