You are all a bunch of bumbling morons. This is the information age, get a clue. You can't keep people from doing things by innocuously passing laws as a band-aid or stop gap. In this day and age people are going to find ways to do things. You want to teach them something? Teach them to be responsible with firearms. THAT'S the key that's missing in today's youth. You want to know why kids blow up high schools? Because no one in this 'nobody fails' government will allow the two kids to duke it out behind the library in the third grade.

Unfortunately, by doing this, you folks have basically 'screwed the pooch' on an entire generation. I can only see one way to actually repair the damage, and this is it.

Step 1) Force everyone in the country to carry a handgun.

Step 2) Watch society get really polite, really quick.

In a couple of months all the psychos and gang-bangers will kill each other off and everyone will be happy.

Let's just call that a win / win / win scenario.

- T
Referring to the Brady Campaign and "the Mayors coalition against private handgun sales".
July 28, 2010
Complete and Utter Fools are trying to run our Government
[While there is more than a hint of truth in what he says I'm opposed to forcing everyone in the country to carry a handgun. I'm a middle ground sort of guy.--Joe]

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

Regarding that whole Charles Rangel thing:

The House ethics committee on Thursday accused veteran Rep. Charles Rangel of 13 violations of House rules involving alleged financial wrongdoing and harming the credibility of Congress.

The charges accused the 20-term Democrat from New York...

You can stop right there.

You couldn't stand in the lobby of the Capitol building for 40 years without becoming a corrupt, influence-peddling, power-hungry oligarch, let alone occupy a chair in a legislative chamber. I swear to Hamilton, even the janitor in that den of thieves probably barks "Do you know who I am?" at grocery clerks.

I submit that twenty consecutive congressional terms is prima facie evidence of pretty much any ethical violation you'd care to throw at somebody.

Across the wookie-sphere, there's a strong anti-police sentiment, much of which whiffs of guys who are bitter about getting speeding tickets from the same dudes that flushed their heads down the toilet in 8th grade gym class.

I know too many good cops to buy into the whole "JBT" and "Only Ones" meme; it's no more true than is the meme that all gun owners are illiterate redneck bubbas who blindly vote as the NRA and the GOP tell them.

But there are times that it gets really hard.

The only thing that keeps me level is that most cops I know would be more upset by that video than I am.

For your next zombie infestation: The totally-impractical-yet-undeniably-cool tube-launched unguided rocket-propelled chainsaw.

Just saying it brings a smile to my face.

Aretae posts an off-the-cuff comment that made me go "hmmmm":

Sometime near the 1970s, growth pushed us out of the 10000 year old agrarian tradition of productive men get women to the older >10000 year hunter-tradition of status gets women, but with much better psych-tech. This is scary and unpredictable, given that the nuclear family has been the stable social unit for 10,000 years.

I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I'll be mulling this - and his larger post, which has a larger point - for a while.

I'd certainly add the brass cartridge case to his two world-transforming inventions, but maybe that's just me.

.When I was fifteen, I had a shooting buddy who owned a Smith and Wesson K-22. His dad would take us to 'camp', where there was a great range, and we would shoot all day long. That K-22 was kept smoking for hours on end.... and I learned to love that pistol. It was accurate, smooth, and seemed to want to shoot straight.Now, I am no longer fifteen. Decades have passed.... yet I didn't forget

Steve at The Firearm Blog has the details.

Anyone out there in Gun Nuts land have an FNP-45, and if so what are you opinions on it?  Comments are wide open on this one, so feel free to offer your thoughts.  Subjects include felt recoil vs. a 1911, trigger, sights, etc.

Gun Nuts Sponsor and all around good guys Cheaper than Dirt are now selling firearms online.  Their inventory system shows what guns are available and what aren’t, so you won’t order a gun that isn’t in stock.  They do have the Para TTR in stock I noticed, which makes me want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on an AR-style rifle for 3-gun.

That reminds me, something I wanted to do for a long time I have the chance to do today: stop in Deadwood, SD. It’s on the way to Montana, and if I have some time to kill I’ve always wanted to set foot where Wild Bill walked.

Another day on the road starts today!  I wish I had more time for sight-seeing, because South Dakota has a veritable cornucopia of firearms-related companies, including Cor-Bon, manufacturers of the match ammo I use in my .45s.  Very cool.  Today’s journey should take me to Montana, and with its “no daytime speed limit” I might just finally open up the Subaru and see what she can do on the open highway.  As a friend of mine said, “shoot fast – drive fast”.  I agree wholeheartedly!

I never thought I'd see the day.

SAF is actually suing Maryland over their capricious requirements for 'granting' the right to Conceal Carry. You have to have a few police reports, now, where you survived an encounter with some criminal. To show cause. That you have a particular REASON to fear someone enough to deserve to have a loaded pistol on you outside your home.

I'm going to have to donate to the Second Amendment Foundation. I thought this would take 10 years or more to come about. Thank you Alan Gura. And good luck.

H/T Snowflakes

In blog years.



I was reflecting back, having his that big milestone of '3 years' a few back... (3 blog years? That's like 21 in people years.) We all have little inspirations that started us down this blog path. Our big influences. People that sort of showed the way that, "Yes, I can write a short column nigh every day. Writing is fun. And here is a subject matter with untapped potential that I can sound." My initial inspiration were Denise and Yosemite at Ten Ring, Alphecca, Armed Canadian, and they got me to View From the Porch and Kim Du Toit. From there it just snowballed into the blog list on the right.



Ten Ring, Du Toit, and Armed Canadian don't write much anymore. I wish they did. Kim even took down his archives, and that makes me sad. I thought for a while we were going to lose Jeff at Alphecca, and since his economic difficulties he doesn't shoot as much as he used to. He still writes, tho.



I guess when it starts to become a chore more than something you enjoy it will fall off. Or maybe you've said all you needed to say. Or maybe the bookselves fell on you last November and you've been trapped under something heavy ever since.



Getting old. Many of my old friends are gone.

I'm havIng a little trouble a finding mine this AM...part of it is the Tulsa airport runs everybody through the millimeter wave machines: "Step on the yellow footsteps...place your thumbs on your head...wiggle your ears...make your favorite animal face...may we pat you down? Oh, well, yes, we just x-rayed you down to your bone morrow, but our bazillion dollar machine has detected the presence of

So, I was chatting with the Trainer about gear and other things the other day, and he mentioned that his boys have "Camp Dry Parties." They get together and spray down all gear with Kiwi Camp Dry Heavy Duty Water Repellent -- vests, combat harnesses, pouches, packs, stuff sacks, you name it. Of course boots have their own sealants and BDUs should be porous and breathable, but everything else gets soaked with Camp Dry.

The gear thus treated needs to air dry and, since the curing process makes it stink for about a week, he recommends you hang it in the garage in the interest of the preservation of domestic tranquility. (When momma ain't happy, NOBODY'S happy.)

Camp Dry is found just about everywhere, from WalMart to sporting goods stores.

From the Military Times Gear Scout:

Granite Gear jumped into the military market a few years back and has slowly been filling its tactical catalog with completely new equipment alongside militarized versions of commercial staples. The Block Rock Solid compression stuff sack brings the MultiCam and coyote versions of the Block Solid to the Berry Amendment clientele.

The squared-off sides of the Block Solid mean less wasted space in your bags, especially when used in pairs. To get the idea, think about packing tennis balls vs. building blocks. Available in five sizes, we used a medium to compress a bulky 20-degree sleeping bag to the size of a Nerf football. In fact, the ¾-inch compression straps and arched lids made such easy work of the downsizing that we managed to shove a warming layer, booties and rain gear in there with the sleeping bag. The wide straps made it easy to pull all the air out of the bag, and the stitching never complained with a pop or bulge of the 210-denier fabric sides.

The sack’s compression straps can be used as lashing points if you need to carry gear on the outside of a pack. We found the sacks shed rain for many hours, but the fabric will wet-out eventually, picking up some water weight, but the interior stays bone dry if you orient the long seam against your pack.

Granite Gear went the extra mile with these stuff sacks, and it shows in the use of impeccable stitching, double-sided multicam straps and branded hardware. Just remember: Quality isn’t cheap. On top of that, the Minnesota-based company sources and sews all its military products in the US. But, we’ve got beat-up, 15-year-old Granite Gear stuff sacks that refuse to die. So, if you hang on to your gear, the Block Rock Solids are worth the price. Available now, size medium $40 coyote, $50 MultiCam.

www.granitetacticalgear.com

Interesting. A bow and flourish of the boonie hat to Brother John for the link.

Sort of...

Earlier this month, the Ripon Police Department received a tip from a firearms dealer in Iowa who said someone used a stolen credit card number to order a $1,600 rifle scope and have it shipped to an address in Ripon, Wallner said.

Police launched an investigation into possible credit card fraud and instead uncovered an intricate system to obtain military equipment banned by the U.S. State Department for overseas shipping.

Police identified several packages being sent to the same address and obtained a search warrant, Wallner said.

Inside they found about 20 packages, containing high-end rifle/sniper scopes, night vision equipment, police and military uniforms, GPS units, and electronics, all addressed to different names, that the woman was planning to readdress and ship to Novorossijsk, Russia - a city located on the north coast of the Black Sea and north of Iraq.

The woman, who police say has been cooperative with the investigation, told police the online temporary agency that hired her previously had sent five boxes with baby clothes and diapers that she opened, repackaged and shipped to what she thought was an orphanage in Russia.

The agency told her she would be paid $30 per package through her PayPal account and that the next packages didn’t need to be opened and repackaged, just readdressed and shipped.

Luckily, Wallner said, the woman had sent only the baby clothes and diapers by the time police intervened.

Police confiscated more than $15,000 worth of property purchased with credit card information stolen from at least 20 different victims across the U.S.

It’s hard to find fault with the woman other than by the old yarn, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” 

by Marcus Cole

As an American, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to many, many people who have risked and given their lives to defend our liberty. But as I reflect on the recent Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, I thought I should take a moment to mention four Americans who have made a relatively uncelebrated contribution to the freedom I cherish and enjoy. I owe a special debt to four black men, and one gun.

The most important of these men, to me, was my father. When I was a boy, he and my mother moved our family of six from the Terrace Village public housing projects in Pittsburgh's Hill District to a predominantly white neighborhood. While many of our neighbors welcomed us, we were not welcomed by all. I recall a brick through the front window, and other incidents. But burned into my memory is the Sunday evening when my father was beaten with a tire iron on the street in front of our home, and in front of us, his four little children. Those three young white men were never caught.

When my father, with his surgically reconstructed eye socket and jaw, was released from the hospital, he did something he never once considered when we lived in the projects. He bought a gun.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at Pileusblog.com

Some smart cracker has a review over at ShootingIllustrated.com:

I reasoned that, after one 550-round milk carton of .22 LR, the $199 kit would pay for itself.

I’m not sure what is more manly, though. The pink gun or the purple ear plugs?

Via Tam and Breda, comes the tale of a deranged man getting stabby towards his girlfriend and her two kids. Kid calls 911. Cops show up. And wait outside the door for 45 minutes for a supervisor to show up to authorize a forced entry. Both kids and the woman were murdered with police just outside the door. Tam and Breda are right, you are on your own.

But what manner of man stands outside awaiting supervisor approval while someone and their kids are being murdered? Job and rules be damned, you fucking do something.

I’ve been kinda snickering a bit. Seems a bunch of hippies want to keep hens in the greater urban areas of Knoxville. For eggs. So they’ve apparently gotten the city council to go along. But it looks like having chickens may mean you waive your fourth amendment rights:

The Animal Control Board shall have the right to enter the permitted property during reasonable daylight hours to inspect the hen enclosure and condition of the animals in the enforcement of this law, and shall have the authority to enter the property at any time in case of emergency or health threat, and to remove chickens from the premises, if necessary.

Hi-Point to donate a carbine to the event.

Online gambling closer to being legalized, taxed and regulated.

Is he saying scopes kill all by themselves?

And don’t point guns at your leg:

Witnesses told Brogdon brought a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun to sell at work. He shot himself as he started to unload the gun in the passenger side of a truck.

Via Barry

Dennis and Paul are not fans of civil rights celebrations. And are shocked that someone would have such a celebration on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech. I wonder if they really are that dense?

They’re suing Maryland authorities for denying a man a handgun carry permit because he couldn’t demonstrate a reasonable precaution against apprehended danger. More here.

Sebastian thinks it’s a good place to start.

David Hardy:

And to think — it was only a few years ago that Brady and others were suing gun manufacturers right and left, as part of a campaign to bankrupt the industry, a campaign that had a good chance of succeeding. Today, they’re on the defensive (to the extent they act at all) and the progun side is on the offense. Since almost all of it has occurred over the last month or so, it’s more than an offense, it’s a legal blitzkrieg.

Tam on the firearms excise tax:

Further, wasn’t firearms ownership just ruled to be an individual right? Why are guns taxed, then? Isn’t that as unconstitutional as, say, a special tax on religious accoutrement or newspapers?

SCAR 17S is shipping. Mmmm, 7.62.

S&W 1917

Pics from smallbore championship.

This ruling strikes me as largely correct: Scirica, who was joined by 3rd Circuit Judge Michael A. Chagares and visiting U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez of the District of New Jersey, looked to First Amendment law in deciding that the federal ban on guns with obliterated serial numbers should be subjected to “intermediate scrutiny.” [...] Related posts:

1. Roberts Not Liking Standards of Review
2. The Courts Are Stacked Against Us
3. Second Amendment Win

By New York Times standards, this is remarkably balanced, which is to say the reporter went around to Appleseed events and reported on people he thought were whack jobs. I’ve had my issues with Appleseed, as I posted a few years ago here, here, and here, but mostly centered on the question of whether it [...] Related posts:

1. Right to Arms in Pennsylvania History
2. Reporters Sees the Light
3. Great Idea With a Bad Packaging

I'm not able to comment much on this, but I do have a few thoughts.

I hope we find the responsible party or parties, try them for espionage and murder, then execute them. That's the correct and just way to handle people who cause grave damage to our national security and diplomatic relations.

That goes for Julian Assange as well. What a fucking bastard. There is a correct way to "blow the whistle" on something the government is doing wrong. Putting so many lives at risk is not the correct way to handle any perceived wrongs perpetrated by the US Military.

Assange just doesn't give a fuck about anything other than his own bloated ego. Until he is dealt with, he'll keep doing shit like this, even at the expense of many innocent lives. ...

Last work day of the month. Saved the last for the best.

I thought the asinine uselessness of this administration had reached ‘8’, but I was holding the report sideways.

Anonymous

From Nancy @ Excels at Nothing

Found @ The Clue Meter

And I’ll never look at Spongebob quite the same way again. NSFW.

Firehand fires one of the smallest autoloaders intended for self defense that I’ve ever seen.

This news item says that mass killer Derrick Bird was “licensed to carry guns”.  Surprised me, since Mr. Bird lived and killed in Great Britain.

Over here in the United States, saying that someone is “licensed to carry guns” means that they can have a concealed firearm on them as they go about their day-to-day.  I should know, as I am one of those guys.

But I really don’t think the media in the UK mean the same thing.  Instead I think they mean he was licensed to own guns, and not actually carry them.

Fascinating video to be found at this link.  Someone decided that it would be a good idea to run 300 rounds through his full auto AK-47.  The gun gets so hot that the foregrip starts to burn!  And is there some noticable barrel droop?

Crappy way to treat a valuable gun, in my opinion…

Talk to anyone who is an avid collector and shooter of rifles, and they almost certainly will say that the .223 NATO round currently being used by our armed forces is not all that great.  If they don’t think you will take offence, they might refer to it by the sneering nickname most American rifle enthusiasts like to use: the Poodle Shooter.

The reason for this is that the lowly .223 generates less than 50% of the energy of the .30-06 Springfield, the rifle cartridge that was the US military standard before being replaced by the Poodle Shooter.  They seem to think that the new round is just too weak and puny to get the job done.

What do I think?  I notice that our troops keep winning when time comes around to sling some lead, and so don’t see what the problem might be.  But that isn’t what I want to talk about right now.

Instead, this rather odd controversy sprang to mind while I was reading this news article concerning one of the DC snipers.  The journalist who wrote the story refers to the weapon used as being a “high-powered rifle”.  Since it was a .223, I’m sure that more than on rifle enthusiast would not agree.

I found it to be even worse when reading about Derrick Bird, a taxi driver in Great Britain who recently went kill crazy on a murder spree before taking his own life.  It seems that an eyewitness to the carnage described the rifle used as being an “…absolutely huge sniper rifle, it was almost touching the floor, [it] had a massive scope.”  And yet this news article reports that the “sniper rifle” was a twenty-two.  You know the thing that people over here in the United States use to shoot squirrels.

(Picture source.)

And so we get to the root of my puzzlement.  At what energy level does a rifle become “high powered”?  No one should refer to anything that falls below this line as being “high powered”. And what do we call guns that don’t make the grade?  “Low powered rifles”?  “Squirrel shooters”?

Someone needs to set some standards!

This scope has an unusual rangefinding reticle calibrated for M4 carbine with 62gr M855 ammo.



GRSC info

I’m glad that some people really seem to like VC. But what really makes it worth doing are the people that hate it.

I found this review on iTunes:

“wow imagine a group of like-minded cons calling everyone or everything they disagree with stupid.nothing more nothing less. these are those narrow minded few americans who apparently loved the george bush presidency. incapable of depth of thought they project their own worst traits on to those who aren’t in their backwards simple group. and to think i wasted any time and brain cells on this one.” –redwood guy

(“redwood guy” seems to be missing a caps key.)

Vicious Circle: The hippies hate it.

That absolutely made my day. I couldn’t ask for a better endorsement.

It seems that Faygo will ship pop anywhere in the nation.

At last, I can slake my thirst for Rock & Rye. (Maybe I was weird, preferring Rock & Rye to Red Pop, which they always pushed, but then, why should I have conformed on that one count?)

I'm sure I'm taking too much. Going to do laundry a couple of times. Lotta rifles and ammo. Washing the last go-round right now. Always an ordeal (travail), to go on a trip. Glad to get packed in Ricks truck and get the wheels rolling.

One of our best team shooters, Keith Stephens, can't go. Baby nearly here. Good for the baby but bad for team, Wish them the best.

Taking a MacBook to blog from. Ought to be more active this year with photos as well as daily posts, so start watching this space.

And what point is the artist trying to make? The point I see him attempting to make is that gun owners are stupid or have some mental defect.

The truth is just the opposite.

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

It was only a few years ago that Brady and others were suing gun manufacturers right and left, as part of a campaign to bankrupt the industry, a campaign that had a good chance of succeeding. Today, they're on the defensive (to the extent they act at all) and the progun side is on the offense. Since almost all of it has occurred over the last month or so, it's more than an offense, it's a legal blitzkrieg.

Dave Hardy
July 29, 2010
SAF, Alan Gura, sue over Maryland carry permit denial
[I have written of this sort of thing before. Keep the initiative and drive them into political extinction. We must choose the time and place of the battle. Letting them choose the time and the place is a recipe for losing.

It appears the people in the driver seat understand this and have the mean to follow through on it.--Joe]

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

Someone gave us some "tofu milk" and some "vegan rice milk" they didn't want.  It comes as a powder.  If we run out of real milk, I've been mixing up a batch of one or the other for my morning coffee.  It's not too bad.  If you're desperate.

Reading the ingredients on the rice milk, I find one of them is "evaporated cane juice".  Seriously; who are we kidding, hippies?  "Cane juice"?  I'm pretty sure it's not bamboo we're talking about.  It must be sugar cane.  That's right; we don't like added sugar, but we like the taste, so we'll use sugar and call it something else.  It's not sugar.  It's "evaporated effing cane juice".  How dare you say otherwise.  What are you, a racist teabagger?

I've seen "evaporated cane juice" listed on some hippie kids' cereal boxes, along with warnings about how corporations hurt animals and kids!

Call it "raw cane sugar" if you want to be accurate.  But no-- you don't want to be accurate.  You want to be deluded.  You want to fool yourself and hope no one else notices.  It feels better.  And instead of "statist" or "totalitarian" you call yourself "progressive".  That makes it all better, doesn't it?  Just use the language differently.  Now it all sounds perfectly wonderful, and anyone who calls you on it is a bad person.

Don't anyone come on here and say I'm being unfair by conflating the use of "evaporated cane juice" with statism.  Note the aforementioned cereal box-- it does that all by itself.  The same people who can't be honest about adding sugar are warning us against corporations (while profiting in selling sugar-laced cereal to kids).  It's all part of the same culture, people.

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

SB 1070 protesters said they would block the Maricopa County Jail. Good Ol’ Sheriff Joe said he’d put them in it. I guess this guy didn’t take him seriously.

the other day had a chance to fire one of these: the Bernardelli BabyYeah, it's really that small: not quite 4.2" long, .6" thick and 2.7" tall, tiny little thing. And empty weighs a grand total of just under 9 ounces; very much a pocket pistol.

According to what I could find, they began making these in 1949, on a quick search couldn't find an end date. They were chambered in either .22 Short or .22 Long; the one I fired was a Long. The safety is on the left at the front of the grip: up for not reallySafe, down for Fire.

This is one of the smallest, lightest pistols I've ever handled, especially for all steel construction. Only my middle finger wrapped around the grip, but recoil wasn't bad at all. Sights are in a groove machined into the top of the slide: a nice square little post in front and a notch in back. If I have a chance to shoot it again I'll try some more precise aiming, the other day it was a chance to put a few rounds through and that was it. The trigger broke a lot more cleanly than I expected, too.

All in all, a very interesting little piece. I'll close with this I found at Unblinking Eye:
I consider these guns curiosities. They are fun to plink with, but can hardly be considered serious self-defense weapons, although if you could throw one hard enough and with sufficient accuracy it would have much the same effect as a rock. Since the safety only locks the connector, I fear the striker could be released if the gun were dropped, so I would not carry one with a round in the chamber.
Nowadays when you can get a .32 in a slightly larger package, this isn't something I'd want to rely on, true enough; it's way down in the 'Any gun is better than no gun(but some are just barely)' rankings.

