Saturday, December 20, 2008

And further on incompetent LE and dead dogs

The homeowner said when police went into the garage she heard three shots. The homeowner said an officer told her they shot the dog and the dog ran off.

The 2-year-old Dalmatian was found the Wednesday morning at a neighbor's home.

Officer said they were looking for a material witness in a gang member's trial, but they entered the wrong home. Police entered 1468B, instead of 1468A.

Officers said the dog charged and the officer felt he was in imminent danger and shot the dog
.
Oh, of COURSE he was. I mean, just because he went to the wrong damn house and the dog acted in defense of his territory. Where(see 'wrong home' above) they had no bleeping business being.

What is so damned hard about looking at the bloody address BEFORE you start kicking doors?
The investigators intended to serve the search warrant at a home on Valley Spring Drive in Lawrenceville about 9:15 a.m. One of the investigators mistakenly pointed out another house nearby.

Once the officers forced entry to the house, they briefly detained a male and female resident before determining they were in the wrong place.

The search was immediately halted and no intrusive search was ever executed, said police spokeswoman Cpl. Illana Spellman. A supervisor came to the scene to further explain the situation and apologize to the residents.

The department also is paying to repair their front door, Spellman said.


And, remember the jackasses who shot the two labs in the bad raid? Including the one that hid and they chased down to kill? Well, their department(of course) says they did no wrong:
The Prince George's County Sheriff's Office has concluded in an internal review that its deputies were justified when they shot and killed two dogs belonging to the mayor of Berwyn Heights during a July drug raid, Sheriff Michael Jackson said yesterday. ...

A sheriff's department SWAT team and county police narcotics officers burst into the mayor's home July 29 after police intercepted a 32-pound package of marijuana addressed to Trinity Tomsic, Calvo's wife.

Police cleared Calvo and Tomsic of wrongdoing, saying they were victims of a drug smuggling scheme in which drug-filled packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients were intercepted by a FedEx deliveryman
.

Hmmm, investigated themselves and found nothing wrong, surprise, surprise.

In the category of "Law enforcement, sorry excuse for"

we have this stirling example from the Galveston PD:
As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.
What Thirdpower said. My daughter had screamed for help, and I saw three guys trying to drag her into a van? There'd have been dead people formerly trying to drag my daughter into a van. Dad spent a lot of time in law enforcement; if such had happened to my sister, there'd have been blood on the ground; people with no id, no anything, grabbing a girl, striking her, dragging her toward a van = kidnapping = dead kidnappers.

And, just to make it more fun, this from the shyster for the idiot excuses for lawmen:
Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace officer. "The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off."

Also, "The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances," Helfand says. "It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest."

I fully realize this is the shyster trying to defend his brainless clients. I point out again:
Unmarked van.
No uniforms.
No badges.
Three guys grab the girl, hit her, and drag her to the van.
That should, at the very least, equal terminated police officers paying one hell of a settlement and possibly facing criminal charges. It should also equal the city paying one hell of a settlement for defending this bullshit.

Ok, how many BS statements can you find

in this? I mean, not counting the bit Uncle pointed out:
Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan dismissed the notion hunting rifles and shotguns are not the type of weapons authorities need to be worried about, noting they can cause harm if poorly safeguarded or stolen by burglars.

"Taking these off the streets is as important as the taking the handguns off the streets,'' he said
.
Of course, they're always saying "We don't want to take your hunting rifle or shotgun", but according to this DA they do. I mean, you shouldn't be allowed to own something that, if someone steals and misuses it, could hurt someone. Like cars, prescription drugs, knives...(they haven't said it yet, but I've no doubt the nannies are getting there)

No note of how many of the surrendered firearms were in working order, for instance, yet the blanket statement that 2,631 guns handed in "That's potentially more than 2,600 lives saved,". You can throw an awful lot of crap in under 'potentially'.

And, speaking of idiot politicians looking for a nice, PC way of pretending to fix a problem,
"I'd like to look at gun laws, frankly. Penalties for illegal guns," said Ballard.

Ballard said he knows many will oppose the idea, and he wants to make clear what kind of guns he'd target.

"I have no problem with second amendment legal guns. No problem what so ever on that. It's the illegal guns that are concerning," said Ballard
.
As Codrea says, "Good grief." This is a marvelous example of a politician who
A: has no damned idea what he's talking about and
B: put no real thought into this before throwing it out.
God knows what he thinks 'second amendment legal' guns are.

