Saturday, January 12, 2008

My quote of the day.

Or however long it takes me to post another one:
In an ideal world, karma would decree that these irritating and dangerous activists be taken behind the woodshed by a dozen minutemen reenactors for a momentous ass-kicking- with a post-beating lecture on the Founding Fathers, of course. But the world is far from perfect. Instead, these wardens of well-being are endlessly trotted out on morning and cable news programs, issuing distraught statements about the societal catastrophes that are ice cream and Girl Scout Cookies.

David Harsanyi

There's a reason someone once referred to Jews as

'canaries in the coal mine'.

This is the first I've read of this crap. Though not really surprising, and wouldn't be even if Chavez weren't sucking up to the Iranians.

That'd be a choice to face: which to do, arm up or leave the country? Assuming they'll let you leave.

For a preview of what a Romney administration would bring

take a look at this stinking betrayal, er, backstabbinglegal filing in the DC gun ban case.

This is one of a number of ways in which Bush has turned into a big disappointment, and coming from someone who didn't have a great amount invested in him to start... I still think he was a better choice than Gore or Kerry, but I'm sick to death of having to choose the lesser of two weevils.

And a Romney administration, I have no doubt, would be even worse on the 2nd Amendment.

On the Shiflett situation

Instapundit had a link to this story, in which the sheriff now says something about why he considered Shiflett a threat calling for using a tac team, including saying that officers went to the door and he refused to talk to them. Then, through Codrea I found this, which- surprise!- has a somewhat different story.

Three things make it hard for me to simply accept the official line from the sheriff & company. First is how it's changed from 'there were reasons, but I can't tell you any right now', to the current for using the team. Second, that it fits into the "We gave you an order, peasant!" attitude of far too many people in positions of authority- here the paramedics, the 'human services' people and the Sheriff's Office, including
Jim Bradford, a court clerk in Garfield County, said it was a juvenile matter and he could not comment on any aspect of the case, and he declined to allow WND to leave a message for Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak, who signed the order. I really like that 'declined to ALLOW' part, don't you?
Third, that there are so many cases over the last few years of tac teams being used when there's no damn need for them. When it's happened a bunch of times before, you tend to get kind of cynical about the "We had to do it for officer safety" line.

We'll see how this shakes out in the end. Personally I still hope for the officials involved to be sued, although the sheriff's personnel are probably protected: tac teams personnel have killed people, both accidentally and unnecessarily- not counting property damage and people being terrified and sometimes abused- and gotten off the hook. "They were following procedures" and such seems to cover a whole range of sins.

I have two final thoughts for now:
I have lost a lot of my trust in law enforcement over the last few years, between abuse of authority, abuse of tac teams, the FBI sending people to prison to protect informants, ATF lying in court and faking tests and doing other things(Pistolero reminded me of this), the whole damn range, with them so many times getting away with it with little or no penalty.
Second is, I really, Really hate having to write the first.

Friday, January 11, 2008

If you are one of those who wonder why so many of us

say unkind things about BATFE, Dave Codrea points to this article on their rigorous testing procedures:
"Len told me," Whitesides reveals, "that the access locking plate had as much to do with firing automatic as the sight on the end of the barrel. Cooney's not a technician, he's an enforcement officer."

Cooney admitted that he had never even disassembled and inspected the rifle, but had written his report based on test-firing the weapon. Savage then disassembled it on camera, displaying the broken parts, as the BATFE agent fell silent, looking increasingly embarrassed.

As he should. He almost destroyed a man's life, and he didn't even know what he was doing.

Just bloody marvelous, isn't it? I'll try to find it later, about a year ago there was an article noting that a man in a similar situation finally forced at BATFE official to admit- in court, under oath- that they had no standard tests or testing procedure for such matters; they just went by what the 'experienced agent' decided was a proper test. Supposedly they started writing the manual shortly after this, but that may just have been window dressing. And considering this kind of crap has been going on for a long time, and that Sullivan, who Ted Kennedy(Miserable Human, MA) desperately wants as permanent head of the agency seems to think this kind of crap is just fine, we should be very happy for those senators who've been unwilling to roll over and pass his appointment.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

This one brings back

a memory. No, I didn't answer the door naked(well, once, but- nevermind), a friend sort-of did.

