A while back I posted on the Senate making an apology for slavery

and that I thought it was a waste of time. Guy named James argued in comments that he thought it was a needed thing. If you're interested you can go back to the post and read it all. I stopped answering him because it became pretty circular; I just felt like putting something here as 'This is what I think'. Not really interesting in arguing it.

Yes, I think the government playing "We must Apologize for Slavery" is a waste of time and a game. Reasons below:
An apology is something that comes from someone who wronged someone else, to the one they feel they wronged. Not one of these clowns in the Senate, let alone anyone else alive, has owned a slave; there are no former slaves around to apologize to if they had. So they're 'apologizing' for something they didn't do to people who aren't around to hear it... yeah, that's real effective.

We fought a damn bloody war to end it. And the primary reason behind that war was slavery. That's not counting a lot of other mess(they called it Bloody Kansas for a reason) directly related to/caused by it. And it's over.

James asked "What if an ancestor of mine owned slaves, shouldn't I feel the need to apologize for that?"(paraphrased, not his exact words). Answer is, no. If some ancestor had owned someone, you know what that is to me? A data point. Nothing more. I didn't do it, neither of my parents or grandparents did, etc. Which is back to "How do you apologize for something you didn't do, and have no responsibility for?"

Slavery was bad. Common at the time, which doesn't change that it's bad. I wish the founders had been able to get rid of it right at the start, but they couldn't, and that eventually led to the Civil War and lots of mess. But it's over. For a long damn time.

If the clowns in the Senate actually wanted to do something on the subject, they could do something to end what's happening in Darfur; you know, the actual slavery? Tell the UN to go screw itself and send arms and trainers so these people could protect themselves, act to free the people enslaved, maybe something along those lines. But that would involve actually doing something, other than posturing for cameras and showing how 'sensitive and caring' they are; so instead they waste time on a symbolic piece of crap.

You know what this 'apology' actually does(other than letting politicians preen and try to buy votes)? It gives the RWPP clowns ammo to push for 'reparations'; "The Senate has apologized, so obviously the next step is to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves!" Which is bullcrap, but the clowns and socialists just love the idea so they'll push it. They have no problem looting people so as to give their money away to someone they think 'deserves' it; so they'll have no problem with looting people who had nothing to do with slavery, to give the money to people who've never been slaves. Wonderful, isn't it?

Two things to point out this Sunday

First, can someone tell Colin Powell to shut the hell up and get off the stage? I'm going to borrow a chunk of what Denny has to say:

Colin Powell, one of President Obama's most prominent Republican supporters, expressed concern Friday that the president's ambitious blitz of costly initiatives may be enlarging the size of government and the federal debt too much.

"I'm concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them," Mr. Powell said in an excerpt of an interview with CNN's John King, released by the network Friday morning.

Jesus H. Christ, General Powell, weren't you paying attention during the campaign? He's only doing what he said he would do. This is "hope and change". Tax and spend. That's what Dimocrats do. They just can't help themselves. When it comes to spending they make big spending Republicans look like pikers.

Mr. Powell, a retired U.S. army general who rose to political prominence after a long and accomplished military career, said that health care reform and many of Mr. Obama's other initiatives are "important" to Americans.

But, he said, "one of the cautions that has to be given to the president -- and I've talked to some of his people about this -- is that you can't have so many things on the table that you can't absorb it all."

You don't understand, General. He has to get all this shit rammed through before the American people awaken to find the national debt quadrupled and turn Congress over to the Republicans.

"And we can't pay for it all," said Mr. Powell, who was the first African-American to serve as secretary of state, under former President George W. Bush.

I got sick of Powell a long time ago. We're supposed to listen to this clown? Let us remember, this is the guy who lectured us about how we needed 'moderate'(i.e. Democrat Lite) candidates to get 'moderates' to vote Stupid Party; between them the Stupid Party and media gave us McCain, the Least Repulsive Democrat in the Election as a candidate. McCain was just what Powell was describing, and what did he do? He endorsed and voted for and worked for Obama. But we're supposed to do what he says because "He can fix the Stupid Party!" Yeah, he'll fix it good, and screw things up even worse and push Evil Party Lite candidates who won't win. Powell, you may have been a good general, but just like I don't give McCain slack because of his military past, you ain't getting it either. Either you're a liar, claiming this crap Obama is doing is a surprise, or you're a fool for believing his lies. Either way, go away.


The second is a bit more on the wonders of socialized medicine:
A three-year-old girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times this month because of a shortage of beds.

Ella Cotterell was due to have aorta-widening surgery on Monday at the Children’s Hospital, Bristol. But 48 hours beforehand, the operation was cancelled for the third time as all 15 beds in the intensive care unit were occupied, her parents said.

A hospital spokesman said that procedures would be reviewed, but the case highlights a growing problem of cancelled operations in the NHS.

More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last year – 10 per cent more than the previous year.
...
Ms Davis, who works part-time as an accident and emergency nurse at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, said that she was devastated when she was told there were not enough beds.

“My husband and I were in tears,” she said. “When our six-year-old son Liam asked what was wrong we told him Ella’s operation had been cancelled again and he said we should tell Gordon Brown.”
Which wouldn't do much good, since Brown is one of the socialist morons responsible for the mess.
“We have asked the doctors if she really needs the surgery as she is so happy at the moment and is running around like a normal little girl, but she could drop down dead at any moment,” Ms Davis said.

“Twice I have been told that she may not make it through the night and there have been times when I have gone into her room in the morning and wondered whether she’d still be breathing.
I've been through a bit of that, though not for this kind of idiotic reason; trust me, it ain't fun. Nohow.
She called on the Government to put more money into the NHS before a child died on the waiting list.
Problem is, they've been pouring money in to NHS for decades now, and it's gotten them this mess. Keep pouring money in, and it'll keep wasting it and this kind of crap will just continue. Just like it will here if Obama & Buttmonkeys Inc. manage to shove their scheme down our throats.

I lost track of who linked to this story, but I do remember his comment: "But the healthcare is FREE! If you live long enough to get it." About covers it.

Remember what I said about rain this time of year?

Blew in around 7pm. 'Blew' as in high gusts, pouring rain, but- amazingly- no hail. And, in a magnificent feat of timing, about four minutes before the burgers I was grilling were done.

I was under the carport, so the grill was ok, but I was trying to figure out how to get them into the house without them getting a shower when I spotted the bucket.

Yes, it was clean.

Enough.

Hell with it, it kept the rain off, and they were good.

Since I haven't heard anything, looks like the big fireworks shows were called off, which sucks. We did need rain, but would have been nice if it'd been after, for those going to them.

Of course, it would also have been nice to receive rain as in 'light to moderate water fall from the sky' as opposed to 'don't try to walk into the wind and breathe, or you'll drown'. In any case, it did indeed water everything. Some sprinkles off & on since, and the weather weenies say chances remain until about 1am. Or so. Damned if you can trust that time.

This morning I ran out to a flea market to look around, and found something I'd been wanting: a cast-iron cornbread pan that makes the ears of corn. Had found several before, but the people were wanting to sell them to collectors, not people who wanted to cook with the damn things; when you ask price and they turn it over, look at a name or makers mark on the bottom and say prices more than I've seen .22 rifles for...

I'll end with words from Mark Steyn on the Palin situation:
In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
I don't mind people being tough on politicians, though I'd much prefer a media that actually gave a crap about facts and was somewhat even-handed; I very much mind a bunch of assholes spreading flat lies, and attacking a politician's kids. If your kid is in their 20's or 30's and part of the campaign, they're legitimately part of the story; when you attack a baby with the kind of disgusting crap we've seen, when- as Steyn notes- rape jokes about your daughters are considered 'all in good fun', that's bullshit. And when the media is so bigoted they'll send whole teams of investigators to Alaska to look for dirt on Palin(one of the worst examples of 'reporting' the last while) but won't investigate crap about Obama, they've forfeited any reason for us to believe them on anything: if they'll pull this crap for political reasons, why should we trust them on anything else? When they'll report bullcrap rumors as if they were real, then make 'corrections' as small as possible, why should we trust a word they say? We have the spectacle of some major media "You can trust us" journalists, after the election, saying "Well, we don't really know what Obama believes", why should we trust you to do the job on ANYTHING?

And to every slimy jerk like Letterman, and the sleazes at Huffington Jackasses: you have no ground to stand on, at all, when someone finally goes after you, your personal as well as professional life. You said it was just fine when done to Palin and her family, so shut the hell up when someone starts digging into your family life; your friends.

You know, thinking about it, how about independance from restrictions on digging up everything possible on these people and broadcasting it far & wide?

A government with great regard for it's laws and soverignty;

unfortunately, it ain't here. Fortunately for Honduras,
TEGUCIGALPA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Honduras' interim government announced Friday that the country decided to quit from the Organization of American States (OAS).

In a letter to the OAS read by Honduras' Vice Minister of International Relations Martha Lorena de Casco, it said "This government believes that inside the organization (of the OAS), there is no room for Honduras, for the states that love its freedom and defend its sovereignty."

The reading of the letter was made in presence of Honduran Acting President Roberto Micheletti.
A very polite way of saying "Screw you, we're not letting you order us to disregard our laws and put that Chavez puppet back into office."
The interim government's announcement came after OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said in Tegucigalpa Friday that he would recommend the suspension of Honduras from the regional group due to its post-coup rulers' refusal to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
You'll notice that these clowns have it down: a nation enforcing the law is a 'coup', and they must be forced to ignore their laws, or else. And listen to this BS:
"Zelaya is the only one that we recognize as Honduran President, and he must be returned to his position as soon as possible," Insulza said at a press conference.

"Honduras is exposed to an international sanction, because the world unanimously has declared this action as a violation of democracy. I have spoken with several people, and apparently no one wants to accept responsibility for what happened last weekend."
Gee, it's really nice for you to decide that Honduras should crap on it's Constitution just to make you and the Chavez puppet happy. And that 'several people' must not include the people in the legislature and Supreme Court who've said, loudly and in public, "We did this to enforce the law; no one, including the President, is above it."

Insulza, you're a fool. A power-hungry, arrogant little fool.

The response:
Enrique Ortez Colindres, foreign minister of Honduras' post-coup government, told media that the government would not negotiate with the OAS.

"We have a very firm position that we do not negotiate Honduras' sovereignty," Ortez said.
To put it crudely , God-DAMN, I'd like to see more of that attitude in our government. Mr. Colindres, you're being cheered by a lot of people up here, no matter what our terrorist-appeasing, dictator-suckup President thinks.

Tam has a good question: what WOULD be the most patriotic thing to shoot

today? She does specify the firearm itself, not the target(politicians, etc.)

Independance Day,

and the 2nd Amendment:
Thanks to the Real King of France for pointing to this

I originally titled this post 'The 4th of July', until I read this from Lawdog. So I changed it. And I think I'll post the text of that document that politicians seem to dislike for some reason:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

'Disgusting' isn't quite the word,

but it'll have to do. The Huffington Post is noting Governor Sarah Palin's resignation by making retard jokes about her and her kids.

These are the people who bitch and whine about how conservatives 'don't care about people' and 'have no feelings for the unfortunate'.

Fuck you, Erik Nelson; you're a miserable, sniveling little excuse for a man. And if you ever meet her, or her husband- hell, probably either of the older daughters- I hope they give you the first-class ass-kicking you deserve.

You're slime.

Well, government couldn't run a brothel and make money,

why would we think it can run liquor stores?
More to the point, it isn’t working. And apparently has not been working since it was installed! It was not until the beginning of June that the state noticed there was a problem with their new toy, when they finally realized that they were only filling 65% of their orders. They claim the problem is fixed, but I have my doubts. After a month, with thousands of hours of overtime, and six "temporary" warehouses in operation, they can fill 80% of their orders. When they finally do get through the backlog, and go back to relying only on the system, let me know if it doesn’t immediately break down again.

Meanwhile, the state owned liquor stores can’t get product. The state license stores can’t get product. And the biggest pains in the butt is that restaurants can’t get product.
Those of you who read me religiously (all three of you), know how jealous of Seattle’s craft bar scene I am. But to go into a holiday weekend with no idea what inventory you can have must be a nightmare. And it’s going to be especially bad for the higher end watering holes, serving the more esoteric drinks.
If you were running a business, how long would it take you to 'realize' you were only filling 2/3's of your orders? Not too damn long, I'd think. But then, this is a government-run 'business'...
But Pete Hanning, an owner of the Red Door in Fremont, said restaurants count on getting not just the most common liquors, but ones they can feature in specialty cocktails. For two weeks, he said, he was unable to offer a popular summertime sipper — a lemonade drink he makes with pear-flavored Absolut vodka. The Red Door has a large outdoor deck and depends on heavy summer traffic, Hanning said.

"The worst part is each week I'm not sure what's going to be on my load and what products I'm going to be out of. It creates a lot of undue stress," he said.
Yeah, when your supplier can't tell you when or if you'll get what you ordered, that's a stress-maker. Especially when they're about to raise the price on what they might be able to deliver:
Hanning said the pinch is compounded by the fact that a state alcohol surcharge takes effect Aug. 1, which will force bar owners to increase prices.

The surcharge, which will add between $1 and $3 to the price of most bottles of booze, was enacted to raise about $80 million to replace money legislators took from a liquor-reserve fund to balance the state budget.
Government: it can't run a whorehouse OR sell booze efficiently, but socialized medicine will be GREAT! Yeah.

Just a collection of idiocy out there today

In (fG)Britain,
Escaped prisoners who are on the run will not be named in case it breaches their right to privacy, civil servants have ruled. The edict has been made even though many convicts are fully identified with photographs sent out by police at the time they go on the run.

Ministry of Justice officials say the Data Protection Act means they are unable to confirm the names of escaped prisoners still at large.Justice Secretary Jack Straw is being urged to investigate the ruling amid fears it could undermine public appeals to track down escaped prisoners.

The policy was revealed when the ministry refused a Freedom Of Information request to name inmates on the run from Holleseley Bay prison near Woodbridge, Suffolk.

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on Britain, it's not the only place with such morons. Tim Blair used to keep track of cases in Australia where people were told to watch out for people who'd committed robberies, rapes, etc., and there was a description with no mention of the race of the dirtbag. It was felt to be 'discriminatory' to actually mention that a black or white or Indian or whatever rapist was black or white or Indian or whatever.

I repeat, idiocy abounds.

Arabs raided the yeshiva of Homesh in Samaria on Wednesday and torched dozens of books of the Talmud and of the Five Books of Moses, leaving behind a pile of ashes. The arsonists ignored personal equipment, including beds, tables and chairs, and concentrated all their energies on Jewish texts.

“It was a horrible sight to see dozen of holy books of the Talmud and Bible burned almost completely,” said Rabbi Elishama Cohen, head of the yeshiva that has been the stronghold of the community the past two years. Homesh was one of four towns in northern Samaria that the government destroyed after expelling the residents during the “Disengagement” program four years ago.
This part is just disgusting, here's the idiocy(and more disgusting):
Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon commented, “Whoever has not yet understood with whom we are dealing should look at the pictures of the burnt holy books. If Jews had burned dozens of Muslim books, the whole world would be shaking.”
AND demanding reparations of some kind AND demanding the nasty Jews apologize AND demanding they make some kind of national apology AND...


Then there's the idiotic statement by Krugman, another Nobel Prize winner, that questioning Globular Warmering is 'treason against the planet'; response:
The actual 4.6 billion-year old planet, survivor of multitudes of asteroid hits, Milankovitch cycle changes, magnetic pole reversals, solar and cosmic radiation, myriad volcanic caldera collapses, mantle plume eruptions, etc., etc. doesn’t give a rat’s ass about a few degrees Celsius or what idiots like Krugman think.


Well, I have to move back into the 'disgusting' category:
Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. targets, U.S. Defense Department and Pakistani officials say.

A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 - huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year.
Yes, it's another interesting action by devotees of the Religion of Pieces of People.
No, I'm not feeling tolerant; too damn many muslims have claimed that crap like this 'does not represent Islam' and then defended the scumbags who do these things.


That's about it for now, I've got some polishing to do.

Ok, I understand: according to Holder, it's not a 'hate crime'

if you're not a PC victim.
Under questioning, Attorney Gen. Holder was surprisingly forthright in admitting that the hate bill is not intended to protect everyone, or even the majority. He said only historically oppressed minorities were to benefit. This means Jews, blacks, homosexuals, women, etc. Holder made it clear that if a white Christian male, including a serviceman or police officer, was the victim of a violent hate crime by any minority he would have to find redress from traditional law. He could not avail himself of the triple penalties and rapid government/justice system response given a protected minority.

So since Holder had determined that only certain people('protected minority') deserve this special species status, I can call him a politically-correct bigot. As well as a sorry jerk.

Maybe President B. Hussein Cartman Obama is confused about Honduras

because he's so busy breaking the law here and trying to cover it up.
Key Republicans in both the House and the Senate are accusing the White House of giving “incomplete and misleading” information to investigators probing the president’s abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin. In return, the White House is hinting that documents concerning its actions in the Walpin affair may be protected by executive privilege.
Openness! Transparency!!
After lawmakers demanded an explanation, the White House said Walpin had been “confused, disoriented [and] unable to answer questions” at a May 20 meeting with the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Johnson case was discussed at that meeting, with Walpin harshly criticizing board members for their support of a decision to let Johnson off easy.

There’s no question that members of the board, both Democrat and Republican, were unhappy with Walpin’s criticism of them(isn't that part of an IG's job? To upset people?). They agreed that Alan Solomont, the Democratic fundraiser appointed by President Barack Obama as chairman of the board, should tell the White House what had happened.

But now, at least three board members have told congressional investigators they did not specifically recommend that the administration fire Walpin. Instead, they simply wanted the chairman to express their concerns.

The White House claims it investigated the matter; Eisen told House and Senate aides that officials did an “extensive review” of complaints about Walpin’s performance before deciding to fire him. But there are serious doubts as to whether the White House did, in fact, conduct a serious investigation before getting rid of Walpin.

The three board members have told Congress that the White House did not contact them during the review. (One was told about Walpin’s firing at about the time it happened, and the other two were contacted days later.) No one from the White House contacted Walpin himself, or his top assistant, as part of the review.
And so on. Fact is, even if there were legitimate reason to fire him, the law requires certain things, including time; and this law was broken. And, in the spirit of Transparency!!,
For its part, the White House is hinting broadly that it might invoke executive privilege to keep documents from Congress. “Your questions seek information about the White House’s internal decision-making process,” Craig wrote to Sen. Charles Grassley on June 30. “These questions implicate core executive branch confidentiality interests.” At another point, Craig pledged to cooperate “to the fullest extent possible consistent with constitutional and statutory obligations.”
Except where it'll cause a problem for the administration by revealing illegal actions and why they were taken, right?

And a bit more on the government of Honduras

having a 'coup' against itself:
The Hondurans are so concerned about potential despots, that Article 239 of their constitution states that any president who proposes extending his term in office is automatically removed from office. Article 313 of the Honduran constitution allows its Supreme Court to deputize the Honduran military to carry out its orders, including removing politicians from office who seek to extend a president’s term.

Ignoring the constitution, President Manuel Zelaya, a man less popular in Honduras than George Bush was when he left office in this country, ordered a “non-binding” referendum be put to the voters on extending his stay in office.