And on the alternative energy scene,

Contacted by phone, spokesperson of the Bali branch of the state-owned electricity company PT PLN, Agung Mustika, denied that the plants have never worked.

"All of the plants operate normally. If their turbines do not move, they are storing the energy. It doesn't mean they are not functioning," he said.

PLN financed in part the construction of the plants and is responsible for their operation and maintenance.

So, does that mean that if the wind's not blowing at all, that they're still magically storing energy? Hmmmm?

As Ace puts it, these people are out of their friggin'

minds.
But gathering physical evidence, backed by powerful simulations on the world's most advanced computer climate models, is reshaping that view and lending strong support to the radical idea that human-induced climate change began not 200 years ago, but thousands of years ago with the onset of large-scale agriculture in Asia and extensive deforestation in Europe.

What's more, according to the same computer simulations, the cumulative effect of thousands of years of human influence on climate is preventing the world from entering a new glacial age, altering a clockwork rhythm of periodic cooling of the planet that extends back more than a million years.

"This challenges the paradigm that things began changing with the Industrial Revolution," says Stephen Vavrus, a climatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Climatic Research and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. "If you think about even a small rate of increase over a long period of time, it becomes important."

I wonder if they're still using the calculations that produced the hockey-stick graph?

And these clowns expect people to not only buy this, but to change the whole human society based on this crap. We're supposed to believe that the same people who have frequently lied about figures and facts(all to Save Us All, of course), who've used climate modeling that at times is hugely flawed and at best largely guesswork- especially when they're trying to play games with data from thousands of years ago- are going to tell us the Total Unbiased Truth now. Which, to them, is that a global human population smaller than the population of a lot of major cities somehow changed the whole global climate with farming and house-building.

Of course, The Obama- a true believer himself- has appointed as his science guy a nut who still thinks Paul Erlich was and is right. So the enviroweenies and watermelons have friends in high places, God help us all.

Well, it DID get them publicity

and attention, just not the kind they wanted:
The garish white, blue and green inflatable, which can be seen from a mile away, was shot down three times by angry locals but the company had it patched up and put it back in the air.
...
The blimp, which is 30ft long and has a 10ft diameter and costs around £2,500 to buy, has been shot down three times according to locals.

It first went up at the end of August and has been shot down by a mystery sniper three times since, once in October and twice in November.

It is not known what type of gun has been used to shoot it down
.

Well, at 600 meters up, we know it wasn't a longbow. Let's see, 600 times... about 2000 feet up, pretty good shot. I wonder if they measured the grouping?

The bigoted morons and the dirtbags are out in force

lately. Bigoted morons who've decided the southern states need a 'third Reconstruction':
The alternative to the Southernization of the U.S. is the Americanization of the South — a process that was not completed by Reconstruction and the New Deal and the Civil Rights era, which can be thought of as the Second Reconstruction. The non-Southern states, through their representatives in Congress and the executive branch, and with the help of enlightened Southerners, need to use the power of the federal government to put a stop to the Southern conservative race-to-the-bottom strategy once and for all.

Yeah. A 'race to the bottom' that includes lots of tech development and people who actually work without a union controlling their every movement and populations that aren't shrinking because A: people here generally like the idea of families and kids and B: people are moving here to get away from the morons like the writer at Salon and states like the People's Republics of MA and NY. Can't have that, can we?

In the dirtbag category, we have the crapheads at Wikileaks who seem to think that revealing information like this and putting troops at increased risk counts as 'whistleblowing'. If they had said something like "There are reports that some jammers affect communications", there might be an argument for it; but what these assholes did is inexcusable, and this kind of CYA bullcrap should be treated as what it is. And I hope the morons run into some troops who've depended on these systems and said troops kick their ass.

Friday, December 19, 2008

The authorities in Tennessee seem to have tried to slip in

a backdoor registration system for concealed-carry permit holders, but it kind of blew up in their faces.

They're saying it was 'a mistake', 'no intention of building a registration system', etc. I call bullcrap because, as Jon says,
Sorry Tam, but after working with State employees for a bit now, I can say that it was intentional. No one creates a form and sends it outside the office without a) a committee, b) at least one level of supervision of that person reviewing the form.
In this case, if it was the result of an audit, then the auditors or auditor’s liaison had to sign off on it too.
I don't believe this just 'slipped through', etc. This was done intentionally, and now they're in CYA mode. I mean, c'mon, does anyone really think a form set up this was didn't have to be approved at least once by someone in authority?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The first question is, if she's muslim

why is she working in a bar?

