Tuesday, December 31, 2013

And a data dump for the end of the year






































A failure of the victim selection process

An off-duty Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper shot and killed a man suspected of trying to rob the trooper at his home Friday, Oklahoma City Police said.

Well, dumbass won't try that again.

I should note that for turkey and chicken,

all you need for brine is water, kosher salt, rosemary, peppercorns and a small seeded habanero.  And about 6-8 hours is plenty for the whole chicken or turkey breast.

And I didn't screw up the gravy this time.

No, I am not going out to play

'dodge the drunker-cars'.  I'm going to stay in and, if I'm still awake at midnight, have a taste.

In the meantime, Starbucks should've known better.


Toys for Totalitarians; sure to annoy some of the right people.






"Leave Chelsea Clinton alone! But you can

crap on Bush' daughters all you want.

Don't talk about Al Gores' kid!  But you can make shitty jokes about Sarah Palins' kids.

Not a word about Obama's daughters!  But you can make jokes about Romney's grandkid.  And that Robertson kid that's mixed-race, well HE'S an open target!"
Ah, the caring, loving attitudes of the left...
















Monday, December 30, 2013

Tab clearing

before I lost track of all this:
Janet Vrotsos, you suck.
468 vrotos union leader hates veterans



"What?  Show pictures of the assailants?  Why would we do that?"


President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division led the group that represents convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.


BUFFALO, NY—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that three members of Local 17 of the International Union of Operating Engineers pleaded guilty before United States District Judge William M. Skretny to violations of the federal Hobbs Act Extortion statute and agreed to testify in the upcoming trial of their seven co-defendants.


Part of the QotD:   I was never against having guns for shooting ranges, I am against them as means of self-defense (or freedom).


Popehat REALLY wants to burn it to the ground.









Why you're not Officer Friendly anymore(Reason #422)

This gentleman violently inserted his finger into dozens of victims' anuses. Sometimes his friends held guns to the victims' heads to force them to comply. Why was he sentenced to just two years in prison? Because he was an officer with the Milwaukee police department! 
...
Vagnini's fellow gang members got off with even lighter punishments, including a year of paid vacation and a polite request to resign from the police deparment.
Every one of these bastards should've been fired, and any supervisor who could be shown to have known about this, all the way up.


Because reading your e-mail and recording your phone calls just isn't enough, the NSA also vandalizes and commits computer crimes.


So, the NYEffingTimes goes all-out to try to protect Clinton.  And gets called on it.


Speaking of sorry excuses for lawmen, the US Border Patrol seems to be going for a title.
Maybe they need snappier hats to wear when they're saying "Papers, please."

Interesting; tribal PDs can't just do whatever the hell they want in this:
What good came of the eight-year legal battle besides the cash? Bressi points out that the Tohono O'odham Police Department is in tribal Native American grounds and therefore have been operating under the assumption of immunity from federal civil rights laws. Bressi's victory in the 9th Circuit limits, if not prohibits, tribal police from hiding behind sovereign immunity while seizing people at internal checkpoints along state highways.


Now the line is "If you laugh at Pajama Boy, you hate Jews and women!"
Really getting desperate and nasty, aren't they?


Ten Constitutional violations by Obama.


You've probably seen something about this power-station attack.  Winner line is
A shooter “could get 200 yards away with a .22 rifle and take the whole thing out,” Wellinghoff said last month at a conference sponsored by Bloomberg.
Well, since Wellinghoff doesn't specify an EBR feeding magnum .22 bullets from a high-bullet-capacity clip magazine, we have to assume he's talking about a .22lr.  Which means he's full of shit.

Don't know about you, but once a friend and I used the side of an old gas stove as a target backing, and found that a .22 rifle could put a whole bunch of shots in a very small area and not penetrate that thin sheet steel.  At all.  Which means that it's sure-hell not going to penetrate even thin sheet metal(unless you count aluminum foil) at 200 yards.

