Posted on 11/08/2009 11:50:45 AM PST by StraitShooter
Acts of Orwellian feminism
By: Tom Oleson 7/11/2009 1:00 AM
My elder daughter spent Thanksgiving weekend with her boyfriend visiting his parents at their farm northwest of Winnipeg. For a young woman who had never had any previous taste of life in rural Manitoba -- aside from a walk in the woods at Clear Lake one year -- it was eye-opening.
For her, at the time, the emphasis was first on taste. At home on Thanksgiving she gets turkey, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and, if she's been good, which is not often, a piece of pie with, perhaps, some ice cream.
On the farm, however, she found a whole different kind of Thanksgiving dinner. There was, of course, a turkey, but her hosts were of Ukrainian descent -- she is Icelandic -- and there were many other dishes, from perogies to cabbage rolls to concoctions too exotic to describe that she wolfed down with such voracity that she began to alarm her boyfriend and his parents. Baba, however, thought a good appetite in such a young woman could only bode well for the future.
When she called me to tell me how her weekend was going, however, it wasn't the food. Rather it was about a more amazing experience. "Guess what, Dad?" she cried. "I got to fire a shotgun."
I don't think that she had ever seen a shotgun or a rifle before, but like most farm families, her boyfriend's farmhouse was full of them. She not only learned how to shoot one, she learned that a 12-gauge shotgun has a hell of kick -- it nearly knocked me on my bum, she said, and added, with some pride, that she had stayed on her feet.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may be able to shoot a 12-gauge with one hand, but I can't and I'm willing to bet that you can't either.
My daughter is beginning to understand guns, the power of them and the purpose of them and pleasure that can be had from them. In short, she is beginning to understand a little better what it means to be Canadian, to be part of a culture where long guns have been a natural adjunct to a normal way of life.
Or, at least, long guns were a natural adjunct to the Canadian way of life until the Liberals inflicted the long-gun firearms registry on the nation. Suddenly, the farmers, hunters and recreational shooters had been shifted from being good, law-abiding Canadians to being potential criminals as a knee-jerk political response to the distress that gripped urban Eastern Canada in the wake of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre of 14 young women in 1989, a tragedy that probably no piece of gun-control legislation, not even one as draconian as the Liberal long-gun registry, could have prevented.
The registry has been extraordinarily expensive to implement. It has been called the billion-dollar boondoggle because it cost at least that much to put in place -- some people call that an underestimate and that it should more accurately be called the two-billion-dollar boondoggle. It is also expensive to maintain, even under a Conservative government that wants no part of it, takes no interest in it and clearly wants out of it.
On Wednesday, the country was given an opportunity to opt out of this bit of Orwellian feminism when a private member's bill, put forward by Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, passed in the House of Commons by a surprisingly large majority as 20 Liberal and NDP MPs joined the Conservatives in supporting it. The Bloc Quebecois, unsurprisingly -- Quebec political parties have always had a more autocratic tinge to them than parties in the rest of Canada -- was unanimous in its support of the registry.
Giving the Canadian registry the kiss of death and the Canadian way of living the kiss of life is a long and unpredictable process -- there are still committee hearings and the thrice-accursed Senate that need to be surpassed -- but it is at least a hope.
Until that hope is realized, I am glad that my daughter has discovered the joys of Ukrainian cooking, but I am even happier that she has discovered the joys of what it means to be a free Canadian and the consequences and responsibilities that entails.
She showed me a picture of herself taken on her cellphone, holding up two dead geese that her boyfriend had shot. The grim expression on her face tells it all. She ain't going goose hunting again, but my guess is that she could be a killer at skeet.
tom.oleson@freepress.mb.ca
ping
Not to digress, but there's a new UN thing going on with an acronym that's as chilling as the word "Nazi." It's called UNIFEM, and I don't know about you, but just the sight of it in print makes me want to run for cover.
Guns make people equal. Which would you rather do ladies?
Try going hand to hand with a 6 ft 250lbs rapist or put 2 slugs in his chest, one in his head from across the room?
CAnadian long on registry needs to be turfed, and the hand gun legislation overhauled. The process of licensing a handgun is in the hands of theprovinces under a fed umbrella., You have 10 different standards. It takes 2 years of courses and psychiatric reports to get a hand gun in some parts of Canada, like New Brunswick.
And then you can’t take it onywhere but home, and maybe take it back and forth to a gun range( if the cops let you).
The masaacres that have happened in Canada are generally because of liberal social engineering that drove a few moonbats around the bend.The politicians are the ones with that blood on thier hands, not Canada’s gun owners.
Never understood the average females aversion to guns.
&&
Girl here. Gunfire hurts my ears — I hate firecrackers, too. Males tend to like loud booms, but most women don’t. But I do plan to get one and learn how to use it.
You may like it, you may not but good on you for tying it out.
That poor child, exposed to Ukrainian cooking at her age! Didn’t anyone see fit to warn her that not only 12-gauge shotguns can knock you off your feet? Ukraine is the breadbasket of the region, so “farmer’s fare” will lay you out.
Beef Stroganoff. Chicken Kiev. Pork roast. Stuffed Goose and Duck. Lamb and fish. Bacon dishes. Potato dishes. Soups. Breads and sweet cakes and tortes. Stews and Goulashes. Cheese fritters. Eggplant and zucchini. Shish kabob. Even rice dishes. Wines and liquor.
Poor thing is lucky she can still stand up.
Always use hearing protection for any recreational shooting. Failure to do so will result in damage to your hearing in very little time.
You can get a .22 rifle, this caliber has plenty of ammunition that is super-quiet, I have lots of it, great for short range work on my ground squirrels. But even a standard velocity .22LR can be fired (on an open range) without earmuffs; I use them on my property now and then if a squirrel is far away. If you pick a .22 handgun, there is a good choice of ammo for it as well.
But pretty much anything else *requires* earmuffs. You want to get good electronic ones.
Try an earmuff-style hearing protector; it is easy to put on and take off.
Hearing loss is cumulative, and a .22 is plenty loud to do it, just not quite as quickly.
It costs very little to properly protect your ears. You can get 100 plugs for a few bucks, and a decent set of basic earmuffs for 15-20. Stack them both and you’re doing as well as the more expensive electronic ones.
I got my wife a 9mm (I prefer my 45ACP). I’ve been a shooter/reloader all my life. We both got our CCL’s here in S. TX. She won’t carry it, but at least she has it in the house (we live in the country) and is comfortable with it. I have an arsenal (357 mag, mini 14, SKS, shotguns, several 45’s, etc.). Ammo’s still tight round here, so reloading sure helps.
When you are practice shooting, always wear ear protection. There are quite good shooting ear muffs on the market, and they are not all that expensive.
The ladies would rather vote the money out of the men’s wallets to pay some other men to enforce their will (the women’s that is) on the rest of the men. They won’t take the risks their own freedom and expect to be able to pay others to do their bleeding for them. The day may come when money won’t be enough, then they’re out of luck - which is why my daughter knows how to shoot.
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