Does 'hunt down' include Apaches and Sea Cobras? If so, little ground action may be required. And we should have just done it, not asked the UN weenies for 'permission'.

Do enviroweenies always have to be such freakin' nuts?

Couldn't The Goreacle pay some of his humongous electric and gas bills by renting himself out to parties and ski lodges?

How much laughing at watermelons is too much?

As long as it doesn't completely obstruct the garage or house, is there such a thing as too much ammo?(I know, sneaky question; there's never too much)

And this one's for real: is it every possible to do too much to make sure men like this are not forgotten?
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Med-evac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medevac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medevacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway
.

So Democrats don't just want to raise taxes,

they want to do it by slime:
California's Democratic leaders were planning a vote today on a brazen proposal to raise gas, sales and income taxes through a series of legal maneuvers that would bypass the Legislature's minority Republicans.
And you'll just love this:
"I still believe in bipartisanship," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said at a Capitol news conference. "But there is an even greater responsibility than practicing bipartisanship, and that is to govern. And that is what we intend to do here today."
Translation: "I believe in bipartisanship as long as the other side does what we want; if they won't, we'll skip around the rules because we have to tell you what to do and what you're allowed to keep of what you earn."

Speaking of Democrats and nanny-state morons,
The Los Angeles City Council approved a package of gun control laws Wednesday, placing new requirements on ammunition sellers and banning the sale of military-style ammunition in the hopes of further reducing the city's gun and gang violence.

The measures ban the sale of .50-caliber ammunition, capable of penetrating a car's engine, and would require the city's ammunition vendors to be licensed, to sell ammunition face-to-face instead of over the Internet and require gun dealers to report a full accounting of their inventory twice a year to the Police Department.

The council passed laws prohibiting the installation of secret compartments for guns in cars and allowing the city to permanently seize vehicles used by certain gang members during a crime, which was proposed by City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo
.
Etc.
Villaraigosa dismissed questions about whether the ammunition restrictions would have a practical effect since buyers could simply purchase the bullets over the Internet or in cities where the laws do not apply.

"Part of what we're doing here is leading the way," Villaraigosa said, stating that the measures are another tool to fight gun violence and that he hoped other cities and President-elect Barack Obama's administration would follow suit. "This is the most far-reaching effort of any big city in the country. . . . This isn't about symbolism; it's about results."

It's both; it's a way of pretending to actually do something, and it's preening in their "We Care" halo. Won't do a damn thing to actually stop crime, but it'll screw honest people around some more.

My problem with this story is she wasn't fired

for her actions:
Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, resigned last night near the end of a monthlong, unpaid suspension for mining state computers for confidential information on "Joe the Plumber."

Two senior managers suspended for their roles in the scandal that spiced this year's presidential campaign also are leaving, The Dispatch has learned. The administration fired Doug Thompson, deputy director of child support. Fred Williams, assistant agency director, resigned effective Jan. 31
.

But, of course, we're informed the real problem is
"It appears she was driven out by this intense pressure on the part of the Republicans," said Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller, D-Columbus. "I think it's a tremendous loss. She's an outstanding public servant who made a mistake and was disciplined for it."
She's a 'outstanding public servant' who broke regulations and laws using her position for political purposes; she should have been fired, not allowed to resign.

The paper also reported that Jones-Kelley had used her state computer and e-mail to assist the Obama campaign, providing names of potential Dayton-area contributors and helping to arrange an event for Obama's wife, Michelle.
Which, as I recall, is also illegal. But she's 'outstanding', yeah.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

So now we know why Fitzgerald ended the investigation

when he did: the effin' Chicago Tribune was about to blow it.
Members of Fitzgerald’s team are livid the scheme didn’t advance, at least for a little longer, according to some people close to Fitzgerald’s office. Why? Because had the plot unfolded, they might have had an opportunity most feds can only dream of: A chance to catch the sale of a Senate seat on tape, including the sellers and the buyers.

The precise timing of Tuesday’s dramatic, pre-dawn arrest was not dictated by Fitzgerald, nor was it dictated by the pace of Blagojevich’s alleged “crime spree.” It was dictated by the Chicago Tribune, according to people close to the investigation and a careful reading of the FBI’s affidavit in the case.

At Fitzgerald’s request, the paper had been holding back a story since October detailing how a confidante of Blagojevich was cooperating with his office.