Of course it is possible he's talking about something else in .22-caliber; which makes him guilty of very unclear wording(I know, shut up) or lack of thought before speaking.  Unless[conspiracy hat on] he wanted to make people think the evil .22 long rifle can do that![/ch off]



Sunday, December 29, 2013

I have GOT to read the Curmudgeon more

I read what he said, the actual interview. It’s not particularly crazy and all of his ideas are generations old. You’d have to have live in a bubble to miss exposure to his ideas; which, of course, many people have done. Further he’s not actively interfering with anyone. He’s not tracking my phone, regulating my food, mucking around with my health insurance, auditing my taxes, bitching about my guns, pissed that I don’t attend church, or spending my money. Thus I’m perfectly happy with whatever he says. His method appears to be leading by example. Such an excellent approach! The world would indeed be a better place if more people thought deeply about sin and the avoidance thereof and then acted accordingly. Which was the whole point.



Ahem: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAA!
A Greenpeace campaigner claims he was forced to live on bread and water while being held in a Russian prison because it didn’t offer a vegetarian alternative.

Why are they remaking 'Starship Troopers'?

Um, because it was a miserable stinking piece of shit?
For which Heinlein probably wanted to crawl out of his grave and kill the bastards responsible?


Got some of the mess in here straightened out, and one of the things

I discovered was how damn many books I have that I haven't been able to get to yet.

Not counting the ones I'm working on now.

I'll never catch up.

But there are worse things than always having another one to read.

"The ice is MELTING!"

Except it's not.
A scientific mission ship, trapped in dense pack ice off East Antarctica, is still awaiting rescue after a Chinese icebreaker failed to reach it.

The Snow Dragon icebreaker was itself stalled by heavy ice, officials say.

It had been trying to cut a path through the ice in order to help the research vessel reach open water.
And remember, it's summer down there.  Makes you wonder what Winter will be like.


Ever have the thought that becoming a lawyer should be considered evidence of guilt?  Greed, chicanery, criminal-level assholery, take your pick.
A plaintiff's lawyer is suing a medical journal and two doctors because they published a case report that makes it harder to win birth-injury lawsuits.
...
Now the National Law Journal reports that a Boston lawyer who claims to have debunked the Lerner-Salamon case study has sued its two authors, the journal's publisher, and Dr. Salamon's clinic for publishing and refusing to retract it. The attorney's clients are two families whose lawsuits did not succeed, allegedly because of the case report; he thinks they deserve $3 million each.


No wonder a lot of the nut-level feminists hate her guts.
She starts by pointing to the diminished status of military service. "The entire elite class now, in finance, in politics and so on, none of them have military service—hardly anyone, there are a few. But there is no prestige attached to it anymore. That is a recipe for disaster," she says. "These people don't think in military ways, so there's this illusion out there that people are basically nice, people are basically kind, if we're just nice and benevolent to everyone they'll be nice too. They literally don't have any sense of evil or criminality." 

The results, she says, can be seen in everything from the dysfunction in Washington (where politicians "lack practical skills of analysis and construction") to what women wear. "So many women don't realize how vulnerable they are by what they're doing on the street," she says, referring to women who wear sexy clothes.
...
Sex education, she says, simply focuses on mechanics without conveying the real "facts of life," especially for girls: "I want every 14-year-old girl . . . to be told: You better start thinking what do you want in life. If you just want a career and no children you don't have much to worry about. If, however, you are thinking you'd like to have children some day you should start thinking about when do you want to have them. Early or late? To have them early means you are going to make a career sacrifice, but you're going to have more energy and less risks. Both the pros and the cons should be presented."
Personal gripe, connected to the 'blaming the victim!' crap she catches from such 'sexy clothes' points:  Point out that while you SHOULD be able to run around dressed and acting as you choose that dressing like a porn actress or hooker in some places/times is a bad idea and "YOU'RE BLAMING THE VICTIM!" starts.  Closely followed by "WHY DON'T YOU TEACH YOUR SONS NOT TO RAPE?"  bullshit.  These idiots, consciously or not, seem to have lost their grip on reality.

And I get really, really sick of me and son being blamed for what anti-social assholes(whom the nut-level feminists helped create) do.


It's a given that Waxman is a gun-bigot asshole who'll say anything to try and ban firearms.  I have to figure they've got no actual evidence of 'military-style weapons' or it'd be lead story on every "Let's help the Democrats" news outlet.

Also, from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle doesn't really mean squat unless your definition of 'high-powered' is "Whatever I want it to be."  Remember Ted Kennedy insisting the .30-30 be considered armor-piercing because 'it can shoot through a 700-pound safe' ?