Glenn Garvin wrote in the Miami Herald, “After the Honduran supreme court ruled that only the country’s congress could call such an election, Zelaya ordered the army to help him stage it anyway. ... When the head of the armed forces, acting on orders from the supreme court, refused, Zelaya fired him, then led a mob to break into a military base where the ballots were stored.”
Let us remember, the ballots that were printed in Venezuela because they couldn't be legally printed in Honduras.
The Honduran Supreme Court, congress, attorney general and members of Zelaya’s cabinet opposed his move as unconstitutional. The supreme court ordered the military to remove Zelaya from office. Honduras has no impeachment process as we know it.

In short, Honduras did follow their law; and demanded the President follow it. When he didn't they, in obedience to their Constitution, removed him from office. And our President, who took a long damn time to condemn Iran killing protesters and who smiles upon commie Chavez in Venezuela, immediately had a hissy fit and demanded Zelaya, who violated the law, be reinstated.

Tells you more about where our terrorist-appeasing President has his head.

President Obama is a terrorist-appeasing bastard

Who's going to get more troops killed with this garbage.
About two weeks ago, the Obama administration released Laith Qazali after extensive negotiations with the Asaib al-Haq terror network. That network has long been in negotiations with the fledgling Iraqi government, dangling the possibility of laying down its arms, renouncing violence, and integrating into Iraqi society, provided that its top members — particularly Qais and Laith Qazali, as well as Ali Mussa Daqduq — be released. Realizing, however, that these terrorists were responsible for kidnapping and killing American soldiers in gross violation of the laws of war, the Bush administration had declined to release them.

The Obama administration has not only released Laith Qazali, it has been in negotiations to release his brother, Qais Qazali, as well. The negotiations and release were carried out in flagrant disregard of the longstanding policy against exchanging prisoners for the release of hostages. Undermining that policy endangers all American troops and civilian personnel — as well as the troops and civilian personnel of our allies — by encouraging terrorists to kidnap them to use as bargaining chips.

I guess this is the next step in his program of apologizing for America; turn loose people who murder our troops.

I've been blunt before, but tried to keep it in bounds; screw that. Obama doesn't give a crap about the lives of our troops, wants to suck up to tyrants and wants to screw over actual democratic governments. That's on top of pushing his own version of 'malaise' on us. This clown is going to wind up making Jimmy Carter look good in comparison.

And I'm wondering how many lives he's willing to throw away so he can play "I am the good Progressive President".

Something from Canada that won't surprise you

Among the factors determining murder rates, levels of gun ownership is among the most overstated and least reliable, in Mauser’s view. “There is no empirical support for the claim that gun ownership is related to violence rates,” he says.
From The lowdown on crime in Canada, thanks to Uncle for pointing to this.

So how's that 'You're safer in Britain because of their gun restrictions' meme

working out? Not real well.
Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it is revealed today.

Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries.
But, but, handguns are BANNED! That makes them safer!!
In the decade following the party's election in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77 per cent to 1.158million - or more than two every minute.
Well, apparently not.
The figures, compiled from reports released by the European Commission and United Nations, also show:

* The UK has the second highest overall crime rate in the EU.
* It has a higher homicide rate than most of our western European neighbours, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
* The UK has the fifth highest robbery rate in the EU.
* It has the fourth highest burglary rate and the highest absolute number of burglaries in the EU, with double the number of offences than recorded in Germany and France.

But it is the naming of Britain as the most violent country in the EU that is most shocking. The analysis is based on the number of crimes per 100,000 residents.

In the UK, there are 2,034 offences per 100,000 people, way ahead of second-placed Austria with a rate of 1,677.
And how's that compare to us?
The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609.
That's a flat amazing number; more than four times as many violent offenses per capita in the UK than here.
The figures, compiled by the Tories, are considered the most accurate and up-to-date available.

But criminologists say crime figures can be affected by many factors, including different criminal justice systems and differences in how crime is reported and measured.
Legitimate points. Which brings back the fact that the British government has been caught- more than once- fiddling the numbers to make things look not-so-bad; I'm tempted to say "Of COURSE they're going to try to reduce the impact of this."

There follows various "This is not as bad as it looks" stuff, including
'Violent crime in England and Wales has fallen by almost a half a peak in 1995 but we are not complacent and know there is still work to do. That is why last year we published 'Saving lives. Reducing harm. Protecting the public. An Action Plan for Tackling Violence 2008-11'.'
Like that "we are not complacent and know there is still work to do"; sets the proper tone of "We are going to save you. We haven't yet, and crime is awful, but we Published a Plan!"

And, on the 'reasons why', they have this:
Experts say there are a number of reasons why violence is soaring in the UK. These include Labour's decision to relax the licensing laws to allow round-the-clock opening, which has led to a rise in the number of serious assaults taking place in the early hours of the morning.
I'd say that's a symptom, not a cause; people who obey the law and give a crap about others' lives don't jump on somebody just because they can drink late. But, for the 'experts' and government, I guess it beats blaming people who commit crimes and idiots who don't hold those people responsible for their actions.

There are a number of factors involved in these numbers, but I do keep coming back to the fact that a country where, not that long ago,
It was common for subjects of the Crown to own arms,
It was common to put a pistol in your pocket when going out for the days business or an evening out,
Crime was low. Violent crime REALLY low,
is now a country where
Owning a firearm is highly restricted and gets you treated as a presumed criminal,
Using a weapon of ANY kind in self-defense, even in your own home, gets you arrested,
And crime, including violent crime, is HIGH.


Just noticed Kevin saw the same article, and gives it his treatment.

Ok, why the hell isn't this being reported LOUD in the news?

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier has been captured by militants in Afghanistan, the U.S. military and the Taliban said Thursday.

A soldier mans a weapon at the rear of a U.S. Army helicopter over Afghanistan in May.

The unidentified soldier has been missing since Tuesday. U.S. forces are exhausting all resources to find the soldier, the military said.
And this is not big news why?

Oh, maybe it's got something to do with this:
The news out of Afghanistan yesterday was bookended by a couple of Washington Post reports.

Bob Woodward on the ground at Camp Leatherneck reported this morning in an article ridiculously headlined, Preventing Another Iraq/US Says Key to Success in Afghanistan: Economic, Not Military, that the Obama admin considers it a “new era.”

The headline is not Woodward’s fault, except to the extent he buried and obfuscated his lede. He reports after the jump that National Security Advisor James L. Jones briefed commanders on the ground that there won’t be more troops, that requests for more troops will prompt a “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” response in the Oval Office.

That’s your lede, Bob. There’s your hed, Washington Post copy desk. Obama to Troops: “WTF?”

We can dicker if you like about whether he actually said that or not. But the president’s national security advisor only voiced in military slang what the president himself more formally enunciated with the unveiling of his Afghan strategy some months ago, when he indicated he didn’t want to be a wartime president. He liked the idea of running some counterterrorism ops and buying his way out of this one instead. Put another way, ”WTF?” (bold mine)

Here’s the exchange. Every time I read it, it’s more astonishing, as Woodward describes a briefing in Camp Leatherneck:
...
Nicholson and his colonels — all or nearly all veterans of Iraq — seemed to blanch at the unambiguous message that this might be all the troops they were going to get.

You really need to read this. And consider just how "We need to win in Afghanistan!" seems to actually mean "Without me actually having to deal with this messy war stuff."

Meanwhile, on Honduras

The Obama administration's actions towards Honduras continues to defy logic. On the one hand, Obama states that he is for the rule of law. Yet Obama meddles in the worst possible way in Hondurans' attempt to protect their country from a Chavez-style tyranny. Read Fausta's Blog for a full round-up of what Honduras was facing from this deposed dictator-in-the-making.
...
Honduras’s military acted under judicial orders in deposing President Manuel Zelaya, Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said, rejecting the view of President Barack Obama and other leaders that he was toppled in a coup.

“The only thing the armed forces did was carry out an arrest order,” Cruz, 55, said in a telephone interview from the capital, Tegucigalpa. “There’s no doubt he was preparing his own coup by conspiring to shut down the congress and courts.”

Cruz said the court issued a sealed arrest order for Zelaya on June 26, charging him with treason and abuse of power, among other offenses. Zelaya had repeatedly breached the constitution by pushing ahead with a vote about rewriting the nation’s charter that the court ruled illegal, and which opponents contend would have paved the way for a prohibited second term.

She compared Zelaya’s tactics, including his dismissal of the armed forces chief for obeying a court order to impound ballots to be used in the vote, with those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“Some say it was not Zelaya but Chavez governing,” she said.

No 'meddling' in Iran, but screw over Honduras in a rush; that's that progressive Hopey!Changey! for you.

Hopey! Changey! and Transparency!! (updated)

Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Easy answer to the question: no, they don't think you're their puppets; in many cases they KNOW it. You, earlier, and so many other members of the press have been so far in the tank for Obama that they knew they wouldn't have problems controlling the press; now you've decided you don't like it? Where the hell were you and some of the other "Do they think we're puppets?" people during the election? And up till now? Hell, an awful lot of you are STILL so far up his butt they need air piped in; so why shouldn't they think you're a puppet?

Generally speaking, I dislike Thomas greatly; it's nice to see her actually saying something about the Obama tactics.
Update: found this at Ace:
The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.
Coincidence. Yeah. These people are all going to have noses so long...

Speaking of,
"I want to emphasize that the president has not seen the questions ahead of time, absolutely not,” Jarrett said at a “town-hall’’ styled forum on healthcare reform today at the Annandale, Va., campus of Northern Virginia Community College.
...
The president’s staff chose the questions - the first from a woman with her hand up and aides pointing at her.
Naw, no way he could have known what was coming...



These interventions (ongoing since 2007) have “systematically violated the letter and spirit of the Inspector General Act,” according to Sen. Grassley. IG staffers now fear retaliation – and with good reason. Their boss, Weiderhold, lost his job on the very day Amtrak received the Willkie, Farr & Gallagher report. It may be hot and humid in the rest of the Beltway, but every inspector general’s office is feeling an Arctic chill.

The transparent sacking comes just as Amtrak is awash in more than $1.3 billion of new federal stimulus funds. It comes on the heels of the unceremonious dismissal of Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who dared to probe financial shenanigans by Obama cronies. (See “Obama’s AmeriCrooks and cronies scandal,” June 17, 2009.) And it comes on the heels of the stifling of veteran Environmental Protection Agency employee Alan Carlin, the researcher who dared to question the Obama administration’s conventional wisdom on global warming. (See “EPA’s game of global warming hide-and-seek,” June 26, 2009).

Question the timing? You betcha.
...
...Amtrak’s vice president and general counsel is Eleanor Acheson.

Acheson, an old friend of Hillary Clinton, also has close ties to Vice President Joe “Mr. Amtrak” Biden. She hired Biden’s nominations counsel Jonathan Meyer to serve as her deputy general counsel. The two had also worked together in the Clinton Justice Department. Meyer called his hiring at Amtrak by Acheson a “happy coincidence,” according to Legal Times. (In another “happy coincidence,” Biden’s lobbyist son, Hunter, sits on Amtrak’s board of directors.) Acheson oversees the very Law Department accused of interfering repeatedly with the taxpayer advocates in the inspector general’s office.

...They zeroed in on Amtrak’s choice of Lorraine Green to replace “retired” IG Weiderhold. (Click here for their letter to Amtrak Chairman of the Board of Directors Tom Carper.)

Who is Lorraine Green? She’s a former Amtrak human resources executive and faithful Democrat donor with no experience in the inspector general business. Her expertise? Managing “diversity initiatives” for the agency. Watchdog out. Lapdog in.

I guess all this HOPE! and CHANGE! counts as Chicago Transparency!!: "You don't see this, or else."

Well, I USED to like Subway

In the summer of 2003, he opened a second store on Gaston Avenue, a half-mile from Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. He planned to open a third.

When Batie’s marching orders came in March 2005, sending him off to help train the Afghan army, he said he left the care and feeding of his two Subway outlets to his younger brother, Chris, franchisee Travis Brown and Brown’s wife, Natalie.

Sounds great, right? But Subway stripped Batie of his franchises while he was deployed citing a “[suffering]” business and bills. Hmmm, well, I suppose maybe that’s a reason. Business is business after all…

The amounts owed is in contention. What is certain is that Subway took the franchise back, and sold it as a remarkably generous price to the local Subway developers, who then resold it at nearly 400% of what they paid for it.

I need to find the contact info for Subway.

But Senator Reid said we lost!

To Reid and every other slimy politician who tried to throw away troops lives for political gain, screw you. Especially those now trying to claim credit for that mission being accomplished. You suck, and we despise you.

So if we adopt their wonderful health-care system, where WILL Canada

send people? Kevin linked to this article; here's a piece of it, with some information I hadn't heard before:
Infant mortality rates are often cited as a reason socialized medicine and a single-payer system is supposed to be better than what we have here. But according to Dr. Linda Halderman, a policy adviser in the California State Senate, these comparisons are bogus.

As she points out, in the U.S., low birth-weight babies are still babies. In Canada, Germany and Austria, a premature baby weighing less than 500 grams is not considered a living child and is not counted in such statistics. They're considered "unsalvageable" and therefore never alive.

Norway boasts one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world — until you factor in weight at birth, and then its rate is no better than in the U.S.

In other countries babies that survive less than 24 hours are also excluded and are classified as "stillborn." In the U.S. any infant that shows any sign of life for any length of time is considered a live birth.

A child born in Hong Kong or Japan that lives less than a day is reported as a "miscarriage" and not counted. In Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby is not counted as a baby if it is less than 30 centimeters in length.

In 2007, there were at least 40 mothers and their babies who were airlifted from British Columbia alone to the U.S. because Canadian hospitals didn't have room. It's worth noting that since 2000, 42 of the world's 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 pounds) were born in the U.S.

It must be embarrassing to Canada that a G-7 economy and a country of 30 million people can't offer the same level of health care as a town of just over 50,000 in rural Montana. Where will Canada send its preemies and other critical patients when we adopt their health care system?
But our system is 'unsustainable' and needs to be changed to the same kind of mess that Canada and Britain has. Yeah. That'll work.

The Canadian health-care system strikes again,

with the all-too-usual results:
It seems that a Canadian couple gave birth to a premature baby this weekend in Hamilton, Ontario. Since Canada is just another Third World Hellhole where brain surgery is done with a 16" Poulan and a 6-pack of Moosehead, its not exactly a shock that NOT. ONE. SINGLE. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU for short) bed could be found for the child. I know what you're thinking: Russ, they couldn't find one single NICU bed available in the City of Hamilton for this baby? NO. They couldn't find one single NICU bed available for this baby in the entire PROVINCE of Ontario. You know, a PROVINCE? Sort of like a STATE, only 196% more ghey?

Luckily, Canada just happens to be the mildly retarded cousin of the United States of America; and like most families, we look after each other - even if the slow relatives are complete window-lickers who eat their own boogers in public. The baby was brought to Buffalo, NY, where she is enjoying the fruits of America's evil profit-driven health care system. If this was the end of the story, I'd be willing to smile and wish the happy hosers well with the addition to their family; however, as Paul Harvey used to say, there is ..... the rest of the story.
Which involves a moron Canadian who pisses and moans about the parents having trouble getting to the US, and excusing that the reason they need to get here is THE CANADIAN SYSTEM COULDN'T TAKE CARE OF THE KID. But it's 'free' so he seems to think that's ok.

Socialized medicine; it'll give it to you, good and hard.

That President B. Hussein Cartman Obama is sucking up to Chavez

who says things like this, is freakin' disgusting:
”If they swear him in we’ll overthrow him,” Chávez blustered. “Mark my words. Thugetti — as I’m going to refer to him from now on — you better pack your bags, because you’re either going to jail or you’re going into exile.”
So our President, who didn't want to 'meddle' while protesters were being beaten and murdered in Iran, jumps right up next to this communist thug who's threatening to invade another country. And basically agrees with him.

I'm sure the Democrat Underground loves it; it's just so progressive!

If you've been wanting a copy of Monster Hunter International,

it ships in one month. You can pre-order at Amazon and various other places Larry lists in the post.

Get it. It's good.

Birds of a feather, indeed

Toward what end all these mea culpas? Perhaps it is a strategy designed, as he puts it, to "restor[e] America's standing in the world." Or perhaps he genuinely believes, as do many Muslims and Europeans, among others, that a great share of the world's ills may be laid at the doorstep of the United States. Either way, he seems to hope that such self-criticism will open the way to talking through our frictions with Iran, Syria, China, Russia, Burma, Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela, and the "moderate" side of the Taliban.

This strategy might be called peace through moral equivalence, and it finally makes fully intelligible Obama's resistance to advocating human rights and democracy. For as long as those issues are highlighted, the cultural relativism that laced his Cairo speech and similar pronouncements in other places is revealed to be absurd. Straining to find a deficiency of religious freedom in America, Obama came up with the claim that "in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation." He was referring, apparently, to the fact that donations to foreign entities are not tax deductible. This has, of course, nothing to do with religious freedom but with assuring that tax deductions are given only to legitimate charities and not, say, to "violent extremists," as Obama calls them (eschewing the word "terrorist").

Consider this alleged peccadillo of America's in comparison to the state of religious freedom in Egypt, where Christians may not build, renovate or repair a church without written authorization from the President of the country or a provincial governor (and where Jews no longer find it safe to reside). Or compare it to the practices at the previous stop on Obama's itinerary, Saudi Arabia, where no church may stand, where Jews were for a time not allowed to set foot, and where even Muslims of non-Sunni varieties are constrained from building places of worship.

In short, while it may be possible to identify derogations from democracy and human rights in America, those that are ubiquitous in the Muslim world are greater by many orders of magnitude. If democracy and human rights are held as high values, then all societies are not morally equal. This is a thought that cuts sharply against Obama's multicultural sensibilities.

And from a letter:
The country is bewildered that the world, especially the United States, is not on their side. Zelaya was confident of his plans to convert Honduras into a Venezuelan satellite. The Honduran people are proud of their constitution and are proud to have a functioning democratic system. Zelaya was replaced by a member of his own party who vows to see that this November's presidential election takes place. What happened was not a "coup" but a bipartisan effort to save the nation.

It is heartbreaking for me to see President Obama throw Honduras under the bus. He did not speak out when Zelaya was attempting to stage a sham "constitutional referendum" with ballots printed in Venezuela.

My mother immigrated from Honduras and is a registered Republican because she remembers how the GOP stood up to communists when her countrymen were afraid of Fidel Castro. Now, Hugo Chavez is threatening to invade her beloved homeland and an American president is not standing up for a free and democratic Honduras.

Took the Colt for a walk

and ran a box of ball and a magazine of hollowpoints through it. Just like shooting the .32 the friend has, with a bit sharper recoil. It ate it all, and out to about five yards(far as I shot it; it IS a pocket pistol) showed itself as capable of better accuracy than I am. At least with those sights. It's a good thing this points as well as it does; with those tiny things, aiming in anything but perfect light is as much guess as skill.

I will get a set of repro grips; these don't fit the frame quite right, and tend to shift in the hand a bit. Tam pointed to Brownell's as a source, and I'll check around a bit just to see what's out there.

Overall, quite happy with this piece. And still half-unbelieving of how it wound up in my care.

