Driving the Ranchers Off the Land, part 2 of 6
1:01 pm August 6th, 2014(NOTE: a condensed version of this report appears in the Autumn, 2014 issue of “Range” magazine, on newsstands now.)
DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OWN THE LAND?
The Testament of James, second excerpt
7:15 pm August 5th, 2014Added to the first excerpt, the following takes us through the first 5,900 words of Vin’s new novel, “The Testament of James,” published by Mountain Media on Dec. 16, 2014. In all, six excerpts are posted on this site: Go to the subject index and click “Fiction,” or click the link at the bottom for “next excerpt.”
This material is copyright c Vin Suprynowicz, 2014, all rights reserved.
Just what do they mean by a ‘school shooting’?
9:30 am August 4th, 2014I see where the Victim Disarmament gang have been up to their old tricks, caught red-handed ginning up bogus statistics to try and convince low-information voters that America’s government schools are now little more than shooting galleries.
(“But if only we could ban the guns!” they cry, ignoring the curious shortage of attacks on police stations.)
With a little help from my friends (‘Why I may appear to have been writing less, of late,’ Part One of Three)
11:16 am July 3rd, 2014Friends and fans — if few in number then all the more cherished — have been asking why I seem to have been writing less this year.
I hope I don’t take too much on myself if I’m reminded of Paul McCartney reporting the press reaction when the Beatles stopped touring and went almost a year from August of 1966 without releasing any album other than some oldies compilation.
‘Survival could not be expected’ (‘Why I may appear to have been writing less of late,’ Part Two of Three)
11:01 am July 3rd, 20141941. War came. The Navy, sometimes befuddled but even then the wisest of the services, made dad a radio man, on the little destroyer escort Raymond.
As most 20-year-olds would, dad took the rigors of tropical service in stride, writing in his surviving notebook about the traditional ceremony of the pollywogs’ first crossing of the equator under the supervision of King Neptune. But things got serious when Rear Admiral C.A.F. Sprague, commander of the northern escort carrier group of the Seventh Fleet off the island of Samar, looked up on the morning of Oct. 25, 1944, to see the Japanese central force –- the 63,000-ton battleship Yamato, largest in the world with her 18-inch guns, the battleships Nagato, Haruna, and Kongo with full cruiser escort, bearing down on his little task force, which lacked even a single capital ship.
What would an engineer need to know about ethics? (‘Why I may appear to have been writing less of late,’ Part Three of Three)
10:49 am July 3rd, 2014Dad always thought those studying the sciences should be taught more of the history, the philosophy, and especially the ethical dilemmas which had been faced by their predecessors.
Those in charge of the university’s Electrical Engineering (and Computer Science!) Department scoffed. Their slates were full helping these kids schedule all the “How to fit Tab A into Slot B” coursework required for a degree. If the kids wanted to waste a semester taking history, that’s why there was a History Department. If they had time to dabble in Philosophy, that’s why there was a Philosophy Department. Ethics? Go visit the chaplain.
The Testament of James, first excerpt
10:19 am July 3rd, 2014The following are the first 3,600 words of Vin’s new novel, “The Testament of James,” published by Mountain Media on Dec. 16, 2014. In all, six excepts are posted at this site, taking the reader through the first 20,000 words of the mystery. Click “Fiction” in the index, or click link at bottom to read the next excerpt.
This material is copyright c Vin Suprynowicz, 2014.
Driving the ranchers off the land, part 1 of 6
11:37 am July 1st, 2014(NOTE: a condensed version of this report appears in the Autumn, 2014 issue of “Range” magazine, on newsstands now.)
After years of bluff, bluster, and one-sided hearings in the federal courts (whose politically appointed judges never answer any of the ranchers’ questions about the limits of federal jurisdiction) the federal Bureau of Land Management this April sent hundreds of armed men, including SWAT teams and snipers dug in along the ridge lines, to barricade roads and attempt to seal off hundreds of thousands of acres south of Mesquite, Nevada — about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas — in order to confront a single, 67-year-old rancher, Cliven Bundy.
It all depends on who wants the guns (plus an update on the Showdown at Bundy Ranch)
7:43 am April 24th, 2014A month after a deranged mother-murderer shot up that elementary school in Connecticut in 2012, California state Sen. Leland Yee, 65, described by the Los Angeles Times as “a hero of gun regulators,” helped introduce what was seen as one of the toughest pieces of gun control legislation in the country, an attempt to ban all across California the “bullet button.”
If you don’t know a “bullet button” is, it’s another device, like the old “thumbhole stock,” designed specifically to comply with the ridiculous language of absurd “gun-control” laws.
‘I’m so mad I just want to spit’
9:39 pm April 2nd, 2014My friend Ed was a United States Marine. Some would say he was an “ex-Marine,” but I’m not sure these guys are ever “ex-” Marines.
Ed lived in Connecticut. It’s my birthplace, but a state I left long ago. If I needed to be reminded why, my recent conversation with Ed’s widow would have done it.