'All cultures are equal' my ass.
In 2009 the leader of The Gambia, the self-titled Sheikh Professor Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh—perhaps best known for being the inventor of an herbal HIV “cure”—launched a witch-hunting campaign. Police, army, and national intelligence agents kidnapped up to 1,000 people at gunpoint. They were taken to secret detention centers and severely beaten, almost to the point of death. They were forced to confess and to drink “potions.” At least two died from potion-induced kidney failure.

Self-appointed witch hunter and self-described “Lady Apostle” Helen Ukpabio recently launched a crusade she calls “Witches on the Run” in Nigeria. The Observer reports that accused children in the country are “burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.” Some have had nails driven into their heads. Ukpabio is helping to fuel this rampant child abuse.









Saturday, December 28, 2013

One last thing, then I'm done for the night:

Eyes of the Chest


Sen. Ryan, you have a message

Posted on Ryans' Bookface page:
     To Congressman Paul Ryan
    Today at 8:19 AM
    Congressman Ryan,

    Please note that this request by you for a cash donation from me is extremely unfortunate and very ill-timed. You see sir, I am one of the military retirees your “bipartisan” budget just impacted. You and every Republican (both in the House and Senate that voted to pass this travesty betrayed and broke trust with me and everyone like me. You may not know us by name, but we’re the people, Congressman, who answered our Nation’s call, some of us at a very early age to willingly serve YOU and others LIKE YOU so you could safely attend college and pursue your personal ambitions without fear of harm.

    You might also want to note that for at least 20 years, my brothers-in-arms answered that call of duty EVERY SINGLE DAY, without fail, without complaint, without enough money to sustain our loved ones we had to leave behind while we DID OUR JOB in every corner of the Earth. And for that service, we were given absolute assurance our so-called retirement benefits would be protected by law. The very law you shattered in your zeal to impress your Democratic cohorts in your back room deal–with the enemy. Yes, I said it. The liberal Democrats are an enemy to the American people and our Nation. Your lack of judgement and eagerness to compromise on the backs of us who protected you is sickening. Congressman, you and every Republican that voted for injuring military retirees have engaged in a complicit, sordid affair with the Democrats who’s objective has always been to dismantle the military. By climbing into their bed on this issue, you have confirmed you are absolutely no better than they and have proven it with your vote.

    Congressman Ryan, the audacity which you display is noteworthy, but to unceremoniously snatch earned money from a small group that has added so much more value than the paltry $6B you looked to “save” (which is all smoke and mirrors and you know it), is reprehensible and insulting.

    We have, despite the hardships, meager salaries and harsh conditions, have performed with honor and excellence…in silence, which is something most members of Congress have no idea about doing. Our job approval was, is and always be better than yours. We knew our mission and we got it done, then handed it off to a new generation in better shape than we found it.

    Your ability to look us in the eye, take money from us (apparently there was ZERO, other source of waste within the federal government that you could have recovered this money from…right, got it), while simultaneously holding your hand out to beg (with passion) for our cash is stunning. Your actions have proven you do not have the tremendous intellect you’ve sold the American people on. I say, with all seriousness, Congressman, what you lack in intellect and spinal rigidity, you make up for in cajones.

    I hope you and your cowardly, Republican “colleagues” hear a message from me loud and clear. You will NEVER receive another cent of financial support from me. Further, if you happen to be at a Capitol Hill dinner or at a K Street cocktail party with RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Rep. Ron Barber, Sen. Jeff Flake or Sen. John McCain, I would be honored if you communicate with them that I am launching an effort to ensure NONE of you traitorous “representatives of the people” ever receive another vote from a military retiree. Remove me from your contact lists.

    Chuck Wooten,
    Chief Master Sergeant, USAF (Ret)


Yeah, it's going around; it's too awesome not to pass around some more.

I hope Ryan is having sleepless nights over the shit he pulled.  And I hope his ass gets thrown out of that office next election.

So it'll only take 190 years to pay of the bird choppers

that were idiotic to build in the first place.  Great planning there, guys.
“Wind energy is an experiment, and sometimes the lessons learnt are hard and dearly bought,” Dr. John Constable, director at the Renewable Energy Foundation, told the Telegraph. “The truth is that foolishly ambitious targets and silly levels of subsidy have overheated the wind industry, resulting in defective technologies and poor installations.”
Yep.  If this crap is going to actually work, it won't need subsidies.  If it needs them, don't do it.