But it's so damn cute, I want one.

to kiss our collective ass is a small step.
On the morning of July 29, Spain's National Court announced that it has re-issued an international arrest warrant against three U.S. soldiers it implicates in an attack on Baghdad's Hotel Palestine, where Rodriguez and Couso, along with dozens of other journalists, were based during the Iraq war.

On April 8, 2003, one day before U.S. troops officially captured Baghdad, a U.S. tank fired a single incendiary shell on the hotel, killing Couso, a cameraman for Spain's Telecinco television station, and Reuters journalist Taras Protsyuk.
As I recall, one of the factors in the investigation was the guy pointing a camera at the troops; which in the fog of battle looked a lot like a rocket launcher. But who cares about inconvenient facts when socialist/progressive assholes have a chance to screw with Americans?
What does Spain have to do with the 2003 incident? Absolutely nothing, but that country has assumed authority to pursue politically-motivated persecutions of anyone, anywhere in the world.
And I(unsurprisingly) have assumed authority to tell the Spanish National Court to go to hell.

I’m sitting here tonight trying to unwind the confused mess of informatiom/misinformation that is offered up as enticement to vote for various polititions.   The web of lies,  deciet,  and misinformation,  makes my head hurt more than it did when I split it open the other day.   About the only sure thing I can think of is,  if a candidate is supported by our current governor or our current president,  then I’m positive that I don’t want to vote for them.

Then there are the tax increase proposals.    That’s a pretty easy one,  my taxes are so high now,  that I have to plan a year ahead to be sure I can pay them!!  Those get a big NO!

If these people,  didn’t have such a big effect on my life,   I wouldn’t care one way or the other,,,   but,  we all know,  they do!   So I guess I’ll get an even bigger headache,  trying to figure out this mess.    Wouldn’t want to waste a vote afterall.

That's a question I've wondered about, so I took the online quiz. Turns out, I'm not a hippie. Not in the slightest.

Some of the questions left a lot to be desired. Like #8, Are you a Pacifist? There was no answer: No, I am a warrior.

Still, I am pleasantly surprised and greatly relieved that I am not a hippie.

Hat Tip to Excels.

Seattle Gun Examiner, Gun 'Riter Guy, and Holster Maker Dave Workman gives us BREAKING NEWS! SAF’s new Maryland lawsuit shows why ‘shall issue’ law is best:

The Bellevue, WA-based Second Amendment Foundation is at it again, this time filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of a Maryland man whose gun permit renewal was refused because he could not demonstrate “a reasonable precaution against apprehended danger.”

   Thanks to a 25-year-old state statute here in Washington, and a concealed carry law that dates back to 1935, this would not happen in the Evergreen State.

Raymond Woollard is a Maryland resident whose home was literally invaded by a man on Christmas Eve 2002 as the Woollard family gathered to celebrate the holiday. Woollard grabbed a shotgun, but the thug decided to fight. While they were grapping {sic} over the gun, Woollard’s son grabbed another gun and held the suspect, waiting for the police to arrive.

And therein lies a problem. According to court documents, it took the police “approximately 2.5 hours to arrive” because the local police could not decide in which county Woollard’s home was located.

Go RTWT. 

Of the many t-shirt slogans on the subject of concealed carry--"I Carry A Gun Because A Cop Is Too Heavy", "I Carry A Cop Because I Don't Want My Last Words To Be 'I Wish I Had a Gun'", etc.--I think that "When Seconds Count, The Police Are Minutes Away" may be the most succinct.

Mr. Woolard no doubt wishes that "minutes" had been all he had to wait...

Wikipedia:

A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell.

Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common, everyday food in some other countries in Southeast Asia, such as in Laos (where it is called Khai Luk), Cambodia (Pong tea khon in Cambodian), and Vietnam (Trứng vịt lộn or Hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer.

Balut has been the “shocking” topic of some television shows because of its taboo nature in some Western cultures. In the 2004 episode of Taboo (TV series) “Extreme Cuisine”, balut is the opening segment. In two episodes of Survivor: Palau and two episodes of Survivor: China, separate challenges featured attempts to eat this delicacy. Similarly, Fear Factor frequently used balut as a means of disgusting contestants.

Via Brittney’s Flickr page.

Previous WOTD - Word of the Day - Aglet

What I said before about the Wikileaks being a good thing, in that it keeps government honest, still stands.  However, those who deign to release information deemed secret do have a responsibility to ensure that the information released won’t hurt innocent civilians or regular soldiers.  If it slams political figures who are being deceitful, great; but the folks who are just trying to do the right thing, or just following the orders of those political figures, get hurt in the back wash, well, there has to be a reckoning.

So, RivirDog, I submit that you were right, the released data was not properly vetted, and damage has been done to persons who are not valid political targets.

Can you please pass the ketchup, this is one gamy bird I gotta eat?

In the here-you-see-it-now-you-don’t post I published a few hours ago, I lamented the heat and its ability to force me to try to have the blog meet at another time, like in the fall.

If you’re up for the original date possibilities (August 21 and 28), let me know.

If you’d prefer a later date, when it’ll likely be cooler, let me know.

The change will be that, instead of meeting here at my house, where there is limited space indoors for guests to get out of the heat, we will convene at Cluck’n'Neigh, where we will still have potluck, there’s plenty of air-conditioned space for camp chairs and whatnot (if you’d like to bring one for yourself).  The rational limit of people is 8.  I never said I was rational, however, so we’ll try to accommodate everyone, within reason.

There is a gun range on the property, so you’re free to bring your rifles and practice, or have a little bit of friendly competition.

There is a pond for fishing.

There are also chickens all over the place, which just makes it fun.

Okay…so let me know what you think!

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So, does anyone know anything about the Firepower Extreme FX45 Thunderbolt? Because, let me tell you, Google is failing me miserably, and the whole “Compatible with most 1911 parts, and accepts 1911 magazines.” bit at the end kind of concerns me – is it a 1911 or is it not? Of course, so does the “LPA Bomar” sights – is it one, or is it the other, or is it that sight “style”?

Make no mistake, I would absolutely love a customized-out-the-wazoo 1911 (even if I have no intelligent opinion either way on most of the customization datapoints offered by SVI), but the fact is that I would almost fear carrying it – scuffing it would break your heart, it being stolen would be worse, and God forbid you actually have to use it and it gets locked away (or worse) in some police department’s evidence locker. By the same token, I sure as hell do not trust my abilities to examine a used 1911 and ensure someone has not gotten creative on it with a Dremel (much though Weer’d tries to convince me it is not that hard), so finding a relatively cheap-off-the-rack 1911 that I can still fiddle around with and feel comfortable carrying (from both the cost perspective, and the reliability/durability perspective) has always been something of a goal.

But, by the same token, when I buy something that looks like a 1911, I kind of want it to actually be a 1911.

Ok, he's exaggerating a BIT, but really...He kinda has a point....

Nearly all the fiction programming we watch is crime or crime related at this point... at least for the summer anyway.

Hell, four years ago we barely watched TV at all... Then we got a DVR and we started actually liking TV again. We watch whatever we want, whenever we want, without commercials now. I'm pretty sure without a DVR, we'd stop watching TV again.

...and yeah, most of what we watch fictionwise, is about crime in some way.

Actually, we pretty much watch a fairly limited subset of genre: crime, medical, sci-fi, fantasy, adventure/espionage, cooking, science, and history shows.

The only things we watch that don't fit into those categories are "Bullshit!" "Pawn Stars" and "Top Shot", all three "reality" shows that are kinda hard to classify. 

Espionage/action shows used to be big... now not so much, and most of them are more crime oriented too. We WILL be watching "human target" again when it comes back on, but that's really about crime too. Burn notice? Crime... espionage is a crime, and most of the time what they are dealing with is just plain crime. The new show "Covert Affairs" is pretty much the same. Theoretically it's about espionage, but so far it's mostly been about murder.

Even all the Sci-Fi and fantasy is pretty much crime/mystery sci-fi... Though I suppose "true blood" is more about kinky sex than mystery; all of the major plots involve murder, kidnapping, and drug dealing.

We like other kinds of SciFi and Fantasy, but right now, that's pretty much all that's being offered.

There aren't any military shows left on the air at the moment. We used to watch a bunch of those (JAG, The Unit etc...), but there aren't any really on right now.


There were some decent modern westerns in the past ten years, but none right now.... and even then a lot of them were about crime or law enforcement or somehow otherwise crime related.

Same thing for legal shows. The once mighty genre (at one point taking up more than 50% of  one hour prime time shows) has been brought low so to speak... and even then most of them were also about crime, or crime related.

I SO miss the genre blending or genre defying shows like Firefly, and "Briscoe County Junior". SciFi western crime adventure comedies with dramatic moments...

We only watch two sitcoms... in fact the only 30 minute fiction series we watch at all, are "Hung" (a show about prostitution. Crime related); and "30 Rock" and "big bang theory", which are both on summer hiatus.

Oh wait... "Royal Pains" isn't about crime... usually (unless you count Evans shirts). Same thing for House. Both are mystery shows, but they're medical mystery shows so they don't really count.

And Mad Men started back up last week, so that's not about crime either...

Glee isn't about crime, but it's on hiatus as well

We WERE watching "Miami Medical", but they only produced 11 shows, and it hasn't been renewed. Same thing for "The Deep End", a legal show. Both are potential pickups for next year, but neither did particularly well on ratings so they aren't likely. So no legal shows and only two medical shows right now.

We used to watch CSI, and CSI Miami, but they just got too awful to keep watching.

Crime really has taken over the networks schedules.

As of right now, here's what our DVR list looks like (in order, but that order changes around based on season. In the summer we move the summer season shows to the top. When the fall season starts up we move those shows back up to the top):

1. True Blood
2. Mad Men
3. Rizzoli & Isles (new show for the summer)
4. The Glades (new show for the summer)
5. Memphis Beat (new show for the summer)
6. Scoundrels (new show for the summer)
7. Covert Affairs (new show for the summer)
8. Hung (summer season)
9. Leverage (summer season)
10. The Gates (new show for the summer)
11. The Good Guys (new show for the summer)
12. Lie to Me (summer season)
13. The Next Food Network Star
14. Burn Notice (summer season)
15. Royal Pains (summer season)
16. White Collar (summer season)
17. Haven (new show for the summer)
18. Glee
19. Chuck
20. Bones
21, Castle
22. NCIS
23. The Big Bang Theory
24. 30 Rock
25. House
26. In Plain Sight
27. Chopped
28. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
29. Mythbusters
30. The Best Thing I Ever Ate
31. Dinner: Impossible
32. Human Target
33. The Mentalist
34. Criminal Minds
35. Pawn Stars
36. Law & Order: Criminal Intent
37. Good Eats
38. Throwdown With Bobby Flay
39. Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
40. Man v. Food
41. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
42. Top Shot
43. Dexter

Oh and NO, that doesn't mean we watch 40-50 hours of TV a week. More like 25 or so. Half of these shows are summer only or split season, and half are currently on hiatus for the summer.

We usually sit and read, or play on our computers, in front of the TV from around 7 or 8pm, 'til around 11pm most nights. We don't go out much at night since we've got young kids.

We're also multitasking that whole four hours. It's when I do most of my reading, and most of my writing for example. Also when I mess around with my hobbies the most (last night I built a model airplane). The TV is really on as background noise most of the time.

Also, a lot of the time, we're watching DVDs of movies, or of foreign TV series, or older TV shows etc... Right now for example, we're about a third of the way through re-watching the entirety of Joss Whedons creative output (which we have, in its entirety, on DVD), in order.

Some of these we're just trying out, to see if we like them. The networks have really jumped on the split season/summer season thing the last two years so we don't really have the classic "summer re-run" season anymore. dvr's pretty much killed that.

Also, not on this list are Eureka,  Breaking Bad, and Fringe, which I watch on DVD after each season is over... and all three are about crime or law enforcement. I'm anxiously awaiting the U.S. DVD release of the UK show "Ashes to Ashes", which is the followon show to "Life on Mars" (the UK version is some of the best TV ever produced. The U.S. remake... wasn't). I watched the entirety of the UK series "Kingdom" recently; sadly it's been cancelled.

I also watch a bunch of shows and movies on Hulu, and on Netflix streaming. Usually old canceled TV shows, and foreign shows. I'm a big fan of British comedies and mystery shows.

Some of these things, Mel doesn't watch, just me. I sit up and watch them when I can't sleep; which being an insomniac is frequently. The combination of a TV show on DVD and a book tend to occupy my mind enough with relatively passive reception (rather than active participation and analysis as when I'm writing or on internet forums and blogs etc...), that after an hour or two I can sleep.

Listening to a fiction audiobook while I read a non-fiction book, or vice verse works well for me too. I can't listen to a fiction and read a fiction, or the other way round, because my head won't stay immersed in either, and I end up concentrating on one or the other.

Just plain reading, or listening, to one source at a time also works; but not as well for putting me to sleep. Something about having to process two completely independent sources of input prevents me from getting too deep into either and just reading it to the end (which is what will frequently happen with just one).

Anyway, of 30 scripted fictional shows we record, and another two we watch on DVD... there are only six that aren't crime related: we've got Glee, Mad Men, House, Royal Pains, 30 Rock, and Big Bang Theory. Of the six,

It's not that we disklike other genres, it's just of the good TV out there, that's what they are offering.

#1 Son and I are now safely back inside the Chez Borepatch secure perimeter. I find that the lovely and crafty Mrs. Borepatch has made butter. Wow, it's good.

And we have honest to goodness buttermilk, so I guess I should make biscuits. But tomorrow will be soon enough - 13 hours from North Carolina was a long haul. We managed to time it to miss the New York City rush hour, but landed bang in the middle of the Stamford, CT rush hour.

But it's always a good trip when you're going home.

You may recall that while a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last reappointed by President Bill Clinton she was such a RWPP nutbag she was finally gotten rid of. Where is she now?
...now the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and History at the University of Pennsylvania(parents who have kids there ought to find out what crap they're being taught)
And what is she saying now?
Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.
Yeah, God forbid you actually talk about problems when you can slander people to try to shut them up, right? Another good progressive slimeball in high position in education.
Project 21 member Bob Parks added: “What’s most disturbing about this very public quote? Not only is Mary Frances Berry making this comment without fear of admonishment, and that progressives have apparently embraced and are employing these very shameful, race-baiting tactics — but Berry is likely teaching this “social thought” hate to children.”

If someone did know a little bit about this kind of technology, and had a grasp of history, they would come to the much more reasonable conclusion that the Russians would be interested in obtaining the latest U.S. technology so that they could reverse engineer it and then build advanced night vision scopes for export sales and/or use this tech to equip their own soldiers.

For the record, Russian soldiers aren't assassins either, and know hell of a lot more about night vision gear than some self-aggrandizing media whore retired New York cop.

is to tell the Equalities Minister to piss off?

I may be wrong, but IMO the WikiLeaks constitute an attempt by administration-friendly insiders to make it easier for the president to break his campaign promises while blaming his predecessors for it. The idea is to lift a page from history -- The Pentagon Papers -- and lay the blame for Afghanistan at Bush. (And, of course, on an inherently evil militaristic America.) And as president, he's now looking at a war he says he wanted to finish, but no longer does.

But there's a new twist in the historical blame game. Obama does not want to be Nixon. After all, Nixon did everything he could to fight the release of the Pentagon Papers, because even though they largely implicated LBJ, Nixon did not seek a dishonorable exit from Vietnam. He genuinely wanted to prevent a Communist victory in South Vietnam, and had he remained in office, it is very doubtful that the North Vietnamese (who had been basically bombed into submission and knew Nixon would be right back with the B52s) would have crossed him. Obama not only cannot strike such a deal, he couldn't care less about the Afghan people. I suspect he just wants to pull out and blame Bush.

And a very direct view of the consequences of letting the Taliban take over again.
By RICHARD STENGEL, MANAGING EDITOR — Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years. Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story by our own Aryn Baker on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban — and how they fear a Taliban revival.

It was once said in an age-old axiom, that an object cannot occupy two positions at the same time. Yet now, with today's technology, it may be argued that it is just possible to do that. The number of places science can go is far greater than I ever believed, even growing up reading Clarke and Asimov at every turn. Most physicists today trying to unite Einstein’s theory of gravity with quantum

This Saturday just East of Ccoeur d'alene, Idaho, at the range just up the valley from Fernan, they will be holding the Idaho State Steel Challenge Championships, better known as the Eddie Brown Memorial Steel match. It's very well run, in a beautiful (if hot!) location, and we try our best to be there every year. It should take us around six hours on the road to get there, not counting the ferry ride to the mainland from Whidbey Island. We'll let you know how it goes when we get back on Sunday night.

I have always been fascinated by the battlefield relic stories coming out of the former Soviet Union. For example, this one about a Russian T34-76 tank pulled out of a bog after 56 years with GERMAN markings on it. (The Germans wasted little in terms of captured materiel. It is too bad that most of the improvisers died later in Soviet camps so many of the details are lost to history.)



Looking for something else in the Pravda.ru archives, I stumbled onto this story from last year entitled, "Tomb Raiders Digging WWII Graves Witness Inexplicable Phenomena."

A few years ago the so-called 'black archaeologists,' people conducting independent excavations in the places of World War II battles and looking for precious war trophies, were extremely active. Sometimes during their search they would encounter very strange phenomena.

Bonfire hanging in the air

In 1997, a group of six people headed to Luban in the Leningradsky region, where the ruins of Makaryevsky monastery destroyed during the war rest amidst the swamps. Nearing the ruins, the group noticed bonfire flames. They were shocked to find out that the bonfire was hanging right in the air. As soon as they approached the ruins, the bonfire disappeared.

The "black archaeologists" fixed a camp in the ruins. Throughout the night, they were bothered by wild human screams originating from the woods. None of them rushed to help.

Next morning, one of the archaeologists went to the woods and got lost. He came back three hours later, with his clothes dirty and insane look on his face. He never told his friends what happened to him.

Mines in Myasnoy Bor (Meat Pinewood)

One of the most famous anomalous zones connected to World War II is a marshy valley Myasnoy Bor located 30 kilometers away from Novgorod. Many warriors of the Soviet Second Attack Army, divisions of German Wehrmacht, Spanish “Blue Division” and other troops perished in this area during the Lyuban Offensive Operation of 1942. Many unburied remnants are left here.

Galina Pavlova, head of the group “Search” from Engels city in the Saratov region told about an incident that happened to her in 1997: “The woods of Myasnoy Bor are scary and mystical. As soon as you are left there by yourself, the woods start making sounds. You can clearly hear yells “Hooray,” as if restless souls of the perished warriors still carry out an attack. The day we found the mines, I was behind the guys on a trail. I stopped at a spot that was excavated many times before. Suddenly, I saw that trees were leaning towards the same spot although it was not windy at all. I called the guys, and we found a decomposed wooden box and old mines.”

Alexei, a "black archaeologist" who used to excavate in the woods near Bryansk where Russian front was located in 1942-1943, told an interesting story.

“We excavated the bodies of six Russian and 11 German soldiers, four of which were Wehrmacht soldiers in a swamp trench shelter. We cut the logs and discovered decomposed German boots with bones sticking out. Then we began a more careful excavation, and found pelvic bones, a spine, and ribs. Little by little we dug out remnants of four people. It was getting dark. We left the skeletons at the trench and camped out on a meadow about 200 yards away.

At night something happened. We were woken up by Valera, a guy on duty. He told us that something weird was going on. We got up and started listening carefully. We could hear German speech, songs, laughter and clatter of tracks. It was very scary.

In the morning we went to the trench. It looked the same as when we left it. But when we walked a little further, we saw tank ditches and, most amazingly, fresh tank tracks.”

There is an anomalous zone Zheltoyar, better known as Novokhopersk anomalous zone, in the eastern part of Voronezh region, near the town of Novokhopersk.

Members of an expedition of the Voronezh committee for studying anomalous phenomena led by a famous researcher Genrikh Silanov managed to take pictures of people clad in soldiers’ uniform near tents. A plane phantom appeared on one of the photos. The researchers believe that these were the pictures of World War II. One of the pictures showed a silhouette of a Czech soldier. Later the researchers found that a Czech division that was a part of the Soviet Army used to be located in that area.

Silanov believes that the pictures were typical “chronal mirages” created by the so-called “memory fields” connected to dramatic events that occurred in the past.

Margarita Troitsina
Yoki

Barn owner fires gun, deters burglaryA homeowner fired a gun into the air and captured one of three people allegedly burglarizing his barn early Wednesday morning, police say.He fired the gun to scare away the burglars. It worked. One of the three took off in the get-away-truck, and the other two were left on foot. The homeowner got 1. Police got the other 2.David A. Fortier, 22, of Canaan, and

Can you guess what happened? Cops: Northwestside man shoots intruderA Northwestside homeowner told police he shot a man who kicked in the front door today, a police statement said.Bryan Tuggle, 23, Indianapolis, was in critical condition at Wishard Memorial Hospital, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reported.Self-defense works.Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Wow.

The Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday it has certified the 41.5-pound brown trout caught July 16 in the Lake Michigan waters off Racine as the state record for the species.

The fish was caught by Roger Hellen of Franksville. It already earned him the $10,000 grand prize in the Salmon-A-Rama fishing contest.

I’ll be on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Week In Review tomorrow morning from 8 AM to 9 PM AM.  I’ll be discussing the issues of the day with Christine Bremer Muggli and YOU!

Tune in. 

Of course...

A divided Milwaukee County Board Thursday sidetracked a proposal to cut their own pensions and those of other elected county officials by 20%.

If ultimately approved, the cut would apply prospectively to future pension credit earned.

On a 10-9 vote, the board referred the measure for a legal opinion on whether the pension change could advance in the absence of any recommendation from the county Pension Board. The Pension Board, by county ordinance, weighs in on any pension change. But the pension panel has declined to state an opinion.