"Because we hate you, and you suck;

and that includes you airsoft guys, too."
Oh, man, I’m laughing out loud as I type this. Because all those Airsofters who’ve given me crap are now getting sued by HK! Not only do they not want you to have their real guns, they don’t want you to own toys that look like their guns. That’s a whole new level of hate.

Ironically, this is about the stupidest thing they could have done from a business perspective. So either the Airsoft manufacturers will pay them a tiny royalty, or more likely they will just alter the design enough not to be a trademark violation. If HK was a normal company, they would realize that they’re kicking their fan base and their stalwart internet defenders in the crotch, but you’ve got to remember that actually hating the people who purchase their products is standard operating procedure there.

Talk about improvised weapons...

SHOTGUN
made from iron bedposts; charge made of pieces of lead from curtain tape and match-heads, to be ignited by AA batteries and a broken light bulb.

Found thanks to Uncle

Some more information on the situation in Honduras

in which President B. Hussein Cartman Obama craps on our friends while sucking up to our enemies:

Here is more information on Mel Zelaya's move:

• Zelaya couldn't get the ballots printed in Honduras since the referendum had been pronounced illegal by the country's Supreme Court AND the electoral board. Therefore, the government couldn't print them. No private printer was willing to break the law, either. So Zelaya had the ballots printed in Venezuela and flown in.
• The Supreme Court instructed the military (who would be the ones doing the job) NOT to distribute the ballots to the polling stations.
• Zelaya then
  

  led thousands of supporters to recover the material from an air force warehouse before it could be confiscated.

  His supporters broke into the military installation where the ballots were kept.
  
  
• Zelaya's supporters started distributing the ballots at 15,000 voting stations across the country. This act placed him in outright defiance of the law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court.
• When the armed forces refused to distribute the ballots, Zelaya fired the chief of the armed forces, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, and the defense minister, the head of the army and the air force resigned in protest. The country's Supreme Court voted unanimously that Vásquez be reinstated.
• Tuesday last week the Honduran Congress, led by members of his own party, passed a law preventing the holding of referendums or plebiscites 180 days before or after general elections.
• The Honduran Congress, led by members of his own party, named a commission to investigate Zelaya. The Commission found (my translation: If you quote it, please credit me and link to this post)
  

  Zelaya acted against the mandates of legal and electoral laws, the Public Ministry, the National Congress, the Attorney General, and other institutions of the State, which had declared the poll illegal

• On Thursday (h/t GoV) the Attorney General requested that Congress impeach Zelaya
• The position of the Honduran Congress, the Supreme Court, and the attorney general is that the Constitution is to be strictly adhered to.

And yet President Obama said yesterday that the military ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and could set a "terrible precedent,"
Yeah. Having a country actually hold the President to the law and Constitution is a horrible thing, and he doesn't like that idea. Interesting, isn't it?

"MSM eating out of Obama's hand"

He writes that like it's news to us.
One need only look at his last press conference -- his first in daylight -- to validate that assessment. With the few hardened veterans who remain watching opened mouthed in amazement, Obama set up a scene that probably wouldn't have been possible "back in the day." He had arranged for a blogger from the Internet's Huffington Post to get a temporary press pass, told him what he wanted asked (a question from an Iranian citizen about his stance on that country's election protests) and then called on the person as though the whole thing were impromptu. Planted questions are rare but planted questioners are unheard of. Later correspondents went after press spokesman Robert Gibbs in what was described as a "food fight" over the incident at his regular daily briefing.
It is safe to say that had this been Obama's predecessor there would have been an enormous outcry lasting several days if not longer. During an unusually long press conference in the Oval Office in 1965, White House correspondents complained bitterly that there were people in the room who had been prompted by Lyndon Johnson and his staff to ask certain questions. It never happened again and the president's standing with the press took a hit.
Part of the problem is that so many of those 'hardened veterans' spent much of the presidential campaign basically refusing to dig into Obama's past, his words and actions; now they're finding out the guy they went into the tank for considers them expendable, and they don't like it. Well, guys, join the club.

Obama's ability to prepackage a press conference has been enhanced by the accelerating decline of the print media. Newspapers that would never have dreamed of letting a president go uncovered are now nowhere to be seen, leaving a vacuum to be filled by online reporters with only a smidgen of experience or understanding.
And while the major broadcast correspondents are still there for the time being, under the Obama rules that limit the number of questions that are allowed and the pre-selection of those who will ask them, they are marginalized. Most reporters now find themselves just window dressing for TV with no chance of getting in a question.
I'd argue that many of those online reporters have experience and understanding; the problem is, they were also- too many ARE- in the tank so far they need air piped in. Some of them are starting to fight it, but a lot of them are still covering for The Obama.

Nothing signified the end of the traditional, free wheeling give and take of this experience more than the forlorn image of the most recognizable person outside the president at the press conference. Much decorated Helen Thomas, formerly of United Press International and now a columnist for the Hearst newspapers, sat frail and unsmiling in the front row where she has been for decades. She tried once to get a question in only to be brushed off by Obama. A staff member even has usurped her role of thanking the president for his appearance.
Helen Thomas is as nasty and vicious a bigot as you'll find; I have to admit her being brushed off by The One, who she helped get into that office, is funny as hell. Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

Actual domestic violence is Bad, no question;

so is lying about it, especially by 'experts':
Lemon's Domestic Violence Law is organized as a conventional law-school casebook--a collection of judicial opinions, statutes, and articles selected, edited, and commented upon by the author. The first selection, written by Cheryl Ward Smith (no institutional affiliation is given), offers students a historical perspective on domestic-violence law. According to Ward:

"The history of women's abuse began over 2,700 years ago in the year 753 BC. It was during the reign of Romulus of Rome that wife abuse was accepted and condoned under the Laws of Chastisement. . . . The laws permitted a man to beat his wife with a rod or switch so long as its circumference was no greater than the girth of the base of the man's right thumb. The law became commonly know as 'The Rule of Thumb.' These laws established a tradition which was perpetuated in English Common Law in most of Europe."

Where to begin? How about with the fact that Romulus of Rome never existed. He is a figure in Roman mythology--the son of Mars, nursed by a wolf. Problem 2: The phrase "rule of thumb" did not originate with any law about wife beating, nor has anyone ever been able to locate any such law. It is now widely regarded as a myth, even among feminist professors.

A few pages later, in a selection by Joan Zorza, a domestic-violence expert, students read, "The March of Dimes found that women battered during pregnancy have more than twice the rate of miscarriages and give birth to more babies with more defects than women who may suffer from any immunizable illness or disease." Not true. When I recently read Zorza's assertion to Richard P. Leavitt, director of science information at the March of Dimes, he replied, "That is a total error on the part of the author. There was no such study." The myth started in the early 1990s, he explained, and resurfaces every few years.

Zorza also informs readers that "between 20 and 35 percent of women seeking medical care in emergency rooms in America are there because of domestic violence." Studies by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, indicate that the figure is closer to 1 percent.

Few students would guess that the Lemon book is anything less than reliable. The University of California at Berkeley's online faculty profile of Lemon hails it as the "premiere" text of the genre. It is part of a leading casebook series, published by Thomson/West, whose board of academic advisers, prominently listed next to the title page, includes many eminent law professors.

I mentioned these problems in my message to Lemon. She replied:

"I have looked into your assertions and requested documentation from Joan Zorza regarding the March of Dimes study and the statistics on battered women in emergency rooms. She provided both of these promptly."

If that's the case, Zorza and Lemon might share their documentation with Leavitt, of the March of Dimes, who is emphatic that it does not exist. They might also contact the Centers for Disease Control statistician Janey Hsiao, who wrote to me that "among ED [Emergency Department] visits made by females, the percent of having physical abuse by spouse or partner is 0.02 percent in 2003 and 0.01 percent in 2005."
Read the article, it's worth the time. And consider just how many students are being fed this crap by teachers who, if they even know it's crap, don't care because it 'advances the agenda'.

Consider The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World (2008), by the feminist scholar Joni Seager, chair of the Hunter College geography department. Now in its fourth edition, Seager's atlas was named "reference book of the year" by the American Library Association when it was published. "Nobody should be without this book," says the feminist icon Gloria Steinem. "A wealth of fascinating information," enthuses The Washington Post. Fascinating, maybe. But the information is misleading and, at least in one instance, flat-out false.

One color-coded map illustrates how women are kept "in their place" by restrictions on their mobility, dress, and behavior. Somehow the United States comes out looking as bad in this respect as Somalia, Uganda, Yemen, Niger, and Libya. All are coded with the same shade of green to indicate places where "patriarchal assumptions" operate in "potent combination with fundamentalist religious interpretations." Seager's logic? She notes that in parts of Uganda, a man can claim an unmarried woman as his wife by raping her. The United States gets the same low rating on Seager's charts because, she notes, "State legislators enacted 301 anti-abortion measures between 1995 and 2001." Never mind that the Ugandan practice is barbaric, that U.S. abortion law is exceptionally liberal among the nations of the world, and that the activism and controversy surrounding the issue of abortion in the United States is a sign of a vigorous free democracy working out its disagreements.

On another map, the United States gets the same rating for domestic violence as Uganda and Haiti. Seager backs up that verdict with that erroneous and ubiquitous emergency-room factoid: "22 percent-35 percent of women who visit a hospital emergency room do so because of domestic violence."

Found the link at Insty

I've been asked a couple of times if I'm going to reblue

the Colt. Maybe.

That's not evading, that's the answer. On the one hand, it'd polish up nicely, and take a lovely blue. On the other...

Kim once wrote about how, if given the choice between a gun 'never issued, never fired' and one that'd been around the block and showed it, but in good operating condition, he'd almost always choose the experienced one. Generally, I agree. There's just something there.

Both my M1 Garand and Carbine were made early in WWII; both probably used in battle. I know the Carbine made its way to Korea at some point, too. Both show the dings and wear of use; the Garand had the barrel replaced at least once. There's something special about holding a rifle used to protect this nation, and save a lot of people, from an evil empire. Maybe more than once.

Looking at this Colt, it was carried. A lot. The finish is worn silver-gray, but there's no pitting. I think that at least some of the carry was tucked inside the belt or waistband; the wear is somewhat greater on the left side of the slide. Just some citizen, feeling the need for a little something in case of trouble in his travels? Maybe spending time in a ladys' purse when the man was away from home, or just by the bed? No telling. It's a tool that was used, as tools are meant to be.

Friend of mine, the gunsmith, has the first one of these I'd seen. It had been in a fire, and was in bloody awful shape; rusted, nasty. He had to soak it in penetrating oil for a week before, with a mallet, he could break the slide free; more soaking and working to completely break it down. Cleaning, de-rusting and de-crudding the inside and parts. Then the exterior. Usually, to polish a worn finish on something like this, you'd start on the flats(assuming you don't have certain buffing equipment and experience) with a file wrapped with wet/dry paper, used wet, and worked back & forth to polish the surface; this was so bad he started with the file, then moved on to paper. No way to get all the pits out, but he was able to work it to a very nice surface, frame and slide, and then blued it. And it's a beautiful job: he took something that could have been thrown away as hopeless and restored it to a working tool with a fine finish.

This one, the finish is worn but that's all, no nasty pitting to deal with, no rust, just honest wear. And I kind of like it this way. Maybe, someday, I'll refinish it; but for now, it stays as-is.

It's the only possible caption

"Ge' way from me booty, ye scurvy dog!"

It was downright nice outside when I got home last night,

but it's back to hot today. The front came through without triggering rain in this area, but the cooler temps were very nice. Actually, it's been 8-10 degrees lower today than last week, so even without rain, very nice.

Hot as hell in Fort Worth over the weekend, clean air alerts, the works. And Saturday night through Sunday morning, into early afternoon, little to no wind. As in not even the tiniest leaves on the smallest twigs were stirring. Not often that still in this region. Sunday morning helped set up the misting line over the back porch, and at first the mist was barely drifting.

Damn. I just checked my Sitemeter stuff, I've had visitors from Spain and Finland today. This here internet is somethin' wonderful.

If you've never been to Cabela's, and you get a chance, go. The one in Fort Worth has a drool roomGun Library, which is the room with the serious collectibles and safari-grade stuff; you can get a case of the vapors just walking in the door. Along with the Merkel double-rifles and 1873 Winchesters and Colt Navy revolvers, and such, in one case was a Pocket Hammerless in .32 that looked new. I mean, no wear at all. And they had the original box it came in. No, you don't want to know. And, in the main area, they actually had the bullets Dad wanted me to look for, so he's got a couple of boxes to load. And I got a box of .380 to help feed the new Colt; at this point I'm really glad I've been saving the .380 brass I found at the range.

Speaking of fine stuff, on Saturday was helping friend run some errands and, pulling into Ace Hardware, a few places down I saw a sign that said "Fine Guns", so we went there first. Stepped in and oh.my.lord. Shotguns. Doubles and singles and a few pumps, all Huglu made in Turkey. Plain and fancy, all with wonderful balance. Many with engraving that almost counted more as carving, beautifully done. And considering what you were holding, the prices weren't bad. If you're around Keller, the shop's at 1540 Keller Parkway, Suite 103, a little down from Ace. Very pretty stuff, including cases and shellbags and such. Their website's TRImports.com. I think they're about to do some business, because friend had a list of people he was planning to tell about them.

Those white grips on the Colt? Inside they're marked 'Franzite' and 'Chicago'. Did a little digging, apparently they were a big supplier of aftermarket grips for handguns. I guess these are imitation ivory, which isn't bad; I'm trying to decide whether to get a set of repro originals for it. According to the serial number, this originally came with the black hard rubber. But the white doesn't look bad at all on it, so for the moment they stay on. If I want to get fancy I've got some nice walnut and maple in the garage, and a set of checkering tools...

Crap. Looking at Tam's place, I find there are people who really will look better dead.

Damn. I just looked at Kevin's place, and it's been three years since Acidman died. I've still got him on the blogroll; just didn't want to take him off. The man was living, as Kevin put it, a slow-motion train wreck, but DAMN he could write. And did.

Borrowed from comments on the subject of getting the attention of the morons in Congress who passed another bill without knowing what was in it:
ADMONITION, n. Gentle reproof, as with a meat-axe. Friendly warning.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Like I once said, "Just one little comet, c'mon..."

And one more thing:
TSA: "You guys seem to be treating this as a big joke. Why is such a serious matter so funny to you guys?"

K13: "Honestly?"

TSA: "Yes. Why is it so funny?"

K13: "Ma'am, you are afraid that we are going to replace the water in our 5 gallon water jugs with some sort of liquid explosive, is that correct?"

TSA: "Yes."

K13: "And that we might use a liquid explosive to conduct a terrorist attack on an aircraft, or the terminal. "

TSA: "Yes."

K13: "You are aware that as part of my job, I drive a rolling 8000 gallon capacity bomb. And seeing as I haven't crashed it into the terminal, an airplane, or a baggage cart screaming 'Allah Ackbar' yet, what makes you think I'd use a water cooler as an explosives cache. . . . "

TSA: ". . . . . . "

We got our coolers back the next day.

Ref the situation in Honduras,

found this at Fausta's Blog:
1:50PM

Indeed, Honduras’ La Prensa states that (My translation: If you use this, please credit me and link to this post)

An official statement of the Supreme Court of Justice explained that the Armed Forces acted under lawful grounds when detaining the President of the Republic, and by decommissioning the materials to be used on the illegal poll which aimed to bring forth Executive Power against a judicial order.

Other sources verified that the president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, will assume the presidency of the republic in a few hours.
…
Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was detained this morning by the military in compliance with an order of the courts of law.

So the sitting President was breaking the law and refused to stop, and so the institutions of the nation, as required by law, acted.

So why all the condemnation by Obama and Clinton(Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the action taken against Honduras’ president should be condemned by everyone.)? Not only is Honduras having to listen to this, they've got that communist dirtbag Chavez saying things like
President Hugo Chavez has warned the Honduran military behind the coup today with “war” if anything happens to our ambassador in Tegucigalpa, or if the Venezuelan embassy is taken.

Chavez said that it would be “a declaration of war” and Venezuela would be forced to send troops. “The Venezuelan Armed Forces are on alert.”

“The military junta would be entering on a de-facto state of war. We would have to act even militarily. I wouldn’t be able to remain with my arms crossed knowing they are assaulting our ambassador.”
Yeah. Honduras is dealing with a problem, so of COURSE they're going to grab and beat up ambassadors. Uh huh.

President Obama and SecState Clinton need to shut the hell up on this. And stop crapping on Colombia:
The free-trade issue has become complicated by another urgent matter: Will Colombia grant a U.S. request to use the Palanquero military installation north of Bogotá as a U.S. air base, or "cooperative security location"? Mr. Uribe is still asking for ratification of the trade deal (FTA) negotiated in good faith and signed more than 30 months ago. Beyond this display of patience, America's most important South American partner has gone to great lenths to satisfy Democrats who've made charges of violence against labor leaders in the country. The undisputable fact is that under Mr. Uribe's leadership Colombians are safer than they have been in years.

Democrats nonetheless continue to prevent a vote on the FTA. Big Labor has simply drawn a line in the sand against any new trade agreements, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is complying. Colombia gets whacked.

The irony is protectionists don't gain anything by blocking the FTA. U.S. markets are already open to Colombian goods under the Andean trade preferences act. This new agreement would open Colombian markets to U.S. exports. Colombia may also soon have FTAs with Canada and the European Union, which would make U.S. producers even less competitive than they are now even as U.S. unemployment heads toward 10%.

We hear the White House will tell Mr. Uribe that the political needs of the Democrats' health-care agenda are too important to be disrupted by a trade vote. So Mr. Uribe will be told to tread more water, even as Mr. Obama asks Mr. Uribe for a favor.

Tam, I'm not rich OR famous,

but I found one*

Hell with the news, I found something.

A while back I had a chance to shoot a Colt Model M, more commonly known as the Pocket Hammerless, in .32acp. Very nice little pistol. This led to discussion in places about it, and who wanted one, and that there are two models. Well, I went out of town to visit friends over the weekend. And there was a gun show. And in one of those combinations of "If I hadn't done this... I got one.Colt Model M.

In .380.

The finish is worn silvery, but there's no pitting. The bore is shiny and the action is tight. It was carried a lot and either not fired much, or the owner was careful about cleaning. The grips are aftermarket.

If you're not understanding the emphasis on caliber above, there were a LOT of these pistols made in .32, but a whole lot less in .380; they're harder to find and, consequently, more expensive. Disgustingly so. Which meant that, while I'd seen a couple of them, the prices were on the order of "Yeah, that's going to happen." Except that I lucked out. Hugely. I will not name the price because it would either cause health problems among certain people, or it might cause Tam to say nasty things about me. Or pay me a visit and hurt me. Let's just say that I'm very VERY happy with it.

That combination of circumstances... I just happened to find out about the show, and we almost didn't go. I almost didn't take any copies of my C&R on the trip. I didn't see that aisle-end display until on the way to the door to leave.

It's currently about to be detail-stripped, cleaned and lubed. After which, in the next few days, it will make a trip to the range. Yes, I have .380 ammo and I'm looking forward to it.