Gerould Kern, the Tribune’s editor, said in a statement last week that these requests are granted in what he called isolated instances. “In each case, we strive to make the right decision as reporters and as citizens,” he said.

But editors decided to publish the story on Friday, Dec. 5, ending the Tribune’s own cooperation deal with the prosecutor
.

Insty wrote a couple of times that anyone being interviewed by some media weenie should record it themselves so when(more likely than 'if') they screwed with it to make him look bad, he could go public with proof of what they did. But the deterrent effect of that depends at least partly on the media weenies giving a damn about little things like 'right' and 'wrong'.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I think it was Atomic Nerds,

a fine place itself, which pointed to this fairly NSFW site titled Why Women Hate Men. Kind of a "THAT was a stupid thing to say"-type place. For instance, in critiquing a personals ad(actually a Buy ME! ad) he touches on women's fantasies:
#3 Abducted by a stranger for a night of hot, passionate, anonymous sex.

Tim's physique suggests he'd have a hard time abducting a de-clawed housecat from a freshly waxed marble floor. Slight of build and tattoo-free, Tim hardly resembles the hard-scrabble ex-cons many women favor for this fantasy. And most women conceded that being abducted by a greeting card store cashier on a 3-speed Schwinn bicycle and riding in the delivery basket to his parents house was just a wee bit of a stretch.

#2 Owning a man as a sex slave

It's hard to enslave a man who ejaculates when you take off your bra. And an 18 year-old man couldn't find his way around a vagina with GoogleMaps and a plastic Dallas Cowboys compass extracted from a box of Lucky Charms, so it's often difficult to instruct a man who has no idea what he's doing. Ask him to warm up your vulva, and he runs out to the garage to start your car. Tell him to moisten the hood, and he spits on his Michigan State sweatshirt.

#1 Mrs. Robinson / Shy, young virgin fantasy

Jackpot. All you insatiable, horny cougars just want an innocent young man to wear an undercooked bacon suit to your little wolverine party. To sip the nectar of youth from the shy, whimpering prisoner of his own innocence. You women disgust me, you're like .......... men with tits
.

Do you have any idea how long the damn blogroll on the pc is getting?

Example #379 of how Britain is going down the drain

The Oxford Dictionary for kids is being 'updated'
Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society
.

As one guy puts it, Anthony Seldon, the master of Wellington College, a leading private school in Berkshire, said: "I am stunned that words like "saint", "buttercup", "heather" and "sycamore" have all gone and I grieve it.

"I think as well as being descriptive, the Oxford Junior Dictionary, has to be prescriptive too, suggesting not just words that are used but words that should be used. It has a duty to keep these words within usage, not merely pander to an audience. We are looking at the loss of words of great beauty. I would rather have "marzipan" and "mistletoe" then "MP3 player."


Interestingly, one of the words taken out is 'bacon'. Now what could that have to do with being a 'multicultural' society, hmm?

Got a friend who's been to Ireland several times, and loved it;

here's one of the reasons I'd never want to live there: GFW PSH Irish-stlye
The Government has outlined its proposals for a ban on licensing handguns, which may be expanded to include all firearms in the future.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the legislation, which will be published shortly as part of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous) Provisions Bill, had been drawn up in response to increasing concern over the proliferation of firearms
.
Note that wording, 'proliferation of firearms', it's important.
“My concern is that unless strong and decisive action is taken the number of handguns could grow exponentially and our firearms regime would equate to that of countries such as the United States,” Mr Ahern said.

“While I know the vast majority of licensed gun owners behave responsibly, my paramount concern must be the protection of the public, particularly against the background of the level of gun crime which is taking place,” Mr Ahern added
.
Translation: "The people who've jumped through hoops to get a license don't commit crimes, but We the Government(who also need to suck up to the EUnuchs since the peasants voted 'NO') don't want them to have one. So we'll use this as an excuse."

Standard-issue nanny-state GFW bullcrap.

The P14 Enfield


This is the P14. Originally conceived to use an experimental .276 cartridge and replace the #1 MkIII Enfield as the British battle rifle. In many ways it’s a Mauser: two opposed locking lugs up front, bolt release and ejector combined on the left, five round internal magazine. It also had the one real upgrade(other than the cartridge if that’d worked out) over the #1 that was needed*: an aperture rear sight and a front blade protected by ears.