Back in my time in college, one member of the group I ran around with was a girl whose warm weather uniform was cutoffs and a tank top. No bra, of course. Didn't walk around flashing people, that was just what she was comfortable in when it was hot. One day she heard something outside, looked out the window and saw a couple of the earnest young men in white shirts and black pants & ties on bicycles in the street, heading toward the door.

She thought a moment along the lines of "How the hell do I get rid of them?" She must've been a bit flustered, because I'd always thought she'd open the door, yell "F*** Off!" and slam it, or something equally brief. In this case, when they knocked she opened the door and kind of lounged against the frame, arm on the frame side up and said "Yesss?" in her best voice(she demonstrated when she told the story; there oughta be a law against something like that). Two very flustered young guys sputtered and hemmed a minute, then one said "We'd like to talk to you about the book of Mormon."

She leaned a little further over- which must've come damn close to popping something out of the top- and said "Really? I'm Church of Satan myself." in the most "are you edible?" tone she could put on.

They left. The house, the street and- apparently- the neighborhood.

What can I say, Leslie had a gift.

I think another roundup is in order

In the "Britain down the toilet" and "Idiot Judge" combined categories, we have this:
Paul Hannam, 39, was beaten unconscious as he attempted to defend 12-year-old son Josh from an unprovoked assault outside a Chinese takeaway.
...
But incredibly Judge Timothy Clayson let the four yobs charged over the attack walk free from Bolton Crown Court with suspended jail terms. He said it was because they saved the cost of a trial by pleading guilty.
You just can't make crap like this up.

Next, in the "Why the hell were any of those boats still floating?" section, we have the opinion of Ralph Peters:
On Sunday, the Iranians tested us. We failed. They'll probe us again. And every time we fail to react decisively, we raise the number of future US casualties.

Remember the USS Cole? You bet the Iranians do. They plan to better that attack by an order of magnitude.

For almost 70 years, we've deployed the finest navy in the history of the world. But it looks increasingly as if we've gone from "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" to "Will this interfere with my next promotion?"
Two things: first, whatever idiot gave the orders that both let the Iranians get that close(200 Freakin' Meters!) AND let them get away should have their rank stripped and be thrown out of the service. Second, we can be sure it was some high-ranking idiot who cares more about politics(and his star, or next star) than about the men and ships. Who, for that reason also, ought to be made to walk a damn plank.

In the "ATF Follies", it seems that Acting Director Sullivan isn't exactly winning friends and influencing people. At least not the way he wants to. (found this one through Uncle)

And we have a new entry in the "Harry Reid Is A Statist Prick With A Thin Skin" field:
Richard Viguerie, a conservative “grassroots” lobbyist, defines the legal gobbledegook as follows:
“Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before theSenate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.

“The bill would require reporting of ‘paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,’ but defines ‘paid’ merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers.
Lamppost, rope, politician...

And finally, in the "Best Description of the UN" category, this from Theo.

And on a personal level, one description of a not overly good day:
Up all day yesterday.
Go to work with(due to circumstances) about 1.5 hours sleep, work beginning at midnight.
Don't try to sleep during the day because A: I tend to get headaches when I take naps, and B: it'll mess up my being able to sleep tonight.
In a state of worn-out this afternoon, hear the report of the booby-trapped house killing six troops. In the region where you think the offspring is. That's not good to hear at any time, exhaustion just makes it worse.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Speaking of misuse of a SWAT team(and other things)

as Kevin says, read this. Be fully prepared to be so pissed your vision blurs.

The paramedics who entered the home without permission, the sheriff, the 'social services' weenie, the magistrate, ALL should be sued for everything they have or will have. There is flatly no excuse for this bullshit. I'm especially pissed at the sheriff over this part:
The sheriff said the decision to use SWAT team force was justified because the father was a "self-proclaimed constitutionalist" and had made threats and "comments" over the years.

However, the sheriff declined to provide a single instance of the father's illegal behavior. "I can't tell you specifically," he said.