Update: I state that John Browning was a genius; among other things, the simplicity of this design is wonderful. But putting the grip safety/two springs/hammer/thumb safety all back together in proper relation either requires a house brownie to help or an Autobot with extendable manipulators, or extensive use of Bad Language of the type that used to cause your mother thoughts of soap. But it's back together now.
Added: Internally, there was a touch of oil on the sides of the hammer and a trace remaining on the trigger; otherwise, the thing was dry. That's not counting some dried stuff under the trigger/sear spring. Seems to be the usual of most old guns, they've either got a lot of old oil/grease/dust in them, or they're dry. That's not counting milsurps coated with cosmoline, of course. But no sign of rust or pitting on anything inside.
And, like several old auto pistols I've seen, the magazine spring and the bottom of the follower was coated with old grease and lint combined into a layer of yecch.


*Og wanted me to start this "Tam, eat your heart out!" I decided against, because for that she might make the trip here and shoot me.

So the President didn't want to 'meddle' in Iran, but he's fine on meddling for real

in Honduras?
Read Fausta’s amazing round-up of what happened here. In a nutshell, Zelaya wanted another term as president so he decided to hold a popular referendum on whether he should be eligible. Minor problem: The Honduran constitution can’t be amended by popular referendum so the country’s supreme court ordered the vote canceled. Zelaya tried to go ahead with it anyway. Literally every other arm of the Honduran government — judiciary, legislature, military — was against him, to the point where the troops who arrested him this morning were evidently acting on a court order.

And yet Obama makes big speeches about 'respecting the law' when it's Zelaya who was breaking it? I wonder why...
Why such strong, unified opposition? According to one retired Honduran general cited by Fausta, it’s because Zelaya’s a Chavez stooge and him staying on would mean “Chavez would eventually be running Honduras by proxy.” Two questions, then. One: In their rush to drool all over themselves about “the rule of law,” do Obama and Hillary realize that it’s Zelaya who was flouting the rule of law here? I know The One’s a big believer in executive power but even he’d acknowledge that defying an order from the Supreme Court crosses the line (I think). And two: Why is Team Barry siding with Zelaya instead of simply staying out of it? The White House proved with Iran that they’re capable of maintaining very tactful silences for excruciatingly long periods of time. Yet today we’ve got not only the secretary of state but the president himself rushing out statements. Is this some kind of half-assed attempt to make nice with Chavez now that relations have been restored by supporting one of his cronies? What am I missing here?
I would guess that what he's missing is that 'Zelaya's a Chavez stooge' part; I think it would suit our socialist President very well to have a Chavez stooge stage a takeover of Honduras. Only the people of the nation and every branch of government said, to put it crudely "We are NOT going to let this shit happen!". And didn't.

Good on Honduras. And bad on Obama.

Somewhat less busy now

And the weather broke here over the weekend. Lots cooler now than Friday & Saturday, though no rain right here. Unlike some other years, though we could use some it's not a critical matter at this point.

More to write tomorrow; right now I'm tired

Right now, where I'm sitting, it's 0822 in the morning

and almost 83 F. As my host described it, "It's not too bad so long as you remember to take a chunk of air and chew well before inhaling."

Last night, and this morning, there's not a breath of air stirring. As in neither the flag nor the little leaves on the ends of twigs are even slightly stirring. Sort of like being in the warm-up cycle of one of those high-humidity bread ovens.

I do have to yell about the House passing Cap & Tax the other day. For which everyone who voted 'yes' should be tarred, feathered and either run out of town on a rail or hanged; depends on if there's enough rope available. From what I heard Friday you had lots of chickenshit politicians more worried about making Nancy Pelosi happy than about what the people back home think; you folks can solve their problem by making sure they don't keep sitting in that office.

And, by the way, this was on ANOTHER bill that they had no real idea what all was there. For which, at this point, I'd recommend a permanent vacation from 'public service' all by itself.

bleah. that's enough for now. I need to find my 'how to tie a noose' directions..

Very busy with various stuff,

and it's still damn hot outside. But there's a front coming and a chance of rain tonight.

Which, with this weather, usually means 'chance of toad-floater storms'.

We'll see

It should be noted that birds are sneaky little bastards

who find their way under netting so they can attack my damned tomatoes.

I may borrow that suppressor-equipped rifle and convert some of them to mulch.

That is all.

Gee, the EPA studies pushing Cap & Tax were biases?

Whoda thunk it?
In March, Alan Carlin, a senior research analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, asked agency officials to distribute his analysis on the health effects of greenhouse gases. EPA has proposed a public health “endangerment finding” covering CO2 and five other gases that would trigger costly, extensive new regulations of motor vehicles. The open comment period on the ruling ended this week. But Carlin’s study didn’t fit the blame-human-activity narrative, so it didn’t make the cut.

On March 12, Carlin’s director, Al McGartland, forbade him from having “any direct communication” with anyone outside his office about his study. “There should be no meetings, emails, written statements, phone calls, etc.” On March 16, Carlin urged his superiors to forward his work to EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, which runs the agency’s climate change program. A day later, McGartland dismissed Carlin and showed his true, politicized colors:

“The time for such discussion of fundamental issues has passed for this round. The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision… I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office.”
"Because the science is SETTLED! The Goreacle says so!"
The EPA now justifies the suppression of the study because economist Carlin (a 35-year veteran of the agency who also holds a B.S. in physics) “is an individual who is not a scientist.” Neither is Al Gore. Nor is environmental czar Carol Browner. Nor is cap-and-trade shepherd Nancy Pelosi. Carlin’s analysis incorporated peer-reviewed studies and, as he informed his colleagues, “significant new research” related to the proposed endangerment finding. According to those who have seen his study, it spotlights EPA’s reliance on out-of-date research, uncritical recycling of United Nations data, and omission of new developments, including a continued decline in global temperatures and a new consensus that future hurricane behavior won’t be different than in the past.

But the message from his superiors was clear: La-la-la, we can’t hear you.
And Waxman and Obama are using the very flawed EPA mess to try to shove Cap & Tax down our throats. With energy-hog Gore cheering them on.

Call or write your congresscritter, as I think they're voting on this mess today.

It should be noted that it's not just the Israelis that Obama is selling out;

In a lawsuit by 9/11 families, new evidence has surfaced that Saudi Arabia funds terrorism worldwide—and paid two of the hijackers—yet the Obama Justice Department wants these documents destroyed.

Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of 9/11 victims reveal new evidence of extensive Saudi financial support for al Qaeda and other extremist Muslim groups. So reports today’s New York Times. But that evidence may never see the light of day because of legal and diplomatic hurdles.
...
Incredibly, Obama’s Justice Department has sided with the Saudis rather than the 9/11 families. Government lawyers are urging the courts to stop any further investigation of the Saudis under the doctrine of “sovereign immunity” whereby a foreign government can’t be sued in an American court. Yet surely there should be exceptions—for example, if that government is financing some of the major terror cells around the globe. Not according to Justice’s lawyers.

Moreover, when the Justice Department learned that classified U.S. intelligence documents about Saudi financing had been leaked to the lawyers of victims' families, it demanded that these attorneys destroy the documents, and has been working hard to prevent the judge from even looking at the damning material.
Yeah. "Just trust us, your honor, you don't need to actually look at the documents." Pull the other one, guys, it's got bells on.

The Bush administration failed the 9/11 families when it came to possible Saudi involvement. President Obama has talked a better game, but he has failed to deliver. In February, a month after taking office, Obama met personally with some of the victims’ families at the White House and heard their request to release a 28-page, classified section of a 2003 joint congressional inquiry into the September 11 attacks that discussed Saudi connections to the two hijackers. President Bush, at the Saudi government's request, had refused to release the pages. President Obama, according to the family representatives at the meeting, agreed to reverse that decision, but four months later they are still classified.

This past Monday, senior administration officials had a private meeting with some 9/11 family members, and repeatedly avoided answering questions about the lawsuit that has uncovered the new evidence about Saudi financing of international terror. Isn’t it time for the American president to stand with the victims of the attack rather than the House of Saud? Only by becoming an advocate for those who died in 9/11, can President Obama help reveal the truth.

There's one problem with that 'help reveal the truth' bit; I don't think President Obama wants the truth revealed. At all. It would cause problems for the king he bowed to.

It's currently 2030 hours,

8:30pm if you're not still stuck on 24-hour time, and it's now down to 93 outside. Yuck.

Part of the back yard needs mowing. In the morning.

Or maybe in a couple of days, when the temp is supposed to ease a bit.

"If ObamaCare isn’t good enough for Sasha, Malia, or Michelle,

then it’s not good enough for America."
Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.["]
Yep, there's a good little elite progressive; "This is the care you'll be allowed to have, but don't expect ME to stay with that!"

Transparency! Open Administration!!

Yes, a Justice Department lawyer actually argued to a federal district court judge that there should be an exemption from Freedom of Information Act disclosure rules for documents that would subject senior administration officials to embarrassment -- as in on late-night television.

This is not just wrong, it's perversely wrong. By contrast, a good rule of thumb would be: The more embarrassing, the more we need to know. The Justice Department and the White House should be forced to renounce this assertion immediately.

And if this wasn't bizarre enough, consider the irony that in the case at hand, the Obama Justice Department is fighting the release of a transcript of former vice president Dick Cheney's testimony to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about his role in the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent.

Last night a friend of mine said the 'world would have to act

on Iran'. Which sounds good. Except the UN won't do crap except- maybe- make a 'strongly-worded statement- and ask to send an observer or two. Who'll have to stay in the best hotel in Tehran, of course. And the EU?
In an interview with Reuters, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt also said the EU should not consider sanctions against Iran at this stage and he urged the swift confirmation of a second term for the president of the European Commission.

"My worry is that talk of sanctions, talk of a tougher line might just be the start of an excuse for the Iranian leadership not to listen in to what is now being said by the Iranian people," Reinfeldt said.
Mr. Reinfeldt, that is one of the most chickenshit, and/or idiot, things I've heard in a while. In case you haven't bothered to check it out, the Iranian leadership is beating and maiming and murdering the Iranian people for daring to speak out. Just what the hell makes you think they need you for an excuse?

There's a reason for the category 'EUnuchs'.

You have GOT to see this

Pictures taken of an erupting volcano from the International Space Station

Just absolutely freakin' cool

So Pelosi will profit from cap & tax...

Anybody surprised?
Pelosi, of course, is not the only member of Congress to own significant shares of energy companies. Senators and representatives from all over the country do, not just the "oilies" from energy states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

But as House Speaker, Pelosi's ownership of an unknown number of shares in the Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) valued at between $15,000 and $50,000, may deserve particular attention.
...
Pelosi will profit because OWM will boost the price of natural gas on the market. This is because natural gas burns with significantly less carbon emissions than other fossil fuels. For companies trying to get under OWM limits for greenhouse gases emissions, burning more natural gas instead of, say coal, will be a no-brainer. That will drive up demand for natural gas, which in turn will create upward price pressures.

Link found at Instapundit

Ref Gov. Sanford,

I made my opinion clear the other day. He screwed up bigtime.

I will add this: from what I've heard, he didn't make excuses, he said he screwed up. He's paying the price for it, and will continue to do so for some time.

What pisses me? People who tied themselves in knots to defend Bill Clinton are dancing in glee and crapping on Sanford. Wonderful, aren't they?

It appears that the troll who got mad because I moderated comments

is now going around posting as me on blog comments. And started a blog named as close to mine as possible, etc.

The gentleman at Keyboard and a .45 thinks it may be JadeGold, pulling his crap again.

Amazing, isn't it? I didn't say he couldn't make comments here; just that I wouldn't allow them if they were insulting, and if he kept putting long conspiracy crap in. And for that the bitter little whatever starts all this up.

I am getting God-damned tired of hearing of police doing crap like this

and being defended by their agency. And idiot judges and prosecutors who don't do their damned job.

Exhibit A, from Chicago:
At the center of the case was security video from Jesse's Short Stop Inn on Feb. 19, 2007, that showed the hulking officer throw Obrycka against a wall, then slam her to the floor, where he aimed a series of frenzied punches and kicks at her.

Abbate had walked behind the bar after she refused to serve him more alcohol. Obrycka, who is half Abbate's size, shouted at him, but he did not leave her work area. When she tried to push him out, the assault started, with other patrons looking on.
Just an isolated incident, no big deal, beating up the female bartender was just an aberration, right?
At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented a second, previously unreleased video that they said showed Abbate beating a man in the same Northwest Side bar six hours before he attacked Obrycka. It was one of two other fights they say he got into that day -- proof, they said, that he was a "brutal, dangerous" man. No charges were filed in the second taped attack because the victim, a patron, declined to press charges, prosecutors said.
Here is the miserable excuse for a lawman walking out of the courthouse
What did he get for these attacks? Probation.

Effing PROBATION. And he's suspended, but he's still a Chicago cop.

"I haven't worked anywhere. I'm afraid something else will happen," she told the Tribune. "If I ever go back to bartending, the owners would have to be there all the time. I'm not comfortable working by myself."

She says it's not quite rational to fear the police, but she can't help feeling anxious when she's out and about with her husband and child. She is afraid they'll get pulled over for something. Afraid the cops will recognize her. Afraid they'll be friends of Abbate's.
Damn, I wonder why?
"I have a fear of the police. I know they don't want to hurt me, but I have a fear," she said. "I can't explain it."

Obrycka hoped Abbate would do some time for his conviction, she said, but she wasn't pointing any fingers Tuesday. "I was disappointed that he didn't get a sentence to go to jail," she said. "But I can't criticize the judge."
Yes, madam, you can. That jerk should be criticized, left, right and vertically.
But Fleming, who found Abbate guilty of aggravated battery this month in a two-day bench trial, chose 2 years of probation instead of any jail time. He said the law requires that he consider a host of factors -- such as prior criminal history, severity of the injury to the victim and whether a stiff sentence would serve as a deterrent to others -- in deciding whether to send the officer to prison.

"If I believed sending Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting other people, I'd sentence him to the maximum," Fleming said. "But I don't believe that is the case."
What about PUNISHMENT, you moron? Punishment for what he did? If a plain citizen had done that, they'd already be in jail, or prison. And you give this piece of crap probation...

And, of course you have the dirtbag's slimy lawyer speaking up:
Hickey argued that his client had already been punished for his "act of unbelievable stupidity." "He went out and got himself so drunk that he got into this position and ruined his life," Hickey said. "Tony Abbate recognizes that. He's not a bad person; he did something bad."
For which he should be in jail, you disgrace to the legal profession. ...In fact, his lawyer, Peter Hickey, continued blaming her for the incident during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Oh, of COURSE it was her fault, right. You bastard.

And yes, I am blaming the damned Chicago Police Department in large part for this.
The Chicago Police Department's handling of the case drew criticism because police first tried to charge Abbate with a misdemeanor before the video became public. Just weeks later, video of a second barroom beating involving off-duty officers at the Jefferson Tap and Grille emerged, heaping more outrage on a police department already under fire in the Special Operations Section scandal, in which officers allegedly kidnapped and robbed people in dozens of incidents over several years.

With allegations of cover-ups to protect accused officers in all three incidents, then-Supt. Philip Cline was forced into retirement by Mayor Richard Daley.
And now, there's a hearing set to try to fire this clown. Let's hope they actually do.

Second City Cop has this in a post on this mess:
And any civilians or media types looking to start shit, just about every single reader here deplored Abbate's actions and called for his firing. We also uncovered numerous instances where Abbate should have been fired before or never even hired. It was the political structure that permitted this aberration to occur, not the men and women who serve and protect honorably day in and day out.
Sounds good. Except the 'political structure' includes officers who probably covered up for him before. Just about every time something like this comes out, it turns out the clown had a history of bad acts, all too often glossed over or covered up by other cops because 'he's one of us'. Unfortunately, I'll bet that's part of the 'political structure' that let this jerk keep wearing a badge. I may be wrong; I hope so.


Exhibit B, from Spokane:
A Spokane police officer should stand trial on charges of violating the civil rights of mentally ill janitor Otto Zehm and lying about the confrontation that resulted in Zehm’s death, a grand jury has decided.
...
Zehm died March 20, 2006, two days after he was beaten with a baton, shocked multiple times with a Taser and hogtied. The case sparked a cry for more citizen oversight of law enforcement.
...
Police officials initially said Zehm attacked Thompson, but they recanted that claim months later when surveillance video clearly showed Zehm retreating, holding a 2-liter plastic soda bottle in front of his face while Thompson struck him with a baton.
...
Thompson was the first to respond and found Zehm in the store. Surveillance video shows that Thompson immediately engaged Zehm from behind.

Thompson began striking Zehm with his police baton and shocked him with his Taser as Zehm held the soda bottle in front of his face. The struggle continued and eventually included six more officers who arrived to help Thompson restrain Zehm.

Zehm stopped breathing about three minutes after one of the officers obtained a plastic mask from a paramedic and placed it on Zehm’s face. The mask was never attached to the oxygen tank for which it was designed, according to police reports. At the time, Zehm was lying on his stomach while officers kept his ankles and wrists bound with nylon straps.

After Zehm stopped breathing, paramedics rushed him to Deaconess Medical Center. He never regained consciousness, and he died two days later.

On May 30, 2006, Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken ruled that Zehm died as a result of homicide.
From the sound of this, some other officers contributed, and at the least need a... hell, I don't know. This is just...

Found both at War on Guns. Who just ruined my evening.

In the reports from Iran, have you noticed

that most of the people killed by gunfire, it's from a distance? Very little 'up-close-&-personal' involving firearms, it seems. My first thought is the government does NOT want to give the people they're stomping on the chance to obtain arms if they can avoid it; so we have thugs with axes and pipes and batons and such killing and maiming people with the firearm-equipped troops/police staying back. Or so it seems, from what I've read.

When a populace starts off disarmed, it's awful hard to play catch-up.

Well, it looks like the Iranian government finally got the massacre

it wanted.
Iran has executed its Tiananmen Square. Baharestan Square has become synonymous with barbarity, cruelty, massacre and inhumanity.

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by "black-clad police" and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime's Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

I'm sure Obama will be 'saddened' or something by this; but hey, he already called off the invitations to the weenie roast, so what else can he do?(yes, getting a bunch of rifles and ammo, maybe some shotguns, to the people would make things a bit more even, but don't count on it)

I'm with the bear;

it IS damn hot out there.

Since I'm currently inside cleaning(awright, taking a break from, ok?), let's see what's out there.

The administration finally decided that inviting officials of a government currently involved in beating and murdering protesters to the 4th of July celebration was a Bad Idea, and has rescinded the invites. As Sondra says, "What took you so long?"


Rustmeister notes that a couple of congresscritters have decided to let DHS know they don't like the "Let's ban 80% of the knives out there" attempt:
Representatives Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) have co-sponsored an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to restrict funds to the proposed CBP rule on switchblades.


Back to Iran the Republican Guard weenies seem to have a liking for zooming into crowds on motorcycles, jumping off and beating people. Which works fine, until the people decide to beat back. Of course, we are talking about people who'll murder a woman, and then screw her family around:
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.


Governor Sanford, you're an asshole.


The MArooned gentleman has a list of dumb gunnie tricks. One of my picks: the guy who tells a friend buying a Mosin Nagant "Don't buy that surplus ammo, it'll rust the barrel out!" Never mind that if you actually, y'know, clean it soon after shooting it'll be fine...


Jay also notes a problem with the current "You MUST be interested in them!" crap. About a month ago, while getting ready to play a DVD, I heard a few minutes of Jay Leno. He was saying "I was in the store, and saw all these headlines about Kate's heartbreak, and Jon cheating, and I thought "Really... who the hell are these people? And why do I care?" Yup.