Short history: WWI came along and the Brits didn’t have time to work out the bugs in the cartridge, and needed a LOT more rifles than they could make, so contracts wound up being let with three American companies(Winchester, Remington and Eddystone) to make them in .303. Then we got into the war, and Springfield Arsenal could not turn out enough 1903 rifles to arm the troops. Someone took a look at the P14 and figured they could bore the barrel for .30-06 instead of .303 and modify the bolt face for the rimless cartridge and we could use it. It worked, and a lot of troops carried this(as the US Rifle Model 1917) into battle. The Brits wound up mostly using the #1 MkIII, although some P14s were set up as sniper rifles. After the war the P14 went into storage, and many(in .30-06**) were used by the Home Guard when WWII came up(renamed the #3 MKI, MKI*, etc.). The Brits had modified the #1 MkIII design into the #4 MkI by that time, so the P14(except for sniper use until the #4 MkI(t) came out) saw little use in the second go-round; of course, they couldn't turn out enough #4 rifles either, so lots and lots of #1 rifles saw service, both older ones and new-manufactured(lots more to be found here, and I got the picture from this site).

The thing isn’t as slim and pretty as the 1903, but it makes up for that with the sights and an ungodly strong receiver; a lot of these, after the war, were rebarreled and modified for sporting rifles, many in the heaviest big-game cartridges of the day due to their strength. And I think the sights are a very big step forward over the overly-complicated rear on the Springfield and that thin, tall front blade***. And the Brits specifically noted the P14 sights were better for battlefield use than those on the #1 MkIII. Which is why the #4 MkI had them.

So, down to the noisy part: how’s it shoot?

Pretty well. The trigger on this one had a bit of creep in the second stage, breaking at a nice, light weight. The action worked smoothly, lockup was solid. It suffers from the standard 300-yard battlesight, which meant that, with the ammo used, shots at 100 yards hit six or seven inches above point of aim. The action was not as slick as the Enfields I’ve fired, probably partly because I think it saw little use. Best groups I got were about 2.5” at 100, which was partly due to ammo; some of this was older surplus that had several noticeable hangfires, so it didn’t have the best consistency. With better ammo, I think it would have done better overall. This is the same rifle I used to try the .303 cast bullet loads noted here; I'm hoping to have more chances to shoot it.

The sights are good: rear aperture for general use, and when you flip up the ladder you have a smaller aperture adjustable to way out there. Instead of a screw like the #4 it uses a spring-catch on the right to adjust the slide up and down. Running it all the way to the bottom put it just about dead-on at 100.

The weight and stock design did a fine job of making the .303 comfortable to shoot, much more comfortable than the 1903 with ball. Overall, a fine rifle. The one I fired was marked Eddystone for the manufacturer, and the bore looked virtually new; that, and the tight action mentioned, make me think it saw very little actual use. But for full GFW-politician effect the owner needs to find a bayonet.

*The #1 had one big advantage over Mauser and Springfield: that ten-shot magazine. And why the design people wanted to get rid of that, I do not know. Being too lazy to dig into it further right now, I’m guessing they decided a Mauser-style receiver would be better for the new cartridge, to explain the receiver design, and the new sight design was a fine idea; but why a smaller-capacity mag? Bean-counters worrying about the troops using too much ammo? No idea.

**Friend showed me an old movie a short time ago titled ‘Whiskey Galore’. It’s set in Britain during the war, and part of the story is centered around the local Guard commander trying to ship several cases of .303 ammo back to the mainland because he can’t get the .30-06 ammo he needs for the P14s they have until he sends the .303 back.

***I’ll repeat the saying: In WWI the Americans had the best target rifle, the Germans the best hunting rifle and the Brits the best battle rifle.

The weather having now added a bit of freezing mist to the mix,

though in this area it's spotty, I'm still not heading to the range, day off or not. Thought the chance for sliding along the floor Wanted- style as you fire at multiple targets, stylishly curving bullet paths in defiance of the laws of physics, is not to be passed up lightly. Except by me. So, again, I'm looking at lots and lots of news and idiocy. Like a breakdown of the Banana Republic of New York.
When you’re done reading the Blagojevich complaint, with its attendant insights into Illinois politics, spare a thought for New York — where Caroline Kennedy wants a sit-down with Governor David Paterson, with the aim of claiming Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.

Is there anything wrong with that picture?

Ummm, yes, there is. Besides the thought of another Kennedy demanding an official shot at running our lives.