Voting to delay action were supervisors Gerry Broderick, Elizabeth M. Coggs, Marina Dimitrijevic, Nikiya Harris, Lee Holloway, Willie Johnson Jr., Theo Lipscomb, Michael Mayo Sr., Johnny Thomas and John Weishan.

Supervisors against the delay were Mark Borkowski, Paul Cesarz, Lynn De Bruin, Patricia Jursik, Christopher Larson, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, Jim “Luigi” Schmitt and Peggy West.

The measure could come back to the board, but Thursday’s vote suggests there’s a solid though narrow majority opposed to the pension cut, said Holloway, the board chairman.

Whenever I see stories like this, I ask two questions…

Why are elected officials getting pensions at all? 

Why do we allow those elected officials to decide their own pension? 

It’s no wonder there are so many greedy dirtbags on the Milwaukee County Board. 

SAF and Alan Gura are going after Maryland now, for their arbitrary permit issuance. Maryland is in the 4th Circuit, along with Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas. Culturally this seems to be a good place to go after carry, since Maryland is the outlier in that circuit in terms of issuance of concealed carry [...] Related posts:

1. Minimum Age to Carry
2. Attorneys General Brief
3. New Case Involving Carry

Doggies are once again ensconced in their luxury kennel at Woodland Veterinary Hospital while we head to Santa Ynez for our niece’s wedding at the lovely Roblar Winery. I’ll be using this trip as a mock bugout towards the Central Valley over the Altamont hills, avoiding the commuter-clogged interstate 580 through Altamont Pass. Instead we’ll try the Patterson Pass backroads and see how it goes.

To watch Alaska and Kaya luxuriating,

go here. If that link doesn’t work, go to http://www.woodlandvethospital.com/ and click the “Boarding Cams” link on the right. You want Boarding Cam 2. User name is “view” and password is “run 8″.

We’ve been having days where the heat index is over 105*F, and since some of our seating would have to be outside, I don’t feel it would be responsible of me to invite people over just to fry on my patio (in old-fashioned metal chairs…ick).

So…how about October?  It’ll be quite a bit cooler then, and we can even have a Halloween-themed party, if some of you wanted.

The date is still open, because we’re still trying to settle in, but suggestions are welcome.  Maybe October 23?  It’s a Saturday, it’s a full week before Halloween (so folks won’t miss the joy of the candy-scramble), and it’ll be nice and cool.

Of course other suggestions are welcome.

Thoughts?

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Hey y’all!

Don’t forget to tune in at 7pm EST/6pm CST for our show, Zombie Squad:  Disaster Preparedness.  Michael will be calling in to offer advice on survival when times get rough (such as during Hurricane Katrina, and the recent 100 Years Flood here in Tennessee).

Join Breda and me and learn some basic survival skills.

If you’re ready for the Zombie Apocalypse, a hurricane is just a breeze!

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Remember the wholly unimpressive condition of Gunny’s Indoor Range in Maryville? Well, it looks as though they might be getting a spot of competition in the form of Frontier Firearms down in Kingston, TN:

THE NEW STORE IS OPEN BUT STILL EXPERIENCING DELAYS IN RANGE. We have INSTALLED the Mancom Live Firearms Training Systems. Our indoor range is divided in to two separate shooting bays, each with a 25-yard shooting range. Both bays have five spacious, four 48″ wide shooting positions and one 5ft bay for handicap. Each range is fully equipped with the Mancom Touch Plus™ Target Systems – fully automated, computer controlled, 360 degree turning targets. This system offers a unique “shoot / don’t shoot” training environment that cannot be duplicated with non-turning, slow moving targets bouncing around on strings or cables. Naturally, we will be hosting a number of firearm courses from basic level to advanced training including Tennessee Handgun permit classes. At this time, we have not determined our pricing structure but we will be competitive.

Really, if they have functional air conditioning and a ventillation system better than my shopvac, they will be light years ahead of Gunny’s. And I have to admit, that Mancom Live Firearms Training Systems rig looks pretty nice:

Our Touch Plus ™ Master Controller uses touch screen technology to control your target retrieval/pop-up/running-man/swing-out/portable and static turning target systems. The Master Controller can also operate your intercom, safety beams, lights, digital audio, range lighting and HVAC equipment. [...]

The power of our Touch Plus ™ Master Controller allows you to program up to 100 training scenarios that can be used across the entire range or at specified shooting locations. Our Touch Plus ™ Local Controller adds additional functionality by providing the range master with the ability to allow each individual shooter to select their own training scenarios. For even greater flexibility we have introduced a hand held remote control unit that can be used to activate our target systems.

Oh, and all this, once it gets up and running, is currently priced out at $12.50 for one shooter on one lane, unlimited shooting for as long as you like, compared to the $18 at Gunny’s (though that price may, of course, change, especially since they are having some problems with their contractor).

Unfortunately, the range is not quite finished yet, the pictures regarding the range appear to be entirely stock photography, and I have a few questions/clarifications that are not addressed by their FAQ, but I plan on waddling down there in the coming weeks, and snapping a few pictures and asking a few questions of my own – I will let you know what I turn up.

So this search string showed up in my referer logs yesterday:

how to live on $10,000,000

Well, the first step is to give all that money to me…

Seriously? People actually search for things like that? Are we not teaching basic economics and money management in middle school these days? Wait… belay that…

Story here. Again, a careful choice of plaintiff, facts, and law. Plaintiff had a permit to carry after his house was broken into; then renewal was denied for lack of demonstrated cause, even though the perp is now out of prison and living a few miles away.

And to think -- it was only a few years ago that Brady and others were suing gun manufacturers right and left, as part of a campaign to bankrupt the industry, a campaign that had a good chance of succeeding. Today, they're on the defensive (to the extent they act at all) and the progun side is on the offense. Since almost all of it has occurred over the last month or so, it's more than an offense, it's a legal blitzkrieg.

Article here. As always he does a serious job of refutation, find their figures (tiny though they are) include a large proportion of self-defense shooting, and even suicides, which don't have a lot to do with CCW permits.

Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred....

As of today, Arizona's ban on CCW without a permit has expired. Not that it makes much difference to us 1911 lovers. Sorta hard to conceal one -- in AZ, it wasn't concealed if any part of the firearm was visible.

All growed up and handling the big city traffic. Doing pretty nicely, too.

We're making good time because we can trade off driving. Looks like we'll be just past New York before rush hour, and home for dinner. Yay, #1 Son!

Posted from my iPhone, which is a pretty crummy blogging platform. Anyone out there blog from Droid?

be sure to read the comments, too.

Green beans, great suffering Shiva...

Does this union (the largest union in the AFL-CIO) realize that forcing people to stay in a country against their will and having a legal process for people to enter a country are really quite different positions? Apparently they don't understand the difference.

Today was a guy's day, where my sons and I sneaked off to do guy things.

We started at the Tennessee Museum of Aviation, where we looked at things like Norton Bombsights and warbirds.



Then, we realized that the grandkids had never ridden in a helicopter, so we made arragements for an introductory flight. That was a huge hit. PawPaw didn't go, cause I've ridden in helicopters. Hell, I've fallen out of helicopters. Still, it's something every kid should do, and it'll get them serious cool points when school starts.



Then, we went to Smoky Mountain Knife Works, where we browsed around multiple thousands of edged weapons. PawPaw picked out a new knife. The boys all got a little something of a souvenir nature.

Finally, we went to a muscle car museum where we were able to look at wonderful cars from a by-gone era. Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelle's, GTO's, lots of different cars.



Tomorrow is the last day we'll have before we have to head back to our lives. Whatever Milady wants to do is fine with me. Today was a wonderful day.

ABC News reports that

BP Oil Spill:

Clean-Up Crews Can't Find Crude in the Gulf

After talking to  a bunch of confused talking heads, they reveal the Mystery Of The Missing Crude:

Still, it doesn't mean that all the oil that gushed for weeks is gone. Thousands of small oil patches remain below the surface, but experts say an astonishing* amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment.
"[It's] mother nature doing her job," said Ed Overton, a professor of environmental studies at Louisiana State University.
The light crude began to deteriorate the moment it escaped at high pressure, and then it was zapped with dispersants to speed the process along. The oil that did make it to the ocean's surface was broken up by 88-degree water, baked by 100-degree sun, eaten by microbes, and whipped apart by wind and waves.

h/t to Lyle at View from North Central Idaho.  
*Note that "astonishing" is the word the "journalist" used, not any of the experts quoted...

Maybe all month.

Larry Correia receives a hate-filled tirade in comments to a year-old blog post, and fisks same, in Diary of an Unhinged Imbecile by nickwolf, with special commentary by Larry Correia.

I'm sure my laughing out loud like a deranged lunatic scared the scat out of the cats.

Nancy at Excels at Nothing reports:

A good friend of mine (and a loyal lurker) occasionally sends me stuff her brother says. I keep telling her she has to get him to start his own blog. Today’s comment was:

“I thought the asinine uselessness of this administration had reached ‘8’, but I was holding the report sideways.”

use Android;
my $a = Android->new();
my @choices=('omg','wtf','bbq');
$a->dialogCreateAlert("make a selection");
$a->dialogSetItems([@choices[0],@choices[1],@choices[2]]);
$a->dialogShow();
my $selection = $a->dialogGetResponse()->{'result'}->{'item'};
print "you selected @choices[$selection]\n";

Enjoy!

The President of the United States of America went on The View.

It's no secret that I disagree with Obama's politics, and even his personal beliefs, but those are just ideological differences. I still respect the man for his conviction, personal strength, and to a lesser extent, for the office he holds.

But this is just embarrassing.

A sitting president going on The View to appeal to his soccer mom following is simply embarrassing.

No, it's not just that it's Obama, I'd say the same for any sitting president. But this makes me embarrassed for my country, and shows this president's shameful disregard for the prestige of the office of the president.

Disgusting.

On Wednesday, July 28, by a margin of 307-113, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to amend the federal definition of protected "household goods" to include firearms on the list of items that cannot be seized by creditors in a bankruptcy proceeding.

NRA-supported H.R. 5827, offered by U.S. Representative John Boccieri (OH-16), would ensure that a person who files for bankruptcy would not lose the constitutionally- protected means of protecting themselves and their families. The bill sets a cap of $3,000 on the value of a firearm collection eligible for the protection, so people in bankruptcy proceedings can continue to own serviceable firearms.

The Senate companion bill is S.B. 3654, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

“Let’s cut to twenty-five years later, I’m still married – none of my kids have been busted for drug possession. Can Al and Tipper Gore say the same thing? I don’t think so — oh, snap!”
– Dee Snyder

Via Insty’s Facebook.

This one is not challenging the law based on Second Amendment grounds, but rather based on the Supremacy Clause, and the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAAAAAAAAA, or something like that, for short). How likely is success? In February 2008, a unanimous United States Supreme Court struck down Maine’s directly analogous law regarding the delivery of cigarettes [...] Related posts:

1. Sensible Gun Laws
2. Public Accommodation Laws in California
3. California Hunters Coping With Lead Ban

Chuckling at the surreal: Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker didn’t know that he would be named as the lead plaintiff on a suit challenging a new law that would require handgun ammunition buyers to register with the government. “I wasn’t expecting that,” he said Tuesday, chuckling as he recounted opening his mail last week and [...] Related posts:

1. New Sheriff in Town
2. No Charges for Lehigh County Sheriff
3. My Magic Mouse Has Arrived

Speaking of coincidental crossovers between a particularly well-endowed land cannon and a particularly short-fuzed mini-lop, behold.

There are certainly few more-fitting tributes to a murderous, switchblade-equipped rabbit than naming it after a county-destroying supertank featured in a rather good science fiction story.

Say Uncle says

Had an interesting conversation the other day. I mentioned how the recent death of regular reader Straightarrow had me all kinds of depressed. Losing folks you never even met is saddening. And, well, over the years we’ve lost a few. And someone said to me But these friends you never meet, what’s the difference between death and just stopping reading? would we ever know? That weirded me out a bit.

Charles' death really got to me. As did Triticale's when I heard about him. straightarrow left his first comment here back in May of 2007. Over the years, even through just 275 comments, I felt like I knew him. And to know he's gone is saddening. I'll miss his short, pointed comments. And I guess I'd have missed them eventually had I not known.

I'm sure there are just as many people who used to read me as there are people reading me now. I know I get read by a lot more people than just those who comment, so there are readers who probably have never said anything. But I value the comments I get here, even by those who I disagree with and my blog wouldn't be the same without 'em.

I can't imagine me blogging for the rest of my life. Something is going to come along and replace blogging, I'm sure, and maybe then I give it up, maybe not. I hope of course that my passing isn't the cause, but to think that there are people out there who I've never met and yet will miss me is humbling.

So, just in case you're not aware, while I blog primarily for myself, I want to thank each and every one of my readers and especially those who comment frequently. You help make this place what it is too.

And by "Unbelievable", I mean a tale so far-fetched that you would pilloried ruthlessly by every critic in the land if you tried to sell it as fiction:

Apparently, out in Moscow on the Potomac, a guy flipped out and started stabbing his girlfriend and her two children. One of the kids made a screaming 911 call, and the cops showed up...

...and waited on the doorstep for 45 minutes for a responsible adult to show up and tell them it was okay to bust down the door.

"In general, officers should seek the approval of an official prior to making any forcible entry," police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump told The Washington Examiner.

By the time the entire Keystone Cops farce outside had resolved itself, the bad guy had already finished playing Cuisinart with the occupants and turned his knife on himself. Unfortunately, he did a piss-poor job of suicide and put us through all the annoyance and expense of a trial. And now the po-po are being sued, which we'll also get to pay for.

Lessons learned:

1. You're on your own.
2. The DC Police Department trusts its officers with less discretion than McDonald's trusts its fry cooks.
3. No, really: You're on your own.
4. Door locks are great when the bad guy is on the other side of the door. Otherwise, not so much.
5. Boy, howdy, aren't you glad you don't live in D.C.?

(H/T to Breda.)

Via Unc, we hear that there's a bill in the Senate right now that would reform the Federal Excise Tax on firearm and ammunition manufacturers. It sure would be nice if it passed.

You should probably let your senator know what you think.


Incidentally, the FAET is a ridiculous and unfair tax. Its purpose is to fund wildlife habitat conservation. You know, for hunters. So when a single mom in downtown Metropolis buys a .38 and a box of shells to protect her home, a not insignificant percentage of the purchase price goes to fund duck swamps, or whatever.

Law enforcement firearms are exempt from this tax, because they are obviously not for hunting, but your Kel-Tec P-32? Well, you paid the Bambi Tax.

Further, wasn't firearms ownership just ruled to be an individual right? Why are guns taxed, then? Isn't that as unconstitutional as, say, a special tax on religious accoutrement or newspapers?

of putting Sherrod on the stand and under oath. And oh, the discovery process!

And she's still lying about Fox News.

And, under the heading of Awesomeness, I'd forgotten about this clip:

The problem isn't that we can't whip the problem: the problem is RWPP bastards like Jackson and Sharpton and Shabazz and now Sherrod gain too much by making things worse and dragging things out.


Added:
But, if having to defend a suit of dubious merit allows Breitbart to put Sherrod's life on trial, to conduct an inquiry into the NAACP and Sherrod's connections in the movement, and to take the depositions of administration officials, that might just be a price Breitbart is happy to pay.

little piece of shit. At best.
Julian Assange, no-balls little son of a distempered whorethe founder of the whistleblowing website, told The Times he would "deeply regret" any harm caused by the disclosures. But in an extensive interview yesterday he defended his actions.
Pay attention to the last half of this:
He claimed many informers in Afghanistan were "acting in a criminal way" by sharing false information with NATO authorities and said the White House knew informants' names could be exposed but did nothing to help WikiLeaks vet the data.
Really. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. "The White House wouldn't help us vet the secret documents we were about to dump, so it's not our fault if some of the people we out are killed in unpleasant ways."

Vile little excuse for a man, isn't he?

Would you like to win a brand new Hi-Point 9mm. carbine? One of the lucky folks at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous will be the proud owner on a Hi-Point 995ts carbine. The rules are pretty simple. You have to attend this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and you have to buy a raffle ticket! The odds of winning are really good as the number of tickets sold will give you excellent odds.Of course, you must be able to legally own it or you can't win it, for obvious reasons, but other than that all you have to do is to attend the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, buy a ticket (or several to boost your odds), and get lucky!

"Win Me" at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous!

All the money raised at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous goes to Project Valour-IT, so by buying raffle tickets you are also supporting a really outstanding charity to help our injured military folks.

Hi-Point and the other sponsors  will also be donating some neat stuff for door prizes so everyone who attends will definitely walk away with some great swag.

We owe a big THANKS to Charles Brown, the head guy at  Hi-Point and MKS Supply, for generously donating this very cool rifle to our fund raising raffle. If possible, Charlie is going to try to attend this year's Rendezvous in person, so keep your fingers crossed!

My newest piece starts this way:

Arizona's immigration law supposedly "would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.” So asserted Federal District Judge Susan Bolton in her injunction of the new Arizona immigration law on Wednesday. “Given the large number of people who are technically ‘arrested’ but never booked into jail or perhaps even transported to a law enforcement facility, detention time for this category of arrestee will certainly be extended during an immigration status verification,” Ms. Bolton wrote in her decision.


But this reasoning makes little sense. Anyone -- no matter what their accent or looks -- who is "technically ‘arrested’" by police is required to show some type of ID. The minor exception is when the arrestee happens to be known to the police already. If unable to provide a basic ID, the police officer has no choice but to detain the individual until identification can be made. This is very basic. Police can't issue a ticket, even for a minor speeding offense, without being able to properly identify the person.

Despite the picture painted by Bolton, an immigration check for someone "technically ‘arrested’" imposes no more of a burden than the individual already faces. . . .

Even the very liberal Margaret Carlson thinks that Nancy Pelosi has had a problem enforcing Congressional ethics rules.

If Democrats, in charge of the House since 2007, had proven themselves significantly more ethical than Republicans, Rangel would be better off. Instead, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who famously promised to “drain the swamp” -- the blue one as well as the red -- got off to a shaky start.

She protected her good friend, Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha, who died before a raft of serious charges, including sending a defense contract to a company employing his nephew, could catch up to him. Shockingly, she tried to give Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson a seat on the Homeland Security Committee even after the release of photos of $90,000 in cash tucked inside containers of Pillsbury Pie Crust and Boca Burger in his house. He would later be convicted of 11 counts of racketeering and bribery. . . .

But probably the most shocking revelation from reading her piece is that she offers part of Congressman Charlie Rangel's defense.

He acknowledged “bookkeeping” errors and put his staff to work getting straight his financial disclosures and paying taxes on rental incomes from his villa in the Dominican Republic.

He has his excuses on other charges, not the least of which is that everybody does it:

Other members were also on the corporate-sponsored trip to the Caribbean, and his staff handled his paperwork. He would have supported preserving a tax loophole for oil driller Nabors Industries even if its chief executive hadn’t contributed $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel Public Service Center at City College. As for having to report the savings from a rent- stabilized apartment, since when is gaming the high rents in Manhattan a reportable gift? . . .

You just can't miss at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. It runs September 9th through the 12th. at the Silver Legacy Hotel/Casino Complex in Reno.

KeeWee and I'll be there, along with a lot of other interesting folks too, for three plus days of shooting, partying, eating, socializing, and raising money for a really worthy charity, Project Valour-IT.

Would you like to win a brand new Hi-Point 9mm. carbine? One of the lucky folks at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous will be the proud owner on a Hi-Point 995ts carbine. The rules are pretty simple. You have to attend this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and you have to buy a raffle ticket! The odds of winning are really good as the number of tickets sold will give you excellent odds.Of course, you must be able to legally own it or you can't win it, for obvious reasons, but other than that all you have to do is to attend the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, buy a ticket (or several to boost your odds), and get lucky!

"Win Me" at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous!

All the money raised at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous goes to Project Valour-IT, so by buying raffle tickets you are also supporting a really outstanding charity to help our injured military folks.

Hi-Point and the other sponsors  will also be donating some neat stuff for door prizes so everyone who attends will definitely walk away with some great swag.

We owe a big THANKS to Charles Brown, the head guy at  Hi-Point and MKS Supply, for generously donating this very cool rifle to our fund raising raffle. If possible, Charlie is going to try to attend this year's Rendezvous in person, so keep your fingers crossed!

Army IFAK: Improved First Aid Kit.

OK, troops, yesterday I told you I picked up two new "IFAKs" -- Improved First Aid Kits -- for a relative song. These were the Army version of the current issue first aid kit as pictured above. The Marines have a different IFAK, and you can find both in surplus stores, off-base pawn shops and on-line military gear stores.

Whereas the Army IFAK designation stands for "Improved First Aid Kit," the Marines kit is called "Individual First Aid Kit," both with the same acronym. And its not just the name that's different. For those who want to duplicate the kits by picking up individual items, the contents lists below should help.

The US Army IFAK, NSN 6545-01-530-0929, contains the following items.

US ARMY IFAK CONTENTS:
NSN Nomenclature
6515-01-521-7976 Tourniquet, Combat Application
6510-01-492-2275 Bandage Kit, Elastic
6510-01-503-2117 / 6510-00-058-3047 Bandage Gauze 4-1/2" 100/Pkg
6510-00-926-8883 Adhesive Tape Surg 2" 6's Roll
6515-01-180-0467 Airway, Nasopharyngeal, 28fr, 12s
6515-01-519-9161 Glove, Patient Exam 100/Pkg (4ea)
6545-01-531-3647 Pouch, IFAK
6545-01-531-3147 Insert, IFAK (has folding panels, with cord attached)

Here is a press release from Headquarters, U.S. Army Europe on the Army IFAK from March 2006:

The Improved First Aid Kit -- more than a field dressing
by Spc. Spencer Case, 207th MPAD, Anaconda Times

The new kit contains much more equipment than the First-Aid pouches they replace.

