Kind of a general roundup

For instance, what do you do when the fish turns out to be bigger than the boat?

The Goreacle must be weeping with all the global warmering going on.

The Brit government has figured out how to fix their health care system: Treat Yourself, which should go along quite well with not allowing overweight people treatment. Or diabetics above a certain age. Etc.

Also from the Brit government, art pieces for the MoD. Instead of icky things like ammo and parts.

Ah, the peaceful, reasonable progressives.

And if this is what the French call a 'relatively calm night', the bad parts of Iraq and Afghanistan should make them feel right at home.

And if you pre-ordered a copy of Monster Hunter International, they're in the mail.

Mr. Garand's rifle

makes it to Sebastian. I've said it before, the M1 is one of my most favorite boomsticks. Especially when someone looks around just as the clip ejects and lands on the brim of your hat.

And tonight I have a new term: Celery Fisking:
Fisking this article would be like eating celery. It requires more energy to chew it up than you get from digestion - i.e. a losing proposition.

And Sebastian points to a very good article: What really happens in a gunfight? A couple of quotes from this, the first on sights:
The other trend that I have noted in regards to the use of sights is the actual configuration of the sight itself. I have noted two distinct categories of individuals who remember using their sights; they are those that used long guns and those that used a revolver. The reason for the long gun use of sights seems to be directly related to responding as one is trained. All that I spoke with advised that when they saw the threat facing them, they brought the gun up until their cheek connected with the stock and the fired. None of the people I spoke with advised that they had ever been taught to fire their rifle or shotgun from the hip. When asked why they remember their sights, a common response was, "Because they were shoved up in front of my face."

Revolver shooters continuously told me things like, "I remember that big red (or orange, or green) front sight coming right up in front of my eyes and laying right on his chest." For those of us who broke into defensive shooting using revolvers, we can remember how well that red front insert contrasted with the wide black rear sight on our Smith & Wesson Model 66 or Ruger Security-Six. Those of us who did not have such an insert would usually paint our front sight with some high visibility color. Think about what is now available on semi-automatic pistols. We now have to line up three dots or we have to place a dot on top of a bar, all of which I believe is too complicated for our eyes to do quickly. The revolvers simple, but contrasting, sight system was easy for the eyes to use under stress.

First time I had the chance to seriously play around with a pistol with night sights, I noticed this. If I were to put such on the project 1911, I'd want a standard rear sight and a front with the biggest, brightest dot I could get: as somebody said, "In the dark you just put that dot between the bad guys shirt pockets and pull the trigger."
The other quote is in the 'weird things that happen' category:

The most dramatic wound that I ever personally saw involved a woman who was shot in the head by a .357 Magnum. I was a patrol deputy and responded to a public housing project on the report of a shooting. I arrived at the same time as the medic crew and found a white female sitting on the sofa with a dimpled hole in her forehead.

There was a similar wound on the back of her head. As I spoke to her at the scene (to find out who shot her, not to further my personal research) I was told that she had been in an argument with her live-in boyfriend when he picked up a snub-nosed .357 revolver and shot her in the forehead. She advised that her head, "Slammed back and I fell back onto the sofa. I have been sitting here ever since. I have a big head ache." It later turned out that the 158-grain jacketed semi-wadcutter bullet used in the shooting had spilt the lobes of her brain finer than any surgeon could have hoped to. The bullet left a hole in the rear of her skull, which was patched in some way. This victim was released from the hospital and then refused to testify against her boyfriend. ("I still love him.") He was prosecuted anyway. This incident remains one of the strangest things that I have ever seen.

Even MORE reason not to vote for Obama

Supports national law against carrying concealed weapons, with exceptions for retired police and military personnel.

Along with info on a bunch of other candidates, thanks to Kevin

George MacDonald Fraser

We lost a good one today.

I shall now give examples of gratuitous stupidity

from all over the place. Like here:
More than 200 soldiers on their way home from Afghanistan had to strip off their uniforms on the tarmac at Birmingham International Airport and don civilian clothes before being allowed access to the terminal building.
Which is compounded by
An MoD spokesman said: "We can confirm the incident occurred but because everyone is on leave, we have not been able to discover who gave the order.

From down under:
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, a member of the Labor team which ousted conservative prime minister John Howard in a November election, wants filters in place to shield children from online porn and violence.

Under the plan, Internet service providers would provide feeds filtered free of pornography and other inappropriate material to houses and schools.

From closer to home:
"hilary clinton and barak hussein obama cannot win, and they are put in place to assure a victory by mitt romney... this is the plan of all the insurance companies that are owned by Mormon interests. It is unfolding as the mormon church planned over the last fifty years." --
and
36) "(News of killings is) not good for us, but it also keeps the New Orleans brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back." -- Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, explains the upside of murders in his city
Too many others here to just pick a few, although #30 demonstrates that it's not just idiot 'progressives' with stupid things to say. Although, just from personal pissed-offedness I'll use this one:
7) "Through every Abu aib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform....We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?...[T]he recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary — oops sorry, volunteer — force that thinks it is doing the dirty work." -- The Washington Post's William Arkin

I'm sure my son and the others in his unit, sitting somewhere with no privacy, no showers and etc. are really interested in where their 'obscene amenities' are. I have to admit that, despite the 'let it go' I try to give Idiot Celebrities & Co., I have a strong desire to find this clown and put a boot up his ass.

And as my last pick for the moment(there's sure to be more material later tonight after the mess back east), if Huckabee is dumbass enough to pick a fight with Rush for no good reason, knowing just exactly how it'd be answered, why does anyone think he's smart enough to run the White House?

Mr. Huffman's family had lots of shirts for Christmas

For instance























I know some politicians we should send this to. They haven't earned a shirt, just printed on a nice card.

Delivered in the box with the mini rail, tar and feathers.

And the new year begins

How truly joyous. "...postelection violence that has killed more than 300 people, including dozens burned alive as they sought refuge in a church."

I don't know about you, the night itself was good here. Spent the evening with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. No encounters with drunk and/or stupid drivers, no annoying drunks(that I noticed, at least), just a fun evening.

Now I need to work on the blogroll.

Also from Theo, this public service announcement

When you care enough to send the VERY best

you get results.
Royal Marines crept into position as the fanatics partied the night away just hours after Ms Bhutto was killed in Pakistan.
The bash was being held in ruined compounds a few hundred yards from Our Boys’ remote base in Kajaki.
Ragtag Taliban sentries tried to hit back with machine gun fire – but stood no chance against the heroes of 40 Commando’s Charlie Company.

Marines, meet thugs. Thugs, meet Marines; you can die now.

Troop Sergeant Dominic Conway, 32 – who directed mortar rounds – grinned: “It must have had quite a detrimental effect on their morale.”

Sgt Conway, from Whitley Bay, Tyneside, said of the Taliban lair: “It used to be their backyard and now we’ve made it ours.”

I just love a happy ending.

Thanks to Theo for pointing this out. And yes, this deserved notice, New Year's Eve and all.