Despite the promise of baking, I hit the range this morning. And yes, I did bake. But A: I like shooting outside when I can, especially with rifles and B: I was going to bake doing ANYTHING outside, so... While there, guy let me take a look at, and some shots with, one of these
It's a EMF copy of the Model 92 Winchester, this one in .357 Mag. 20" barrel, blue steel. Very slick action, nice handling, nice trigger. It has one of those idiot 'make the lawyers happy' safeties on top of the bolt, otherwise looks just like the 92. He was feeding it .357 loads with (I think he said) 162-grain semi-wadcutters, and it fed them flawlessly. The only gripe I'd have with it? The sights; just like the original, and my eyes have trouble with that style anymore, especially at 100 yards(at 50 was just fine, or as fine as could be for me). I wonder if anyone makes a peep sight for these? If they did... As is, I liked it; short, handy, light and reliable. Man, one of these with a loop lever, that'd be fun to play with.


Speaking of the range, anyone know why some rifles, with cast loads, hit from 3" to 6" right of point of aim at 100 yards? I've seen this with Enfields in .303, K31 and the P14. My 1903A3 Springfield just needs the elevation raised, but the others group quite nicely, but way to the right.


Considering how things seem to be deteriorating in Iran, I wonder if the protesters are taking arms from the security boobs they grab? Or are the authorities worried about that and mostly sending goons with clubs and axes and such in close and having the shooters keep distance?


I'd better get back to cleaning.

That pretty much covers it

Found at Theo's place

I'd heard Ed McMahon died,

but I'd never heard this about him:
During World War II, McMahon was a fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps serving as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was a decorated pilot and was discharged in 1946, remaining in the reserves.

After college, McMahon returned to active duty. He was sent to Korea in February 1953. He flew unarmed O-1E Bird Dogs on 85 tactical air control and artillery spotting missions. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1966 and was then commissioned as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard.

First, that Obama is still planning on having the current tyrants of Iran

over for the 4th of July is effing disgusting.
The only thing I can think to say is, how dare you?

How dare the representatives of a country founded on freedom from tyranny and the principles of inalienable rights not give any thought — no thought whatsoever — to reexamining its invitation to theocratic sponsors of terrorism who violently deny their own people access to any say in how their lives are governed?

How dare the supposed leader of the free world not ponder, even for a moment, that perhaps treating thuggish dictators as legitimate state actors, on our nation’s birthday no less, might be sending the wrong signal?

How dare the supreme ambassadors of everything we hold dear as a country extend anything more than a single, firmly-flexed digit in the direction of a bully state that clearly has no business pretending to represent the interests of its citizens?

President Obama, how dare you slap your own countrymen in the face with such a rude and thoughtless gesture?

The second is, trying to claim 'credit' for the uprising while doing nothing to support it but a few words that are far too late and too little, is just another example of a dirtbag politician who'll deny responsibility for anything that's not just right, and claim credit for anything he thinks will put a shine on his record:
But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

Reference my comment on one of the new dogs yesterday,

I have been corrected:

As to how the weather's been the last few days,

Speaking of 'Law Enforcement- Sorry Excuse For',

A father and son are furious after surviving a terrifying experience. They face criminal charges after police responded to their home by mistake.

Murfreesboro officers responded to a 911 emergency call and somehow ended up at the wrong apartment.

Roger and Justin Chilton woke to a pounding on their door at 3 a.m. Sunday. Justin - a decorated military policeman who had just returned from Iraq - answered the door holding his gun.

The officers then arrested Justin and his father.

"They held us at gunpoint, slammed us to the ground, stomped my hands and butted me in the back of the head with a shotgun," said Justin.

The officers charged the Chilton's with resisting arrest and aggravated assault for the incident.

Police did not drop the charges even after learning they responded to the wrong house.
Morons. Wrong place, wrong people, so you charge them. For, I guess, not arriving at the door on their knees to make it easy to knock them to the floor.
Murfreesboro police chief Glenn Chrisman has opened an internal investigation.
Well, isn't that nice? I wonder if it was another "They were following procedures" excuse-type investigation? I say 'was' because this is dated back in February.

Ok, searched and found this:
A police officer and an emergency dispatcher face suspension in Rutherford County after a bizarre mistake and claims of unprofessional conduct.

NewsChannel 5 reporter Nick Beres obtained police video and audio of the incident that all began with a prank 911 call.

The problem is police were dispatched to the wrong address. What happened next has become an embarrassment to the Murfreesboro Police Department.
Well, yeah.
Police arrested Roger Chilton and his son Justin. The arrest came after a frightened Justin, a military police officer who just returned from Iraq, answered the door with a gun.

"I thought someone was breaking into the house. Nobody identified themselves," said Roger.
Because, I guess, you're just supposed to KNOW it's a cop beating on the door.
"We had some issues with the language and the behavior of one of our officers on the scene that night," said police spokesperson Kyle Evans.

Evans said Officer Carl Watts faces suspension for his conduct.

Watts could be heard during an audio recording of the incident yelling at Justin's pregnant girlfriend to get on the floor.

"Roll over on your back," he told her. After she said she was pregnant, she said Watts had no sympathy.

An official complaint quotes the officer as saying, "I don't give a ----. You've already ----- up your life by being a pregnant teenager."

Remember, this all happened after police were sent to the wrong address - a bad dispatcher mistake made worse by Officer Watts' conduct.
So far, so good, right? Except
That's great for the future, but the Chilton's wonder about the past. Both still face criminal prosecution for answering the door and pointing a gun at an officer - some one they originally thought was an intruder.

The district attorney won't drop the resisting arrest and aggravated assault charges, even though police admit they went to the wrong home.

General Whitsell said that mistake alone does not clear the Chilton's of their conduct when the police arrived.
Whitsell should have his ass kicked out of that office. Someone beating on your door in the wee hours, NOT identifying themselves as a cop(I'm assuming that's accurate; since the whole thing was recorded, if he had, I'm sure they'd have trumpeted it) gets treated as an aggressive drunk or an attacker until proven otherwise.

I checked and couldn't find anything on whether or not the charges were finally dropped; hopefully so. But with idiots like Whitsell, I just don't know.

Found through Uncle.

Speaking of

The Senate made an apology for slavery the other day,

thus continuing the tradition of useless gestures that make various people feel good. Best of the Web Today had a post on it, including criticizing someone named Carol Swain who insisted that the Republicans should have initiated the apology because it "would have [helped] shed that racist scab on the party."

That crap was appropriately criticized,
The Republican Party came into existence in the 1850s as an antislavery party. It was the first GOP president, Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ordering slaves in Confederate states freed. Republican Congresses proposed the 13th Amendment, along with the 14th (granting former slaves citizenship and equal protection under the law) and the 15th (giving them the right to vote). Republicans pushed for Reconstruction only to be thwarted by Democrats.

Segregationists remained a core component of the Democratic coalition well into the 20th century. No Democratic president before Harry S. Truman made any significant moves to expand civil rights for blacks; and although President Lyndon B. Johnson was instrumental in pushing the Civil Rights Act through Congress, a greater proportion of Republicans than Democrats supported it.
which lead to her to respond. Among the rest,
Despite a barrage of criticisms, I stand firmly behind my Washington Post comments. It is the Republican Party that has alienated minorities in recent decades by a series of high profile racist incidents. By not taking the leadership role in crafting a national apology when it was in power, the Republican Party missed an important opportunity to help heal America. It also missed an opportunity to reclaim its faded legacy as the party of civil rights and the party of Lincoln.
Uh huh. Let's see, primarily Democrats voted against the Voting Rights Bill, most of the KKK and such boobs were Democrats, it was the Democrat Party that held power in the south during Jim Crow... And it's the current Evil Party that's used minorities, primarily blacks, like counters on a board. I seem to remember some static a while back because a lot of blacks were realizing that, since latinos were becoming a big minority, the Evil Party was making large moves to court them and kind of dumping on blacks. Not like they hadn't for a long time, but it was being openly acknowledged, finally. But the Republican Party(generally known as the Stupid Party for other reasons) should have 'led the charge for an apology to make up for its racist past'.

About what you'd expect from a jackass academic. Anyone who spends this kind of time on an issue 'dear to my heart' that insists people who had nothing to do with it should apologize for something that happened a long time ago... I'm sure she thinks the race warlord poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton & Co. are just wonderful.

Past results of firearms registration

Joe Huffman had a link to this. I'm going to post a piece of it. It's by Neal Knox, a man who made an enormous pain in the ass of himself to those who don't like commoners owning guns:
In the summer of 1955, I was a young Texas National Guard sergeant on active duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. A corporal in my squad was a Belgian-American named Charles DeNaer. An old man as far as most of us were concerned, being well over thirty, Charley commanded a certain amount of our respect, for not only was he older than the rest of us, he had lived in Belgium when the Germans rolled across the low countries by-passing the Maginot Line on their way into France. He had seen war.

One soft Oklahoma afternoon, sitting on a bunk in the half-light of an old wooden barracks, he told me his story.

In Charley's little town in Belgium, there lived an old man, a gunsmith. The old man was friendly with the kids and welcomed them to his shop. He had once been an armorer to the king of Belgium, according to Charley. He told us of the wonderful guns the old man had crafted, using only hand tools. There were double shotguns and fine rifles with beautiful hardwood stocks and gorgeous engraving and inlay work. Charley liked the old man and enjoyed looking at the guns. He often did chores around the shop.

One day the gunsmith sent for Charley. Arriving at the shop, Charley found the old man carefully oiling and wrapping guns in oilcloth and paper. Charley asked what he was doing. The old smith gestured to a piece of paper on the workbench and said that an order had come to him to register all of his guns. He was to list every gun with a description on a piece of paper and then to send the paper to the government. The old man had no intention of complying with the registration law and had summoned Charley to help him bury the guns at a railroad crossing. Charley asked why he didn't simply comply with the order and keep the guns. The old man, with tears in his eyes, replied to the boy, "If I register them, they will be taken away. "

A year or two later, the blitzkrieg rolled across the Low Countries. One day not long after, the war arrived in Charley's town. A squad of German SS troops banged on the door of a house that Charley knew well. The family had twin sons about Charley's age. The twins were his best friends. The officer displayed a paper describing a Luger pistol, a relic of the Great War, and ordered the father to produce it. That old gun had been lost, stolen, or misplaced sometime after it had been registered, the father explained. He did not know where it was.

The officer told the father that he had exactly fifteen minutes to produce the weapon. The family turned their home upside down. No pistol. They returned to the SS officer empty-handed.

The officer gave an order and soldiers herded the family outside while other troops called the entire town out into the square. There on the town square the SS machine-gunned the entire family-father, mother, Charley's two friends, their older brother and a baby sister.

I will never forget the moment. We were sitting on the bunk on a Saturday afternoon and Charley was crying, huge tears rolling down his cheeks, making silver dollar size splotches on the dusty barracks floor. That was my conversion from a casual gun owner to one who was determined to prevent such a thing from ever happening in America.

And, because it speaks of people abusing power, the security theater of the TSA and ignoring of little things like the Constitution that far too many LE people go with, I'm also throwing in this from the Advice Goddess:
There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money.

An excerpt:

Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question.

Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question.

Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money.

Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question?

Officer: So you refuse to answer that question?

Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing.

Officer: Well, you're not answering.

Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law.
...
"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me."

But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money.

Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul?

Bierfeldt: Yes, sir.

Officer: You're free to go.

... Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights.
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"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't."
We have, unfortunately, come to expect this kind of crap from TSA; that a bunch of other LE officers went along with this, apparently just because they could and wanted an answer(even though it was none of their damn business).

Apparently the Iranian government is studying the People's Republic of China

for ideas; the PRC murders dissidents and then charges the family for the cartridge, though I don't think they overcharge on this level:
On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.
...
At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
And, just to make it even better,
Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Quote of the day, which connects to more ACORN news

From Mikey in comments:
From little ACORNs, mighty hoax do grow.

And the update:
The White House is on a witch hunt against inspectors general who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

And now, taxpayer-subsidized ACORN affiliate Project Vote — where President Obama cut his teeth as a community organizer and learned Leftist intimidation tactics up close and personal — is going after whistleblower Anita MonCrief and an anonymous “John Doe” defendant for posting invaluable documents that reveal the money-shuffling racket.

Obama. ACORN. Project Vote. Corrupt birds of a feather bully together.

The scoop: Project Vote has filed a federal lawsuit against MonCrief for blogging about her experience and knowledge of the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization’s partisan and political activities, including coordination with the Obama campaign. Project Vote seeks compensatory damages and exemplary damages “of at least $5 million” and all costs and attorney’s fees on trumped-up charges of “trademark infringement” and publication of “trade secrets.”

You don’t have to be a lawyer to see that this is a blatant act of retaliation. MonCrief has always been open and honest about her firing from Project Vote. The ObamACORN mob used the credit card incident as a pretext then and they are using it as a pretext now. The real reason they are going after her is because she poses a fundamental threat to ACORN’s criminal racket.
Malkin has the whole complaint, as well as a post from MonCrief's blog.

The tale of Rafferty is happily ended,

with his now being in the new digs. And reportedly very happy about it. And the other day when I went by to get a Father's Day gift from daughter, I met Rhapsody
and this space-alien-looking thing named Xoco(pronounced Shoko, they said)
Yes, it really is as small as it looks. You'd swear that if it could lay them back right, in a really strong wind, it could fly.

"Where did THAT come from?" when I saw the first one was answered with "They needed us to take them!" So now Itzl has new friends. Which he's a little frazzled at. Who'd had their shots that day, and were dragging a bit. Dropped by today to drop something off, and they were running around playing and chasing one of the cats and generally having fun. My first thought was "You know, that little one runs and plays just like a real dog!", but I didn't say that(yes, sometimes I can keep my mouth shut).

ACORN wants to silence critics, and is changing its name

Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) leaders are using the threat of a law suit to silence and intimidate critics, according to current and former members of the liberal activist group.

In a letter dated June 11 an attorney for ACORN advised top whistleblowers that their unauthorized use of the organization’s name could make them liable for monetary damages and injunctive relief.

ACORN executives have also changed their organization’s name, which was tarnished by investigations in at least 14 states of allegations of voter registration fraud during the 2008 presidential campaign, and charges by current and former members of financial mismanagement and misrepresentation.
A rose by any other name still smells bad when it's been soaked in sewage. And Community Organizations International, formerly known as ACORN, is still going to be the same group. Vote fraud, Etc., Inc.

I'm going to have to call Sheriff Michael Jackson a disgrace

to that badge he wears.
The Prince George's County sheriff's office has concluded that deputies did nothing wrong when they charged into the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights during a drug investigation last summer and fatally shot his family's two dogs.

The findings of the internal review "are consistent with what I've felt all along: My deputies did their job to the fullest extent of their abilities," Sheriff Michael Jackson said at a news conference.
Yup. And how much you want to bet, if one of those shots had killed or crippled one of the people in that house, Sheriff Jackson would be trying to blame them for it? And saying the same damn excuses?
"It's outrageous," he said. "Not only is he not admitting any wrongdoing, but he's saying this went down the way it was supposed to and he's actually commending his police officers for what they did."
Because breaking into a house for no good reason and killing dogs is apparently excusable as 'part of the job'.
Members of the SWAT team killed Calvo's black Labrador retrievers after deputies broke down his door and raided his home in search of a drug-filled package that had been addressed to Calvo's wife.

Law enforcement officials have since acknowledged that Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, were victims of a smuggling scheme that used a FedEx driver to ship drugs. They said the couple knew nothing about the box. County police, who were leading the drug investigation, have said they were unaware it was the mayor's house.
Two things: one, this is a raid that should never have happened. Two, that "We didn't know it was the mayor's house!" is interesting; like if it was, they'd have done it differently for a politician that for some stupid citizen without 'official' standing?
In an interview, Jackson reiterated his explanation that a scream by Calvo's mother-in-law, Georgia Porter, who saw officers in SWAT gear running toward the house, justified the shooting.

Porter "corroborated that she did scream out 'SWAT.' She admitted to that, and [Calvo] admitted to hearing that upstairs in the house," Jackson said. "That threw out the procedure of knocking and announcing, because now [officers were] compromised."
Three: notice how they keep saying 'admitted', like they were admitting guilt for something? Four, yeah, that sure justifies shooting the dogs, doesn't it? "...knocking and announcing..." my ass.

As I recall, at first they denied that the one dog was running away; now?
One dog was shot four times by the front door. Calvo has said his younger dog was running away from officers when it was shot twice, including once in a hind leg. Jackson said deputies thought the dog was running toward another deputy in the home.
Awww, isn't that a convenient excuse?
"I'm sorry for the loss of their family pets," Jackson said. "But this is the unfortunate result of the scourge of drugs in our community. Lost in this whole incident was the criminal element. . . . In the sense that we kept these drugs from reaching our streets, this operation was a success."
Not sorry apparently for an unnecessary raid that could have gotten innocent people killed, not sorry for scaring hell out of everybody but "this operation was a success." Except that they could have knocked on the damned door and acted like peace officers instead of strapping on their ninja gear and getting to shoot someone's dogs.

No, I'm not feeling charitable. I'm sick of LE officials excusing bullcrap actions because "They were following procedure" or "They thought the dogs were a threat" and all the other crap used to prevent the officers involved from facing any real penalty for what they do.

Must be nice to just 'reject criticism', especially when you're a nanny-state

politician who has to change his pants at the thought of "highly undesirable" handgun use.
The proposed legislation would ban new handgun licences, except for those used in Olympic sports.

Some 1,800 handguns have been licensed in the State since 2004.
Gasp! 1,800 in five years!! The HORROR!!!
Mr Ahern said he was determined to stamp out a practice known as “practical shooting”. His department had monitored with concern “competitions in which people shoot their way through multi-stage target courses based on real life combat scenarios, such as a home invasion or a hostage rescue”.

He said: “This activity is one that seeks to glorify and normalise attitudes to high-powered handguns and promote their use and ownership,” he said. Mr Ahern said “practical shooting” was a “highly undesirable” recent development in Irish shooting sports.
'Glorify and normalise', new scare words for the GFWs in (formerly)Great Britain. And 'highly undesirable' according to who, other than you, you nasty little politician?
The Garda authorities had recommended that it be prohibited, and it was not endorsed by the Firearms Consultative Panel, he said.
Lesson: give government boards and agencies 'approval' powers, and they'll restrict anything they don't like. Or makes them go weewee.
“It’s simply not in the public interest(or "For the CHILDREEENNNN!) to tolerate the development of a subculture predicated on a shooting activity which by the liberal standards of the US is regarded as an extreme shooting activity.”
It is? Really? Outside of the Brady Ban the Guns Group, that is? Of course, they think plinking a can with a .22 is 'extreme', so they're not exactly a good standard-giver, Mr. Ahern.
He said any cursory research on the internet showed that these activities were marketed as being at the “extreme end” of handgun ownership and were “anathema to the tradition of Irish sporting clubs”.
Again, marketed that way by who? I repeat, nasty little nanny-state politician.

And, just as bad, the people noting that Mr. Ahern is scaremongering and exaggerating have this to say:
“I just feel that there should be a mechanism for genuine sporting enthusiasts to have their licences . . . granted under the most stringent and strict conditions.”
Translation: "If we're willing to have your anal probes inserted and ONLY own what you allow and ONLY how much and what kind of ammo you allow and ONLY take it out of a lockbox when you allow, you should be willing to GRANT us a license."