As more and more Soldiers are issued Improved First Aid Kits to replace the old first aid pouch, there is an increasing need to understand the equipment. Staff Sgt. Thomas Hayes, who works for the 30th Medical Brigade as the course manager for the Combat Lifesaver course at the Jameson Combat Medical Training Center, said that the ability of Soldiers to use this equipment can save lives.

“I think it is a good tool to promote lifesaving skills,” Hayes said about the new kits.

It is worth reviewing some of the items in the pouch that some Soldiers may not be familiar with:

The Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT):

The Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) is one of the most valuable life-saving tools in the pouch, said Hayes, who also trains instructors at semi-annual Medical Skills Validation Trainer Training. Hayes advises Soldiers to remove the plastic wrapping from the tourniquet. Removing the plastic allows for quicker access and gives Soldiers the chance to practice slipping on the tourniquet.

“The CAT tourniquet, because it’s so important, should remain outside of the packet so that it’s ready to go,” Hayes said.

After removing the plastic, make sure to keep the tourniquet inside the pouch because dirt can wear down the Velcro and make it ineffective, said Sgt. Scott Stewart, a CLS instructor at the Jameson Combat Medical Training Center.

The Nasal Pharyngeal Airway (NPA):

The NPA replaces the oral pharyngeal, or J-tube. Like the J-tube, the NPA is inserted to keep the airway open. Unlike the J-tube, it is inserted through the nose to avoid triggering the troublesome gag reflex.

Before inserting the tube, Soldiers must make sure the length of the NPA matches the length from the corner of the casualty’s nose to the bottom tip of the casualty’s ear and that the diameter of the tube is no larger than the casualty’s pinky finger. If surgical lubrication is available, it helps for inserting the tube. The tube should be inserted with the angled hole pointed towards the septum of the nose. The person giving aid should stop inserting the tube if there is resistance.

Trauma bandage or “Israeli dressing”:

The trauma bandage replaces the field dressing found in old first aid pouches. The main purpose of the trauma bandage is to serve as a pressure dressing. It can also be used for a “tourniquet-like effect” to slow blood circulation, though Hayes emphasizes that Soldiers should use a CAT as a first choice if a tourniquet is needed. Unlike the CAT, it must be kept inside the package to keep it clean. Directions on how to use the bandage can be found on the back of the package.

“I think it’s a big improvement from the field dressing,” Stewart said about the trauma bandage.

The kit also contains a bag of compressed gauze, a role of surgical tape and a standard pair of sanitary gloves.

Each kit is designed to treat only one Soldier, so it is recommended that Soldiers keep it accessible, especially when going off post, said Spc. Alfrado Varela, a CLS instructor at the Jameson CMTC. Varela recommends that Soldiers keep it attached to their Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) at all times.

Since all of the items in the kit are intended for one use only, all of the items are expendable, except for the pouch itself, which is durable, said Sgt. 1st Class David Hooker, the unit supply NCOIC for the 19th Support Center. Soldiers are expected to pay for any lost pouches unless they are determined to be field losses.

If Soldiers are unfamiliar with any one of the items in the Improved First Aid Kit, they should consult the nearest medic, or speak with their training NCO about registering for the Combat Lifesaver course.*

*"The Combat Lifesaver Course (CLS) . . . is a bridge between the self-aid/buddy-aid (first aid) training given to all Soldiers during basic training and the medical training given to the combat medic. The Combat Lifesaver is a nonmedical Soldier who provides lifesaving measures as a secondary mission as his/her primary (combat) mission allows. The Combat Lifesaver may also assist the combat medic in providing care and preparing casualties for evacuation when the Combat Lifesaver has no other combat duties to perform. The course consists of 40 hours of both didactic and practical training. The Soldiers will be expected to pass both a 40 question written test, as well as a practical evaluation."

Marine IFAK: Individual First Aid Kit.

The US Marine Corps IFAK, NSN 6545-07-000-0762, contains these items:

USMC Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) CONTENTS:
(1ea) Pouch NSN 8105-09-000-2725

IFAK A1 Component Individual First Aid Kit - NSN 6545-01-539-2740 (includes the following items):

(1ea) 3.5 oz. Quikclot Packet - NSN 6510-01-499-9285
(2ea) TK4 Tourni-Kwik Self-Application Tourniquet 40" - NSN 6515-01-542-7696
(2ea) "H" Compression Bandage w/8" x 10" Ab Pad - NSN 6510-01-540-6484
(2ea) Primed Compressed Gauze 4.5" x 4.1 yards - NSN 6510-01-503-2117

IFAK A1 Minor First Aid Kit Component NSN 6545-09-000-2727 (includes the following items):
(5ea) Adhesive Bandage 2" x 4 1/2" - NSN 6510-01-514-4518
(10ea) Adhesive Bandages, 3/4" x 3" - NSN 6510-00-913-7909
(2ea) Triangular Bandages, 40"x40"x56" Non-sterile - NSN 6510-00-201-1755
(1ea) Combat Reinforcement Tap 2" x 100" - NSN 6510-01-549-0927
(1ea) Burn Dressing 4" x 16", Water-Jel - NSN 6510-01-243-5894
(8ea) Bacitracin Antibiotic Oinment 0.9 gram
(1ea) Povidone-Iodine Topical Solution USP 10% 1/2 floz. - NSN 6505-00-914-3593
(1ea) Water Purification Tablets 10 Pack, Katadyn Micropur, Sodium Chlorite - NSN 6850-00-985-7166

Here is a USMC IFAK training video narrated by Carl Weathers.



You will note that Marine IFAK carries stuff for little hurts like bandaids, etc. The Army IFAK is a wound trauma kit only. I like the Army idea. When you need stuff for a combat wound, you need to have every necessary item at the ready without having to sort through the lesser stuff. Make up a "sustainment" FAK with bandaids, ointments, aspirin, etc. and keep it separate from the wound trauma kit.

I'm sure guys with experience will now chime in with their thoughts and experiences. Comments are always the best part of the posts.

Mike
III

So, the weekly trip to the wound clinic today reveals a deep infection has popped up in my left foot leading to a prescription for Cipro and a new off-loading knee-length brace that I can't remove (it has a special security zip tie) and threatens to trip me with every step, especially up the stairs. No more showers for me for a while. It would have to be 108 in the frigging shade. Must stay off my feet, sez the man with the medical degree. Easy to say, hard to do.

Crap.

Every time I hear that a Democrat cause is dead I think of Monty Python’s famous plague scene.

They don’t ever die, they just go hide until they can be passed at midnight on a voice vote.

On tonight’s B B & Guns.

I want to know what method is best for dispatching zombies, dismemberment or head shots?

And is the zombie virus airborne or does it still take blood to blood contact?

What about those old school one at a time Voodoo zombies?

I guess I’ll have to listen and find out.

I know it may sound a little silly to ask this at this point, but where in the Constitution does it give the federal government the power to force a state to construct and support a train?  At least up until now, the fed at least had to bribe state politicians to enact stupid federal initiatives.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday portrayed a planned Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line as an unstoppable train that Republican gubernatorial candidates can’t derail.

“High-speed rail is coming to Wisconsin,” LaHood said. “There’s no stopping it.

LaHood was in Watertown to sign an agreement to release $46.7 million of the $810 million in federal stimulus money that Wisconsin is receiving to build the 110-mph line.

That’s the second installment, after a previous $5.7 million payment.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann have threatened to shut down construction on the line if they’re elected, saying they don’t want taxpayers burdened by operating costs. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the leading Democrat in the governor’s race, backs high-speed rail.

But LaHood, a former Republican congressman now serving in a Democratic administration, brushed those concerns aside, saying high-speed rail is a national program that will survive changes in political leadership.

Wash your damn hair.

President Barack Obama calls black people sort of a mongrel people.

Had an interesting conversation the other day. I mentioned how the recent death of regular reader Straightarrow had me all kinds of depressed. Losing folks you never even met is saddening. And, well, over the years we’ve lost a few. And someone said to me But these friends you never meet, what’s the difference between death and just stopping reading? would we ever know?

That weirded me out a bit.

Obviously, if you get word of someone’s death, then you know. But there are people who used to read and comment and show up in all manner of places on the internet. And, now, they don’t. I’d like to think they’re all happy and healthy and just found something better to do. But you never really know.

This shirt, that is.

First things first. Lots of people want to know what’s going to happen, whether we will settle or fight. We don’t know. To be honest, neither of us have firmly decided one way or the other. When people start using the law in unorthodox ways to bully or extort from small nonprofit blogs, you don’t want to [...]

In terms of conflict between federal and state governments, is illegal immigration going to be to the 21st Century what slavery was to the 19th Century? Does it have that kind of potential divisiveness?

What do you think?

The announcement of the new Wi-Fi-Only Kindle, priced at $139, is lowering my resistance. As TJIC points out:

$139 comes pretty close to “oops, looks like I tripped on the way through the bookstore and ended up with these two bags…”, which has happened more than once far more often than I like to admit.

Yeah, me too.

Coming from the bathroom:

RX: "I decided to get clever and light a match, you know, to help out the air freshener. Now it smells like I set a bouquet of flowers on fire in an outhouse."

Me: "I'm sorry, but I have to put that on the internets."

A lot of folks do all their web surfing in Condition White. Zercool shows how not to be one of those people. Highly recommended security reading.

the messed-up arm makes loading magazines, holding revolvers for loading or whatever not much fun, though there has been dry-fire practice. It is improving(the arm, not the practice), so soon. In the meantime,
Seems the most competent administration ever, let BP set up the compensation fund in a way that they can write about half of it off.


If you've got kids in school, you'd better find out what the teachers are up to besides what they're supposed to be doing; they may be involved in this crap:
Well for most teachers I believe that is the case, but for those in the NEA who are involved in “Grass Roots” organizing, they may have been influenced by a little more than reading, writing and arithmetic.

According to the NEA website, the Radical Communist Saul Alinsky’s Book, “Rules for Radicals” is recommended reading to all of their members :

” of our Association who are involved in grassroots organizing, especially Association Representatives (ARs) — also known as building reps or shop stewards — and leaders at local affiliates”

Here is a screen shot from the NEA website (Click to Enlarge):
Nice to know what the teachers unions are up to, isn't it?


Obama is headlining four Democratic fundraisers in three days and hosting another four events next week. For now he's playing it safe, holding the eight events in noncompetitive states or in a competitive place where he's sure to be embraced: his home state of Illinois.

Wednesday's fundraisers in New York are closed to the media, as was a similar event Tuesday night in Washington.
Wonder if any of our 'The People's Right To Know' major media weenies will be bothered by this? Or say anything if they are?


And finally, another piece of crap from The Obamas and the National Socialist Democrats:
It seems like a sweet sentiment – an e-mail message from a loving wife expressing a charming and fun way to wish her husband a happy 49th birthday by having thousands of people sign an electronic birthday card.
But in Washington, D.C., nothing is that simple. The wife, in this case, is first lady Michelle Obama, and the message is being sent out by the Democratic Party to people on its list nationwide.
Clicking on the link—“Will you wish Barack a happy birthday with me?” – sends you to “MyBarackObama.com,” the Organizing for America Web site, which describes itself as “a project of the Democratic National Committee.”…
...
...But typing in your name, address and E-mail, and hitting “Sign the Card” takes you directly to another page—a donation page, which states:

“Thank you for standing alongside us, with the President. Now can you make a donation to help us take on the year ahead?”—and a disclaimer that funds would not go to political candidates. ..

This began as a reply to a comment on my previous post. It’s an explanation of why no “ethnic identity” is very central to who I think I am.

My father’s family, my name ancestors, were from Alsace-Lorraine, a border region on the banks of the Rhine between France and Germany. His father (my grandfather) told his children the family was ethnic French; it is recorded that one of his and my direct-line ancestors was an officer under Napoleon who died leading his men in a charge against the walls of Moscow in 1813. But I learned in my teens, after my father had been doing some genealogical digging, that the family had formerly identified itself as ethnic Germans. This is not as odd as it now sounds. Before world War II there were pockets of ethnic Germans under other sovereignty all over Europe; the “wrong” bank of the Rhine wouldn’t have been at all a strange place to look for them.

I still recall my father’s expression of surprise as he reported that his father had been fibbing about that. We didn’t know why at the time, but I now suspect that it was an effect of strong anti-German sentiment during World War I. A lot of the ethnic Germans in the U.S. at that time suppressed their German ties and even changed their names, though this wasn’t necessary in our case. (I do, however, suspect that I have relatives from the other bank of the Rhine named Riemann or Reeman).

The point here is that half my alleged ethnicity, the “French” part, turned out to be a fiction spun by my paternal grandfather. You may be sure that learning this discouraged me from taking any claim about my ancestry very seriously. He died in the 1940s when my dad was in his teens, so I never got to ask the old man what was up with that myself. He was a formidable character by all accounts, a train driver on the Pennsylvania Railroad back when that was a prestigious high-tech job.

And it’s actually a little messier than I’ve described yet, because my father’s cousins later did their own digging and they think the family was an eastern sprig of a very old Norman-French noble house of Raymonds. Which of course would make us Danish or Norwegian Vikings far enough back, even if we got assimilated among ethnic Germans on the French side of the Rhine later on. Could be just romanticism, but….Napoleon did recruit a lot of officers from the noble and gentry families who survived the Terror. I actually queried the French national archives about this years ago, and was sent back a coat of arms attributed to a “Raymond” family in Alsace-Lorraine. I rather suspect that my Moscow-charging ancestor had the use of it.

One reason for that suspicion is that the (normally aristocratic) tradition of producing cavalry officers stuck with us in the New World. Another direct-line ancestor, the Napoleonic officer’s grandson, was a Union cavalry officer who died at Gettysburg. That’s only a few hours from here; I keep meaning to go look for his name on the monument.

I suppose, just to make the infodump about family tradition complete, that we’re pretty sure my father’s direct ancestor lit out of France in 1815 because it wasn’t comfortable for Napoleonist grognards in France just then. And that the next couple of generations of Raymonds became the New World equivalent of petty gentry in central Pennsylvania, producing judges and engineers and military officers until the whole region was economically smashed flat by the Great Depression.

My mother’s family has its own legends. The family name was Lehman and the provenance from the German-Swiss area near Zurich; oddly, one of the things we do know is that some of her name ancestors were styled “Bishops” under some German Protestant sect that used the title. But there was Irish in her ancestry as well, and Amerind, and some tenuous connection to the royal house of Scotland. They crossed the U.S. in Conestoga wagons in the mid-1800s and settled in Nebraska. My maternal grandfather ditched the rural life to become a sign painter in Hollywood; my mother grew up on Laurel Canyon Road in the 1940s with Robert Heinlein as a near neighbor.

Anyway. I’ve actually had three theories presented to me about my father’s family’s actual ethnicity. One exploded, two others differing but possibly both true. Hard to get very attached to any of them, under the circumstances. And under any theory I’ve ever heard I’m probably a mix of French, German, Scots, Irish, Amerind, Scandinavian, and Goddess knows what else – if the people I tend to hang with and some of the women I’ve been attracted to are a clue I’d have to suspect some Ashkenazic Jewish got into the mix somewhere along the ancestral lines. That’d be nice, actually, if I could confirm it.

You can’t really form an “ethnic identity” out of a mess like that. It’s silly to even try. What, am I supposed to beat myself up because my hypothetical ancestors on one bank of the Rhine hated the equally hypothetical ones on the other? About the most sentiment I ever invest in the matter is to wear green on St. Patrick’s day, which in the U.S. is customary if you’re part Irish or even if you’re not.

When the subject of my ancestry comes up and I’m inclined to try to be funny and anti-PC about it (which is usually), I borrow a locution I read on USENET decades ago. What’s my ethnicity? “European dominator party mix.” Yeah. That’ll do.

I was kicking around ideas for bringing more shooters to Bianchi Cup. One of the things I’d like to see would be a Single Stack division for Bianchi. Now, to make it fair and differentiate it from Metallic, they’d have to put certain rules in place. Here’s what my (currently) imaginary Bianchi Cup Single Stack/Retro division would look like:

1. Guns must be chambered in .45 ACP.

2. Barrel Length cannot exceed the length of a standard government sized 1911, namely 5 inches.

3. Trigger pull must be 3.5 pounds or heavier.

4. Sights must be of a standard notch and post configuration, no aristocrat or Bo-Mar Rib sights.

5. No bull barrels, guns must use standard bushing style lock up.

For whatever reason, I think this would be cool. I don’t think it would draw as many shooters as Production division, but it would be very traditional. The 1911 in .45 ACP with a 200 grain semi-wadcutter bullet was the hot ticket in competition shooting 30 years ago, and I have to admit it would be cool to see it playing in Bianchi Cup again.

Let's say you have a buddy. Let's say this friend has a CCW but only recently became a 'gunnie' and actually expanded his shooting experience. He only had one gat, a 9mm, and that's what he carried, but for whatever reason he started trying other people guns out, just to see. In so doing he discovered he shoots the 1911 really well and has fallen in love with it (natch.)

Well the borrowed 1911 has to go back to the owner, but he has trained a bit with this loaner and the 1911 operating system is now second nature.

Well, not being a gunnie, he's not up with the 1911 scene, and the choices are overwhelming. All he knows is he wants to carry a steel Combat Commander type. Not too big, not too small. And rugged steel. He wants to carry this pistol as his primary for the next 40 years or so. And he has $1450 or less to spend, so not enough for a custom, really.

But he wants a recommendation of a few brands to look at. And YOU, being a gunnie, is familiar with quite a lot of the different flavors.

Pick 3 production model Commander 1911s for him to look at, maximizing quality at his price point. (I know where I'd tell him to look, but I am too n00b to be an authority on the matter.)

Noah Shachtman was present, as an embedded reporter for Wired, at one of the incidents whose update report was leaked by Wikileaks. Reading these kind of compressed battle logs is not going to convey anything like the reality of the war to the Western public, he argues.

Echo company got into a gunfight in August 2009 in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. You’ll learn that by reading the report found in WikiLeaks’ database. You’ll learn that, after a chase, the marines killed one insurgent. You’ll learn that the insurgents supposedly fled and that the troops — part of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines — decided to stay the night in the area, in case the militants returned.

What you won’t learn is that a marine sniper team sparked the shoot-out with a surprise assault on the insurgents; that every member of that team was nearly killed in the battle; that the incident would kick off a three-day siege in which the Taliban nearly had the Echo company squad surrounded; that this spot eventually became an Echo company base; or that, while this extended gun fight was going on, British and Afghan troops were nearby, waging a more gentle form of counterinsurgency as they sat cross-legged under shady patches of farmland and talked with village elders.

I happen to know this because I was there with Echo company, reporting for Wired magazine. And the wide difference between what actually happened at the Moba Khan compound and what the report says happened there should give caution to those who think they can discover the capital-T truth about the Afghanistan conflict solely through the WikiLeaks war logs.

A different version of this posting appeared as an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

This amusing web-site inserts you and a selection of your Facebook friends in the just over 3-minute trailer for one of those teenage scary movies. It’s automated choice of photos is really awfully good.

One can see in the case of Julea Ward versus Eastern Michigan University the way in which progressive academic institutions, professional organizations, and judges can all collaborate in defining educational requirements, professional standards, and the law in a such a fashion as to outlaw non-progressive opinion in the academic world as well as denying access to practice of professions to non-progressives.

Detroit News:

A federal judge [on wednesday] dismissed a lawsuit brought against Eastern Michigan University by a master’s student who said she was removed from the school’s counseling program because of her strong religious views against homosexuality.

As part of her course work, Ward had refused to counsel homosexual clients, saying she believed homosexuality was morally wrong.

The university removed Ward from the counseling program after determining her actions violated university policy and the American Counseling Association (ACA) code of ethics.

Julea Ward sued the university in 2009, alleging violation of her First Amendment and religious rights.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh ruled in favor of the university and granted it summary judgment.

“The university had a rational basis for adopting the ACA Code of Ethics into its counseling program, not the least of which was the desire to offer an accredited program,” Steeh said in a 48-page opinion.

“Furthermore, the university had a rational basis for requiring its students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values.

“In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs—including homosexual relationships.”

The judge said Ward’s “refusal to attempt learning to counsel all clients within their own value systems is a failure to complete an academic requirement of the program.”

2005 ACA Code of Ethics (pdf)

Personal Values

Counselors are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors and avoid imposing values that are inconsistent with counseling goals. Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees, and research participants.

———————————————————
A similar case is underway involving a student in the counseling program at Augusta State University in Georgia.

Everlasting Moments

Plot: 9 (slight suspension of disbelief required)
Acting: 10 (most characters elicit a strong visceral reaction)
Lighting and camera work: 9
Music: nice without being memorable
Historic and technical veracity, props: appears excellent, as far as I can tell from my limited knowledge of the period. Minor simplifications and prettying up are not distracting. The movie achieves viewer immersion quite well.

Overall: highly recommended.

Dear England:

You hired the Gurkhas. 

You knew what they were like--it's why you hired 'em.

Because they scare the bejezzus out of everyone you send 'em up against; they've been doing it for nearly two hundred years now.

You are were so proud of their, um, scrappiness and pluck. 

I guess don't admire "pluck" anymore, do you?  After all, it might offend people who are liable to kidnap you and saw your head off, live, on the telly.

I suspect--and can only celebrate--that my ancestors saw this coming and emigrated as soon as possible.

Sitting on the sidelines--way on the sidelines, in Korea--when NATO was making faces at Slobodan Milosovic, I had, in my platoon, an NCO who was working on his Masters in History, and a young man whose ethnicity was recorded as "East Indian."  One morning in the hangar, reading the Stars and Stripes over coffee, I read aloud that planning for the invasion of Yugoslavia was going to be spearheaded by the US Army Rangers, Norwegian Mountain Commandos, and the Gurkhas. 

We agreed that as soon as "Slobo" learned that the Gurkhas were about to be unleashed, he'd cave.