"He was refusing to provide medical care," the sheriff said.

However, the sheriff said if his own children were involved in an at-home accident, he would want to be the one to make decisions on their healthcare, as did Shiflett.

"I guess if that was one of my children, I would make that decision," the sheriff said.

But he said Shiflett was "rude and confrontational" when the paramedics arrived and entered his home without his permission.

He was "rude and confrontational" when the paramedics arrived and entered his home without his permission." Well, no shit, you sorry attempting-to-cover-my-ass excuse for a lawman. You should not be carrying a badge if this is how you normally conduct business, and you fully deserve to be vilified for this crap.

Assuming the 'sheriff' was at all justified in even going to the house, this called for a deputy showing up with a court order, NOT THE EFFING SWAT TEAM BREAKING IN THE DOORS AND STICKING GUNS IN FACES.

What Sailor Curt says...

Monday, January 07, 2008

Excellent! Got my copy in the mail today!

Now I just need to make time to read it.

Time for another roundup

Mexico is pissed at us. Again. Because we won't collectively kiss their ass and open our border.
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 7 -- Mexico's foreign minister accused U.S. presidential candidates Monday of worsening an already "adverse climate" for Mexican migrants and vowed to redouble efforts to protect the rights of her country's citizens now living and working in the United States.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a conference for Mexican diplomats here, Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa Cantellano said "being effective in the defense and support of the migrants implies treating them the same way whether they are in Mexico or outside of the country." She did not specify what steps would be taken.
Miss Cantellano, there's a name for your 'migrants' who snuck over the border: Illegal Aliens. And the primary right they have is to be thrown the hell out of this country. Screw you and the horse you rode in on. And you'll just love this:
But Calderón and his top lieutenants have been increasingly willing to complain about U.S. politics, even as they push the U.S. Congress to approve President Bush's proposed aid package to help Mexico fight drug cartels, one of the largest bilateral proposals in history.
You go right ahead and complain, Mr. Calderón, at the same time you're begging for all that money, and a good many of us will tell you to kiss our ass.

Next, bodies in a lot of German cemetaries aren't decaying, they're turning to wax.

McCain is now saying he'll secure the borders. Everyone who believes him stop smoking that crap and return to reality. He also says "Osama bin Laden is complaining the Sunni tribes are coming over to our side," he said of Iraq. "By the way, I will get Osama bin Laden. I will follow him to the gates of hell. He is someone who must be brought to justice." I'm afraid he'd have to go a bit further than the gates; Ossie has been roasting in a lower level since he assumed ambient temperature(the pieces of him, at least) at Tora Bora. But it makes a nice sound bite from the nasty little bastard.

I don't watch the debates, so I hadn't heard this piece of garbage before:
The most disappointing answer came from Barack Obama, the frontrunner in the race and a candidate who touts himself as one who would end political polarization in Washington and forge bipartisan solutions. But he's not likely to produce any bipartisanship on Iraq.

Obama claimed the decision by Sunnis in Iraq to embrace American forces was a response to the Democratic capture of Congress in the 2006 election. Sunnis in Anbar province "started to see, after the Democrats were elected in 2006, you know what?" They saw the likelihood of a withdrawal of U.S. troops and feared they "would be left very vulnerable to the Shias," Obama said. So they joined the Americans.
I can't decide if he was simply trying to make the nutroots a little happier with him, stupid enough to actually believe this or throwing this out because he thought it made himself sound Great Leader-ish.(Yeah, I know, I should listen to the damn things, but most of the time I just can't stand to)

Speaking of Obama, if you have the stomach for one of the most suck-up articles you'll ever read, go here. For example:
He hopes to move America beyond the social ructions of the 1960s and away from a foreign policy built by leaders who do not understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of US power.

Mr Obama suggests that the victims of Darfur, gazing up at a helicopter containing fact-finding senators, will feel hatred rather than gratitude. His supporters believe that the election of a president such as him will single-handedly transform the attitude of a Muslim student sitting in a madrassa in Pakistan.