And this crap is what Obama and Schumer and Boxer & Co. would like to force on us.


Thanks to Uncle for the link.

Damn, it's hot

About 98, and the weather service says humidity's down to about 37%. Makes a big difference; it's hot, but at least you don't poach while outside.

Yesterday I'd seen some tree limbs that had sneakily grown up to/around some lines while I wasn't looking, so today got the ladder and pruning pole and cut them, then through the chipper and into the compost heaps. Which I need to water more.

I think about this weather, or ten-to-twenty degrees hotter, with higher humidity, and wearing armor and all the other gear...

This does not strike me as good. It's basically telling the bad guys that if they have hostages, they're not going to be attacked. Which means time to prepare and make a later attack worse, or time to sneak away.

Here's a new bit from Iran. If true...
“My ears first perked up when word made it through the grapevines over the weekend that Rafsanjani had been meeting with other Ayatollahs and clerics in Qom, and had among them a representative of Iraq’s Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Why? Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in 2007 made two very critical statements: that “I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shiite or a Kurd or a Christian,” and that Islam can exist within a democracy without theological conflict. You will never hear such words slip past the lips of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. Ever.”
No, you won't. He's too busy threatening people with death for daring to do anything except bend over and say "Yes, Imam, may I have another?"

Ace notes The turning point in an uprising comes when many the regime relies upon begin fence-sitting, waiting for a victor to emerge. That is one thing; another is when people in positions of authority start deciding "I cannot carry out these orders." We may have both going on, from the sound of things.

Comment moderation has been enabled,

because the moron hiding behind Anonymous is getting annoying enough that I don't want to put up with him.

Hey, dumbass, maybe your grandfather really died as you say; but that doesn't buy you any slack to come into somebodys living room and crap on the floor. So screw you; putting up with your bullshit is something I don't have to do.

To those who use 'anonymous' simply because they don't have an ID or something, go ahead and comment; not something that bothers me. I'm using this to screen out the jackass. Or two, as the case may be.

Added: Anonyass dumped four comments in a few minutes, including some flat nasty insulting crap, just after I turned on moderation.

Dummy, I repeat: I don't mind being disagreed with; I do mind insults and bullcrap. You might note that I said I give John McCain the respect he damn well earned for his Navy service, but that doesn't buy him any slack for his political actions. If I'm not going to give him slack for that, why would I give you any for what you claim about a member of your family?

This doesn't look good for the people claiming socialized medicine

is successful in other countries; and they like to point to Canada.
For cancer patients, the study found that the median wait time for radiation therapy was almost seven weeks, exceeding the benchmark of four weeks.
...
Patients are also facing long delays when they go the emergency department, the WTA said, waiting an average of nine hours to be seen and treated and for patients who needed to be admitted, the average wait time was nearly 24 hours.
That is fairly bloody awful. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, time is critical in most cases; the longer it takes to get you started on therapy, the lower your chance of survival. And an average of nearly a full day to be admitted from the emergency room? Damn.

Like the man says, and people say OUR system is broken?

Confederate Yankee asks what if the Iranians are just trying

to put in a different face of the same tyranny? Good question.

I tend to think that, at least, what they're trying to bring about would ease some of the crap they've lived under, maybe pave the start to a more free society; but I've been wrong before.

Murdering girls in the street; this is the Iranian government

that President Obama just can't wait to 'negotiate' with.


It's not pretty; the actions of murdering dictators rarely are.

Jimmy Carter just can't stop helping islamist murderers

and dictators, can he?
Former President Jimmy Carter presented Hamas with a written initiative intended to open talks between the Islamist group and the U.S. without Hamas having to accept all conditions previously laid out for dialogue by the American government, top Hamas officials told WND.

Those conditions, expressed twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are Hamas' renouncement of violence, recognition of Israel and agreement to abide by previous PLO commitments. The conditions were adopted by the Mideast Quartet, which consists of the U.S., United Nations, Russia and the European Union.
I tend to believe it, because it sounds just like the kind of crap Jimmy Carter would do.
Two top Hamas sources told WND Carter's initiative bypasses Clinton's conditions and instead asks Hamas to recognize the so-called two-state solution as well as the Arab Peace Initiative.

Al-Masri said Hamas was studying Carter's plan.

"In any response to Carter we will reject the conditions of the Quartet, specifically the recognition of Israel," al-Masri said. ...
Hey, it gives Carter a way in screw with Israel and suck up to terrorists(again), it gives Hamas a way to talk to The One without meeting the conditions 'officially' demanded of them, and it gives The One a way to screw with Israel. Again. Talk about a deal!

"In Border States, BATFE Asks: "May We See Your Guns?" "

NRA-ILA has recently received several calls from NRA members in border states who have been visited or called by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In some cases, agents have asked to enter these people's homes, and requested serial numbers of all firearms the members possess.

In each case, the agents were making inquiries based on the number of firearms these NRA members had recently bought, and in some cases the agents said they were asking because the members had bought types of guns that are frequently recovered in Mexico.
Read it all. And wonder, as the man says, just where the list came from?

Among the things the nuisance Anony said in a comment

were bitching about 'neocons' and how they 'want us to bomb Iran for Israel'; so apparently I've not only got a troll, he's a nasty little anti-Jew troll.

I also got a comment from someone else posting as Anony who informed me that I was getting paranoid and 'frantically searching all my old posts' for Anony comments to rave about. Apparently not being aware that
A: Blogger has this thing where they notify you of new comments, and
B: I haven't been 'frantic' about much of anything for a long time. Especially in regards to the blog.

Wonderful, isn't it?

So President Obama finally made a 'strong' statement

that's getting panned by damn near everybody as 'too little, too late'. Wonderful.
Anyway, Obama has a poker-tell that is visible from outer space. Whenever he opens a statement with: “Let me be perfectly clear...” you can be sure that he's about to launch into a black hole of a policy spin that is anything but clear. And in the process Obama will suck up all the oxygen in the room. Obama does not disappoint, his statement on Iran is one of those, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand rambles (the man is helpless without teleprompter) that ends up saying nothing except that America doesn't want to be a bad guy because we respect Iran and whatever Jew-hating regime they cram into office, yadda-yadda. Blowhard central.

In short, Obama, as with all major policy decisions, is a rank amateur, a former community organizer whose world view remains narrow, parochial and deeply ill informed.
Hey, maybe he's too busy being outraged that Israel won't bow down to The One!
Netanyahu's speech was an eloquent, rational and at times impassioned defense of Israel. For Israeli ears, after years of former prime minister Ehud Olmert's and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni's continuous assaults on Israeli rights, and their strident defenses of capitulation to the Palestinians and the Syrians, Netanyahu's address was a breath of fresh air. But it is hard to see how it could have possibly had any lasting impact on Obama or his advisers.

To be moved by rational argument, a person has to be open to rational discourse. And what we have witnessed over the past week with the Obama administration's reactions to both North Korea's nuclear brinksmanship and Iran's sham elections is that its foreign policy is not informed by rationality but by the president's morally relative, post-modern ideology. In this anti-intellectual and anti-rational climate, Netanyahu's speech has little chance of making a lasting impact on the White House.

And, just because I like it,
Eyes darting about nervously because the Obama worship in this country has reached Stalin-like proportions and I really don't feel like getting into a smack down with some deranged Obamamaniac.

Karen goes: “This is still America and I'm free to speak to mind.”

I point to the electronic flight board and then gesture to the waiting passengers: “Um, Karen, this flight is to San Francisco. Most of these people are not too normal as it is, y'know.”

Speaking of 'what might happen',

what do you think happens to Hamas- and all the other murdering clowns of the type- if there's a real change in Iran? A lot of money and equipment just might go away, for one thing; for another:

Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday.

They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities.

Snip.

“The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of," the young man went on, "is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots."

Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran.

On Monday, he said, "my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people's money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too."

It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad "tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel." His hope, he added, was that Israel would "come to its senses" and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians.”

Complete story at The Jerusalem Post.

Things blow up bigtime, just how much 'restraint' are the Iranians going to show to these thugs in their country? And don't you know lots of Hamas and other murdering terrorist dirtbags are crapping bricks at the thought of their Iranian support stopping?

One of the things happening in Iran

reminded me of something. One of the standard claims of the gun-banners is "The idea that a bunch of people with guns can stand against the government if it decides to crush them is rediculous. The government has tanks and fighter planes and atomic bombs!", etc. Well, except for what they take from the police and other security forces(Residents of the area described firefights after protesters grabbed weapons from security forces.), they don't have guns; they're making do(Young men were breaking bricks and stones to a size for hurling.)

Chris and others have pointed out the problem government forces face when standing against lots and lots of honest citizens with a legitimate gripe: it's kind of difficult to use artillery and bombers on your own damn cities. Same for a full-out infantry/armor assault; if you succeed, you've destroyed a big part of your own city, killed a bunch of people and, for every bunch who're cowed into obedience, you've created some others who will live for nothing but your downfall.

And that leaves out a very important factor: will your troops and police fire on their own people?
The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”

A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of “Join us! Join us!” The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes.
...
Garbage burned. Crowds bayed. Smoke from tear gas swirled. Hurled bricks sent phalanxes of police, some with automatic rifles, into retreat to the accompaniment of cheers.
It's one thing to face an outside invader or troublemaker; it's a whole 'nother thing to have orders to beat or kill people in your own hometown. Especially when, you can bet, a lot of the police aren't real fond of what's happened themselves. If the army is sent in, they'll likely do what the Chinese did at Tiananmen Square: bring in units composed of people from other parts of the country, some of whom probably see that protesters as a bunch of troublemakers who need to be stomped. Some will; what about the others?

What about the troops who think of themselves as Iranians(or Persians, not real sure of the mindset on that)? Who want their country to advance? Who might not be real fond of "We must destroy the Jews!" leaders when there are problems to fix at home? Who think nuclear reactors to generate power is a great idea, but don't see a real need for nuclear bombs? Who don't want to kill other Iranians? There's got to be a lot of concern about what happens if they tell the army to squash all dissent, and a bunch of units say "I don't think so." Especially when there are a lot of women in the front lines. I know the official position on women, but that's one thing; lots of police and troops are going to have a hard time killing and crippling women like their mothers and sisters and daughters(who just might be in a line somewhere).

Same thing here, with a big difference: arms. Iranians are breaking up rocks and bricks to throw, the Chinese at Tiananmen were unarmed; we've got guns. If it ever came to that it'd be bloody and nasty beyond belief, which is one reason I doubt it will. We've got real problems, but to all the things troubling the police and army in Iran add "You want us to go into town and arrest anybody who disagrees with you and kill anybody who resists? Do you have any freaking idea what will happen? You want to take units from Michigan and send them to Oklahoma to do it? What makes you think Americans from Michigan will be ok with killing Okies? Or Texans?"
Some would; and some of them would be whacked by other troops("You killed them because they called that fuckin' politician a crook?" Bang.) The oath all troops take is very specific: not to any individual or agency, but to the Constitution. And they get serious lectures about things like illegal orders. Some will simply accept orders and act, but the others?

I'm kind of wandering here, I know. Main point is this: a bunch of mostly unarmed people, with rocks to throw at most, have just about brought Iran to a standstill; if some politicians tried something similar here, do you not think Americans, many armed, couldn't do as well?

Unpleasant subject. That a lot of politicians damned well better consider.

Oklahoma Celtic Festival this weekend,

which is where I spent most of the day. After I dragged my fat ass out of bed. I think this is the third year for it, and it's slowly growing. I think part of the problem causing slow growth is this is right in the middle of renaissance fair season for a lot of artists and performers, and they have multi-weekend contracts to perform/display. But it's a nice festival, with quite a few performers. Some of whom reminded me about the saying that 'bagpipes indoors are an offensive weapon'.

I'll post a few pictures later. 'Few' because I left the wrong chip in the camera, which means not many pictures.

Oh, and one of the food vendors is a area bakery, with damn good bread and meat pies.

Anony went back to a post a while back on left-wing commie

terrorists, and was appalled that he didn't find 'proper journalism'; that there was bias and emotion and personal opinion.

Hey, dumbass, this is my blog. Which I have described as my soapbox upon which to stand and spout my opinion, spread information and laugh at the monkeys throwing crap. That means, amazingly, that you get opinion, emotion and my bias!

So if you don't approve, very simple solution: go away.

One of the places I don't look at often enough is

Closing Velocity, whose second-to-last post points out that President B. Hussein Cartman Obama seems to have realized(or is just scared of the polls; he IS an Evil Party member) that missile defense just might be a good thing after all, but the idiocy still prevails at this time:

Well, someone at Obama's Pentagon got the message, for Hawaii is being fortified with a new deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and the SBX is finally putting to sea:

Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.

"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west, in the direction of Hawaii," Mr. Gates said.

Gates went on to say that the long range Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) in Alaska --- slated to be cut by Obama, but-that's-not-important-right-now --- were also ready to engage:

Although Gates did not explicitly say that the U.S. would try to shoot down a test missile aimed in the direction of Hawaii, he noted that interceptor missiles in California and Alaska were ready.

"The ground-based interceptors are clearly in a position to take action," Gates said. "So without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say, I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary to protect American territory."

Perhaps the reality of missile defense is setting in on a few of the adults in Washington. Or more likely, perhaps someone's watching the polls:

A new Gallup Poll finds 51% of Americans saying North Korea currently poses a direct threat to U.S. security. That is the highest percentage seen for eight countries or territories tested in the poll whose political climates or ongoing conflicts present a threat to U.S. interests in the world.

Which, of course, makes this the perfect time to slash missile defense funding --- "Missile Budget Cut Still Stands":

An attempt Tuesday to restore money slashed from the missile defense budget failed to gain traction when an amendment that would have paid for additional interceptors in Alaska was defeated.

You know, it takes a monumental level of stupid to look at the threats from Iran and the Norks, be forced to actually use these systems, and STILL want to chop funding. But that's the HOPE! and CHANGE! we've got.

I had one of those many people named Anonymous comment

on this post that Sarah Palin is (fill in the blank, basically) and a nasty politician, a fake-conservative decoy, etc. I told him he was full of crap. This led to him telling me, among other things,
I think you are your own worst enemy, of the sort who keeps doing the same thing and supporting the same re-tread figures advocated and marketed to you through mass media owned by multi-national corporations, and you cant figure out why you still lose, no matter if its bush or obama in office. they will always be 'one of you' when campaigning and they will always be a dutiful servant of well-paying multi-national corporate interests once they get elected.
Yeah. Right. I supported McCain wholeheartedly because the major media and Stupid Party Brass told me to and totally supported Bush and-

Wait, no I didn't! I think I actually agreed with Kevin that McCain was the least repulsive Democrat in the race! I said nasty things about Bush over the last few years! I even told my kids in 2000 that I had real problems with Bush, but the alternative...

Mr. Anonymous, screw you. I haven't trusted the major media about much of anything since long before I was online, and I've told the Stupid Party numerous times just exactly what I think of them. Here and using their "We need your money" forms to say Hell, no, and explain why. You remind me of the clown who wrote to Lawdog calling him names for being such a suckup to McCain, apparently never bothering to read anything Dog wrote about him.

I'm not a Palin worshipper; I do think she'd make a good President, and I think the type and level of media and celebutard attacks on her speak of just how much they're scared of the idea. She ain't perfect, and I know it; she'd have been a hell of a lot better than either McCain or Obama.

ANOTHER Obama appointee who didn't pay taxes,

and got a very nice deal from the IRS. As Insty says, "I don’t even want to hear anyone in this Administration talk about tax increases, when they can’t seem to staff it with people who have actually, you know, paid their taxes on time."
And, let's note, keep getting far nicer treatment from the IRS than plain old Joe or Jane Citizen would.

Jammie Wearing Fool notes this:
Ms. Marshall may fare better because, after ultimately filing the 2005 and 2006 federal and local paperwork, she was entitled to $37,259 in refunds, according to data she provided to Mr. Lugar.
Ok, how the hell rich do you have to be to not file when you've got money- especially that kind of money- coming back? This flat smells.

Remember President Obama's statement on the murder of Corporal Long?

It may not have actually been a statement from the President:
Which brings us back to C.J. When he contacted the White House for clarification he got a third answer. Not "Sorry, we made an exclusive statement to the AP, check with them" or "we only released that to Arkansas media" - instead, he was told "the President is attempting to call the family of Army Pvt Long".

We've got three different answers now from the White House on the central question "did the President make a statement"? I suspect the correct answer would be a fourth one: "no".
This is the first I've heard of this piece of crap being dug up. A lot of people wondered at the time why it took so damn long for the President to make a statement, and that when he (supposedly) did it was such a piece of garbage; this makes it worse by far. This sounds like some staffer noticed that people were getting really pissed about the matter and made up a 'statement from the President' that he thought would take care of it.

Go over to Mudville and read the whole piece. As Kim used to say, it would be wise to move breakables out of reach first.

I must occasionally be doing something right

A while back I was at the outdoor range, and when I finished the rifle stuff and moved to the handgun side there was a lady instructing another lady(obvious beginner) in handgun basics. The beginner- who was wearing a PD patch, turned out to have just been hired- had a slightly unusual pistol, and I asked her about it:
"When I joined the department, my husband gave it to me. Didn't ask what I wanted, just gave it to me."
It was a Glock.
Pink.
With matching pink handcuffs.
No, she was not overly thrilled. She was happy he'd given her a pistol, but wished she'd had some input on the matter.

While they were working I moved a few places down and started some draw & fire practice. I'd forgotten that I had the extra-power recoil spring in, and so after the first shot I got a double-feed. I dropped the mag, racked the action, new mag(my spare carry-load mag, forgot to reload it with the practice stuff), rack, bang. Finished that mag, and while I was reloading the older lady doing the teaching came over.
"What department do you work for? Sheriff's office?"
"No, ma'am, just practicing."
"Oh, you compete?"
"No. Just practicing."
"Oh. Well, practice is always good."
While I finished reloading, she went back to her student and, due to the electronic muffs, I heard her say "I'd have sworn he shoots competition." Apparently my clear of the jam went I lot faster and better than I thought it did.

Some self-defense and teaching advice

"The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was Going to a fight....I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic Bomb instead."

"The two most important rules in a gunfight are: always cheat and always win."

"Every time I teach a class, I discover I don't know something."

"Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way."

"Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he's gonna have to beat me to death with it, 'cause it's going to be empty."

"If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not Loadin, you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut Your head off and put it on a stick."

"When you reload in low light encounters, don't put your
flashlight in your back pocket.. If you light yourself up, you'll look like an angel or the tooth fairy...and you're gonna be one of 'em pretty soon."

"Do something. It may be wrong, but do something."

"Nothing adds a little class to a sniper course like a babe in a ghilliesuit."

"Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available."

"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous.. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid for."

"Don't shoot fast, shoot good.

Found at Theo's place

My day was damn hot and sweaty,

and I need a shower. How was yours?

Friend Oren the gunsmith needed some help getting some things set up in his shop, but what he got was me getting in the way the last two days. Let me set the scene for you: shop building, no a/c, highs upper 90's and enough humidity to remind you of the marshy ground around a pond in the woods. But, despite my contribution, some things were accomplished(in part my threatening his son if he didn't get his butt busy with the mower and weedeater; for some reason he listens to me) in exchange for the effort and sweat.