He did.

Law Dog has more, oh so much more, to say on the subject.  "And the problem is ... what, exactly?"

The NSSF wants you to urge your senator to pass it.

It ain’t over yet. Indeed. This is only the beginning.

The Yogi Bear Trailer comes out and then this happens.

You should be prepared.

Seen at insty’s:

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Ever notice how lots of nonsense becomes law. And no one notices while it’s happening? It’s a definite trend.

A look at the Examiner business model.

And Google’s stake in all the junk on the internet.

John Richardson interviews the plaintiffs in the Westchster NY second amendment case.

Seen in the wild.

The answer is no.

Cheaper Than Dirt to start selling guns online.

I do agree. If you’re too dangerous to own a gun then you’re too dangerous to be free.

Dazer: incapacitate someone with flashing green lights.

Function checking an old Colt

First AAC can stamped Lawerenceville.

More kel-tec.

The bills passes the house.

Heh.

It is actually a crime in Pennsylvania overcharge for a License to Carry, but the District Attorney for Lehigh County isn’t going to charge the Sheriff. It would appear that the Sheriff is going to make clear the state mandated $25 dollar license is available, but will still issue the credit card sized $38 dollar [...] Related posts:

1. Gun License Fees in Bucks and Montgomery Counties
2. Overcharging for Licenses
3. Uniform Firearms Act: Act 158 – Right to Carry

National Review Online takes a look at the impact, and discusses the various new cases that have appeared. SAF and Gura have a good mix of cases, with varying degrees of risk, and in several different circuit courts. His strategy seems likely to result in some victories. I am less optimistic about the success potential [...] Related posts:

1. What Happened with the McDonald Appeal
2. Parker vs. DC
3. Not Good News

I think everyone knows what emotionally damaged and unstable individuals divers are. If they didn’t have tendencies toward suicidal behavior, there would be no such things as cave diving. There is no sea life that is safe as long as we reject reasonable regulations to keep dangerous spear guns out of the hands of emotionally [...] Related posts:

1. Quit Yer Whining
2. Stupid Inventions
3. Lawsuit in Massachusetts Case

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a week now but haven’t had time, but now I do.

Last week, a group of males drove to a house in the Lakewood/Tacoma are after getting into an argument via a text with a resident of the neighborhood. After calling out the guy they were arguing with they proceeded to start a melee in the street. The resident’s mother exited her house with a baseball bat in an attempt to break up the fight.

One of the non-resident males then pulled out a pistol, pointed it at her and then fired a shot off into the air. The males then got back in their car and drove off. However, before leaving the block the front seat passenger turned and fired multiple shots back at the residence.

One of these hit a neighbor who had exited her home to see if she could render assistance after the males drove off. It entered her left eye and did the damage you’d expect, killing her immediately.

The police have caught one of the three males and have arrest warrants out for the other two.

I live in Tacoma, but I don’t live anywhere near that neighborhood, or any neighborhood that even has a reputation for incidents like that in the past. In fact, I can count the number of high school/college aged “young adults” in my neighborhood on one hand. It was part of the reason The Wife and I chose this neighborhood.

However, I plan on being here for a while and know that when the retirees/soon-to-be retirees leave they will rent/sell their homes and that I have no control over who moves in. I also know that Chaos rules the universe and anything can happen at anytime to anyone.

So I have a plan. For every circumstance that I can imagine (and having seen some ghastly situations live and in person, I can imagine quite ghastly things), including this one.

As I heard the new radio station reporting the story I ran through my plan for this exact situation. I know the tools I will need, where they are, the exit, the path, and the position. I also know the law, which dictates the breadth of my available reactions, and the points at which certain options become available.

Do you?

A carload of “yoots” enter your neighborhood and their sole intent is to assault and threaten the lives of your neighbors and raise general hell.

How long will you take to make ready your defense? If you’re over 60 seconds your defense is useless. Your AAR will consist of “and my neighbor took a bullet to the head as I was loading up a mag.” I’m 15 seconds or less from any point in the house to my ready-long gun (either my AR, my HK or my 1187). Then I’m 20 to 25 more to get outside and into position for a situation in the street. That leaves me 20 to assess any changes in the situation that took place in those 40 seconds.

If you don’t figure this shit out now, you may as well just stay sitting on the couch scratching your balls and reading the news reports the next day.

The “most open and transparent government, ever” just got another new FOIA proof agency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

This is what we get when the public puts up with lawmakers who pass laws before reading them.

Tonight at 7PM EST (yes, a new time!) Bonnie and I will talk with Michael from the Zombie Squad about all things zombie - how they've entered popular culture, how to prepare the inevitable zombie wars, and much more.

The call-in line will be open and we'd love to hear your tips and tricks for dealing with the undead.
Tune in and log into the chat, it's going to be a super fun show!

Greater Indianapolis Metropolitan Police chief Paul Ciesielski stuffed his foot in his mouth on camera yesterday, stating "Every gun in the hand of -- someone, is a potential homicide."

This is a fun game!

"Every _____ in the hands of someone is a potential ______."

Every match in the hands of someone is a potential arson!

Every camera in the hands of someone is a potential kiddie porn case!

Feel free to play along in comments...

When you get far enough out in the boonies in many places on this wonderful planet, you are no longer at the top of the food chain.

The preliminary injunction, issued Wednesday, means that, at least for now, police are prevented from questioning people's immigration status if there is reason to believe they are in the country illegally.

"If there is reason to believe"? Do you mean articulable suspicion? Like the guy has a Mexican Consular ID card hanging out of his pocket? Or do you mean probable cause, like, oh... say he's actually busy climbing down the U.S. side of the border fence, and the Mexican CID card falls out of his pocket, and you arrest him for littering. Does that mean you can't ask him what he was doing halfway down the fence in the first place?

Does this make any sense to anybody?

The cop has "reason to believe" a crime is being committed right in his face and he's not allowed to ask about it?

Look, nothing is more corrosive to civil order than laws that aren't enforced or, worse, are enforced capriciously and whimsically. Either enforce immigration laws or repeal them, but this halfassery in the middle has got to stop.

ARs and 1911s and Auto-5s, oh my!

ASM826 and Dan in NC took us to the range yesterday evening to make some noise, which is (unsurprisingly) an excellent way to get rid of the stress from a long day in the car. I'd shot the AR (the lovely and accurate Mrs. Borepatch's favorite) and the 1911 (#2 Son's favorite), and they're indeed very nice. What was new was the one at the bottom of the picture, the Browning Auto-5, designed by The Man himself, John Moses Browning (PBUH).

Man, what a sweet, sweet shotgun. Light recoil, fast cycling action. Fast cycling. The fact that I couldn't break many of the clays is no statement on the gun (although it was pretty cool when I hit a clay dead center, and it disappeared in a cloud of dust).

This one is on the top of my "Guns I will get when I move to the United States of America" list.

There was also AR fun. #1 Son was pretty psyched when he saw that he was significantly better than me with the Auto-5; the AR gave me a chance to impress him. I left the target in the car (too tired to get it now; I wrote this post last night and scheduled it for this morning), but the top reason to get an AR is because you want 2" groups ...

I'll put up a proper Range Report for the Auto-5 when I'm back home. ASM826 has more pictures up, so check them out.

with corrupt, lying politicians like Schumer; let's give him a lead place at the necktie party:
At a Rose Garden press conference on Monday, President Obama decried the influence of “shadow groups” on elections and urged the Senate to pass the “reform” sponsored by N.Y. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. But the loophole-ridden package exempts large nonprofits with 500,000 or more members. Behemoth labor unions get preferential treatment. Bradley Smith, former Federal Elections Commission chairman, noted that the law places radical speech-squelching restrictions on companies’ ability to run independent political ads: “(I)f you’re a company with a government contract of over $10 million (like more than half of the top 50 U.S. companies) or if you’re a company with more than 20 percent foreign shareholders, you can’t even mention a candidate in an ad for up to a full year before the election. … There are no similar prohibitions for unions representing government contractors or unions with foreign membership.”
Sorry, corrupt, oathbreaking little bastards.

Willie Nelson said that “living on the road is gonna keep you free and clean”. I guess we’ll see. Today I’m setting out on the first leg of a 3 day hardcore drive across the Western frontier. First stop will be today in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after 12+ hours of driving from Indiana. Interestingly, most of my drive today will be spent in states that don’t honor my carry permit, namely Illinois and Iowa. Wish me luck!

What do you do when...

You plan a big day at the range first thing tomorrow morning and you want to take your CCW piece and your house gun with you to practice, and you set up the range bag and gun cases the night before? You've packed your home defense guns!

Well, what I do is put one of the other guns in the house gun's place. If I am taking the 686 I put the Sig P229 in the easy access gun safe. It's Double Action just like a revolver, so the manual of arms is fine for a 3 AM Prowler emergency. Easy peasy.

This is all academic for you folks that can legally carry in your home state. You don't HAVE to case your shooter away. I do. Legally.

But then the range day is over and there is no rush after, for me, to clean the normal guns to have them ready. I have that backup gun in the usual defensive spot.

So what are the chances I'll need that backup gun there? Shorter than Slim-to-None. Exceedingly remote. Still. Well, you know.

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange released the stolen Afghan documents to the Guardian, the New York Times, and Der Spiegel in a private arrangement, allowing those major news organizations to use their enormously greater staff and resources to research and develop the material in advance of an agreed upon simultaneous publication date.

The British Guardian put the leaked documents into a functional database. The German Spiegel fact-checked the logs against German Army reports. The New York Times got in touch with the Obama administration, then declined to link to the Wikileaks “a gesture to show [the Times was] not endorsing or encouraging the release of information that could cause harm.” Julian Assange described the Times as “pusillanimous.”

(Columbia Journalism Review link)

(Beltway Beast link)
———————————————————-

The London Times (behind subscription firewall) reported yesterday that the Wikileaks leak of those 90,000 documents revealed the names and locations of hundreds of Afghan civilian informants exposing them to Taliban reprisals.

(CBS Worldwatch link)
———————————————————-

Julian Assange boasted today that the Wikileaks organization doesn’t know who leaked the Afghan documents, hinting at his own firewall arrangements intended to deny information on his sources to government agencies and law enforcement.

(Google News link)

So, this morning Drudge features this story in USA Today entitled "Doomsday shelters making a comeback."

Here's the opener that drew my attention:

Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

"It's an investment in life," says Hodge, a Teamsters union representative. "I want to make sure I have a place I can take me and my family if that worst-case scenario were to happen."

Great, it will be The End of the World as We Know It but we can rest assured that collective bargaining for post-apocalypse cannibal zombies will be secured.

March 12, 2018: "Shop steward Frank Munchlunch chats with International Industrial Zombie & Restaurant Workers Local 1315 President Art Floogle about new work rules."

When I saw this story I was at first elated until I realized that Nancy Pelosi is post-menopausal.

by Jim Irvine

No matter how much the media want to make it a partisan issue, one can not accurately predict a candidate's position on the Second Amendment by looking at his party affiliation. Telling a lie often enough may make more people believe it, but it does not change the facts.

One could make a case that the gun issue is an urban versus rural issue. This is far more accurate than the typical Republican vs. Democrat argument, and may have been fairly true 20 years ago, but it is clearly not the case today.

Many inner city candidates have told me that their district is pro-concealed carry. Crime is not something inner city people watch on TV with the disconnected feeling that "it won't happen to me." Crime is something that happens on their street, to their friends, family and neighbors. They know the police are not there to protect them, so it's up to them to protect themselves and those they love. They get it, and they overwhelmingly vote Democrat.

Politicians will say and do things to help others in their party. They see it as part of the job. It could be Governor Strickland praising President Obama. It could be any Republican praising Senator Mike DeWine or Bob Taft, or it could be Sarah Palin praising John McCain. It is a part of politics and it should not surprise us. You don't have to like it. You can say, "I'd never do that." Fine. Don't run for office. But there is also no point in complaining about those that make a different decision doing the job they have chosen.

The Republican Party supports Republicans, no matter what their stance on firearms or your Second Amendment rights. The Democratic Party supports Democrats, no matter what their stance on firearms or your Second Amendment rights. Buckeye Firearms Association support candidates who support your Second Amendment rights, no matter what party they belong to.

This has the effect of making both parties care more about our issue, and work with us to educate their candidates. The bottom line is that gun owners win.

Politicians generally have ideas they want to implement. They think they can make our world a better place to live. To advance their ideas, they need support from other lawmakers. They take time to educate other legislators about their ideas and they listen to and learn from fellow law-makers. It is not just a casual "I'll vote for your bill if you vote for mine."

Members of the same party often share similar ideas on multiple issues. That makes it easy for them to garner support. The party with a majority in any house "controls" it by virtue of their leadership position. As Ohio gun owners know all too well, the leader of the House or Senate can delay or kill any bill, no matter how many legislators support it. (There is a mechanism by which legislators can vote on a bill over the leader's objection, but that happens less often than a veto override.)

When it comes time to vote, most votes are cast on the merits of the bill, not the person or party sponsoring it. Media love to report "party line voting," but it is rarely the case. During President Bush's first two years in office, the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate. Only two of the 435 people in Congress voted with the President 100% of the time. One of those people was Democrat James Traficant. When it comes to talking during election time, party loyalty is a priority. But when casting a vote, the issue and not the party normally becomes controlling.

Pro-gun voters are sick of candidates like Bob Taft and Al Gore who talk a great story about how they "support the Second Amendment," but do everything in their power to stop, limit, regulate, tax, and prohibit the proper exercise of your rights. It does not matter what they say when compared with what they do and how they vote.

The same is true of a candidate who voices support for versus a candidate who does not support our rights. It happens in both parties, but it does not really matter, as long as that person is still standing there on our side of the issue when it comes time to vote or sign legislation. Every candidate has voiced support for another person we disagree with, but what matters is that they are there for us when we need them on our issue.

In this political season many statements will be made by political candidates regarding firearms. Those statements will be reprinted, quoted, misquoted and taken out of context by others with different political goals. I hate "dirty politics" as much as anyone, but I know I can't stop it. What I can do is study those quotes and work to understand the context in which they were made. John Kerry and Charlton Heston might have uttered the same words, but they had polar opposite intentions regarding your guns.

The job of Buckeye Firearms Association, a political action committee (PAC), is to be expert on our issue and endorse the best candidate. By treating both parties equally and fairly, we earn the respect of both. It does not matter who introduces a bill, who votes for it or who signs it. What matters is that our laws are reformed to protect and restore your right to keep and bear arms.

Jim Irvine is the Buckeye Firearms Association chairman.

Operation Mincemeat:

The absurdity of such expression games has been wittily explored in the spy novels of Robert Littell and, with particular brio, in Peter Ustinov’s 1956 play, “Romanoff and Juliet.” In the latter, a crafty general is the head of a tiny European country being squabbled over by the United States and the Soviet Union, and is determined to play one off against the other. He tells the U.S. Ambassador that the Soviets have broken the Americans’ secret code. “We know they know our code,” the Ambassador, Moulsworth, replies, beaming. “We only give them things we want them to know.” The general pauses, during which, the play’s stage directions say, “he tries to make head or tail of this intelligence.” Then he crosses the street to the Russian Embassy, where he tells the Soviet Ambassador, Romanoff, “They know you know their code.” Romanoff is unfazed: “We have known for some time that they knew we knew their code. We have acted accordingly—by pretending to be duped.” The general returns to the American Embassy and confronts Moulsworth: “They know you know they know you know.” Moulsworth (genuinely alarmed): “What? Are you sure?”

P.S. I think the last “you know” doesn’t belong. The general’s last sentence should be “They know you know they know (the code).”

If the Internet ever locks up, tech support in India will say to reboot it. Here’s how you reboot an Internet:

Part of ICANN’s security scheme is the Domain Name System Security, a security protocol that ensures Web sites are registered and “signed” (this is the security measure built into the Web that ensures when you go to a URL you arrive at a real site and not an identical pirate site). Most major servers are a part of DNSSEC, as it’s known, and during a major international attack, the system might sever connections between important servers to contain the damage.

A minimum of five of the seven keyholders — one each from Britain, the U.S., Burkina Faso, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, China, and the Czech Republic — would have to converge at a U.S. base with their keys to restart the system and connect everything once again.

I recently wrote in my Federal Way Mirror column, The Firearms Lawyer, that Federal Way’s Tea Party leader is a lady named Robin Caldwell- an African-American. Robin- also a member of our Federal Way GOP precinct organization- is first of all an American who happens to be a mixture of African, native-American and European ancestry. She is also a conservative libertarian. Despite my affiliation with Robin, however, the usual suspects called me a right wing demagouge (sic) and labeled my description of recent events as racist, ignorant editorializing masquerading as fact!

The article touched on the subject of how the NAACP allegedly lobbied the DOJ to dismiss charges against the New Black Panthers for intimidating voters with a weapon at a polling place.

King Samir Shabazz, the poll watcher with the night-stick, was penalized by not being allowed to return with a weapon to the polling places in 2012:

A recent Media Matters investigation has debunked charges that the Obama administration withdrew criminal charges against the Panthers (in fact, the Bush administration decided not to pursue criminal charges, with Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez testifying that the Bush Justice Department “determined that the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes"; a civil lawsuit was filed in the last days of the Bush administration, and a judgment won by the Obama Justice Department in May 2009).

The Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Abigail Thernstrom, recently said on CBS’ “Face the Nation", “We have no direct evidence that [the NBP activist) actually intimidated anybody, stopped them from voting.”

“I think the evidence is extremely weak,” Thernstrom told CBS anchor Bob Schieffer. “If the Justice Department chooses - and I would be delighted if it did so - to send to us, for instance, somebody who is at that alleged brown bag meeting in which [Deputy Assistant Attorney General] Julie Fernandez said, ‘We don’t prosecute cases [against] blacks …’ fine. I’m an evidence girl, really. I want evidence.”

Despite the fact that evidence was forthcoming, Thernstrom continues to impugn the integrity of her fellow Commissioners by alleging that the Republican members of the Commission are simply trying to damage President Obama.

“My fellow conservatives on the commission had this wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president,” Thernstrom said in an interview with POLITICO. She makes such allegations but nevertheless admits in several places that the question of whether the voter intimidation case could be successfully prosecuted is arguable. Her point is that DOJ prosecutors dismissed the case in good faith but why does she question the good faith of her colleagues on the Commission?

Thernstrom claims to think very highly of J. Christian Adams. But he is the whistleblower that testified as to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes informing DOJ personnel that the Voting Section was not going to bring cases against black defendants for the benefit of white victims.

Thernstrom also indicated at various times that she needed direct evidence. The record of proceedings before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is replete with direct evidence from eye-witnesses who testified before the Commission that both Black Panthers, including the one against whom the Justice Department dismissed its case, were physically threatening a poll watcher and the two Black Panthers acted as a team, in concert, at the polling place.

On the issue of voters, Hill testified as follows:

QUESTION: How were third parties reacting to the presence and the actions of the Panther members?

HILL: People were put off when – there were a couple of people that walked up, a couple of people that drove up, and they would come to a screeching halt because it’s not something you expect to see in front of a polling place. As I was standing on the corner, I had two older ladies and an older gentleman stop right next to me, ask what was going on. I said, ‘Truthfully, we don’t really know. All we know is there’s two Black Panthers here.’ And the lady said, ‘Well, we’ll just come back.’ And so, they walked away.

Hill was then questioned about that testimony by Commissioner Thernstrom:

THERNSTROM: But otherwise, did you see anybody at the polling place who obviously intended to vote, and didn’t end up voting because of the presence of the New Black Panther Party members?

HILL: It was two women and a gentleman….They stopped right at the corner of the driveway, circular drive, where I was standing on the phone, and they said, ‘What’s going on?’ Truthfully, I didn’t really have a good answer for them…But at that exact moment in time, those people were not going near that doorway, and ma’am, I’m not as well versed as you are in these civil rights issues, but they were intimidated.

Bartle Bull, another poll watcher testified:

BULL: One of them was waving a baton like that, slapping against his hand, pointing at people. And several people –I was more or less at the end of the driveway, and several people began to walk up the driveways, saw these guys, and then went back and didn’t go on to vote.

QUESTION: Did the individuals that you saw turn around, those were people that you believed were coming to vote?
BULL: Oh, yes, yes. That’s the only reason you walk along that long block on the pavement, and then go in the long driveway. And several walked in, saw this at the door, and walked back out the drive.

No voters came forward to testify that they were intimidated. The nature of intimidation is that when people drive away and don’t vote, they are not likely to come back to testify against racists that exhort their followers to “kill cracker babies”- especially when the potential witnesses live in the same neighborhood as the New Black Panthers. But it is also illegal to intimidate poll watchers. The testimony is arguably not the best at this time but it is important to keep in mind that the government already had taken a default against the NBP and the individual defendants because the defendants never appeared for court!

In a letter dated July 14, 2010, Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, wrote to Assistant Attorney General Perez:

Regrettably, in the face of the Department’s intransigence regarding the Commission’s investigation and its unwillingness to enforce the Commission’s lawful and longstanding subpoena… Mr. Adams was forced to resign before he could comply with the Commission’s subpoena for his testimony.

J. Christian Adams, the career DOJ attorney that resigned because of the Department’s intransigence, testified that member’s of DOJ’s Voting Section management indicated to him that senior political Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes informed them that the Voting Section is “in the business of doing traditional civil rights work,” and “cases are not going to be brought against black defendants [for] the benefit of white victims.”

According to Mr. Reynolds, the testimony indicated that Fernandez stated that if somebody wanted to bring these cases, it was up to the U.S. Attorney, but the Civil Rights Division wasn’t going to be bringing them. (Testimony of Mr. Adams, July 6, 2010 USCCR Hearing Trans. at 61-63.)

Thus, notwithstanding Abigail Thernstrom’s credentials as a Bush appointee to the Commission, her representations that DOJ’s dismissal of the case is “small potatoes” are suspect. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) recently wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) requesting a hearing on the investigation into voter intimidation.