The real winners:
However, this isn’t even the longest payback period a UK town has ever had to face on a turbine. One Welsh turbine was sited in such a calm area that it only generates about $8 worth of electricity every month — a 452-year payback period.


Obama/care gets another needed kick in the ass.


Some more on the wonders of the NHS.


Yeah, that's some disappearing ice there, Butch:
It is summer in the southern hemisphere and yet there is still signifiicantly above normal amounts of sea ice present as the passengers and crew of one tour ship discovered. The icebreakers Xue Long and Aurora Australis, and a French research vessel Astrolabe are cruising towards the Akademik Shokalskiy at full throttle for rescue. Photos and maps follow.


“My pal  [2nd century Roman emperor] Marcus Aurelius said, ‘Why would you want the good will of posterity? Do you think those people are going to be any less stupid than the ones who you knew in your own lifetime?’”

He was paraphrasing, of course, but that wasn’t all Marcus Aurelius had to say.
“I had a dream last night…” Mamet began, describing another unconscious encounter with the late Roman statesman, who visited the playwright in Santa Monica to give him some advice. So what did Aurelius tell him?
“Stop bitching about life.”




Nice to wake up hungry

and knowing it'll stay down after you eat it.

Being as I can now sit here and feel something other than 'Where's the bag?!?', I now return to your usual noise.


Remember Joe Biden claiming 'Victory in Iraq is the greatest accomplishment of this administration!'?
WASHINGTON — The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.

But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.


"Piranhas will not bother humans.
Except when they do."


That shock to the leftist system when a performer won't follow the 'We Need Government Money!' script:
Yes, I still feel that way. I’ll take the dirty socialized art money but I prefer crummy little clubs where there’s a promoter who is risking his own money to put the show on. I feel no urge to thank an audience. I thank the promoter – as should the audience.
Follow up re “dirty socialized money” – is this less a matter of political principle for you, and more a matter of personal pride as an artist?

I think the government has no business in the arts at all.

Follow up: do you not think it valid, in countries that cannot compete on equal footing with the American entertainment industry, like Canada, to support their artists through government funding? I doubt there’s a Canadian musician, filmmaker, writer, or novelist who hasn’t received some government support along the way, be it scholarships, grants, fellowships, things like the Canada Council.

No, see above.

I want you to pay close attention to this next bit from the interviewer:
Follow-up: In a purely market driven entertainment landscape, which is mostly what we see in the States, doesn’t that lead to the proliferation of Miley Cyruses and Britney Spears and other such phenomenon? Isn’t it bad for art?

No, it’s good for them.
It would appear that this champion of the arts likes the idea of the .gov having control of who gets to make it, or even try to.  Nasty little control freak, isn't he?


Looks like the psychiatric profession is moving toward a soviet-level of  'helping people'.
New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases. 

And there are treatments available.
Yeah, there are.  And if you don't accept them like a good little drone the nice armed agents of the .gov will show up to help you take them.
These people would've had Mark Twain drugged into insensibility.







This is from Captain's Journal a while back: various ways the UN small-arms treaty is a threat.













Friday, December 27, 2013

It was not a happy Christmas day,

as a virus tried to introduce my insides to the outside.  At least the little bastard went away quickly.

Therefore, instead of actually bitching about pajama boy being the slimy little git he is, I will note two things before getting to the latest data drop:
The politicians in uniform are winning in the Marines, and
Pajama boy really is a slimy little git.


I will now get to the information, and hope I'm more ready to start screaming about things tomorrow.























Thursday, December 26, 2013

No, there's not a season, but there are kangaroo

in Oklahoma.  At least one.

Language warning:

He seems to have gotten just a bit excited.

There've been reports for years  of 'roos in the state, but this is the first time I know of that someone got good video of one.  Daughters' comment:
 What I've learned over the years is that kangaroos are more popular than I'd have ever guessed (my guess being that there wouldn't be any around outside of zoos. I have to stop forgetting people are crazy).

Tab clearing updated

Susan Rice: "We didn't lie, we just didn't tell the truth."