Another piece on the 'friends of friends of the Governor' up in Caponeland. If you define 'friends' as 'other politicians and crooks(not exactly redundant, but close)with their hands in the till'.
Recently, Blagojevich has been meeting with high-profile defense attorney Edward Genson, the lawyer of choice for Chicago mob figures and politicians.

And I'd like to think of the governor's brain as a wet sponge dripping with information. After a couple of hours in Genson's office, the governor's brain would be as dry as his fluffy coif. In criminal defense circles, as in political circles, information is power
.
That's going to be a powerful lawyer sitting in that office.

Rep. Pelosi(Socialist Appeaser-CA) is apparently telling Rahm I Didn't Have Anything To Do With Gov. Blago Emanuel how he and The Obama will behave over the next few years(assuming he's there, of course). Wonder how well that'll go over with The One?

Reason has a piece about how long it took Obama to say how terrible the mess in IL is. It includes this:
This is the downside of what is best about Obama: his careful, deliberate approach to decision-making. In the normal course of events, it's far superior to the impulsive style of John McCain, which gave us Sarah Palin and "today we are all Georgians."

But Obama came to public attention because of a speech, at the 2004 Democratic convention, that showed he was capable not only of clear thought but of genuine passion. This week—in the face of a scandal involving his state, his party, and his Senate seat—that passion was absent
.
Well, for one thing, he hadn't had speechmakers spending weeks putting together his speech on how horrible IL is("Never mind that I've been in that pool for years, I knew nothing about this!") so he'd have a properly passionate statement. Second, hey, he did have to figure out how to say something that wouldn't piss off the Governor and all the other people he's connected to. I'll pass on the idiotic hit at Palin for now; I will point out that Obama's 'careful, deliberate' approach is at least partly based on figuring out what to say that'll serve him the best, not what he actually thinks or believes. Not as admirable as Chapman thinks it is.

Another reason why, if I had young kids and cable, Nickelodeon wouldn't be on the menu.

What was that about 'friends of friends'?
Businessmen with ties to both Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson discussed raising $1 million for Blagojevich as a way of persuading him to appoint Jackson to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, a Chicago newspaper reports.

Ah, the wonderful tolerance of the homosexual activists on display once again:
She never advertised her politics or religion in the restaurant, but last month her donation showed up on lists of "for" and "against" donors. And El Coyote became a target.

A boycott was organized on the Internet, with activists trashing El Coyote on restaurant review sites. Then came throngs of protesters, some of them shouting "shame on you" at customers. The police arrived in riot gear one night to quell the angry mob.

The mob left, but so did the customers
.
Because she can't be allowed to give money to the non-PC side of the question, that's just not tolerable to the activists who insist on their version of 'free speech'. And among the results:
Sections of the restaurant have been closed, a manager told me Friday during a very quiet lunch hour. Some of the 89 employees, many of them gay, have had their hours cut, and layoffs are looming.
Backblow sucks, doesn't it?

I've got a problem with two bits in this story:
I, on the other hand, opposed Prop. 8. And as I wrote more than once, I think organized Christian religion reached new levels of hypocrisy in using the Bible to preach discrimination and promote the initiative.
and
"I agree with you on this," said Fred Karger. On his Californians Against Hate website, Karger has been outing Prop. 8 supporters, but he thinks Christoffersen's small personal donation didn't warrant such a backlash against El Coyote. Karger also spoke out against the resignation of a Sacramento theater director who gave $1,000 to Yes on 8 and happens to be Mormon.
I would like someone to tell me how it's hypocrisy to go with what your church teaches about something. If someone believes in the Bible as written, and it says men and women shouldn't marry others of the same sex, and you stand with that, that's not 'hypocrisy', that's standing up for your beliefs, whether Mr. Lopez likes it or not.

Second, isn't it just wonderful that Karger not only 'outs' people who dared to disagree with what he wants, but he has the Solomon-like wisdom to decide who does and doesn't deserve to have their life ruined for disagreeing with him? I also like the name of his group; telling people that standing up for their beliefs means they hate other people is just guaranteed to get people to change their minds, isn't it?

Codrea finds another 'Call 911 and die' case:
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say.

But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body.

Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.
Now, the 48 minutes was bad enough; she died during that time. But this from the police is just disgusting:
Zimmerman managed to call 911 at 12:20 p.m. The call was taken by the Dane County 911 center and an internal investigation revealed the dispatcher did not hear any sounds that would signal an emergency.
Now, if the 911 tape plays the sounds, just how the hell did the investigation find no sounds 'that would signal an emergency'? And, let us add, what the hell does that matter? So if you retreat to a locked bedroom and the 911 operator can't hear the guy kicking in the door, or doesn't hear you screaming as you're being stabbed, that means the call that you're being attacked, or your home broken into, isn't an emergency call?
Police are still looking for her killer.