Sen. Graham’s letter stated:

In sworn testimony, Mr. Adams confirmed that various political appointees overruled a unanimous recommendation by six career DOJ attorneys that prosecution of members of the NBPP should continue. Mr. Adams testified that within the DOJ Civil Rights Division, “not only was their open hostility toward equal enforcement in a colorblind way of the voting rights laws… Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes instructed Civil Rights Division attorneys that they would not pursue voter intimidation cases involving black defendants and white victims.”

According to Sen. Graham:

According to the USSCR, both men “hurled racial epithets at whites and blacks alike, taunting poll watchers and poll observers who were there to aid voters.” Long time civil rights attorney Bartle Bull was at the polling place that morning and called the incident “the most blatant form of voter intimidation” he had ever seen. Despite DOJ having won a default judgment in this case, political appointees voluntarily dismissed several of the defendants. Furthermore, against the defendant brandishing a nightstick, DOJ sought only an injunction, which bars him from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of a Philadelphia polling place for the three years.

Many Senators and Congressman, as well as members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission have expressed the same concern that Sen. Graham expressed concerning DOJ’s ongoing attempts to stonewall subpoenas:

Unfortunately, the Department of Justice continues to stonewall the USCCR by refusing to honor the subpoena issued for Christopher Coates, former chief of the Voting Rights Section. It is imperative that you schedule a hearing immediately so we can determine the validity of these claims and whether DOJ, as Mr. Adams testified, “abetted wrongdoers and abandoned law-abiding citizens.” Given the importance of this oversight matter, we believe that holding a hearing on this issue should take priority over other Committee business.

Thus, every indication is that these allegations will become toxic for the Obama administration. Of course it all depends on which party controls Congress after November!

The “mainstream” media’s position on who is “playing the race card” oscillates between a sort of moral equivalency argument to it is Republican and Tea Party activists that are fueling dangerous racial hostilities. The NAACP went on the offensive and said that the Tea Partiers should take responsibility for elements of the movement that display racist signs at Tea Party protests.

Conservative Andrew Breitbart responded by releasing a video of a U.S. Department of Agriculture official talking about how she did not give a white farmer “the full force of what I could do” to save his farm. She “took him to (a white lawyer) so that one of his own kind would take care of him.” The USDA forced her to resign without giving her a chance to explain that she eventually became good friends with the white farmer and his family.

Meanwhile, other Conservatives got hold of e-mails from a liberal online journalist forum called JOURNOLIST. Messages were exposed in which a journalist proposed to report that people like Karl Rove are racist in order to help the Obama administration’s agenda.

One of Eric Holder’s first pronouncements when he became the U.S. Attorney General was that America needs to have a dialogue about race. The national conversation is going swimmingly!

But someone needs to tell Holder that the Progressive tradition of race-baiting in order to gin up populist enthusiasm for big government can only go so far in an era where the people have alternatives to getting our news from big media outlets. The Tea Party goes to Washington, DC on August 28.

Maybe Robin Caldwell will give the Administration and its proxies the message! The American people are ready to deliver the message in November that race is no longer the ticket for those that want to turn back the clock on American’s freedom.

I recently wrote in my Federal Way Mirror column, The Firearms Lawyer, that Federal’s Way Tea Party leader is a lady named Robin Caldwell- an African-American.  Robin- also a member of our Federal Way GOP precinct organization- is first of all an American who happens to be a mixture of African, native-American and European ancestry.  She is also a conservative libertarian. 

 

 

The article touched on the subject of how the NAACP allegedly lobbied the DOJ to dismiss charges against the New Black Panthers for intimidating voters with a weapon at a polling place.  King Samir Shabazz, the poll watcher with the night-stick, was penalized by not being allowed to return with a weapon to the polling places in 2012:

 

 

A recent Media Matters investigation has debunked charges that the Obama administration withdrew criminal charges against the Panthers (in fact, the Bush administration decided not to pursue criminal charges, with Assistant Attorney G...

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 29, 2010 God, I love laser weapons. I really do. They represent the future, they represent high-technology (high-tech), and, let’s face it, they represent fun. I mean, what could be more fun than blasting an enemy combatant (military scenario) out of his socks with a military-grade [...]

Click here to view the embedded video.

GarE Maxton presents “The INTIMIDATOR”. A metal puzzle sculpture that transforms into a fully functioning .45 caliber muzzle loading pistol! Featuring six different kinds of metal and over 135 pieces.

The sculpture includes everything required for assembly of the puzzle pistol. Integrated into the sculpture are a customized set of tools, all necessary hardware, 45 caliber bullets, a standard sight, a laser sight, a cannister containing black powder pellets, a secure storage area for 209 shotgun primers, a spent primer removal tool and a ramrod for loading the bullets.

 

Assembled in puzzle form… Just looks like a block of random Metal pieces:

Disassembled, it looks like even more of a mess:

But with the proper problem solving and skills, you can assemble this:

…A fully functioning .45 caliber muzzle loading pistol!

The artist was of course inspired by the 1974 James Bond 007 movie “The Man With The Golden Gun”

The Artist GarE Maxton’s website – HERE

He is taking orders with a projected 24 month delivery. There is no mention on the website of the price.

Sure beats those other boring non gun related puzzles!

A copy of the Judge's decision is here. A copy of the original law is here.

 

Hornady 380ACP

A 9rd magazine and two finger rest floorplates arrived from Keltec today.

Kel-tec

 

Auto-de-fe of the Spanish Inquisition, 1475.
First, the New Mexico Incident.

As a Christian, I find these folks' tactics to be short-sighted, if saving souls is what they are about. I like the comment that handing out bottled water to the folks in line and quiet testimony would have been a much better avenue. This is not to say that the cops didn't screw up. They did, big time. But the thing about Christians is that we must hold ourselves to a higher standard if we wish to be respected AS CHRISTIANS. Now, if this were a Threeper piece of street theater calculated to get a rise out of the "authorities," it would have been perfect. But it wasn't. Thus, although it was tactically flawless, from a Christian point of view it was strategically misguided and self-defeating.

There are many examples today of such behavior on the part of folks who espouse Christianity. Another, more egregious example was the guy I heard today on Birmingham call-in show while I was out paying bills and collecting military surplus. The fellow is a pastor in Florida (he shall remain nameless as far as I'm concerned) who has announced that on the next anniversary of 11 September, he and his congregation are going to be publicly burning Korans. I tried to call into this show while he was on, but failed to get in. What I would have told him was this:

a. Christians should not be in the business of book burning. It summons ghosts of the Inquisition and the auto-de-fe, and reinforces the fear of religious tyranny. Burning books is not engaging in the battle of ideas, nor is it a profession of faith.

b. Instead of burning Korans, the church should rather be quietly distributing Holy Bibles, of the anonymous cover kind so that the folks you are trying to reach can read God's word without exciting retribution in their community.

c. This pastor is writing Al Quaeda propaganda checks that will be cashed in somebody else's blood, namely the blood of Marines or soldiers like my son. Every little "Crusader" slight to the Moslem faith is amplified a million times by the jihadi media who inflame the Arab street and use it for recruitment purposes. This is not to say that we shouldn't stand forthrightly both as Americans and Christians for what we believe, but we should do it intelligently. And if this guy is really trying to make a faith statement of this, let him have the courage of his convictions and go to Dearborn, Michigan or downtown Riyadh and do it himself in broad daylight.

d. The fact that this pastor is at the same time trying to sell his latest book is highly suggestive that this is a publicity stunt, pure and simple.

All of which is why I refuse to publicize the moke here on Sipsey Street.

I love the smell of a really junky military surplus store. What is wrong with me?

Now, as to the deals I got today on military surplus. There were several reasons I wrote this post, none of them had anything to do with bragging or highlighting, as one e-mailer alleges, my "Arab trader skills."

First, I have a couple of advantages over the average thrift and surplus store scrounger. I have been doing it for about 20 years now and have been all over God's creation, in and out of dumpsters, little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood second-hand shops, etc. In the process, my face (and the recognition of my steady business in the acquiring of military gear) gets to be familiar to the folks who run the stores. Thus, when they get something they think I might be interested in, they but it back for me. The same goes for the regular vendors at gun shows.

In the case of surplus and gun stores, I have over the years sent a lot of other militia folks' business their way, so I end up getting what amounts to a "militia discount." Like every other business, they try to take care of their repeat customers. Also, you can teach them things about the goods they handle and broaden their knowledge base. Shopkeepers of all varieties usually appreciate that, and reciprocate in kind. In addition, my notoriety has brought me discounts and even outright gifts of material over the years from like-minded business people, and I in turn pass those on to the needier folks I run into -- newbies, mostly.

My experience has also taught me the stocking cycle and rhythm of thrift stores, so I usually know what days are best to go and at what time of the day they put out the new stuff in a given department.

I mention these things because ALL of them can be done by ANYONE, including all of you. I ain't that special, I'm just determined and consistent. Every now and then I'll find something that is not militia-related but which I can sell or trade for stuff that is.

In terms of the thrift and surplus stores around here I probably do have an advantage over many folks, because Alabama is such a military friendly state, and has so many of its citizens who have been in the military, that more militia stuff pops up for sale around here than anywhere else except perhaps towns with military bases like Clarksville, TN or Columbus, GA (Fort Campbell and Fort Benning, respectively).

My principal reason for publicizing my finds is to motivate those of you who are short equipment and funds to emulate my success. Again, this is not rocket science. ANYBODY can do it.

So please understand. I'm not bragging. I'm just trying to get y'all to go forth and do likewise.

Yuri Bezmenov was Right

Back in 2008 I posted a video of Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov discussing the tactics of "ideological subversion" as executed against the West by agents and followers of communism. A bit of the transcript of that video:

Ideological subversion is the process, which is legitimate, overt, and open; you can see it with your own eyes. All you have to do, all American mass media has to do, is to unplug their bananas from their ears, open up their eyes, and they can see it. There is no mystery. [It has] nothing to do with espionage. I know that espionage intelligence-gathering looks more romantic. It sells more deodorants through the advertising, probably. That’s why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond-type of thrillers.

But in reality, the main emphasis of the KGB is not in the area of intelligence at all. According to my opinion and [the] opinion of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower [are] spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process, which we call either ‘ideological subversion,’ or ‘active measures’—‘[?]’ in the language of the KGB—or ‘psychological warfare.’ What it basically means is, to change the perception of reality, of every American, to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country.

It’s a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow[ly] and is divided [into] four basic stages. The first one [is] demoralization; it takes from 15-20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which [is required] to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxist-Leninist ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged, or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism (American patriotism).

The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the sixties (drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals) are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, [and the] educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated; they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind[s], even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words, these people... the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To [rid] society of these people, you need another twenty or fifteen years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common sense people, who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.

--

The demoralization process in [the] United States is basically completed already. For the last 25 years... actually, it's over-fulfilled because demoralization now reaches such areas where previously not even Comrade Andropov and all his experts would even dream of such a tremendous success. Most of it is done by Americans to Americans, thanks to [a] lack of moral standards.

As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him, even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents and pictures. ...he will refuse to believe it.... That's the tragedy of the situation of demoralization.

--

Most of the American politicians, media, and educational system train another generation of people who think they are living at the peacetime. False. United States is in a state of war; undeclared, total war against the basic principles and foundations of this system. And the initiator of this war is not Comrade Andropov of course - it's the system. However, ridiculous it may sound, [it is] the world Communist system, or the world Communist conspiracy. Whether I scare some people or not, I don't give a hoot. If you're not scared by now, nothing can scare you.

OK, got your tinfoil hats on nice and tight? Did you see this bit today?

Socialst "JournoListas"

The now closed down JournoList, has caused considerable controversy in recent weeks. According to its opponents, JournoList, teamed up some 400 prominent "progressive" journalists in an effort to smooth Barack Obama's path to the White House.

There have been accusations that "Journolitstas", deliberately sought to downplay Obama's association with the marxist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and tried to smear conservatives, or opposing journalists as "racists".

This post looks at 106 reported "Journolistas" to look for connections or common threads.

Of the known "Jounolistas" and organizations listed below, many can be linked back to two interrelated groups Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S.'s largest marxist based organization and D.S.A.'s "brain" the Washington DC based, far left "think tank" the Institute for Policy Studies

Between them. D.S.A. and the I.P.S. dominate or influence several organizations affiliated to JournoList

And then it goes on to list the members and their affiliations. With links.

Newsweek was pretty much right:

It's been twenty-five years since Bezmenov delivered his warning, and his recommendation to escape what was coming:

So basically America is stuck with demoralization and unless... even if you start right now, here, this minute, you start educating [a] new generation of American[s], it will still take you fifteen to twenty years to turn the tide of ideological perception of reality back to normalcy and patriotism.

Instead, we continued along the same path he warned against for another twenty-five years - another generation. Not all of us are Socialists now, but we have apparently reached the critical number of the ideologically subverted. Enough people have absorbed the "beautiful idea" that no external agents are required. We have a supersaturated solution that results in the spontaneous organization of the faithful.

After all, it's for our own good!

And Bezmenov's warning?

The next stage is destabilization. This time [the] subverter does not care about your ideas and the patterns of your consumption; whether you eat junk food and get fat and flabby doesn’t matter any more. This time—and it takes only from two to five years to destabilize a nation—what matters [are] essentials: economy, foreign relations, [and] defense systems. (My emphasis.) And you can see it quite clearly that in some areas, in such sensitive areas as defense and [the] economy, the influence of Marxist-Leninist ideas in [the] United States is absolutely fantastic. I could never believe it fourteen years ago when I landed in this part of the world that the process [would have gone] that fast.

The next stage, of course, is crisis. It may take only up to six weeks to bring a country to the verge of crisis. You can see it in Central America now.

And, after crisis, with a violent change of power, structure, and economy, you have [the so-called] period of normalization. It may last indefinitely. Normalization is a cynical expression borrowed from Soviet propaganda. When the Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia in '68, Comrade Brezhnev said, 'Now the situation in brotherly Czechoslovakia is normalized.'

This is what will happen in [the] United States if you allow all these schmucks to bring the country to crisis, to promise people all kind[s] of goodies and the paradise on earth, to destabilize your economy, to eliminate the principle of free market competition, and to put [a] Big Brother government in Washington, D.C. (My emphasis.)

Never mind. Everything's fine. Go back to sleep. Your Government-Issued unicorn will be delivered in the morning.

Unless there's another "unexpected" downturn in the economy.

HELEN DENNIS: LGBT elders face special retirement concerns - The Daily BreezeSome LGBT elders are denied housing in mainstream retirement communities. In another study, one-third of gay and lesbian respondents thought they would have to hide their identity if they moved into such a community.Told they "wouldn't be comfortable" in various homes/communities.There is no right to housing for gays and

Starting Monday, bring your gun to Ricci’s Hoagie Shop located at 1247 South 21st Street in Philadelphia and get two hoagies, chips and soda.

Full story – HERE

And I thought getting $100 for a gun at the normal gun buybacks was a bad deal! Those better be some damn good hoagies.

I’d really like to know the success of this program.

On a side note, it would be an ironic twist if someone were to die of food poisoning or something from one of the hoagies. I bet the antis would still try and blame the guns somehow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out the making of Flower Warfare – HERE

That freddiew guy from youtube sure knows how to make some decent vids with guns. Good use of sound effects and music too.

Some Previous ones of his I posted about:

• Fake Guns and Video Editing
• Light Warfare – Guns And Light Painting

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Order now and we’ll include a free clip snuggie” <– Oh.. good… I see in the video that it fits magazines as well.  I was worried that since they called it a “clip snuggie” that it would only fit clips.

I know I said it before, but they seriously need to start teaching this is schools:

The “Assault Rifle” thing I can get past…. Clip/Magazine I can’t

Full story - HERE

I can see why at first the commanding officer was not impressed. But when he learned the full story about how they had no time to bring the whole body because of enemy fire i’m surprised he didn’t have a good laugh about it.  Oh well.. haters gonna hate. Whoever did that beheading is going to have a cool story and possibly a badass nickname for the rest of his life.

History of the Gurkha – HERE

A wedding photographer in Sicily was accidentally killed when he asked the prospective bride and groom to pose for a picture using hunting rifles as props – and one of them went off

Full story – HERE

Terrible that the photographer lost his life. As usual the news outlets are touting it as an “accident”… it’s not an accident when you treat a gun as a toy (or prop in this case) and don’t do something as basic as checking to see that they are unloaded and rendered safe.  If the photographer wasn’t familiar with guns he should have told the couple that he was not comfortable that he would be safe, and then declined to do that part of the shoot.

Thanks to Josh T for the first pic in the post.  Hilarious job.

I always knew Jesus would use a Barrett M95.

Source – BoingBoing

That picture perfectly compliments my “Biblical Magpul Dynamics” photoshop from a few months back.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hilarious. I wouldn’t want to be on patrol with those ANP jokers though.

I gotta hand it to Al Jazeera for getting these exclusives.

If I was one of the guys from the 82nd Airborne it would take all my restraint to not pull out my rifle and put a few rounds through that bong.

“Hollywood overkill of the sideways gangsta shooting method encouraged many modern hoods to look for a less trendy but equally cool-looking technique for offin’ someone,’” wrote freelancer Marian Ayoob in Handguns’ September cover story, entitled “Better To Look Good Than To Shoot Good.” “Over the last three months, holding a gun completely upside down has become the predominant method used by stylish gangstas whom, as they say, ‘be fixin’ to put a cap in a [person's] dome.’”

Full hilarious article – HERE

The best parts are the Massad Marian Ayoob quotes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A ballet for men is a ballet with Tanks. “The Invincible and the Legendary,” a theatrical performance directed by the president of the national ballet academia (which includes the world-famous Bolshoi Theater), debuted at The First International Forum Engineering Technologies 2010. It featured “dancing” tanks in a coordinated, and often, bizarre display.

Full story on Popular Mechanics’ website – HERE

Pretty cool.  Serious lack of explosions though, so I lost interest at about the one minute mark.

Needs more BOOMSTICK!

Slow motion footage FTW! This is Pretty awesome.

The video appears to be for the song “Ritalin” by Dancing Pigeons… I had not heard of them before, but they have my attention now… actually they had me at “flamethrower”.

One of the biggest differences between our life in North Idaho and our old life in Scottsdale are the neighbors.

Sure we had neighbors in Scottsdale, the kind that came with high fences and nods. We even knew a few names but we weren't really, well, friendly. Everybody had their own lives and not much in common and the entire neighborhood was transitory.

Not so here.

Our one set of true neighbors, the only ones who live here year round anyway, introduced themselves and gave phone numbers the day we moved in. They also noticed the AR, and said we should go shooting sometime.

4 months later, and they drop in on a fairly regular basis their (grown and almost grown) kids included. They ask to borrow tools and the canoe, I get the occasional technical help with the lawnmower, that kind of stuff. We live next to some really nice, well-armed ex-canucks.

So today the entire family is in Coeur D'Alene running an errand and Chris decides we need to go to a hobby shop. He wants to introduce the kids to model rocket building and wants a pre-made kit to gauge their real interest.

Fast forward a few hours and we've got a launch pad set up on our newly mowed lawn with the kids waiting anxiously. We have our acre and a half, the acre next door that consists of the community water access, and our neighbor's acre and a half, and lake right in front of us. Plenty of drop zone for the rocket.

The contractor who is rebuilding our stairs tomorrow comes by to drop off the materials so we invite him and his son to watch.

Then I call out to the neighbor. He still has guests left over from his family reunion this weekend (4 RVs camped out on his lawn, quite a sight) so he and his grab lawn chairs to watch the action. We warn him the rocket may land on his side; he's good with that.

13 people, 6 on our lawn and 7 across the fence, watch the rocket reach an estimated apex of 1000 ft, and watch it fall. The nose lands in our yard, the body in the community lot.

And everybody is well entertained.

This is what passes for entertainment out here, and I'm glad we get to share it with such great people.

Mel

Cross-posted to We Few

Complaint here, in pdf. The new California statute requires handgun ammunition to be sold face-to-face, with ID from the purchaser, and delivered at his address to himself and no one else.

Plaintiffs challenge this as violating the Federal Aviation Admin. Authorization Act of 1994, which pre-empted State regulation of interstate carriers' prices, routes, and services. The Federal standards do not require packages of ammunition to be marked as such, let alone impose the California requirements. Plaintiffs argue that the California statute would require carriers to determine which packages contain ammunition, and to deliver in accord with its terms -- determine if the recipient is exempt, and if not, deliver only to him and record his ID.

If you are into reloading in a big (and I mean BIG) way I have just the deal for you.

I received a phone call and follow up email from Marc Coury:

From: Marc J Coury
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 5:22 PM
To: JoeH@boomershoot.org
Subject: RockTek/Marc Coury-Ballistic Solutions-50 Cal Powder

Joe,

Just left you a voice message after hanging up with Ron Gilbert. He said to give you a call immediately regarding this powder.

As I mentioned, Ballistic Solutions, Inc., has been manufacturing small arms ammo and sniper rifles for 15 years. Our CEO, Jeff Semko, is a sniper instructor and has consulted for Homeland Security and many law enforcement agencies. We're currently in process of re-locating our production facility onto the Tooele Army Depot in Utah. We also have a contract with Tooele, marketing their demil and other military surplus: powder, brass, projectiles, heck, you name it.

I've attached a detailed overview of what we currently have for sale - we're down to 45,048 lbs. from 190,000 lbs. of Winchester 50 cal pulldown: 872 & 867.

The powder is stored at Tooele and is packaged in DOT approved, mil spec containers, so we can have it shipped out as soon as a wire transfer clears. We had it priced at the low-end wholesale of [call for details--it is awesome price--Joe]/lb.

However, as we need to make room in the bunker, if someone wants the entire remaining lot it's theirs for [even more awesome price--Joe]/lb.

That's a substantial loss for us, but a gain to the buyer. As you know, retailers are selling it between $8.50 - $11.75/lb., with smaller reloaders paying up to $25.00/lb.