I must note that things were livened up somewhat by his dog. She lives to have a ball thrown, and has a habit of walking up to you and dropping it- or what's left of it- behind you and standing there with an expectant look. Which can cause some excitement when you step back and either step on the ball or nearly fall over her.

But progress was made, so it was time well spent. Plus he's one of the best friends I've ever had, and I haven't had much chance to spend time with him for a while; worth it for that.

Now, I must move on to the tale of Rafferty the Rescued Puppy
He's the critter my ex rescued from less-than-optimal circumstances. Hard to tell from the pictures, but he's grown a lot. It became obvious that he was going to become bigger than she could keep. But a happy ending ensues; a lady she works with thinks he's The Most Darling Thing Ever. And the feeling is apprently returned, as he starts wiggling and wagging as soon as he sees her, so tomorrow he goes to his new home.

Itzl the long-haired chihuahua will have to get used to not being ambushed anymore,


but I imagine he'll do it quickly. He's become a Dignified Adult(yes, he does tend to act it in capitals) and the pup was about to cause him real annoyance at times.

So tomorrow he and all his toys will exit to a new home(including kids and dogs), which should suit him just fine.

Steve checks his Facebook account;

disbelief follows:
I got a couple of questionable friend requests recently, purportedly from women. One was from an English blond. In her Facebook photo, she wore a white tube top with nothing underneath. Am I a bad person for suspecting this is actually a fat guy who runs a phone sex business? Probably a grizzled Alexei Sayle lookalike who sends friend requests while lounging around in his living room, wearing only the kind of peculiar underwear European men think is normal.

Maybe it’s Alexei himself. I think times have been a little lean for him since “The Bride.”

The guys who pump out bogus Myspace and Facebook friend requests need to understand something. It has probably been 38 years since I realized that really attractive women rarely talk to me or even acknowledge my existence unless they want my money or, maybe, need me to throw water on them because they’re on fire. So when I get gushy friend requests from scantily clad girls named Brittnee or Suzee, I know immediately that I am being scammed.

White House refuses to answer questions on firing of IG;

Nobody Surprised.
The questions relate to a letter Eisen sent to some senators Tuesday night attributing Walpin's dismissal, in significant part, to Walpin's behavior at a May 20, 2009 board meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that oversees AmeriCorps. Eisen wrote that at the meeting, "Mr. Walpin was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the board to question his capacity to serve." After the meeting, Eisen wrote, Walpin lost the confidence of the Corporation Board. The White House conducted a review of the matter, and Walpin was fired. (For a detailed account of Walpin's reaction to the White House charges, see here.)

At Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Grassley's staffers wanted to know more about the White House review. "Unfortunately," Grassley writes in a letter sent late Wednesday afternoon to White House counsel Gregory Craig, "Mr. Eisen refused to answer several direct questions posed to him about the representations made in his letter." Grassley says that since Eisen refused to answer the questions in person, Grassley would submit a dozen of them in writing. Here they are:
Well hell, guy, if you'd broken a law you'd bragged about having a hand in passing, and done things that are making people very upset, you might be sensitive about answering questions, too. Especially if you're a Chicago machine politician who has never liked answering serious "Why did you do that?" questions. And you're not used to having to think about it because the major media has been so far up your butt they needed air, water and light piped in.

This has potential to be really, seriously interesting.

Well, crap, I like Olive Garden,

but if they can't even make up their damn mind about that idiot Letterman, maybe they don't need my money.
Olive Garden’s manager of media relations, who asked not to be quoted on the record, confirmed to POLITICO Thursday that the emails were sent by the restaurant chain, and also confirmed that the company would be pulling its remaining television spots on the program for the rest of the year when asked that question.

But in a statement released later in the day, Olive Garden Director of Media Relations Rich Jeffers disputed POLITICO’s report as “erroneous.”
Sounds like they tried to have it both ways; wanted to say "We don't support Letterman and his 'jokes'", but someone decided they'd rather be connected with him than not. So two stories.

Ah well, there are other Italian restaurants in town.

Kind of in a hurry, so just some roundup this morning

Like the Justice Department Public Corruption Unit is kind of messy; due to corruption in the unit, violations of law, little things like that:
Two months after prosecutors abandoned the criminal conviction of former senator Ted Stevens, the Justice Department unit that polices public corruption remains in chaos, coping with newly discovered evidence that threatens to undermine other cases while department leaders struggle to reshuffle the ranks.
...
At the same time, document-sharing lapses that provoked the Stevens turnaround are also affecting other bribery prosecutions in the state, prompting authorities to take the extraordinary step of releasing two Alaska lawmakers from prison late last week. A new team of government lawyers and FBI agents is reviewing thousands of pages of evidence, trying to assuage the concerns of judges and fielding complaints from defense attorneys.
...
New members of the prosecution team told the judge that they would finish sharing previously unproduced materials by July 31. Already, defense attorneys for the former Alaska legislators have secured scores of pages of newly disclosed materials from the government on the condition that they keep the documents secret.

John Henry Browne, an attorney for Kohring, said he was expecting a dozen or so documents but instead is sorting through a stack of more than 1,000 pages.

"There are a number of smoking guns in here," Browne said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Justice Department sometimes dismisses these cases" rather than expose the former prosecutors to cross examination about their alleged failure to share documents.
Translation: "Well, we'll see if the Justice Department wants their prosecutors being put under oath and asking why they violated the law and acted unethically."

Corrupt public officials need to be caught and thrown out of office and jailed; so do prosecutors who violate the law to get a conviction 'no matter what'.


Well, well, there are THREE IG's who've been fired, not just one.
This is interesting. I looked around and perhaps I missed it on another blog, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it isn't just Walpin's firing over which Senator Grassley wants some answers. He's worried about a pattern, as no fewer than three IG's have recently been fired, all while investigating so-called sensitive issues. See Michelle for the latest on Walpin.

The dispute comes as Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into the abrupt firings within the last week of two other inspectors general one of whom was fired by the White House and the other by the chair of the International Trade Commission.

Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings.

Grassley is now concerned about whether a pattern is emerging in which the independence of the government's top watchdogs -- whose jobs were authorized by Congress to look out for waste, fraud and abuse -- is being put at risk.

That some of these clowns just cannot stop smearing and lying about Sarah Palin is amazing; that kind of actual hatred is scary.


Rep. Barney Frank(Evil Party-MA) is a corrupt politician who's just been bought off again from the sound of it; why are these people surprised?


British cops screwing with lots of people simply to provide a racial balance in official statistics. Considering these people seem to have decided Sir Robert Peel never existed, or should never be mentioned, doesn't surprise me.


I'm now off to be (supposedly) helpful on some things.

“Who should we believe,

Obama or you?”
Mr. Obama is a politician, and a very astute one. However, his speech revealed that his view is unduly influenced by naïve desire. His perception of Islam and the reality of Islam need to be synchronized. I am a physician and a realist who has lived and experienced the effect of my Arab culture and Islamic religion since childhood.

The president pandered to Muslims: praised their accomplishments, commiserated with their grievances, and apologized for injustices done to them by centuries of colonialism -- without once mentioning the history of rampant and violent Arab colonialism. He avoided any mention of Jihadi tenets, or of the Islamic political ideology of supremacy over non Muslims -- principles embedded in Sharia law. These are taught and sanctioned openly by Al-Azhar, the university that hosted him, the foremost center of Sharia studies. Obama underscored the supposed American mistreatment of terrorists and apologized for torture in Guantanamo, forgetting that Islamic regimes are brutal to their own people. The president also repudiated significant U.S. contributions in both the lives of its soldiers and humanitarian aid to Muslims across the globe made throughout history -- despite Muslim attacks against America and Americans. In short, parts of his speech sounded like a new Pan-Arab messiah come to usher the Arab world back into its rightful world dominion.
...
Since arriving in the US, I have enjoyed the freedom to educate my Arab brothers and sisters in the Middle East, who yearn for real freedom - and I have seen successes. Mr. Obama calls these very successes into question rather than championing freedom.

As the president embarks on his new task to defend Muslims “against negative stereotypes,” does this mean he will somehow interfere and undermine that message? Or, perhaps it means he may join with the Organization of Islamic Conference, the 57 Muslim countries that work relentlessly to promote a United Nations resolution to suppress voices of dissent against Islam? I am confident we would all come to regret this.

Obama sidesteps the acute state of affairs in the Islamic world with flattery, failing to encourage accountability for rhetoric, practices and the behavior that feed stereotypes. I did not hear an exhortation to the Islamic world to open itself to diversity, to accept women as equal citizens with the same rights and protection under law as men. I did not hear a challenge to the Muslim world to accept other religions and their ability to practice openly within the Islamic world -- where the practice of Christianity, Judaism and other religions could cost an individual his or her life. I did not hear a call to erase for all time, Dhimmi racism -- the Sharia law-based dictate that Christians and Jews are inferior and should be suppressed. Are these “…the principles of justice, tolerance and dignity for human beings”?
A very good piece by Wafa Sultan, well worth reading.

And thanks to The Advice Goddess for pointing it out.

Lessons from Mumbai

Lead and Gold has a link to a report, short and concise. I'd like to quote one bit:
One of the most important lessons of this attack is the continuing importance of an earlier operational form: the firearms assault. While the counterterrorism world has been focused almost exclusively on explosives, this attack demonstrates that firearms assault, while not as deadly as mass-casualty bombings, can be an effective tactic in creating prolonged chaos in an urban setting.
Put bluntly: in a city full of mostly unarmed people, a small group of terrorists with nothing but some guns, unless law enforcement or security forces are right there and capable, can cause an ungodly mess. Which brings me to something Lawdog wrote a while back:
"But, LawDog, I'm a CCW, not a cop. I'm not going to be responding to bank robberies."

Given that terrorism isn't going away any time soon, I'd not bet the ranch on that, but that's a discussion for another time.
Which is as nice a way as you'll hear of pointing out 'something like Mumbai could happen here. And you might be right there in the middle of it.' A flat-out terrifying thought, ain't it?

One of the things that surprises a lot of (sometimes stupid) critics of CCW is that they'll make some snotty comment about "Got to shoot anybody yet?" and the response is something on the lines of "I devoutly hope I never have to." And, in most self-defense uses of a gun, no shot is fired; bad guy finds out the intended victim is armed and ready to shoot, and decides to exit stage left as fast as possible, or surrenders. But here?

If this happens, and you're there, you've got terrorists who plan on dying; they hope to use their own death to further terrify us. Which means, you get caught in that, it's very simple: you may die if you fight, but you- and maybe a bunch of other people- will die if you don't. And you cannot count on the police. Most cops in the US, I think, will not have a problem with 'shoot the bad guys', but if the bad guys are smart, they'll first shoot any cops they see. Or just strike in an area away from them. And that means, if all goes to hell and you're there, you're it.

In the June issue of Guns, in the Odd Angry Shot column, there's this:
Significant numbers of police officers and other public officials resign or are fired- some, because they realize and admit they are not psychologically equipped to deal with events like this, others because their incompetence or cowardice were spotlighted and magnified by it.
Because
Afterward, scads of citizens complained the police hid and huddled right alongside them, refusing, sometimes profanely, to take action against the shooters.
...
...He saw two gunmen "calmly stroll across the station concouirse shooting both civilians and policement," who, he said were armed but did not return fire- they only took cover and hid.
As I say, I think the average cop in the US is more likely to draw and shoot; if nothing else, they've had far more training for such than the Mumbai police. But if they're not there when it happens, it doesn't matter if the guy with the badge is William Butler Hickock reborn.

I'll tell you flatly, when I seriously run through "What do I do if-?" in my mind, about a restaurant or mall or store, it scares hell out of me. And I really, really hope those plans/thoughts are never needed. But I'd rather think them through and sweat, than consider it happening and me not be ready because "It was just too terrible to think about."

Canada's chief censor defends her work

Badly.
Tolerance and open-mindedness are ideals to which Canadians have subscribed, and are part of the quest for equality that has come to define our country all over the world. They are the foundation of the Canadian Human Rights Act, whose promise is to give effect "to the principle that all individuals should have an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives that they are able and wish to have" without discrimination....
"So we have to censor what you say- especially if you're a conservative or religious or other non-PC type human- to make sure you don't take away someone's opportunity by saying something they don't like."

Isn't it wonderful how tyrants and tyrant-wannabes can justify their tyranny?

"I am an Intern for Congressman Leghorn!"

Four interns sit down in my section and order four Bud Lights.

Me: I’m sorry, fellas, we don’t have Bud Light. We have PBR on draft, though.

Intern #1: (sighs) Fine, four of those.

Me: No problem. I just need to see your ID’s.

Intern #2: You don’t need to see our ID’s. We work for Congressman _______ from ________. (Flashes his red badge)

Me: Sorry, dude, but unless the Distinguished Gentleman from _______ is willing to use his oversight authority to make the $10,000 fine that we’d get slapped with for serving you without ID’s go away, and give me a paying job when I get fired anyway, I’m still going to have to see them.

Intern #1: Wow, “oversight authority.” That’s more knowledge than I’d expect from someone with your job.

Me: And that’s about as much ignorance as I’d expect from someone who agreed to lick envelopes for free.

Robb finds some PSH

of fairly standard type. If you've got the time and stomach(usual 'little penis, violent, nasty, NRA vile people' crap all comes in), you'll find a couple of things in the comments that just about sum it up:
...And while you NRA folks absolutely have the right to your opinions, you're not going to change any minds here with this kind of angry debate. Blogging creates community, and by barreling in with cold statistics and colder attitudes, you are not going to have any kind of positive effect on the readers of this blog.
"How DARE you bring up nasty facts? How dare you not care more about our feelings?" Etc.
So with that I will close comments. Because this has morphed from civil discussion to antagonistic, disrespectful finger pointing... and now we're talking about dick endowment (no pun intended) wtf.
Uh, who brought that up? Wasn't the gun owners.

Looks like ABC wants to become the Obama Media Whore of Choice

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
Which problem, being pointed out, has caused ABC to act all offended and stuff:
"ABCNEWS alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."
Umm, Mr. Smith? Part of the problem is that 'ABCNEWS alone will select' crap; with you fairly blatantly sucking up to the administration, it's your selecting who and what gets said and asked that's a big part of the damn problem. And getting snotty and offended won't change that.

Did ANY of the major media have a story on tv about Obama being booed?

Barack Obama isn't used to hearing boos.

For all the young president's popularity, the response he got Monday from doctors at an American Medical Association meeting was a sign his road is only going to get rockier as he tries to sell his plan to overhaul the nation's health care system.

The boos erupted when Obama told the doctors in Chicago he wouldn't try to help them win their top legislative priority — limits on jury damages in medical malpractice cases.
I heard part of this speech on radio; "I don't want government-run health care(or single-payer), though it works just fine in other countries", etc. Basically told them "You need to get with my plan, or Disaste Will Strike.", and the other usual crap.

We'll probably hear about this in a major media broadcast the same time they tell us about Chinese students laughing at the Treasury Secretary when he claimed things were just fine.

Insty has taken note of the 'switchblade ban'

expansion that's being pushed right now. He says "Can't these people just butt out?"

Of course not. Their whole purpose is to control, and if they can do it by changing a definition and not having to go through Congress, well, so much the better! Try to avoid people actually hearing about it and getting upset.

I have to wonder, was this an independent idea, or did they get it from the way BATFE has been known to change a definition or rule without needed to go through Congress?

Apparently the upset is working; Dirtbag Letterman apologizes

again. With, of course, an omission. Here's, to me, a critical part:
...But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended.
So, he supposedly took pains to make sure he was crapping on the older daughter, because that would be ok. Yeah.

You know, if this dirtbag had said something like "I should never have made such a joke about the kids. Period.", something like that, I might believe he actually means it. Instead, he makes it plain that shitting on Gov. Palin's kids is fine, as long as they're at least 18. For which he should have his ass kicked. I'm guessing pressure on advertisers is what led to this 'apology', and he's trying to keep his options open to keep attacking the kids of politicians he doesn't like while still playing "I'm apologizing, so leave me alone now." This is a vile piece of work, and he shouldn't get away with it.

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, an opinion of the President's speech on Iran

I am struggling against a feeling of utter disgust. I recognize that there are times in diplomacy when one has to hide one's real feelings and to mince one's words about evil. And I realize that it is remotely possible that this is one of those times.

Yet this is a president who mormally loves the bully pulpit. And Obama's statements so far are about as restrained as it is possible for a president to utter without a gun actually being held to his head. One might perhaps understand a statement this mushy if Iran were America's closest political or military ally in the world. But it's not.

Note that even now Obama is not willing to denounce Ahmadinejad. All he is willing to say is "as odious as I consider some of President Ahmadinejad's statements." Obama chooses his words carefully. He doesn't call Ahminejad odious, nor does he call Ahmadinejad's core beliefs odious (after all, sometimes people say loose things that don't express their core beliefs). Nor does he say that Ahmadinejad's statements ARE odious, just that Obama personally "considers" them odious.

"Libby Prosecutor Threatens Critic"

is the name of the article, and it pretty much sums it up:
The book deals specifically with the FBI’s failure to stop the master spy in question, Ali Mohamed, who had infiltrated the Bureau, the CIA and the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Of particular interest to me, Lance details how the Ali Mohamed case intersected with the TWA Flight 800 case, a subject that Lance is not afraid to tackle.

More generally, the book documents the role Southern District New York (SDNY) Fitzgerald played in the war on terror, a war that Lance claims Fitzgerald badly mismanaged before September 11, 2001.
I haven't read the book; considering the idiocies that have come out about pre-9/11 actions(and inactions), we know some of these clowns should have been fired for what they did(and did not do). In any case, it seems Patrick Fitzgerald is a bit upset:
Claiming to have been defamed, Fitzgerald sent Harper Collins an 11-page letter in October 2007 demanding that the publisher publicly apologize, withdraw all copies of the book, and refrain from publishing any updated versions.

Needless to say, this was not a friendly admonition. It came with an implicit threat to sue, even if HarperCollins met Fitzgerald’s terms.

HarperCollins took the threat seriously. Fitzgerald has a reputation for playing hardball. He had earned it by prosecuting Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby for misremembering details of a pseudo-crime Fitzgerald knew he did not commit.
I bolded that because I think it's really important; that a prosecutor would do this is disgusting, a violation of his oath. If he'd do this, how else would he use the power of his position? Like, maybe, threatening someone who published something he didn't like?

An equally unsettling development would take place in the days following Fitzgerald’s fourth letter. Ann Sparanese, an anti-censorship advocate and a former member of the governing Council of the American Library Association, posted an item on the blog, Library Juice, criticizing Fitzgerald.

Sparanese noted that Fitzgerald had sent at least one letter on a U.S. Attorney fax machine, that he had already tied up publication of Triple Cross for 18 months while author and publisher were forced to review his charges, and that his effort represents an “example of the chilling effect of censorship.”

An attorney named Cynthia Kouril, who had served in the Southern District of New York that Lance had investigated, immediately responded to Sparanese’s posting.