The Brit and Canadian NHS: "Why, there are actual problems here!"
Update: on the Canuck system, you'll note that this doc has the 'If we'd only put in ENOUGH money!' attitude; just doesn't seem to occur that it's not a shortage of money, it's what happens when  the .gov is in control of all health care.




The TSA: pretty much worthless.
Update: Stolen from Windy in comments:  TSA: Teatro de la Seguridad del Absurdo, literally Theater of the Absurd (with, of course, absurd = worthless).


Lessons in liberal-talk.


It’s unconstitutional. But it’s also dumb as dirt. But it’s also the logical endpoint of the culture of political correctness that academics have permitted — and, often, championed — for decades. It would have been better to defend free speech, even if it doing so might have occasionally benefited a Baptist or something.


Well, how WOULD you decide on Obama's lie of the year?



Tuesday, December 24, 2013

A Season's Greetings data set

Yeah, I know it's cold outside; you really want 'em in parkas?































To all those stuck at the ass-end of wherever:

However you worship, whether you do or not: Merry Christmas.  Keep your ass whole, and make it home.

Something doesn't sound right here...

As a tank sergeant in World War II, Mikhail Kalashnikov saw that most Soviet troops had only carbines against the superior range of the German Sturmgewehr. While recovering from battlefield wounds, he began to create a design for a new weapon, one that could be assembled with relatively loose tolerances by relatively inexperienced workers, avoiding the supply bottlenecks that often resulted from the German cult of fine craftsmanship.
First off, I wasn't aware the 91/30 was inferior in range to ANYTHING hand-held.  And I doubt the people machining bolts and such were considered 'relatively inexperienced workers'.

And this is from MIT?


And on the other hand,
Russia has announced funeral arrangements for Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle.

“Comrade Kalashnikov will be buried in a pit of mud with full military honors,” said General-Major Saiga Molot, a spokesman for the Russian army. “After a week, we will exhume his body, clean it off, and put him back to work. We expect that there shall be no issue with his functions.”

Since nobody asked, my opinion on the Duck Dynasty/A&E mess

This whole thing could've been short-circuited if A&E had had the brains and nerve to say, when the yelling began, "Mr. Robertson was asked a question about his religious beliefs and answered it.  They ARE his beliefs, not ours.  We disagree with them, but we do not attempt to censor or control the beliefs of our employees and others we work with."  And stopped right there.

The Legions of the Perpetually Outraged would've had their usual fits, and threatened and so forth; and most everyone else would've thought "Now that's how to do it!"  And except for the LotPO trying to keep it stirred up, that would've been that.

But A&E wanted to appease the LotPO, no matter what.  And pissed off a lot of other people.  Thus we have the current noise.


Related:
There's a thing going around on the left that 'Martin Bashir was FIRED from MSNBC in violation of his 1st Amendment rights for saying a mildly offensive thing.  But Robertson said horrible, hateful things and has no 1st Amendment protection from being fired!"
Well, last I heard MSNBC is a private corporation, not a government agency(that we know of), so if they DID fire Bashir(last I heard he and they both say he resigned) he had no 1st Amendment protection from that, either.

I just freaking love it that "Sarah Palin should be forced to have someone shit in her mouth" is 'mildly offensive' coming from people who, if someone on the right had said "Hillary Clinton(or Rachel Maddow, for instance) should be forced to have someone shit in her mouth", would be blowing every gasket they've got.  And wetting their pants(probably crapping them too) in horror and indignation at this demonstration of 'the rights' war on women!'.  But it was said about a woman on the right, so what's the big deal(not to mention they think ANYTHING bad said about Palin is just wonderful)?

An ocean-going drone

powered by translating up & down motion to forward.

This'll make sub-hunting and such a whole new world.  Already has, I'd imagine.


Ok, my question here is did the IRS violate the law again?
Prof. Robert Brulle, an environmental sociologist of Drexel University, Phil., has published a study allegedly accusing “deniers” of being sock puppets in the pay of “dark money” from big oil.

According to the story, Prof. Brulle enlisted IRS help tracking a correlation between big oil bogeymen such as the Koch Brothers withdrawing funding from climate studies, and significant increases in funding from other organizations such as the Donor’s Trust and Donor’s Capital Fund.
Really, IRS?  Like you don't have enough violations of law and ethics on your hands now?