If you or anyone else can use it, you know where to find me!

Best,
Marc

Marc J. Coury
Ballistic Solutions, Inc.
Satellite Office:
2715 W. Coast Highway, Suite: A
Newport Beach, CA. 92663
TEL: 949.645.3815 FAX: 949.646.8746

You don't have to buy it all. You can buy it in quantities as small as three pallets (6,480 pounds). Call Marc for the details.

---

This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

And the artist thinks the police and military train with live human targets?

Or does the artist think my ability to hit steel targets with a shotgun would not translate well to a zombie (or illegal gang) attack?

I think the artist is just a bigot trying to mock gun owners--some of whom practice with cheap targets.

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

Boy, that was fun. A huge, huge thank you to ASM826 and sometimes commenter Dan in NC for hosting us at an undisclosed, secure range somewhere north of Atlanta and south of Boston. Pictures tomorrow, but let me just say that there are few ways I can think of to unwind after a long day's driving than making loud noises while you punch holes in targets.

Or break sporting clays. #1 Son seems to have a knack for breaking them, at least with a sweet, sweet Auto-5 shotgun. In my case, there were precious few that actually, you know, broke. Oh, bother.

How to write about Africa. I wish I could remember whose link sent me to this.
Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.


Well, this is interesting.


More Transparency! from Friend of Angelo Dodd, Sleeps With Fannie Frank and Pure as Sludge Obama.


More from our Most Bigoted Attorney General and his Corrupted DOJ:
The MOVE Act, enacted last October, ensures that servicemen and women serving overseas have ample time to get in their absentee ballots. The result of the DOJ’s alleged inaction in enforcing the act, say Eric Eversole and J. Christian Adams — both former litigation attorneys for the DOJ’s Voting Section — could be that thousands of soldiers’ ballots will arrive too late to be counted.

“It is an absolute shame that the section appears to be spending more time finding ways to avoid the MOVE Act, rather than finding ways to ensure that military voters will have their votes counted,” said Eversole, director of the Military Voter Protection Project, a new organization devoted to ensuring military voting rights. “The Voting Section seems to have forgotten that it has an obligation to enforce federal law, not to find and raise arguments for states to avoid these laws.”


Lindsay Lohan,24, gets her name and face all over the news because she went to jail.
Justin Allen, 23,
Brett Linley, 29,
Matthew Weikert, 29,
Justus Bartett, 27,
Dave Santos, 21,
Chase Stanley, 21,
Jesse Reed, 26,
Matthew Johnson, 21,
Zachary Fisher, 24,
Brandon King, 23,
Christopher Goeke, 23,
and Sheldon Tate, 27,

are all Marines who gave their lives for you this week.

Semper Fi.


Wikileaks, you're miserable little traitorous bastards.


Nasty flooding in China.


Jeez, Rangel can't be honorable in ANYTHING, can he?
Rep. Charles Rangel’s chances of cutting an ethics deal are in jeopardy over allegations that he met privately with Ethics Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Monday night without any Republican members of the bipartisan panel present.

Lofgren says she hasn’t spoken to Rangel since last Thursday, and sources close to Rangel deny that there was an attempt to cut a backroom deal with Lofgren. But Rangel’s attorneys met with Democratic ethics committee staff Monday, according to people close to the investigation.

It’s unclear whether Lofgren and Rangel themselves attended this meeting, but even if Democratic aides and lawyers met without their GOP counterparts present, that could cause problems with Republicans…

At least one Republican on the committee would have to agree to a deal — an outcome that would be next to impossible if Republican lawmakers believe they were cut out of any part of the “bipartisan” ethics process.
And Lofgren, you're another corrupt politician who ought to be thrown out of that taxpayer-supplied office.


Another example of "You actually expected US to obey the law?"


And I'll close with more slime dripping from Rangel. With Obama helping spread it.
What is truly disturbing is if you are not eligible for Military Service you will be Drafted into a Civilian Corps for a minimum of 2 years. Your”Job” in this Civil Corp will then be defined by President Obama. The bill even allows the President to decide who will be selected and how it will be done.

PALM BAY, Fla. — Authorities in coastal Florida say a black teenager is accused of attacking a white man for listening to rap music and could be charged with a hate crime.

Police took the 14-year-old Palm Bay boy into custody late Monday and charged him with battery.
...
Martinez says the teen told the 22-year-old victim to stop listening to rap music because "white people shouldn't listen to rap music." The teen then struck him in the face.

Thanks to Pistolero for the link

(I will ignore that if the kid had said "That crap will rot your brain!" and whacked him, it might've been classed as a clumsy attempt to help)

Michael Barone's prediction this election year.

These metrics -- the generic ballot results and polls in individual districts -- suggest that House Democrats are headed toward historic losses. Quite a swing in 18 months.

Charlie Rangel's legal defense is being paid for my lobbyists and unions. Tim Carney claims:

Two of the three firms providing legal counsel to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., in his pending ethics cases are lobbying firms. In fact, one firm, Oldaker, Belair & Wittie, conducts much of Rangel's political fundraising, while operating four different lobby shops.
But who's ultimately paying Rangel's legal bills? Mostly corporate and union political action committees along with individual lobbyists. Over the past six months, PACs and lobbyists have accounted for a majority of the money Rangel's campaign has raised this year, not counting transfers from Rangel's other fundraising operations (more on them below). . . .

The president could be on "The View" television show any time he wants, but the Boy Scout Jamboree occurs only once every four years. So what is President Obama to do? Why he decided to skip speaking to the 45,000 Boy Scouts who attend. The White House claims that there were political fundraisers that were really preventing him from speaking to the Boy Scouts, but couldn't someone have set those up on a different day? The Boy Scout Jamboree is set up years in advance. Not everyone is thrilled by him going on "The View."

But Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a fellow Democrat, scoffed at the idea of a president appearing on such a show.

“I think the president should be accessible, should answer questions that aren't pre-screened, but I think there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency,” Rendell told MSNBC, at one point comparing "The View" to "The Jerry Springer Show."

Presidents who have spoken before a Boy Scout Jamboree.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934
President Harry Truman in 1950
future President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950
Kennedy died in office before the event
President Lyndon Johnson in 1964
Nixon -- No
Ford -- No, but there was no Jamboree during his presidency (one in 1973 and another in 1977)
Carter -- No
Nancy Reagan spoke in place of Ronald Reagan in 1985
President George HW Bush in 1989
President Bill Clinton in 1998
President George W Bush in 2001 via video and 2005 in-person.
Obama -- no

Do you remember your first kiss? I have to say no, not the details, though I think it involved a dance, high school and braces. I remember my last, a soft kiss goodbye, hands against my neck as I stood as carefully still as an overfilled full glass of wine, trying to keep my contents through surface tension. I did fine until the door softly closed and then the tears came. But it was brief, a

Miss you. Be safe.

As you can probably tell, I worked out the computer issue; so, time permitting, I'll post updates as the trip progresses.

Today was just getting to the start of the family ride, which required getting to the middle of nowhere, IN

I'm going to tell the story in pictures.

6:01 am this morning, mileage 46572

0.0 on the trip odometer

Shenandoah valley

Welcome To West Virginia

Welcome To Kentucky (read through the Raindrops)

Welcome to Ohio

Ohio Powers the Nation

Welcome to Indiana

735.9 miles on the trip odometer

For a total on the bike of 47308

The time is a bit off because I accidentally deleted the ones I took right after I got here while I was sorting through and deleting all the crappy pictures.  I actually arrived at 8:21pm

Not too bad considering I had to make a couple of extra stops to put my rain gear on.  Now the real ride starts at 0700 tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

…but clearly Jesus is a .50 caliber guy.

When you have to reach out and smite someone…

(Oh, and BTW all you religion of peace apologists? The Christians won’t try to kill me for posting that picture.)

Forget about minutes, these guys didn't do anything (useful) for an hour.'Deadly delay': Police wait while mother, sons slain | Washington ExaminerWhy did they wait an hour to respond to a 911 call? Policy and procedures have to be followed.The District police department policy on forcible entry caused a "deadly delay" as officers waited for a supervisor outside an apartment while a mother and

That says something sad about how boys are raised in this culture. SheWired.com - 13-Year-Old Little Leaguer Chelsea Baker Throws a Mean KnuckleballRight now there are two famous residents of Plant City, Florida. The first is Joe Niekro, the famed knuckleball pitcher known for his incredible seasons with the Houston Astros. The second is Chelsea Baker, a 13 year-old girl pitcher in an all-boys

Having just recently dealt with O’Hare for the umpteenth time, this is welcome news.

The Daley administration’s push to allow liquor to be sold at more places in Chicago took another step Wednesday as aldermen approved around-the-clock alcohol sales at O’Hare International and Midway airports.

For the first time, passengers would be able to take the edge off pre-flight jitters by buying beer and wine at pushcarts that now will be allowed throughout airport terminals.

The ordinance passed the City Council without dissent or discussion.

Sounds like they’re probably authentic. Has there ever been a case of anyone faking photographic glass plates?

This is good news. Overall I consider this to be a minor step forward, but what’s more interesting is the process and the votes. This will also be, potentially, the first pro-gun bill that will be sent to President Obama in whole form. His action will be very interesting. This bill only exempts one firearm [...] Related posts:

1. Donation Djour
2. Arlen Apparently Not Keen on NRA Grade
3. Senate Passes National Park Carry Amendment

ErnestThing gave me this earworm Sunday, and it’s still with me, so now I give it to you.

Here’s the version with the voice track — very cool in and of itself.

Interesting interviews over at Only Guns and Money.

...that there would be warm water on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, that there would be sunlight on the Gulf, or microbes in the water?

Experts Surprized...Again.

It seems the major catastrophe that was supposed to happen, that the anti capitalists desperately wanted to happen, isn't happening.  Damn it!

FYI; Diesel fuel, for example, needs to have preservatives added to it, or it will rot in the tank.  Yes, it's food for little bugs otherwise.  I know that, 'cause I used to run a diesel car.

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This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

I wonder how fast it'll run from the light this time?

Here is a really good write up on the S&W Bodyguards. Go check it out.

Mexico is bracing itself for the influx of its own citizens, coming home.

Seeing Red AZ

I’ve written before, on several occasions, about solving the problem of racism by strict individualism – a studied refusal to allow what we know about genetic population differences and differing means in measures like IQ to distort our judgment of individuals. The bell curve is not the point; the mass is not the individual. Ancestry is not destiny. Sanity demands that we recognize the difference.

But ancestry may matter after all. I’m going to tell you a personal story now about one of the most powerful moments in my life. I’m not sure what it meant, or if it meant anything at all. But it was certainly interesting to live through.

To understand this story, you have to know at least two things about me. One is about my twenty-year attachment to Asian hand-to-hand martial arts. The other is where my ancestors were from.

I’ve been training in various Asian hand-to-hand styles since 1982, and seriously since 1990. Shotokan, tae kwon do, aikido, wing chun, and the variant jiu jitsu that’s part of MMA. Some bits and pieces of other stuff, too – Japanese sword and staff and naginata, Philippine stick-fighting, the odd move from penjak silat. I’ve been both a student and instructor (and a pretty capable instructor, at that – one of my frustrations is that my teaching ability often exceeds my physical skills). I love this stuff, and I’ve reached the point where I eat new styles like candy. Once I’ve got a decent handle on MMA, krav maga will probably be next.

It wouldn’t be stretching things at all to say that being a martial artist, in the sense loosely defined by the whole mutually-influencing Asian group of hand-to-hand traditions, is an important part of my identity — my own sense of who I am. I have many of the indicia you’d expect with that; I love wu xia movies, I’m attracted to and strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, and I was all excited the first time I went to Japan because it’s the motherland of so many of these hand-to-hand styles.

But I’m not genetically Asian at all. Oh boy am I not. My ancestry is a mix of French, Irish, Scots, and I think mostly – on both sides – Rhinelander Germans. My father’s family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine, probably petty gentry; my mother’s ancestors were Swiss-German burghers from the region of Zurich. My genes are written in my face and build; I’ve been to Zurich, and the locals there thought I looked Swiss-German, and I did notice that I disappeared on those streets. I have blue eyes and pale freckly skin and was blond as a child; other than the odd bit of Amerind that family tradition ascribes, I’m about as white as a white boy can get.

This has never mattered to me much. Most of my impressionable years were spent outside the U.S., so I never acquired any of the American neuroses about race, neither the prejudices nor the guilt. I was a crib bilingual and changed continents (not to say countries) every few years as a child; cosmopolitanism is in my bones. I had to learn adaptability back then, so my level of do-not-care about tribal/ethnic markers like skin color or what language people speak is very high.

My ancestry or “race”, accordingly, is not a central part of my self-definition. Certainly not the way being a martial artist or a hacker is; the former is an accident of birth, the latter two are things I chose and reaffirmed through hard work over many years.

I guess there’s actually a third piece of necessary background: I’m not romantic about swords. I know this because I have lots of friends who are. I can use one competently, thank you, but I learned how in order to extend my general competence as a martial artist rather than from having an attachment to that weapon. Being a swordsman wasn’t a major childhood fantasy for me; in fact, when I saw the classic Errol Flynn movie version of Robin Hood, the part that made me go “I wanna do that!” wasn’t the famous duel with Guy of Gisbourne, it was the quarterstaff fight with Little John.

OK, that’s all the scene-setting. Now for the story…

In 2005 I went to my first sword camp. I got six days of tough, physically and mentally demanding training. How to move. How to strike with a sword. How to parry. How to block with a shield. And at night I had to watch tournaments and battles…passed swordsmen having huge fun that I couldn’t join because I hadn’t passed my Basic qualification yet. It was quite frustrating.

In the training as it was then done, your graduation day ended with a passage ordeal called the Hundred and began with your first fight. That is, your first duel with another student, as opposed to just drilling in moves and fighting techniques. On the word of my instructor, I took up sword and shield, faced my opponent across the duelling ground, and we saluted each other.

Remember the moment in the first Lord of the Rings movie where Aragorn salutes the Witch-King with his sword before fighting him? Like that; a considered gesture of respect to the foe, a mark of chivalry, an affirmation of the warrior’s own honor. And, as I saluted, I had a moment outside time.

Suddenly everything clicked. This was right in a way that, oddly, I’d never quite felt in twenty years of Asian hand-to-hand. I had bowed to an opponent before, of course…but as I brought the sword up to my face in salute I felt as though three thousand years of the shades of my ancestors had suddenly materialized behind me, nodding and smiling and with a great silent shout of “THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE!”. And I remembered that, after all, my ancestors hadn’t been peasants in the Yangtze Valley or the Kanto plain; they were tribesmen in the great forests of Iron Age Europe. And the sword and the shield and I were one.

Five years later, I still don’t know quite what that moment meant or where it come from. Because I’m still not romantic about swords. And what I was left with all those possibly-fictive ghosts had registered their approval wasn’t Aryan pride, it was bemusement. Huh…so my ancestry matters after all. Who knew?

Nature's Self Defense SystemWhat's Yours?

So, as promised (and only a few days late!) here are the results from last week’s local Steel Challenge match. You can see the stage names listed, along with where I placed overall with both the Hi-Point and the CZ-85.  Remember, I’m running the CZ from the holster, and the Hi-Point from low-ready (though that may change at tonight’s match, so we’ll see.)

In my hands, the Hi-Point was slower, overall by right about three seconds, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that Steel Challenge is a sport won and lost by fractions of a second.

Anyway, without further adieu, here are the results:

	14-Jul-10	1	2	3	4	Total
		PENDULUM	SPEED OPTION	FIVE TO GO	ACCELERATOR
Place	IRON SIGHT
1	DENNIS C	10.18	9.36	9.93	9.38	38.85
2	ROD G #1	9.47	9.59	9.7	10.1	38.86
3	BRIAN W #1	9.21	10.42	9.77	11.03	40.43
4	ROD G #2	11.31	9.4	9.82	10.46	40.99
5	BRIAN W #2	11.6	9.88	9.65	10.48	41.61
6	JUSTIN CZ	13.18	10.71	9.77	8.83	42.49
7	PAUL B	11.33	12.06	11.8	9.89	45.08
8	JUSTIN HP	9.93	12.28	11.01	12.26	45.48
9	TOM S	11.4	11.42	13.28	11.21	47.31
10	GARY D	13.65	10.6	15.02	13.29	52.56
11	PAT M	14.6	12.89	16.97	13.72	58.18
12	CARL B	17.13	13.04	15.88	14.68	60.73
13	ALICE G	16.25	16.41	16.8	12.69	62.15
14	STEVE B	15.21	15.89	16.97	14.41	62.48
15	CHARLES B	20.26	14.76	16.2	15.5	66.72
16	JASON H	22.1	14.16	19.29	16.34	71.89
17	AARON E	19.39	13.61	23.05	15.92	71.97
18	BONNIE R	23.97	19.43	22.23	19.71	85.34
19	MICHAEL M	29.52	54.44	30.2	24.23	138.39
20	TIERA B	44.95	21.93	37.68	45.14	149.7

I was honestly expecting to place much lower with the Hi-Point than I did.

A Clinton-appointee judge today blocked parts of the Arizona illegal immigration law from taking afect tomorrow. Unfortunately, it was to be expected. Although some said that the judge wanted to be through and adequately research the law, after all, she was a Clinton-appointee and as such, a liberal. Ergo, liberals have no idea what "equal protection under the law means" and therefore, she rolled over and did the Obama adminstration bidding. The 2012 elections cannot come fast enough for the United States sake.

Makes sense to me. 

GPs and other health professionals should tell people they are fat rather than obese, England’s public health minister says.

Anne Milton told the BBC the term fat was more likely to motivate them into losing weight.

She said it was important people should take “personal responsibility” for their lifestyles.

But health experts said the word could stigmatise those who are overweight.

Ms Milton, who stressed she was speaking in a personal capacity, said: “If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried [than] if I think I am fat.”

Looks like PETA is trying to convince Hawaiian Airlines to celebrate Sea Kittens, their new name to endear fish to people so we will stop eating them. If God didn’t intend us to eat fish, he wouldn’t have made them taste good. Now it appears PETA thinks Sea Kittens need an official airline. Personally, I’m [...] Related posts:

1. Quote of the Day: Sea Kitten Edition
2. Fly Yes, Land?… Getting There
3. Friday Fun Fly: MiG-21 Fishbed

The other day Derek, The Packing Rat mentioned that he’d gotten his Glock specifically because some cops of his acquaintance had opined that no civilians should own Glocks — or any non-double-actions for that matter — because they’re too dangerous. These cops would get all hinky if they saw a civilian with a Glock. “Only Ones,” anyone?

Well, that night Derek permitted me to inspect his Glock. My Glock experience is limited to say the least — I’d previously shot a .45 Glock more than fifteen years ago, and it was okay, but nothing special. But at SHOT Show 2010 I really really liked the Gen 4 9mm Glock I shot at Media Day. Easy to shoot, fit my hand very well, ridiculously accurate offhand. So I wanted to see what the earlier-generation Glock felt like, and Derek’s Glock 19 felt very compact in my hand. I was quite surprised — I’ve been assuming for years that Glocks were about as thick in the grip as a Beretta 92, which is really too thick of a shooting handle for my wife.

See, I’ve been musing about standardizing on something other than the Beretta 92/Bersa Thunder 380 platforms for our home defense guns. (Those work well together because the controls are virtually identical.) Glocks came to mind. I like the way you can use the 17’s magazines in all three sizes in exigent circumstances. And the grip would fit her hand quite well, I think. But I mentioned this to the wife, and she said “ooh, too thuggish.” Which is of course a completely irrational, biased opinion, just like the cops above.

We don’t have any gun-rental places nearby, so (sigh) I suppose I’ll just have to buy one so she can try it out.

Any Glock owners want to answer this question for me: if you hold your Glock with your finger off the trigger, and you were severely startled, do you think your natural hand-clenching motion would be enough to fire a round unintentionally?

Science reporting is using more authoritarian phrases, and scientists aren’t doing much to tell reporters (& other scientists) to cut that out.

Your estimations are not entirely your own.

Personally, I find multi-hundred person “doomsday shelters” kind of dumb. If the excrement has well and truly impacted the vectored air-moving device, how are you going to get there from here? Do you know the other people who bought into the shelter? Do you trust the people you bought your spot from? There are a lot of questions like that, and while I would totally go dig up my back yard, drop a bomb shel… er… reloading facility into it, and cover it back over if I had the money, buying into one hours away by car just never sat right with me.

However, while the topic of communal and individual underground shelters was the original reason for me writing this post, I stumbled across something far more interesting… Buried in the above-linked article is the following quote:

Catastrophe shelters today may appeal to those who seek to bring order to a world full of risk and uncertainty, says Alexander Riley, an associate professor of sociology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

“They’re saying, ‘I can control everything,’ ” Riley says. ” ‘With the right amount of rational planning, I can even survive an asteroid hitting the Earth that causes a dust cloud like the kind we believe wiped the dinosaurs out.’ “

That name jiggled a memory, and I booted up Google. Seems as though this professor’s full name is Alexander Tristan Riley, which set off all manner of bells.

Why? Well, here is a metric crap-ton of context to remind you, which is important, because Alexander Tristan Riley did an amazingly comprehensive job of deleting all three of his weblogs, all of the comments he could reach, and most of those records from Google Cache and the WayBack Machine. That is kind of strange behavior for a man who once said, “I ain’t hiding ANYWHERE. I’m out in the world defending my ideas in a community of other people who have actually done their homework and working politically to protect children from you lot.”

So who are “you lot”? Well, Alexander Tristan Riley, posting under the psuedonyms of “Culturologist” and “ATR”, rabidly opposed the civil right of self-defense in particularly demeaning, logically fallacious, and downright cowardly fashions, he attacked homosexuals and feminists with almost equal fervor (though his definitions of both are as fluid as the Atlantic), and he brooks no disagreement at all, resorting to editing posts, calling names, and finally running away. Thankfully, my run-ins with this particular childish authoritarian are exclusively limited to other people’s weblogs, but still… nice guy, is he not?