"We are working diligently on this case, have generated significant leads, and are making progress," said Joel De Spain of the Madison Police Department
.
Which does her dead body and her family and friends a whole hell of a lot of good.

Uncle notes a few of the oddities in the world, some of which seem to be a long way from explanation. He also notes that Bill Schneider seems to be having some buyer's remorse on The Obama. I'd read Schneider's first piece and it thoroughly pissed me off. Take the "You only care about guns, not the rest of the Bill of Rights!" bullcrap, throw in "Obama is too smart to go after the 2nd with so much other important stuff" crap. Oh, and the "we squander billions overseas to fight unwanted, unwinnable wars" hit(I guess Iraq has been the total loss that Reid and Pelosi & Co. tried to make it and we just haven't heard about it). Standard-issue "You don't have to worry about The Lightworker" bull. Except he finally took note that Obama doesn't seem to be living up to what he wanted him to be on this. Well SHAZAM!!, Mr. Journalist, and it only took you till now to take notice of what everyone worried about the 2nd(among other things) has been pointing out for a long time?
Moron.

Just amazing, what all's happening out there. Or turning up, in some cases.

Monday, December 15, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like

the effing moonbats are out in force for the season. In (fG)Britain, for instance,
...is the Church of England, where about two weeks ago a service was held at the historic Wren church of St. James's, Picadily, in Central London that included lessons on how to hate Jews.

The stars of the show were a group of anti-Israel activists, most of them Palestinians and some Jews, who are urging a boycott of products made in the Jewish state.

... and The "Twelve Days of Christmas" was sung as "Twelve assassinations/11 homes demolished/10 wells obstructed/Nine sniper towers/Eight gunships firing/Seven checkpoints blocking/Six tanks a-rolling/Five settlement rings. Four falling bombs/Three trench guns/Two trampled doves/And an uprooted olive tree."
In a church, yet. And the Salvation Army was making too much noise for some:
For 130 years they have been part of Christmas, filling the air in towns across the land with music and carols.

But one thing is missing from the repertoire of Salvation Army bands this year - the percussion of rattling tins.

Members have been forbidden to shake their charity tins - even if it's done in time to the music - in case it harasses or intimidates people. One said she had been told it might also offend other religions.

Wonder how big a bunch of PC screwballs and wusses Britain is turned into? This tells you.

Of course, over here, we have this note from Theo on the Illinois Governor's after-hours place:

The temp outside is 16, heading for a high of 25(if we're lucky);

I don't care what Tam says about training, I'm not hitting the range today. I have this thing about hands with no feeling and firearms, you see. Along with a severe dislike of the idea of frostbite. I'm ugly enough without making the situation worse in such a way.

We've escaped the ice problems some other parts of the country have had, undoubtedly disappointing some of the news morons; starting last Wednesday they started the "Freezing rain coming, probably Monday clear into Wednesday!" scares. Hmmm, the squirrel on the radio just said "...but a chance of freezing rain Wednesday and Thursday." Ok, NWS says 30% chance Wednesday night, which isn't a level I'm going to worry much about.

So, since I'm sitting here catching up on things... this is a nice way to put it:
Gov. Dead Meat is infected, not with some mental disorder, but with something far worse. He's got a raging case of feditis. They don't know if it's the isolated feditis or the creeping kind, threatening not only the locals but the reform image of their guy about to assume the White House.
as explanation of the antics in IL right now. Well, if I had connections with a corrupt governor who's connected to damn near everyone in the Legislature and the courts, I'd be a bit worried, too. Especially with Rezco already singing, I imagine there's some very worried people about the idea of the infection spreading. For that matter, Gov. Blago should be very careful, as there are an awful lot of people who'd be very (quietly) happy if he had a fatal accident.

And some people are pushing Emanuel to resign due to his contacts with Blago. I have a question: since it would not have been a big deal to say "Of course I'd spoken with the Governor about who I'd favor to fill my old Senate seat", why the lies? I mean, shades of Clinton, Obama & Co. just seemed to lie about it as a reflex, without thought. Not a good way to get started, people.