Apparently nearly freezing in the dark caused Germany to have a bit of a wake-up:
While these no-carbon technologies get buried, carbon rich fuels go gung ho. Last month Germany fired up a spanking new coal plant, the first of 10 modern CO2-gushers that Europe’s biggest economy will be banking on to power its economy into the 21st century. 
And the real nightmare for the enviroweenies:

Worldwide, 1200 coal-fired plants are in the works. According to the International Agency, coal’s dominance will especially grow in the countries of the developing world, helping to raise their poor out of poverty as they modernize their economies.
Poor people getting affordable energy.  Not needing to spend hours gathering wood or dried animal crap for cooking and heat.  Losing that primitive-village thing the idiots love.  Enviroweenie nightmare indeed.

Of course, if Germany hadn't got all "OHMYGAIAGETRIDOFTHEREACTORS!!", they wouldn't have some of the problems in the first place.  And those coal plants wouldn't be gushing out carbon and such.






Monday, December 23, 2013

Another piece from Steyn on the current thought-crime bullshit

Actually, “the next step” is for you thugs to push off and stop targeting, threatening and making demands of those who happen to disagree with you. Personally, I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for the GLAAD executive board to sit down with half-a-dozen firebreathing imams and learn about their values, but, unlike the Commissars of the Bureau of Conformity Enforcement, I accord even condescending little ticks like the one above the freedom to arrange his own social calendar.


Why slimy bastards like Mitch McConnell should be removed from office.  Preferably by a window.
Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, confessed to big business bureaucrats that he and other Establishment Republicans want to remain their link to government money and favors. According to a Wall Street Journal story (December 16), he asked them to open their wallets lest his kind be overwhelmed — not by Democrats, but by those smelly little Tea Party conservatives — the real threats to the government spending and regulations by which big business thrives. 

The confession was almost that forthright: “said one person at the McConnell fundraiser, held at a Capitol Hill townhouse. ‘The main message he was pushing was: Get involved, mainly to teach those who are primarying incumbents that it is not helpful to run against incumbents who are champions for the industry.’”




Interesting when his own "The law is what I say it is" bites him in the ass

Cogan forcefully rejected three key Obama defenses of the mandate. First, on the government's claim that there was a compelling interest in uniform enforcement of the contraception mandate, Cogan wrote:
Tens of millions of people are exempt from the Mandate, under exemptions for grandfathered health plans, small businesses, and “religious employers” like the Diocesan plaintiffs here. Millions of women thus will not receive contraceptive coverage without cost-sharing through the Mandate. Having granted so many exemptions already, the Government cannot show a compelling interest in denying one to these plaintiffs.


It seems the idiot Bateman wrote another article

in which he lies about his first one(among other things).  One of the responses, this one from Tom Kratman:
@ Bateman, since my reply will not post.

It is said of Washington that he could not tell a lie. How odd then that you should quote him after lately claiming that your previous article was about getting weapons from the hands of criminals,
when in that article you made it plain it was about getting weapons from the hands of citizens. Have you no shame? I mean, obviously you lack reason. And, given that you think your legal judgment is superior to the Supreme Court’s, patently you lack humility. But have you no shame?

Do you think that in Washington's letter to the New York Legislature - from which, whether you know it or not, you quoted - that he intended that soldiers should be as unruly as civilians? That they should question legitimate orders? That they should vote on which orders they will obey and which they won’t? That they should mutiny? In what senses, then, did he mean they remained citizens? Were you a true historian you might have spared yourself some embarrassment in noting that he referred to their coming status after the war, and not their right to act as citizens while serving. Do you imagine that Washington intended that the soldiers vote on crossing the Delaware? Then what do you imagine he meant? Oh, please come up with something; your interpretation of the second amendment just left us all panting for more ahistorical nonsense.

