Monday, February 28, 2011

All's Good

My son said he wanted to make a machine that would let us be able to buy oil for 25 cents for 10 gallons. I said even one gallon for that price would be great. Then I described why that isn't the case already....

We love freshly made pesto from basil plants that naturally grow all around our porch. I said, what if the government told us that it was illegal to pick basil leaves to make pesto, and instead we had to go to the store and pay $5 a bag each time we wanted it? My son said, that's stupid. We prefer not to use that word in common parlance, but this time I said he's 100% correct.

Check this out:


"North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

"A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10 [2008], shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

"New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007. ...

"The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

"The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels."

Now check this out:

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/362/207/How_much_oil_Does_the_U.S.Have_in_the_ground_Forbes_did_not_miss_a_beat,_he_said,_more_Than_all_the_Middle_East_put_together..html

"The host said to Forbes, "I am going to Ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil Does the U.S. Have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together."

But for goodness sake, don't pick your own basil!


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Project Gunwalker

After all the braying about the so-called gunshow loophole, and registration, it comes down to this? For shame! We in Arizona are sickened by the border violence, and it's time for the BATFE / ATF to own up.


"...wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain why Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents allowed suspected gun smugglers to purchase and keep assault rifles that later may have been used in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

In a letter, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa said ATF agents told his staff the agency allowed the sale to “known and suspected straw purchasers for an illegal trafficking ring near the Southwest border” and two of those weapons reportedly were recovered at the site of the Dec. 14 shootout that killed Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry.

"Terry, 40, was attempting to arrest bandits who prey on illegal immigrants when he was killed about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexicoborder. A member of the Border Patrol’s elite Search Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) team, he was waiting with three other agents in a remote area north of Nogales, Ariz., when the gunbattle erupted..."

If you want to know more, just google "Project Gunwalker."

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Amendment on the block

[title edited, since it appears TJIC has pulled his own blog pending legal...]

http://borepatch.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-am-tjic.html

Whatever you believe about the 2nd, I hope you seriously consider the 1st and say with me...I am TJIC...

"It was not a famous Massachusetts citizen who said We must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin was more circumspect than the men from Massachusetts, such as Sam Adams, who said this:
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
"Eliminationist rhetoric right there. Clearly, the Arlington Police would have seized his firearms. What a sad, degraded state for a once proud Commonwealth. It seems that I got out just in the nick of time."


"Last week, law enforcement officials in Arlington, Massachusetts seized the (legally owned) guns of Travis Corcoran, a blogger and owner of an online comic book store. They also revoked Corcoran's gun permit. They were responding to posts on Corcoran's blog, TJICistan..."


"11. > Did they revoke your concealed carry permit, or did they confiscate your firearms all together?


I was told that if I voluntarilly surrendered my firearms, as a “show of good faith”, that my LTC would not be revoked. On the advice of counsel, I did so.

As soon as that transaction was completed, my LTC was yanked. Whether this was planned all along or not, I can not say. Technically, it has not been “revoked”, it has been “suspended”.

In either case, it sure feels like my RKBA has been infringed.

> if they revoked your firearms, did they have a warrant to do so, and under what authority?

MA is a “may issue” state.

As I understand it, under the law, the Chief of Police may revoke my right to store in MA, or carry in MA, firearms, but he may not confiscate them.

None the less, when my LTC was suspended, I was ORDERED to turn in all of my firearms; moving them out of state was not presented as an option.

> Do you have a legal defense fund set up somewhere where we can donate?

At this point in time my legal bills are noticeably but not crushing (my lawyer is ~$500/hr, and other experts we’ve called in have their own price tags). I own a home and a business, and would - at this point in time - feel awkward about accepting any help when there are so many more worthy folks out there. Please feel free to drop an extra $5 in the church collection plate, or give it to the local animal shelter or home for battered women to help those truly in need.

If this legal battle escalates, I reserve the right to revist this topic, of course! wink

> As you know from my comments on your website, I disagreed with you at the time you posted that. However, no matter how boorish or insensitive your statements, they were not an incitement to violence, that much is clear. What you said was “One down, 534 to go” which to me is no more an incitement to violence than the joke that goes something like this: “What do you call 500 lawyers on the bottom of the ocean?” ... a good start!”

Indeed, the post was meant as an homage to that exact joke.

> And no, Fran, it isn’t lock and load time.

Agreed. I had a long post up on my site, before I took it down, analyzing America’s current political situation in terms of the four point test of Catholic Just War doctrine. I also conclude that we currently only satisfy two of the four points.

> I think this will be turned around in court in very short order.

I’ve got my fingers crossed ... and a good legal strategy, which is a bit more important! wink

Thank you, all, for your support.

Posted by TJIC on 01/20/2011 at 02:53 PM