Besides the "May we kiss your ass, oh Great One?" attitude of the article, don't you just love that quote? Never mind that the 'victims of Darfur' would really like to be on the receiving end of US power, by us stomping the raping, murdering, slaving dirtbags who prey on them. Or at least giving them some weapons and training so they can protect themselves. If they feel hatred for 'fact-finding senators' it's because the chickenshits don't want to do anything except talk. and blow hot air. Screw you, Obama.

And we have the Times advising President Bush to be careful about giving the Iranians a chance to 'tweak our tail'. If the Iranians are stupid enough to actually try something while he's over there, I don't think they'll like the result. First, I doubt the Navy has any orders not to be 'overly confrontational' like the Brit Navy did: the boobs try to take some of our people and the fight will be on(and I'm pretty sure the Navy- and everyone else- is gaming it and updating plans just in case). Second, I'm fairly sure the Iranians have a leash on their more demented* people, having a pretty good idea what'll happen if one of them actually does something seen as an attempt on Bush. The Pres. has pissed me off immensely on a number of points, but I very much doubt he'd tell our forces not to act in the event of such.

I think that about covers it for now. Especially since I have boomsticks to clean.

If you want to give Fred Thompson an assist,

take a look here.

Got a couple of things in the background I'm not thrilled about, but compared to the other candidates? On both sides? I have to go with Fred.

Well, along with losing the blogroll

switching to the new Blogger template also dumped Sitemeter. Which means, over the past few days, I must have lost count of at least three people looking at the place.

But it's back on now. And I got a few more people back on the blogroll.

Now, to borrow from Kim, excuse me, for I'm off to the range.

If this is indeed the 'honor killing' it appears,

I want to know why the whole bloody country hasn't had this on the news:
Gail Gartrell, the sisters’ great-aunt, said Saturday that Mr. Said had physically abused the two girls for years. Around Christmas, the girls’ mother – Ms. Gartrell’s niece – had fled because of Mr. Said’s threats to kill the girls after he learned they had boyfriends, she said.

“She ran with them because she knew he would carry out the threat,” Ms. Gartrell said. “This was an honor killing.”

She said her niece returned after Mr. Said told her that he would move out so they could reconcile. Within a few days, she said, the girls were dead.

I don't care where they're from, I don't care how much education they have, anyone who would consider murdering his own children due to family 'honor' is a fucking goatherd in his soul. A barbarian, murdering, backwards, foul excuse for a man.

I may be being a bit unfair, maybe the news has covered it well, but I hadn't heard a damn word about it until I happened to click on Michelle Malkin's site today.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

So is this all hysteria, or are the flourescent bulbs


this dangerous?





















Energy-saving light bulbs are so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks, a Government department warned yesterday.

The startling alert came as health experts also warned that toxic mercury inside the bulbs can aggravate a range of problems including migraines and dizziness.

So the people pushing these say there's so little mercury it's not a real problem, and the other side says it's a virtual booby trap in the house.

Ain't this all fun?

England continues down the path of blaming objects

instead of people for what people do.
Police arrested two men last night in connection with London's second teenage murder of the new year . The arrests came amid fresh demands for tougher laws to tackle the capital's growing problem of knife crime.

People, it ain't 'knife crime', it's CRIME. With or without a weapon. Catch the bastards who do these things and lock them up and keep them there.

But they won't do it, because it would mean actually holding individuals responsible for their actions, and their government and chattering class just won't: it would rape their worldview to do so. So it'll just keep getting worse.

And please take note of this(bold mine):
Norman Brennan, of the Knives Destroy Lives Campaign, reiterated his demand for a mandatory five-year prison sentence for anyone who carries a knife unreasonably. His call came as Islington borough police commander Bob Carr called for automatic prison sentences for anyone found carrying a knife.
How much you want to bet that 'unreasonably' will wind up meaning 'at all, for any reason'? It wouldn't make any real difference in the crime rate if they did this, partly because there's a fair chance that anyone who was actually convicted wouldn't spend the whole time in jail, and partly because any honest citizen carrying a knife to open packages or cut line or whatever would be more likely to wind up in prison than, say, actual bad guys.