You are a commissioned officer. You give up certain rights as a matter of law: see, eg, Art 88, UCMJ. This is not compatible with normal citizenship, but is necessary to good order, discipline, and trust in the armed forces. Were you not aware of this? You also give up certain things as a matter of custom and common sense. Among these, you a) should not have lied about the gravamen of your previous essay, as you have. In doing so you have thereby demonstrated vast lack of integrity, also incompatible with service as an officer. Moreover, b) you should keep your nose out of highly charged political questions that tend to raise distrust of the armed forces and especially of the only one with the power to actually launch a coup, the Army


To quote from his first article, which he claims was about a 'rational, peaceful, non-confiscatory way of removing guns from the hands of criminals':
2. We will pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers. That is because I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes. Guns, except for the three approved categories, cannot be inherited. When you die your weapons must be turned into the local police department, which will then destroy them. (Weapons of historical significance will be de-milled, but may be preserved.)
3. Police departments are no longer allowed to sell or auction weapons used in crimes after the cases have been closed. (That will piss off some cops, since they really need this money. But you know what they need more? Less violence and death. By continuing the process of weapon recirculation, they are only making their jobs -- or the jobs of some other cops -- harder.)
4. We will submit a new tax on ammunition. In the first two years it will be 400 percent of the current retail cost of that type of ammunition. (Exemptions for the ammo used by the approved weapons.) Thereafter it will increase by 20 percent per year.
5. We will initiate a nationwide "buy-back" program, effective immediately, with the payouts coming from the DoD budget. This buy-back program will start purchasing weapons at 200 percent of their face value the first year, 150 percent the second year, 100 percent the third year. Thereafter there will be a 10 year pause, at which point the guns can be sold to the government at 10 percent of their value for the next 50 years.
6. The major gun manufactures of the United States, less those who create weapons for the federal government and the armed forces, will be bought out by the United States of America, for our own damned good.
Bateman, you're a liar and a disgrace to that uniform.  And if there's not I'm wondering why there's not a UCMJ investigation going on about you.

I should note that he accuses the NRA of inciting death threats: Personally, I think a little bit less of an organization like the NRA, which incites their members to threaten rape and murder and the abduction of babies.
Were I in the NRA organization I'd have the lawyers looking into this right now.  "Mr. Bateman, I am G. Esquire Nightmare, attorney for the NRA.  You have accused my clients of inciting death threats.  Let's see your proof.  NOW."

Another fine demonstration of Why People Don't See You As Officer Friendly Anymore #78

The cop is none other than Sterling Wheaton of the Atlantic City Police Department, whom we became familiar with back in September when he drove up to a group of five fellow officers beating on a suspect and sicced his dog on him in an incident caught on surveillance video.

Then we later learned that Wheaton was already named a defendant in three unrelated lawsuits alleging abuse over the five previous years, including one where he is accused of ripping the phone out of the hands of woman recording him, only for her never to see the phone again.

Now we are learning that another of those three lawsuits involved him beating up a prosecutor from the state attorney’s office nonetheless, which is probably the last person you want to beat up if you’re one of these asshole cops like Wheaton who think they can do whatever they want.
Guess which one he's been convicted on?  Yeah, not so much for the plain citizens.

Yes, this is excellent
A jury awarded Michael Troso $500,000, half which the city must pay, the other half which Wheaton must pay,
And this is disgusting
who incredulously, is still employed by the Atlantic City Police Department, despite the liability he has proven to be.
I don't give a rats ass about the police union or anyone else, the fact that this clown is still wearing a badge is horrifying.  And let's not forget he drove up to a group of five fellow officers beating on a suspect; you know damn well those bastards are still wearing badges, too, and the chances of anything real being done about them?  Just about zero.

On the  if you’re one of these asshole cops like Wheaton who think they can do whatever they want line; why shouldn't he think that?  Until this particular suit, he HAS gotten away with doing whatever he wants.  Thanks to the Atlantic City Police Department; don't tell me they couldn't have fired him if they'd actually wanted to.




Sunday, December 22, 2013

To the people who crapped on Commandant Quinlan:

You can kiss ALL our asses.
The besieged Irish radioed to their headquarters: "We will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could do with some whiskey".

Even though A Company 35th Battalion had tactically defeated a much larger enemy force at Jadotville the Defence Forces buried all record of the battle, presumably over shame that A Company had in fact surrendered. Commandant Quinlan eventually retired as a full Colonel but never served overseas again, and it was recognized by the officers who fought at Jadotville that it was best for one's career not to mention the battle.