Heck, even his students (yes, that is, indeed, a scary thought – this man is responsible for educating college kids) generally dislike him, giving him an average score of 2.5 out of 5 (though the reviews in both directions are somewhat amusing).

So given his all too ironic opposition of adult human beings taking steps necessary to defend themselves and their families from criminals who do exist and who do prey on them, is it terribly surprising that he is now ridiculing people who are making what preparations they feel are necessary for natural disasters that do occur, typically at the worst possible times? Like I said, I am not sure I agree with the utility of a centralized, common shelter, but it is those people’s money to spend, and if they want to invest it in a project that is not hurting anyone else and might actually prove to be useful in the future, more power to them… Unfortunately, it would appear as though Alexander Tristan Riley’s authoritarianism knows no bounds.

In the end, Robb was right, nearly two years ago:

Guess what Alex? When you were just a no-name teacher all you were on my radar was a nasty troll. Now that you’re actively taking a part in removing rights from citizens, you’re going to have to deal with us now. We’re not going to let you slither away from your hateful screeds. Every time you open your filthy soup cooler, we’re going to be there to remind everyone what a nasty, hateful creature you are.

And here I am, shining the spotlight back on the cockroach. Something tells me he will just scuttle away, and try another day…

Note to fellow Tennesseeans: Birdshot is not the appropriate load to be used against bears. Sure, it worked… this time, but now the bear knows it will not kill him, and it might not successfully discourage it next time. Birdshot is demonstrably less effective against humans than alternatives, and I can only imagine this decrease in stopping power is only accentuated when the target in question is somewhere around 500 pounds.

And, really, when you are faced with a quarter-ton, specifically-evolved killing machine, do you want to be using a round whose name starts with “bird”?

The iPod served up a couple of Floyd tracks while I was out running errands, and when I got home, I got to reading through various articles in the massive and labyrinthine Pink Floyd Wing of Wikipedia.

I had forgotten that Roger Waters' body was actually just a tiny fleshy appendage of his own colossal ego. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that there aren't separate Wikipedia entries for "Roger Waters" and "Roger Waters' Ego". If he were any more self-absorbed, he'd fall through his navel so hard that he'd make a crater on his backbone.

Also, how jinxed is a band to have not one, but two lyricists go completely batshit insane? There's an outfit that needed a shrink on speed-dial...

Although I'm not a conservative. The 0% hippie is about right, though. And I'm a bit skeptical about that Global Warming thing.

Hat tip: Alan.

Not in Phoenix in late July, anyway. Still, we slathered on the sunscreen, pounded down the water, and the more foresightful among us wore Nomex gloves to handle the hot black guns. Jon was Top Riotgun Limited, out of us five pump gunners (we all brought our Rem. 870s).VideoThe New Thumper worked great, but the Ole Noggin wasn't making good decisions or applying the fundamentals very well.

Some parts of the bill will be enforced, while others are on hold. Looks like this is going to be a long and tough fight.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton blocked several provisions including one that required a police officer to determine the immigration status of a person detained or arrested if the officer believes the person is not in the country legally.

The judge also put on hold provisions requiring immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and which made it illegal for workers without immigration papers to seek work in public places.
[full article]

Also see this article.

This just shows how important it is who appoints judges.

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown. . . .

We can mandate that people have to have proof of health insurance, but they can't ask for any of the wide range of IDs (among such are a driver's license).

More Grimnoir artwork from Zach Hill.  Just imagine this small, on the paperback. Yep, we’re going old school adventure pulp, baby.

Doing a day at U.S.Shooting Academy with Mike Seeklander for Stag Arms. Probably be working with the Stag piston gun, which I've only handled in proto.I've got a Wild Bunch local match thus weekend, then the World Championships, which we'll be filming for SG. Still planning on using the Para 1911A1 for the Championships, but I'm probably going to run the Remington Saturday.-- Post From The Road

This one ranks right up there alongside GEN MacArthur's retirement speech. He was also cashiered by a Democrat President. The speech. Very inspiring. Very appropriate.

See the news clip. Probably more in-depth legal analysis coming. I'll update the links as better detail surfaces, but preliminary analysis by Fox News reveals what seems to be a horrible legal blunder by the Judge. It's simply this: by the language she used in her ruling, NO authority other than the ICE (and presumably other Feds with whom ICE...

Some of you no doubt remember my breaking the story about Andy Traver, the Daley machine candidate for the next ATF Director.

Just received this email from my friend John over at OnlyGunsandMoney:

Mike,

I did a post back on July 3rd regarding your post on Andy Traver as the potential new head of the ATF.

http://onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com/2010/07/next-director-of-batfe.html

See the attached for who visited my blog this afternoon and the search words that they used in Google to find the post. Very interesting.

John

Very interesting indeed. I have similar hits here. Note that it only took the DOJ almost a month to react. Note also the search terms "andy traver atf and joyce foundation." They understand that Traver's links into the virulently anti-firearm Joyce Foundation (and by extension, to the head Obamanoid hisself) is Traver's fatal weakness if it comes to confirmation hearings. Look for another "acting director" in a long string of acting directors.

Story here.



These deputies are in deep kaka.

Y'all know how it sends the left-collectivists nuts that I am getting some of my almost 40 years of Social Security contributions back in the form of my $1,300 per month disability check, right? Most months I don't have anything left after paying the bills, but this month I had a little. Not much, but a little. So, I made my rounds of bill paying and then did the thrift store-surplus store rounds. I hit on these deals.



Qty 2 U.S. Army Improved First Aid Kit (IFAK), NSN 6545-01-530-0929, new, complete @ $20.00 each



Qty 2 ECOTAT® TENT MULTI-PURPOSE (TMP) LIGHTWEIGHT "FREEDOM SHELTER". Never heard of these before.



Here is a description and link.

This GI issue shelter, NSN 8340-0, is truly a multi-purpose piece of equipment. A tent that can also serve as a long or short coat, poncho, sit shelter, sleeping bag cover, bivouac sack A-frame tent, lean-to, field expedient rescue litter, camouflage tarp, 8x6 foot long air marker panel or an emergency body bag. The shelter may be used as a one person tent or two may be joined to accommodate three people. The all-season tent comes with a zip-in mosquito net and has two vents which provide additional air circulation if needed to control condensation. The Woodland Camo (TMP) system comes complete with: ECOTAT Tent Multi-Purpose “Freedom Shelter”, Shelter head and foot poles (shock-corded), Extra 2 poles for use with mosquito net, 4 tough, lightweight 7 ½” wire skewer tent pegs, 4 tie loops, Mosquito net, Pole Bag and Shelter bag. Constructed of a waterproof/vapor permeable/fire retardant coating material designed to ensure a minimum internal buildup of condensation. This material is not harmful to skin and/or wounds and will not constitute a thermal hazard. Comes with a full "bathtub" style floor and requires no special tools for erection and striking can be easily and quickly erected and struck by one person. System will withstand winds up to 45 knots. The well ventilated 4-season design has quick and easy entry with at least 3 exits. Constructed from 100% Polyester warp and filling 70 Denier 34 filament material. Coating is a three pass systems of an aliphatic urethane solution which is waterproof and fire retardant. All major seams are safety stitched then double needle lock-stitched with all seams factory hot taped. All webbing is of tight weave Nylon or Polypropylene. The zippers are YKK Coil 2-way w/double non-locking pulls for side and one single pull slider at the bottom and two YKK zippers w/double auto-lock slider for the ends. The poles are shock-corded Easton pre-bent aluminum alloy 7075W with T9 temper (96,000PSI) tensile strength. The tent is 8’ long x 38” wide x 24” high. It rolls to 17” long x 5 “ in diameter and is enclosed in it’s own tent bag w/carry handle. A complete illustrated instruction booklet with diagrams for every usage is enclosed. Weighs 4.5 pounds.

Used, excellent condition, brown on one side, OD on other, without tent bags, mosquito nets, poles or stakes @ $20.00 each.

Link: http://www.combatreform.org/ECOTATSYSTEMS/ecotattmp.htm



Qty 1 Body Armor, Interceptor, Early Pattern, Used, Excellent, Size XL (No SAPI plates) Coyote Brown @ $150.00.





Qty 8 BDU pants and shirts, various sizes @ $2.00 each average.

Hey, lefties, are you REALLY pissed off yet?

Oh well, blew my roll for the month. Worth it, though.

John Grooms, a "Boomer with an attitude." (Head shown actual size to accommodate tiny brain.)

Well, here we are being denounced by the left-collectivists again.

'Boomer with an Attitude'

Gun nuts to rally against nonexistent threat

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

It’s gonna be a rip-snortin’, double-barreled bushel of fun when a whole passel of armed homegrown patriots get together next month for a good ol’, downhome Restore The Constitution rally. On August 14, right-wing crazies, er, enthusiasts, complete with openly carried rifles and loaded pistols, will gather at Guilford Courthouse Battleground National Park in Greensboro to “peacefully demand that their government abide by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” according to their announcement. The group says it’s concerned about the government taking away Americans’ constitutional rights, and so they’re doing something about it: Walking around in public with loaded weapons. O-kay, then.

Any doubts about where these guys are coming from was dispelled by their announcement of the rally’s headline speaker: Mike Vanderboegh, one of the more extreme right-wing activists out there. Vanderboegh gained notoriety by urging the formation of armed militias to “deter” the government’s evil scheme to steal everybody’s guns; inciting opponents of health care reform to break out the windows of Democratic headquarters (although he’ll be glad to continue getting his monthly Marxist disability checks from the federal government); and starting the “3-Percenters,” a group that sits around talking to each other on the Internet about how terrible the government is and how they’ll never ever ever give up their guns, by God. Well, we have a few questions for these constitutional scholars:

1. If you’re concerned about the Bill of Rights, where were you guys when Bush & Co. started their completely unconstitutional, wide-ranging wiretaps on U.S. citizens? Or when they started putting people in prison, including American citizens, without charging them or giving them access to the court system? Or deciding that the right of habeas corpus, one of the basic protections of Western Civilization, is crap?

2. You do realize, don’t you, that the current president has not made the slightest move, or shown the slightest inclination, to limit gun rights?

3. You do realize, don’t you, that the current president is the one who signed the law that allows you to parade around with your guns in a National Park?

4. Finally — and an honest answer, please — how would you react if, say, a hundred Black Muslims held a public demonstration — openly armed to the teeth — to “assert our gun rights”?

As James Protzman, of the BlueNC site, aptly put it, these “Hatriots” simply “can’t stand having a black guy in the White House unless he’s a janitor. They ought to be thrilled then, because Obama will spend his entire presidency cleaning up the eight years of mess made by George Bush.”

Il faut introduire le droit de porter librement des armes en public pour toutes les femmes adultes en Suisse. À part le sexe, les seules conditions seraient le passage d’un examen théorique et pratique ainsi qu’un casier judiciaire vierge. Imaginez un peu: votre jolie voisine, votre vieille grand-mère, votre supérieure au bureau ainsi que votre belle [...]

Flying out of Philadelphia (PHL) several weeks ago – I happened to look down from the left side of the plane at the buildings below, only to find this thoughtful message from those in the airport’s flight path.

In Google Earth, go to these coordinates:

39°55’0.42″N

75° 6’0.88″W

Or click this Google Earth link (open file with Google Earth).

Heh.

The street address is Maple Avenue at Clay Ave (off Ephraim) in Woodlynne, NJ.

Update:

This post is now #1 on Google for “PHL F*%K YOU Rooftop”

[Screen shot]

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a man was fatally shot Sunday while trying to rob someone in a North Side parking lot.

From the article:

Shawn Mitchell, 23, died behind 6121 Zumstein Dr. after being shot about 5a.m. Police said Mitchell was trying to rob a person in a parked car and was shot by that person. Police would not name the shooter but said evidence in the case will be given to a grand jury.

Under Ohio's Castle Doctrine law, if someone unlawfully enters an occupied home or temporary habitation, or occupied car, citizens have an initial presumption that they may act in self defense, and will not be second-guessed by the State.

Thanks to Instapundit for this very interesting article from Harpers in August of 1941. The premise of the article is, who might you know that would go Nazi? Very well written, and four months before the US would get involved in World War II. It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play [...] Related posts:

1. Labor Negotiations in France
2. Coverage of Knob Creek Shoot
3. Westchester Gun Show

SayUncle is reporting that Knox News had some of their content stolen by an Examiner.com writer. I’m sure Righthaven would be happy to sue the writer and Examiner.com if given half the chance, without warning or attempt at resolution. Clearly Knox news has not adopted the new business model of the failing old media. But [...] Related posts:

1. Suing Bloggers
2. Suing the Mob
3. Righthaven’s Business Model

Apparently we’re pushing a bill in Congress to exempt guns from claims of creditors. Some people say it’s a bad idea for reasons other than hating guns. Josh Sugarmann thinks it’s a bad idea because people in bankruptcy are probably going to go nuts and kill people. Clearly inside every bankruptcy filer is a murderer [...] Related posts:

1. Quote of the Day
2. Clamoring for Relevance
3. Sugarman Not too Pleased With NICS Deal

The same industry that has given us armor-piercing 'cop-killer' bullets, plastic handguns, and assault weapons has now added caseless 'phantom' ammo to its litany of assaults on public safety. This is just the latest example of the failure of a system that allows a virtually unregulated industry to develop and market hazardous products without the pre-market scrutiny afforded almost all other products in America.

Josh Sugarmann
July 6, 1993
New Technology--Caseless "PHANTOM" Ammo--Could Devastate Police Investigations
[I remember when this came out. It was the heyday of gun control in this country. It's almost hard to believe I've been fighting this guy for over 17 years.

Just like "cop-killer bullets", "plastic handguns", and "assault weapons" Sugarmann had to, and still does, deliberately mislead and lie to the public in an attempt achieve his unconstitutional attack on a specific enumerated right.

At times I still wonder if it was the enabling of better communication by the Internet, the success of the "assault weapon" ban which awoke the voters, the emergence of great leaders, or something else that turned the tide. A "little bird" told me there is a movie being made the chronicles the gun rights movement of the last 50 years or so. Although I'm more interested in making history than documenting it does help to review the diplomatic rhetoric and saber rattling, as well as the skirmishes and battles from time to time. We can learn about the ways of our enemies and how our heroes both stumbled and won battles.--Joe]

---

This weblog is sponsored by FOS Ammunition and UltiMAK.

Not approved by PETA

Still think Obamacare will work?

 

Rep. Kevin Brady - “This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this.”

Hat Tip Cold Fury

Apparently there's a bill in Congress that would add firearms to the list of things that creditors couldn't seize in a bankruptcy.

Hysterics erupted from the predictable quarters.

SayUncle shoots and scores:

The Violence Policy Center and The Brady Campaign quickly marched lockstep with the talking point that someone going through bankruptcy is more likely to be stressed and start killing people. There’s no proof of that, they just say it.

Of course, I guess they’d both know a bit about the mindset of someone facing bankruptcy.

Ouch.

Last night, I just started throwing things together and made a pretty tasty pasta dish.

Put some olive oil in a pan with some fresh garlic and sauteed it a bit. Chopped up a couple chicken breasts and threw that in with the oil. Added chopped up bell peppers and once the chicken was finished cooking, added some cherry tomatos. Covered it all with a generous sprinkling of this sea salt/pepper/garlic mix  I have.

Then I boiled some penne and when that was done, put everything in a pot with some sun-dried tomato flavored alfredo sauce until the sauce was heated.

Dished it up and put a little more of my salt/pepper/galic topping on it. Boy was it delicious. It was like eating at Macaroni Grill, except tastier and less expensive. Had some cheap Cafe (by Gallo) red zinfandel to go with it.

I think next time I’ll add some bacon to it.

So massive new spending is driving the deficit, so the solution, according President Obama, is more taxes? Senator Judd Gregg says that it is a spending problem.

So much for this "little-noticed" provision. Hiring won't be based on who is best for the job. It would have been nice if there were evidence of racism and discrimination, it would have been openly provided in the debate. From the Politico:

A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities — an effort at promoting diversity that’s drawing fire from Republicans who say it could lead to de facto hiring quotas.

Deep inside the massive overhaul bill, Congress gives the federal government authority to terminate contracts with any financial firm that fails to ensure the “fair inclusion” of women and minorities, forcing every kind of company from a Wall Street giant to a mom-and-pop law office to account for the composition of its work force.

Employment law experts say the language goes further than any previous attempt by the U.S. government to promote diversity in the financial sector — putting muscle behind federal efforts to help minority- and women-owned firms gain access to billions in federal contracts. . . .

I am not sure whether this is a net plus or not. Apparently, it is pretty hard to delete some information from the iPhone. In this case, the person accused of the crime was pretty lucky that the text messages were saved in the cell phone cache. What this might mean is that law-abiding citizens want to get iPhones, but criminals who have something to hide will want to stay away from them.

Robert*, in his 60s, was a property manager to the rich and famous and a dog breeder.

Jessica* was the 18-year-old daughter of a friend, who never knew her father and dreamed of working with animals.

Their friendship blossomed as they spent mornings training his prize German shepherds. He gave her a $20,000 dog. For three months, they had sex repeatedly en route to dog shows and at a Whale Beach mansion where Elle Macpherson has stayed.


In August last year she accused him of rape. It was - and remains - a case of his word against hers.

Robert lost a job with the Catholic Church, from which he had earned more than $100,000 over the past three years, and was told he could no longer worship there.

The investigating officer, Detective Senior Constable Karen Hennessy, seized the $20,000 dog, saying it was relevant to the investigation.

The only thing standing between Robert and five sentences of up to 14 years were the messages from her on his iPhone, which he had deleted to conceal the relationship.

Robert's lawyer, John Gooley from Collins & Thompson solicitors, commissioned Gary Coulthart, a former covert operations policeman and ICAC surveillance expert, to plumb the depths of Robert's iPhone.

Mr Coulthart retrieved more than 300 deleted texts and phone calls from the alleged victim, some of which appeared to undermine the allegations.

Prosecutors later withdrew the charges and have been ordered to pay $30,056 of Robert's legal costs.

''Without the ability of Coulthart to drag the content out, a man's life may have been ruined,'' Mr Gooley said. ''[iPhone evidence is] a bit like DNA. It can work both ways.'' . . .

The keyboard logging cache means an expert can retrieve anything typed on it for up to 12 months. . . . .

Seizing the $20,000 dog seems overdoing it. I understand the issue of evidence and the fact that evidence can be destroyed, but if the police really thought that the woman had been raped, is it necessary to seize her dog? Aren't there penalties for the destruction of evidence?

If true, I won't be surprised, though I still find this disturbing. No matter what one's views are on the issue of homosexuality, getting a degree shouldn't be contingent on those views. In fact, I am amazed that someone who thinks that homosexuality is immoral can make it through a graduate program where the issue is discussed.

A graduate student in Georgia is suing her university after she was told she must undergo a remediation program due to her beliefs on homosexuality and transgendered persons.

The student, Jennifer Keeton, 24, has been pursuing a master's degree in school counseling at Augusta State University since 2009, but school officials have informed her that she'll be dismissed from the program unless she alters her "central religious beliefs on human nature and conduct," according to a civil complaint filed last week.

"[Augusta State University] faculty have promised to expel Miss Keeton from the graduate Counselor Education Program not because of poor academic showing or demonstrated deficiencies in clinical performance, but simply because she has communicated both inside and outside the classroom that she holds to Christian ethical convictions on matters of human sexuality and gender identity," the 43-page lawsuit reads. . . .

What looks to be a very similar case in Michigan was just decided. It looks as if students at public universities who are taking classes to be counselors must first agree to counsel homosexual and then must believe that homosexuality is good or they can't be allowed to be counselors. It seems to me that they should be able to at least recuse themselves from counseling certain people.

A big surprise from USA Today.

One of the major myths attached to the new health reform law is that it will lead to fewer emergency room visits. Instead of having to go to the ER, the claim goes, more efficient care will be administered to the newly insured in doctors offices by primary care physicians like me.
President Obama himself perpetuated this claim. A year ago at a town hall meeting on health care reform, he said, "We know that when somebody doesn't have health insurance, they're forced to get treatment at the ER, and all of us end up paying for it. ... You'd be better off subsidizing to make sure they were getting regular checkups." In late May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in Roll Call that "the uninsured will get coverage, no longer left to the emergency room for medical care."
Now we know better.
It's not terribly surprising that real data from Massachusetts, which has had universal health coverage since 2006, show otherwise. From 2004 to 2008, ER visits in the Bay State rose by 9%, with no discernable improvement after 2006. Why? At least part of the reason has been the inability of patients to find primary care physicians for last-minute visits. Let's face it: The ER won't turn you away, but individual and overburdened doctors can and will. The Massachusetts Medical Society has reported that new patients wait for a primary care doctor visit up to two months. . . .

I've been looking for this ad (or one similar) for a little while.


I believe the feature with these is that they were "Lemon Squeezers". In order to shoot one you have to squeeze the grip hard enough to disengage the safety, and they were double action only (see it says 'safety hammerless') with a 10 pound trigger pull. So, 90 years ago, this scene was not considered the height of irresponsibility.

Presumably, if the child had a Colt SAA or a M1911A1 it would be bad, and beyond the pale(pail?) for a marketing scheme... Those guns go off if you LOOK at them crooked. Or did in the 1920s.

No word on what happens when your wee bairn gets a certain grip strength.

Shot in two local matches this past weekend, the Lake George 3 Gun match, and our own home-grown tactical rifle match.

Due to a shotgun jam on the first stage of the 3gun match, my time was 30 seconds when it should have been much closer to 15-20 seconds, and I ended up placing 7th.

With RM3G just around the corner, I’m hoping I’ve gotten rid of all of my bad match juju.

The Massachusetts Legislature passed a bill intended to bypass the US Constitution and eliminate