Ah, well, I've got stuff to do. More word on my exciting life and views thereof later.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Discoveries like this make me want to start studying

archaeology:
Now, it was announced in January, a civilization has been uncovered that would have appeared just as ancient to the people who built the pyramids as the pyramids seem to us.

According to marine scientists in India, archaeological remains of this lost city have been discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India. And carbon dating says that they are 9,500 years old.

This news completely contradicts the position of most Western historians and archaeologists, who (because it did not fit their theories) have always rejected, ignored, or suppressed evidence of an older view of mankind's existence on planet Earth. Human civilization is now provably much more ancient than many have believed.
...
The vast city — which is five miles long and two miles wide — is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

The site was discovered by chance last year by oceanographers from India's National Institute of Ocean Technology, who were conducting a survey of pollution.Using sidescan sonar, which sends a beam of sound waves down to the bottom of the ocean, they identified huge geometrical structures at a depth of 120 feet.

Debris recovered from the site — including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture, and human bones and teeth — has been carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old.

I'll admit to two feelings about this. The first is delight; a discovery like this is just frikkin' wonderful, a new window into the past. No telling what all might turn up.
The second is a certain amount of evil laughter at the "This is THE EARLIEST DATE for civilization and anyone who says otherwise is a fraud!" historians and archaeologists reading about this and trying desperately to figure a way to prove their numbers are right and this new discovery doesn't actually mean anything. I know there's probably not many, but they're the kind of 'scientist' who'd rather screw with facts to fit their theory and beliefs than change the theory to fit the facts, the way science is supposed to work.

In any case, this is a marvelous discovery.

Yeah, the enemy is a wonderful bunch, using retarded people

and kids to attack our troops.
The four Marines were killed in two separate explosions near the town of Sangin. Lance Corporal Fellows died in the first blast after a patrol triggered a booby-trap bomb; one hour later, a second patrol, which had been called to help, was hit by a bomb concealed in a wheelbarrow being pushed by a 13-year-old boy.

The bomb was hidden under newspapers and detonated remotely, killing the three other Marines. A senior officer said the boy had approached the patrol with a ‘broad smile on his face’.

‘We do not know if he even knew he was a suicide bomber – whether it was a smile of innocence or malice,’ he said
.
Yes, they're Brits, and I did say 'our troops'; they're over there with us.

The rest of the article focuses on PM Brown playing Churchill; I'll let someone else speak to that:
But the comparison to Winston Churchill prompted a ferocious response from Tory MP Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson.

‘He is not fit to lick my grandfather’s boots,’ said Mr Soames. ‘One is a party hack and the other is our greatest-ever national leader.

‘My grandfather led a charge at the Battle of Omdurman; Brown didn’t even have the courage to call a General Election.’
That's got to smart, just a bit.

Well, well, one of the reasons the EUnuchs keep

pushing that treaty is their own pocket, it would seem:
No, this is about keeping the project going – a project from which millions now earn their living. The EU employs more than 170,000 officials, on handsome and largely untaxed retainers.

And for every formal Eurocrat there are dozens of fellow travellers: the Europe officers retained by every local council, large corporation and NGO. Their salaries might not be paid directly by Brussels but their livelihoods depend on the process of integration.

For Euro-hirelings, Lisbon isn't about federalism or democracy; it's about mortgages and school fees. They realise, to borrow their favourite simile, that the EU is like a bicycle that will fall over if it stops moving.

Which, besided the socialist 'the peasants do not know what's good for them' attitude, would help explain why these clowns keep saying that 'no' votes don't really mean it.
And so they have convinced themselves that voters are suffering from what Engels called "false consciousness": that they secretly want their leaders to disregard their votes and push ahead with deeper integration.

If you think I exaggerate, consider these words, spoken to the Czech President last week by Brian Crowley, leader of Ireland's governing party, Fianna Fáil, in the European Parliament: "All his life my father fought against the British domination. Many of my relatives lost their lives. That is why I dare to say that the Irish wish for the Lisbon Treaty."

Disregard the curious way in which Crowley equates his father's campaign for national independence with his campaign against it. Ignore, too, the anachronism: since Crowley's father was born 13 years after independence, he can hardly have spent his life fighting "the British domination".

Focus, instead, on the extraordinary presumption: "the Irish wish for the Lisbon Treaty". So much for the referendum result. Crowley believes he knows the voters' desires better than they do.

But of COURSE he does, he's an Enlightened One, kind of like the Lightworker waiting to take office over here.

Just wunnerful, isn't it?