However the veterans of Jadotville continued to be dissatisfied with the Defence Forces' refusal to acknowledge the battle, and in particular the black mark on the reputation of their CO, Commandant Quinlan. Quinlan, who died in 1997, had his public reputation finally restored nine years after his death. The veterans of A Company regarded him as an exceptional officer who saved the lives of his men by ordering them to dig in and successfully led his company against an overwhelming enemy force. He was forced to surrender only due to the failings of the UN leadership and preserved the lives of every one of the men he led into battle.
Most especially they should have to go to his graveside and ask for forgiveness for being such assholes.  Maybe if you ask nicely enough, and bring a bottle of really good drink each to leave, he'll have mercy on you.

Thanks to Michael Z. Williamson on Bookface for pointing to this.

If Dept. of Homeland Security has SO MUCH EXTRA TIME and people

that they can do crap like this, then we need to get rid of the whole damn organization.  COUNTERFEIT SPORTS STUFF?  Really?


“Silence is agreement in this case,” he said. “With such egregious anti-gay and racist comments, those companies that choose to be affiliated with this family need to speak out.”
Really?  Since when is being homosexual a race?  Actually believe that, or just using the 'RACIST!' crap to try and make their club bigger?


...If it’s a choice between having celebrity chefs who admit to having used the N-word in 1977 (or 1965, or 1948, or whenever the hell it was) and reality-show duck-hunters who quote Corinthians and Alec Baldwin bawling out some worthless paparazzo who’s doorstepping his family with a “homophobic” slur, or having all of them banished from public life and thousands upon millions more too cowed and craven to speak lest the same fate befall them, I’ll take the former any day.


Man, Sharpton & Co. must've been wetting their pants over this.
“The manner in which we have been voting needs to change,” Wendy Pearson, an activist against Chicago school closings, told the room. “I’m here to say to you that we have been trained to vote in a specific manner… we need to start looking at the manner in which our elected officials have been voting… if they have not voted in a manner that is beneficial to you, yours, and your community, then you need to start voting them out.”

McKinley told the room, “Stop blaming just anybody for the violence in the city of Chicago. Blame the right people, not just white people, but the right people. Because it’s not just white folks a part of this, but it is on the fifth floor. The fifth floor took your schools, the fifth floor just took your jobs that he said that he gave to the ex-offender… and every single alderman was a part of this criminal process.”
Oh, Mayor Rahm must've LOVED hearing that.  And every corrupt clown with the title 'alderman' must be wondering how they can shut these people up.

Guess what?  You can't.  They don't have to depend on news stations and papers that might owe you a favor to put out their words.  And they're after your ass.

More, please.


Speaking of the dirtbags at DHS,
This is the fourth case with the same factual situation this Court has had in as many weeks. In all of the cases, human traffickers who smuggled minor children were apprehended short of delivering the children to their ultimate destination. In all cases, a parent, if not both parents, of the children was in this country illegally. That parent initiated the conspiracy to smuggle the minors into the country illegally. He or she also funded the conspiracy. In each case, the DHS completed the criminal conspiracy, instead of enforcing the laws of the United States, by delivering the minors to the custody of the parent illegally living in the United States….
[T]here is no explanation. The DHS has simply chosen not to enforce the United States’ border security laws.
...
Time and again this Court has been told by representatives of the Government and the defense that the cartels control the entire smuggling process. These entities are not known for their concern for human life. They do not hire bonded childcare providers to smuggle children. By fostering an atmosphere whereby illegal aliens are encouraged to pay human smugglers for further services, the Government is not only allowing them to fund the illegal and evil activities of these cartels, but is also inspiring them to do so. The big economic losers in this scenario are the citizens of the United States who, by virtue of this DHS policy, are helping fund these evil ventures with their tax dollars.
So, Obama and Holder smuggle guns to the cartels and- at the least- turn a blind eye to human trafficking.  Wonderful people, aren't they?



I will note that I have found I do not have Michael Z. Williamson's patience; he delights in taking socialists and general idiots to the woodshed in comments and on Bookface, whereas I've given up on both trying to teach the pig to whistle and wasting time with people who inform me that "If you don't agree on 'X' and don't believe 'Y', YOU'RE RACIST/HOMOPHOBIC/MISOGYNIST!!!" etc.  And etc.  Screw 'em, I'd rather climb back into that tree for more pruning than try to argue with such idiots; facts mean nothing to them.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

It's cold and icy out there, however

working on the new data set is a fine distraction