Kouril warned the blog’s host, Rory Litwin, that “by making a conscious editorial choice to post [Sparanese’s piece], rather than being a passive host, you do take responisbility (sic) for content under the Electronic Comminications (sic) Decency Act.”
'Passive host'? 'Conscious editorial decision'? Oooh, these lawyers don't like any kind of criticism, do they? Even when it's not criticism of themselves?

And an end note:
I have seen this suppression up close. The FBI arrested my TWA 800 writing partner, James Sanders, and his wife Elizabeth for Sanders’ reporting on the Feds’ foul play in the TWA 800 case.

The Federal investigation into the Sanders began days after Sanders’ research into government malfeasance had been featured in a major newspaper article.

In a subsequent civil trial, the judge acknowledged that the FBI’s “aggressive investigation commenced immediately following publication of the newspaper article,” but, the judge continued, “it does not follow that [the Sanders] were punished because they may have drawn blood.”

The name of that judge? Sonia Sotomayor. If things go as planned, Fitzgerald may want to take his case directly to the Supreme Court.


If I remember right, the American Library Association is very big on 'banned books' and so forth, but have refused to condemn Castro & Co. for jailing librarians in Cuba; interesting to see them getting whacked at by the same kind of "Don't talk about us" that Fidel has used on librarians in Cuba for years.

A fine example to us of the combination of hoplophobia

and stupidity:
The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone.

It was invented by industrial designer John Cornock, who was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives.
Of course, if you need a point for something in the kitchen you'll have to use another knife. Unless the socialist hoplophobes decide to ban all 'non-anti-stab' knives, in which case they can take a break from making sure you have a license to watch tv and instead go through your kitchen to make sure you don't have an old knife around.
Mr Cornock, 42, from Swindon, said that the knife will cut vegetables, but will make it almost impossible to stab someone to death and will reduce the risk of accidental injuries.
Unless you really drive it in. Or just cut their throat or do other slicing with it.
He said: “It can never be a totally safe knife, but the idea is you can’t inflict a fatal wound. Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone.”
Again, unless you drive it in really hard. Which murderers and such undesirable types tend to do. Or just grab it and start cutting(yes, I'm sure somebody is trying to figure out how to force people to only own dull knives).
The knife is expected to sell for around £40-50 and has been tested with “very favourable” results by the Home Office’s Design and Technology Alliance - set up to research products that can deter crime.
So, in the name of a 'safer' knife, they want people to spend $90-100 on something that
A: has no point, which is a useful sort of thing on a knife,
B: can still cut,
C: can, with a few minutes time, receive a bright, shiny new point suitable for puncturing all kinds of things.

You know, seems it would be a lot simpler to, say, capture violent criminals and lock their ass up for a LONG time, than to keep blaming objects for what the criminals do...

So Obama finally speaks on Iran,

and he's 'deeply troubled'. But not so troubled that he won't talk to Ahmadinnerjacket, still without preconditions.
The Obama administration is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government, senior officials said Saturday, despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…
Just damn wonderful, isn't it?

Michael Totten is keeping a running story going on the mess over there.

Of course, it's possible The One is distracted by what his friends in ACORN are doing in New York:
On Thursday, some 150 protestors -- many of them from the thuggish far-left group ACORN -- turned up outside the Senate chamber and actually assaulted members of the Republican faction.

The demonstrators nearly knocked to the floor Sen. James Alesi (of upstate Monroe County); they also spat in the face of his chief of staff, according to published reports.

Not only was this violence uncalled for, the ACORN crowd shouldn't even have been there in the first place: The Senate lobby is a restricted area, and public protests are explicitly prohibited.
Which means someone gave the order to let them in. Question is, are these clowns under arrest? And if not, why the hell not? This is actual physical assault; even if the Evil Party head of the Senate decided to let them in, that doesn't excuse this crap.(pointed to by the Real King of France)

Or, maybe Pres. B. Hussein Cartman Obama was too busy breaking the law he likes to take credit for and otherwise acting unethically:
Senator Charles Grassley has demanded records from the Obama administration over the dismissal of the Inspector General for Americorps and raises the possibility that Barack Obama broke a law he co-sponsored in the Senate that protects the independence of the IGs. The firing comes as the Obama administration cut a sweetheart deal with a major Obama backer that allows him to receive federal funding as mayor of Sacramento, and fails to repay taxpayers for the money Kevin Johnson admittedly took illegally:


Veep Biden tries to claim 'everybody' was wrong about the effects of the 'stimulus'; is noted as being full of crap.


It started sprinkling about the time I posted on the weather last night; then it thunderstormed during the night. Now they're saying slight chance tonight and damn hot & clear the next few days; which will help the wheat harvest(what there is of it) and broil everyone else. I need to get an icemaker.

Kosher pigs?

Literally?
(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority media outlets continue to blame Israel for problems caused by wild boars in Samaria, despite Israeli efforts to cull the animals. On Thursday, PA farmers near Ariel complained that “Israeli settlers” had engineered a wild boar attack that destroyed agricultural produce.

The farmers' claims were repeated by the head of the regional PA farmers' union, who accused Israelis living in Ariel and nearby towns of planning the attacks. The union head did not explain how Israelis allegedly trained the pigs to destroy only Arab crops.
Ah, that's how clever those Jews are, you see? Somehow they trained the boar to magically detect "Arab crops,dead ahead! Dammit, Moshe, stop that, those are kosher carrots, you boob!"
Media outlets have also lent credence to the claims, with the PA-based Ma'an news agency stating, “The wild boars are being released by Israeli settlers in order to destroy the plants and crops of Palestinians.”
I didn't know Dan Rather had moved to Samaria?
Israel is unable to cull the boar population in Arab villages in Samaria, as those areas are entirely under PA control.
"See! See! They sent them somehow to our villages! Ah, the cleverness and malice of the JOOOOS!"

These people... They ever do wind up without any nasty Jews to blame for everything, what will they do?

Monday looks better after a good nights sleep

But some of this stuff is still freakin' nuts.

The Telegraph looks at the facts of climate cooling showing up in many places; here's the end:
Three factors are vital to crops: the light and warmth of the sun, adequate rainfall and the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis. As we are constantly reminded, we still have plenty of that nasty, polluting CO2, which the politicians are so keen to get rid of. But there is not much they can do about the sunshine or the rainfall.

It is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century. One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat.

It is appropriate that another contributory factor to the world's food shortage should be the millions of acres of farmland now being switched from food crops to biofuels, to stop the world warming, Last year even the experts of the European Commission admitted that, to meet the EU's biofuel targets, we will eventually need almost all the food-growing land in Europe. But that didn't persuade them to change their policy. They would rather we starved than did that. And the EU, we must always remember, is now our government – the one most of us didn't vote for last week.
Which is why so many of the globular warmering nuts have switched over to being "Man is causing Climate Change!" nuts; hard to tell someone in Montana or Ontario or Australia that Globular Warmering is going to cook you when it's snowing in June. Or, in the case of the Aussies, colder and/or snowier than usual. And you've GOT to keep people from paying attention to those sunspots disappearing and the history of what happens when they do.

Which brings us to the evil Frankenfoods crops that have been genetically-modified in a non-PC manner. As in, in a lab instead of over ten or twenty years in fields. Y'know, like Golden Rice that can help prevent blindness in kids that's not supposed to be used because-Gasp! Horror!- it's been genetically modified to produce a needed vitamin? In this case, a wheat disease that could cause literally catastrophic damage to wheat crops needs to be fought; and the article includes this:
After several years of feverish work, scientists have identified a mere half-dozen genes that are immediately useful for protecting wheat from Ug99. Incorporating them into crops using conventional breeding techniques is a nine- to 12-year process that has only just begun. And that process will have to be repeated for each of the thousands of wheat varieties that is specially adapted to a particular region and climate.

"All the seed needs to change in the next few years," said Ronnie Coffman, a plant breeder who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project. "It's really an enormous undertaking."
Yes, it is. And not a mention of modifying those genes in a lab; oh, no, we've got to ignore that and hope the 'nine- to 12-year process' can work in time.

People, every single crop out there is the product of genetic manipulation. Corn, beans, wheat, turnips, tomatoes, everything. All of it, to some extent over time, by selective breeding; some by further manipulation in labs. I don't now if some of the "No Frankenfoods!" protesters don't realize it, or don't care, but it's fact. I have a problem with some mods(producing seeds that can't be planted, things like that); especially since some of them can spread to other fields. But if there's no lab looking at ways to change/add those genes it'll surprise hell out of me; problem is, they find a way to do it the EUnuchs & Co. will scream and call names and insist those nasty seeds not be used. And they'll pay the price. Or, the people who starve because of it will pay the price(I'm sure the EUnuchs will still get plenty to eat). As a guy says at Insty, “The great irony is that America’s greater acceptance of genetically engineered food will leave it the least vulnerable to this stuff. The EU may be stuck with genetically modified wheat, if it wants to grow any wheat at all.”


Ann Althouse is often interesting, but occasionally I wonder what the hell is going on in her head. She has this post on the Letterman idiocy, and is bent out of shape about the Palin response:
"The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said Wednesday.
She says this about that:
Sullivan seems to miss that Stapleton just made a child-rape joke. It's a joke! Well, it's a joke is not an apt excuse — is it? — when the joke is supposed to work based on a shared belief about the butt of it.

Stapleton's joke depends on seeing Letterman as someone who's enthused about the rape of children — or at least the children of politicians we don't like. By the same token, Letterman's joke worked to the extent that the audience shares the belief that Palin's daughter is a big slut.
What the hell? How she gets this from Stapleton's words, I don't know. It's anything but a 'child-rape joke'; it's "We have no intention of exposing the kids to this creepy, insulting bastard." But, further along, she says this in response to a comment:
Christy said... "I interpreted "wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman" not as a child rape joke but as a joke that Willow would tear Letterman a new one."

So, in your scenario, the child is now the rapist -- the violent anal rapist? That sure solves everything.
I repeat, what the hell? I think she's been reading Sullivan too much, it's affecting her thought processes.


Israel's PM made a speech the other day on the 'two state' solution, and it includes this:
This policy must take into account the international situation that has recently developed. We must recognise this reality and at the same time stand firmly on those principles essential for Israel. I have already stressed the first principle – recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is: demilitarisation. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarised with ironclad security provisions for Israel. Without these two conditions, there is a real danger that an armed Palestinian state would emerge that would become another terrorist base against the Jewish state, such as the one in Gaza. We don't want Kassam rockets on Petach Tikva, Grad rockets on Tel Aviv, or missiles on Ben-Gurion airport. We want peace.

In order to achieve peace, we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able to import missiles into their territory, to field an army, to close their airspace to us, or to make pacts with the likes of Hizbollah and Iran. On this point as well, there is wide consensus within Israel.

It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarised.
As Ace says, it basically tells Obama "You can say all the pretty words you want, if we don't have real assurances, like troops on the ground or something, that a Palestinian state won't be used to attack Israel, it ain't gonna happen. So what do you say?" The Palestinians want Israel destroyed and all the Jews dead(preferably everywhere), and they want to be handed a state with no conditions, so they're screaming and blaming the perfidious Jews for ruining things by demanding to survive; SSDD*. Makes me wonder if Obama thinks he can just keep throwing words and things will happen, or thinks that as long as he's speaking his will people will forget that nothing's happening. Or something.


Another addition to Brigid's handloading post(hey, somebody's got to overly-complicate things; she sure didn't): for straight-wall handgun cases, like .45acp and .38 Special and so forth, there's actually two kinds of dies that don't need lube: carbide(that she spoke of) and titanium nitride. I think it's primarily Hornady that uses the TiN in their dies, but in any case works like carbide. Good stuff.


What, Gov. Palin actually accomplished something? And clowns who had nothing to do with it are trying to claim some credit? Wow.


What? Corruption and law-breaking from a Chicago politician?

Inspectors General are part of every federal department. They are given the responsibility of independently investigating allegations of waste, fraud, and corruption in the government, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House. Last year Congress passed the Inspectors General Reform Act, which added new protections for IGs, including a measure requiring the president to give Congress 30 days prior notice before dismissing an IG. The president must also give Congress an explanation of why the action is needed. Then-Sen. Barack Obama was one of the co-sponsors of the Act.

So what? This:

...on Wednesday night the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received a call from the White House counsel’s office telling him that he had one hour to either resign or be fired. The White House did not cite a reason.
[RTWT - includes Walpin’s email response to the fone call]

And lots of other stuff. Whole LOTS of other stuff at the linked article.


Canada's chief censor tried to get Ezra Levant thrown off a show. Backfire, in a major way.


I've been reading stuff about the post-election mess in Iran. Was there fraud? I don't doubt it. Anything we can do? Very little; it would involve Obama actually giving support to those yelling about the problems, and he seems far too busy trying to kiss up to Ahmadogcrap to actually, y'know, care about the problem. Other than saying something along the lines of "We are concerned."


Dog food and birdseed to buy, I'm off.

Kevin notes that The Obama is losing some surprising people;

and when he's lost those three...
Now Maher's doing teleprompter jokes?

I mean, selling the personal part to stay popular, I'm all for it, but you got us already. We like you, we really like you! You're skinny and in a hurry and in love with a nice lady. But so's Lindsay Lohan. And like Lohan, we see your name in the paper a lot, but we're kind of wondering when you're actually going to do something.

Mouth hangs agape.

He has done a lot of stuff. He's validated all most all of the actions taken by his predecessor (that's what had Rall all fired up), he's dissed his gay constituency (that's got Democratic Underground all fired up), he's essentially taken control of major banks and two of the Big 3 auto makers. How can you say he hasn't done anything? Oh, right. You're Bill Maher.

I know that's harsh. But when I read about how you sat on the sidelines while bailed-out banks used the money we gave them to hire lobbyists who got Congress to stop homeowners from getting renegotiated loans, or how Congress is already giving up on healthcare reform, or how scientists say it's essential to reduce CO2 by 40% in 10 years, but your own bill calls for 4%, I say, enough with the character development, let's get on with the plot.

See? Obama just didn't do what Bill wants done.
And so on. It's funny as hell to see people like Mahar having fits because- Gasp! Surprise!- they've discovered The One lied to them, but it's tempered by the knowledge that he's screwing the whole damn country over- or trying very hard to- with the support of these clowns.

It is nice that Obama's now facing revolt from a lot of Evil Party members. Whether it's personal problems with his trying to take over everything, or pressure from people back home saying "He want to do WHAT? You vote for this and you're toast!"; people taking note of the damage being done by his takeover of GM and Chrysler and closing dealerships, people- often with family and/or friends in the military looking at the cuts he's trying to shove through; people looking at his screwing over Israel in order to suck up to the 'muslim world'; there's a lot of Reps and Sens backing off a whole bunch of things. I get the feeling that he truly believed that because he's Obama, and The First (semi)Black President, that people were just going to bow down and do his bidding(witness the "I won" crap early on); now that he's pissed off a LOT more people, including many who voted for him, and now that people are listing to/reading alternate media and getting more information than the major media(i.e., 'the suckups') will give, he's realized- or his advisors have- that he just can't do a lot of this crap. For instance, that 'reduce CO2 by 40% in 10 years' crap; people have been getting the message of just how badly trying that will cripple us('cripple', hell, flat destroy our economy and lives) and raising hell with the politicians, and- most of them being politicians to whom staying in DC means more than anything else- they're listening. Which means no blind following for The One, which means problems in his agenda.

And so the realization hits a lot of people; not only did he lie to them on a lot of things, but he apparently didn't realize just how much resistance would be generated to a lot of the other promises; and, Obama being a Chicago machine politician(defined as 'crooked as a dogs' broken hind leg'), he'll throw just about anybody and anything under the bus if he thinks it'll help him in some way. Like all the good union members now finding their jobs gone but the Union still being kissed by the administration; they realize that while he does indeed 'owe the Unions', he doesn't give a crap about the members, just about the brass who control the money and can order people around.

Like I say, entertaining as hell in some ways, but the enjoyment is tempered.

Ref Brigid's reloading post,

I'll throw in a couple of things.

That bright-red Lee hand press in the pictures? I've got one; first press I owned. I loaded a LOT of .38 Special and .357 Mag on it, and a bunch of .303 British. And yes, full-length resizing a .303 case with it will give you Arms and Shoulders of Steel! if you do much of it. The press I learned from Dad on- which he still has- is a massive old Herter's swaging press, built like an I-beam. Strong enough, and leverage enough, to swage bullets. It's a 'C' press, as the body is 'C'-shaped, open in the front; and 'O' press is closed in front for more rigidity with less weight. If you wind up doing much, I'd suggest getting a 'C' or 'O', as they bolt to the bench and give you more leverage for rifle cases. But I still have that Lee stuck away, as a backup. And because you can take it and sit down and resize/deprime and bell cases in the living room with a movie on.

When you get a scale, the basic you should look at is a good balance-beam scale; very basic, very accurate and will last forever if you take care of it(much like a good press and dies). If you decide to get an electronic scale(Dad has one and loves it) as you primary scale, get a good one. Which is going to cost around a hundred bucks or more. The small ones that you can find on sale for $20 are fine for spot-checking, but they tend to 'drift', as in not holding zero, which means you can weigh a couple of things(charges, bullets, whatever) and then start getting odd weights because it forgot where 'zero' is, so you have to recalibrate, and it's a pain to have to keep doing it. Something like this RCBS, for example(the one Dad has) ain't cheap; unless something's wrong with it, it won't forget where 'zero' is every time you turn around, either.

Brigid covers that you can wash cases to clean them without using a tumbler; you can also wash them AND tumble. Rifle cases that have to be lubed for resizing I usually* wash and dry before I tumble to get rid of ANY traces of lube. She notes you should only use the 'warm' oven setting; reason is, you get the brass too hot and you're annealing it to some extent(accidentally leave the oven too high and you'll completely anneal them) and, as she says, this is Bad. Annealing is something you do to the case mouth area only, and then only when actually needed; anneal the base and the area above and you take away some of the ability of the case to hold pressure, which is indeed a Bad Thing.

Please do not misunderstand, I think she did a damn fine job of covering "Starting Handloading"; it's just that I have a hard time not throwing things in.

*Some lubes are water-soluble, and those that aren't will usually be cut by adding some suitable dish soap(I usually use Dawn). For some jobs I use this stuff, which is flat wonderful, and when you're done you can just wipe those cases with a paper towel to clean it off.

Spent the weekend visiting parents,

which was nice. Dad was helping an old friend make a start at handloading, and we got him through 100 rounds of .38 wadcutters and 15 rounds of .257 Roberts. He's going to try those out before making any more(especially the rifle loads).

Stormed last night in Lawton, but appears to have missed the Oklahoma City area. Right now, between the tornado or severe thunderstorms watchs, almost the western half of the state is covered. It's mid- to upper 80's outside, and I think the humidity is almost 70%. Which is just delightful, if you like sweating from the effort of breathing. Right now they're saying 30% chance of storms in OKC, but I'll wait; I've seen '30%' turn into 'Head for the cellar!" in the space of a couple of hours.

Brigid has a very good post up on starting handloading; if you're thinking of it, go read, lots of good information. Though I think she made a special effort to make her loading space nice and neat; I've NEVER seen a working bench that clean. If she actually keeps it that clean in use... then she ain't human.

I also left mom the recipe for the cast-iron soda bread; I suspect she'll be trying it the next day or two.

I've got to put things away, and feed the dog in a while; when it's this hot she won't really eat until closer to dark. More later, assuming I don't fall over.